The Pact - Chapter Three

Author: Milady Dragon

Disclaimer: Don't own it, and I can't do anything about it.

Author's note: Hello, all! Here's chapter three of The Pact, my take on "Small Worlds". The response for this has been fantastic, and thank you all. Enjoy!

27 October 2007

Ianto knew the moment that Jack arrived at the lecture hall.

He'd missed the feeling that being around Jack gave him, and he didn't mean the attraction. No, it was the magic – and wouldn't Jack hate it that Ianto called it that? – that made the captain immortal. Lisa had said that Jack stank of Time, but that wasn't all of it. The sensation was like having a fizzy drink poured directly onto a specific section of his brain, and while it should have been uncomfortable Ianto reveled in it. It gave him a connection to the captain that no one else had.

It wasn't like what he felt from the Rift. No, that was more like a sharp rain on his exposed skin, fading or growing depending on how active the Rift was. In fact, the Rift had been downright quiet since he'd gotten back into Cardiff days ago, and it was nice to ease back into the sensations that he'd lived with for almost seven years.

Feeling Jack now, Ianto wondered how he'd missed him early that morning, when he'd come into the Hub to see if there was any sign of Fae activity. He'd been distracted, surely; being back after nearly a month had felt almost like a homecoming of sorts, although not quite in the way that going home to Ddraig Llyn had been. He really hadn't expected Jack to be there, even though he was well aware of Jack's bunk under his office. Ianto was familiar enough with Jack's habits to know that he enjoyed watching the sun rise from one of the taller buildings in Cardiff, and he'd counted on the captain being gone when he'd come into the Hub that early.

He hadn't quite been ready to see Jack like that.

But even Ianto had to admit, that seeing Jack had felt…good. Even if they'd gotten into a disagreement not five minutes into their first meeting since the dragon had left. He should have expected it, really; bringing up the Fae was the quick way to get into an argument with the immortal, and Ianto hadn't been exactly subtle about it.

He leaned back in the rather uncomfortable chair, listening to Estelle as she spoke about her fairies. Her eyes had brightened considerably at the same time Ianto had sensed Jack's presence, so even if he hadn't been aware of it, Estelle's reaction would have given it away.

"I suppose I'm one of the fortunate few who's been allowed to see our little friends," Estelle was saying, as the photo on her overhead projector changed to show what Ianto knew to be one of the Cottingley glass-plate photos. "And it's been no easy task. One needs to have the patience of a saint and the blind faith of a prophet."

Ianto settled himself a bit more comfortably, looking closely at the picture on the screen. He knew the history of the Cottingley photos, and how they were supposed to have been faked. While the dragon hadn't been there to see events for himself, he sincerely doubted that they were, indeed, manufactured by two little girls.

"But," she went on, "for me the wait was worthwhile."

Estelle changed the photo, and Ianto sat up a bit straighter, recognizing the stones of Roundstone Wood. This must have been one of the new batch Estelle had mentioned to him.

There were obvious lights hovering above the ground. Estelle continued her lecture. "This is my first picture. Not that clear, I know, but the ring of stones can be seen quite clearly."

Another photograph came up, this one as close-up on the lights themselves. It was very blurry, but even Ianto could make out the vague outline of something within the light itself. "Well, of course," his friend said, chuckling a bit self-deprecatingly, "I'm not the world's best photographer, but this little person is just about visible." She smiled happily. "I was so lucky to have seen them, so privileged to witness such a magical moment. Because fairies are shy, you see."

No, not shy….devious… It was obvious that they'd wanted Estelle to see them, or else she never would have gotten that picture. Ianto wondered why…

"But I know in my heart that they're friendly, loving creatures." She turned the projector off. "Thank you."

The audience clapped politely, and the sound of chairs scraping across the hardwood floor accompanied everyone getting up to leave. Ianto also rose, joining Estelle at the table where she'd had her materials set up.

Ianto didn't want to dispel Estelle's romantic fantasy of happy little fairies dancing around toadstool circles, but they were anything but. Yes, they could be friendly…when it suited them. They could also be ruthless and cruel. She simply refused to see the bad on the other side of the good.

Like Jack…who refused to see the good beyond what he thought of as evil.

"That went well, didn't it?" she smiled, beginning to clear away her lecture notes. Estelle looked to the side, and Ianto didn't even need to see to know that Jack had joined them.

"Estelle, when did you take these?" Jack asked, taking a look at the new photos.

Ianto wanted to roll his eyes, since he'd been the one to tell Jack just when their friend had seen the fairies, but he refrained. He recognized Jack's 'nice interrogator' voice, and decided to see where the questioning was going to go.

"A couple of nights ago," she answered.

"Where?"

"In Roundstone Wood." Estelle looked at the captain fondly. "It's so good to see you again, Jack. You need to come round more."

That earned her a small smile. "You're right. It's just been a bit busy lately."

Ianto went about helping Estelle gather her things together, as Jack examined the new photos. He didn't look happy, but Ianto knew that was par for the course for him on this particular subject.

Estelle, though, didn't seem at all perturbed by Jack's obvious disapproval. "Oh Jack, if only you'd seen them, there in the wood. They were happy. They were dancing. The fairy lights were shining." There was such a look of rapture on her face that it almost made Ianto wish that he didn't know what he did.

"Do you have any more photos?" Jack asked.

"Yes, at home."

Jack gave her a small, intimate smile. Ianto suddenly had a small flash of jealousy, that he couldn't get that sort of expression out of the immortal. He quashed it back down; this was Estelle, after all. Besides, he had no right to be jealous of anyone in the captain's affections.

"I'll need to see them all, Estelle."

She nodded, matching his smile with one of her own.

Jack helped Ianto unload all of Estelle's equipment from the trunk of Ianto's car. Jack hadn't said much on the trip, and Ianto was a bit frustrated by the silence. Not that he expected Jack to say much of anything beyond casual conversation, but he hadn't spoken maybe two words to the dragon while keeping his questioning of Estelle soft and gentle.

Ianto leaned the fold-up projector screen against the wall, narrowly avoiding being tripped by Moses as the cat came out to greet them. He leaned over and picked up the cat, who proceeded to start up his motor-like purring.

Jack set the projector down on the table, juggling the books he'd also carried in until he got them stacked at least halfway neatly. Estelle had her own bag, which she put on the sofa. She smiled at them. "Thank you, both of you. Let me get those photos, although they're mostly just of the area." She collected Moses from Ianto. "Come on, darling. It's quite time you went outside." She bustled off, leaving Jack and Ianto alone.

The dragon gravitated toward the mantle, where the picture of Jack and Estelle had pride of place. He remembered the first time he'd seen it, and Jack's comment about it being his father. Ianto had known the truth, but it wasn't until Estelle had declared that she knew differently as well that the dragon had admitted she was right. He'd once encouraged her to tell Jack the truth, but she'd demurred, saying that if Jack wanted her to think that it had been his father all those years ago, then she wasn't going to disavow him of that.

"Ianto," Jack said hesitantly, "I – "

"That didn't take long, did it?" Estelle came back into the room, holding a sheaf of glossies. "Here you go. Like I said, there really isn't anything on them, but you're welcome to them."

Jack took them. "Promise me you'll be careful, Estelle. If anything happened to you – "

"Nothing's going to happen to me, Jack," she scoffed.

"You can't know that. They're dangerous."

"Jack, you only see the bad – "

"And you only see the good!"

"And you're both wrong," Ianto put in quietly, looking at both of them. "You're both so focused on what you've seen, that you won't look below the surface. " He turned to Jack. "Jack, you see bad, because your experiences have colored your perspective." Then to Estelle. "And you only the good, but that's what they want you to see. Why can't either of you accept that there are more to the Fae that meets your very mortal eyes?" He used the word 'mortal' on purpose, even though Jack wasn't that, not anymore. Yet he still relied on very mortal senses, and what those senses told him.

"It's not that I don't believe you, Ianto," Jack said delicately. "It's just that you haven't seen – "

Ianto felt his anger overwhelm him. He was so tired of this, especially when so much was riding on them taking his words to heart. "Seen? Jack Harkness, I'm over two thousand years old. I've seen things you wouldn't understand, or dismiss if you had seen them simply because you'd think they were impossible. The Fae and dragons have had dealings since the first humans climbed down from the trees and thought killing each other with branches over pretty looking stones was a really good idea. I know what I'm talking about, Jack…do you?"

He said that last part with a bit more venom than he'd planned, and took a perverse pleasure out of seeing Jack flinch. He turned to Estelle, his expression softening. "I know what you've seen, but anything can hide behind a pleasant façade. They don't have any reason to hurt you now, but what you don't understand is that their good will can change in a split second, if they think harming you would get them what they wanted. At the moment, it pleases them to show themselves as the friendly creatures you believe them to be, but trust me…you cannot go on that appearance alone."

Ianto speared them both with his gaze, letting his eyes gain their dragon aspect. "You have no idea what's at stake here, neither of you. You're both so sure you're right, that you don't realize what you're seeing are actually two sides of the same coin. And that sort of thinking is dangerous. I don't mean dangerous in getting someone killed, although it may come to that. No, I mean end of the world dangerous. You're both meddling in something without even accepting that you could very well be wrong."

With that, Ianto spun on his heel and stormed out into the garden. He needed to get away from the atmosphere inside, even though he'd been the one to create that atmosphere in the first place. It was at times like this that he wondered just how humanity had managed to survive the way it had, because it certainly seemed to have the instincts of lemmings when it came to personal safety.

A tinkling laughter cooled his anger in a way nothing else could. Ianto looked, and saw the large Fae from the Wood looking at him, dark eyes glittering gleefully. "They'll break it, ancient one," the being taunted. "They'll break it, and break your mighty heart."

Ianto snorted. "I already know I'm supposed to get my heart broken, so you're not exactly telling me something new." He automatically dropped into the dragon-tongue, knowing that neither Jack nor Estelle would have been able to see his 'visitor' and not wanting them to eavesdrop, thinking he was talking to himself. The last thing he needed was for either of them to think he'd gone mad.

"The Seer," The Fae spat. "You cannot trust her."

"And I'm supposed to trust you?"

The Fae laughed again. "Of course not. But you know one of them will break it, and when that happens – "

"I know of no such thing," Ianto spat. "You cannot hurt them."

"We don't have to hurt them."

With that, the Fae vanished.

Ianto closed his eyes. He had to make them understand, or else what the Fae claimed would come true.

He couldn't risk the Pact being broken.

He had to do whatever it took for that not to happen.