Author's Note:

This chapter concludes the first half of the story. After this one, there are 15 more chapters plus an epilogue. Thanks so much to everyone who have taken the time to read this, alerted or added it to their favourites. Extra thanks to those who have so generously provided feedback. I really do appreciate it. If you haven't had a chance to review yet, please let me know what you think so far. Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

Thanks to my amazing beta Prothrombintime.

Chapter 14

They returned to work the following day. Ianto was dressed in one of his habitual immaculate suits, and his impassive mask was carefully in place. But Jack found that it was now easier for him to see beyond the mask. He could recognise it for what it was.

Jack had reservations about Ianto returning to work, but the other man had been stubbornly adamant, as usual. Jack had known that it was an argument he couldn't win, and in the end, he had accepted that it was better for Ianto to be occupied than to be at home with only his grief for companionship. As concerned as Jack was, he couldn't help but admire Ianto's fortitude.

For the next few days, Jack surreptitiously kept a close eye on Ianto. He didn't coddle him or act overtly – he knew that would only irritate the Welshman. But he watched carefully for any sign of distress or subtle indication that Ianto wasn't coping.

He hadn't stayed overnight at Ianto's again that week, but on Saturday, Jack managed to drag Ianto along on a shopping expedition for the afternoon. He'd been worried about Ianto being alone all weekend. Ianto had complained quite vocally as Jack had hauled him from one store to the next, but Jack had been completely unrepentant. He'd even succeeded in coercing Ianto into buying a rather spectacular deep red shirt and coordinating tie. Eventually they'd made it back to Ianto's flat. Then they'd had dinner and spent several pleasurable hours together before Jack had reluctantly returned home.

Jack had also started making sure that Ianto ate lunch each day. Sometimes he'd nonchalantly deliver food to his desk. Other times they'd eat together in his office under the guise of a working lunch, or they'd go out and pick up something and sit together by the bay. Ianto rarely said anything about it, but he didn't complain either. He seemed to accept Jack's attentions with surprisingly good grace.

Jack suspected that Ianto secretly liked the attention, even though he knew that the other man would never admit it. Jack didn't mind anyway. He was just happy that they got to spend time together.

He couldn't deny that he was captivated by the unique and often inscrutable Welshman. Jack was rather more than a little bit infatuated. He thoroughly enjoyed and valued his relationship with Ianto, unconventional and unusual though it was. In public they were colleagues and tentative friends, in private they were closer friends and lovers.

But Ianto had made it clear from the beginning that he wasn't looking for anything serious. Jack hadn't been either. However, he was starting to realise that, perhaps for the first time in his life, he was at least open to the possibility. Ianto very clearly was not.

Ianto was undoubtedly lonely and unhappy, and Jack couldn't help but wonder if he saw Jack as little more than a convenient source of comfort; a distraction from his pain. And they weren't dating – no one knew about them. They weren't together in any real sense of the word.

He'd considered officially ending things with Gwen, but he was afraid of losing Ianto, not only as a lover, but also as a friend. He suspected that in Ianto's mind, as long as he and Gwen were together, Jack was unavailable and therefore safe to be with.

The only problem was that as much as Jack enjoyed what he had with Ianto, he found himself wanting more.

It was Monday morning of the following week. Jack had worked himself up into an impressive state as he paced furiously back and forth across the length of his office, repeatedly muttering a tirade of curses.

Ianto sat at the other side of his desk, quietly sipping from a mug of coffee, and watching Jack with a hint of amusement.

Jack stopped pacing and glared at the Welshman. "What's so damned funny?" he growled. "Our project's falling apart and you're laughing at me. I'm glad you find this all so amusing."

Ianto just continued to look at him, completely unperturbed. "Calm down, Jack. You're getting hysterical," he said evenly and continued to sip his coffee.

"I think I'm damned well entitled. I just lost half my team," Jack retorted angrily.

Ianto opened his mouth to reply when Tosh knocked on the door and rushed in, quickly closing the door behind her.

She glared at Ianto. "Why didn't you tell me what happened?" she demanded. "I had to find out from Suzie. She took great delight in telling me too."

Tosh took one look at Jack and wisely decided to stay close to the door.

"Sorry, Tosh," Ianto replied. He tilted his head towards Jack. "I've been a little distracted dealing with our illustrious leader here." He grinned impishly and added, "He's a bit histrionic at the moment."

"I am not histrionic!" Jack shouted, pausing to glare dangerously at Ianto.

"Yes, you are," Ianto stated calmly. "Sit down and drink your coffee," he added in a stern tone.

Jack huffed, but collapsed into his chair and picked up his coffee mug. He scowled petulantly at Ianto as he began to drink. Ianto smiled at him sweetly and gave him a slight nod.

"So, it's true then?" Tosh asked as she looked at the pair with bemusement.

Ianto sighed. "Yep. Adam has been arrested for drug dealing. He was caught selling some new designer drug that has the rather nasty side-effect of selective memory loss. Apparently it's not his first offence, but it's the most serious one he's been caught for. No one here seems to have had any idea. He's got himself into a fair bit of trouble."

"And Andy was caught up in a pub brawl on Saturday night and is in hospital with severe concussion, fractured ribs and a broken wrist," Ianto continued. "He's going to be okay, but he'll be out of action for a while."

"It's a total disaster," Jack interjected as he moaned despondently.

"But Alex will give us extra time, won't he?" Tosh asked. "He can't expect us to meet the deadline for the demo now."

"Three days," Jack said despairingly. "He's only giving us a lousy three days."

"But he'll let us have someone else to help then?" Tosh persisted.

Ianto nodded. "He might if we asked," he agreed. "But it would be counter-productive at this point. We'd lose too much time getting someone else up to speed."

"We're doomed," Jack added prophetically. He groaned again and dramatically buried his face in his hands.

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Well, if you'd just shut-up for a minute, Jack, I was about to tell you my plan."

Jack looked up. "You have a plan?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes. It's simple," Ianto started to explain. "Jack has decent technical skills, and he knows pretty much everything we've been doing. So he can fill in for Andy and help pick up the slack." Ianto looked at Jack and added, "Me and Tosh can give you some of the easier tasks to do while we deal with what's left of the more complicated stuff."

"Gee, thanks," Jack replied sarcastically.

Ianto ignored him. "So we'll only be one team member down, not two."

Ianto gestured at the printouts on the desk in front of him. "I've gone through Jack's list of outstanding work, and I've noted the things we can drop off for the demo if we run out of time. And I can't speak for Tosh, but I'll just pull a few all-nighters to make up some ground."

Tosh nodded firmly. "Absolutely. Count me in."

"I can't ask you guys to do that," Jack said with a shake of his head.

"You're not, Jack. We're offering," Ianto replied. "This project is important to us too."

A glimmer of hope passed across Jack's face. "Do you really think we can do it?"

Ianto looked determined. "Yeah, Jack, I know we can. We're getting close now anyway. Right, Tosh?"

"Of course we can," Tosh agreed decisively.

Jack grinned at his colleagues, and he felt a swell of pride and affection. "Okay guys, let's get to work then."

The next two and a half weeks passed in a frenzy of activity and tension, mingled with frequent bouts of exhaustion. Jack was doing his best to fill in for Andy, and was finding Ianto to be a fair but relentless taskmaster. And Ianto was coping much better with the sleep deprivation than Jack and Tosh were.

Jack was often putting Tosh into a taxi or driving her home, insisting that she take a break. Even Ianto had his limits, and several times, Jack had ended up dragging the Welshman back to his apartment to crash on his sofa. Jack knew that Ianto didn't like being there because of Gwen, but he was usually too tired to protest very much. If Gwen was there, she would just give Ianto a cheery greeting and leave him in peace, so they never really had to interact anyway.

Finally, it was the evening before the day of the demonstration. The office was quiet, and the three of them sat in the small conference room as Ianto rehearsed how he was going to demonstrate their efforts, occasionally making notes as he worked. Jack had insisted that Ianto should be in charge of the demo. Tosh had declined to do it, and Jack didn't trust himself not to fall to pieces under the strain of it all. More than ever, they needed Ianto's stoicism and innate composure.

Jack sat back and smiled as he looked at them in admiration. He was proud of both of them. No matter what happened, he knew that they'd all done their absolute best.

A short while later, Ianto looked up and gave Jack a simple nod as a look of relief passed across his weary features.

They were ready.

Jack sat in his office the following morning, and gazed out his window as he fortified himself with his third cup of coffee for the day. He felt jittery and on edge. He reflected belatedly that the coffee probably wasn't helping. He knew he wasn't being entirely rational, but it felt like everything he'd been working towards since arriving in Cardiff was culminating in this moment.

He turned around as he heard the soft tap on his door and Ianto walked in, closing the door behind him.

"Hey," Jack said with a forced smile.

"Hi. You okay?" Ianto returned as he sat down opposite Jack.

Jack nodded. "Yeah. Just a bit nervous."

"It's going to be fine, Jack," Ianto said firmly. "We've done our best."

"I know," Jack replied. He paused and gazed at Ianto, his eyes softening. "You've been amazing."

Ianto shrugged. "Just doing my job. But we make a good team, right?"

"Absolutely," Jack said with certainty.

"I like the tie by the way," Ianto quipped with a tiny smile. "Haven't seen you wear one before."

Jack couldn't help but preen a little at Ianto's compliment. He was wearing a dark blue shirt with a light grey tie with a subtle blue stripe. He also had on his black waistcoat. He knew he looked good, and he loved knowing that Ianto was noticing him and liking what he saw.

He smiled, and a wistful look passed across his face. "Yeah, the last time must have been when I had my job interview here. It almost seems like a lifetime ago now. So much has changed."

Ianto nodded thoughtfully. "No regrets?"

Jack shook his head firmly. "None."

He stared intently at Ianto, studying the line of his pale neck as it disappeared under his deep red shirt. Ianto was wearing the suit, shirt and tie combination that was Jack's favourite. Jack lost himself for a moment as he thought about how handsome and confident Ianto looked.

"I've missed you," he said softly.

"Me too," Ianto replied in a whisper.

"Maybe tonight, we could…?" Jack suggested

Ianto nodded. "Yep, I'd like that." His voice wavered slightly.

Jack smiled, feeling better now that he had something to look forward to.

Standing up, Ianto said, "Come on Captain, we'd better get in there."

"Captain?" Jack queried with a smile.

Ianto smirked. "Owen's nickname for you. Captain Jack. Well either that or smarmy git. Depends on his mood."

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed in outrage, but he couldn't help but laugh. It was rare to see Ianto smile like that. "Cheeky bastard. Keep that up and I might have to punish you."

"Is that a promise?" Ianto asked innocently, but there was a slightly glazed look in his eyes that suggested he was considering some lurid possibilities.

Jack grinned. "It might be. You'll just have to wait and find out." He gave Ianto a vigorous clap on the back. "Let's get this show on the road then."

They gathered in the conference room at ten o'clock. It was a small group, just the three of them along with Alex and Owen. The entire focus of the demonstration was to impress Alex. If he wasn't satisfied, he would likely abort the project or make major changes. And if that happened, Jack didn't know what that would mean for him.

Ianto sat at the head of the table. The tablet he was demonstrating on was connected to the room's projector, and a large bright image of the tablet's screen filled the wall behind him. Alex and Owen sat on either side of Ianto, and Jack and Tosh sat down at the back.

Jack gave a quick introduction and then handed over to Ianto.

Ianto calmly began. He started with explaining the security features and demonstrating how users could quickly sign into the system, entering a personal identification number, or using a biometric scanner. He demonstrated how the tablet retained a list of recent users, to allow fast sign in, and how each user's session was retained on the remote server. To illustrate, he turned off his tablet, picked up another one from the table, logged back in, and showed them how it returned to the same screen and details that he'd left open on the tablet he'd just turned off.

Jack smiled. It was a feature that Ianto had come up with, and as usual, it was brilliant. He was impressed, so he hoped the others would be too.

Next, Ianto stepped them through entering a patient history and physical assessment. He explained the predictive input and acronym expansion features which helped to speed up data entry, and demonstrated entering data using the on-screen keyboard and via handwriting recognition using a stylus.

Ianto paused, and Jack explained that an external wireless keyboard could also be used along with a docking frame to mount the tablet upright, allowing the tablets to become light-weight, portable workstations, similar to a laptop computer.

Ianto fingers continued to deftly move across the tablet as he navigated through the interface, entering examples of the history of present illness, past medical and surgical history, family history, medications and physical examination details.

He presented how existing patient records were accessed with a couple of quick taps to the screen. Then, he covered recording vital signs, showed the various flow sheets that were available, and explained how to access medical imaging from the patient's lab work.

Then he demonstrated how the to-do list features worked, and showed how it tracked the activities to be performed by the doctor or nurse on a daily basis.

When he'd finished, Alex and Owen began a tirade of questions which Ianto, Jack, and Tosh took turns fielding. Owen spent some time working through the system with Ianto's guidance while Alex watched closely.

Eventually silence settled over the room. Jack was looking at Alex anxiously, his throat dry and his stomach churning. He decided that the man had a poker face to rival Ianto's. Jack was having trouble reading him. Alex looked serious, but Jack thought hopefully, not unhappy.

Jack couldn't stand it any longer. "So, Alex, what do you think?" he asked cautiously. He glanced quickly to Ianto and saw his worried frown.

Alex looked thoughtful but then broke into a smile. "I'm impressed, Jack. Very impressed. You've really proven that the technology has come a long way. As you know, we've looked at tablet options in the past, but the tech just wasn't where we needed it to be."

Alex turned to look at Owen. "Any thoughts, Owen?" he prompted.

"Yeah, I agree with Alex," Owen said with a smile. "Damn impressive. I suppose I had some doubts, but you've convinced me. This is going to be a big step forward."

"Great work, all of you," Alex added. He looked at Tosh and then Ianto. "I know you've all worked hard to get this far. Jack's told me how much extra effort you've put into this."

Jack smiled. "I've got a brilliant team here, Alex. I can't speak highly enough of Ianto and Tosh. We had a setback with Andy and Adam, but we rallied and did everything we could to make this a success." He beamed at both of them. "Thanks, guys."

Alex stood up and said, "Jack, I'd like to catch up and discuss where this goes next. Tomorrow morning?"

"Sure, Alex, sounds great," Jack replied.

"Okay, I'll leave you to it. Go out and have a celebratory lunch. You've earned it," Alex suggested with a parting smile and walked out of the room.

They were all startled when Tosh let out a little squeal and threw herself at Jack, giving him a hug and reaching up to kiss his cheek. "Congratulations, Jack. I'm so relieved," she said excitedly.

"Me too, Tosh. Thanks for all your hard work," Jack said warmly.

They moved apart, and Tosh turned to hug Ianto as Jack shook Owen's hand. "Thanks for your help getting us this far, Owen. Ianto said you've been invaluable. Want to join us for lunch?"

Owen nodded. "Sure. Thanks, Jack."

Jack looked at Ianto. He desperately wanted to pull the Welshman into a fierce hug and kiss him senseless, but he had to settle on a firm handshake. "Thanks for everything, Ianto," he said sincerely.

Ianto nodded and smiled in return.