Fandom: TORCHWOOD
Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood – if I did I wouldn't be so worried about how I'm going to find money for university!
Genre/warning: Angst, Slash, AU.
Rated: NC-17
Characters/pairings: Ianto Jones, Owen Harper, Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Ianto/Jack, Jack/Gwen (kind of!)
AN/ Thanks for your support guys! I know it's been tough – but thanks.
Title - From the Streets of Cardiff
Chapter Fourteen - Misery & Company
The day could have gone worse, Ianto Jones reflected.
In very few ways, but at least all of his team mates were alive by the end of the day; even if Owen still looked hollow eyed, Jack was still sending him mixed signals, and Gwen was the only one acting like herself which was reason enough for Ianto to spend the day glaring at her and making her inferior coffee (her and Jack).
Jack had arrived in the morning suspiciously at the same time as Gwen, but thankfully he didn't look as if he'd had fabulous, erotic sex all night which meant that after he had left Ianto he hadn't been fucking Gwen. Still, just the same Ianto found himself flicking through the inner Hub CCTV footage and managed to upset himself with the knowledge that Jack had spent all night out – but where? Hardly at Gwen's as she lived with Rhys but who's to say that Jack hadn't got another man or woman on the go?
Soon his mind had been distracted by a Weevil hunt gone wrong that led them to a nest in the sewers near an upper class housing estate. When they had found young they had had a moral dilemma on their hands. Eventually they had all agreed to move the nest to the countryside and that had taken a few hours. In fact, 'day' was an understatement as it was four in the morning of the next day by the time Jack released everyone from work. Ianto and Owen arrived home to see the answer machine beeping incessantly. Ianto gave Owen a look but the older man shrugged as if to say 'who the fuck would be calling me?'.
It was true – Owen had no family that he spoke to, he had just been at work, and he hadn't been on the pull in over a month. The only real friend he'd had had been Tosh…
Ianto bravely pressed the 'play' button and prayed it was just a salesman or someone innocuous. However, the sound of Nesta's voice filled the flat.
"Ianto – baby. It's me, mam. I know it's horrid of me… feel free to say no… but, um, can you… would you like to… I really liked seeing you. The other day. I hope we didn't scare you off – me and Heather. And your emails have been really nice to read. I like having you in my life. So does Heather. Which brings me rough to why I called… would you want to babysit for Heather? Just for a few hours… it's my wedding anniversary and it would give you and Heather a chance to bond. We'd pay you, of course. although now you have a job I don't know what five pounds an hour would mean to you… Look, cariadfab, it's ok to say no. There is a teenager down the street who could do it. I just thought… anyway, call me back, love. You have the number."
Ianto paused as he reached for the bottle of milk, realising Owen had emerged from the sitting room and was now staring pointedly at him.
"My mam." Ianto said awkwardly. "Wanted babysitting… my sister she's only two…" Ianto grabbed the milk and poured it generously into his mug as he did before he went to bed and grabbed the cup finding his way to his fold out sofa and trying not to look in Owen's eyes.
Owen sighed and sat down next to Ianto, throwing an arm casually over the tense younger man's shoulders. "What have you not been telling me, young mister Jones?" He asked in his best 'I'm a doctor – I need to know' voice.
Ianto smiled weakly. "You were mourning… I didn't want to bother you."
Owen rolled his eyes. "Yeah – that's a great reason. Remind me not to ask you to help me come up with a reason why my paperwork hasn't been completed!"
"The pteradon ate it?" Ianto suggested wryly, and Owen let out a small laugh. It was small but it was better than anything else had been lately.
"C'mon, mate. Let's be girls and sit up late and chat about stuff. Boss has given us tomorrow off – unless someone tries to invade all of Wales, we'll be fine."
"Let's be girls?" Ianto repeated, unimpressed. "And what do you mean 'we'll be fine'. Someone always tries to invade Wales. It happens on a weekly basis like they all discussed it between them and came up with a rota. You take the first week of April on a Wednesday, I'll take the next week and the semi-gaseous sentient life form in the corner can take the third week." Ianto bit back dryly. Owen smiled.
"Don't forget the one with tentacles!" He chided jokingly.
"Oh, well he had the last week of March, it won't be his turn again until next year!"
Their banter continued for a while until finally they were both settled and relaxed enough to talk about what was really bothering them.
"I miss her, Ianto." Owen confessed.
Ianto nodded. "Me too."
"And I don't just miss what we had – I mean going out to lunch with her and talking about the latest alien or alien movie and all the flaws in the science or physiology. I also miss what could have been. When I look at my calendar I see her birthday already marked out on next years section and now I think that will never happen. I go to work and I think about how she's not there… I buy the morning pastries, minus her favourite. I think about that crush she had on me – and how I should have given her more than one stupid drunken kiss that I pretended to forget because I thought our friendship was more important that sleeping with her. And it kills me that she never got that – that it wasn't that I didn't fancy her or want her or anything. But she was so important to me I didn't want to screw things up and sleep with her like I did with Suzie. It's not a very flattering comparison but I thought of it before Suzie went psycho and started killed people."
Ianto didn't know what to say to that; so he let the silence drift. Soon enough he felt like it was time for him to spill his guts too. "It was Jack who gave me her address. My mam's. I went to see her while you were… away and it turned out great. I was so sacred – almost left several times."
"Why didn't you wait until either me or Jack could have been there for you?" Owen asked.
Ianto shook his head. "I wanted to do this on my own. At the end of the day she is my family; even if it felt like I was her parent rather than the other way around most of the time."
"And you didn't tell me because of Tosh." Owen said but Ianto could hear the hidden question in it. Why hadn't he told Jack?
"After you fell asleep, I went to see Jack. Find out how he was coping. Turns out he was coping." Ianto said bitterly and wished he had something stronger in him. He repressed the urge to drink though, knowing that he didn't want to end up like his mother had been when he had been younger.
"What does that mean?" Owen asked. He had sort of noticed the change in Jack's behaviour towards Ianto but honestly everything had been a bit of a blur these last month.
"I…" Ianto took a deep breath. "I caught him kissing Gwen out on the Plas. He didn't even bother to try and hide it – and when I asked him about it he just said cryptically that he would do some things that may hurt me in the next few weeks, but he did love me."
"Of course he loves you." Owen soothed as tears gathered in Ianto's eyes. Ianto blinked them away and resolved to make up the bed and Owen left him in piece, not wanting to intrude.
In the morning – well, afternoon, when Owen woke up he crept past Ianto and headed out to the Hub. When he couldn't find a trace of Jack he wondered over to Gwen's flat. He almost knocked on the door when he caught a glance of Gwen laughing with a blonde haired woman and Rhys sat in the corner tutting at them. No Jack – that was for certain. When he went to leave he suddenly caught sight of Jack sitting in an inconspicuous, unmarked blue Ford and ran over to him, getting in without so much as an 'oi you!'.
"Hell Owen. I hoped you brought donuts and coffee." Jack greeted him evenly, not taking his eyes of whatever it was he was looking for.
"What the Hell are you doing! Ianto told me everything – but I though that maybe he misunderstood. And now I find you watching Gwen's house like some pervert!"
Jack sighed. "Alright Owen! Just keep your voice down and I'll tell you. But I don't want Ianto involved with this. Agreed?"
Owen nodded and waited for Jack to give his explanation of what the fuck he was doing.
X-0-X-0-X
OK – cliffhanger! Sorry guys. I didn't want to give away all my secrets just now.
Sorry for any mistakes – as it is very early in the morning when I wrote this. I'll try and correct them later but you know I suck at re-reading my own work! Thanks for all your comments on the last chapter! Xxx
Also, for all you readers out there – you may want to go back and re-read chapters 12 and 13 which were posted wrong. Sorry about that guys! x