Ianto blinked at his gun in surprise, he was certain that he didn't pull the trigger.
Ianto's head snapped round and standing there, gun raised was Jack. Ianto's heart raced at the sight until the reminder that Jack had left them came.
"Hey, kids, d'ya miss me?" Jack chuckled, holstering his weapon.
The team stared at him, dumbfound.
"I'll drive the sports car back to the Hub," Ianto said, he wasn't sure how he felt about Jack's sudden return, he hadn't seen this which meant Jack made the decision when he wasn't on Earth.
"Alone," he added quickly, noticing Jack opening his mouth to speak.
Gwen nodded stiffly, "Of course."
Ianto slid into the driver's seat, he let out a sigh of relief when he noticed the keys, he didn't want to waste time hot wiring a car.
He drove off, in front of the SUV so that he would arrive first and be able to make some coffee.
He wondered what Jack was doing here, he had left with the Doctor, why would he return after finally finding the Time Lord.
Ianto shook his head, he knew the team were going to end up confronting Jack on his 3 month disappearance, he would ask then.
"You left us, Jack," Gwen yelled, shoving him into the door frame.
Jack grimaced, resisting the urge to recoil from the team's anger, "I know, I'm sorry."
"We knew nothing, Jack," Gwen said angrily.
"Where were you?" Tosh asked.
Hell on Earth, Jack thought but answered with, "I found my Doctor." Who called me wrong.
"Did he fix you?" Owen asked.
"What's to fix? You don't mess with this level of perfection," Jack joked, hiding his hurt at Owen's careless comment.
"Are you going back to him?" Ianto asked.
Jack looked at him, he had almost forgotten how beautiful Ianto was, he hadn't managed to get a proper look at him after shooting the Blowfish.
"I came back for you," Jack said sincerely. Ianto's expression didn't waver so Jack added, "All of you."
Then the Rift alert went off.
It was John Hart.
John fucking Hart.
Jack couldn't let him stay, he would find out about Jack's team sooner or later and Jack couldn't put their lives at risk because of John's jealousy issues.
"You need to leave," Jack told him, "I don't want you on my territory."
"What?" John laughed in disbelief, "Time was you couldn't get enough of me on your territory."
He suddenly grabbed his gun and fired at the far door before turning and shooting at the opposite one.
"Alright, everybody out," John called, his gun raised.
Ianto, Owen, Gwen and Tosh came through the doors, guns raised.
"Everything alright, Jack?" Gwen asked, as she and Ianto moved forward with Owen and Tosh doing similar at the other side.
"You've got a team," John laughed, lowering his gun, "how sweet."
"Oh, pretty little friend," he commented, eyeing Tosh before turning to Jack, "No blond though, you need a blond."
"God, he's worse than Jack," Owen said disgusted.
"Oh, do you have a team name?" John grinned, "I love team names."
"Torchwood," Jack spat, glaring.
"Oh, not Excalibur, Blizzard, Bikini Cops, No? Torchwood, oh dear," John snorted.
"Ianto Jones, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato and Owen Harper," Jack gestured towards each team mate as he said their name, "Meet-"
"Captain John Hart," John interjected.
"We go back," Jack said shortly.
"Excuse me, we more than go back," John scoffed, "We were partners."
"In what way?" Ianto asked, Jack resisted the urge to smile when he heard the undercurrent of jealousy,
John smirked, "In every way, and then some."
"It was two weeks," Jack reminded him.
"Except the two weeks was trapped in a time loop so we were together for five years," John corrected, "It was like having a wife."
"You were the wife," Jack scoffed.
"You were the wife."
"No, you were the wife."
"Oh, but I was a good wife," John grinned.
"I bet you were," Tosh said, earning a surprised look from Owen.
"What?" Tosh said defensively, "Don't pretend you haven't noticed, he's cute."
"They're just shy," John informed her.
"What are you doing here?" Jack asked warily.
"I was wondering when we would get to that," John muttered, revealing his vortex manipulator.
"That's the same as yours," Tosh said, recognising the wrist strap.
"Mine's bigger," Jack said smugly with a smirk at John.
"Mine's lasts much longer," John huffed.
"Get two time agents in the same room and it's always about the size of the wrist strap," John added with an eye roll.
"Yeah, what's a time agent?" Owen asked.
"What, he hasn't told you about his past?" John asked, surprised.
"No, he hasn't," Gwen replied flatly, clearly annoyed.
"Anyway, I'm working with this woman," John said, showing them the image of a small canister, "Beautiful, clever, sexy, yada yada yada, and we both get shot. And as she's dying, she begs me, tells me about these radiation cluster bombs she had been working on."
"I don't like the sound of that," Owen muttered, eyeing the 3D image of the canister.
"3 canisters, contents beyond toxic, swallowed up in a rift storm," John explained.
"And ended up here," Tosh realised.
"Bingo," John nodded, "that's the downside of your city being built on a rift of space and time, now left to their own devices, the radiation will break down the canisters and then infect your people. And planet. They need to be neutralized."
"What do you get out of this?" Jack asked suspiciously, the John he knew never did anything without gaining something for himself.
"Dying woman's wish?" John offered with a shrug. Jack shot him a disbelieving look.
"Now there's only one problem, I don't know where they are," John added, "hoping local knowledge might help."
"When we get back to the Hub, I can do a city wide scan on radiation surges and cross reference that with rift activity within that time span," Tosh smiled.
"What are you, the brains and the beauty?" John said, his lips quirking slightly.
"See, together it's an easy job," John said, Jack stood in front of him.
"We do this, then you get out of here right away."
"Oooh, does this mean I get to see your house?"
"He's a compulsive liar, why is he in the building?" Gwen demanded, as her and Jack wandered through the vaults, Gwen was catching Jack up on their latest inmates.
"Because there's the tiniest 1% chance that he's breaking a habit of a life time and telling the truth, which means the city is in danger," Jack said, also he wasn't going to let John Hart out of his sight.
"What did he mean by a time agent, you've never mentioned it," Gwen commented, staring at him.
Jack looked away with a sigh.
"That was in the past," he dismissed.
"There you go again," Gwen sighed, "you know everything about me, Jack, why do you keep on shutting me out?"
He could sense that she was trying to read his emotions, but the Time Agency had taught Jack how to block Telepathic and Empathic abilities, which meant that Gwen wouldn't be able to sense if John was lying or not.
"Here and now, that's what's important, the person I am now, that's what I'm proud of," Jack said firmly.
"Then why did you desert us?" she snapped.
Jack didn't reply, he didn't know how to explain to Gwen that he had been waiting for the Doctor for so long.
"Where did you go?" she asked quietly, continuing to stare at him
Jack sighed, he wouldn't be able to tell her the whole truth. Gwen would push for more information and Jack couldn't handle that, he needed to talk to someone who wouldn't ask for more information.
"Tell me, where did you go, talk to me," she urged.
"I have died so many times," Jack said finally, "Been dragged back into life, like being hauled over broken glass. I saw the end of the world." he forced a laugh.
"How?" Gwen whispered, her eyes wide with wonder.
"Doesn't matter now. But after it was all over... I knew I belong here. What kept me fighting was the thought of coming home to the team," Jack finished, squeezing her hand.
He noticed the flash of disappointment which crossed her face. Jack was aware of Gwen's crush on him, or more accurately, her infatuation with his 'big hero who will always save the day' persona. Jack enjoyed the attention, it was a nice ego boost but he didn't return her feelings even if he did flirt with her a bit, he flirted with everyone, it was just part of his personality.
His finger brushed over a diamond ring, he lifted her hand up.
"What's that?" he questioned, feigning ignorance.
"That's an engagement ring, that is," she said.
"You're getting married," Jack asked incredulously. Even before they had all gained powers, Torchwood had been a large secret which Gwen had kept from Rhys, the extra secrets she was keeping from him couldn't be healthy for their relationship.
"Rhys asked, when you were away," Gwen replied.
"Wow, Gwen Cooper getting married," Jack laughed, "Down on one knee?" He remembered when he had first arrived in Cardiff back in the 19th Century, he had fallen in love with a young girl called Rowena, he had proposed, thinking that he would grow old with her, he hadn't.
"He tried to," Gwen shrugged, "and then he had a twinge in his back and had to lie on the settee, and that's when he popped the question."
"And you said yes," Jack said slowly, thinking again of all the secrets she was hiding from Rhys. Torchwood. Empathy. Being able to turn into a cat.
"Well, no one else will have me," she replied, staring at him with an almost challenging look on her face.
"Good for you," Jack said sincerely, giving her a quick kiss on the cheek. He had left John alone in the Hub, God only knows what he could have gotten up to in that time.
"Work to do," he added, leaving the vaults.
"How are you, Ianto?" Jack asked, concerned. Ianto was looking a lot thinner than he did before Jack left, he had also been rubbing his forehead slightly.
"All the better for having you back, sir," Ianto replied, turning away, he was still confused about his feelings for Jack, it didn't help with Jack saying that he had came back for him.
Jack sighed, "Can we maybe drop the sir, now? While I was away, I was thinking... Maybe we could, when this is all done... Dinner? A movie?"
Jack was pretty sure that it shouldn't have been so difficult for him to get those words out but he was nervous that Ianto might have moved on and would reject him.
Ianto turned and looked at him, hands on his hips.
"Are… you asking me out on a date?" Ianto asked uncertainly, did Jack want to make their relationship serious?
"Interested?" Jack asked.
Ianto turned away again, "Well... As long as it's not in an office. Some fetishes should be kept to yourself."
Ianto continued to search for the canister, his brain taking a minute to process that Jack Harkness had just asked him out on a date. His heart was beating wildly in his chest.
"Looks like we're gonna have to go through every drawer, bin and plant pot," Jack gave a nervous laugh, he wasn't sure if Ianto had just agreed to the date or not, he hoped that he had.
"Right. OK. I'll do this floor, don't want you getting overexcited," Ianto teased, "and you take the roof. You're good on roofs."
Jack nodded and headed towards the door but was stopped by Ianto.
"Jack? Why are we h-helping him?" Ianto asked nervously, he could feel the pain in the back of his skull getting worse, he was certain that Hart was up to something.
"He's a reminder of my past. I want him gone," Jack said firmly.
Jack had the door half open before he turned back to Ianto.
"By the way... Was that a yes?" he asked.
Ianto opened his mouth to confirm he had when agony exploded inside his skull. He clutched the back of his head as his knees gave out, he was dimly aware that Jack had caught him.
...Gwen laying in a large shipping container...Tosh laying on the floor, clutching her bleeding stomach...Jack falling off the roof, and landing on a bench, dead...
"No," Ianto groaned, opening his eyes to Jack's concerned face.
Jack had his arms wrapped around Ianto's arms and torso, pinning him to his chest. Ianto placed his hands on Jack's shoulders, gasping.
"What did you see?" Jack asked frantically.
"John," Ianto gasped, "he's hurt Gwen, he's going to shoot Tosh and then push you off the roof."
"Right, we'll go and get the container, then go rescue the others," Jack decided, "Owen will be able to help Tosh and John's probably used his paralysing lip gloss which will take a few hours before it kills you."
Ianto nodded and they headed for the roof.
"John, put the gun down," Jack ordered, he and Ianto raised their own weapons.
John turned, looking surprised, "How did you know?" he asked suspiciously.
"We tried to use our comms," Ianto lied coolly, he wasn't telling John Hart about his visions, God only knew what he would try to do with that information.
John scowled, not holstering the weapon.
"Where's Gwen," Jack demanded harshly.
Owen was helping Tosh, being careful to not touch her skin and accidentally heal the wound with the bullet still inside her. Ianto also suspected that Owen, like Ianto, didn't want John Hart knowing about their powers.
"She's fine, for now," John huffed, "give me the other canister."
"No," Jack replied flatly.
John considered this for a moment before raising his gun and shooting Jack between the eyes, Jack fell to the floor, dead. And before Ianto could react, John turned to him and punched him in the face, causing his head to crack against the shelves behind him.
Pain exploded in his head, he collapsed to the floor as everything began spinning. None of them could stop John as he grabbed the canister and Jack's vortex manipulator before teleporting out, along with their weapons.
Jack came back with a gasp, he looked around and noticed John was missing, Ianto was hurt and he didn't have either the canister or the vortex manipulator.
"Crap, Owen can you heal Tosh?" Jack asked, helping Ianto stand up, steadying him with an arm around the waist.
"Yeah, just got to get the bullet out...yes, got it," Owen cheered, pressing his hand over Tosh's stomach, the wound had disappeared when he removed his hand.
Owen rushed over and pressed his fingers to Ianto's forehead, the pain disappeared immediately.
"Thanks," Ianto grunted.
"Right, let's go save Cooper and kick John's ass," Owen declared.
AN: Next chapter will be the aftermath of John leaving, so the team will be staying in a fancy hotel and Jack and Ianto finally get to have a proper discussion. Warning there will be mentions of torture and angst. I will give proper warnings at the beginning of the chapter.
Also the rest went the same, Gwen got healed, they found out about the bomb, John grabbed Gwen, then bomb exploded while in the rift and time reversed slightly.
Also there will be no Gwack moments in my fic, Janto only.
Please Review!