Revelations And Awakenings.
Ianto tilts his head to the side as he looks at Jack.
"What is it? What do you remember?" Jack asks him, almost scaring Ianto with the sudden question.
"I don't…I don't think I remember anything," Ianto tells him, not sure of what was running through his head.
"Tell me and I might be able to help you," he tells him, eager for him to remember something, remember him.
"I'm not sure myself. I think…..I think I have seen your eyes before," Ianto tells him, looking into Jack's eyes as he wasn't that far away from him.
"Why do you remember my eyes? Think. Where have you seen them before?" Jack asks him.
"Stopping pushing me. I don't know you so don't think that you can order me around," Ianto tells him, glaring at him.
"There's that Ianto glare and that beautiful feistiness and sorry, about coming across that I was ordering you. I just really want you to remember. Remember who you are, how I am and what we mean to each other," Jack tells him and he screws his face up.
"Why don't you tell me something and if I am who everyone else says I am, something might click," Ianto tells him, still stuck on the fact that Jack's eyes seemed so familiar, those nice deep eyes.
"Ok. From the start. You came to me after Canary Warf. I would step out of the hub, the place where we worked and you would be stood outside waiting for me, with a cup of coffee in your hands to give me. Every morning with the coffee came the same question, could you work for me, for Torchwood Cardiff and every day, I would tell you the same thing. No. You were very persistent. Every morning, you were there, same lovely coffee and same question," Jack starts and he looks at Ianto who was actually listening to him, his beautiful eyes on Jack.
"You got tired of always asking me, bringing me coffee and getting nothing in return even when you told me that you would work for free and you would do anything," Jack starts again and Ianto stops him.
"Do I look nuts to you? Do I look stupid enough to work for nothing and hound a man, everyday and for what? To work for you?" Ianto asks Jack.
"You had an agenda but I didn't know it yet. You got tired of the same approach every day, not getting you anywhere so you called in something that you had found that wasn't exactly normal. I arrived and after a debate about you working for me, you showed me her. Myfanwy, the Pterodactyl. We caught her together, got a little close and that was the start of your career in Torchwood," Jack tells him.
"Hang on a sec, you just said Pterodactyl. Now if my childhood and schooling serves me right, a Pterodactyl is a dinosaur so extinct," Ianto tells him.
"We have one at the hub thanks to you. Myfanwy. You fed her every day. She lives in a little area at the top of the hub. She came through the rift and got stuck here," Jack tells him.
"How can there be a dinosaur on earth, a real live dinosaur?" Ianto asks him, very confused and not quite believing him.
"Bare with me Yan. I will explain," Jack starts and Ianto jumps in.
"Please stop calling me Yan. It's not my name, well, not for you to call me anyway," he tells him and Jack sighs.
Ianto used to like it when he called him Yan, usually when they were in bed together. Jack goes on to explain the rest of Ianto's life in Torchwood, including Gwen's first day, Lisa and the fact that the rest of the team killed her, Suzie's suicide and all the major events that Torchwood dealt with. Jack went through all the things that Ianto did on a daily basis and what his job title was and what it involved.
"Sounds like I am a glorified coffee boy and janitor? You've told me about my work life, what about my social life?" Ianto asks him.
"You are much more than a glorified coffee boy and janitor. You're the one who holds the rest of the team together. I can't really say much about your personal life as when you did in fact go home, you didn't really tell people what you go up to there but you like to read. I remember how happy you were when Toshiko got you some books for Christmas for your collection," Jack tells him.
"I do like to read, that is true but is that it? Is that all my personal life is? Reading?" he ask him.
"That's the only personal life I know about you outside of work. You do have a personal life in work, when everyone went home except you and me," Jack tells him, his heart sinking as he knew that Ianto didn't remember their love but still fighting the restraints behind him.
"Go on. Tell me. Everyone else has been saying it so you might as well," Ianto tells him and Jack looks at the clock. 32 minutes.
"We were lovers. We loved each other but in different ways. You with all your heart but I was guarded, afraid to let you in. I treated you wrong and I regret it and have done for a few weeks now, since you walked away from me and Torchwood," Jack says keeping it the basics.
"I don't believe you," Ianto tells him.
"We slept together but that wasn't just all of it. Sometimes, we would just lay together in bed, holding each other, looking into each others eyes, stroking each others skin," Jack tells him, the memories of those nights burning in his mind.
"Looking into each others eyes?" Ianto asks. "Those eyes, his eyes. Is that where I know them from? Looking into his eyes whilst making love to him, holding him? It can't be true. Me and a man," Ianto thinks to himself as he looks into Jack's eyes.
"We spent a lot of time looking in each others eyes. We didn't need to talk, our eyes said it all," Jack tells him, the Welshman's features softening.
"Your eyes, I know them," Ianto tells him, not really believing it himself.
"Go on Yan. Remember," Jack tells him, not knowing what would happen when Ianto remembered.
Ianto looks at him as his mind shatters. His head feels like it is breaking apart. All of a sudden, his mind starts to fill with flashes, pictures, thoughts, feelings, memories. Things were coming back to him but it hurt, it hurt so much. Ianto screams out in pain. No-one had ever had 5 years wiped from their memories and then had them brought back, all at once.
"YAN," Jack shouted and some how, Jack managed to move his chair closer to Ianto's.
"It hurts Jack. It hurts so much," Ianto shouts, his head hurting like never before.
"Stay with me Yan. Stay with me," Jack tells him, putting his leg against Ianto's, letting him know he was there, leaning forward as far as he could go without dislocation both his shoulders in the process. If he had of known how much it would hurt Ianto, he wouldn't have pushed him.
"Why Jack? Why did you make me remember? It hurts so much. My head, my heart, my soul," Ianto asks him.
"I'm sorry Yan. I didn't know it would hurt you. I'm so sorry," Jack tells him, pulling against the restraints, wanting to get to his love, comfort him, hold him and kiss him.
Ianto passes out with the pain and his head flops forward.
"YAN," Jack screams.