Chapter 25=

A few days later=

Ianto felt that his reluctance to go out onto another planet was justified. Now if only he could convince the Doctor of that. They had been in the Tardis in the vortex for the past few days and things had gone fairly ok. The Doctor had managed to at least repair the damage that had been done to Jack's immune system so that he wasn't puking his guts up every other half hour. He was still thin, pale and drawn- the dark circles under his eyes like black bruises were constantly there from over a year of practically no sleep and dying almost constantly. Ianto sometimes wondered if he used to deliberately let himself be killed in order to gain a few minutes rest. But he looked far happier and sometimes was even able to rest for a little while without having the need to take 51st century sleeping or need the Tardis to soothe his dreams (but mostly even she couldn't make them better).

It was a start, Ianto supposed. And the fact that he was currently looking after Jack because his body was still trying to get used to food again did little to quash the happy feeling that he had. Of course, what he actually said out loud was much different. "Perhaps you should stick with toast," the immortal just managed to shrug before he had to dive for the toilet bowl again. Ianto sighed, it wasn't Jack's fault. He had wanted to have toast but the Doctor had said he should try some weird purple thing from some leisure planet and he had in fear of being abandoned again.

They had gone to the medical planet- Ianto had discovered its name was Suronia- and Jack had let him cling on tightly to his hand when he saw all the different aliens that were there. The Doctor had once again put his foot in his mouth in the examination room; Ianto couldn't believe that he had been stupid enough to think that just divulging all of Jack's personal reasons for starving himself outright had been a good idea. The Captain had reverted back to silent and sad mode for the rest of their time there and Ianto had taken the Doctor outside and verbally bollocked him one. The two had then gone quietly back into the room and then the pair of lovers had waited inside the Tardis whilst the time lord had picked up a prescription of protein powder and some weird tablet things along with a stack of leaflets. Ianto had read a couple and had quickly three them aside, they were just parroting the same stuff that the websites that he had read had.

The Welshman tried not to let his excitement show when Jack pulled him in for the first kiss that he had initiated since this whole mess had started. The younger was a little surprised when just one kiss started to grow into some groping but he was pretty sure that it wouldn't hurt so long as it was what Jack wanted. In some ways, he wanted to be able to hear his thoughts again to make sure that he truly did want it or was just doing it because it was what was expected of him. Five minutes later and nothing had progressed past the kissing and groping stages so he gently started to move his hand lower, making sure that Jack knew what he was doing at all times. The immortal gave a hungry little moan and pulled him closer…

"Ianto? Jack? Where are you?" the door opened and they sprang apart; the Doctor stood there looking down at them. "Ok, well… we've sort of materialised to a very safe part of Sploosh so maybe you want to go out and have a look now? And, um, I can see that you're busy so I'll just…" he trailed off and pelted back down the corridor as the Tardis laughed.

"Well, that's certainly one way to kill the mood," Ianto commented. Jack nodded and he mentally sighed, trust the Doctor. Every time that he was around Jack retreated back into himself. The tea boy squeezed his hand and gave him a reassuring smile. "Let's go and see Sploosh then."

"With the suit?"

He blinked and then grinned, "With the suit." And they went off to explore.

~0~

The Doctor had somehow managed to stumble upon a fortune teller; what was it with fortune tellers? Every planet seemed to have them in the streets in flowing robes and earrings. Of course, the latter only applied to the species with ears. "Tell your fortune good sir?" she asked cheerfully. She was a native, purple skin, midnight eyes; tall and willowy with long nails that were almost claws. The tent was stifling with the heat from Sploosh's three suns along with the incense that she had burning and the material gave off a hazy sort of purple glow if you looked at it for too long.

"Why not?" the Doctor shrugged and sat down on the rug opposite her. "I'm feeling lucky today." She smiled and started to prepare the bone board every fortune in the Wan galaxy used. She picked up the embroidered bag containing the bones of an Osirid and carefully threw them across the board.

"Hmmm," she considered, "never have the bones reacted to any client like this before." Even though it was a line that she had probably used on every single person who came her way, he felt compelled to believe her. It scared him a little though; these fortune tellers were surprisingly accurate most of the time. He wasn't sure if he really did want to know. She plunged on without noticing his sudden in change in mood. "Interesting, very, very, interesting indeed. They say that whenever the bones are aligned with the stars and the great suns then change is coming. Change will come and destroy a person's life and yet the good will rise from the ashes like a phoenix- ready to build a new life with a loved one. Presuming of course, that either one is judged deserving by the gods. Then they both shall perish in hell."

The Doctor bit his lip, this lady was describing things a little too well for his liking. "But there's someone that you have," she looked up at his face for the first time. "They're broken. They think that no one can or wants to fix them. They don't realise just how untrue that it. And you're broken too, but it is different for you; you have someone. They don't, they never have done. I'm right, aren't I?"

He nodded wordlessly, scared beyond belief. "Yeah," he finally managed to choke out, "sounds about right."

She nodded, long black hair moving about like a waterfall. "There are legends, coming from the Ancient Times. They speak of a man with many faces- older than he looks- who travels the stars in a big wooden box. Many companions and the last of his kind but never lonely for the box is his friend. The elders tell us to use our judgement when it comes to such encounters." She stood up and the Doctor felt more relief then he should have done when she moved away, bangles clinking and jangling at every movement. She came back and offered a box carved with ancient runes.

"What's this?" he asked, raising an eyebrow but taking it anyway.

"Me using my judgement," she smiled. "The elders teach all of us this when we are very young. They teach us the prayers to offer to the gods and the instructions to pass on to the new generation."

"You believe in a higher being then?"

She shrugged, "I find that it is a far happier prospect then merely rotting in the ground." He couldn't argue with that.

"What's your name?" he asked, he couldn't believe that he hadn't thought to ask that before.

She held up an arm and drew back a sleeve to show a fiery yellow mark burnt into her skin. "Sploosh is a totalitarian planet. Officially, my name is Citizen Number 256019. But the elders call me Aja."

"Aja," he repeated. "Nice name, I'm the Doctor."

Aja bowed her head. "It has been an honour to meet you," she said solemnly.

The elder mimicked the gesture, "Same to you." A bell struck and reminded him that he had promised to meet Jack and Ianto back at the Tardis, "What do I do with this?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

"Well, bye then."

He started to leave, "Goodbye Doctor."

~0~

Ianto decided that if he ever went to Sploosh again he was so taking an umbrella. He and Jack had been caught in a downpour of yellow rain and it was going to take a miracle to get the stains out of his suit. (Even when not at work he liked to wear suits and he sure looked much better in them than the Doctor did.) Although Jack had offered to try with the Tardis' special washing machine which Ianto had thought was rather sweet of him. But it hadn't worked and he had taken one last sad look at his second favourite outfit before chucking it into the bin. Then the mere fact that the rain had soaked them to the skin and both of them had been worried about the other getting pneumonia which had led to them somehow ending up in the shower together. And almost having sex if it wasn't for the fact that both of them had got just a little carried away pretending that everything was normal and Ianto ended up having to talk Jack out of a full-blown panic attack. Clearly he wasn't recovered as much as either of them had hoped yet.

And that was how they had ended up here, sitting on the bed in Jack's room, him drying Jack's hair whilst the elder shivered and tried not to let the tears spill at the memories going through his mind. A while later and thy entered the console room, dry and in new sets of clothes, Ianto hadn't thought that he would ever feel so glad to be dry.

"What's that?" the tea boy asked the Doctor as he spotted the wooden box inset with weird looking shapes in his hands.

"Oh! You're back! I was starting to think that I was never going to see you pair ever again!"

Ianto felt Jack grab hold of his hand tight and squeezed back just as hard. Of all the things that the Doctor could say after he had just had a panic attack, "You didn't answer the question. Are you avoiding it?"

"Oh, Ianto Jones, you're good! And so, so right!"

Ianto felt himself tense, intended or not, those words had probably hurt his lover a lot. "I try my best," he replied coldly. "Now, answer the question."

"Well, you know how it is. I ran into a fortune telling girl, she told my fortune. Blah, blah, blah; said I was different to the other customers, snore, snore. Then gave me this box and said that it was her using her judgement. Just the average day for a time travelling time lord!" he beamed and the Welshman tried not to punch him in the face.

"What a… interesting story," he said eventually. "I take it that you didn't get caught up in the rain shower then? It cut our exploration rather short." He'd be damned if he held the Doctor the truth about how the two of them had held each other's hand in fear at the lecherous looks that they seemed to attract from practically everybody at the market.

"Rain shower? Hmmm… let me think… I didn't get any rain but Sploosh is of course famous throughout the known universe for its singular rain clouds that are attracted to one specific area; some of the areas are only a quarter of a mile square, believe it or not. They wouldn't usually have built such an important there though, so maybe you just got caught up in a drifter."

"The rain was yellow," Jack spoke up quietly- practically the first words that he had spoken in the Doctor's presence since their arrival on the time ship.

The time lord looked almost as happy as Ianto felt. "Yellow rain huh? Well… yep! Got it! Yellow rain is the classic pre-warning signal that the weathermen on Sploosh have developed to warn the residents of an oncoming storm. Looks like we got back just in time! Now, who would care for some tea? And biscuits, I think the Tardis recently decided to put the Jammie Dodgers back in the cupboard…"

He placed the box down on the console and they left. So there was nobody there to notice when the strange thing started to glow…