Same Ianto, Different Jack

Chapter 25

by Gracefultree

A/N: Here's another chapter for your reading pleasure. And thank you all so much for giving me 200 reviews! I'm so touched people like my story so much.

This is another New Lisa's universe chapter, but she only has a few lines. It's more about Ianto and the various Jacks in his life.

By the way, does anyone know if the monster in End of Days spells his name 'Abbadon' or 'Abaddon?' I've seen both online and can't tell which is right, thus the inconsistency on my part.

Enjoy!

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New Lisa's Jack was dead. Very dead. Abaddon dead.

And it was all Ianto's fault.

Ianto had been the one to incite the mutiny. He'd been the one to take the gun away from New Lisa's Owen only to point it at Her Jack in his place. He'd been the one to kill New Lisa's Jack so they could get his retina scanned for Emergency Protocol One.

He'd been the one New Lisa's Jack had ordered to take him to the field where Abaddon drained him of his life-force. All because, as in New Lisa's Owen's explanation to New Lisa, he wasn't from this universe and was therefor expendable.

Two weeks, New Lisa's Jack lay stone cold dead in the morgue, much longer than His Jack had been there. Two weeks with various team members sitting with him because Ianto blurted out in a moment of weakness that His Jack had come back after being killed by Abaddon when the whole team had given up hope. Two weeks of Ianto avoiding everyone, hiding in the Archives, cursing his own stupidity at believing the vision of His Jack that begged him to open the Rift.

He'd barely been to sit by New Lisa's Jack, he felt so guilty. Paralyzed by it, almost, unable to be near the man who'd trusted him for all of the wrong reasons.

He just couldn't get the image of His Jack looking so sick and lost and hopeless out of his head.

He knew it was an illusion. He'd known then, in the back of his mind, just as he'd known the vision of His Lisa he saw in the vaults back in his own universe was false. But even though he knew it, he'd had to take the chance. If there was just the most remote possibility of it being true, he needed to try. He'd promised His Jack he'd do anything and everything in his power to get back to him, and the illusion had been so persuasive…

As it was meant to be, he realized. New Lisa's Bilis must have found out about him somehow, to be able to manipulate him like that.

He closed his eyes as the memory of his newest betrayal of yet another Jack flooded his mind. It was bad enough that he slept with them all, but to betray them, one after another?

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New Lisa's Jack stood by the sofa, taunting his team.

"You're a united front now. Pretty Toshiko," New Lisa's Jack spat, his anger coming hot, as Jack's tended to do. "So desperate for love she'll screw any passing alien who gives her a pendant. Owen, so strong he has to get into a cage with a Weevil, desperate to be mauled. Or Lisa, hiding a Cyberman in my basement. Your colleagues pumped bullets into him, remember?" He turned to Ianto, a sneer plastered on his face. "And Ianto, so desperate to get home. So in love with His Jack, he'll fuck every single one he meets!"

New Lisa gasped. She hadn't know they'd been together the night before, obviously. Even in the chaos, Ianto cursed himself for not talking to her, for not finding her at some point during the day. Problem upon problem, he couldn't help but think, when all he really wanted was to go home. He had to get home, and New Lisa's Owen didn't have the courage to do what had to be done. Ianto could tell by the way the Webley shook in New Lisa's Owen's hands. He needed to open the Rift, and for that, he needed New Lisa's Jack's retina scan.

Ianto swiftly disarmed New Lisa's Owen and pointed the gun at Her Jack.

"You're out of line, Jack. We're relieving you of your command."

"You want to take over, Ianto? You've got to have significantly bigger balls."

Ianto squeezed the trigger, shooting New Lisa's Jack in the head. He quickly fired twice more, hitting his heart and lung, making it harder for him to come back. Not that Ianto doubted he would. But they needed New Lisa's Jack's retina print and he wouldn't give it willingly.

He got to work on the computer station, activating Emergency Protocol One, since New Lisa's Tosh, the better typist, had never even heard of the procedure before Ianto mentioned it earlier and didn't know how to find it on Mainframe as quickly as Ianto could. He opened the Rift as wide as it would go.

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Ianto closed his eyes and let the shame and guilt wash over him. He'd failed New Lisa's Jack. And by doing that, he'd failed his own.

He was supposed to be stronger than this, dammit! He'd already lived through it once. How could Bilis trick him a second time? How?

Obvious, in hindsight.

New Lisa's Bilis, like His Bilis, had preyed upon everyone's weaknesses. His weakness had changed, so the vision had changed.

His weakness was now His Jack.

New Lisa's Jack was right, he told himself. He didn't care about anything except getting home, and fucking a Jack or two here and there didn't matter all that much. No, he corrected himself, it mattered a lot. He was broken, lost without His Jack, and he wasn't himself. He was some other man, some slut, some whore, who took all these Jacks to bed just to feel like he was with his own Jack again, if only for a few minutes. And what did he do once he had them there? He betrayed them, one after another.

God, he was a shitty human being.

But New Jack and New Lisa's Jack weren't His Jack. He knew that, even as he didn't. He thought he'd figured it out, been able to keep them straight in his head… but being with New Lisa's Jack the night before Abaddon was strangely reminiscent of what happened with His Jack.

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Ianto approached Jack after everyone else left, walking into his office on silent feet, for once without coffee to give him away or provide a prop. He didn't want a prop between them tonight. He wouldn't be able to say what he needed to say, if he was distracted by a prop. Tonight, he was going to end it. He couldn't stand the other people in and out of their bed, in and out of his flat. He couldn't stand that Jack wasn't willing to commit. He couldn't stand the longing he felt for a real relationship with the man, when it was 100% clear that Jack would never be able to give him even half of what he wanted, let alone deserved. He deserved better than Jack's treatment of him. Much better, though he only now admitted it.

Jack seemed to sense his presence.

"Ianto," Jack said, offering the last of the scotch in his glass. Ianto took it and drained the cup. "I wasn't in love with him, whatever Toshiko said."

Ianto blinked. This wasn't how he expected the conversation to go. He expected a fight, him spitting accusations, Jack denying that anything happened. He didn't expect that it would go straight to feelings. They didn't discuss feelings. He wasn't sure he was ready to discuss them, since he wasn't sure of his own, and even less sure of Jack's. Well, he knew he wanted more than Jack could give, at any rate. He knew he was sick of feeling like second best.

But what did it mean that Jack would start there… telling Ianto he didn't love the man he kissed back in 1941, didn't love the man Tosh said he was head-over-heels for? Was he wrong about Jack? Could Jack sense his unrest? Did Jack know he was going to end it tonight?

"It was an infatuation, a momentary bit of hero-worship combined with the fear that I'd have to take the long way back. And he was hot. He was flirting with me in this awkward, adorable way. You know how that gets to me…" Jack trailed off, a sad smile on his face. "Yes, I danced with him when he asked me," Jack continued, not looking up from the photograph of him, Captain Jack, Tosh and Bilis. "I even kissed him goodbye. But you have to understand, he was going to die the next day. And for him to take my hand and pull me onto the dance floor like that…"

"It was very brave," Ianto murmured. "Very dangerous, for the times." As dangerous as being with Jack? Ianto's heart asked. As dangerous as falling in love with a man destined to break his heart?

"Yes."

"Was he a good kisser?" Ianto heard himself asking, trying to stall the inevitable. He didn't want to have to end it, but there wasn't anything else he could do. He couldn't go on as they had been, that's for sure. He couldn't kiss anyone else but Jack without feeling dirty. He doubted Jack knew how much it turned his stomach to be with the others Jack insisted they bring over. He was a good actor, after all, and Jack wasn't particularly observant.

He was also a good liar, especially to himself, as he'd proven with the Cyberman masquerading as Lisa.

But something shifted for Ianto after Owen nearly died in the Weevil cage. After that last time out, when they'd picked up a couple, gone back to theirs, and he'd woken up to see Jack fucking the woman with an abandon he hadn't been showing Ianto lately, he knew… he knew he couldn't continue doing it. He couldn't fake it any more. Any enjoyment he'd gotten the night before disappeared. He slithered out of bed and went back to his, returning to the Hub much later in the day than he ever would have considered before that morning, only to find Jack hot and bothered and wanting a shag.

And for better or worse, Ianto hadn't been able to deny Jack. Afterwards, when they lay in a tangled mess of limbs, sweaty and sticky and Ianto, at least, was ready for a nap, Jack asked what he'd thought about the couple. They'd talked about the people they'd been with together many times before, so it wasn't an unusual question. Ianto hadn't answered, simply climbing out of bed again and leaving the Hub without saying anything.

Months later, he was confronted with something similar, only this time it was him asking Jack. He didn't think there was much jealousy in his voice when he asked about the other Captain Jack, though perhaps any was enough for Jack to pick up on. Jack pushed himself into a standing position and approached Ianto.

"It was fine, for a goodbye kiss." Jack said, his voice distant, momentarily lost in his memory. He eliminated the distance between their bodies, taking Ianto's hips and pulling him flush against him. "But right now I'd much rather have a welcome home kiss," he whispered in that seductive purr that took all thoughts out of Ianto's head and sent them south. Jack leaned forward to press a tender kiss against Ianto's lips.

When Jack talked like that, Ianto knew he couldn't end it. When Jack kissed him like that, like it was more than a casual kiss before or during, or, more rarely, after sex, he knew he couldn't end it. He'd never be able to end it, he realized as Jack's hands roamed over his body, undoing buttons and fastenings as he went. Ianto was doing the same thing to Jack, without thinking, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Hell, maybe it was?

No, he couldn't end it. He'd belong to Jack as long as Jack wanted him. He hoped it would be for the rest of his life, given how short it was likely to be. Was that too much to ask? Just a few years of Jack's time when Jack had centuries? Millennia, maybe?

They had sex right there in the office, Jack bending Ianto back over the desk rather than forward over it, so they could keep kissing while they did it. Jack met Ianto's eyes whenever they weren't kissing, and the way he said Ianto's name after his orgasm sent Ianto over the edge a second time. He said it with a kind of reverence he'd never used before, and Ianto wondered, for the first time, if Jack was simply scared of opening up to him after everything that happened with Lisa. Not to mention being abandoned by the Doctor. Or being left by countless lovers over the years, either by their choice or through death. Maybe, just maybe, Ianto thought, almost being trapped sixty years in the past made him appreciate what he had with Ianto a little more.

Maybe they had a chance at something real…

They went down to the bunker and had sex again, though to Ianto it felt more like making love, like he used to do with Lisa, taking time and enjoying and appreciating everything about each other, until the Prime Minister's call on the emergency line disturbed their third round, and the phones didn't stop ringing for the rest of the night.

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Ianto took his latest batch of paperwork and reluctantly climbed the stairs to the main Hub, not looking forward to the expressions of the rest of the team. They claimed that they didn't blame him for what happened, since they'd all been manipulated, but he couldn't be sure they weren't lying. As he rounded the final corner, he saw New Lisa's Jack, up and about, alive again, kissing New Lisa with passion. Ianto dropped his papers.

He felt rooted to the floor. He stared at New Lisa's Jack as he walked towards him, a solemn expression on his face. They stood face to face for what seemed like forever before New Lisa's Jack opened his arms.

"I forgive you."

Ianto broke down, sobbing, clutching at New Lisa's Jack with all his strength, apologizing and begging for a forgiveness New Lisa's Jack had already given him. Once his tears were dry, New Lisa's Jack tilted his head up and gave him a tender kiss. One of His Jack's kisses, almost.

"I forgive you," New Lisa's Jack repeated. "I understand."

They clung to each other, then, kissing, until they heard the unmistakable sound of the others leaving, New Lisa's Tosh murmuring softly to New Lisa that they clearly needed to work on some things and that she could talk it out with both of them later, couldn't she? Give the men a moment.

After a few more kisses, New Lisa's Jack let Ianto go.

"We should, um, talk to Lisa when she gets back," he said reluctantly.

"Yeah. Really bollocksed that one up, didn't we?" Ianto replied.

A strange, grating sound filled the Hub, and Ianto instinctively looked towards it, finding it around the area of the invisible lift. He turned back to New Lisa's Jack, who was already shoving the glowing hand into a backpack, a huge smile on his face. The man reached into his greatcoat pocket and tossed Ianto his vortex manipulator.

"The TARDIS," Ianto whispered. "The Doctor."

"I have to go. Your stuff's in the Secure Archives. The info's on that. Tell the others I'll be back."

"Good luck," Ianto said, mechanically strapping on the leather wrist strap. He didn't want to think about what New Lisa's Jack would find with his Doctor, knowing what he did of His and New Jack's experiences. New Lisa's Jack grabbed him and kissed him thoroughly.

"Ianto, I really do forgive you. I want you to lead them until I get back, as long as you're here."

"But —"

"No protests. I don't have time. See you soon!" New Lisa's Jack blew him a kiss and disappeared out the broken cog wheel door, leaving Ianto confused and slightly apprehensive about the team returning and finding New Lisa's Jack missing while he remained there, vortex manipulator on his wrist and with a CCTV recording of New Lisa's Jack telling him he wanted Ianto to lead. He doubted it would go over well.