Ok, I know it's been ages and for some Janto fans I left them on tenderhooks over the end of the last chapter. But honestly, today has been the first day I've had enough time to write ANYTHING, let alone the next chapter of this. Apologies for the shortness of this chapter, but there is a reason for it…

Enjoy! (I hope the memo trick works)

~*~

Chapter 26

(18th September 2008)

"So how'd you want to do this?"

"Well… maybe you could get on the bed."

Michaela started, as if this requirement hadn't occurred to her. Ianto smiled as she blushed and crawled onto the bed, curling her legs under her on top of the duvet. Looking unsure, she held out her hand.

"Well? What do you want now?"

Ianto realised she wanted him to take the lead. Taking in a deep breath, he took her hand and pulled her closer. Michaela lifted her hand to brace herself on his chest as he put his hand on her hip. His other hand cupped her cheek. He glanced at her lips, then met her eyes. He gave her a brief smile and then pressed his lips to hers. As he –and she- relaxed into the familiar, almost innocent action, Ianto's grip on her hip tightened. However, he didn't try to have her stretch full-bodied against him. Instead, he just pulled her face that bit closer to his, so he could push into her mouth, his tongue swiping her teeth and then her tongue. Michaela shivered, one hand reaching up and resting on his shoulder, shifting so Ianto could feel her knees against the side of his leg and she wasn't overstretched. They both tasted like Aquafresh.

Ianto took his time, enjoying the languid kisses. He'd forgotten the enjoyment gained by just kissing. Jack was always more interested in getting to the more intense stuff. Lisa had liked it though, so maybe it was a girl thing –although if that was the case, what exactly that said about him, didn't bear thinking about.

After about 20 minutes, Michaela pulled away, and ran her fingers over her lips. They were swollen, red and curved into a gentle smile.

Ianto ran his fingertips over her cheeks, smiling.

"That was nice." murmured Michaela, sitting up and straddling his thighs, her bum resting against his knees. Ianto reached out and curled his fingers around her hips. He relaxed into his pillows, and found himself remembering those peaceful nights when, after a lot of work to trust each other, they'd been able to sit like this and talk.

Then Archie had sent him to London.

"What now?" she asked, "My lips are kind numb."

"Well, I… what's that?" Ianto frowned, looking at her thigh. Something on her skin had caught his eye.

"What?" Michaela looked down. "Oh, right. You haven't seen my tattoo, have you?"

"You got a tattoo? When?"

"Like, a while after you went to London, maybe a month or so… it was before I met Jack anyway. Do you like it?"

Ianto did not. And the mention of Jack put him in a bad mood for a lot of reasons. He couldn't say why he didn't like it. There was nothing wrong with it. It was dark green, a line going down the outside of her thigh from just under her hip to just above her knee. It had much smaller lines bisecting it, some were straight across, others cut diagonally, clumped into random groups. Ianto traced it with his fingertip, trying not to frown. This was different. Worse, it was permanent. A permanent change to the only consistency in his life.

"It's… interesting."

Her smile fell, "You don't like it."

"I just… why'd you get it?"

"I wanted it. Wanted it for years. Eventually decided I wanted to put my own mark on my body so there wouldn't just be the scars Blaine left." Michaela sounded defensive. Ianto quickly backtracked, he couldn't let her get cold now. He caught her wrist and kissed it, then playfully nuzzled into her neck, then grinned at her. Michaela looked caught between annoyed and amused. Good, he just had to get her to swing his way. So he kissed her again. When he pulled back, she was smiling again. Ianto tilted her head back and started kissing her neck, hearing her sigh, feeling her fingers work into his hair. He sniffed her scent and a warmth spread from his stomach to the tips of his fingers and toes.

Then Michaela yawned.

Ianto pulled back to stare at her, eyebrows raised. Michaela looked horrified, covering her mouth and blushing crimson.

"I am so sorry! That wasn't a shot at –it's just I… I'm sorry." She ducked her head, tucking her chin into her chest. Ianto reached a hand up and stroked her hair.

"You really are tired, aren't you?"

"Honestly?" she met his eyes regrettably, "I couldn't muster the energy to crawl to my room."

Ianto put his arm around her waist, feeling disappointed and frustrated. But he tried not to let it show on his face. He could tell she felt bad. Besides, they could always try in the morning.

"Stay here. Sleep with me."

Michaela smiled, laced fingers on the back of his neck and brow resting against his. Her eyes closed and she sagged a little against him.

"Thanks."

Ianto felt a small smile spread his lips, his hands rubbing the exposed skin of her back. Then Michaela sighed, opening her eyes,

"Tomorrow's gonna suck."

"You think?"

"I'm interviewing the whole team about the bad stuff you've all done. Like… using alien pheromones as date-rape drugs, or mutinies, or retconning boyfriends to confess affairs."

"I never should have told you about that."

"Hey, you needed my help to figure out if you should tell Jack or not."

"True." Ianto found himself under sudden green-eyed scrutiny.

"You lied to him. Because you care about him. You didn't want to destroy his fantasy that she was perfect."

Ianto squirmed and tried to be glib, "You know me well."

"I hope so. What I don't know is how Jack could ever see that woman as perfect."

Ianto's smile turned indulgent. "You don't like her."

"She treated me like I was Umbridge out to ruin Hogwarts today. Rantin' and ravin' like I was an evil bitch. And Jack didn't stop her. I could see his disapproval, but he let her carry on."

Ianto sighed, this sounded like many a rant that had passed through his head. Michaela continued, clearly getting worked up,

"Has he really got no concept of discipline with her?"

Ianto had no answer. So he just pulled her down to lie next to him, holding her close and switching the light off. They lay pressed against each other, their arms around the other's middles. The darkness was quiet, warm, like a protective cocoon. Then,

"Ianto?" Michaela spoke in a small, nervous voice.

"Yeah?" He murmured into her hair.

"Please don't hate me after tomorrow."

"…I couldn't. I promise."

They were quiet for a few moments, then Michaela spoke again in that same tone.

"Ianto?"

"Mmm?"

"… I don't want to be Umbridge."

Ianto said nothing, only held her tighter.

~*~

(19th September 2008)

Today was going to suck.

Jack knew it from the moment he'd gone to dress for the day and found his clothes were almost all filthy, so he'd had to dig around for a shirt. In his bad mood he'd forgotten all about doing a wash. Jack knew the others thought Ianto cleaned all his stuff, but Jack had told him to stop when he'd returned from the 'incident' with the Master. As he'd put it to Ianto, he wasn't after a maid, or a wife.

Ianto had made a quip about the suffragettes banging down the cogwheel to beat him over the head with big signs.

Ianto had only ever cleaned his coat –out of a love of history as much as anything else.

Remembering this only made him more aggravated as he stomped into his office. And his mood soured ever further when he opened his email and found a memo from Michaela.

In accordance with the procedure for the review of Torchwood 3 the agents are required to attended separate interviews today (19th September 2008) in which they will be required to answer all questions asked by the interviewer truthfully. The order will go as follows:

Toshiko Sato

Gwen Cooper

Owen Harper

Ianto Jones

Jack Harkness

If the interviews extend over too much time, any remaining ones will be conducted the following day.

Great, she wanted to do this today. The day after Gwen turned into Mount Vesuvius lying wait, the day after Tosh had broken down –sweet, strong Tosh- and Jack had had to take her home, make her tea and put her to bed with a mild sedative so she'd sleep.

Jack wanted to kill Michaela for what she was doing to his team, never mind that she was following orders. There had to be a better way to do this whole thing.

Then he noticed something odd about the memo; the way Ianto's name had been formatted. It was blatantly wrong. No one would make that clear a mistake, and especially not someone as anally meticulous as Michaela. With a frown on his face, Jack highlighted memo. And there it was.

'Ianto's coming in for the interview. This is the only chance I'm getting for you to try and open a dialogue with him. Don't waste it. the longer you leave it, the harder it'll be to fix all of this.'

Jacks stared at the words, unsure what to make of them. This was certainly unexpected. Especially after that slap. Michaela wanted Jack to make up with Ianto?

However, Jack pondered for a moment, maybe it wasn't so surprising. After all he remembered how she'd obsessively played with her phone, desperate to hear from Ianto, but refusing Jack's exasperated advice for her to tell Ianto off for his ignoring of her. She hadn't wanted to upset him in his domestic bliss, she'd wanted him to be happy. So it seemed likely she'd try to fix things between the team and Ianto if she thought it would make Ianto happy. It wasn't an act of generous kindness really, but a way of appeasing the man she was obsessed with. Although why she didn't take advantage to keep Ianto all to herself baffled Jack.

For the first time since all this had started, Jack wondered where Archie was amongst it. The Scotsman was probably nearly 70 by now, but that didn't mean much by today's standards really. Or Jack's standards for that matter.

Although he was Scottish and with their health figures, maybe it was more impressive.

Why had Archie sent Michaela to review the team, if Ianto had called for her on a personal level? What was Archie doing sticking Michaela in such an admittedly awkward position? As it was, she seemed to be both blocking the way to and the only connection they had to Ianto. And now she seemed to be using the interviews as a way of bringing the whole team together in the same area.

Was the whole point of the review some mad way Archie and Michaela thought could reunite the team? Were they really in fact trying to help in their own, insane Q-Celtic way?

Jack knew Archie was crazy but clever, so with him it was likely. But Michaela was straight-laced, and a believer in rules, in right and wrong. Would she go along with a plan to use the devastating review to fix the team? Jack couldn't see her having the courage. She may have acquired a backbone, but she was in no way strong enough to lie to UNIT. Yvonne Hartman had scared her into muteness… although Jack had been able to get a squeak out of her by sliding his hand under her skirt during one of the meetings. Jack laughed derisively as he remembered how red she'd gone. No, someone like that could never try to help the team out. She would just do her job and leave them in the dust.

But Jack would still take advantage of the opportunity she'd given him. He had to talk to Ianto, but he had to keep his head.

He'd need some coffee.

~*~

The reason this is so short is because I want to do the interviews right. And so this will take me an extra bit of time –I think, I might get lucky and find it's ok once I get going- but there's a lot to deal with, with all the characters issues, and getting the tone just right for each of them, and I think it's important that the interviews actually get seen, rather than glossed over. So I hope you'll bear with me, and I will try to get the next bit up as fast as possible.

Thanks so much for your support!

Night's Darkness