Thanks as always to my lovely beta riftintime.

Chapter 37

After Jack had sent Mary into the sun, he called Ianto to his office. "Ianto, I want you to do the debriefing with Tosh on this incident. I think you'll be more sympathetic than I will."

"Are you sure, Sir?"

"I'm sure, Ianto. I'm going to call her in, then I'll leave you two alone."

Ianto listened with a sympathetic ear to Tosh's explanation of everything that had happened with Mary. He patted her on the back and gave her a handkerchief. He told her that if there was anything he could do for her to let him know. Tosh said, "Ianto, I heard what you were thinking when you were in so much pain, like your stomach was full of rats. I'm worried about you."

Ianto had been expecting this. "Tosh, I've been having a bad week. I think after the cannibals, I was a bit vulnerable. It takes time to get over the loss of someone you love. You have good days and bad days. You happened to catch me on a really bad day at a really bad moment. I don't feel like that all of the time, and neither will you."

"It's not the same, Ianto. I would never presume to feel Mary's loss as keenly as you feel Lisa's. We never had what you had."

"Pain is relative, Tosh. You've suffered a loss, and you feel you betrayed us. That's how I feel. But it gets better, and life goes on. It's the hardest part, you know, to keep on living. You never forget them, Tosh. They're always a part of you, but we all have to go on living."

Ianto realized suddenly why Jack had wanted him to do this debriefing.

Tosh thanked him and made her way out. He saw Gwen and Owen waiting outside like vultures circling over a corpse, waiting to confront Toshiko about what she'd overheard. Really, who do they think they're fooling? He waited to see if Tosh needed him to defuse the situation, but he saw Gwen retreating after a few minutes.

Jack came back into his office. "How did it go?" he asked.

Ianto gave him a brief account of what Tosh had told him about Mary. "I think you should talk to her, Sir. She still has the necklace. You should let her decide what to do with it. I'll wait for you here."

Jack nodded and went after Tosh.

Ianto watched from the CCTV as Jack talked to Tosh outside the Millennium Center. He smiled to himself when he saw Tosh smash the necklace under her foot. He made coffee and waited for Jack to come back to the Hub.

"She destroyed it, then." Ianto said when Jack entered his office where Ianto was waiting with two mugs of coffee.

Jack nodded, looking lost in thought. "It was too dangerous to keep, even in the archives," Jack said distractedly.

"Yet, what I can do isn't dangerous?"

"It isn't the same thing, Ianto. Most people can tell when someone's upset or angry or sad. Some people are better at it than others, and some people are really good at it. Torchwood One had the know-how and the tech to amplify your natural abilities. You can sense people's emotions much better than the average man, and maybe project some of your own, but you can't read people's minds."

"No, I can't. I suppose what you're saying is I'm not so special after all." Ianto was teasing, but Jack didn't bite. He continued, "But you still close yourself off from me."

"It's a reflex where I'm from." Jack was preoccupied.

"Are you okay, Jack?"

Jack looked up at the sound of his name. He sighed heavily and sat down. "I was just thinking that three of you have betrayed me now."