There's a little more fluff in here, for those who were feeling a bit deprived of it, and also a bit of character building. I'm trying to establish a link between Gwen and Ianto that can be put into action for my next section (or the section after next, not sure) as it's going to be pretty crucial what with the plot I have in mind.
There may also be a little juggling and confusion between all the chapters, as I'm adopting a fashion off a brilliant writer call teachwriteslash on Live Journal! She really is brilliant! (I must say, the post-it bit was from one of her fics in her AU Torchwood world, which I'm currently emmersed in- it was that which got me thinking about pre-torchwood3 Ianto in my new fic). Basically, starting with the next part, I'm going to write the entire thing, then post one chapter a day, to keep it coming smoothly. I expect there'll be a few missing days between parts, but hopefully this will see my fic successfully finished by the end of the summer!
I also want to apologise for the appaulling rate of updates at the moment. I currently have 3 weeks left of GCSE exams, then I'm home free and giddy! All update rates will pick up after that, I promise! I may be able to finish Part 4 before I get all the free time, so the juggling will be over the next few weeks. BAsically, the problem is writing the entirity of Part 5 in one go, which will next the first few days of my extended summer. I expect that's when I'll get things on track for this!
One last thing, I want to say a huge thankyou to: Faramirlover, muppetmadness, -X-Loner-X-Starlight-X-, Space-Invader-x, hotflower901 and Raddish-Earrings for their continual support of the fic, and EVERYONE else who's been reviewing recently!
Well anyway, please enjoy and review, they really keep my morale up!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything... And shortly, Russel T. Davies won't either... I dunno who's running the Torchwood show next, but Moffat's taking over DW and that'll be yummy!
Chapter 8: Sleeping
As Jack let himself quietly into the flat, he looked around him and sighed, feeling the stress and tension start to seep away. He'd forgotten, until now, how nice it was to have somewhere away from the constant worry and responsibility of the Hub. He walked through the living area and made a mental note to do some cleaning if he couldn't sleep. The flat had begun to sink into the slightly messy, over-lived-in state that Ianto assured him was perfectly normal. What disturbed Jack about it was how much different his attitude was from at the Hub.
At work, everyone knew that Ianto kept everything spotless, cleaning almost compulsively at times. In fact, he was so crucial to the state of the Hub that in their recent absence, Owen had apparently adopted a form of triage for the dishes. Using post-its of varying colour, he had 'slightly used', 'dirty', 'worse than dirty' and 'biohazard'. Jack admitted that it was reasonably witty, but gently reminded the medic that Ianto was on the mend, and should he find that mess in his kitchen, Owen could expect to find something disastrous in his coffee mug each morning. The threat had done the trick and Owen had faithfully cleaned the dishes until Ianto's return.
But now, as Jack saved a pile of DVDs from falling to the floor, shoving them into free slots on the stand, he was starting to revise his estimate on Ianto's need for the place to be tidy. As Owen was the messiest member of the team, Ianto had a perfectly good reason to stop talking to him or get revenge on him if he maintained a clean place. Of course, he would jump at any chance to hurt the medic, but that was just a given. Jack sighed heavily and shook his head, kicking his boots off and leaving them by the table along with his coat. Then he padded across the room to the bedroom door and pushed it open, peering round to see what state it was in. The scene in front of him made him smile.
Ianto was lying in bed, on Jack's side to be specific, with his head facing the window, an arm thrown out in front of him, palm up, and hanging off the edge of the bed. As usual, Ianto hadn't pulled the curtains completely, leaving a small gap for the moonlight to fall through. The silver glow hit Ianto's form across the hand sticking over the edge of the mattress, highlighting the scars on his wrist.
He took a moment to watch the way the pale scars glinted in the light, appreciating the beauty of it. He knew Ianto disliked the scars on his wrists and stomach, but the young man was fully accepting of them. If only he could see them now… thought Jack, slightly captivated by the sight. He was jerked back to the bedroom by a soft murmuring, which made a grin crack across his face.
"Oh, snap…" He made sure to stay as quiet as possible as he quickly stripped down to his boxers and undershirt, heading over to find out just what Ianto would be saying tonight. He climbed onto Ianto's side of the bed and lay down next to him, kissing the back of his neck gently. As expected, Ianto twisted in his sleep until his forehead was ducked down and leaning on Jack's chest, his hands coming up to absently grip his shirt. Jack just smiled again and wrapped his arms around the young man, feeling calmer now than he had for days.
He had to wait a while for the murmuring to start up again, and when it did, it was mostly unintelligible, either malformed words on in Welsh, which Jack had never got the hang of. He mostly just enjoyed the sound of Ianto's voice when he slipped into his first language. It was mostly a relief that Ianto still had the capability of being innocent and naïve to the world around him, no matter how untrue it was when he was awake.
As the murmurings died down, Jack sighed lightly, pulling Ianto closer and closing his eyes, allowing himself to fall into a doze that would hopefully help speed up the process of healing the scars on his face.
A few hours later, Jack found himself shifting through the slow phases that came before complete consciousness. He groaned gently and disentangled himself from his still sleeping lover. He shuffled heavily across to the bathroom and flicked the light on, pushing the door to but not closing it. When he turned round and looked in the mirror over the sink, he almost yelled out in happiness.
His face was completely smooth again, with no dark blue veins to be seen. The only things that hadn't quite vanished were the three cigarette shaped burns, but three little circles, Jack could live with. He was so engrossed with looking at the right side of his face that he didn't notice the strong arms around his waist until he saw the bed headed owner of them over his shoulder in the mirror.
He spun round and kissed Ianto hard, putting almost all of his giddiness into it, only to reciprocated by the young man. When he pulled away, Ianto just chuckled sleepily and left the bathroom, heading towards the kitchen area to make the usual morning coffees. There was a strangled yelp and Jack rushed to the bedroom door to see Ianto glaring at him.
"Alphabetical order, Jack! NOT order of preference!" Jack looked to see him standing next to the DVD rack. Then he remembered shoving them all into place without thinking. So maybe Ianto was as tidy-obsessed at home. He did his best to look chastised and moved over to correct his mistake. It took him several minutes, but he managed to put them all back in the same places.
He turned around and flopped into the big armchair, one of his favourite places in the flat. He was pleasantly surprised when he found Ianto curling up on his lap, handing him his coffee whilst taking a sip of his own. This sort of morning would never get old for Jack. He felt at peace and happy with Ianto, but not bored, as he'd soon found himself being with other partners. It was something he was glad was there. Extremely glad.
Ianto sat and sipped at his coffee, watching a spot on the wall as he collected his thoughts for the coming day. He wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen with the Astorian, but he got the feeling that it would be over relatively soon. He sighed and wriggled down a little until he could rest the side of his head on Jack's shoulder, eliciting a chuckle from the man and a comforting arm draped around his waist.
"Do we have to go in to work, Jack?" Ianto's request was a little mumbled, giving Jack the strong feeling of a little boy trying to get out of going to school.
"I though you liked work. God knows you pestered me enough about going back!" Ianto's reply was to just bury his nose into Jack's neck and sigh. "What's up, Yan?"
He shook his head and did his best to act like he'd gone to sleep. Jack was mildly amused by the situation, but his confusion was stopping him from acting on it. He used his free hand to pull Ianto's face up so he could look at him. The first thing he saw was a look that reminded him of a beaten puppy. No, that wasn't it, it was the look, that accompanied his tone earlier, of a boy who didn't want to go to school.
"Look, if Owen's bothering you, then-" Ianto frowned, cutting Jack off.
"'S not Owen…" Jack was blank, who else could Ianto not want to go to work because of? The young man sighed heavily and seemed to snap back to himself a little. "I'll give you a clue, it's not Tosh either."
"Has Myfanwy been acting up again?" Ianto came fully back to his normal persona and put his hand to the side of Jack's face, pushing it to the side roughly.
"Honestly, Jack. How could my pet pterodactyl ever stop me from coming to work?" He rolled his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. "I'll give you another hint, it's not my best friend Janet either."
"Are you telling me that you want to stay at home because of Gwen?" Jack raised his eyebrows, his tone sceptical. Ianto just glowered at him.
"Well, we can't all be her bloody best friend, can we? She's not in love with everyone else!" Jack frowned again, taken aback as Ianto pushed himself from the chair and headed towards the bedroom. The moment he stepped through the door, he regretted what he'd said.
It was obvious to everyone on the team, except Jack it seemed, that Gwen was infatuated with the Captain. Since before he'd had disappeared, practically since the beginning (Ianto had seen the CCTV camera footage of the weapons training, he'd won the bet against Tosh and Owen that Jack would make the moves on the new girl within two weeks), Jack had harboured a soft spot for the woman, though Ianto knew it was nothing more than his typical compassion.
He had no argument with Jack over that, he didn't much care because he knew that his compassion came out in different ways for the rest of the team. With Tosh, it was the quiet companionship that the woman needed, Owen wanted to be treated like a doctor, like a human being, and Jack did just that. Suzie had needed someone to acknowledge her talents and respect her and she'd received it. Ianto had never been part of the machine in that way.
For that was what Torchwood Three was, a machine. The other four members were the moving parts, the cogs and wheels that were essential to the overall (if Ianto was vindictive, he would say that Gwen was the part that no one really knew the use of). Ianto was like the lubricating oil. He was essential in his own way, but he wasn't a part of the team. He never had been and if he was honest, he had no desire to be. He liked his position in the Hub, he liked being the outside man who could advise and suggest options for missions that he'd never carry out himself.
At least, he'd liked that before he's been forcibly dragged to Brecon Beacons. That trip had changed everyone's outlooks on their lives. That had been the turning point for everyone. It was the beginning of the casual shags and after hours meetings with Jack, and it had spurred Gwen on to have an affair with Owen. Tosh and himself had also come away from that with a feeling of security with each other, finding the presence of the other person like an anchor in their frenzied lives.
It was something they'd both needed, but it had only served to drive a wedge between themselves and Gwen and Owen. Jack was pretty much a free agent. On one hand, he had his medic and the 'attractive' young police officer, both brave and daring in the face of danger. On the other hand he had the reliable administrator, doubling as his part time shag, and his closest friend, the technological genius.
Had he realised that his team was segregating, he may have jumped in to stop it. As it stood now, the unconscious rivalry hadn't stopped until the Rift had broken, and they'd come together to override Jack's order, something which Ianto, Tosh and Owen had regretted later. He wasn't sure about Gwen, but then he barely talked to her. He'd harboured too much enmity towards her since the stunt she'd pulled of sitting with Jack for that week after his death.
Granted, he owed her for Jack's life, but he didn't want to. At the time, knowing Jack was alive was enough to balance out all the bad feelings, and the time without Jack on the team had been fine, all four of them pulling together to deal with Cardiff and the Rift. But knowing that Gwen had been the one to mourn him privately, the one who'd kissed him and brought him back… well, that just made his stomach churn. Ianto was well aware that by that point in their 'relationship', he was already in love with Jack.
In all the bustle of the past few weeks, Ianto had barely had time to think about Gwen, let alone remember his previous reasons for disliking her. However, since her outburst about not going on the stake out, and Ianto's now replenished sleep bank, he was starting to get that niggling doubt in his mind as to what she really though about him. At a push, he would feel like gloating over Jack, but he knew that it would hurt her, and whilst he found it hard to like her, he didn't want to hurt her like that. Besides, Jack wasn't someone to fight over, he wasn't a possession. He was a human being, an immortal one but a human nonetheless, and did whatever the hell he wanted. Ianto was just glad that it was him the Captain had decided on.
By the time his thoughts had carried him to that point, he was tightening up his tie and pulling on a waistcoat. Before he did anything else, he went back through to the living area to find Jack sitting in the exact same position. He walked over to him and perched on one of the arms, bringing a hand up to stroke the man's cheek gently. Jack turned his gaze to Ianto's and gave him a half-hearted smile.
"Look, Jack… I don't have a problem with Gwen, and if I do, it's stupid and I'll get over it." Jack frowned a little again and Ianto felt the need to clarify, but couldn't explain it proper. "I just get the feeling that she doesn't consider me part of the team, because I wasn't when she started."
"Ianto, you're part of the team. You always have been. To be honest, you pull rank on her, but don't let that secret get out, you're extremely valuable to me as a boss where you are now." Ianto leant down and kissed him on the forehead, recognising that they were about to get into problems with distinguishing home from work.
"We can talk about this later." Jack nodded, understanding what Ianto was thinking. He pulled the young man down for a deep, languid kiss and when he managed to release himself, Ianto found his lover's usual confidence back in place before he pushed himself off and headed to the bedroom to get changed. Jack paused in the doorway and found him looking at a spot on the wall, still sitting on the arm of the chair.
"Just for the record," Ianto looked around at him, "I would've preferred it to have been you who brought me back… Though I understand you didn't exactly have a say in the matter."
He smiled at the young man, who managed to smile through the tide of emotions that had just washed through him, watching as Jack left the room to get ready. For fifteen minutes, Ianto busied himself with cleaning up the living area, and by the time Jack emerged, fully dressed and ready for the day ahead, the flat looked a lot more presentable.
"Right then, lets go. We have a team meeting later, and I have to make a phone call." Jack's eyes flashed with excitement as he grinned at the young man, who followed him out of the door, bewildered.