Ianto Jones had always been behind the scenes.

He observed, he took note, but it was rare that he commented.

And so he stood back and watched Jack show his guilt and manage to anger Ghoul, Kobra and Frank simultaneously.

He watched everyone fall asleep around him after fuming for a little while.

And then he watched his eyelids for a little bit.

And being in the desert, there isn't really much to watch. Unless you have a sand fetish.

Or unless you were some kind of pervert and like watching being sleep.

And Ianto had neither the urge to watch sand become drier, or to observe his companions murmur nonsense into their makeshift pillow, so once he woke up, he perched on the hood of the car.

And then was when he saw it.

It was pretty hard not to.

It was early morning; the sky was pink and blue.

And then some more blue.

The kind of blue you don't get anywhere.

The kind of blue that makes your heart drop, if you are named Ianto Jones and you've only just got your boyfriend back from that blue.

The kind of blue that makes you crawl back in to a boiling hot, stuffy car, clamp your eyes shut and pretend to be asleep.

The kind of blue that the person you should really have been guarding has snuck out to see.

Shit.

Observing has many benefits.

You can take a step back, see the beauty, the flaws, everything.

But what we will focus on is the flaws.

Not that there isn't a lot of beauty in the desert, but the flaws in the Earth are much more important.

Time is built as two lines: the constant and the fluid. Exactly as their names suggest, the constant is the things in time that are set in stone. Will happen, have to happen, and nothing and no one can change that.

The fluid is a wavy line, compared to the straight constant, and it is where there is wiggle room in the events, where human factors and such come in.

Every so often, these lines meet, and bad things happen whenever they do, which are shown as little dips in the sraight line.

If we zoom in, however, to 2019, it becomes obvious that the dip over it is much, much larger than the dips in any other years, ever.

Something, somewhere has effected the lines, damaged them.

And as Ianto stared after Frank's sprinting figure, Ianto observed the carefully layed out shoelaces in the sand.

Yes, observing showed you many things. Such as when to use your knowledge of hot wiring cars, and fixing futuristic wriststraps like the ones used in the Time Agency.


Hi.

So I wrote all this out, in a more complicated but detailed way, and then FanFiction decided to claim that I wasn't logged in and delete it all. About 2000 words worth, more than any chapter I've ever done. So if this is shit, I apologise, I'm angry and tired and trying to remember all of this is just unnnfrbhhuce!

QuietTime, I love you for comparing me to Douglas Adams.

See y'all tomorrow or something, depending on if I manage to do coursework or what.

I eat cookies in honour of everyone who reviews. I may hand some out if I stop being hungry.