TITLE: The Power of New Beginnings

SUMMARY: AU VERSE! After the events of Beauty of a Broken Angel, can Ianto balance recovering from his imprisonment, controlling his powers, and working for Torchwood Three, all while struggling to understand his growing feelings for Jack. Closely follows Pre-season Canon in later chapters.

PART TWO OF SERIES: The Five Elements (AU Verse)

Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood, because if I did Ianto would be immortal!

Words: 2000

Notes: As promised I've posted ASAP! Apologies once again for the cliff-hanger.

Chapter 17: Truth and Consequences (2005)

9th March 2005

Ianto closed the door behind him as he entered Jack's office, staring persistently at the latter but ensured both his face and mind revealed nothing.

"This wasn't the way I wanted you to find out." Jack began, uneasily. "But I kept putting it off again and again until…"

"You died."

Jack nodded and closed his eyes both in guilt and to avoid looking at him.

"You died." Ianto repeated. No response came at first and he began to pace, too agitated to stand still. He'd gone over the events of the day over and over since they'd returned, but nothing had seemed to have helped him process Jack's death and subsequent resurrection.

"I can't die." Jack admitted finally. "Well technically, I can, it just doesn't seem to stick. Nothing's changed, right. I'm still me."

Jack fell quiet, looking hopeful, but the words rang over and over in mind and his temper snapped.

'Nothing's changed'.

"Fuck you, Jack!" Ianto spat, shoving him backwards and hard as he could without releasing his powers. "I thought you were dead! I thought I'd failed!"

Jack stumbled back more from by surprise than from his strength. He grabbed the corner of the sofa to stop himself from falling. When Jack slowly looked up again moments later, his hopeful expression had changed to one of weariness, making Ianto pause.

"Ianto, sit down." Jack requested, sounding defeated as the fight left his eyes. "Please." He added, quietly.

Ianto settled awkwardly on the sofa. Jack wheeled his chair out from behind his desk and sank into it opposite from Ianto, studying on the floor studiously as he started, voice quiet.

"I know I don't deserve it but, promise me you'll listen. You can walk out, punch me, scream at me, whatever you want after, but just give me a chance to explain, please."

Ianto nodded dejectedly, reading the fear and trepidation coming from Jack. "I promise."

"I wasn't always like this. Something happened a long time ago. In the future. I sacrificed myself for a friend. I died."

"He must have been some friend." Ianto retorted, still too angry to know what else to say.

"He was." Jack replied softly. "I mean I hoped he was. I travelled with him. The Doctor he was called, and his companion, Rose. They saved me, rescued me from my own mistakes, made me a better person."

"What? That Doctor. The one Torchwood was built to defend against?"

"One and the same, only Torchwood got it wrong. He saves people. Anyway, we got transported to a TV satellite and got caught up in a battle for the Earth. I gave my life giving my friend time to save the planet. I thought that was the end…but then I woke up."

"What happened?"

"I don't know. I guess he must have thought I was dead because he left before he could explain." Jack presumed, shrugging. "This is a vortex Manipulator, it used to be able to travel in time." Jack continued, gesturing to his wristband. "I jumped back in time, aiming for the 21st Century. The best place to find him again."

Jack chuckled under his breath. "I missed by a long shot. My V.M. shorted out and I ended up stuck in 1869. I assumed that maybe I hadn't actually died, or if I had, that it was just a one off. So, I settled down, tried to make a life for myself, but over the years I realised I wasn't aging. I didn't get sick. If I got hurt, I healed quickly. And then it happened again, there wasn't a single doubt about it. And it's kept happening, ever since. No matter how I died."

Jack paused for a second as if checking for a reaction, but Ianto stayed silent.

"I didn't take it very well as you imagine. Spent most of the following years drinking myself to a stupor, cursing the Doctor as loudly as I could to anyone who would listen. It's how I came to Torchwood's attention."

"They thought you could tell them where to find him." Ianto breathed as he realised.

"Exactly." Jack nodded. "They soon figured out I didn't, but here I stayed…"

"For over a century, it seems." Ianto finished, unable to keep bitterness out his voice.

Jack stood, turning his back on Ianto to hide his face. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you." He whispered, turning his head slightly as he spoke but not lifting his gaze from the floor.

"It's been years, Jack. I've told you everything I remember about myself. I thought you trusted me."

"Ianto." Jack spun back around; expression showing his eagerness to correct him. "I've NEVER once not trusted you. It's not about trust. I've over 150 years of experiences, Ianto. I have more secrets than you could possibly imagine, some to protect people, but mostly it just comes with the territory. Something like this…it's not something you can just blurt out in the middle of a conversation."

"Jack, that's rubbish and you know it. How many times have I been frightened for you? Seen you get hurt over the years. Died even without me noticing and hid it. You can have told me at any one of those times."

Jack thought for a long moment, looking at the floor. "Maybe…maybe that's why I didn't." He whispered.

"What do you mean?"

"I…. urgh…. I don't know how to describe it."

"Try." Ianto urged.

"What if…what if I just liked no-one knowing for once. Everyone in Torchwood the last century knew, and I was cannon fodder! 'Look there's an unknown alien on a rampage. Why don't you call Harkness? If it's deadly it won't matter.' Oh, hang on. This one's even better…" Jack quoted sarcastically, getting increasingly wound up. "… 'We need someone to play dead... I know, let's shoot Harkness and make it more realistic'. Maybe I just wanted to be treated like a human being for once in 100 years!"

Jack cut his rant short dramatically, slumping on the sofa beside Ianto in defeat. "Sorry." He whispered; his voice smothered by his head in his hands.

"Jack…" Ianto's anger had fled. From the levels of mixed emotions pouring from Jack it wasn't surprising the Captain had snapped. "Don't apologise, not for that. You've kept all that locked inside for years, haven't you?"

"Yeah…"

"If they did all that…and more, why did you stay?"

"At first – blackmail." Jack acknowledged, remembering the faces of Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd vividly with disdain. "I knew that if they treated me like that while I was an ally, then it wasn't hard to imagine how they'd would have done if they considered me a threat. It… it was one of the first things I thought when I found you those years ago. What you went through, that could have very easily been me."

Ianto nodded, feeling Jack's pain and honesty as his own. He focused on the other man instead of getting lost in his own memories, sitting down next to him. "You said at first…what about after."

"Afterwards…I think it was the same reason you stayed and didn't run for the hills." Jack explained. "I was proud of the work… just not the way the Powers At Be wanted it done. I hoped to change it."

"But there must have been another way. Another way to protect people without being part of Torchwood."

"Not that I could think of. And the thing is, I don't mind dying if to save others from that fate. I just hoped that sometimes they'd just act like I was a normal human. I said I couldn't explain why I didn't share my immortality; I think I can now. It was you. The team. You were concerned and cared every time I got injured, and I liked that. No matter how much I grouched if Owen had to patch me up. Hell, you lot just spent the last day looking all over Cardiff for me. No-one would have bothered before, well other than check I wasn't going to reveal any secrets. I guess…I guess I didn't want that to change."

"I…." Ianto fell silent and simply wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulder, pulling him closer. Jack tensed at the contact, making no move to look at him. Ianto reached up, gently turning him around by his chin. Jack's eyes still echoed the fear and insecurity Ianto could sense through his shields. "Would you like to come home with me tonight?" Ianto asked, not wanting to let Jack out of his sight again after the events of the day, or when he was in this state.

'You still want me?" Jack whispered disbelievingly, but instead of answering, Ianto leaned forward to seal their lips in a deep kiss. Jack froze, sceptical but eventually relaxed himself enough to return the kiss. Parting their lips slightly Ianto finally replied.

"You're an idiot, Jack. Of course, nothing will change, I promise." Ianto replied honestly. "And I won't tell anyone else if you don't want me too."

"Thank you." Jack sighed with relief. "I should. I know I should, but I can't. Not yet. I just need a little longer."

"Whenever you're ready. It's your secret to share."

~ * o ~ * o ~ T ~ o * ~ o * ~

Sirens were going off, and he could hear the people screaming as they were exterminated, one by one, until he was the only left. His gun clicked empty, and he stood there, arms spread wide, ready to go down with pride. The sharp sensation of burning pain ripped through him only moments later as the world went black...

…then came the tugging sensation from deep inside him and everything went bright once again. Bodies lay scattered in every corridor, surrounded by mounds dust. He raced towards the familiar noise of TARDIS, watching as it vanished from view, leaving him isolated thousands of miles in space. He screamed internally, loud and with frustration, pain and betrayal…

Jack woke with a start, panting as he shook off the effects of his nightmare with practised ease. He glanced at Ianto, reassuring himself he hadn't woken the latter up. After the previous day and the sombre conversation with Ianto, he had been expecting them and hadn't anticipated even trying to sleep. Yet, once in Ianto's warm double bed, he'd suddenly felt unusually beat, something that definitely, however, had nothing to do with the slow sensual sex that had transpired as soon as they'd collapsed back onto the pillows.

Going back to sleep now however was not an option. Jack slid from under the covers, blindly grabbing his trousers as he made his way over to the large window in Ianto's bedroom. Ianto's flat was only on the second floor, but still gave him a good enough view for thinking, without needing to head for a rooftop.

It would take them both a while to come to terms with the latest events, him with understanding Ianto's unfamiliar acceptance of his cursed gift, and Ianto with… well he wasn't sure exactly what but there would certainly be something. Jack liked to think their reconnection earlier that night had been a distinguished first step, but most of all, he was intrigued.

Ianto now knew more about him than anyone on Earth – or otherwise – ever had, and it made him wonder what exactly it was about the younger man that made him want to open up, especially about his past. He wasn't proud of who he'd been before meeting the Doctor, and not even of some the things he'd done over his century of service in Torchwood, but Ianto he believed, brought out the best in him and sometimes, he thought, even more than the Doctor.

Notes: Next up – the latest rift retrieval perks Suzie's interest.

I know a few of you had wondering when Jack would finally reveal his immortality to Ianto. I first had this chapter planned for earlier – around chapter 7 – but I felt I wanted to keep one of my cards to my chest a bit longer, and immortality trumped over the Flat Holm reveal. Hoped the reveal was up to your expectations, however.

Please review, they make my day!