Chapter ten

Ianto sat at the booth staring emptily into space, as he herd Gwen chatting about her children. Somehow Tosh had managed to get him out of bed and got him to go to the pub. Last time you he had been to the pub he was happy marriage, now that seemed forever ago. For the last five months he hadn't left the flat, Tosh had to FaceTime him to make sure he was eating. Now he was in the middle of a crowded pub, showered and instead of feeling empty as he listen to chatter on the telly he listened to the chatter of people socialising on a Friday night, at last he thought it was Friday, not that time meant anything to him anymore. He felt a tap on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry to interrupt " the woman said and Ianto turned around "Ianto Jones?"

"Beth Thomson?" He said standing up and the woman nodded and he went in for a hug "how are you?" Long time no see"

"Fine thanks" she said "I'm a barrister now, you?"

"Good" he lied, at that moment Owen coughed " oh, I'm sorry Beth these are my friends Owen, Tosh and Gwen, everyone this is Beth we used to work in London together"

"Nice to meet you" tosh said "want to join us?"

"I'm actually here with a friend, I just saw ianto and had to say hey " she said sticking her head out looking for her friend " on the other hand my friend has her tongue in that bloke's throat so yeah why not" she added pulling up a stool

"So I suppose you worked for Torchwood one" asked Owen.

"How do know about torchwood?" She asked.

"We work at Torchwood three" Gwen explained

"You still work for Torchwood" she asked Ianto "how are you still alive"

"I don't know, a miracle?"he answered "and I don't work for Torchwood, I quit like five months ago"

"Oh god, look at the time" said Gwen "Rhys is going to kill me, I'll better go"

"Nothing changes in twelve years huh" joked Owen looking at his watch "o shit, babe what time did we tell the babysitter that we would be back by?"

"Eleven thirty" said Tosh "why?"

"It's eleven fifteen" Owen said said

"Oh fuck" she said "yan are you going to be okay?"

"Yes" he said "don't worry, I'll be okay, go say hi to Rose"

"So you don't have to home to your children" asked Beth jokingly "do you?"

"No I just have a haunted flat," he said sadly "full of memories,that I have not left since I quit"

"Why did you quit?" she asked "if you don't mind me asking"

"I was married to the head" he explained " Jack and I were together for about 13 years, and we were very much in love and happy, until we had a fight, which I didn't think was important, we had bigger fights in the past. But apparently it was enough for him to get shit face drunk and sleep with a random guy"

"Wait a minute" Beth said" captain Jack Harkness, the handsome man that Ivonne hated and rumoured to want to sleep with anything with a pulse"

"Yep" He nodded."he has quite the reputation"

"Was that never a problem ?" Beth asked "I mean he did cheat on you"

"It made mi a tad uncomfortable when he flirted in front of me" he admitted "but he didn't acted on it, and I believe him. But he made a mistake, and he didn't try to hid it, and it broke us"

"So what are you going to now?" She asked

"I don't know" he admitted "I had a happy life, Jack wasn't perfect, it took a long time to admit his feelings but I got him and he got me. I loved Lisa, she was my first real relationship, but didn't have the connection I had with Jack. We could hunt a weevil with not a word, we would spent hours talking"

" Yan, I'm sorry " she started "after Canary Warf, and Mike died, I got depressed, I felt guilty about not being at work that day, and I shut off"

"It's ok, when Lisa died, I convinced myself that because the conversion was never completed she could be save, I got a Job in Torchwood and trying to save her she, it killed two people and I endangered the team, Jack killed her it"

"What happened?" Asked Beth

"I got three months suspension, when I went back Jack watched me closely. I hated Jack yet I felt strangely attracted to him, it was so conflicting at that time" he said , he hadn't talked about this with anyone who wasn't Jack before and it felt good.

"Because he was a man?" She asked

"No, I had crushes and hook ups with men before. My abusive asshole of a father was extremely homophobic, but when he died I went to therapy for a couple of months and by that time I was pretty comfortable with the fact I was bisexual " he admitted "no I was conflicted because I wanted to kill him cause in my fucking mind he murder Lisa, but at the same time I wanted to shagg him, I actually did both on the same night"

"How did you kill him" she asked.

"Oh right" he said "his condition was above our pay grade, you are not going to go blabbing are you?"

"No" she said "cross my heart and hope to die"

"Ok" he said "Jack was born in the fifty first century, he traveled with the Doctor and long story short he became immortal"

They continued talking all nigh.