Nadolig Llawen

Rated T for safety

Characters: Jack, Ianto, some OCs

Disclaimer: All characters are owned by RTD and the BBC, I only own the story and any OCs

Also, no Torchwood, this is a completely AU story

Summary: Jack is (well, sort of) Santa, and meets Ianto Jones, a Welshman who changes his life. This is the most of a summary I can give you, without giving away the story. Torchwood AU. Christmas fic, sort of fluffy. Also, both Ianto and Jack are gay. If you don't like that, don't read it :) Many thanks to the Norwegian Christmas ad, and to fy cariad, for the inspiration!

*Nadolig Llawen is Welsh for Merry Christmas

*mcg = micrograms

*Before any of you make comments about the virology aspects or anything along those lines, let me tell you that I had biomedical engineering class, and did Capstone projects like Ianto is doing, so I know what I'm talking about. And remember, this is Sci-fi, anything can happen.

*Note: to all my lovely readers, I'm really sorry for not continuing my stories. I've been afflicted with the hateful writer's block! I know what I want for those stories, I just don't know how to get there! I'm working on it, I promise! Also, I don't have a lot of time for writing, seeing as now I'm working, and my hours are erratic and long. So I write when I can, like now, cuz I have a couple of days off for Christmas.

Now, let's get into the story! Enjoy!

Chapter One

It was Christmas Eve, and Ianto Jones had just gone to bed. He didn't make a Christmas list this year. Hadn't done since he was a child, if memory served. He didn't think it necessary - after all, Santa wasn't real, and if he wanted something, he'd just buy it himself. As the hands on his clock wound closer to midnight, he was woken by a light shining through his window. Flicking back the shades, he drew in a startled gasp. There was a sleigh, being pulled by a team of reindeer, flying towards his roof. And sitting on the sleigh, was a figure in a red fur coat. Strangely though, unlike what the stories told of Santa, this man wasn't red-faced and roly-poly. Okay, so his cheeks DID have a bit of redness - it was the dead of winter in Wales, after all. But the man was lean and muscular.

"What on Earth is going on?" he wondered. At that moment, he heard a thump. "Seems like he's landed on the roof," he snorted to himself. Internally, he was at war with himself. Should he, or shouldn't he go out of his room and investigate, see if he could talk to the man? Pulling his bathrobe over his pjs and sliding his feet into warm slippers, he goes out to the living room, where he suspects the man will be.

Sneaking into the living room, he notices Santa holding one of his photos of him as a teen from the mantle. He moves to enter the room, and curses inwardly as the floor creaks. The figure standing at the fireplace gives a slight jump, and carefully places the photo back on the mantle. He turns around, and there's a small look of guilt on his handsome face. "Who is this man? He's gorgeous," each thought to themselves.

"Who are you, how did you get in, and what are you doing here?" blurts Ianto.

Jack smirked a bit - he thought it'd be obvious, given his outfit, and that fact that he'd been watched whilst his sleigh was in the air, but evidently, this man was not a believer in Santa. Well, that'll soon change, he knew. "My name is Jack. As for how I got in, well, I'm Santa - acting as him anyway - so that should be obvious how I got in. And the reason why I'm here - I need your help." His voice broke a bit on the last answer, causing Ianto to wonder even more what the bloody hell was going on, and why Santa, or this man acting as Santa - Jack - needed his help.

"Need my help? Are you sure you have the right person? And what do you mean "acting as Santa?" Either you are, or you aren't."

"You ARE Ianto Jones, virologist, correct?"

"Yes…."

"Then please, I really need you to come with me," Jack pleaded. "I'll explain on the way, but please, come with me."

He didn't know what it was, but something in Jack's tone and expression made Ianto decide he'd go. "Alright," he conceded. "Just let me get dressed first - can't go out like this. I won't be more than five minutes."

Not ten minutes later, Ianto found himself next to Jack, on the sleigh, apparently headed to the North Pole. Turning to Ianto, all the while keeping a firm hold on the reins, Jack starts explaining what's happening.

"So, this is the situation. My father is the REAL Santa - like the one in all the legends. And ever since he's been getting on in his years - we may have magic, but we age and die like everyone else. Except me, but that's for another time. Like I was saying, ever since he's been getting on in years, I've had to take over delivering the gifts, because he's gotten sick with god-knows-what each winter. And I've heard that you are quite the talented virologist. Don't try and deny it," he added, noticing the look on Ianto's face. "So what I'm hoping for is that you can talk with my father, he'll tell you the different symptoms he's been experiencing, and you'd take some blood and maybe some tissue samples with you back home and study them, which perhaps will aid us in figuring out what's wrong. We have supplies for you to safely obtain the samples, so don't worry about that. Once you get them, if you can outline a bit of what you'll be doing with them, and then I'll bring you home. And I'll come by next Christmas to see how you're doing."

"I'll do it," Ianto agreed, "but I can't promise I will be able to figure it out. All I can promise is that I'll do my best."

"That's all I ask." Jack sets the sleigh down behind an inviting-looking home, and releases the reindeer into a wide, albeit enclosed paddock.

"Right, we're here. C'mon." He says this as he's helping Ianto down from the high seat. As soon as their hands touched, a slight electric jolt went through the both of them. Jack noticed Ianto's face was flushed from the cold, and the wind had mussed his hair. He brushed aside any thoughts he had on how beautiful this man was - he had to focus.

The two men entered the house, and were enveloped in warm air.

"Dad," Jack called. "He's here!"

"In the kitchen, Jack," came his father's response. "Ah, you must be Ianto Jones. I am grateful you agreed to come. Welcome," he greeted them.

"Pleasure to meet you sir."

"No need to call me sir, Nicholas works just fine. I'm not the original - the name was passed down," he chuckled, when Ianto gave him a puzzled look.

"Sorry, force of habit. Why don't you tell me what you've been experiencing, and we can go from there?"

"Sounds like a plan. Let's go to my office, although I would like Jack to join us."

Nicholas and Jack explain everything - and Ianto seems to recognize a bit of what's going on. "What is it? What have you realized?" Jack asks him, when it appears that he understood.

"I'm not 100 percent sure, and I'd need to do some research, but it sounds as if your telomeres are mutating, causing your body's functions to be like that of an old person, say closer to ninety years of age, while you still appear your actual age. If you don't mind, though, I'd like to bring some samples back with me to study in my private lab - no one else will know about this - and perhaps I can figure out more of what exactly it's doing to you, and if there's any way to stop it/ reverse it, or at the very least, slow it down, and to see if there's anything to be done about getting you some relief."

"You can have whatever you need. What kind of samples do you want from me?"

"I'll need a blood sample, and a tissue sample would be good as well. And one more thing - Jack, I know you told me you'd be coming by next Christmas to check on my progress, but for something this major, I'd need a way to stay in contact with you and to update you as I go along, in the instance that something does come up before then."

"Let's get you the samples first, and then we can work out a way in which you and my son can stay in touch. I have supplies here," he added, pulling a sealed packet from his desk along with alcohol swabs.

Working efficiently, Ianto gets 50 mcg of blood, and some tissue samples from Nicholas's hand. Once that's done, Jack brings him home, explaining on the way that the reason it seems to be the same time as when he left, is that the North Pole is in a sort of other dimension, so no time passes while he's there. Before he goes, he tells Ianto if he has any developments, to write it out and send it to him - he gives Ianto an address to send it.

The next morning, he gets started right away on setting up the blood for analysis, taking it out of the freezer where he stored it the previous night before returning to bed. Gathering all his materials, he uses a small portion of the blood for running a gel. He is meticulous, and very focused on his work - he cannot afford even the slightest mistake. While the gel is running, he uses another small portion of the blood to package and get sent to a more high-tech lab for Sanger Sequencing. He may have quite a bit of equipment, but he does not have most of the necessary ones for Sanger Sequencing. Since no one is to know whose it actually is, Ianto puts his own name when setting up the necessary papers and forms. He pays extra to have it done as high priority sequencing, so he can expect the results by the morning. Once that is all finished, he works tirelessly and nonstop, until it's time for bed. He didn't stop to eat - couldn't, he told himself. This was too urgent to bother with eating. Breakfast is more than enough.

Lying in bed, sleep elusive, Ianto finds his thoughts drifting to Jack. The man was ridiculously handsome, with piercing blue eyes, and spiky chocolate-colored hair that looked soft as anything. And those lips….he never wanted to kiss anyone as much as he wanted to with Jack. 'Get a grip Jones! You just met the man, and you don't even know anything about him!' he scolded himself. Still, he wanted Jack. and that electric tingle when their hands met….he wondered if the other man felt it too. Now, he couldn't wait until the next time they met. 'If you want to see him sooner, best make some progress soon on your analysis.' With that thought, he slipped into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Unknown to Ianto, as Jack was also lying in bed waiting on sleep, his thoughts were revolving around the Welshman. Jack never really was attracted to anyone, but when he felt that spark from Ianto, hell, when he first saw Ianto his heart did a weird little flutter that left him wondering, wondering if this is what it was like to fall in love? To want to be with someone forever? To feel connected to someone? And god, he wanted to kiss the hell out of Ianto. Sure, he's had his fair share of kisses, those random one-offs he sometimes did as a teen, but after The Event he'd stopped. Didn't want to get close to anyone. But Ianto, this man that he barely knew, he wanted so badly to get to know better. He knew if he did, he'd lose Ianto eventually, but he didn't care anymore. He just wanted to be with the Welshman. And all he could do was hope the other man wanted it too. With thoughts of Ianto taking over, he fell asleep and dreamt of the man.

The following morning, Ianto goes over the results of the sequencing, and realizes his initial assessment of Nicholas was correct. He's not entirely sure what the next steps in the process are, he'd have to do some extensive research first, but it'd take too long if he did it on his own. And as he can't tell anyone, he'd have to call on Jack for assistance.

Update number 1

27 December 2009

To: Jack (Re: Nicholas)

Jack, I analyzed some of your father's DNA, and had a Sanger Sequencing done on it (I put it as mine, so don't worry about anyone finding out anything). The results show what I had initially suspected. But that's not all. As his body's functions are becoming that of an old man's (as I mentioned), his immune system is weakening as well. Which is why the cold of winter is affecting him so badly and making him sick. TO move further, I'll need a few things. One - you need to tell me how long he was sick for, before you reached out to me. Two - along with one, I need you to remember as far back as you can - you and your father, and perhaps your mother - to tell me any and all symptoms you can think of from the start. Three - I don't fully know yet how to proceed with this, as it is not something I, nor most all scientists have ever encountered before. As such, the next step is to do heavy research on anything and everything related. It's going to be a ton of work, which brings me to four. I need you to come and work with me, as I cannot tell anyone about this. I have no way of knowing if you've worked in a lab before, but if you haven't, well, I'll give you a crash course. But this is urgent. I need you to come as soon as possible after reading this letter. Don't worry about sleeping arrangements - I have a spare room you can use.

~Yours truly,

Ianto Jones

Jack closed the letter, tears running down his face. He had no idea what this meant, but he had a pretty strong feeling it wasn't going to be good. He sent off his response to Ianto with a phoenix - it'll get there within a couple of hours. His tears wet the paper he was writing on, but he didn't care enough to spend time rewriting it.

Ianto - thank you for the update. I have worked in a lab before, so I know what to expect, and I understand most of the scientific jargon. I will be there by morning. Thank you for the offer of staying in your home - it means a lot, more than you understand. I hope we can figure this out.

~Sincerely,

Jack Harkness

Jack's letter was brief, and to the point, and Ianto set about preparing the other room for Jack after reading it. While doing that, he speculated what Jack meant about it meaning more than he understood. He hoped it was what he thought, but probably not - Jack was probably just grateful to not have to look for somewhere to stay while they were going through this. Jack's surname - Harkness - also puzzled him. In all the stories, wasn't Santa's last name Claus? He figured he'll have to ask Jack once this was solved. In the meantime, they had a medical situation to work on.

After settling Jack in, they went straight to work. Ianto explained everything, and told him what they'd be researching and gathering data on, what proteins they should analyze from the PDB using JMOL and other advanced analysis tools.

Jack took that all in, and then told Ianto - "I know you haven't been eating properly, and you've been working yourself too hard. Here's what we're gonna do. We'll work from after breakfast till one, have lunch here, and then continue until seven, when I will take you out for dinner, or we'll do something for dinner. If you want to continue working for an hour after, fine, but it'd benefit you to relax a bit. And NO objections," he added archly.

"Okay, okay," he said, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender.

A few days passed, and things seemed to be progressing as Ianto expected. Except in one area - Jack. The man was almost a complete mystery to Ianto, beyond the few things they'd shared over meals. Aside from that, Ianto realized he was attracted to Jack, even slowly falling for him, and that was dangerous. He didn't know if Jack liked men, and besides, they weren't likely to see each other again after this was resolved. And even if Jack did like men, it didn't mean he'd be interested in Ianto. He thought back to last night, when they were getting ready for dinner - it was a fancier place, which meant he'd be wearing a suit. Jack had come up behind him as he was fumbling to knot his tie, reached around his neck, and deftly tied it in a neat, half-Windsor knot. Ianto didn't know if he imagined it, but he thought he saw something akin to a strong desire burning in the depths of Jack's bright blue eyes, and that his fingers had brushed the back of Ianto's neck after finishing with the tie in an almost intimate touch.