Torchwood: Divergence
Book Two: Adferiad
Chapter 11
After the others had left for the evening, Jack and Ianto had prepped all the gear they thought might be useful for the planned mission the next day, and brainstormed how to fire the alien weapon. Then Harkness had gone to refuel the SUV he'd purposefully left parked near the Plass to that end, while his partner had hacked into the City's computer system to reassign the work crew slated to begin excavation of the sewers near St. Helen's and flag the site as "pending".
Ianto knew that his Captain liked to take time whenever he was out at night, to find a high spot around Cardiff and "assess his domain" as Gwen had once put it. So, Jack wasn't concerned that the twenty-six-year-old would start to worry if he wasn't home in an hour. The city was a sparkling winter wonderland with its rare, thick blanket of snow, and he was really enjoying the view tonight.
However, when the American finally headed back to Millennium Square and realised he'd been gone nearly three times as long as he'd thought, he felt strangely guilty… and a little disappointed that his companion hadn't called to check on him. He wasn't quite sure what to expect when he came through the big rotating door into the Hub. Ianto waiting for him in the dimmed lighting with a cup of coffee, beside a gently twinkling and now fully decorated Christmas tree, was definitely not on the list.
"Nice view tonight?" Ianto asked, trading the mug he held for the older man's coat and wandering into the office to hang it up.
"Incredible," Jack nodded, sipping the strong, barely sugared black coffee he was so fond of. "Looks like the whole city's a giant gingerbread house display. It's not often Cardiff gets this kind of snow. I should've called to see if you wanted to join me."
"We aren't attached at the hip, Jack," his Archivist smiled as he exited the office, collected his own cup of coffee from Gwen's work station and went to sit on the couch. "I don't have to be with you every second. Not that I don't want to be… I do. But you're just as entitled to some alone time as anyone else. And I know your highest perch, coat flapping, hair ruffling, 'Captain Cardiff, protector of all I survey' moments are exactly that. I'd never presume to intrude on them."
"How did you know I was on my way in just now?" the quietly chuckling Captain asked curiously.
"Tracker on the SUV," Ianto replied easily. "Had it on screen while I puttered around, so I could get your coffee ready."
Harkness grinned as he came to sit close beside the young Welshman, relaxed into the cushions and draped his arm over the other man's shoulders. He watched the lights twinkle on the new tree, felt his lover shift slightly to lean against his side.
"You were busy," the Captain commented, noticing now that there were small fir and red ribbon swags attached up out of the way at each work station, a flat wreath of sparkling cut out metal snowflakes around the window of the cog-wheel door, and a big red and white striped bow on the casing around the office window, its twin secured to the observation deck railing in the Autopsy Lab. "It looks nice. Says Christmas but doesn't scream it in your face."
"Well, I figured that since this is home, I should just treat it like I would my flat," Ianto explained, nodding toward the tree. "So, I picked up a few things when I was tree hunting and left them in the back room of the kiosk. We were low on ornaments after a certain Pteranodon ate and generally mangled the last tree, so I improvised."
"With what?" Jack prodded, not having gotten up close to the display yet.
"I used the image capture programme on the system," the Changeling beside him half-smiled. "Pulled frames from old and recent CCTV, Gwen's wedding videos, Archive photos… all sorts of things. Printed them in colour on the sheets of that heavy weight white laminate the office supply gave Lois by accident in October, cut them out in different shapes, punched a hole in the top and ran bits of Martha's left-over wax cord through to hang by. The only thing I couldn't replace was the tree topper. And nothing I experimented with looked quite right."
"Listen to you being all Martha Stewart and creative," Harkness laughed. "I'll have to take a closer look tomorrow; see what kind of things you chose for the Torchwood Christmas Collection. If it was up to me, the poor thing would be lucky to have tinsel and lights. You did a really outstanding job."
"Thank you," the eternal twenty-six-year-old murmured, obviously pleased that his partner approved, especially since he was also the boss. "There're a couple things you haven't seen yet, but we can get to them later. Right now, I'd rather just sit here and relax… enjoy the quiet while it lasts."
"It's been rare lately, that's for sure," Jack sighed, sipping his coffee. "We've been so busy there hasn't been time for poker, or hide-and-seek, or anything really. I hate that. I've spent so many years trying to build an emotional safety zone around myself by just focusing on the job, it feels like I have to keep going at it twenty-four/seven. But that buffer got blown to hell two years ago, and now I really want some non-Torchwood time to just enjoy life with you. Even if it's only a couple of days once in a while… a long weekend trip to Bath, or Paris, or Barcelona. Someplace quiet, away from the Rift, where we could pretend to be a plain, ordinary couple on holiday without the slightest idea that aliens really exist."
"Why don't we plan a trip then?" Ianto asked seriously. "Gwen's more than capable of leading when you aren't here, she'd have a solid three-person team to work with, and we're on much closer terms with UNIT now in case back up is in order. As long as they know in advance, they should be able to prepare before we leave."
"Where would we go?" the Captain wondered, finding himself starting to like the idea more and more.
"Wherever you want," Ianto shrugged, finishing his own coffee and reaching for the American's empty cup. "The only places I've been other than Wales, are London, Brittany, Tibet, Amsterdam, Delhi, Tokyo, Athens, and Paris. The last two were when I was really young and fairly brief, and the rest are tied to work or enough unpleasant memories that they don't mean much. So anyplace you'd like to visit will be new to me, especially since I'd be seeing it with you and not on a mission for the Institute."
"Talk about an offer I can't refuse," his lover smiled, blue eyes bright with excitement and pleasure. "There are so many things I'd love to show you. Jewels of the world that a couple of days would be perfect for. A little slice or normal to make work feel important again. You're a genius, Ianto Jones."
"I do my best," Ianto smiled back, rising to head for the kitchenette. "It's gone 1:00 am. Anything you'd like to do? Or should we call it a night?"
"I vote we run for the room before the Rift acts up again," Harkness decided, rising from the couch and stretching. "Let's go to bed, Barista Boy."
"Yes, sir," the young Welshman responded, veering toward the office after descending the kitchenette risers, as the Captain moved to put the Hub lights fully into 'night' mode and turn off the Christmas tree.
Jack passed through the dark office, pushed open the bookcase door that stood ajar and stopped to stare. Ianto stood by the bed with a tiny, uncertain smile on his face and simply let the older man look around.
There was a miniature artificial tree on the shoe nook near the door, fully decorated with tinsel, lights, and little multi-coloured image capture ornaments of the current Torchwood Institute logo. Its top was graced with a laminate pyramid… a CCTV image of the two of them, Gwen, Owen and Tosh decorating the last tree they'd put up together… one of Rhys, Gwen and Ebrill the first time they'd brought the baby to the Hub… a picture off the wedding video that managed to show them dancing together as well as Gwen with Rhys and Owen standing with Tosh in the background… and a scanned copy of a photo he himself had confiscated from an unsuspecting tourist nearly three years before, of the two of them engaged in an extremely passionate kiss in front of the water tower on the capstone of the hidden lift.
Then there was the area where Ianto was standing. Fresh, high thread count bed linens topped the mattress and pillows, along with a new reversible duvet of plush ebony wide-whale corduroy and suede napped deep velvety crimson red microfibre. Directly above the bed, a large Holiday light net had been tacked to the ceiling by unknown means, the small softly glowing bulbs an obviously custom arranged pattern of amber, red, and pink, with the occasional blue or white, to mimic the city at night. And from the centre of the net, suspended by a length of candy-striped ribbon, was a fresh sprig of real mistletoe.
"Wow…" Harkness breathed, finally meeting his partner's gaze. "You really went all out. I think the new light net needs to stay even after the Holiday."
"You don't hate it then?" the young Guardian queried quietly, apparently having been somewhat worried.
"I can't remember the last time I spent Christmas with someone, that wasn't just the here and gone between alerts thing you and I managed the last couple of years before the 456," Jack confessed, his expression slightly wistful. "It was just me and the Weevils for so long before that. I didn't give much thought to decorating or any kind of celebrating then. Just another day. Even when Alice was little, I was always being called out to chase down Rift surges, rarely home at all. That was part of why the marriage ended. It still wasn't a big deal to me when I had a team here full time, you know that too well. But this… this reminds me of Holidays ages ago, when I still enjoyed everything about them. You went to all this effort to make me happy, help the Hub really feel like home."
He came to put his arms around the younger man and just hold him close for several minutes.
"Thank you, Ianto," the American murmured, shifting to obey the mistletoe and give his lover a good solid kiss. "The Scieron were right… you are what I need to feel human again, so I can let myself care about all the things I've ignored for years to make life bearable and keep myself from getting hurt. Nothing could ever leave a wound as deep as losing you did. And now that I've got you back, know you'll be here for me no matter what, I'm not so worried about the harm caring can do me anymore."
"Don't make me cry, Jack," Ianto warned, meeting the undying Captain's gaze with shining eyes. "If you get me all worked up and euphoric, and it puts me into a seizure, I'll be done for the night. And that's not what I was planning for bedtime. So, stop it."
"Ah… I see," Harkness chuckled, a wicked gleam now in his bright blue eyes. "Just what are you planning?"
"A bit of 'let's pretend'," Ianto explained innocently. "As in 'let's pretend Captain Cardiff and his faithful Barista Boy are trapped in a high mountain cave during a killer snow storm, with nothing to burn and only one way to keep warm'. Unless of course you have something else in mind."
"I think I hear the howling winds of a terrible Himalayan blizzard," Jack grinned, pulling the young Welshman close once more and shivering dramatically. "And I'd hate to have us freeze, what with no fire and all."
Within minutes, the pair had stripped and dived between the crisp new sheets, glad for a little private playtime on the eve of a dangerous mission.
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AN: Just some lovely Holiday fuelled fluff for you… because things are about to get ugly.
Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM
