"Beth was insistent that she should call someone," Jack said after he had dried his tears. "She was probably right. But I didn't know who else to call."
"Oh, love, don't apologise for that," Gwen said, her face still wet from the tears she'd shed.
Everyone had been silently crying as Jack had recounted how he and Ianto had finally confessed their love before the pub was destroyed.
Jack wasn't like most other men Gwen had met, after all, he'd been born and raised in the far future. Jack had always been one to openly express how he was feeling without shame whenever he was able. Being the boss did have some drawbacks, but he saw no difference between showing the joy and jubilation after a successful mission or the anguish and occasional anger when something went inevitably wrong. Whilst this had been much to the mocking of Owen whilst he was alive who struggled to even admit to his own feelings, let alone express them.
But this didn't mean Jack let anyone into his heart. If anyone had ever gotten close recently, it was Ianto. But now, huddled next to his lover in an unfamiliar setting, Jack had bared his soul to all of them, as he told of the longing of wanting Ianto back and the dread and desperation he'd felt upon finding Ianto had survived the closure of the Rift, only to have ended up buried alive in the ruins of the pub.
Gwen shifted on the bed, so she too was leaning partly against the headboard. Jack was sandwiched in between herself and Ianto but didn't seem to mind the cramped conditions. She leant over and put her hand on top of his which was tightly grasping Ianto's. "Never apologise for calling me, Jack. We're a team, yeah, you and me. We're Torchwood."
Jack was still clinging to Ianto with all his might as if he were convinced that Ianto would disappear from his sight again if he weren't holding on to him tight. Either that or his body was tensing for a fight, ready for the moment someone tried to drag him away from Ianto.
Gwen had no such ideas. In fact, she was willing to join Jack in that fight against anyone who even dared to suggest it. She had been right, Ianto wasn't her Ianto, but so long as he showed no danger of manipulating Jack or anyone else, nobody would be taking him away by force from Jack ever again.
"And Ianto," Jack added looking over at her.
"Yeah. And Ianto," she confirmed and saw some of the fight leave Jack's body.
"So Ianto's one of Syriath's ghosts?" Martha asked.
Jack nodded.
"But you closed the Rift, Jack. You said that when you closed the Rift, Syriath was trapped again. You trapped her there so she couldn't reach us anymore. But if she's truly gone, trapped in the Rift like you said, then how is Ianto still here?" she asked.
"And why?" Rhys added.
"What do you mean?" Jack asked, tightening his hold on Ianto. "What do you mean, 'why is he still here'?"
"If Ianto is one of Syriath's Ghosts, then there are two possible situations," Gwen explained gently. "Either the Rift isn't as closed as you think it is and Syriath's still has some kind of power here, or the Rift is closed and Syriath is gone but Ianto was left behind. Either way, there's almost certainly a reason why he was left here and as much as I'd love to think that his return is a miracle and we can leave it at that, Torchwood has taught me otherwise."
Jack closed his eyes and nodded. "You're right."
"So, what do we do?" Ianto asked in the silence that followed.
Gwen sniffed. "We do what we always do," she said determinedly. "We're Torchwood."
Jack stiffened in her arms.
"Well, we seem to be lacking resources at the moment," Ianto replied in a calm voice, but Gwen knew better than to take that tone at face value, "so, where are you going to keep me? Lock me in a hotel room until you discover what to do with me?"
Jack gave a low growl. "Nobody's taking you anywhere," he said but it was almost drowned out by Gwen's confused exclamation, almost toppling off the bed as she sat back to look at him properly.
"What?!"
"Torchwood exists to destroy alien threats," Ianto replied lowly, "and Jack's just confirmed to you that I'm not human."
"But you're not dangerous!" both Jack and Gwen replied at the same time. Jack was determined, voice hard and cold, daring for anyone to try and contradict him, whist Gwen's voice was filled with passion and emotion.
"And I didn't mean it like that!" Gwen protested. "I meant that 'we're Torchwood', we'll get to the bottom of it. We'll sort it out. We always do. For god's sake, we didn't even lock Owen up and we knew his cells were changing and he was speaking in that weird unknown language! We thought he was dangerous and the only cell he was locked in was down at Cardiff Station, and Jack could have avoided that if he had wanted to. We are not going to lock you up, Ianto."
Ianto slumped back down into Jack, who relaxed too. "Okay. Okay."
"Good."
"So, what do we do then?" Martha asked, resigned. She could only remember too well what had happened with Owen. She'd nearly died. Twelve other people had died. Not that she was blaming Torchwood or Jack for those deaths, but she could never forget them. But she also knew there was no point fighting with either Jack or Gwen; they were far too stubborn to argue with unless she had some very strong evidence to prove something. But she didn't have anything other than the scrap of information that Syriath had created the ghosts to manipulate people.
Ianto had been created for one reason: to manipulate Jack. He'd managed to do part of his job successfully and get Jack to leave the pub, but he hadn't gotten Jack to take the bomb with him. Instead of that, Ianto had stayed behind with the bomb, ensuring that it had detonated and sealed the Rift. And today, despite Jack's protests and overall clinginess, he'd insisted that he and Martha should be left alone whilst she completed her assessment. None of this was a reason not to trust Ianto, rather, it showed the complete opposite. Nevertheless, Martha was still apprehensive to trust him.
"Like I said before, we need to go to Abergavenny," Gwen said. "We need to check it out and find out if the Rift's actually closed."
"It is," Jack argued.
"We need to be sure," Gwen replied. "We need to make sure that Syriath has no control over Ianto, that she's still sealed off from this universe and has no power here. Until we do that, we can't be completely sure that Ianto is safe from her."
'Or that we're safe from her', Martha added silently.
No one else noticed the knowing look Martha and Mickey shared. Everyone else was watching for Jack's reaction.
He closed his eyes and nodded. "Okay."
"Thank you." Gwen lent over and kissed Jack's cheek. "Right, it would be helpful if you could tell us everything you know about Syriath. Mickey, are you able to access UNIT's files and see if they've got any information? And the KVI – that's the Komitet Vnezemnih Issledovaniy, don't ask me for the spelling in Russian."
"I won't – I don't even know the Russian alphabet, let alone how to speak it," Mickey joked, and Gwen sighed.
Martha playfully punched his arm for the bad pun. "The KVI's the Russian version of Torchwood, right?" she asked.
Gwen nodded. "I believe it stands for 'The Committee for Extra-terrestrial Research'." She glanced over at Jack who nodded in confirmation. "It was set up formally after the October Revolution in the 1920s, but they've been around since the latter part of the nineteenth century. They were formed as an adversary to Queen Victoria's Torchwood, aiming to study alien activity and to use what they learnt to defend their country."
"I'll see what I can find," Mickey said, turning to his screens. "I've already pulled up anything of relevance from the UNIT Database. It's not much, but it's a start."
"Great, thank you."
"Whoa, wait a minute," Jack said, sitting up straight. Ianto moved off him, but Jack pulled him back to his side. "I thought we were Torchwood?"
"You said you lot were Torchwood. You never said anything about me," Mickey protested. "I've never been Torchwood, and I don't plan on starting now."
"You worked for Torchwood London, though," Ianto pointed out.
"I worked for the Preachers, mate. I came here to stop the Cybermen, not help open the void to let them in. No offence."
Ianto shrugged. "Good job you don't want to be one of us. We don't have the money to hire you anyway. We're officially broke."
"But," Jack cut in, "if we're bringing back Torchwood, then that means I'm the boss." He turned to Gwen. "I'd offer you the chance to settle the leadership through naked wrestling again, but I think you're at a significant disadvantage this time, Gwen."
"In your dreams, Harkness," she laughed while Rhys's eyes bulged. "And anyway, Torchwood's yours. It always has been."
"Good." Jack clapped his hands together and grinned. "Then in which case, Gwen Cooper, I'm ordering you to stand down."
"What?" she protested.
"Get some sleep. Some proper sleep. You're exhausted, and so's Rhys. You didn't sleep all night it's past noon. Grab some food and go home. You need to take some time out."
"Never thought I'd say this, but he's right, you know," Rhys said. He was sat in the armchair Gwen had vacated, looking shattered. He may have gotten some sleep last night, but he was knacked. "You need to look after yourself, especially now."
Gwen slumped back against the headboard, defeated. It was true; she was utterly exhausted, but she wasn't sure she'd even manage to sleep, not with everything that was going on.
"Martha?" she asked.
"I don't know why you're asking me. You know my views on your stress levels and lack of sleep, and that was before today's events."
Gwen shook her head. "No, is Ianto going to be okay?"
"I honestly don't know. I can give him another assessment, but until we know more, I don't think I'll find anything different. But from what I've seen so far, he seems like a normal healthy 26-year-old. There's barely any difference between his readings and the ones on file from last April. Other than the whole ghost thing, I'd say he's fine."
"And Jack?"
"Same as ever," she shrugged.
"Okay, fine. Rhys? Take me home."