Author's note: Wow. Oh my God, thank you all so, so much. Thank you for all your reviews, I've never had a response like this to a fic before, but also thank you to everyone who's put the story or me on alerts or favourites. It means so much.

Especial thanks to LiquidLash and Retroactiveness, and especially to Harrie, who has poked and prodded me to get this update around my moving house and her dragging me to Wales.

Just thank you, all of you.
Gxxx

I locked the TI Office door behind me and walked across to the railings, leaning on them and turning my face into the sun, closing my eyes and enjoying the warmth on my face after a day underground. It was a balmy evening, cool and sunny, with a light breeze carrying the scent of the sea. The sunlight danced on the waves, and there were fish visible in the water below my feet. "I have a good feeling about tonight," I whispered to no one in particular.

Beautiful though the view was, I couldn't stay still, turning back to face the office and leaning back on the railings, then back around to face the water again. I was struggling to remember the last time anyone asked me out on a date, was this a date? It was a date, wasn't it? Dinner and a movie, or just dinner, I'd been asking him out on a date when I'd offered dinner. When was the last time someone asked me to dinner? Ianto had tried... I thought, possibly. I probably insisted on taking him though, which was probably why, this time, he'd planned it and not told me what was happening.

My train of thought was derailed by those Welsh vowels calling my name, or Welsh vowel in this case, Red really very definitely was his colour. "Ianto."

"Jack," Ianto looked me up and down and smiled a greeting. "You're looking good."

"So are you," I told him sincerely, although he could probably tell that I thought that. "How is Gordon?"

Ianto frowned slightly, looking put off, and came to lean on the railings. "He's fine. Was more shaken up by the... incident than he would have liked to let on. But the result at Lords cheered him up."

"Good," I looked at him sidelong. "And if I tell you that it's been a reasonably quiet week, but we had a mad one on Monday, I think that's discussing work done with, don't you?"

Ianto looked surprised, but beamed. "Yep, think that's covered it." He nodded towards the steps. "Shall we?"

"Sure." We walked together in silence along the Bay, content, in my case, to follow blindly for the moment. Ianto seemed to be enjoying the walk, the chance to look around the Bay area after he'd been gone so long. God, it was nearly six months. Felt like a lot longer. "They say the work's going to take another year," I told him, out of the blue. "I wish they'd hurry up with it, it's disturbing the Weevils."

Ianto nodded and gave me a sidelong smile. "Any idea why the water tower is covered in Strawberries?"

"Not a clue." We laughed and I relaxed slightly, learning again how to enjoy his company at the most basic level. We'd lost this, or lost sight of it at least, during the course of our whatever it was, too busy rushing to the – admittedly fantastic – conclusion. It was... nice. I enarly said as much, but figured that Ianto probably didn't want to know. Instead, I brought up the upcoming Headingley test.

"Gordon's very enthusiastic about it," Ianto confided. "He's trying to get tickets for the final day."

"Will you go with him?" I asked, wishing that I could go.

Ianto shrugged. "If he goes, I will go with him. Can you imagine trying to spot aliens in a Headingley crowd? They're all dressed as Superman anyway."

I laughed. "You'll be singing along? And did those feet in ancient times..."

He shoved my shoulder when I burst out singing but laughed along. "I might be persuaded, if the atmosphere intoxicates me sufficiently."

"I love the atmosphere like that, reminds me of the sixties."

"Yeah?"

I grinned, it had occurred to me that he wouldn't want to hear another of my stories. "Isle of White."

He laughed. "No way. You went to the Isle of White festival?"

"I paid" I put on my best offended face. "Most people came in through a hole in the fence. Well, big holes in the fence."

"Like... the lack of fence?"

"Exactly." I shook my head fondly at the memories. "What a weekend. I think it was a weekend, anyway. There was that much stuff being done, you got high just walking through the field."

"They do say that if you remember the sixties," Ianto pointed out. "You weren't there."

"Yeah." We walked on a bit further in silence. "Shame, really," I mused. "It was a fantastic decade." He smiled at me again and pointed down the Bay.

"We have a reservation," He told me. "And I don't know about you, but I'm ready to eat."

The restaurant was one of our favourites, which I'd never really realised we had before. The staff there knew us, the food was excellent and the company was absolutely superb. I found myself relaxing and enjoying the stories Ianto told me of his life at university. He wound up one of his stories and looked at me oddly across the table, commenting, "You're looking at me oddly."

I straightened up and raised an eyebrow. "No I'm not."

"You were," he insisted. "Like..." He didn't finish the sentence. "What about you, what was education like where you came from?"

A wave of discomfort swept against me, but he wanted to know and I wanted to tell him, even though I couldn't be completely candid in the public area. "It was very different." I started. "I was home schooled, largely, and joined the army as soon as I can. I learned more there than school ever taught me."

"You'd have to learn fast." He'd rested his cheek on one loose fist with his elbow on the table, it made him look so young. And yet, no matter how much I told myself that I should let him go, let him be safe. No way in Hell was I letting him go.

"You have to learn to adapt," I told him. "Everything else is optional as long as you can adapt to the situation."`

He nodded, smiling in a way that I didn't quite understand, given the context. "Adaptation is the only way to survive. If you don't adapt, you get left behind."

Ianto had to leave quite early, he had a three hour drive back home, and yet he seemed to think that the trip was worth it. It certainly was on my behalf, but for him? I couldn't help but wonder why he had come back. He had touched on my greatest fear, being left behind, and it was Ianto, there was no way he had said that without considering all the implications. He knew, he knew that what I fear most is being left, being alone.

Which made me wonder; was that why he had come back, because I didn't want to be alone? I couldn't let him stay for me, I had to make sure that he was here for himself.

I glared at the alternative until it went and hid in a quiet corner of my mind, making shadow puppets against my conscience.