Epilogue

Thanks as always to my wonderful beta Milady Dragon

Ianto stood by the long table covered with desserts in the resort dining room.

Once he would have been paralysed because it was impossible to choose but now the problem was there was so much choice he didn't know where to begin.

'I see you are starting with desert,' Jack said picking up a plate.

'Yes,' Ianto grinned. 'I'm not sure if I should start with everything chocolate, or start with trifle and jellies or just work my way down.'

'Well why don't you start with your favourites?'

Ianto groaned. 'That's the problem. I love everything.'

After a few more moment, Ianto moved to heap his plate with selections from the chocolate platter and went to find their table.

Jack sat down to enjoy his plate of seafood. He never tired of Ianto's love of trying every dessert possible while on holiday. There was no point in trying to slow him down, he would try every last one.

'I was thinking 'Stinky' would love it here. She would clear the lot and still be hungry.' Ianto sat down and began tucking into chocolate mousse covered with bananas and sprinkles and maple syrup.

'She was very hungry,' Jack agreed.

'When I found her I was thinking how could anyone throw away anything so cute.'

Jack looked across the table. How anyone could find a creature so lacking in basic cuteness could ever be considered cute was beyond him. Nagini aside, maybe he shouldn't underestimate his partner's love of long creatures with beady eyes.

This love had been a blessing in disguise because if Ianto had not found her she would have died. Like all babies, she had needed attention and food. Ianto had provided her most basic care to such a point she was considered indulged bordering on spoilt.

Stinky was more important than they could have imagined, a single child born to parents longing for offspring who had struggled to have, their only chance destroyed. Yet her mother lived on in Stinky giving comfort to her grateful father. An important and precious cargo indeed.

'She would love everything about this place. Lovely warm sea to swim in, comfy beds to sleep in and she would love the hammock. And we would both have loved exploring the ancient ruins.' Ianto licked his spoon clean and pushed his plate away.

'No seconds?' Jack said, surprised because normally Ianto was as four plate dessert man.

Ianto grinned. 'I can order something later but right now I don't want to be over full.'

'You look like you're up to something,' Jack said.

'Oh I am.' Ianto leant over and whispered in Jack's ear.

'You sure?' Jack checked.

Ianto nodded, a look of excited anticipation on his face.

Jack stood bolt upright, wiped his mouth, grabbed Ianto's hand and headed for the door that led to their chalet.

Just as they reached the exit a woman forced the door aside with a bang. 'My husband…we were by the alien ruin on the beach…my husband, he disappeared! Vanished into thin air,' she gasped out.

Jack stopped in his tracks. 'Now?' he called out. 'You have to start this now?'

The TARDIS hummed away. Normally she went with the flow; here, there, and everywhere. The Doctor was always the Doctor. People came and went but there were two who were very close to her heart. In a sense they were part of her, each imbued with her core energy.

Being so connected she always had sense of them. Once she had run to the end of the universe to escape Jack but now that energy was cause for comfort.

The other one was more special than he could imagine. She had been touched more profoundly than even the Doctor knew. You see, it was not been her who had saved Ianto, he had saved her. In her darkest moments when she had been denied the comfort of the Doctor, used as the engine for great evil, she had been in danger of losing her true self for ever. In her most desperate moment she had reached out and touched a mind filled with reservoirs of courage and fortitude. Finding solace, she had found the will to hold on.

She had taken one and a half centuries to find a way to thank him, then via an ocean of serendipity, it happened, a distress call.

An adventure where his partner may learn that Ianto has not lost his resourcefulness.

An adventure where maybe he could recover a part of himself lost due to the Master's malice.

A real adventure with puzzles, surprises with some funny parts, scary parts and loads of running, where everything turned out all right at the end.