5

Jack woke to an empty bed.

Damn it, he was using his technique of avoidance again.

It was early and he wandered out as he smelt coffee brewing. He found fresh coffee by the machine and carried his cup through to the living room. Ianto was sitting watching the sunrise, the sofa pulled over to the windows.

"Hey" Jack said softly, settling in the cushions.

Waiting.

"Intruders" Ianto said softly, "We were taught, you run and hide but a drill and the real thing are so different, at the time."

"They were after you?" Jack asked.

"No. Yes. No." Ianto frowned, "They knew it was someone in the block, but not who" he turned and faced Jack.

"Someone who did what?" Jack leaned back and took a sip.

"Someone who had hacked into the government servers and wiped the records of several covert operatives" Ianto shrugged.

"And they thought it was your house?"

"Well …" Ford winked and Jack suddenly remembered a horse of an entirely different colour was taunting him.

"By the Goddess, why did you do that?" Jack hissed.

"Mycroft was in a spot of bother and the only way out was a wee bit of work for someone, I shouldn't be telling you but … I want to. I want you to understand that my irrational fear of small spaces comes from the fucking crawl space we hid in for almost five hours before they ripped up the floor boards and found us."

"At eight? He was fucking things up that young? So … what did they do?"

"We put on an epic performance of having been stuck while playing hide-n-seek and were so scared." He snorted, "They were so taken with little Locky's sobbing that it never occurred to them that all three of us were down there so no one was actually seeking. Bloody fools"

"Seriously?"

"Well, they were Unit Boe, not half as suspicious as us" Ford snorted, then sobered again.

"So even then you were cleaning up Mycroft's mess by throwing yourself on his bombs?" Jack asked with sorrow.

"He was my brother."

"Was?"

"When he sold me to Torchwood and walked away, like I was a bloody piece of livestock." Ford looked away, "Fucker didn't even blink."

Jack wondered if this was a story or real.

Sickeningly, he believed him.