DON'T LOOK NOW: 14
The Doctor stood behind Tosh, who was working at her terminal, his hands were shoved deep into his trouser pockets and he excitedly bounced on the balls of his feet as he watched her in action. He was grinning at Jack, finally understanding why Jack had turned down the opportunity to dance among the stars with him on one exciting adventure after another. Jack's eccentric team truly were brilliant, Toshiko with her enquiring mind and undoubted technical know how. Dr Harper with his brusque manner and deep compassion and Gwen the doey eyed human heart of the group, who seemed to energise her team mates and remind them of they were there in the first place. Finally the Doctor had a Torchwood that he could trust to do the right thing and he was infinitely proud of the work that Jack had put into it. Moreover he was delighted that Jack had seemed to find some peace and purpose in his long life, perhaps this was the anchor that the man had needed. A place where he felt needed and could lead at the same time, as well do some good. He saw Jack smiling back at him before returning his attention to the young man he was talking to in his office. One Ianto Jones. Strangely the doctor remembered him from Canary Wharf, a fleeting glimpse through flame and smoke of a suited man standing at a fire exit directing his colleagues to what he thought had been safety. The Doctor shook his head and returned his attention to Toshiko's screens and realised she was pulling her glasses off and smiling up at him. Tosh was delighted to meet him again, this reincarnation was cuter than the last one.
"I'm all set here, all we have to do is hard wire your console into the Rift Manipulator and then we can begin the scans." She informed him.
The Doctor completely failed to hide his surprise. "Wow, thank you Miss Sato, come on then. I'm sure you'd like a peek inside the TARDIS."
Tosh's grin got notably wider and she veritably leapt out of her seat.
Jack returned his gaze to Ianto. In the month since the Doctor's arrival the young man had recovered well and was pretty much back to his old self, physically at least. He was still quiet and reluctant to talk about what had been happening, but in truth there hadn't been much time to talk. The clean up in London had taken a long time, following on from that was the fact that Ianto had made it his responsibility to Retcon his sister and her children and get them readjusted to the loss of two months worth of memory. Jack had been worried that the emotional toll would be too much, but Ianto handled it well, not willing to trust anyone else with his family members. Jack understood only too well how difficult Ianto found it to trust anyone, especially now. This week had seen more weevil alerts than there had been in the previous 6 months as the Rift, whilst not spewing things out at them had certainly been edgy. Owen's assumption that the Weevils were Rift sensitive could not be disputed. This week had also seen Ianto's return to full time duties which basically meant cleaning up the mess of the last 3 months and catching up on the back log of filing and cataloguing. So, no time.... until now. Ianto placed a stack of forms on Jack's desk.
"Expenses reports and case files that need signing off. Did you want some coffee to get you started?"
Jacked eyed him somewhat amused. "You think I can't cope with this without?"
"Thinking has got nothing to do with it." Ianto replied with that all knowing look on his face.
Jack was pleased to see some laughter in the younger man's eyes, it had taken long enough to get it there. He sighed rather dramatically and slumped into his chair behind his desk.
"You'd think in this day and age......"
Ianto didn't let him finish. "You'd only ignore the emails if I sent it electronically and you are rather too fond of that delete button." He teased and Jack was half tempted to get up and kiss away the cheeky grin on Ianto's face.
"Coffee would be wonderful and if we have any of those really nice chocolate biscuits?" He put on his best puppy look and Ianto, shaking his head, left the office.
The day passed quietly. Tosh was so excited, but extremely dignified, about getting inside the TARDIS and by late evening the scans were being done. It would be a slow process and the Doctor was more than content to let them run over night. He knew deep down that this self imposed break on Earth would have to end soon, but he was in no hurry. Tosh and the Doctor stepped into the Hub to find that only Owen remained as it was his turn on the 'graveyard' shift. Gwen had run home to Rhys and Jack had finally given up on signing things and had gone home to join Ianto, who had left a couple of hours before. Tosh dithered about double checking that the scanning program was doing as it should before plucking up the courage to see if the Doctor wanted to join her for dinner.
"There's a fantastic Turkish place overlooking the bay." She enthused, pulling on her coat.
The Doctor had donned his long brown coat. "You know what I really fancy some fish and chips, we should get some and take them back to Jack's."
Tosh smiled and pulled out her phone. "Sounds like a plan, I'll check in with Jack incase Ianto's cooked already."
The Doctor nodded, he kept forgetting just how domestic Jack had become.
Ianto picked up the phone and smiled on hearing Tosh's voice and quickly agreed to the dinner plans before hanging up. He went to the kitchen and put the coffee on and boiled the kettle for the Doctor's tea. He was happily pottering about his kitchen when the door bell rang. He knew it wasn't Jack as he had been called out to Flat Holm Island, must be Tosh then. Hitching up his track pants he padded bare foot to the front and opened it.
Ianto immediately back pedalled a couple of paces in shock.
"Tad?"
A sheepish grin alighted on his visitor's face.
"May I come in son? We need to talk!"
Ianto gaped disbelieving at the man on his doorstep, his stomach in knots. "You died 7 years ago." He suddenly felt incredibly vulnerable without his gun. "Who the hell are you?"
The man who looked to be in his early fifties, with greying dark curly hair held out two large placatory hands.
"Please Ianto, it's me Tad and we really do need to talk about what's been happening."
The man even sounded like his Tad, had that same glint in his dark blue eyes, completely off balance Ianto gestured him in and closed the door. He pointed to the couch and spoke as mechanically as he could, trying maintain some calm.
"Sit there."
Euan Jones, keeping his hands in plain sight did as he was told. Ianto grabbed his gun from the kitchen and then parked in the arm chair opposite the weapon held in one hand. They sat staring at one another for some time.
"Who are you?" Ianto asked again. There was no way that this man could be his father.
Euan rested his long hands on his knees and leant back into the couch. "I have a lot to explain, will you hear me out?"
Ianto chewed at his lip sincerely wishing that Jack was there, his grip tightened on the gun but his curiosity finally got the better of him so eventually he nodded. Part of him really wanting to believe that the man he had adored so much throughout his childhood was alive and well and sitting on his couch. Ianto half considered the possibility that he was losing it.
"It's a long story."
"I have plenty of time." Ianto answered. "Tell me."
"I am Euan Jones born in Cardiff 1950. When I was seventeen I joined the Euro Alliance as a volunteer serviceman. It meant I could get food credits for my family...."
Ianto frowned as realisation dawned on him but he remained quiet.
"War had been going on for decades between the Eastern Asians and the Euro Alliance. I was sent out as part of a recon team to investigate a strange radiation signal in Norway.... what we found was a gateway to another world.... this world. The gateway was unstable and would often close and then open again sometimes these events were months apart. Anyway the war took a nasty turn, biological weapons were used and the research staff based by the gateway and the battalion guarding it all escaped through the gate. 182 of us in total. Dr Mahinda the project leader guessed that the gateway would not open again for some years."
Ianto edged forwards a little. "So you were stranded here."
"Effectively. A core group of us decided to try and make our own way in the world, the rest.... well to be honest I have only recently discovered what they have been up to. It was 1980 here when we came through, so I went to Wales to try and find my family here, only to discover that they were all dead and that I was dating a pretty valleys girl......" He paused scrubbing his hands over his face and Ianto waited patiently for him to continue, though he had a pretty good idea about what he was going to be told.
"I did a terrible thing, at the time I was just trying to survive and build a new life for myself and I was still young and stupid. I stole Euan's life, I abducted him and held him prisoner for 22 years. I took his woman, who eventually became my wife and mother to our son and daughter......" He couldn't look at Ianto's shocked expression. Ianto just shook his head not wanting to accept what he was hearing.
"Then what happened?"
"I began to hear rumours, I wasn't the only one to steal an identity, but it was rumoured that the gateway had reopened and with that knowledge I knew I had to leave, try to get home. I wanted to take you all with me, but I knew that your Mam would never accept what I should have told her. I also knew that the only life for you all back in my world was likely to be post war, disease, starvation......."
"So you ran out on us?"
He nodded. "I brought my captive out into the light of day, gave him a drug to induce a fast growing cancer than dumped him at the hospital and disappeared. I left enough evidence around the house to convince your mother that I'd been hiding the fact that I had terminal cancer, getting into the local medical databases was easy."
As he spoke Ianto could feel his anger welling up and he fought hard not to raise the gun in his hand and shoot the man where he sat.
"You know about everything that's been happening, explain that."
"The others infiltrated Torchwood One and UNIT and another organisation called 'Freesearch', they began experiments seeking to find cures for the engineered bio weapons back on my Earth, they interbred with people here, tried cloning.... you name it they did it. I don't how exactly, I didn't want to get involved I felt guilty enough for taking away one man's life. I thought you'd be safe from them, if they thought I was dead. But you, you bloody fool got yourself recruited into Torchwood, they had tabs on you for years; I later found out had you and your sister were tagged when you were children..... I am sorry Ianto, truly I am. But I am your father, the man that raised you and loved you. I'm trapped here and now that the London operation has been shut down I finally felt safe enough to come out of hiding to explain everything to you."
Ianto was lost for words.