I wanted to thank all those people who reviewed including katie, Cape-Cod-Kwassa-Kwassa, janto-gal, JonesHazelJones, Candybree, Tayla, SupernaturalGal6, Bluerock 7, lil red cap, and enzymion. Thank you!

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Chapter #2: Hello Again

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Ianto blinked at the two Jacks, one standing in the door to the Hub and the other over by the couch. "I'm sorry. Did something happen?"

The Jack by the door laughed loudly. "Oh. Oh I missed that. Those lovely long vowels. No one else ever said them like you."

That just made Ianto blink again and turn to the Jack by the door. Apparently that Jack was insane. "I'm sorry?"

The insane Jack waved him off as he walked further into the Hub. "Nothing. Nothing. Never mind. Just—" He turned to pin Ianto with a startlingly clear gaze. "How are you?" And it even sounded as if he really wanted to know.

"Um." Ianto blinked a third time, unaccustomed to anybody asking about his health. "I'm fine, sir."

"Sir?" The insane Jack looked delighted by this. "Sir!" he repeated again, almost joyously as he approached Ianto. "Oh I remember that! It used to drive me absolutely crazy." Now within a foot of Ianto, the insane Jack leered suggestively. "Not in a bad way though."

"Oh I did not need to know that!" Owen cried out, disgusted, and put his hands over his ears and his head on his desk.

Ianto used all his willpower not to blush, staring straight ahead instead.

The insane Jack looked a little disappointed. "What. No blush? Nothing? Come on work with me here. I need to see a little color."

Ianto decided to address the Jack that was across the room. Hopefully he was less insane. "Sir?" he used stubbornly, not about to change his speaking habits just because his boss was acting strange. "Why are there two of you?"

The Jack across the room did not look pleased by his double's actions. "Meet me," he said scornfully, "Thirty-one years into the future."

Ianto whipped around to stare at the insane Jack, who was still smiling but less suggestively now even as his eyes roamed Ianto's body.

The Jack across the room sighed and ran a hand through his hair before explaining, "He fell through the Rift."

Ianto's eyes went up and down the future Jack's body, trying to find any differences. "You haven't aged," he finally said as he turned back to Present Jack.

Owen raised his head at this to sneer. "Brilliant deduction, Sherlock. Can't say we noticed."

Ianto wouldn't be goaded into a fight and so he gave Future Jack one last look over before turning back to the others. "Would anybody like some coffee?" It seemed like they might need it.

"Oh me!" Future Jack said, visibly brightening and raising his hand excitedly. "Me! I need some coffee. I haven't had your coffee in ages. Sara. Sara!" Future Jack turned to the dark haired woman he had come in with. "You need to try his coffee. It's even better than Erin's."

Sara, as her name apparently was, looked intrigued by this. "Really?" she asked as she turned to Ianto. "You don't mind do you?"

Ianto gave his usual small smile. "Of course not. I'll go find you a cup." And he was just about to go do that too, when Present Jack spoke up.

"Don't bother," he said, looking over at Future Jack and Sara with a serious expression. "These two were just about to be put away."

This made Gwen look up, having stepped out from behind Future Jack to go sit at her desk while this conversation was playing out. "Put away?" she echoed, feeling that nothing that sounded that foreboding could be good. "What do you mean by put away?"

"People from the near future that fall through the Rift get frozen and put away until the right year comes," Owen explained in his usual blunt fashion. He shrugged. "No big deal."

Gwen looked wide-eyed at this new information. "No big deal?" she repeated incredulously. "Of course it's a big deal! They're frozen."

Present Jack sighed irritably, not wanting to get into this just now. "Look. It's for the best."

Gwen just looked appalled. "How can being frozen be for the best?"

"It just is, okay?" Present Jack said impatiently, turning on his newest employee as he tried to press this point on her mind. "Trust me. It is." Then he turned to the two visitors from the future. "Now come on. Don't make this any more difficult than it has to be."

But before either Future Jack or Sara could react to that, Gwen was up out of her chair and shaking her head. "Oh no, no, no, no, no you aren't. You are not freezing people while I'm here!"

Present Jack looked even more irritated by this. "This is standard procedure, Gwen."

"So?" was Gwen's answer to that. "Just because you've always done something doesn't make it right."

"You know, Gwen, I don't mind," Future Jack said, obviously trying to avoid a fight though he couldn't quite seem to drag his eyes away from Ianto. Finally his eyes turned from watching Ianto's calm expression to look to Gwen. "I mean, it is procedure."

"Well, maybe you don't, but I do," Sara said indignantly. "I'm not being frozen."

"See Jack?" Gwen said as if this proved something. "She doesn't want to be frozen either."

Present Jack tried to take a deep breath in to steel himself for dealing with Gwen's pesky morality. But he found he couldn't do it. "You know what? I don't have time for this. Ianto? Take Gwen upstairs. We need to get this show on the road."

Ianto inclined his head in deferral to Jack's orders. "Yes, sir."

"What?" Gwen demanded as Ianto stepped in her direction. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no," she said, taking a step away from Ianto and holding up her hands to ward him off. "You are not shutting me away right now. I—"

Before she could say anything else the Rift alarm started to sound loudly and she fell silent, looking up to the ceiling where she thought the Rift alarm originated from. Ianto stopped moving in her direction, recognizing that Jack's orders would probably be different now that the alarm had gone off.

Putting a hand to his head, Present Jack closed his eyes and took another deep breath, his whole attitude one of 'What next?'. Then he opened his eyes and turned to Tosh to see how bad things were.

"Tosh?"

Busy tapping at her keyboard, Tosh brought up image after image on the CCTV to see what was happening. "An alien ship just crashed into Burton's," she reported.

"Burton's?" Present Jack repeated, obviously never having heard of the place.

"It's that new department store down in the business district. It just opened up about a month ago," Gwen supplied.

"And of course, you would know all about it," Owen sneered.

"Hey," Gwen said defensively, "I shop."

"Right," Owen said sarcastically, eyeing her casual jeans and t-shirt with skepticism.

"I do," Gwen insisted, uncomfortably crossing her arms over her chest to hide the t-shirt.

"Well whatever it is, you don't exactly have the time to freeze us right now," Sara pointed out. "You should really get going."

"She's right," Future Jack said, drawing his eyes away from Ianto again. "Alien spaceship. That sounds big. Bigger than us, at least."

Present Jack scowled, but obviously realized that they had a point. "I can't just leave you two here alone."

"We won't be," Future Jack said, starting to smile. "Ianto will be with us. He'll keep us out of all your stuff."

"The Tea-boy?" Owen asked scornfully, obviously thinking the idea ridiculous. "What's the Tea-boy going to do? Throw coffee on you? Yeah, that'll stop you."

That made Future Jack's smile dim somewhat and he gave Owen a somewhat displeased look even as Ianto continued to stand stiffly in the background, silent and unnoticed and ignoring all mockery.

"Ianto," Present Jack said, turning to the silent Welshman. "Do you think you could handle these two for a bit? We won't be long."

Ianto inclined his head once more in deferral to Jack's wishes. "Yes, sir."

Future Jack turned away from Owen and looked back to Ianto with a small frown, as if he didn't like the way Ianto was acting.

But Present Jack nodded, knowing that he could trust Ianto to follow his orders if nothing else. Letting out a long breath, he said, "Well it's the best we can do." Then he clapped his hands together and started rallying the team. "So come on. Let's get going. Alien spaceship and all that."

"I can't believe you," Owen said, turning to Present Jack incredulously. "You're actually going to leave them alone with the Tea-boy? We'll come back and the whole place will be torn apart."

Present Jack gave Owen a stern look. "Like I said. It's the best we can do. Now get going."

It was a quick five minutes, but then Present Jack and the current Torchwood team were out the door to deal with the spaceship leaving Future Jack, Sara, and Ianto in the Hub alone.

Future Jack plopped down on the worn couch in the middle of the Hub with a smile as he turned to Ianto. "Now how about that coffee?"

"Yes, sir." Ianto nodded and left to go retrieve two cups from the back room. Coming back into the main area of the Hub, he poured each visitor a cup and handed these out.

Sara took hers to sit on the couch next to her boss, holding her cup between her hands for the warmth, while Future Jack took his with another smile and made room for Ianto to sit on his other side. "Sit down with us, will you?"

This was a little strange, not something Ianto was used to, so he tried to decline. "I really shouldn't, sir. I have work to do."

"I always did wonder what you got up to when we were out," Jack said, looking at Ianto with new curiosity. "What do you have to do? Maybe I can help."

"Oh, there's no need. I can handle it just fine, sir," Ianto said and then quickly left to go find something to clean. He really didn't have anything to do, but he found himself thinking it would be best if he didn't sit with this future version of his boss, especially as this version seemed just a little too eager to make his acquaintance. Lord knows what Ianto would be convinced to do by the end of the day. It was best to just avoid all temptation.

An awkward hour passed as Ianto tried to continue his tidying up of the Hub with Jack watching his every move. At one point Sara leaned in closer to his boss to make a comment and Ianto had to try his hardest to pretend that he hadn't heard.

"I've never seen you this happy before," Sara said, obviously talking about the small smile that had not disappeared from Future Jack's face since the others had left. "And you're usually only this focused when there's a crisis," she continued. "What gives?"

"It's just nice to see them again, that's all," Future Jack said with a smile and a casual shrug, finally turning away from Ianto to look at his employee. He was obviously trying for nonchalance, but he was also failing horribly at it as he had been noticeably staring a hole in Ianto's back for the past 60 minutes.

"Bullshit," Sara said bluntly. "I mean, yeah, I can see you missing them and all, but you've been staring at that coffee guy like all your Christmases have come at once and you're ready to open the presents already."

Future Jack looked mildly indignant. "I have not."

"Yeah, you have. You're being bloody unsubtle about it as well. We usually have to use a tank to get anything personal out of you and now you're practically shouting your feelings from the rooftop."

To his credit, Future Jack didn't try to deny the obvious. "Well, okay, fine. It's just that Ianto . . . well, Ianto was special."

Ianto fumbled with the cup he had been picking up from Tosh's desk, nearly letting it fall out of his hands and onto the desk before he got a better hold on it. Had he just heard what he thought he'd heard?

"Hey, Ianto!" Future Jack called out. "You okay over there?"

"Just fine, sir," Ianto said hurriedly, not turning to look at the future version of his boss. He knew what he'd heard, but what did that mean? It couldn't mean . . . No. No, that would be silly.

Another few minutes passed and Ianto found himself with even less to busy himself with. It was starting to become obvious that he was just trying to ignore Jack's future self. And when he found himself cleaning Owen's workspace for the fifth time, Jack finally called him on it.

"Are you ignoring me?"

"What?" Ianto turned and tried to appear surprised by this question. "Of course not, sir. Why would I ignore you?"

Future Jack obviously looked straight through this fake surprise. "That's what I want to know. Is something wrong?"

"Of course not. What could be wrong?"

"Then why don't you come sit down by me?" Future Jack asked, looking at Ianto with only curiosity.

Sara took this time to take her drink and move to a spot on the stairs, leaving the couch open for Ianto to sit. There went that excuse.

Ianto tried to think of ways he could get out of this, but nothing was coming to mind. Finally, he just said, "Do you think that would really be wise?"

Future Jack smiled triumphantly, obviously knowing that he had won. "I think it would be perfectly wise. After all, you're just sitting near me. What could be bad about that?"

What could indeed.

Still Ianto paused before walking slowly over to Jack's side and sitting down cautiously on the very edge of the couch, fully prepared to jump up and leave at any moment.

Future Jack smiled at him tenderly, which was incredibly strange and almost made Ianto leave right then. "Come on. Sit back. I'm not going to bite. I promise."

Not quite trusting him, Ianto still slowly sank back in the seat so that his back touched the cushions of the couch.

"Now," Future Jack said, giving all of his attention to the young man next to him. "I don't think you ever really properly answered my question. How are you?"

Ianto was sure he'd answered that question before and he frowned slightly, a little confused. "I'm fine, sir."

"Okay, good," Jack said with a nod, looking for a moment like he would actually accept that. But then he turned his startlingly clear gaze right back on Ianto and asked again, "Now tell me the truth. How are you?"

Ianto only looked more confused. What did this Jack want him to answer? Normally, just the assurance that Ianto was fine was enough for him and Jack would either happily go back to whatever he'd been doing before Ianto had entered the room or set to his seduction plans without another question.

And, seeing his confusion, Jack smiled again, though there was an almost sad edge to it. "Oh right. You're not used to me actually caring. I remember now." Future Jack frowned and looked down into his drink. "You know," he started musingly then looked back up at Ianto, "I never should have done that to you. I was a bastard for a good year if I remember correctly."

Ianto looked a little worried at this new line of conversation and started to inch away, preparing to leave. "Careful, sir. I don't think I'm supposed to know this."

Future Jack smiled. "Oh don't worry. You retcon this entire experience from memory just as soon as I leave. Which really just leaves everything so open for questions. So tell me." He regarded Ianto with a grin. "What do you want to know? I'll tell you anything, just ask."

Still somewhat wary of this line of conversation, Ianto still looked at this Jack curiously. He could ask anything? Anything at all? He knew he really shouldn't, but . . . No, he couldn't. It wouldn't be right. It wouldn't . . . But Jack would never have to know.

Clearly understanding that Ianto was conflicted, Future Jack's grin softened and he said, "Nobody has to know. Just think of it as a way to make up for what a bastard I've been lately. "

Well . . .

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TBC?