Characters: Cpt.Jack, Ianto, Gwen

Pairing: Jack/Ianto

Setting: After children of Earth

Previously: "Jack, he's gone okay? There's nothing you or I can do about it. I loved him too but he would want us to move on." Gwen was holding his hand, making him feel better. I felt a familiar pang of jealousy. This was not going to be fun.

Ianto

I was empty, and not just in a literal sense because as a ghost I, Obviously, wouldn't have a solid body. The feeling of complete and utter helplessness filled me. A ghost of me was not what he needed. Jack needed a real person, someone he could talk to and go out with and even just to make him coffee... not a spectre that he couldn't even hear.

But he had sensed my presence, and the look on his face made me wonder if he really did love me, if he'd felt about me the same way as I had about him, even if he told me not to. It hurt a part of me to see him like this. This was not the strong, charismatic, innuendo enthusiast I had loved.

No, this was the man I wish I'd had a chance to know, to help even, because if he hid all of this under the surface... who knew what else he might be hiding. I just wanted to be there for him the way he had been for me.

I knew it had taken a lot for Jack to hold me that day in that room and tell me that it was his fault, I think he was trying to say sorry for not telling me everything, about his daughter, his grandson... the first handover. Jack must be in the worst mind frame right now... he just lost his grandson and by extension his daughter and his... me.

Gwen took her hand off his and stood up. "Come on Jack, it's time for us to get out there, I'm sure the rift has been working overtime since we've not been there to stop it" She was right of course, count on Gwen to be the most practical one in Torchwood. "You're right, check the computer, see if there's something we can go and do"

That was he start of Jack working non-stop, day and night, for three weeks. They didn't talk about me again until Gwen decided to ask a question that I was wondering about too. I'd overheard her telling Rhys all about the morgue, and everything that came afterwards so when she finally worked up the courage to ask Jack about it I held my breath (figuratively).

"Jack?" "Mmm?" "That day, in the morgue, when you came back... you looked at me beside... and it was almost as if you expected something else when you looked there..." "Oh. I was hoping that he'd come back too. I was too late anyway. The kiss didn't work." I snorted. That's why he'd kissed me, to bring me back too. Maybe that's why I'm here. He might have been too late to bring me back to a mortal form, but what if this is what happens when you don't fully return? "Back to work" Jack called gruffly, walking into his office, and that was that.

*************************************** LATER THAT WEEK**********************************************

This was not good. The pier was empty now except for three men, myself, and Jack. Jack was in chains, pinned to the hole filled wall of a metal canister. The people Torchwood has to deal with sometimes... They clearly had no idea that Jack was immortal, otherwise they wouldn't just throw him into the ocean without securing some sort of weights to it.

"Right lads, throw him in. I'm getting tired of standing around and we have business elsewhere" Two heavy set men lifted the canister and I heard Jack take a deep breath before they threw it over the edge of the pier.

I choked out a small noise and reassured myself that he was coming back, in fact I could go and watch him reanimate. I swam down to him, though it was dark I could see perfectly the fear in his eyes as his lungs began to fill.

The twinkle in his eye faded and his body slumped forwards in the chains. He was dead. That was when I saw it. He was standing right in front of himself, arms folded, figuring out how he'd remove the chains. I knew he only stayed dead for a minute or so, but he never told me that he became a ghost. "JACK!" I yelled at him, and he turned, disbelief all over his face. "Ianto?! I-" and then he was back in his body again. When his eyes opened, he looked right at the spot where I was, as if he could still see me. He released himself and swam to the surface, and as usual I followed.

"The Doctor" he spluttered out. "Find the Doctor, He'll bring you back to us Ianto." I couldn't tell if it was ocean water or tears that fell next.