Characters: Ianto, The tenth doctor, Rose

Pairing: Jack/Ianto

Setting: After children of Earth

(Note: I'm not making it a crossover because... well I'm not)

Previously:"You should have told him that he can't go back right away!" Rose was screaming at him, jabbing her finger into his chest "Do you think I had that option Rose?" he scoffed "you know how it works. I can't tell him anything about the future or it'll change. Besides it's only a few months"

Ianto

Pain doesn't even touch on the agony that I felt. the light pulsed through me, burning, crushing and then rejuvinating. The darkness crushed me like a vice, I was dust. There was no light, no beginning and no end to the torture. Until at last, there was.

I could feel the softness of a matress aginst my skin, and smelled the tangy stench only metal can be responsible for. I was alive. I opened my eyes to find another set looking right into mine. "JESUS!" I screamed, and promptly rolled off the bed and onto the ground. Rose stood over me, laughing hysterically, tears streaming down her face "Oh God, I do not get to do that enough! Sorry Ianto but your face was just what I needed to perk up my morning."

I was still stunned, and sat in silence on the carpet "HE'S AWAKE!" Rose yelled and turned to leave, but thought the better of it and whisked back around. "It's great to meet you in person Ianto" she smiled warmly at me and I felt a lot better about the earlier incident, though my heart was still racing. "It's good to meet you too Rose" She nodded and winked at me "It's probably best if you put some clothes on before you come outside." With that she was off. I looked down and found she wasn't lying. I blushed deeply and pulled on the clothes that lay across a chair by the door before leaving.

Striding out into the atrium I saw the doctor and Rose immersed in conversation over tea, a third cup waiting on the table. In my rush to get it I was sure I would break something, probably the sound barrier. The milky sweetness remined me of how much I'd missed these little things when I couldn't have them anymore. "Thank you, For this" I gestured down to myself.

The doctor smiled and nodded "Don't worry about it mate, Jack's gotten us out of a few tight spots, It's the least I could do" Rose opened her mouth to speak, and promptly closed it again, afraid to speak. "What is it?" they shared a look and the doctor gulped. "Ianto... you can't go back home right away". I couldn't breathe, my heart stopped beating. "why not?" I managed to choke out. "The world's in trouble and needs Jack. Jack alone. He'll work harder and faster if he knows you're coming soon, but not at all if you're with him"

I sat, fists clenched between my knees for a while, processing this new information. After an eternity of silence I breathed out slowly. "Okay. How long? How long until I can go back to him?" Rose managed a weak smile at me, probably relieved that I hadn't strangled the doctor. "Three months at most but likely less than a month. It'll feel a lot longer though Ianto" I frowned, confused again. "What do you mean it'll feel like longer, time is time, isn't it?" Rose laughed dryly. "Not with him it's not! We'll be time travelling the whole time Ianto, so we'll be flicking back and forth between living in the past or future and living in the present. It feels like longer but it's the same amount of time.

I shook my head. "It sounds complicated and honestly I just want to keep things simple. From now on I'm just going to go with it and trust you, but as soon as I am physically able to go back, you have to tell me. Literally that millisecond I want to know and go. Okay?" They nodded in agreement and I relaxed my grip of the chair. "So. Where do we start?"

" Despite the weird time flicking thing. this is very similar to the work Torchwood does" I told Rose as we sat down together, it had been a month since I'd woken up and I'd been in 17 different centuries since then. "Yeah, so I've heard" we caught eachothers eyes and laughed, sitting down to eat with the doctor. "Alright you two, calm down! I know excersise makes you happy but you two are just too chirpy for my likng" I chortled away to myself as he sat muttering to himself at his end of the table. I could see why him and Jack had become friends, after all they say opposites attract.

"The one time we haven't been in recently is our own, Is that on purpose?" I raised an eyebrow at the doctor who shrugged " Not really, there's been no reason for us to go there until now" with that he sprinted off. I looked at Rose for some gague of what was happening but she had the same blank expression of someone who was used to being out of the loop. "Buckle up you two! we're going home!"

The landing was shaky at best but the now familiar noises of London filtering in through the door meant we'd arrived. "Ianto?" The doctor had a huge grin on his face as he walked back into the room. "It's time."