It was another three hours before Jack and Ianto emerged from the bedroom showered and dressed but still very much wrapped in each other's arms.

'Do you want to go out to dinner tonight then?' Jack asked as he ran his fingers through the hair at the nape of Ianto's neck.

'Mmm,' the Welshman agreed. 'That will involve me having to go back home and get changed though instead of staying here with you.'

'It will be worth it,' Jack replied. 'As much as I'd love to stay in bed with you all day – I want to do this right.'

Ianto smiled and leaned in to kiss Jack again. 'Where shall I meet you?'

'I'll pick you up,' Jack said casually. 'About six thirty?'

'Okay,' Ianto replied. 'Let me write down my address.'

At six thirty on the dot, Jack pulled up outside Ianto's house; he got out and rang the doorbell.

When Ianto opened the door Jack gasped at the sight of him. Ianto was wearing a well cut tailored suit, with a deep red shirt and matching tie. He looked absolutely stunning and Jack found himself wondering exactly why this gorgeous young man wanted to go out on a date with him. He quickly pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind.

'Do I look alright?' Ianto asked, running his fingers through his hair. 'I wasn't sure where we're going. I can change if it's too much.'

'No,' Jack replied. 'It's perfect. You look gorgeous.'

Ianto blushed slightly. 'Yeah but you're biased.'

'Gorgeous,' Jack repeated, leaning in and pressing a soft kiss to Ianto's lips before taking his hand and leading him out of the house.

'Where are we going?' Ianto asked as he locked his front door, pocketing the keys.

'I know a little Italian place in town,' Jack replied and then he stopped and asked uncertainly, 'do you like Italian don't you?'

'I love it,' Ianto confirmed with a smile.

Jack smiled and felt himself begin to relax as they approached his car; however when Ianto spotted what car it was that Jack was driving, he stopped dead in his tracks.

'Are you ok?' Jack asked as he pressed the button on the key to disable the central locking.

'That's a Porsche,' Ianto replied.

'Yeah,' Jack smiled at the awestruck look on Ianto's face.

'That's your Porsche.'

'Yes it is,' Jack confirmed. 'Would you like to get in?'

'Er – yeah,' Ianto replied as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. He opened the passenger door and slid inside.

Jack watched Ianto's face as he looked at the interior of the car. His eyes had lit up like a kid at Christmas.

'I take it you're a bit of a petrol head then are you?' Jack asked with a smile.

'Oh yeah,' Ianto replied. 'I love cars. Always have done, ever since I was a kid. I could never own something like this though. How can you afford it Jack?'

'Work pays pretty well,' Jack shrugged. 'I'm a Captain for Torchwood Airlines.'

'Really?' Ianto said with amazement as Jack started the car and pulled away from the curb. 'You're a pilot?'

'Used to be,' Jack replied. 'These days I work as a trainer and assessor. I just watch other people fly the planes and make sure they're up to scratch. I still do the odd hop over to Europe every now and then though to keep my hours up.'

'I used to want to be a pilot when I was a kid.'

'Did you?' Jack replied. 'I always wanted to fly. I wanted to join the Air force when I left school.'

'Why didn't you?' Ianto asked.

Jack was quiet for a moment before answering, 'Lucia died – Alice's mother,' he explained in response to Ianto's questioning look.

'Oh,' Ianto said suddenly embarrassed. 'I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry.'

'We're on a date Ianto,' Jack smiled affectionately. 'That's what dates are for, getting to know each other.'

'Yeah but I didn't want to upset you.'

'I'm not upset, honestly. It was twenty one years ago and we weren't even together when she died, not really. I'll never forget about her, but I am over it.'

'Okay,' Ianto replied.

'So anyway,' Jack continued returning to the original conversation. 'Suddenly I was twenty and a single father to a three year old girl. That made joining the military near impossible. I would've been away from home too much.'

'So you became an Airline pilot?'

'Seemed like the next best thing,' Jack grinned. 'The hours were slightly more family friendly – well at least they were after the first couple of years. I wanted to be the one to raise Alice, not leave it up to her Grandparents. Not that they didn't help me out a hell of a lot as well.'

Ianto smiled and at that moment Jack pulled the car into the car park of the restaurant.

'This is the place,' he grinned and jumped out of the car, racing around to the passenger side, he opened the door for Ianto, with a dramatic flourish.

'Thanks,' Ianto said, laughing at Jack's over the top gesture. 'Does this make me the woman?'

'No,' Jack said with a twinkle in his eye. 'After the things we've been doing today I can say with absolute certainty that you're definitely all male.'

Ianto bit his lip as the memory of Jack's caresses washed over him. He blushed again and briefly wondered if Jack would always be able to make him blush like that, if the fluttering in his chest was anything to go by he suspected that he would.

When they were seated in the restaurant and the waiter brought their food, Jack and Ianto settled into easy conversation.

'I went to university in London,' Ianto told Jack. 'I studied Computer Science – Mam always said I'd be able to earn a living in computers.'

'She was right,' Jack smiled.

'Well I work in IT support so I suppose she was.'

'But it's not what you really want to do?'

Ianto shrugged. 'I don't know what I really want to do. I'm still waiting to feel like a grown up.'

Jack laughed. 'Trust me that feeling never goes away.'

'Great,' Ianto sighed.

'So why did you move back from London?' Jack asked diplomatically.

'Because I broke up with my boyfriend,' Ianto replied.

Jack looked down at the table briefly. He remembered that Ianto had said he'd recently come out of a relationship and Jack admitted to himself that he was curious about the details, however he didn't want to seem like he was prying.

'Sorry, tell me to mind my own business.'

'No it's fine,' Ianto smiled. 'His name was Owen. I met him when I was nineteen; he was twenty four, training to be a Doctor. I moved in with him after I graduated, everything was great – until I came home early one day and found him in bed with somebody else, a nurse from the hospital he was working at.'

'Ouch,' Jack replied, 'male or female?'

'Male,' Ianto confirmed. 'So we had a blazing row and I left; I put in an application for a job at the Welsh Assembly and a month later I was back in Cardiff.'

Jack shook his head. 'What an idiot.'

'Me or him?' Ianto frowned.

'Him!' Jack exclaimed. 'How could he have even thought about being with anyone else when he had you? You're amazing.'

Ianto shifted in his chair embarrassed, something that Jack picked up on.

'Don't be embarrassed,' he said gently. 'It's true, you are amazing. If you were mine I'd tell you that everyday.'

Ianto looked into Jack's eyes for some hint of a lie, but he found none. He smiled.

'So what about you?' Ianto asked. 'Any psycho exes you need to warn me about?'

Jack looked slightly shifty. 'Not really,' he replied. 'It was hard for me to get serious about anybody – you know – because of Alice.'

'It must've been tough,' Ianto said sympathetically.

'You could say that,' Jack replied. 'You have to understand, I was born in 1968. Being gay had only just stopped being a criminal offence. It wasn't something that was ever openly talked about at least it wasn't in my house. I just – I had this friend at school, John Smith his name was. I had such a crush on him.'

Ianto smiled at that although he felt a brief spike of jealousy flare up inside him. He told himself not to be so stupid. He was jealous of someone that the man who wasn't even really his boyfriend yet had had a crush on at school years ago. He was being ridiculous.

Jack carried on speaking, unaware that Ianto was berating himself internally.

'I thought that there was something wrong with what I was feeling so I hid it away inside. I didn't want to acknowledge it.'

Ianto just nodded, understanding but not really able to imagine how it must have felt to grow up in that time. He'd always felt able to express himself and his sexuality. He supposed that he was one of the lucky ones.

'I met Lucia when I was fifteen,' Jack continued. 'She was beautiful, intelligent, everything that I thought I was supposed to want, even though deep down I knew I didn't. I'd been dating her for a year when she got pregnant.'

'Did you ever tell her?' Ianto asked.

Jack grimaced. 'She found out. Six months after Alice was born she found me with someone.'

Ianto looked down at his hands.

'I'm not proud of it,' Jack said, knowing that Ianto was probably thinking about his own experience with Owen. 'I know it was wrong.'

'I'm not judging you Jack,' Ianto reassured him. 'It's hardly the same situation as mine.'

Jack smiled slightly. 'Even so – I'm not proud of myself. It was just ... it was like there was this burning desire inside me that needed to escape. I couldn't fight it anymore. Anyway, after that we separated. We still lived in the same house, for Alice's sake but we stopped being a couple. We were more like roommates. After a while we even managed to be friends again.'

'That's good,' Ianto smiled.

'Yeah,' Jack agreed. 'But it was only after Lucia died that I thought about doing the whole 'gay scene' thing again and I decided to keep it secret. I didn't want Alice to be bullied at school because of me.'

'I can understand that.'

Jack smiled and reached across the table and took Ianto's hand in his, caressing it lightly.

'You know you look beautiful in the candlelight,' he said causing Ianto to blush again.

'You're not so bad yourself, Captain.'

Jack shivered at the phrase.

'Do you want to get out of here?' Ianto suggested.

Jack signalled the waiter for the bill.

The couple barely made it out of the restaurant and into Jack's car before they started kissing each other passionately.

'God Ianto,' Jack gasped when they pulled back for air. 'What the hell have you done to me?'

'I don't know,' Ianto replied kissing Jack's neck. 'But I like it. Shall we go back to yours?'

He felt Jack hesitate so he paused his ministrations.

'Don't you want to?'

'It's not that,' Jack sighed, bringing his fingers up to stroke Ianto's neck.

'What is it then?'

'Alice will be coming round in the morning. I take Stephen to school for her when she's on an early shift.'

'Oh,' Ianto replied not really sure of what to say. He still wasn't sure how he felt about hiding things from Alice but it was early days, he told himself. Surely Jack would tell her when he was ready – if things became more serious.

'Strange being reminded that you're making out with a Grandpa huh?' Jack asked, his tone light, although Ianto thought he detected a note of insecurity behind the words. He shook his head.

'It's not that Jack. It's just ...' Ianto trailed off. 'What time will she be over?'

'About seven thirty.'

'How about if I promise to be gone well before seven thirty in the morning, can I come over then?'

Jack smiled and started the car.