Fandom: Torchwood.
Title: As it should have been (It's been good, yeah?) - Chapter 3 - Proximity
Rating: PG-13.
Beta: None, yet. So sorry for any mistakes made during the translation.
Genre: Sci-Fi, drama, angst, adventure. Tragedy?
Warnings: In future chapters, too much angst and sex. Don't expect a very happy ending.
Paring; Jack/Ianto.
Summary: Post Miracle Day. A not exactly fix-it fic. Torchwood has been rebuilt, and Jack, Gwen plus a new member find themselves traped in the middle of a collision between alternative realities, a conspiracy and a Ianto who's alive but had never known anything about Torchwood.
Author's Notes: Sorry, for doing it so late. But see, last time I posted I had only seen the first chapter of Doctor Who, now I'm about to start series 3. So I'm forgiven, aren't I? :) Well, on the good side, things are starting to get sexy. Not that it wasn't sexy before because anything having Jack and Ianto is already sexy, but now is getting slash-sexy :P Plus, the enigma is starting to get sorted. I won't distract you long on the initial Author's Note so go an read! :)
Oh, and as you can see I have changed its title, it fits more. I kept the old one between breackets so you can know it's the same fanfic.
Previous chapter will be revised and posted again. But only me, so just basic mistakes that I didn't noticed. You won't see them again in your friend's page, be easy. :) The link to the songs on YouTube that I use in this chapter will be at the end.
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Chapter 3
Proximity
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"I brought lunch," announced Ianto when he entered the storehouse.
It had been four days since they'd entered into the new reality and a routine has started to be established. Ianto, who didn't have anyone that would wait for him flat and as the link between the team and this reality, he felt responsible for him, stayed for lunch and dinner with them. Jack and Gwen didn't have much to do yet. As they had only one computer at the moment- Ianto had bought them two more, they had to wait a few days for them to arrive, besides that this time they had decided not to steal this time, many memories from it-, they couldn't track the ones that had shot them. Miranda spent the entire day in front of her computer, doing sums and whispering to herself possible theories. So all that they had done so far was to turn the place into a more inhabitable one. That meant tiding it up a little and clean it, nevertheless they didn't manage that much until Ianto joined them. Besides, Jack was in charge of supervising Miranda, asking her reports once in a while, and Gwen searched in the stored clothes some that would be of use for them. However, she used to fail in finding the clothes that would fit them or go with their style- because even in different universes, style was something important, particularly to the captain-, and it ended up being Ianto who found the correct clothes for them. The classic pants and blue shirts for Jack, jeans for both women and black shirts for Miranda, that she used to wear open over a purple T-shirt.
"What did you brought?" asked Jack helping with the shopping.
"Not much," answered Ianto taking out a tin, "For now I brought beans and hot dogs."
"Beans?" questioned him Jack with an amused tone.
"Yes, why?" asked confused the young Welsh man.
"No, nothing," said the captain shaking his head with a smile reaching out his lips.
"Let me guess, inside joke?" said Ianto, raising a questioning eyebrow, when he saw that the other one wouldn't respond, he turned around to where the other two women where, "Miranda, Gwen, any clue as to why a tin of beans is funny?"
Miranda from behind her computer and Gwen who was choosing clothes for future changes of garments that were of the right size for everyone, shook their heads. Ianto turned to look at Hack but he didn't say anything, instead he looked for the tin opener.
Jack was waiting for him with it in his hands. When he took it, their hands inevitably touched each other, and Ianto tried to ignore the electric shock that he felt through the touch. Although he had always been good in wearing a mask that hid his feelings, it seem to crack when he was in the Captain's presence.
They were putting water for the hot dogs in a pot when suddenly they heard the sound of drums in the middle of the storehouse.
"Sorry!" exclaimed Miranda suddenly tuning off the volume of her computer.
"Hey! I thought you were working," complained Jack.
"Well, I was," said Miranda with a smile," But after 6 hours of work I needed a break. I forgot that I wasn't wearing the headphones."
"What song is it?" asked Jack.
"My alien by Simple Plan," answered the young woman.
"It's okay. Leave it," said the captain.
Miranda turn up again the volume of the song that was already in the chorus. Jack had already put the pot with water and hot dogs over the portable electric stove when he added:
"You know, I did had a girlfriend once that had two arms and four legs.
Ianto, who was chopping parsley and garlic, smiled incredulously.
"What? So you don't believe me?" asked him Jack going towards where he was and putting himself behind him, "What do I need to do to convince you?" said while he tried to make Ianto stop chopping so he could be in front of him.
The young Welsh man was trying to hide the smile in his lips while he did the Olympic task of ignoring Jack. None of them paid attention when the song ended, but then, whether by random or because Miranda had chosen it on purpose, another one started playing.
"Maybe I didn't treat you, quite as good as I should have," sang Elvis Presley.
The Jack's festive mood vanished to be replaced with a nostalgic seriousness. The lyrics talked about him and how he had treated Ianto. But now, with Ianto standing in front of him between his arms, he had a second chance. He put a hand over the young Welsh man's asking him to drop the knife. Ianto, who noticed right away the change of the environment, complied without complaining, and when Jack made him turn around so he was facing him, he also obeyed.
With Jack's hands in his waist and his head leaning in his shoulders started to dance. The deep intimacy of the moment didn't go unnoticed by Ianto. He was terrified by the attraction and connection he felt towards the man that a week ago he didn't knew. He wanted to escape, to run away but he couldn't help but to give himself in. As if that was all he could do, give in to this man of piercing blue eyes that irradiated masculinity from every pore melting away the last of his defences.
Jack pressed softly the young man against him, enjoying every inch of contact. Enjoying it twice for every opportunity he had had to do so but didn't. He wanted to be able to hold him in his arms like that forever. He wanted to have him in every possible way and never let him go.
"Give me, give me one more chance, to keep you satisfied."
Jack raised his head so he could look at him in the eye. Their noses almost touched and their breaths mixed into the other one. The tension of saying with a kiss all those things that he couldn't say out load increased with every note. Jack couldn't stop making love to him with his eyes, finding joy in seeing the soul that lived in those blue eyes and that he had once seen leaving them.
When the kiss was imminent and the intimacy of the moment was too much for Ianto to bear, he spoke.
"I should go," he said finally breaking the visual connexion.
He broke away fast from Jack's arms and rushed to the outside of the storehouse. Jack had already let him go like that once, and he wouldn't let it happen again.
"Ianto!" he screamed going after him, "Ianto!" he repeated when he reached him, "Wait," he said taking him by the arm.
Ianto turned around forced by the other's push.
"Don't go, tell me what's happening to you," he reclaimed.
"No... I..." his usual mask was too broken for him to even trying to use it.
"Please, tell me what's happening to you," begged Jack.
The word fought on Ianto's inside before finally getting out.
"It's... it's... it's that this is so fast!"
"Sorry," said Jack releasing him from his grip, "If you want me to step aside-"
"It doesn't matter! It's not it!" shouted Ianto desperate in almost a cry, "It's too late. I..."
A silence happened in which Jack silently begged him to continue while Ianto looked for a way to say what he felt.
"I'm scared, Jack," he confessed, "This is too fast, I barely know you but..."
This time it was Ianto who told him with his look all that he couldn't say. And Jack couldn't take it anymore, he took the other's face with his hand and kissed him passionately. Ianto kissed him back immediately with the same passion and opened his mouth, inviting him in. Jack didn't have to be asked twice and introduced his tongue, exploring each corner of that warm cave. Ianto's tongue joined the dance, increasing the passionate ferocity of the kiss. Somehow, he had ended up with his back on the wall, which was good, because it plus the strength which with Jack was holding him stopped him from falling to the ground. His knees had stopped working a long time ago.
Reluctantly, when the need to breath was to big, they broke apart. They caught their breath for a while without separating their foreheads.
"I should go," said Ianto, "No, really," he added after Jack's look, "I need to go back to work."
Jack smiled at him.
"Come on," he said, "are you telling me that you can eat a couple of hot dogs?"
"All right," resigned himself Ianto, he couldn't stop of giving in to this man.
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TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW
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"I need something to do. I get bored here," complained Gwen.
"Then it's your lucky day," told her Miranda sat in front of her computer as always, "I've found something that will require you getting out of this storehouse.
"Great!" exclaimed Gwen.
"What did you find?" asked Jack.
"There's going to be some Gap activity, not enough as to produce a spike, but yes enough as to be detected," explained Miranda, "And if I notices, probably whoever attacked us back in our reality, if they exist hear too, had noticed it too. And even if they aren't there, it would be good to get data of the Gap activity."
"Where do you want us to go?" asked Jack with a leg leaning over on of the chairs.
"Here you have the coordinates," said Miranda handing in a paper to Jack.
"And what do we do if we find them?" asked Gwen.
Miranda smiled and took something from his bag.
"Micro-locators from the 33rd century," she said showing in her hand some thin devices not more big than a bean, "Try to put them to one of them or their car. The good thing about this technology is that it's untraceable by anything before to the 31st century. They won't be able to know that we're following them," she said with a smile.
"Sometimes I wonder how many things you carry on that bag of yours," asked Jack with a smile too.
"Bah," diminished the comment Miranda, "you're just happy that I carry about everything."
"Nevertheless," said Gwen, "what were you doing with locators in your bag?"
Miranda just shrugged.
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The coordinates that Miranda gave them took Jack and Gwen to a deserted house. Degradedly, they had had to walk ten blocks after getting off a bus that didn't pass any closer. The lack of the SUV was felt, although in the other hand, being an undercover case on the chance that the people who shot them were there, it was an advantage.
"Let's enter by the back yard," said Jack to Gwen, "so they don't see us."
Gwen nodded while she prepared the gun in her hand.
The yard looked inoffensive. With no latent threat at sight. Nevertheless, Gwen couldn't shake off an awkward feeling of her shoulders.
"There's something wrong here," she whispered to Jack.
"Yes, there is," agreed Jack, "Look at the grass."
"What with it? It's mowed," said Gwen confused.
"Exactly. It's too neat for just a deserted house. Anyone can see us from the inside," he said pointing to the house.
"So what do we do?" asked Gwen.
"Cross our fingers and expect that nobody is looking out the window," answered Jack.
They came up to the back door where they both stayed at its sides. After exchanging a glance, they both broke in the house. They couldn't make more than two steps that they were surrounded by guns pointed at them.
"If I were you I would drop the guns and stay very quiet in there with the hands where we can see them," said a man dressed in a lab coat coming out from between the group of militarized men dressed in black that were pointing at them with their guns.
Once they both left their guns on the floor, the man came closer. He was bald with a short bear covering the inferior part of his face. He wore rectangular glasses and carried his hands in the pockets of his lab coat, under which he wore a light blue shirt and beige pants.
"Well, well. Who do we have here?" he said while he paced around them, "But if they are our friends coming from the other reality," then he stopped at Jack's side, "And where's the girl? It was three the ones that came here."
Jack didn't answered.
"So we aren't going to collaborate, are we? Well, it doesn't matter," he said and put himself in front with his hand under his own chin as who studies a puzzle, "Look, I don't care who you are nor what you're doing, there's nothing that you could do that could interfere with our plans. If I were you, I would enjoy this two remaining weeks."
"What do you mean?" asked Jack suddenly serious, despite that until then he was taking it with his usual joking mood.
"That very soon there's not going to be any more two of you, nor two of anything."
"And what does that mean?" asked Gwen from Jack's side.
"Oh, darling," said the man turning around to look at her, "Do you really think that we, Doctors, are going to tell you everything?" next he walked away from them to say an order, "Spencer, check them."
Spencer, a blonde shy guy also dressed with a white lab coat but closed, came to them and started taking out their devices. First, he took from their bluetooth headphones, their mobile phones and from Gwen, the tricorder that she had taken to make the reading from the Gap.
"Interesting technology," said the man in the lab coat snatching the tricorder from Spencer's hands and inspecting it, "Very advanced," he pointed out.
The man started pushing buttons on the tricorder until the screen was activated, he inspected it a bit more before speaking again.
"Interesting," he said once more, "So it seems that you can identify Gap activity. And what am I going to do with you?" he asked while he paced once more around them, "I could kill them, but then I would have to get rid of the body and I've got more important stuff to do," he said while he rejoiced in Gwen's hateful look, Jack could hide it better as to not give him the pleasure to the psychopath, "If I were you I would stay away from all this, unless you want to force me to kill you. And I'm gonna take this," he said waving the tricorder in the air, "You won't need it anymore. Spencer, give them back their mobile phones, but not the bluetooth. Good afternoon," he said while he left.
Spencer gave them back their mobile phones and went quickly after the man that seemed to be their boss, and they both left in a car. Jack and Gwen had to stay where they were because their subordinates kept pointing them with their guns until the last moment. Jack and Gwen heard another car leave with the militarized men.
The captain then took his mobile phone and wrote a number on it.
"Do you have them?" he asked.
"I have them," answered Miranda, and her smile could be felt through the phone.
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"Where's Jack?" had asked Ianto after arriving at the storehouse half an hour ago.
"He went with Gwen to get some information on the Gap," had answered Miranda.
"Oh," exclaimed Ianto a bit disappointed, "I bought the notebooks," he said looking for a new topic.
"Great!" celebrated the young woman taking out one of the machines and putting it next to the other one.
Miranda took out a wire from her bag and connected the two computers. She started to transfer the Torchwood software to the new one, accelerating the process with the RAM memory on hers. When the transfer was complete, she installed the localization programme. Then, remembering that they had already bought it, she installed the RAM memories to the new laptop. It didn't reach 100 terabites as hers, it was too advance for the current time, but old for the future in which she has been, however, at least it was something, this way at least it wouldn't freeze when he run the programmes.
"Ianto, could you help me with this?" asked Miranda doubtful.
"Yes, of course," answered Ianto surprised, "With what?"
"I need you to tell me at which point do they stop and the path of the cars once we put our locators on them," she said pointing at one of the screens.
"Yes, sure," he said taking a sit in front of the computer.
Ianto wasn't sure why, but being there, being part of the team felt right. As if that was what he was meant to be. For a moments, he wanted to be able to be working there all the time, be a permanent member of Torchwood. But then, he remembered that he couldn't just leaved his work at Debenhams. He needed to live out of something that had a regular salary and was steady.
Despite everything, nothing took him away that feeling of rightness.
He was only distracted by his thoughts when Miranda handed him an extra bluetooth headphone that had been in his bag- really, Miranda's bag's contents seemed endless-. Ianto heard the scene display carefully and got scared when the Spencer boy took their headphones and they stopped hearing what was happening in the deserted house. However, a soothing glance from the young woman was enough to calm him down for a while.
She wasn't worried, Jack and Gwen knew what they were doing and they had been in worst situations. Besides, she was too focused with the locators. She knew that that time invested in video games instead of a social life was bearing his fruits. Luckily, nobody noticed a couple of black devices of the size of a bean. Thanks to the micro-cameras that they had, driving them with his computer to the two cars. That was the easy part, the hard one had been took them out from between the captain's clothes. They had agrees to put them inside his socks, that way none would see them getting out flying.
"Ready," exclaimed Miranda when she stick them in the inferior floor of each of the two cars, "Now, Ianto, check if they move," asked Miranda.
It wasn't long until the young woman's phone ringed.
"Do you have them?" asked Jack.
Miranda looked at Ianto who nodded to indicate her that the signal from the locators was moving.
"I have them," she said with a smile.
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My Alien - Simple Plan: www. youtube .com/watch?v=9gHUwWGD-_Q
Always On My Mind - Elvis Presley: www. youtube .com/watch?v=a-SRl_JV5cI
Author's Note: What I liked about this chapter was that the roles of Jack and Ianto where inversed. In Gwen's wedding, it was Ianto who needed more to dance as a self-reassuring thing. But now is Jack. Because having already lost him, Jack is more open to what he feels because he can't continue denying it to himself anymore. The original idea was that Jack and Ianto would start dancing My Alien, but then I didn't see it right, and then I remembered Always On My Mind.
And now we start having more action, and the mistery starts to being resolved. That was the part that it was so hard to write. Janto is easy, action... well, it isn't that hard but it's not as secy as Janto :P
As I believe I have nothing else to say I would leave you so you can comment. :)
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