Disclaimer- i do not own Torchwood (though i would like to borrow Ianto)

Summary - Mathew takes Ianto to his flat and tells Ianto exactly what happened that night


A/N - well i told you in the last chapter that i had exams this week, they were post ponned till next term. Now that would normally be a cause for party, and some of you may be saying then how come this wasn't updated sooner. Well i got the chicken pox, so i have spent the last week sleeping! Any way thank you to all that wished me luck in my exams. Now this chapter, i'm not to sure about it, i need reviews more than ever on this one because well i'm really not sure about it. ENJOY!


Mathew 's Story

Ianto walked away from the conference room with Mathew at his heels as they made their way to the main area of the Hub. Mathew stood awe-struck as he examined all of the computer equipment while Ianto packed away his things.

"This is amazing" said Mathew, when he found the hand held computer Toshiko had developed herself.

It took Ianto fifteen minutes to get ready to leave, by which time Gwen had left and John had arrived. "Well well well, who's the fresh meat? Eye Candy, did you and the naughty captain get a toy boy?"

Mathew held out a hand for John. "I'm Mathew Davies and you are?"

"Captain John Hart." John said taking the offered hand with a seductive smile.

"I –"

"He's the resident wife." Ianto said putting his keys in his pocket. "come on Mathew."

Mathew walked to the cog door before he realised he was alone, when he turned he found Ianto standing on a concrete slab. "I thought we were leaving?"

"We are, come here, I have a feeling you'll love this."

"This place is getting weirder and weirder."

"It's only just begun." Said Ianto. When Mathew was standing just in front of the concrete slab Ianto added; "Jump up."

"What is it?"

"Well Toy Boy, Jack says it's the entrance for tourists but I happened to know that he and Ianto have used it for their own distasteful purposes."

"Yes thank you John." Ianto said blushing. "How so you even know about that?"

"You have the incapability to delete security images."

"Are you getting on Mathew?" said Ianto

"Oh what, sure," when the lift started to rise Mathew said; "No fucking way."

When the lift rose up to the Plass, they made their way towards Ianto's car.

"You know I did drive here." Said Mathew

"Yes but you're in Torchwood's custody now so you can't leave the side of one of us." Said Ianto. "And Jack would blow up half of Cardiff if he tried to track a car that isn't on the Torchwood system."

"So tell me," said Mathew getting in to Ianto's car. "What exactly is it that Torchwood does?"

"You would never believe me if I told you." Said Ianto. "Sometimes I even find it hard to believe myself."

"I'm on the Welsh most wanted list, I'm in the protective custody of a top-secret government organisation and I saw a monster kill my entire family. I don't think there's anything I wouldn't believe at this point."

Ianto smiled slightly as he pulled out of his pristine parking spot. "Alright then there's a rift in space and time that runs through the centre of Cardiff and its our job to catch whatever falls through it."

"What does that mean though? And don't give me the generic tourist information tell me in plain English what it is you do."

"Well aren't you demanding, if not stubborn." Said Ianto with a wide smile. "Basically we catch aliens."

"Aliens, OK that makes sense." Said Mathew. "So that monster, that thing that killed my family, that was an alien?"

"From what you said, my best guess would be a Weevil. There are a ridiculous amount of them living in sewers. But that night they all came out, yours wasn't the only family to die because of them that night."

"Oh, shit, you know I always thought that if I knew what killed them it would some how make everything better, it doesn't."

Ianto smiled over at Mathew quickly before saying; "this is going to sound like a cliché, but well, I'm going to say it anyway. Time heals all wounds. I can tell you with great authority that even though you'll never forget them, it will get easier and it will get better."

When they pulled up to Mathew's apartment block Mathew said; "I don't know if I should even ask how you know where I live."

Ianto simply said; "I know everything"

They stepped in to the elevator together and Ianto said something he had been thinking about since he found out where Mathew lived. "How can you afford this? There's no way a 19 year old can afford to rent one of these apartments."

"My brother left me the flat and Mum and Dad left me all the money."

Mathew's flat was on the top floor and it was no where near what you would expect a 19 year olds flat to look like. It was spacious without it giving the feeling that it was empty. He had black tiles with while walls and a kitchen that Ianto would kill for. He had a seven foot tall book shelf standing on one side of the biggest T.V. Ianto had ever seen. But the first thing Ianto noticed when he walked in was Mathew's computer, it consisted of 5 black towers, 8 flat-screen monitors and half-a-dozen external hard drives.

"OK go get what your going to need for the next few days." Said Ianto. "And because we will most probably piss UNIT off over the next few days I would disconnect your computer, just in case they decide to do something rude like send you a trogon or something."

It took Mathew ten minutes to put a bag together and a further forty minutes to disconnect his computer. While Mathew did this Ianto found himself going through a pile of photos on a small coffee table. Mathew sat down next to Ianto, "I was going through them this morning, its weird, after everything all I hav3e left are photos."

"Photos – absolute proof of happier times." Ianto said, remembering last night when he was going through his own photos.

"Yeah, but when I look at them all I can think of is that night." Mathew said, picking up a photo of him and his girl friend.

"What happened? I mean how did you survive?" said Ianto.

Mathew lent back into the sofa, he closed his eyes and let the memories of that night come flooding back.

Mathew stumbled up his garden path towards his family home in the suburbs. He stoped at the front door and took a deep breath, preparing himself for what was to come when he opened it. His dad was going to shout again, he always shouted when Mathew came home drunk. Or was he stoned? It was hard to tell these days.

When he walked into the lounge room he was shocked to see that it wasn't empty (and being shocked when intoxicated isn't a good thing, people and objects had a tendency to spin). His lounges room was full with his family, his girlfriend Eve, his best friend Gareth and his lover (though everyone else thought – good friend) Stephan.

"What's going on?" Mathew said, blinking everyone into focus.

"Mathew," said Eve. "We … um … we wanted to talk to you."

"About what?"

"About what you're doing to yourself. About your drinking and your smoking." Said Stephan.

"What?" said Mathew. "Is this an intervention? You have got to be fucking kidding me right?"

"Mathew honey, please calm down." Said Mathew's mum. "We just want to help you."

"What do you care what I do? At least I don't hide what I do to pass the feeling of living in a rut like the rest of you do."

"What's that suppose to mean?" said Gareth as quietly as he could, he knew Mathew was exceptionally mad and he didn't want to make it worse.

"Let's start with you and Eve fucking behind my back." Eve's eyes widened when Mathew said this. "But that's OK I'm doing the same with Stephan." Stephan gave a guilty half smile and stared down to his feet.

"Mathew." Said his dad sternly.

"What DAD? Please, you haven't been a father in years, your too busy trying to hide your secrets in the bottom of the whiskey bottle you keep in the shed."

"Mathew." His dad said with warning.

"Should I tell them all what you did to me that night, the night everyone was at Gran's. The night you visited my room."

"Mathew, what are you talking about?" said his mum

"Oh mum you know, you've always known. That's why you spend your entire life baking, that's why you can't look me in the eye you know the truth. And let's not forget my dear brother and my lovely sister. Lily, she's pregnant and she doesn't know who the father is and Adam, he's fucking the butchers son.

"You can all go to hell." Mathew ran to his room and slammed the door behind him. He fell to the floor in a ball and broke into loud sobs. It wasn't until he heard a scream coming from the next room did he leave. When he opened the door he saw something that would change his life forever.

A monster with long, sharp teeth seemed to be picking his family off one by one. Mathew stood in the door frame as he watched the monster make his way through his family. It made its way towards Stephan who was cowering in the corner behind the couch, in one subtle movement from the monster Stephan became nothing more than a bloody corpse on the floor. Suddenly the monster looked to be in a trance and left, leaving Mathew cradled on the floor next to his loved ones, his loved ones which now made a pile of death on his living room floor.

Both Mathew and Ianto were in tears by the time Mathew had finished his story.

"Like I said before, it gets easier."

"You know I'm really getting sick of people telling me that. I might believe it if I had lost just one or two people I loved, but I didn't, I lost them all. I am completely and utterly alone. I really don't see this getting any easier."

"I understand" said Ianto.

"You know," said Mathew rolling his eyes. "That's almost as bad as 'it gets easier'. You probably understand what its like to lose a friend, a lover, a co-worker maybe a family member. But I lost everyone in one night. I can't even begin to explain what that feels like."

"Mathew, let me tell you a story."


So what did you think?