Miranda walked from the garage to the main area of the Hub, feeling the tight pressure in her head form as she walked. As always, not wanting to assume it was Ianto she felt, she put her hand into her coat, wrapping it around the hilt of her sword. It was still her day off and she walked through the Hub, waving politely at Gwen and Jack. She saw Ianto poke his head out of Jack's office door. He too was assuring it was his friend and teacher he was sensing. Once he caught sight of her, he disappeared again as she went down the north stairs to her own rooms. She'd barely settled her coat onto its hook when there was a soft knock at her door. It was Ianto.

She opened the door and let him inside. He was dressed in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. It was technically his day off too but Miranda could smell the strong scent of coffee coming off the man. Someone had probably asked him to put on a pot. It was difficult for the three immortals to separate themselves from work since they all lived in the Hub. Miranda at least had her own rooms to retreat to but the bunker was cramped. Ianto shed his suit and donned more casual clothing when off duty but was nearly always asked to make coffee or retrieve something from the archives. Everyone knew he didn't mind. He'd rather make coffee and go down into the archives than risk anyone else misfiling something or touching the coffee machine.

At home as much in Miranda's rooms as his own bunker, Ianto crossed over to the fridge and took out a beer for himself. He twisted the top off, threw it away and then settled himself onto Miranda's sofa.

"How'd it go?" he asked and then took a long pull off the bottle.

"As expected," Miranda said.

"Do you think she'll come?"

"I don't know, Ifan," Miranda said.

"Jack's going to be furious with us," he said, putting his feet up on her coffee table.

"If he finds out we invited her and she doesn't come, yes, he will be. If she comes and behaves like the petulant child I just spoke with, it will wound him and yes, he will be furious with us," she said with a sigh.

She poured herself a glass of water and sat down on the sofa next to him.

"All she's heard is her mother's side of things. I don't think she's ever tried to hear Jack's," Miranda said, shaking her head sadly.

"You knew her mother?" Ianto asked, sipping from his beer.

"Lucia? Oh yes… I never knew what Jack saw in her," Miranda said, rolling her eyes. "I thought he was merely bedding a pretty face, but he truly loved her."

"Jack hasn't told me anything. I only know what I've read in her files," he said. Ianto crossed his ankles and leaned back.

"Jack dislikes to speak ill against the mother of his child," she said, pulling a face. She put her water glass down on the coffee table.

"You didn't like her?"

"No, I did not. Vain, jealous woman. Jack made the ridiculous mistake of telling her the truth about us and Lucia did not react well. She constantly accused Jack of infidelity with me. It grew tiresome."

Ianto winced a bit.

"As you know, Jack is always careful in his affairs with women to avoid fathering children," Miranda said, toeing off her shoes. She put her feet up next to Ianto's. "It has long been my belief that Alice's conception was not the accident Lucia made it out to be."

"Nice," Ianto said with an eye roll.

"My issues with Lucia extended beyond the personal. She was completely incapable of separating work from her personal life. Her and Jack's domestics continually spilled over into work as did her dislike of me," Miranda said with a sigh. "She did not like me spending time around her daughter."

"Does Alice know the truth about you?" Ianto asked.

"She does, all of it. It was not a pleasant discussion. After she graduated university, Alice sought out Jack on her own, against her mother's wishes. It was when Jack and I revealed the truth to her. She saw it as more proof that her mother's suspicions of Jack's infidelity with me must be the truth because apparently immortality is the only thing one needs in common for a successful relationship," Miranda said with a sarcastic eye roll. "I'm going to change."

Miranda had dressed smartly for her visit to Alice and the clothing was uncomfortable. She stood up and walked into her bedroom. Ianto followed her, leaning his shoulder against the door frame, watching her open the dresser drawers. He folded his arms across his chest and crossed his legs at the ankles.

Ianto said, staring down at his feet, "You know, you and I haven't talked about this yet."

"Talked about what, Ifan?" Miranda asked, absently, not looking up. She took out her favourite pair of jeans and a tattered jumper that looked to Ianto as if it had been handmade. She started unbuttoning her blouse and untucking it from her skirt.

Just as she was unbuttoning the cuffs, Ianto said quietly, "I'm marrying your husband."

"Goddess below, Ifan!" she cried. Her eyes went wide and her eyebrows shot up. She stopped undressing and gaped at him. "I've never had a problem with you and Jack. By the Gods, why would I now?!"

"Because now I'm marrying him," Ianto repeated. "I'm taking this to the next level."

"A piece of paper presented to you by the government," Miranda said. She shrugged out of her blouse and tossed it into the hamper. "Methos and I were married by joining hands and walking through a doorway. I understand the importance of the ritual and symbolism but, in my eyes, you and Jack have been married for quite some time."

"And now we're making vows to each other," he said, digging at the rug with his socked toe. "The same vows you made."

She tugged the tattered jumper over her head and slid her arms through the sleeves as Ianto watched on. She was about to unzip her skirt, still not understanding. Not looking up from the hook clasp, she said, "I do not understand you, Ifan, so why don't you try to speak a little more plainly?"

Ianto sighed. "I can't help but feel like I'm taking him from you… stepping on your toes… whatever you want to call it."

"I can't imagine why you feel that way, Ifan. Yes, I stood before God and vowed to love and honour Jack all the days of my life. And I have done so. I took him as husband but that is not the nature of what we share now."

Ianto looked back down at his feet. "When we thought you were dead, after Max and the Nepanthians, Jack told me about your final arrangements. You still think of Jack as your husband."

With a sigh, Miranda unzipped her skirt and took it off, tossing it into the hamper on top of the blouse. She tugged on the jeans and then turned to give Ianto her full attention.

"And I still consider Methos my husband. Does that make me guilty of bigamy?" Miranda asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. Explaining how she viewed the relationships in her life was a complicated thing.

"He's your ex-husband, Mandy," Ianto said.

"No, Ifan. Methos is my husband. Immortality changes how you define things in your life, especially romantic relationships. You must find your own definitions, your own way of looking at things. Mortals look at marriage and commitment as a set of circumstances surrounding a period of time with someone else - the modern need to label. You're 'dating'. You're 'exclusive'. You're 'married'. When you take time and death out of the equation, things become, for lack of a better word, complicated." Miranda crossed her arms over her chest. "To me, a spouse is someone you love wholeheartedly. It is someone with whom you share a deep connection to, mind, heart and body, who you cannot imagine your life without. That is what Jack and Methos are to me but that has nothing to do with the 'logistics' of those relationships. Right now, Methos is with Duncan but that doesn't diminish my feelings for him nor does it change his feelings for me. So why would I think you marrying Jack would change things there?"

"I feel like I'm displacing you a bit," he said with a shrug. He spoke slowly, a bit embarrassed. "In the beginning, I was a bit jealous of you and Jack. You're both immortal. There's a lot of history between you two and sometimes… sometimes I felt like it wasn't something I could compete with."

"And now you're immortal. You forget that I knew you would join the Game from the moment I met you," she said, gently. "You've never displaced me, Ifan and you certainly have never had to compete with me. It has always made me happier than I can tell you that Jack has found someone who complements him far better than I ever could. Jack and I… we're too similar," she said with a smile that quirked a bit. "I have fully expected our physical interaction to cease-"

"The sex isn't the issue, Mandy," Ianto interrupted. "Jack and I have discussed it. You're welcome in our bed whenever you want."

"Something else is still troubling you, then?" Miranda asked.

He didn't quite know how to explain what he was thinking. He'd been trying to loop around his real concern, to better see how she defined her own relationships so maybe he could understand where his was going better. He asked, quietly, "What happened with you and Adam?"

And then the lightbulb went off over Miranda's head. She sat down on the bench at the end of the bed. The root of the question and his concern was not about her and Methos or even her feelings about his marriage to Jack.

"Ifan, you and Jack are you and Jack. Do not use my relationship with Methos as any kind of standard for relationships between immortals. In fact, I think it would be disastrous for you to do so. What binds us together and what drives us apart are… unique. It is steeped in a complicated history. I will not lie to you and say that being together for centuries or millennia is easy but I have seen immortals have happy relationships with each other that have lasted for centuries. They have all found their own way and so will you and Jack."

Miranda got up and put her hand on Ianto's arm. "'If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. If you are at peace, you are living in the present.' Take the advice of Lao Tzu, my friend. We are immortals of the Game. For us, the past can become a vast deep ocean full of blackness and cold depths that will swallow us with despair. And the future extends on endlessly before us, full of more possibility than any mortal can imagine. For us, the anxiety and despair can expand into the infinite. The now is what is important."

Ianto walked over to her, hugging her tightly. He started to walk her back towards the bed. Miranda felt the change in his body language.

"Ifan…"

"You said to live in the now," he said, playfully. He tugged at her jumper, teasing the skin underneath.

She had no delusions about the reasons for Jack and Ianto's numerous invitations to their bed. They'd been extending them ever since her break up with Nora Ashline. It was only after Ianto's first death, after their relationship had settled from that jolt, that she had begun to accept those invitations… and she disliked being their pity fuck. Sometimes there wasn't even sex. One or both of the men would come into her rooms just to sleep.

She admitted to herself that she'd been weak for allowing any of it - the sex or the sleep. At first, she'd found the closeness comforting. Now, it was merely an escape, like a drug addict injecting heroin. It felt good but, like any drug, after a while you no longer indulged to make yourself feel good, but to keep yourself from feeling bad. And, like any drug, the effect always wore off, becoming less and less effective with time. The two of them were the couple and Miranda was the outsider. The sex was incredible. The sleep was more peaceful. But it was time for it to end. She berated herself for even allowing it to start because, like any illicit drug, it was a very, very hard thing to give up.

"You're getting married, Ifan," Miranda said, sternly.

"Well, I'd like to have my stag night early," he said and then took his comm unit out of his pocket. "I could call Jack down."

This is the last time… she swore to herself. Miranda turned the comm unit on and switched it to Jack and Ianto's private channel. She placed it on the bedside table.

"How long do you think before he comes down here on his own? Ten minutes?" she asked.

"Five," Ianto said, pushing her onto the bed with a laugh.