Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue bring Ianto back to Jack first.

Warnings: Might contain spoilers for the TV-series. Not beta-read and English's not my native language, constructive criticism is appreciated.

Heading off to tomorrow

What became their second first date was nothing like Jack had imagined.

Being both quite taken with one another when they started dating the first time, they had always preferred to do something romantic, or have a kind of date that could easily lead to fantastic sex sessions. This was also a nice way to enjoy themselves as a couple rather than as just co-workers and friends, something that could break their action-movie routine.

This Ianto he was with, though, had no dangerous life to separate himself from, no bad experiences in the past that made him insecure of his actions, no fear of being outed to his family and no already built intimacy with Jack. Ianto basically knew nothing about the man he liked, and that lead him to eventually show his age.

Marion had a chance to point that out during one of her warning calls before allowing Jack to meet him again: all Ianto knew about life was what he liked to do and countless reassurances that his worst nightmares weren't true. Something that Jack knew was a complete lie, but that still was real for this Ianto. No problematic family background, no aliens, no converted girlfriend, no cannibals, no desperate sex sessions hoping to escape reality.

The thought of what his lover would be like without all his dramatic past had crossed Jack's mind in the past, but he had never really concerned himself with it. By the time he cared enough for Ianto to ask himself that question, the Welshman was already happy with him enough to be again himself. Himself, but a step forward than where they were now, since Ianto never really had to court Jack starting from scratch.

Hell, they began flirting with one another within the first fifteen minutes they had met over a still struggling weevil.

That's why this date turned out to be quite the surprise for the captain, who unexpectedly found himself at the Cardiff Stadium watching a rugby match among noisy and over-excited people. More than his surroundings, it was the fact that Ianto had already bought tickets to the match that really moved and shocked Jack: this made him see their new relationship and Ianto's current state of mind under a completely different light.

Even if Ianto's previous obsession with him was still quite scary, it was also true that Ianto had already made up his mind about asking Jack out, no matter how the afternoon would turn out be and what he would discover about himself watching Jack's videos.

It was quite nice, actually, to know that he had planned to step their relationship forward regardless of the proofs about his own identity, still it bothered Jack to think about how out of character were both Ianto dragging him to a rugby match and he taking the initiative. It made him insecure, somehow, but it still made him extremely happy: he had always wondered if, to a certain extent, he had been the one dragging Ianto into their relationship, taking advantage of his anguish and his need to have someone close, or if things would have eventually progressed on their own.

He wasn't going to waste this opportunity to enjoy his first date with Ianto asking him out though, so, for the whole length of the match, Jack simply enjoyed the play or, to tell the truth, the players: strong men with well definite muscles that ended up in the weirdest positions while sweating and giving all of them to reach their goal.

He had known that Ianto liked rugby, but now that he had seen the play in action he could easily guess why he had encountered so little problems seducing the Welshman.

As soon as they were out of the stadium and he was waiting on a bench for Ianto to come back from wherever he had gone, Jack eventually let himself wonder where the idea for this date had come from and why it hadn't come sooner in their relationship. Maybe the answer to everything was simply in the troublesome past his lover had had and, maybe even more than that, the slight guilt Ianto had felt for the whole Lisa ordeal… However, later on in their relationship, Jack made so many mistakes that Ianto could have really nothing to feel guilty for...

... except not being able to find a 'cure' for Jack's condition.

Jack covered his face with his hands as he tried to screen himself away from that small detail he had momentarily forgotten.

So, that's what had always stopped Ianto to open up with Jack. Yes, he was scared about being considered gay, yes, with all his bad experiences he wasn't keen on getting burned again, but also… courting Jack would mean to risk letting Jack fall for him. And that was something that the captain himself knew wasn't supposed to happen. In the end, however, he had fell despite his better judgment, and they had grown to love one another so much that eventually Jack had forgotten his own taboos and signed their damnation.

As Ianto came back to him with a couple of hotdogs in his hands, Jack couldn't stop thinking, though, that no damnation could ever be so sweet to endure.

They ate in silence for a while, Ianto still a bit unsure about how to approach Jack and Jack still lost in his own musing, until the Welshman finally gathered the courage to ask one of the questions the captain had grown to fear the most in all his years alive, especially when it came from dear ones.

"Jack? Some things we told each other..." Ianto started unsurely.

"What are you talking about?"

"Something in one of the videos, one not on the safe list" Ianto's attentive eyes registered Jack swallowing awkwardly his bite of food, but he knew that there was no turning back. "What did I mean when I said that you have a condition?"

"Ianto I-"

"Are you ill?" Ianto interrupted, hoping to give proper suggestions.

"No, I'm not" Jack told him, feeling physical pain at the single idea of speaking out his mind. "Ianto, listen, I would prefer not to go there with you now. You are still missing the biggest part of your memories"

"I did know about this before, so why can't I know now?" Ianto pointed out.

"Yeah, but you also knew how to take it, no matter how accidentally you discovered it. Moreover… I like you the way you're now: free of everything that tied you down, happy and carefree. I don't want to make it harder for you so soon, I don't mind what we're building now"

"It will happen sooner or later" Ianto said matter-of-factly.

"We are still not sure…"

"Will knowing about your condition really make it worse for me?" Ianto reasoned. "What if we keep going out together, is it really something you can keep from me?"

"It could make it worse, but well… considering how my life gets sometimes, I wouldn't be able to keep it from you"

"So tell me Jack! Trust me, I won't run from you"

"You never did" Jack confessed, giving up any pretence. "I have to give you that, but I can't stop thinking that knowing about my condition might change your attitude towards me"

"Why are you saying that?"

"Because in the past you hardly would have taken upon yourself dragging me to a date like this. Even when you asked me out, you usually tried not to make it too much official"

"Why would I do that?" Ianto asked puzzled.

"To not pressure me, I think" Jack admitted. "If you showed openly how much you loved me, I might have ended up showing you how much I loved you"

"I… I can't understand. Why would that be bad?"

"It would show in my face how badly we were involved with one another… It would have showed me how much our relationship was true and how much would hurt me losing it. Losing you. However, what eventually happened to you showed the truth at my face despite my denial"

"Then you are ill…" Ianto said, trying his best to understand what Jack actually meant. "Are you going to die? No matter how soon it is, it's always better to love and lose than not to love at all…"

"I know, I learned that being with you" Jack told him, cupping Ianto's cheek with his hand affectionately. "However the situation is not like you're picturing it, it is… Completely reversed, Ianto. Could you really keep saying that if it was reversed?"

"Reversed? Am I mortally ill?" Ianto muttered, puzzled. "But… I said you had a condition in the video"

"You're not ill, Ianto, however you're going to die before me, and there's no way I can stop this from happening"

"What's this? Black magic?" Ianto asked annoyed. "I thought we just caught aliens"

"Ianto… I'm immortal." Jack told him eventually. "I can die, but I can't stay dead. I'll keep coming back forever. In a thousand years you will be dead, but I will still be here, probably mourning your loss"

"This… This really puts everything in a different setting" Ianto admitted, taking a deep breath and escaping Jack's touch, hurting his lover badly with his gesture without even noticing it.

"Yeah" Jack explained defeated, his hands cradled in his lap. "I want to take this second chance I have with you, with my whole heart, however I think that in the past you never wanted to tie me down with this. No matter how much you wanted me or how much you believed my words… You cared about my future more"

"It feels like something I would do, I have to give you that" Ianto admitted serenely, looking down at his hands.

"You're taking it awfully well" Jack noted suspiciously, considering his initial escaping from his touch.

"Well, it gives a nice feeling the idea of never having to worry about the death of the man you like"

"Ianto, why are you not freaking out? You're unusually quiet"

"Did I freak out the first time?" Was Ianto's calm question.

"You saw me dying and then revive… I guess that more than shocked about the revelation, you were relieved to have me back again"

Ianto nodded pensively, probably feeling something that he couldn't still remember resurface from the depth of his memory. "Did I discover by chance other… things?"

"There's the fact that I come from the future, however-"

"You told me that one the first times we met. The 51st century pheromones thing." Ianto reminded Jack, as the first time they met after the failed robbery at the bank filed itself next to another scene of him and Jack, where they were preparing to catch something hidden in a warehouse. "I remember also another time… I think. However, I'm sure it was related to the same smell that kept dragging me to you until now. Now I can still smell it, but it's not that much strong and heady"

"There was a time when you believed my pheromones made you want me" Jack joked, unaware of Ianto's mention to his previous memories.

"Even I know that pheromones don't work this way" Ianto answered plainly, a small smile creeping on his lips.

"So… What now?"

Ianto glanced back at Jack and stared at him with big eyes that failed to hide his concern.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what do you want to do? You have the chance to start a new life without all the complications of your past…" Jack said, taking his chance to point out something that had been bothering him since the first time he had realized that the Welshman was actually his Ianto Jones. "You could simply forget me and your past to just focus on the future you have ahead of you, live a normal life"

"I would never know what happened to me, who I were" Ianto protested astonished.

"You might not want to remember" Jack told him sadly.

"But I do" Ianto countered, feeling like he was telling that to Jack for the eighth time. "Besides, it would be difficult to keep dating you if I didn't get back my work"

"Wait, what!?" Jack asked shocked, uncaring of the people around. "What are you asking me here, Ianto?"

"Well, I told you I want to know you better and gain back my past, so it's just obvious that I want to get back as much as I can to our old routine. This includes Torchwood." Ianto explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Afte a while in which Jack wasn't answering, Ianto eventually questioned "Why? Don't you want to offer me a job there?"

"The work now is different-" Jack attempted to say.

"Great then" Ianto said plainly, offering Jack a reassuring smile. "This way I don't need to remember everything beforehand, however the familiar surroundings could still jog my memory"

"So… You want a job at Torchwood. To remember" Jack summed up, furrowing his eyebrows. "And after that?"

"Well, I need enough money to buy my own place and go out with you" Ianto counted on his hand. "It's hard getting some privacy with Marion lurking behind us, even though I will have to keep therapy going"

"You really want to keep dating?" Jack realized, flabbergasted at his own luck. "Me?"

"Who else should I date, you daft sod?" Ianto stated, frowning and crossing his arms on his chest.

"Ianto, did you listen to me?"

"Yeah, and I gathered that you wanted to give us a second chance" Ianto summed up, keeping only what it mattered to him of their conversation. "If this is what you want, I will be glad to comply" He added with a smart smirk that shocked his lover.

Jack could just stare back at Ianto and hope that everything wasn't too good to be true.


The following weeks confirmed quite a lot of Jack's fears, but also pleasantly let the two lovers enough chances to grow back their relationship.

Jack and Ianto kept dating regularly, even after the Welshman remembered things he wasn't so sure how to take. The worst parts of it included accepting that all those nightmares he kept having were actually shreds of his real life, and confronting Jack about Lisa's death.

No sugar coating could be allowed this time, since now his memories were coming back as such, and he could easily understand what was his own life and what fiction.

On work related issues, Ianto had perfectly mingled back within the Torchwood staff and, with the help of Jack and Gwen, he had found his own place inside the new hub and in his new diminished routine. Rhys eventually asked for a full time job where he worked in the weekends, but, even though he had left coffee duty back to Ianto, he could sometimes be found spying on him, hoping to understand what the super secret behind his wonderful coffee was.

Ianto had been right guessing that working at the hub would give him more chances to get his memories back, but also Jack wasn't proved wrong saying that the Welshman wouldn't have liked most of them and that everything would change his perception of life.

The happy and easy going Ianto Jack had met lately, the one that felt no shame going out with his boyfriend hand by hand, slowly began turning again the skittish worried man Jack had learned to love despite his flaws.

Jack knew that he had to find a way to stop the reversal before it was too late, so one evening he took it upon himself to invite Ianto to have dinned out with him.

After the afternoon at the stadium, there had been very few occasions for them to enjoy something mundane, and Jack had soon noticed that the more Ianto remembered, the more he preferred a quiet evening at home o in a secluded restaurant rather than show up in a public place.

Jack knew nothing about rugby, so he decided to buy tickets for a comic show at the theatre instead, hoping to ease the mood before their dinner at one of the most romantic and public restaurants in town. Ianto had accepted the invitation, glad to enjoy the company of his lover, however it had taken him some time before finally getting comfortable in front of all those people.

Unfortunately, as soon as they were outside and Jack tried to encircle Ianto's shoulders with his arm, he could clearly feel the Welshman shivering in discomfort and try to get away.

"Maybe we shouldn't-" Ianto tried to explain his approach in order to not offend Jack.

"Ease up, Ianto" Jack cooed kindly, knowing what Ianto's problem was. "No one cares anymore about two men being together"

"But-"

"No buts" Jack complained, reaching for his lover to hold him tight in his arms. "Those were only old ideas you grew up with"

Ianto nodded and tried to relax in Jack's arms with little success.

"Will they think we're gay?" Ianto blurted out eventually, after they bypassed a group of men talking together.

"Even if they were, what's the problem?"

"Well, we aren't for one"

"Does it make you feel uncomfortable?" Jack asked, heaving a deep sigh.

"I- don't know…" Ianto admitted, currently fighting within himself to get back in the same state of mind he was in when most of his memories were gone.

"Ianto, you're usually dressed in suits" Jack pointed out, silently glad that with the work at Torchwood magically the suits had reappeared in Ianto's wardrobe. "People might think you work in an office even though you actually chase aliens. Does it bother you?"

"Well, it's good if they misunderstand… I don't have a normal work"

"And you don't want people thinking that you don't have a normal sexual relationship?"

Ianto glared at Jack, looking absolutely offended. "Our relationship is not wrong, and I would have no problems with us being public if people just thought that I'm in a gay relationship, but I'm not gay and neither are you"

"I don't really care about what they think, and moreover here in the UK things are way nicer than in other places, even though people misunderstand and think you are gay"

"My memories don't say so" Ianto protested, seriously considering how to escape Jack's embrace without hurting the man.

"Those memories are outdated. Years passed, Ianto, and things changed way more than you could imagine. Now relax and enjoy the fresh breeze, we'll soon get to the restaurant"

Ianto gave up and nodded again, sighing as he rested his head against Jack's shoulder.

"Still, I can't believe that I trusted Marion when she told me that my feelings for you weren't a problem, there were a lot of circumstances I didn't consider"

"She told you the truth" Jack countered, coming to the kind doctor's rescue. "And I'm glad she told you that it's perfectly normal liking both men and women. Besides, she is a doctor, so you should trust her way more than your old memories"

"You might be right" Ianto admitted, a small smile appearing on his lips.

"I am right" Jack stated, stopping in front of the restaurant and making Ianto go inside first. "Now give me your jacket, I'll get this sorted"

It didn't take much for Jack and Ianto to get to the table Jack had reserved and to order their food, still the captain could notice how skittish Ianto was.

"Ianto" Jack told him eventually "Do you realise that among all these people you're the only one feeling uncomfortable?"

"Yeah, and I'm really trying to focus on how I felt before remembering all this, but it's still hard"

"When you remembered about Lisa, it took you less time" Jack noticed. Of all the things that had happened in Ianto's past, Jack had bet his money on Lisa's ordeal, but considering how things had turned out he was glad to have not finalized it with Gwen, or else he would have lost his money.

As the their good co-worker had point out, considering how Ianto's recovery of his memories seemed to be linked to Jack, only something related to their relationship would have actually shocked Ianto: her money, then, were going to be on the turmoil happened during her wedding or eventually the spite showed by Clem in London. Not really sure which would be worse, they didn't follow suit, but they both knew now that she'd been right. About both.

"Well, that was a tragic occurrence, but it's not something that could affect the perception I have of myself…" Ianto explained, grimacing and his memories. "Ending up ridiculed and offended it's something else entirely"

"You're a cute man with an even cuter boyfriend, I would not let you perceive yourself any different" Jack told him as he placed a hand over Ianto's, making him smile.

"Thank you Jack" Ianto told him, covering Jack's hand with his own instead. "I do really love you, you know?"

These were the moments in which he felt that there was still one big gap between how Ianto was supposed to be and how Ianto actually was now. Having discovered his love for Jack before being reminded about all the bad things happened in his life, still allowed him to speak about his feelings way more freely than it happened in the past. Jack did wonder, however, if it wasn't also because he hadn't fully recovered his memories, among which certainly missing there was the last and most important one: Thames House.

"Thank you for letting me again into your life" Jack half whispered, making Ianto's breath to catch in his throat.

"I wouldn't dream of anything else"

Their moment was interrupted by the waiter bringing them their orders, however, as soon as they took the first bite, both of them stole glances at their companion.

"How's memory going?" Jack was the first to break the silence.

"I remembered some more things I think… Was my sister married?"

"Yeah, Rhiannon married Johnny way before I met you. You two had quite a love-hate relationship as far as you told me. However I don't think is good for you to show up at the moment, we still don't know how to explain you being back"

That was a sore point for the both of them: not being able, after all their researches, to find any lead on how Ianto had come back from the dead… Well, not that Ianto knew he was supposed to be dead in the first place, even though he had helped the best he could without uncovering the truth.

Jack hadn't still told him about his demise, so he had sadly denied any request to see Rhiannon his lover had made. Sadly, she had seen her brother dead, she had even organised the funeral herself, so there wasn't a way to forego the fact the Ianto was dead the same way he was doing with the Welshman.

More than his death in itself, there was also the age gap to explain, another riddle about which they had no solution at hand. Worse than that, Ianto had in his hands medical references stating his age, an age that Rhiannon would quickly point out how it couldn't match the supposedly current one of her brother. Rhiannon was a smart woman, but she needed answers, just like her own brother.

"Do you think I can go and see her after we understand what happened or I remember something useful?"

"Only if you will deem safe for her to know it. You can't be certain now if you will be happy with her knowing whatever it is you forgot"

"I could still be a clone you mean." Ianto said sadly, putting down his fork. "Gwen still believes it's the only thing that could explain the age gap"

"Ianto, Gwen isn't a scientist." Jack reassured him. "I had you, Tosh and Owen for brain work. Besides, there are some things that help telling the difference between a clone and the original and, even though I can't say I know every different kind of reproduction program in the universe, I'm still sure you're not a clone. I don't know why you two are obsessed with this explanation"

"I don't know the answer myself, but I'm not obsessed with the chance" Ianto countered, knitting his eyebrows together. "Maybe I'm just scared that it is true"

"But it isn't. I was thinking the other day… There's always the chance of a temporal displacement, even though it still won't explain other things, among them which point in time you would have been taken from"

"You never told me why 'after you saw me the last time' wasn't a good answer to your question"

'Because you exploded along with the rift to seal it and at the time you were living thanks to some kind of mistake' Jack's mind promptly supplied, but he knew that he would never have had the courage to say those words.

"I'll tell you only when we get to that"

Ianto snorted and focused back on his dinner, quickly finishing the few bites he had left.

"I've got some cake at home, you want some?" He proposed eventually.

Jack smirked at Ianto and by the way his lover looked back at him, he'd understood very well how the cake would just be the beginning of something more. He was glad that in what was the sexual part of their relationship he had no doubt that this Ianto was his boyfriend: since their second first time, every time had been like finally coming home, diving in well known waters, dancing old familiar songs.

They had waited some time before sleeping together, more out of Jack's reserves on the matter than for Ianto's will to understand his lover better. Eventually however, Ianto had managed to make the captain so frustrated that he had to capitulate.

It had been pretty amazing for the both of them to have a proper first time to make up for the frenzied one they had at the beginning of their story, even though Ianto had to point out, after remembering how it had really started, that he had nothing to complain about that first time too, on contrary to Jack's self-conscious opinion.

Yes, back then it had been awkward, because there was also Lisa on the background, and even after that they didn't really follow the proper rules of dating… But that had been their relationship, and Jack was happy to know that Ianto didn't regret any part of it despite everything. Still, it worried him that not many things were left for Ianto to remember, and this lead his thoughts back to the fear of Ianto remembering Thames House.

Something about those days already appeared to be somewhere in Ianto's head –like the Clem ordeal-, even though he was still putting the pieces together. Because of that, Jack was even more worried that after remembering his death everything would turn out like it had happened in the House of Dead. He feared the chance of that day happening and also the consequences on their relationship, but he knew that he couldn't keep Ianto away from the truth… and unfortunately the truth hit Ianto way before Jack had hoped.

That night, they had gone back to Ianto's flat and played with the cake until they were covered in chocolate. They licked each other clean, kissing and laughing and eventually having sex, only to fall asleep soon after.

When Jack woke up in the middle of the night, though, Ianto wasn't at his side anymore.

He stood up and dressed quickly with the pyjama trousers he had never really wore for more than a couple of minutes at night, dread filling his whole being. He rushed to the kitchen and then out to the balcony, but he could see no light on.

Passing by the sofa on the living room, however, he hit someone with his leg and found with much surprise that it was his Ianto, who sat on the floor with his back to the couch, his head reclined between his legs and partially covered by his arms.

"Ianto, what are you doing here in the shade!?" Jack sat next to him and took Ianto in his arms, finding no resistance of sort. "What happened? If it was another bad dream, warm milk might-"

"I'm dead." Ianto stated, leaving the captain speechless.

"Just a nightmare" Jack lied awkwardly, despite having promised himself he wouldn't try to cover that up and knowing that Ianto couldn't be fooled around easily.

"You know it's not true." Ianto stated, proving Jack right. "I remember the 456, the venom jamming my lungs, you crying over me and begging me to not leave you alone. I also remember you bringing me back to life in that bar."

Now it was the definitive end. For Jack and for them as a couple. Thames House he could explain, maybe, but the House of Dead was really the end of it all, even though remembering Jack telling him that he loved him might have helped more that the silence following Ianto's death at Thames House.

"Is it because you remembered what happened there that you are here now?" Jack asked worriedly.

"I remember… Warm golden light. The Rift." Ianto said slowly, his eyes staring vaguely in front of himself. "Dying again. Not the slow darkness brought by the venom, but something piercing through my body- my whole soul ripped apart, then…"

"Then?" Jack asked, hoping that finally they were approaching the whereabouts of Ianto's coming back.

"Something blue" Ianto answered, his confused eyes still staring in front of himself like he was trying to focus uncertainly on what was in front of him.

"Blue?"

"Yeah. Then… things got confused, I don't really know how to describe it. I just know I felt confined for some time inside something, without a proper whole body, and then I was again out in the open and as soon as I was out my body regenerated... somehow"

"This… is not making any sense, Ianto" Jack countered, not understanding what kind of device could do something like that.

"I remember this place" Ianto said, standing up and approaching one of the pieces of furniture right in front of him. "There was a drawer here"

Jack moved next to Ianto to look at the same thing Ianto was staring at and, after focusing hard on what seemed thin air, finally he saw the drawer.

"Has it always been here? What's inside?"

"I don't know. I never noticed it myself, I just… remembered it was here and then I saw it" Ianto said dubiously.

"Can we open it?"

"I remember a voice, a male voice telling me: 'Now forget Ianto Jones, forget until you give a kiss to old Jack for me'" Ianto said, considering how this last piece of memory actually made him understand why kissing Jack had seemed something vital to do at the beginning of his new life as amnesiac.

"The Doctor" Jack whispered, recognizing his friend's way of speaking, while Ianto opened the drawer and found a letter inside.

"Would you read it?" Ianto asked, his voice trembling in panic.

Jack took it from his hands and simply started reading, his voice slightly wavering from fear and emotions.

"I wasted two whole lives escaping truth only to understand that eventually everything wasn't what it seemed. Then, when a little piece of paper found me, I realized that maybe it wasn't only my life that was not what it seemed, but also yours.

His essence found me travelling, right after his body exploded but before he lost his soul: his will to sacrifice himself was enough to close the Rift how your timeline dictated.

Sorry for the mess with the explosions, but it was hard to get to the right time to find the explanation I needed for him being alive and then to give him back to you at when it was proper. Even when I found it, I was still wary of leaving him alone and unsupervised though, so I blocked his memories until he found you and the seal would break.

Some of the answers you're searching for are in the sheet I left you with this letter and some of the others, I think, are just in the magic of the House of Dead.

I wish you 'happily ever after' old Jack."

"I didn't understand much" Ianto admitted, but Jack was already searching inside the envelope with trembling hands for the piece of paper and the sheet mentioned.

The sheet turned out to be a medical record from Torchwood One, name: Ianto Jones.

"Wait, that's not mine" Ianto countered, not recognizing the sheet as his own: he meddled in his records more than once, he knew how they looked like. Unless that was kept secret even from him?

"It's not the one we had, but it must be yours"

"One didn't experiment on staff, Jack" Ianto protested unsurely, but he turned more serious as he noticed Jack getting paler the more he read.

"It's record of experiments for… Survival in the void. Looks like they were planning to send someone inside the crack they were opening with the ghost shifts"

"So?" Ianto asked, now plainly scared. "What they did to me?"

"They tried to inject you with something of me... These codes here are for some of the experiment they tried with me as a specimen, at least." Jack explained as he kept scanning the details of the experiments to understand which one they had meddled in and noted the consequences. "They failed however, they didn't hit immortality or survival in the void, and you ended up almost unchanged aside for some sensibility to 51st century peculiarity… I think this explains why you can smell my pheromones, at least"

"Maybe it didn't really fail… That's why I survived inside the rift."

"Ianto, aside you being already dead before, the Doctor himself said that your body exploded. The only thing left was your soul"

Jack moved to read the piece of paper then: it was nothing more than a couple lines, written in Ianto's handwriting.

"Oh God, it has today's date on it" Ianto noticed, before widening even more his eyes as he went on to read more. "Our fairytale and happily ever after ? What's that supposed to mean?"

Jack, however, paled visibly and let the letter go as he rushed to the kitchen.

"Jack!? What's up!?" Ianto called his lover, shocked by the unpredicted panic and the following rush.

"I can't have a happily ever after" Jack stated as he came back towards Ianto with a knife in his hand. "I'm sorry, Ianto"

Ianto instinctively tried to get away, but he found himself cornered before he could put his right mind at work.

"Please, Jack, don't!" He yelled right before closing his eyes, right before Jack breached open his arm with the knife.

Ianto whimpered at the sudden pain, but he was too shocked and surprised to do anything else than stand there frozen still, still trying to make up his mind on his lover killing him after all they did to stay together.

However, the mortal hit didn't come. Instead, Ianto heard the sound of Jack crying in front of him. Ianto opened again his eyes and saw his lover kneeling on the floor and crying, with the knife he still held in his hand drenched in blood.

"Look at your arm" Jack told him as an explanation, and finally Ianto understood what was going on.

Ever so slowly the cut was disappearing, leaving behind only the smears of blood. After it had closed up completely, not even a scratch remained.

"How's that possible?" Ianto asked, not really knowing what to think about the discovery.

"You exploded inside the Rift." Jack explained. "You were supposed to lose your soul too and never have the chance to be brought back, but One… did the things right somehow, so your soul survived inside the void. It must be something peculiar to your second death. After that, probably the magic of the House of Dead was still in place and tried to bring you back… but it did it inside the Vortex. Some of it must have gotten trapped inside of you"

"So…" Ianto said, admitting that Jack's thesis certainly had the benefit of explaining everything they had discovered until then. "Why are you crying?"

Jack looked up at Ianto not understanding what he meant, until he found the Welshman in his arms.

"I love you, Jack" Ianto told him with a smile. "It's good that you don't have to be alone anymore. It would have broken my heart leaving you again."

"Ianto… You're damned like me, how can you be happy?" Jack countered, still shaking with irrational tears. "You've always been sorry for me"

"Be damned with you, you mean." Ianto corrected him. "What's better in life and death? Happy ever after, Jack. Now you are not only the stuff of legends, but also of the fairytales." Ianto joked, and Jack could do nothing more than keep crying in his lover's arms. However, this time his tears were definitively of joy.


After a good night of sleep, Jack called Gwen to ask her to cover for both of them that day and to set up further analysis to test his last theory on Ianto's coming back, since they had something to do. Being the current Torchwood nothing so energy draining like the one they were used to, she had no problem accepting his plead, as long as they shared with her the truth behind Ianto's coming back.

After promising Gwen, they drove for quite some time until they found the place called Bad Wolf bay, known everywhere for its peculiar thin line between different words. If there was a place that could reach the Doctor, Jack was sure that it had to be that one.

"I would have never imagined for things to turn out like this" Ianto said, as Jack enveloped him in his arms.

"Me neither, but if this is the end of the fairytale, I really don't mind it" Jack said, heaving a sigh as he enjoyed the warmth of his lover, now definitively back with him. Forever.

"It might be happily ever after, Jack, but you know that's not the end" Ianto warned him with a smirk, taking out his pocket the piece of paper that had come with the letter. "It's only the beginning"

Jack tightened his hold on Ianto and kissed his neck and then his cheek until he finally got to his mouth. As they stood close together, lost in one another, the wind blew stronger and made Ianto lose the grip on the card, making it fly far away, over the sea and towards the sky, ready to bring them their happily ever after once again.

*My Fairytale – The end*