Chapter 2

It took Ianto a month to become the indispensable man at Torchwood Three. He cleaned, he served drinks. He made sure the team had everything they needed. He cleared the most recent archives and started on the mess in the old archive. He learned to shoot. (And Jacks idea of training was, well, innovative). He was the one who stayed in the hub on monitor duty. He made coffee. He even flirted with Jack, just a bit.

But something was slightly off. The team noticed that Ianto never really relaxed.

Owen and Susie both noticed that Ianto always kept his back to a wall. Tosh noted that he twitched when she touched his sleeve to thank him for bringing her coffee. Jack learned he could not sneak up on Ianto. They all saw that Ianto never went outside the HUB.

This was something Jack had seen before and after spending a long lunch out of the Hub with Owen, the two men agreed on a plan.

Ianto flashback

He had tried running, there were no walls.

White all white, no color, no anything.

Ianto was exhausted, scared and hungry; he could not recall ever being this utterly miserable.

He wanted to be home in his tiny little apartment. He wanted to be away from this nothingness. He wanted a beer.

Then somehow he was standing in his living room. His kitchen was right there, his coffeemaker right where he left it. Ianto stood still for a moment, then turned and walked to his front door, opened it and looked out on the trackless white space he had been running through. He quietly and carefully closed the door, locked it, went into his bed room, got dressed, then walked calmly into his kitchen and pulled out a six pack of beer. He sat down on his sofa, picked up the remote, turned on the telly and sat mindlessly switching channels. There were a lot of channels, and the beer never ran out. Exactly 48 hours 1 minute and 27 seconds later he appeared in the Torchwood Archives, and was promptly shot by the security guard.

Ianto present day

"Payment Sir?" Ianto was puzzled "Why do you want to pay me?"

Jack sighed, "Because you're not an indentured servant, Ianto, You are a member of the team. Team members get paid."

"But Sir-" Ianto started

"This is not open for discussion."

"Where am I going to spend this?"

"There's shops and pubs, all sorts of things we can do, all within a half mile. I had a bank account set up for you, so you can shop online. We can train you for missions and take the cube with us. You could just go outside and enjoy some fresh air."

Ianto looked away from Jack, "I have gotten used to being inside sir, it doesn't bother me anymore."

Jack stared at Ianto. "Ianto… when was the last time you were outside?"

Ianto kept his head down and stared at the floor, avoiding eye contact. "It was some time ago sir."

"How long ago exactly?" Jack was staring at him again.

Ianto stared at his hands. "48 hours, 1 minute and 27 seconds after they dropped the bunker buster on m... the cube sir."

Jack knew an avoidance tactic when he saw it, but he understood. "And when was that, exactly?" he asked gently.

Ianto was staring at his shoes. He kept silent for a few moments before sighing heavily,

"1991 during Operation Granby."

Jack said "I remember UNIT was involved."

Ianto nodded. "So was Torchwood, not overtly, but we were there all the same. Director Hartman took the opportunity to do some research."

.

Jack nodded, silently encouraging Ianto to continue.

Ianto began studying his shoes again.

Jack waited.

After a slightly lengthier amount of time, Ianto finally spoke, "After that we still had no idea what the cube was, except it appeared to be safe to handle, she started using the dammed thing as a paper weight, and had me work in the archives. Saved her a lot of money, saved me a lot of-" Ianto shrugged clearly feeling uncomfortable, "It gave me something useful to do." He said instead.

Suddenly Jacks eyes twinkled and one eyebrow rose slightly. Ianto knew that look.

"So Ianto, you like to be useful?"

"Careful sir that's harassment," Ianto said with that slight little smirk that said he didn't really mind.

"Oh I think you'll like this." Jack grinned.

" I'm just aquiver with anticipation, sir."

"Oh you will be, trust me."