A/N: I've been cracked up on Janto fanvids for the last five days straight. They keep making me write fanfic!! As always, reviews are lovely. Thanks toe veryone who has given them so far!
Previously on Six years, Ten Months...
"When did you come from?" Jack asked harshly.
"21st of July, 2015."
"Seven years in the future?"
"Is today 21st July 2008?" Purple Ianto asked.
"21st May, 2008." Red Ianto answered.
"Then six years, ten months to be exact."
In Time
Jack fought the grin twitching on his face. "Well you look like Ianto, and you sound like him. Prove you are him."
Ianto frowned and tilted his head at Jack. "I really must be six years back. Er, I suppose… should I say something personal about you all?"
"Well presumably something only I… we… us… Ianto Jones would know." Red Ianto offered, rising from his kneeling position of the floor and dusting off his knees.
"Right then. Owen, you're a closet Madonna fan."
"Shoot him now, he's lying." Owen said testily, cocking his gun in Ianto's direction. Jack bust out laughing.
"Strangely I believe him, and even if he's lying it's highly entertaining."
"That's what you were singing the other day!" Tosh said, smiling triumphantly and turning to stare at Owen. "I knew I'd heard it before. Like a Virgin!"
Gwen lowered her gun because she'd started to laugh so hard she'd begun to cry. Jack chuckled heavily and Owen glared furiously at the Ianto in purple. Once Gwen had calmed herself and righted the position of her gun Jack re-focused his attention on the kneeling Ianto. "Continue." He said shortly.
Both Iantos smiled broadly. The one still on his knees nodded, and continued. "Gwen, you hate raspberries, except in ice cream and then, only when from that stand around the corner from your flat."
Gwen smiled softly and nodded, relaxing her stance. "It's true."
"Of course it is. Tosh, you own every Billy Idol album he ever released, and six he didn't. That's the only music you keep at your flat that isn't classical."
Tosh nodded to Jack. "True again."
"And Jack…" Purple Ianto said, casting sultry, yet still controlled eyes up and down the Captain. "Besides having an uncanny way with measuring tapes, there is the matter of a cluster of ten freckles on your lower back."
"The ones that look like a cat." Red Ianto said nodding.
"A cat?" Jack said, dropping his gun and unconsciously clicking the safety back on, trying to see over his shoulder and somehow through his shirt to said cluster of freckles.
"A wee kitten." Purple Ianto said.
"With whiskers." Red Ianto added.
"Those are my favorite part."
"Is it redundant to say 'mine too'?"
Purple Ianto grinned. "Well… it must be then."
Jack shrugged. "Any proof that I can actually attest to?"
"When you're bottoming you always say--"
"The future you is a little too cheeky for my liking, Ianto." Jack said, looking disbelievingly at the Ianto still kneeling. The one standing shrugged and offered a hand up to the one in the purple shirt.
"If all's to be believed, you like me just fine in the future, sir." Jack shook his head, holstering his weapon. Gwen and Tosh followed suit, and Owen frowned about it but eventually his firearm was put back in its rightful place.
"So, aside from filling my head with scores of new fantasies, what exactly are you doing here? And breaking the first rule of traveling back in time while you're at it!"
"To be fair, I really had no idea I was about to travel back in time." The older Ianto stuffed his hands in his pockets at the exact same moment the younger Ianto did.
"A rift accident? Do you fall through?"
"Jack, Torchwood protocol in Section--"
"Christ, do I actually care about the rules in the future?"
Older Ianto laughed softly. "No, same old Jack."
"That's comforting."
"Well, don't say I didn't protest but since you insist. We get an artifact out of an excavation on July 18th, 2015. I was staying late, recording its properties. Apparently touching the left, forward corner of it while sipping tea brings you back six years, ten months in time to the exact spot."
"Strange reaction." Red Ianto said, frowning.
"Indeed." Purple Ianto responded. "I wasn't aware that it would bring me into direct contact with my past self, thereby breaking the illustrious first rule."
Red Ianto shook his head. "Excuses, excuses."
"I know. I'm a terrible mischief maker and this was the only way I could think to possibly unravel time and space." Purple Ianto responded dryly.
"You don't think this is a bit… weird?" Gwen asked, frowning and looking put off by the Iantos' easily repartee.
"It's a bit like talking something over with yourself inside your head."
"Yes, only out loud."
"Quite."
Jack looked the Iantos up and down, smiling broadly. "Alright… Owen, can you go down to the archives and dig out the lie detector? Tosh, have a look at the rift's activity and see if there's anything to worry about."
"Like more of us falling back through the rift?" Tosh asked, looking concerned.
"Impossible." Purple Ianto said pensively.
"Well if the box is still there--"
"But by definition, it isn't." Red Ianto said, now frowning at his future self. "By me coming back and us talking, we've changed the future."
"Bloody hell, I should've stayed hammered." Owen groused, grabbing a pile of folders and storming off in the direction of the archives.
"We still have the option of a time loop." The future Ianto said, looking thoughtfully at Jack.
The Captain nodded. "It's tricky."
"But viable." Present Ianto said, nodding along. Jack raised a cautious eyebrow, worried not a little bit that two Iantos in the same room might spawn some crazy ideas.
"We'll see."
"Wait, wait, a time loop? What's that?" Gwen said, leaning against Tosh's desk.
"If we send Ianto back to his rightful time, and relatively the same place, and then we do what he's told us to do, find that box when we originally found it and let Ianto stay late to come back here, then when we send him back it'll be as if he'd never left. He'd be making a giant loop in the timeline." Jack explained.
Gwen frowned and sat down in Owen's chair. "Isn't that a bit risky?"
"Well, yeah." Jack said, grinning. "Apparently, we're risk takers here, though. It's our only option." Both Iantos nodded at the same time.
"He's right."
"Jack's right."
They said softly, in the same deep lilting welsh tones. Jack closed his eyes and smirked in away that spoke of deeply naughty thoughts. "Can you two just talk? I'll keep you both if you just keep talking…"
The Iantos cast sideways glances at each other and stayed pointedly silent.
"No, then?"
They nodded.
The sound of quick footsteps echoed through the hub and moments later Owen came jogging up from the archives with the silver lie detector in his hand. He tossed it to Jack who caught it expertly and nodded in the direction of future Ianto. "Alright, one last test. My office, let's go."
The older Ianto nodded understandingly and turned to go in the direction of the Captain's office. Present day Ianto hovered in indecision by Tosh's desk. Jack walked nearly half way to his office before turning around and raising an eyebrow at him.
"Is there a reason you're just standing there?" He said with a grin.
Ianto sighed and gave him an irritated look. "Is it entirely wise for me to be in that room, sir?"
Jack shrugged. "It's not."
"But you want me there?"
"Why not?"
"I could accidentally glean information about my future and change the entire course of human events…"
Jack laughed and walked back towards him, grabbing his hand and squeezing it reassuringly. "Or you could not."
"We'll never know one way or the other before hand."
"It's more fun that way." Jack reasoned playfully. Ianto shook his head and let go of Jack's hand, walking over to the Captain's office. "Don't tell me you don't agree." Jack muttered in a strangely charming way.
Ianto smiled but said nothing as he crossed into the office and perched on the ledge of Jack's desk. Jack entered shortly after and began to set up the lie detector. The future Ianto, who had been playing idly with some of the gadgets about the room and smiling in a fond way, finally took his seat across the desk from Jack when he pronounced the lie detector ready. A thin green beam of light settled across the bridge of the other Ianto's nose and dead across his eyes. He blinked a few times but eventually adjusted. Jack sat back and laced his fingers together.
"What is your full name?"
The Ianto across from Jack sighed and rolled his eyes. "If I answer that it will almost certainly cause an anomaly."
Jack sat forward quickly. "Why?"
"I may or may not have changed my name in nearly seven years time."
"Changed your name? To what?" Jack said, looking angry.
The Ianto in red put a hand on Jack's shoulder. "What if… what if I… I get charged with criminal offense and have to change my name? Unlikely I know, but I can't know something like that, whatever it is. Just ask another question Jack."
Jack looked cautiously between the two Iantos. Future Ianto had a point. If present day Ianto found out ahead of time it ran the risk of him trying to stop it and completely unraveling the time-space continuum. But if the future Ianto was lying because he was not, in fact, the future Ianto… it was all very conducive to headaches.
But the light had remained green. It was true that saying his full name could cause an anomaly. Jack sighed. "Are you the future version of this Ianto from six years ten months in the future?"
The Ianto across the table nodded. "Yes." The light was still green.
"Where were you born?"
"Porthcawl, South East Wales." Still green.
"Name of your first pet?" The present Ianto asked.
"Bess. She was a stray tabby cat that wandered to the back door. Mum said that we could keep her."
"Your brother's name?"
The future Ianto grinned. "I don't have a brother. But I do have a baby sister. Jane. She'll be… well, I guess she'll only be 17 now."
"18, actually."
"Yes, sorry, her birthday's in March. The 13th."
The present Ianto nodded. The light was still green.
"He's almost certainly me, Jack."
"Almost, yes. Is there anything… anything that just you would know?"
Ianto opened his mouth to speak but found there was nothing off the top of his head he could really ask. Or rather, nothing he could think of that wouldn't embarrass him for life. He snapped his mouth shut. Jack looked at him curiously.
"If I leave the room will it help?"
Ianto fidgeted, desperately wanting that condescending, pretentious look out of Jack's eyes. He sighed. Jack's eyes. He turned to his future counterpart.
"Why is blue my favorite color?" He asked shortly.
The future Ianto looked about as irritated as his seven years younger self did. He huffed a bit but answered. "It's the color of Jack's eyes." The light stayed green.
Jack smirked and raised his eyebrows once, clearly pleased. "Well, I think that's as close as we'll get to certainty. Now we have to figure out how to send you back."
Present Ianto nodded and slid off the desk. "Long day ahead of us then. I'll go make more coffee." Future Ianto grinned for reasons his younger self could not understand.
"Thank you." Jack said with a fond twinkle in his blue eyes. The Ianto in red left to busy himself with work and hopefully clear his head.
Jack stood, flicking off the lie detector and walking around the desk. He leaned back against the edge of it and stared down at the future Ianto thoughtfully.
"Can you stand up for a moment?"
The older version of his lover looked at him cautiously. "Jack…"
"Ooh, in the future you call me Jack at the office?"
"I have for years. It's so… so strange being back this far."
Jack nodded sympathetically. "A lot can happen in seven days at Torchwood, let alone seven years."
Ianto nodded. "I just… I know I can't say anything but it's damn hard not to."
Jack fiddled with his braces, an old nervous habit. "Can you please stand up for a minute, 'Yan?"
Ianto shrugged and stood, hands shoved deep into his pockets. Jack closed his eyes, nearly confirmed in his suspicions. He opened his eyes to gaze at Ianto and leaned forward to kiss him. Not a demanding kiss, very gentle. Meant to be comforting. Ianto leaned into it passionately, like Jack had never felt from Ianto before. The Welshman was always, always just the tiniest bit reserved. But that was gone. Jack inhaled sharply, completely overtaken by the intensity of this Ianto. Like sugar flavored fire scorching down his throat into his gut. His stomach flipped. So… right. Before he could really give his all to the kiss, Ianto pulled away, laughing.
"What?" Jack asked, smiling.
"Another strange thing… you don't kiss like my Jack. My Jack from the future. It's bizarre to go back to the way we used to kiss. When… nothing." He stopped himself hastily.
Jack reached out, lightening quick, and ripped Ianto's hand from his pocket. He stared at it confusedly. He'd been so sure. But then something caught his eye, a line on his ring finger, a band of skin all the way around the base of that finger, a few shades paler than the rest of the hand. He nodded, slipping his hand without comment into Ianto's pocket and pulling out the ring he knew would be hidden there. A silver wedding band.
Jack sighed and smiled despite himself. The idea of being married to Ianto… he'd never actually considered it. Figuring that when the time came, he would become typical Jack again, and flee when things just because too serious. When that feeling that Ianto made him feel had fizzled out, he had ultimately reasoned they would both move on. He hadn't really put the two of them down for lasting overly long.
Weddings weren't notoriously permanent on Earth as they were on some other worlds, true. But for Ianto… for precise, efficient, deeply passionate Ianto, Jack knew that it would have to be. Ianto would not settle for anything less than perfection, for something innately right. Ianto was not the type of man who ever settled.
This was not something Jack had made plans for. This was not something he had really even thought about. Ianto was lovely; sweet and clever. So clever. Sharp and sexy and sensationally good in bed. All great things that Jack adored about his lover. But 51st century men did not settle down. It had caused so much trauma in centuries past that by the year of Jack's birth, monogamy had long since fizzled out. He'd never actually encountered such a thing until he came to earth. And even then only from a distance, only from watching others. It was an ideal he'd grown up finding ludicrous, frankly ridiculous. He had really expected the mere word "marriage" to spark up that infamous wanderlust of his and force his feet right out the damn door.
But none of that. As he looked down at the wedding ring he knew would be placed on Ianto by his own hand sometime in the next seven years, he felt unutterably calm. Steady breathing, no itchy feet. Peace. That strange feeling, that tugging in his rib cage, that feeling he'd so desperately sought in the Doctor only to find he'd left it with Ianto… it seemed to be sealed up in that ring. Peace. Maybe that's what Ianto meant. A final reprieve from all his endless searching. A place to stand blissfully still and just be himself. He couldn't really imagine such a thing, but if that's what Ianto meant… if that strange, queer sensation in his gut whenever he touched him was really love, Jack couldn't find one reason strong enough to ever let him go.
"I hope that me in seven years time has a matching one of these…" he said, knowing the answer already, but wanting confirmation, regardless of what it might mean to the timeline.
Ianto sighed. "Look on the inside of the ring, oh my observant Captain."
Jack laughed and tilted the ring so that he could see the inside surface of it. Loopy script had been inscribed all the way around it. Jack and Ianto-Yn Oes Oesoedd.
Jack raised an eyebrow at Ianto. "What is your full name?" He asked softly.
Ianto sighed. "Ianto Cai Jones-Harkness."
"You change your name because we're…"
"Married. Yes."
Jack nodded, still trying to really absorb it. He peered closer at the ring. "What does it mean?"
"Typically a wedding band symbolizes…" he trailed off when Jack glared at him.
"The welsh, 'Yan, what does the welsh mean?"
Ianto took his wedding band back and slipped it into his pocket. "For ever and ever."
Jack exhaled harshly. "So we…"
"I won't answer anymore questions, Jack. Although I will take the time to do this." And Ianto punched him surprisingly hard in the arm.
Jack cried out. "Ow! Woah, what was that for?" He said petulantly, rubbing the abused part of his arm.
"Well you've clearly known this whole time I was going to say yes. No wonder you looked so bloody confident when you proposed!"
Jack started laughing and, out of no fault of his own, was completely compelled to kiss Ianto. He placed his hands delicately on Ianto's face and kissed him for all he was worth. Every bit of that strange, hungry feeling inside of him that might be love if Jack could ever figure out how to label it, he put into that kiss. With his body pressed in one long line to Ianto's, Jack shuddered from the feel of him. Ianto pulled back again, panting this time.
"A bit closer. More like my Jack." Ianto murmured delicately with an approving smirk.
"Do I do… other things differently in the future?"
Ianto sighed. "Not differently. You don't ever loose that… innovation you're so famous for, if that's what you're asking. But it is better."
"Is it bad now?" Jack looked worried.
Ianto laughed outright. "Does it sound like it's bad now?"
Jack considered. "Well, no. You always sound like you enjoy yourself."
"And I do. But things are just better with time."
"You don't talk like… well, you do… now. This is confusing."
"Agreed. But I understand. We talk more… in seven years we know each other better, we talk about everything and anything."
Jack felt himself blush a little bit. That certainly hadn't happened to him a few hundred years. "That sounds nice."
Ianto nodded simply. "It is."
"When do I--"
"No. I'm not telling you any details. Only that it's nice, because we… well, you let me be in love with you. I like being in love. Remember that."
Jack took a deep breathe in. Love. "Do I…"
"Love me back?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that's for you to decide, really."
"But you must…"
"Know for sure?"
"How do you keep doing that?"
"Finishing your sentences? Time. I will tell you one thing: it drives Owen completely round the bend when we really get the hang of it."
Jack chuckled. "You're different."
"So are you. Time."
Jack nodded and broke away. "Let's figure out a way to get you back there, then."
"Yes, please. Seeing you makes me miss my Jack."
Jack's jaw dropped open just a bit. "Ouch. Should I be insulted?"
Ianto grinned, and put his forehead against Jack's. He stared lustfully at him, biting his lip just a little bit. Jack lost his breathe for a moment. "On the contrary, sir. You should definitely take that as a compliment."
Jack grinned. "Noted."
They both chuckled and stepped away from each other, walking out into the Hub to find away to send Ianto back to the future.