Title: The Ice is Getting Thinner (3/9)
Chapter 3: Waking Up to Us
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Jack/John., Ianto/John
Summary: Emotionally tense after the loss of not only their teammates but their family, Jack and Ianto's less than bliss leads them inevitably to the arms of another. Instead of bringing them closer together, the loss has driven them farther apart.
This Part: Gwen and Ianto bond at Jack's expense.
A/N: Please review, or else I have no motivation to continue. .
I need someone to take some joy in something I do
You need a man who is either rich or loose in a screw
You know I love you, here's the irony
You're going to walk away intact
I think you never liked me anyway
You like yourself and you like men to kiss your arse
Expensive clothes, please stop me there
I think I'm waking up to us
We're a disaster
"You know, Jack, I was thinking," Gwen began, tucking her hair behind her ear, trying to look confident, "Maybe we could hire Rhys to come help out around here? Could free up Ianto, you know? The three of us in the field more often, better than just two." Her pocket mirror laughed at her.
"Never gonna work," Ianto said as he approached her desk, pulling up a now-abandoned chair, pretending it never belonged to Tosh. "Number one, Jack will never go for the two of us "in danger" at once. Two, he isn't going to let you bring your life to work." 'Again,' he thought.
She touched his hand. "Maybe you should take your own advice," she said softly.
"I am," he said in a measured tone.
"She squeezed it gently. "If you ever need to talk about anything…"
"I know." He wandered to the coffee machine, thinking over her offer. A small part of him wanted to jump at the chance. He thought about it briefly; take her out for a coffee, bitch about Jack and John and how fucked up the whole thing was and how he knew Jack was cheating on him, too, even though neither of them would ever admit it. A little part of him even wanted to brag about the fantastic sex he was having twice a day, if not more. He wanted someone to talk to other than Jack, who grew more distant every day.
"Actually, Gwen," he said after a few moments spent staring at coffee grains, "I could use some fresh air. Shall we go for Starbucks?"
Smiling, she grabbed her purse. "My treat?" she offered brightly.
Flashing a credit card, he matched her grin. "Jack's."
The more they chatted, the more he wondered why exactly they had stopped doing things like this in the first place. And suddenly, as that thought crossed his mind, he realized there was no good reason except for the brick wall that had arisen when they had lost their teammates.
The good times didn't last. In a perfect mirror of her earlier action, Gwen's hand found her way to the top of his as she asked, eyes narrowing with care, leaning forward, "Ianto, how are you and Jack?"
He looked away, played with his answer in his mind, unable to think of the best way to phrase it. "He…He's cheating on me."
She didn't give him time to elaborate as she tensed in anger as she exclaimed, "The bastard! I never thought he would, how could he after everything, as soon as I see him, I'll…"
"Gwen, calm down, it's alright," he looked at her this time, offering reassurance with his eyes that he didn't even feel. "I'm cheating on him, too."
She paused, obviously confused. "What? But, why? And, does he know? How do you know?"
"I assume he knows just as well as I do. It was almost as if," his mind traveled to the countless explanations he'd puzzled out in his diary, "As if, one day we woke up, and we both knew it wasn't exclusive anymore. There's been too much hurt, too much loss. I can't expect him to lo-" embarrassed, he realized he'd almost said "love", "To, be with me when my life is just as fragile as…as Tosh and Owen's were."
She avoided the mention of their lost. "So, you're "cheating" on each other as an excuse not to fall in love, not to get too close, is it? Why don't you just split up, then?" Her tone was accusatory, sad. For being the heart of what was left of their team, her friends' situation did not sit well with her at all.
"Because I, because I do love him, Gwen, alright?" he said in a very small, very lost voice. "And because he likes getting sex on call, just like his coffee." His voice by the end carried a bitter note.
"Oh, Ianto," she sighed, "You know he loves the both of us in his way."
"So, tell me, still planning a baby, then? Or is it on hold now?" He took a sip of his coffee, pleased to note that it was still inferior to his own.
"Oh, Rhys's mum must call the house once a week, asking if we've 'gotten a move on yet.' He finds the whole thing rather funny, but it's a bit of pressure, you know? Of course we really can't plan anything until we get more recruits, but really, deep down, I'm hoping by the end of the year." Her wide eyes lit up with the prospect of motherhood.
"Wonderful. Just what the Hub needs, the patter of little feet just waiting to get eaten by Myfanwy," he teased, making a swooping motion with his hands towards her cup.
"And whose kids are we feeding to the pterodactyl, exactly, boys and girls?" Jack was suddenly behind Ianto's chair, engulfing their little table in his shadow.
Sometimes Ianto wondered if that shadow was yet another feature of the infamous wrist strap. "Ours, sir, didn't I tell you? I'm pregnant," he deadpanned, knowing full well Jack's (brief) history of unplanned alien pregnancy.
He shuddered. "I'm not paying child support, what you get from this job better be good enough." He stole Ianto's drink, taking a large gulp and putting it back down. "Stealing your recipe, are they?"
"I'm offended to think you'd even compare them. But now that you mentioned it, they leave out the key ingredient I reserve for you alone, Jack."
"Sex and warm feelings?"
"Poison." He gathered his coat and after Gwen did the same, hooked his arm around her, sharing an amused glance. "Shall we, darling?"
Jack hurried after them. "Hey, wait up! I came all the way out here for lunch, even though nobody even thought to invite me, and this is what I get? You're leaving me again? Guys? Hey! Stop!" He would swear they were walking as fast as they could without running, and definitely ignoring him on purpose. He caught up a few steps from the tourist center, grabbing Ianto's arm, twisting him out of Gwen's grasp and face to face with him. "Ianto! What's wrong with you two?"
He went rigid. "Nothing. Just having a talk over coffee, the two of us, because we're friends. Is that not allowed, sir?"
For a moment, he said nothing, allowing the words and feelings to sit in between them as his hand gripped Ianto's arm. He relaxed, slid the hand up his arm and to his shoulder. "Good point. Can't have the boss eating lunch with the team, bad for office morale." He cupped Ianto's cheek with his hand and stole a quick, chaste kiss. "We should go for dinner, then."
Sometimes, Ianto wondered if Jack did the things he did because he somehow knew exactly what was going on, could read Ianto's mind perfectly. "Ah, okay, if it makes you feel better." Something about the feel of the other man's warm skin on his, even through his suit, made him relax into the loose hold. He allowed Jack to kiss him again, a little longer, but no less chaste. He wondered at how the world seemed to stop moving every time their lips met, and chastised himself for thinking like a teenage girl. His final conclusion was that the wrist strap had something to do with it.
"Boys? Enough public displays for today?" Gwen interrupted before they forgot they were outside in broad daylight with work to do rather than alone in the intimate quiet of a bedroom. The irony of the situation based on the day's conversation was not lost on her either.
"Right. Weevil hunting. Archiving. After you, sir." He knew it wasn't the wrist strap but the pathetic beating of his own heart.
He grabbed Ianto's ass, breaking the spell. "Aww, but I like putting on a show." He led the way regardless, and for the rest of the day acted as if the little display on Cardiff Bay had never occurred.
"Well if it isn't my favorite nightingale, Martha Jones. What do I owe the pleasure of a phone call?" Jack leaned back on his desk, kicking up his feet on his desk, careful that Ianto wasn't around to see and scold.
Martha's voice was heavy, almost sad. "I've quit U.N.I.T., Jack."
He kept up his usual banter. "Aw, no red beret for Ianto then?"
She laughed a little. "Jack, behave. No, I quit because. Well, it's a long story, but I went with the Doctor again, and, oh Jack, he's so upset."
He grew serious. "What do you mean?"
"He feels so alone. He lost Donna and Rose at the same time, you know? And all of us, with our own lives now. I think he came back for me because, well its not like I'm, or, was, running the show, over at U.N.I.T. and I don't think he can bear anyone new at this point. But I got back, and I just couldn't work there anymore. But, I just wanted to let you know, he might show up around there, and, he's not alright." She almost sounded on the verge of tears.
"Are you alright, Martha?" he asked gently.
"No, Jack, I'm not." Her voice cracked, she took a deep breath, but said nothing.
He posed the question, despite repeated rejection, "Come to Torchwood. Change of scenery. Less people. We always need a doctor."
"Look, I've got to go. Tom's here. I'll see you later." She hung up, leaving Jack staring at the ceiling, marveling at how quickly things could fall apart even after you save the world.
"Jack, get your feet off the desk," Ianto said, not unkindly. "Is Martha alright?"
He didn't bother asking how Ianto knew. "No, she isn't. Something about the Doctor, coming to visit. I hope he leaves us out of it." Walking to the door, he took his non-Starbucks and hopefully non-poisoned drink from Ianto and called out to Gwen, "Go home to Rhys, I'll see you in the morning." Plans for dinner were forgotten, but not by Ianto.
As Jack thrust in, kneeling into the mattress, one hand around Ianto's cock, the other grasping for whatever touch it could managed, Ianto tried not to look like he was checking the time. Boredom did not drive his semi-obsessive glances, but fear.
John was on his way, having texted just as Ianto and Jack had groped their way in the front door, pissed at having been blown off the night before. Ianto knew he'd be there too soon, knew he wouldn't listen to his request for him to wait, knew Jack would never be out the door in time. God forbid Jack see John. God forbid even Gwen found out. They couldn't know how he was betraying them every night.
Miraculously Jack left quickly with the promise he'd be back late in the night, well after Ianto was asleep, after he'd blown off some steam in his usual fighting-weevil roof-brooding way. Even more miraculously, John didn't show up for another half hour.
Not so miraculously. John didn't show up because he intercepted Jack on his way out. "What, no domestic bliss for you and Eyecandy?" he mocked, closing the distance between them.
"What are you doing here, John? I told you to stay away from them." John's real reason to be there never even crossed his mind.
"Not them, just him. Got a thing for the young ones, you know what I mean? Like to watch him from outside, and maybe one of these days he'll walk out here, and well, put on a little show for the neighbors."
"Everyone's an exhibitionist today," he sighed, and punched him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. "Get out of here." Instead of compliance, he found resistance as John pulled him to the ground.
"What if I fuck you on his front lawn?" John breathed into his ear, and against his own better judgment, and possibly against physiology, he felt himself growing hard again at the proximity to his other lover.
"You wouldn't. You won't." he said firmly, attempting to rise, but John's hands were on his hips and his sharp, angled body was rolling on top of him and thrusting erection against erection in such a way that taking off their clothes and fucking among the weeds and insects took almost no effort on Jack's part.
Ianto had a similar experience as he fucked John over the kitchen table, even though he'd had every intention of sending him away once and for all, wishing Jack had remembered to take him out for dinner.