The Clever Child

"We need to look for Tosh."

The only surprising thing about that statement, Jack decided, was that it had taken until the next day for Ianto to come out with it. By the time Jack had got him back to the flat, Ianto had been willing enough to strip down to his boxers and lay down on the bed. Jack had enjoyed fussing around him and making sure he drank some fruit juice and rested but Jack hadn't really been happy with leaving him alone and had eventually lain down on the bed with him, picking up the detective novel he was currently reading and amusing Ianto by making wild deductions about what was happening. By the end of the evening Jack was fairly happy about the two of them settling down to sleep, although he did set his wristband to wake him up after a couple of hours so he could check on Ianto.

The night passed uneventfully and Ianto was definitely brighter the next day, although his neck was still sore and his head ached a little. Jack vetoed any lovemaking until Ianto was fully back to health, which annoyed the other man immensely but Jack successfully distracted him with a full fry-up breakfast. It wasn't until Ianto had finished stuffing himself with his favourite breakfast and the dishes had been put in the dishwasher until they had a full load that Ianto raised the subject of Tosh.

"Owen said he couldn't find her," Jack pointed out, more to play Devil's advocate than for any other reason.

"Owen is a fine doctor and was an excellent field agent but apart from when he was playing games I wouldn't call him more than average on a computer," Ianto shot back. "I sure as hell wouldn't depend on him to do a definitive search for something."

"How do we do this, then?" Jack asked. They didn't have the resources they would have had back in Torchwood and he was curious to see how Ianto would tackle this.

Ianto grinned, looking more like his old self despite the large bruise on the side of his face. "Let's see what we can do with what we've got first. If it's not enough, you can whip me up a 51st century computer."

Jack snorted. "I wish," he said dryly, knowing that half the components needed for such a beast would be unobtainable. For a moment he mourned Mainframe and hoped that it had somehow survived the destruction and would be found by someone who would appreciate it.

Ianto went into their study and settled down in front of his computer. Both it and Jack's were already markedly different from the fairly basic models they had been gifted with. Ianto might use a conventional laptop for general surfing but he was used to having a lot more computing power at his fingertips when he was doing serious research and Jack was simply unable to pass a machine without trying to tinker with it. Between the two of them, they had raided the computer suppliers in the city and cobbled together something which had a lot more scope and power. He booted it up and tossed Jack a mischievous look before he launched into his search.

It had taken them less than a couple of hours when they had first started to go online to find out that there wasn't just one internet: there was two. After a little confusion they had realised that the Web was the territory of the amateur, where all kinds of wild and wacky stuff could be found, while the Net was the province of business and science. The Net was policed, monitored and vetted while the Web was a far more laid back affair, with only child and mental health protection issues being addressed and ferociously enforced. The two systems ran independently of one another, but unlike the IPv4 and IPv6 systems back on their old Earth, these were compatible and some areas of the Web and Net overlapped.

Since his university course would probably focus on the WebNet to a degree, Ianto had done a lot more exploring than Jack and that showed now as he swung into action. After a moment Jack grabbed one of the chairs and reversed it before sitting down to watch in admiration. He and the others had always known that researching was Ianto's forte but they had rarely got the opportunity to watch him as he had generally needed to do it when they were also busy doing something. Jack watched the clever fingers stroke the keyboard and shivered as he thought of them stroking something else.

"Mind out of the gutter, Jack," Ianto said with amusement.

Jack jerked. "How did you-"

Ianto glanced away from the screen to give him a fond a smile. "I know you. And your breathing was speeding up."

In the end Ianto was mildly annoyed to find that he didn't need any vast degree of internet mojo to find Tosh. He found her as soon as he accessed the electoral roll for Cardiff. After that it was simplicity itself to backtrack and expand the search until he knew as much as was possible without actually going to her home and meeting her. Jack laughed at the miffed expression on his lover's face.

"Well I was hoping for a bit of a challenge," Ianto defended himself before relaxing and grinning as well.

"I'm all for easy wins every now and then," Jack said wryly.

He reached out a finger to stroke the image of Tosh that was currently on the screen. Her hair was shorter than it had been, a sleek bob cut to chin length and emphasising her clean bone structure. She was working as a postgraduate student on a research project with the University of Cymru that was researching the formation and evolution of stars and the team had a shared blog where they were all introduced with a small biography. Tosh was one of two computer wizards and an expert at setting up theoretical models for the various scenarios the team was researching.

"Who came over with her?" Jack asked. "Tommy?"

Ianto shook his head. "Her mother."

"Ah." Jack nodded his head sadly, remembering how it had almost destroyed Tosh to learn that her mother had died during the struggle with the terrorists. It had taken all of Jack's skill to make her see that she had no reason to blame herself and every reason to blame the terrorists for what had happened. "Yes, that would have made her happy."

"Mrs Sato is listed as a widow who lives in Penarth. Tosh moved out after she got her degree and got a flat that she shared with another girl named Kashore Sele."

"That's new," Jack noted with interest. "She told me she was always reluctant to share living space with other people."

"I think being dead can make you look at things a little differently," Ianto said quietly. "Anyway, Kashore moved out about a month ago to go travelling and…" Ianto paused for a moment and Jack watched as his eyebrows rose towards his hairline.

"What?" he demanded.

Ianto gave him a bemused look. "A man called Andy Davidson moved in."

"Andy? Gwen's Andy?" Jack demanded incredulously.

Ianto was already typing frantically and after a moment he shook his head. "I think this is this universe's version of Andy Davidson. He has an entire herd of relatives and a career that involves far too many people having worked with him over several years. I'm not sure if this is a coincidence but I don't think he's like us."

Jack leaned forward to look at the photo Ianto had found. This was definitely the Andy that he remembered but there was something slightly different as well. He was less self-effacing and more confident, gazing out at the camera with calm but humorous eyes. He was wearing some kind of uniform and a quick check turned up the information that Andy was an astronaut with several years of experience under his belt.

"I'll be damned," Jack breathed. "And Gwen didn't think he could hack it in Torchwood."

"To be fair, this is an alternate universe Andy," Ianto pointed out, but he was looking thoughtful as well.

"Tosh might have been attracted by the similarity at first," Jack mused, "but the fact that he's moved in with her indicates that she decided to deepen the relationship."

"He might just be sharing the flat," Ianto said after a moment. "From what I could dig up he's away fairly often doing ferry runs to the space stations and the Moon colonies." He did his best not to sound envious and failed miserably. Jack grinned.

"Don't turn too green. Andy's the equivalent of an airline pilot. This Earth has had space travel long enough for the nearer space flights to be routine."

"Sort of wanted to be an airline pilot when I was growing up," Ianto told him with a smile.

"Really?" Jack brightened up. "We'll have to get you a pilot's uniform and do a little role-playing," he said enthusiastically.

Ianto laughed and shook his head even though a definite shiver of anticipation ran through him at the thought.

"So she's safe and happy and in Cardiff," Jack said with a smile. "Shall we go and visit?"

"I think we should maybe send a message first rather than just turn up on her doorstep," Ianto suggested.

"Awww, I don't get to make the dramatic entrance?" Jack pouted.

Ianto hesitated, tempted despite himself. It would be nice to suddenly appear from out of nowhere. Even as the thought crossed his mind, his computer pinged and an IM window opened up.

TOSHI: Ianto?

Ianto froze before exchanging a startled look with Jack.

TOSHI: Ianto, this search has your fingerprints all over it. Please tell me that it's you.

Ianto sucked in a breath and heard Jack's soft "Yatta!" He swiftly typed in a confirmation and sent it. Almost immediately an answer pinged back.

TOSHI: WHERE ARE YOU? IS JACK THERE AS WELL?

Laughing at the capitalisation, Ianto swiftly typed in an affirmative. There was a pause of several seconds and they exchanged worried looks. The next thing they knew, the computer screen blanked and then cleared to reveal an excited looking Tosh peering out at them. Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands together, her grin almost splitting her face in two even as her eyes glittered with tears.

"Oh, it is you, it is! Oh, now everything is perfect!"

Jack scooted the chair forward and blew a kiss at the screen. "You've ruined my dramatic entrance," he complained with an overdone pout.

Tosh giggled. "You look so young! I woke up looking eighteen as well, but I've been here for a while. Do you know what happened?" Ianto and Jack both nodded but when Jack opened his mouth to explain she held up her hand imperiously. "No, I want to meet you! Shall I come to you or will you come to me?"

"Why don't you come here?" Jack suggested. "It'll be nice to have someone visit."

"Tosh, do you know that Owen is here?" Ianto asked. He was confused because he didn't think Tosh would have had problems in tracking Owen down.

Tosh nodded and looked embarrassed. "Yes, but he has Katie with him and I wasn't sure if he'd appreciate my appearing back in his life. I wasn't sure I could trust myself, to be honest, but that was before I met Andy."

"Oho, so he isn't just your flatmate!" Jack crowed when he saw the way she blushed. "Oh, I am so going to want details, young lady!"

"Behave," Ianto said in exasperation. "Would you like to come round, Tosh?"

"Absolutely," Tosh said firmly. "Give me half an hour and then I shall want to know everything. Especially how you got that bruise, Ianto Jones!"

She gave him a mock ferocious scowl and the screen went blank again. The two men sat in silence for a moment.

"Our clever Toshiko," Jack said with affection.

"I'm glad," Ianto said simply. Then his eyes widened in horror. "Omigosh, she's coming over and we don't have anything to give her to eat!"

He dashed from the room leaving Jack in a state of confusion since he knew that their kitchen was fully stocked with all manner of good things to eat. After a while he chalked it up to the Welsh notion of hospitality and wandered off after him. He might not have Torchwood, or Gwen or Gray but he had most of his adopted family around him now and this world was looking better by the day.

"Thank you," he whispered into the silence, hoping that somehow the alien would know how much he appreciated what she had given him.

OOO