Chapter 6
"Ianto?"
"Jack, can we talk?"
"Sit." There was resignation in Jack's tone. He had briefly seen Tosh and Ianto speaking to each other. Aware of their friendship, and of Tosh's opinion about his plan, he worried.
"Unless, you can come up with a better plan?" he indicated as he opened the discussion himself.
"No, nothing better. Although Tosh wants to insert a tracking device under my skin; one of Owen's little toys, she called it".
"I won't risk you being detected!"
"Not a chance. Tosh has run it through a series of her foolproof testing. She's a little afraid of inserting it herself; I though you would?"
There was relief in Jack's eyes.
It got to be short lived.
"I won't fight you on this plan of yours. I'll try to join that group; between Tosh and what P.C. Andy can make of me and the rows we'll publicly have from now on, it just might work."
Ianto hadn't sat down. He was facing Jack and as he stopped talking, he went around the desk, shuffled some papers of it, sat down; he lifted one on Jack's hand to his chest.
"But Jack, asking me to shoot you is killing me inside!"
They had eaten at Ianto's. Jack had picked up Indian food. It hadn't been as silent as Jack expected it to be. But it hadn't been their usual banter when they managed to spend some leisure time together.
Jack had tried to lighten the mood; he had put some ballroom music in the player, extending an arm toward the tall Welshman, offering a dance.
Resigned, Ianto had taken it. The moments spent swirling around the room, entwined tightly together, not a word exchanged. As the music started with the last few notes, Ianto tightened his hold on Jack's waist.
"Not yet, Jack. Not yet".
Jack guided them toward the player, pressed repeat and on they went, dancing closely together.
Ianto let go first.
"Time to have this fight over dessert! If you throw food at me, you'll pay for the dry cleaning", Ianto chuckled.
Jack turned off the stereo; Ianto locked the door; they went with the same self-confident stride toward the SUV.
Once inside, Ianto took a discreet hold of Jack's right hand, caressing his thumb.
"Let's go make assholes of ourselves Captain!"
/*/*/*/*/*
48 hours later, and the fight came to Ianto's apartment. Mister Doyle, next door, called the cop as soon as he heard the wall being hit. By the time, a patrol car pulled up, Ianto was bloody but so was Jack. The fight had drained them of energy and they were spread on the rug, the living room furniture was upside down.
They were dragged, kicking and screaming to the local police station.
Tosh got them out shortly afterward.
In the conference room, Jack was making a fuss over Ianto.
"Let me be Jack! Get over it, will you?" Ianto was glaring at his elder; enforcing with his eyes exactly how he felt about the game they were playing.
"Well, Andy and I have created a nice nest of misinformation in the system Some of his informants will swear on their mother's grave that the two of you are regularly engaged in such shenanigans and can't spend time alone together without getting into screaming matches and now hands"
She poured them each a stiff drink.
"Drink. Then go hug each other quietly for a few moments. I won't take no for an answer!" Tosh could be quite bossy when she wanted too.
"Don't forget to insert this little bug under Ianto's skin! Let me know when all it sets. I think we can only wait now; those guys will be aware of this dissension in our group; how your love story is turning sour."
Jack, who was sat beside Ianto, with the first aid kit in front of him, actually listened to the small lady with the strong determination. He let go of the peroxide and the band-aids. He got up and walked away, simply turning his head in invitation to Ianto.
Ianto smiled.
And followed Jack out of the room.
Tosh left alone simply started to murmured smoothly. "Oh these two!"