"Hello again," Martha said, sneaking up on me as I was attempting to hack into Toshiko's laptop. She hadn't left any note of the password and Laura had already failed at file retrieval via external hard drive enclosure. Every single file was password protected, double encrypted, and her password-cracking program didn't work on the encoding she'd used. She was too good at secrecy, my Toshiko. Laura had given the job over to me because she hadn't known Tosh at all and "Owen", "Tommy", "Tosh Loves Owen" and other such frivolities Gwen had tossed her way hadn't worked. "How's that coming along?"
"Slow work," I admitted. "I wish she'd had a cat." Most single women who had cats used their feline friend's name as a password. Odd but true.
"Did you finally get past second base?" she whispered in my ear.
"Third," I whispered back.
"And? Tell me; I'm going mad from the suspense!"
"We... I don't know how to explain it. It was... like a perfect three-part harmony," I told her. I'd been thinking about musicals since we'd gotten back to the Hub, and on a whim I typed Miss Saigon. (1) "Shit! It worked! I'm in!!!" I exclaimed. "Jack!" I called out. He was passing from the hothouse to his office and stopped cold at my excitement. "Tosh's password!"
"What was it?" he called down.
"You never would have guessed it," I told him, unlocking a couple of files to make sure she'd used the same password. "Miss Saigon!"
"You're kidding," he blurted. "I didn't even know she liked musicals."
"Gwen told me Tosh could sing. I had music on the brain and pictured her as the lead in 'Miss Saigon'. Maybe it was her secret ambition or something," I supplied.
"Good work, Officer 000," he told me with a wink. "Martha, could you bring that up here for me? I need a word with you, and Sage apparently needs coffee," Jack said as Ianto came my way with two coffees, one of them my extra special chocolate cappuccino.
"Did you ever know that you're my hero?" I said to Ianto, still jazzed on music. He broke into a sunny grin.
"I might need some coffee magic later, myself, Ianto," Martha told him as she was passing.
"Always at your service, Miss Jones," he told her.
"Good to hear, Mr Jones," she quipped, then went up to Jack's office.
"Where's Gwen?" I asked Ianto as he sat with me on the sofa and handed me my mug.
"Sorting some transport route priority issue. Rhys says Transportation is going about the repairs all wrong, Jack agreed, Gwen was sent," he explained. "Should be back soon."
"And Laura?"
"Central Servers again. Officially this time. She's bossing around about ten IT blokes, most of them older than her. I think she's in Feminist Tech Heaven," Ianto told me with a grin.
"I'll bet. Odd she didn't ask me along," I mused aloud.
"Martha gave her quite the speech about being strong in spite of her feelings for you. Something about making them an asset rather than a weakness. You were still pretty groggy; guess you missed it," he told me.
"I heard the last part. About my father," I murmured. "I guess it worked. Hooray for Martha, then. I was starting to wonder if dragging Laura into this mess was going to end with Jack freezing me in Cryo Bay 39 just to shut my big stupid mouth."
"You're the farthest thing from stupid, Sage," Ianto chided. "And I love your mouth." I giggled like a schoolgirl and kissed him, a quick peck on the lips.
"Now that I've handed over Miss Saigon," I remarked, "I'm out of work. Weevils have been quiet, John's in New York, no blowfish driving sports cars..."
"You could play 'extremely bored Tourist Information desk jockey' with me," Ianto offered. "Or... you could play 'extremely sexy girlfriend of extremely bored desk jockey' and snog my face off," he ventured.
"I'll go with 'b'," I replied.
"Sounds more diverting, doesn't it," he remarked, acting serious.
"Yeah, definitely."
"'B' it is," he agreed, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward his mock office at a run. We laughed the entire way, and somehow managed not to spill a drop of coffee.
I had my back to Ianto, my hair pinned up with a pencil from his desk and the neck of my blouse loosened and pushed down so he could massage my shoulders. He really was good with his hands, and I was about to remark on that when he kissed my neck tenderly.
"You smell like vanilla and orange blossoms," he murmured against my skin. "I thought you didn't wear perfume... Wait, is that chocolate?"
I chuckled. "Martha gave it to me," I explained, pulling a small glass spray bottle from my pocket to show him. "It's called Miss Fortune." (2)
"Misfortune?" he echoed, aghast.
"No," I giggled. "Miss Fortune. Martha says she bought it off a friend in London, and she absolutely adores it, but her boyfriend wouldn't leave her alone about the 'negative connotations' of its name, which is of course completely backwards. It's actually a lucky name."
"Superstitious," Ianto remarked.
"And persistent. He bothered her so much about it she had to stop wearing it, but she paid ten quid for it, and it's lovely, so she says she's been carrying it around with her until she found 'a true chocolate lover who deserved to enjoy it'."
"It suits you," he told me as I pocketed the bottle.
"Thanks," I said, blushing again.
"You're going to miss her," he said softly.
"Very much," I sighed, leaning back against his chest. He rested his chin on my shoulder, wrapping his arms around my waist.
"Haven't had many girl friends, have you," he guessed.
"I haven't had many friends," I blurted. "It's... difficult."
"Trusting people is always difficult," he murmured. "Then you add the things we know..."
"And the things we are," I put in.
"And it just becomes this minefield," Ianto concluded. "But when you can trust someone, Sage, never let them go. Toshiko and Owen loved you, too," he said, and I burst into tears. "We're allowed to love them still," he told me.
"Ón saol seo go dtí an saol eile," (3) I murmured, drying my eyes.
"Gaelic?" he ventured.
I nodded. "'From this life to the next.'"
"Where'd you learn that?" he asked me, curious.
"On the telly," I admitted, and he chuckled. "Heath Ledger," I sighed. "You don't have to be Torchwood to die young."
"And it never gets easier, losing people," Ianto sighed. "Jack says it's harder every time." He went quiet for about a minute or so, then asked me. "Will he ever...?"
"Really die?" I finished for him. "One day, I suppose. My father says he's 'impossible' and 'wrong' and that as a Time Lord he instinctively ran from that. I've never gotten that feeling, though," I said softly. "To me it's sort of comforting."
"That he'll always be there?"
"No, not really," I chuckled. "He runs off and doesn't tell you why, dies six times or a hundred, comes back changed... But he always comes back."
"And he knows we'll always forgive him," Ianto added, his voice grave and sad.
I had my clothes put right when the man with an armload of flowers pushed the door open, but I was using the pencil from my hair to draw a Dalek for Ianto, and he was leaning over to blow teasingly in my ear at the moment the man walked in.
"May I help you?" Ianto inquired.
Instant professional. Just add purpose.
"Is there a Sage here? No last name... Or I also have instructions to leave it with an Ianto Jones," the man ventured.
"I'm Sage," I told him, standing. I saw Ianto's hand go discreetly to his gun under the desk. "Sage Smith," I said pointedly, smiling sardonically. "I suppose that makes me forgettable."
"No, miss. Quite the contrary," he said, handing me a bouquet of a baker's dozen purple roses in a crystal vase. "These are for you," he said, "and this." He handed me an envelope. "Had a man in this afternoon, requested them special, but we were short. He said if he could come all the way from Barcelona to order them, we could go all the way to London to find them." My eyes widened at that. "So, miss, you're far from forgettable. Sign here, please."
With my arms full of roses and my eyes full of shock, I hadn't yet recovered when Ianto said, "I'll sign. I'm Ianto Jones."
"In that case, sir, this is yours," the delivery man said, handing Ianto a second envelope, this one red, "and I'll require two signatures." Ianto looked startled as he accepted the envelope, but he put his name down twice on the delivery form and managed to thank the man and wish him a good night.
"Are these from John?" he asked me. I had just counted the roses and had tears in my eyes. "Sage?"
"Yes, they're from John," I managed to say.
"Are you all right?" he asked me, guiding me back down to the footstool I'd been sitting on.
"Yes, I'm fine. It's just... Thirteen Sterling roses. Only John would have known." Ianto was still looking at me with concern. "We had purple roses on Gallifrey. True purple, not tinted, and not Sterling roses. Not even Jack knows they were my favourite when I was a girl." I then opened John's note, and read it aloud. "'One for each life, and may each be more beautiful than the last. Thank you twice, Love you always, John'."
"What does it mean?" Ianto asked me, bemused.
"A Time Lord has thirteen lives, Ianto," I murmured. "The one we're born to and twelve re-generations. 'Thank you twice'... That must be for saving him and for forgiving him."
"I never thought John Hart... thought that way," he admitted.
"He's complicated," I shrugged, smiling. "I wonder who he robbed to pay for these..." Ianto was turning his envelope over, then back again, but hadn't opened it. "What does yours say?" I prompted him.
"Hopefully nothing poetic," he remarked, still looking befuddled. "Huh," was all he said upon reading his card.
"What?"
"'The two people I love most in this Universe are in your care. Keep that in mind, Eye-Candy. John'. Is that a threat or something? Somehow I don't think it is..."
I knew the answer to that, but I walked him through seeing it for himself. "Even though it's a red envelope?"
"It matches my tie," he showed me what I'd already noticed. "I mean... it matches it exactly."
"What else?"
"It reads like a double entendre," he pointed out. "I think what he's saying is 'take care of them for me, and if you fail me I'll... kill you'," he concluded, looking both astounded and uncomfortable.
I chuckled, nodding. "That's John." Then I added, "He must really like you."
"Why do you say that?" he inquired.
"Don't see a note for Jack or Gwen, do we," I pointed out.
He pondered this, then asked me, "Why does he call me that? Eye-Candy?"
I shrugged. "He thinks you're pretty. I guess he meant it as a put-down at first, but it stuck. When I was little he called me Mouth, because I talked too much," I told him. "The day before my eighth birthday, when he gave me this," I said, holding up my wrist strap, "he asked me to close my eyes, then kissed me as he put it in my hand. 'Don't lose it, Mouth,' he told me. 'Come and see me soon.' That was the last time I saw him until Earth."
"So John was your first kiss, not Jack," Ianto pondered. "Does Jack know this?" I shook my head, smiling a naughty smile, and yet blushing. "Your secret's safe with me," he told me, kissing me tenderly.
1) John Barrowman and Naoko Mori once starred in "Miss Saigon" together in the West End. Couldn't help myself. And yes, the following Torchwood actors sing professionally: John Barrowman (Jack), Gareth David-Lloyd (Ianto), James Marsters (John Hart), and Naoko Mori (Tosh). Musical Torchwood would have so rocked! ^_^
2) This perfume actually exists. It was a Limited Edition "Burlesque" scent by Moxie Beauty. It reminds me of Martha. And yes, it cost me 10 quid, but no, you can't have it. ;)
3) From the TV series Roar, starring Heath Ledger. I have this tattooed on my left wrist.