PART THREE

Ianto stuck out an arm from under his quilt and knocked the trilling alarm clock to the floor. He rolled over to discover the space in the bed beside him was still warm but empty, eventually he opened his eyes and discovered Jack towelling himself dry. Reluctantly he sat up amid the covers and decided to watch the spectacle that was Captain Jack Harkness trying to locate his clothes in the chaos of last night's antics. Ianto really didn't want to get up but finally he did, dragging a sheet off the bed with him and wrapping it round himself before heading to the bathroom. When he came out of the bathroom all freshly showered and groomed Jack just stood there admiring the view.

"You should wear the nice dark purple shirt today."

"All my shirts are nice. I was thinking green though." Ianto was inspecting the contents of his wardrobe with a critical eye.

"Green? You have a green shirt?" Jack had never seen the young man wear anything green.

Ianto obligued him by holding it up. He shook his head and then put it back in the wardrobe, pulling out a claret red one instead.

"Oh yes." Jack purred. "Definitely your colour, with the charcoal three piece."

Ianto nodded and selected a new suit that his tailor had finished for him the previous week. Jack stood there shamelessly watching as Ianto dressed with military precision, it was a thing of beauty to watch as Ianto finished knotting his tie with Jack's face visible in the mirror, overlooking his shoulder.

"You really are quite beautiful, you know." Jack said, suddenly very serious. Ianto turned to face him with the tiniest of smiles.

"So are you." Ianto replied uncomfortable all of a sudden, Jack didn't get sentimental. "We should get going."

"What? No breakfast?"

"I'll pick something up on the way in, I need to get coffee anyway otherwise there'll be mutiny."

An hour later and Ianto was perched on the autopsy table, stripped down to his underwear and shivering whilst Owen gave him a thorough medical, Ianto was reminded that he needed to sort out the heating again. Owen declared him fit and sent him away three hours later. Ianto made coffees and distributed them amongst his team mates before settling down at his terminal to get on with some work.

It was a quiet day all round with a break at lunch for an hour in the boardroom over take aways. No one spoke much, still subdued by the missing two days. Ianto watched Tosh as she shot surrepticious glances at Owen and Gwen kept looking at Jack with something close to longing in her eyes. Jack didn't look at any one, he just ate copious amounts of food and drank three mugs of coffee. Ianto picked at his meal, having no apetite once again, his good mood of the early morning rapidly waning. He left the boardroom and went back to his desk and it took him some moments to realise that the others were still in there, now talking avidly. Ianto sighed.

"Well Owen is Ianto ok?" Jack asked.

Owen nodded, chewing on a pork ball, he spoke with his mouth full.

"Hardly the time or place, but yes he is fine."

Tosh and Gwen were both now looking at Jack.

"Care to enlighten us?"

Jack shook his head. "Not really, but, it is possible that Ianto has become like me. He certainly seems to have inherited my accelerated healing ability from the 'other version' of me."

Tosh was looking over her shoulder in the direction of her colleague who was working, head down.

"You think he's immortal?"

Jack shrugged. "Let's just say I'd rather we didn't put it to the test, but Ianto is a little freaked, especially after the last couple of days worth of weirdness. Look just treat him as normal, ok?"

Gwen was not even remotely pleased about this turn of events. "I thought the other Jack said......"

"I know, so did I and quite frankly I will be more than a little pissed with him if I find out he was lying. This is no gift and Ianto faces a long time ahead of him and a great deal of loss if he is immortal."

Owen snorted. "He should be used to it by now, half his family are dead, his ex, his mates from London, anyway he's got you to look out for him, you know the drill with this."

The three of them all looked at Jack expectantly. "You seriously imagine there is any easy way coping with the fact that you will outlive your own children, your own culture, your own age maybe even your own language. Do any of you really have any idea of what immortality actually means? I hope I can help him Owen, because frankly I am the only one who can."

Owen and Tosh both had the decency to look guilty and Gwen just looked sorry, but not for Ianto, for Jack. Ianto would have the help that Jack never got.

"Anyway people, back to work and knowledge Ianto's condition does not leave this base, are we all clear on that?"

The team nodded.

Jack lurched out of his seat and left the room and called down into the Hub to Ianto.

"My office."

Ianto looked up with a frown and Jack smiled at him. He gathered up the report on his desk that he wanted to discuss with Jack anyway and wandered up to the office faintly aware of Gwen's eyes on him as he went. Owen was now back down in his domain and Tosh was tidying the mess on the boardroom table. Ianto stuck his head in through the door way.

"I'll sort that in a minute Tosh." He smiled at her and Tosh smiled back.

"Ok, come and see me when Jack's done?"

"The couch in an hour?"

"It's a date."

He continued on up to Jack's office and entered, closing the door behind him. Jack was sitting on the edge of his desk and gesturing to the chair by his knees.

"Sit, we have things to talk about."

Ianto nodded realising that Jack had his 'boss hat' on right now and was probably feeling a little awkward.

"Owen's test results?"

Jack smiled. "He says you're ok, which begs the question."

"Am I like you?"

Jack nodded. "Look Ianto, I know this is.... difficult and I am certain that you need to know one way or the other, but under no circumstances are you to do any more 'tests'."

Ianto was examining his palm. "There's not even a faint mark Jack and my appendix scar is gone."

"Are there any other signs? Anything you haven't told Owen?"

Ianto looked a little sheepish. "My hearing is better, my eyesight is better, my sense of smell is second to none, which is somewhat disconcerting in this place. He knows I still feel tired and a bit achey, but that could be to do with whatever happened over the last couple of days..... and last night, of course." He ended with a smile.

Jack nodded again, trying to keep his objectivity in place. "Look Ianto, I know we have our moments, I know we don't talk nearly as much as we should and I also know I've been a total arse lately, but this is big and I don't want you thinking you are alone in this, putting aside our involvement for the moment, I just want you to know that I am here for you, if you need me, ok?"

Ianto met his concerned look and chewed on his lower lip. "I just don't think it has sunk in yet Jack. I want to carry on as normal, no special treatment."

"Ok."

"Thank you."

Ianto held up the folder. "Which brings me to this."

Jack got his feet, wandered around his desk and sat in his chair. He took the manila folder that Ianto proffered.

"It's one of my Ebay projects.....he's been selling tech again and one of the items that came up looked very concerning, so I ran a check on the buyer and I was blocked by some pretty high tech protection. I was going to get Tosh to have a go, but I wouldn't mind bringing in the seller anyway, he's been trading for too long and it's becoming more sinister as time goes on."

"Ok, well he's in Bristol, that's not too far, you me and Gwen can go and check it out first thing in the morning, Tosh has a sizable Rift spike predicted for early this evening so we can't head out there today."

"Long night then?"

Jack handed the folder back. "Oh yeah!"

Ianto rose from his place and turned to leave the room but Jack's voice stopped him.

"I mean it Ianto, talk to me, I need to know you are ok."

Ianto faced him with that 'oh so innocent look'. "Coffee?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Yes, thank you."

Ianto left the office.