a/n: First off, thank you to everyone who has added me to their alerts. It makes me feel good about this story that people are willing to follow it. Second, I know that Jack seems to be a bit OCC in this chapter. But since he and Rhiannon seemed to have hijacked this chapter and made it their own, I can't change him back. Thirdly, the next few chapters are going to get a bit dark. If any one has any questions or thoughts about what Ianto is going through, feel free to pm me. I'll be glad to explain my reasoning behind it. You have been warned.

Enjoy!

Chapter 5

It was nearing eight when Jack was finally able to go over to Ianto's flat. The day had been a long one and he was tired. But he had told Ianto that he would be by and he intended to to keep his word to the young man. He didn't, however, expect a young woman to answer the door.

"Um, hello. I'm here to see Ianto."

"Are you Jack Harkness?"

"Yes, and you are?" He wanted to know how she knew his name and who the hell she was.

"Rhiannon Davies, Ianto's sister. I'm sorry, but you won't be able to see my brother tonight."

"Oh? And why is that?" Now, he was starting to not only worry about the young man, but he was starting to get angry. Who did this woman think she was?

"He's asleep. He's exhausted and needs to sleep while he can. If you wake him now it'll take him hours to get back to sleep again. And since I doubt he slept at all within the last few days, you'll only wake him over my dead body."

He glared at her. "That can be arranged." He muttered, trying to get past the doorway. She held her ground, not letting him past.

"Besides," She said. "We need to talk."

She lead him out the building and over to a little park that was down the road a bit. The park was practically abandoned at this time at night, with only a few joggers and couples out and about. She lead him over to a bench that was off the main path, partially hidden from view by a willow tree.

While following, Jack studied her. Solidly built, like Ianto, with an athletic look. Dark hair and eyes, dressed casually in jeans and a jumper. She looked a lot like him, he thought. Even down to the ever present haunted look in her eyes. 'As though she's seen too much.'

He'd always assumed that look in Ianto's eyes came from witnessing the battle at Canary Wharf. Now he started to wonder what else he didn't know about Ianto's life.

There was something about her, though, that intrigued him. She carried herself as though she was used to being followed, to being in control. It was for this reason that he let himself be lead to the bench, where they sat down, hidden from the world. He let his curiosity get the better of him.

"First off," Rhiannon said. "Ianto doesn't know that I'm talking to you. In fact, he told me as he was falling asleep to wake him when you arrived. I don't think that he wanted me talking to you at all, in fact."

"Then why didn't you wake him?"

Rhiannon ignored him. "Ianto is afraid of you, you know. He thinks for some reason that he's betrayed you and his co-workers and that no matter what he does he'll continue to disappoint you all. He's scared and worried about what will happen the next time he disappoints you. Of what you will do to him when that happens. He's even more scared of what he'll do to himself the next time he can't live up to that potential that you say he has."

Rhi turned so that she was looking at him. "You need to understand something about my brother. The control that he portrays, that he shows, is only a mask. A costume, if you will, that he puts on when ever he leaves his flat. He feels better knowing that no one know how much pain he's in, how much he is hurting on the inside. And after what just happened to Lisa.... He's broken Jack. He'll do his best to continue putting up his mask for you and his friends, but his ability to put up that front is damaged. Sooner or later it is going to crumble. And when he does, the fallout is going to be big."

Jack began to get frustrated. "I know all this already. Why do you think that I'm forcing him to take this time off. His mask fell the night...." Jake shook his head. "What the hell does this have to do with anything any ways?"

"He respects you, Jack. He respects what you think of him and he really does regret everything that has been going on recently."

He snorted. "Really."

"Yes, Really. Jack, he told me the truth about Lisa. About where he works. About what he did to his co-workers. To you."

Now he was getting mad. "He what?"

"I didn't give him much of a choice. He's never been able to hide himself from me. I won't let him. Not any more, any ways."

"What do you mean, not any more."

She sighed. "After the battle in London, with those ghosts, Ianto had a bad time. He did what he was supposed to and went to his therapist to talk. His therapist thought that he was going crazy, that his meds stopped working. Tried to get him committed. Every since then, I've become the only one that he's willing to confine in. The only one he's willing to trust with his life."

***

"Tosh, sweetie, do you have a moment?" Gwen asked as they were leaving the hub that night.

"Sure, Gwen. What's up?"

"I was wondering if you could tell me how Ianto is doing?"

"What makes you think that I would know anything? Especially since Jack told us to stay away from him?"

"I know that you two are friends. And I've seen you up in Jack's office, talking. It doesn't take a genius to know that you know something."

Tosh sighed. She really hadn't wanted to get into this with anyone, especially Gwen. She was too new to the team to really have known any of them all that well.

"Yes, Ianto and I are friends. And as his friend, the only thing I can say at this time is that he is doing as good as expected. Anything else really isn't any of your business."

"But you can tell Jack?"

Tosh turned to look at her. "Jack is our boss. Its his business to know what is going on. And he truly cares about going on because he was there, at Canary Wharf, when the Cybermen and Daleks tried to take over the world. He knows what Ianto went through. And you don't."

Gwen watched Tosh turn and leave. For the first time, she began to wonder what really happened in London that day.

***

"Ianto really shouldn't have confided in you like that."

"I know, and so does he. He told me that he was betraying you again by confiding in me. But he had no where else to go, no one else to turn to. He had to talk to some one. He couldn't keep up with the secrets any more." She paused and looked around the park they were in. She wondered, when they got done talking, if she would even remember being here. If she would remember anything. She sighed. 'In for a penny, in for a pound.' She thought.

"I'm someone safe for Ianto to break down too, Jack. I won't betray him nor judge him. Please, Jack, let me be that someone that my brother can lean on, that he can trust."

Jack was quiet for along time after that. Rhi just sat beside him, willing to wait for him. She needed him to agree, to let her be there for her brother, if her plan to save him was going to work.