They emerged back into the Hub to the rather enticing smell of Chinese take-away, and Owen motioned to some as yet unopened dishes that sat on the table.
"Good timing. Food'll still be hot, but I suggest you help yourselves now before the girls eat it all."
There was an indignant squawk from Gwen and Toshiko's general direction, while Tish only giggled.
Jack followed Ianto over and peered at the selection before picking up a container filled with sliced beef. Ensconcing himself on the sofa, he began to eat slowly, apparently oblivious to the relieved looks he was getting from his team.
"Any movement at the location yet?" Ianto asked quietly. He was anxious to divert the attention of the others away from Jack, before the Captain noticed.
"Not yet," Gwen replied. "Just the bartender, in early to set up. Is he…?"
"Coping," Ianto cut her off succinctly. "For now, at least." He paused, glancing over to where Jack was currently negotiating a pair of chopsticks. "I told him that you overheard what he told me about Satellite Five."
Gwen, Toshiko and Owen all winced.
"How'd he take it?" Tosh wondered.
"Better than I expected him to," Ianto admitted. "I thought he might have been angry... or defensive... but he just accepted it."
"That's not like him," Owen mused, and Ianto shrugged a little in response.
"I can't explain it, suffice to say that maybe he just has more to be concerned about at the moment."
"Hey!"
Jack's voice cut into their murmured conversation, and they all looked around to see him still sitting on the couch, but watching them indignantly.
"I can hear you, you know," he grouched. "If you're going to talk about me behind my back, you could at least make sure you do it where I don't have to listen to it."
"Sorry, Jack," Ianto apologised as they joined him. Jack shook his head.
"No, you're not."
A wry smile touched Ianto's lips.
"No," he agreed. "I'm not."
Jack smiled faintly.
"You want to know why I wasn't upset to hear that you overheard me?" He continued on without waiting for an answer. "I'm just too fucking tired to give a damn."
Startled silence met his words.
"Given up the moral high ground on swearing, have you?" Owen asked wryly, to which Jack replied with a warning glare.
"Don't, Owen."
Owen held up his hands in mock surrender. Jack shook his head, torn between irritation and amusement.
"Ianto wasn't far off," he continued. "There's too much else to be worried about right now. I'll deal with fallout later, if I have to."
"But Jack," Gwen ventured, "what you said about the Doctor..."
"Gwen," Jack cut her off in a warning tone, "let it go. I told the story once. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Please respect that."
"But, I thought everything was okay between you and the Doctor," Tish said, speaking up for the first time. They could all see Jack's jaw clenching with fresh tension.
"Yeah, well... Some things aren't easily forgotten," Jack muttered before shoving another piece of meat into his mouth. "Especially now."
He didn't need to elaborate any further, and after a brief look exchanged between the rest of them, it was silently and unilaterally agreed upon to let it go.
"I hate to have to bring this up now," Owen said, deciding a change in the direction of the conversation was called for, "but we have UNIT inquiring after us."
Jack's frown deepened, while at the same time he felt a marked relief that he had something else entirely to focus on.
"UNIT? What do they want?"
"I took a phone call from a certain General while you were having some time-out," Owen explained. "He said, and I quote, 'after some disconcerting reports, UNIT's decided to send an officer to liaise between us and them'. In other words, they want to send someone to spy on us."
"Disconcerting reports?" Jack echoed, puzzled. Owen shifted awkwardly. He'd raised the subject with the intention of moving away from the subject of Jack's assault, only to suddenly find himself back at square one.
"Well... You know... about..."
"You mean, they know about what happened to me, and now they think I'm incapable of dealing with Torchwood, and they want to step in and take over," Jack said bluntly. Owen had the good grace to look embarrassed.
"Yeah, it was something along those lines."
Jack swore softly under his breath, and got abruptly to his feet.
"Whoa, Jack, what are you doing?" Ianto burst out. Jack strode past, expertly dodging Ianto's attempt to catch hold him back.
"I'm going to go into my office and call a certain General, and show him that he's operating under a grave misconception. If you'll excuse me, I think I'm in just the right mood to be yelling at someone."
Owen snorted loudly as Jack vanished into his office.
"That UNIT general isn't gonna know what's hit him."
"You shouldn't have said anything," Ianto growled. "He doesn't need that kind of stress."
"On the contrary, mate. I reckon a good shouting match might be exactly what he needs. Get rid of some of that tension. It'll do him good to verbally crush some hapless UNIT officials into submission. You'll see."
He paused, and looked up in mild amusement as the sound of Jack's raised voice reached them through the closed door of his office. Ianto looked unconvinced, but decided it wasn't worth arguing. All else aside, Owen had been incredibly perceptive thus far to Jack's fluctuating moods. Maybe, just maybe, he was right this time as well.
"You know," Gwen said quietly, "we haven't really talked about what we're going to do beyond getting Jack to identify the men who attacked him. I mean, we are going to have to go in there, whether Jack likes it or not."
"Never mind that," Ianto said ruefully as he was inadvertently reminded of another aspect of his conversation with Jack. "He's decided he wants to come."
Startled silence greeted Ianto's statement. And then…
"The hell he is!" Owen growled. "If he wants to confront these bastards, then he can do it once we've got them safely locked up. Not before. He's not putting himself at risk just for the sake of a little bit of payback!"
Ianto shook his head slowly.
"I don't think it's as simple as that, Owen. It's not about payback. Not for Jack, not now. There's more to it. I can't really explain it, but he needs this. He needs to be involved, and not left behind."
It was Owen's turn to look unconvinced, but also reluctant to carry on the argument.
"Later," he said tensely, his gaze going up to Jack's office, where the shouting had increased in intensity. All of a sudden, the medic was uncertain of the wisdom of allowing Jack to go and initiate a fight with UNIT over the phone. "We'll deal with that when we get to it."
"Shouldn't someone go in there?" Tish wondered uneasily.
"Trust me," Ianto said grimly. "You really don't want to interrupt him." He hesitated at the unmistakable sound of something being thrown across the room in Jack's office. "But on the other hand, perhaps it wouldn't be such a bad idea."
He rose up and headed for Jack's office, cringing as the previously incoherent shouted became clearer.
"…belongs to me, you arrogant son of a bitch! I don't give a damn what you think! You have no jurisdiction over us. I only answer to one person, and that sure as hell isn't you! …No, you listen to me. You stay away from Cardiff, and away from me. Do not bother sending anyone, because they will not be welcomed. Not by me, and not by my team."
There was a long moment of silence, and then Ianto winced as fresh rage flared up in Jack's face.
"Torchwood is mine, General. I rebuilt it from scratch after the Canary Wharf catastrophe which, but the way, UNIT did nothing to prevent. I am not about to sit back and let some two-bit fraud with stripes on his uniform come in and take it away from me! Just stay away from us, and stay away from me!"
He slammed the phone down and took a moment to rub at his temples before a polite cough alerted him to the fact that he was not alone.
"Feeling better, then?" Ianto queried, not quite able to keep a subtle tone of sarcasm out of his voice. Jack sighed and slumped back in his chair.
"Not really. So… that sounded…?"
Ianto stepped fully into the office and let the door swing shut behind him.
"Just a touch megalomaniacal. You realise they're more likely now than ever to send someone?"
Jack snorted.
"Let them. I've got plenty of retcon."
Ianto was quietly proud of the way he managed to avoid showing any reaction at all to the reference to retcon.
"If you don't mind me saying, Jack, you've been particularly hostile towards UNIT ever since you came home to us. Any special reason for that?"
Jack raised his eyes just briefly to his young lover.
"UNIT supported him."
Him…? Ianto wondered, but then he realised who Jack was talking about, and some more puzzle pieces slotted into place.
"You mean Saxon."
"Yeah," Jack confirmed. "The Master. A lot of them worked for him during that year, and not one of them lifted a finger to help me or the Jones family. Then when it was all over, they all claimed they'd been forced. That they hadn't been given a choice."
"But you don't believe that," Ianto interjected, and Jack sighed.
"Doesn't matter now. I just don't trust UNIT. They're not the same as they were in the earlier days. There's more of a militancy about them now… if that makes any sense. I just don't trust them."
"If they do send someone," Ianto assured him, "we'll deal with it together. But right now we have other business."
And with that, the previous tension was back.
"Okay," Jack mumbled, but made no attempt to move. Ianto stepped around the desk and held out a hand to the Captain. Jack accepted, taking courage from the offered support.
"Okay," he said again. "Let's go watch some spy cam."
UNIT Headquarters, London
The General hung up the phone, grimacing at the ringing in his ear. He'd heard of UNIT officials in the past having vastly unpleasant phone conversations with Jack Harkness, but he was positive that the discussion which had just ended was arguably the worst yet. On the other hand, though, it had been perfectly timed to coincide with his current guest's visit. And, judging by the look on the other's face, it was not going to take much to convince him that urgent intervention was required at Torchwood.
"You see?" he said with a slight huff. "The man is utterly off his trolley. Extremely volatile and dangerous, and not someone that I'd prefer to see in charge of a place like Torchwood. Frankly, I'd rather see Torchwood shut down entirely, and I'm sure you'd agree. This world would be much better off without it."
"What, exactly, are you asking me to do, General?"
"Go in there. Take control of the place for us, because I think it's fairly obvious that Harkness is out of control. You heard him. He's treating Torchwood like his own personal empire. The man's turning out just like Yvonne Hartman, and he needs to stopped before we end up with another Canary Wharf on our hands. You're the only man who might have a chance at stopping him, because I know what will happen if I send in any of my own people. They'll come back not knowing their own damn names."
Dark eyes regarded the General critically.
"And what happens to Captain Harkness if I do go in there and… stop him, as you say?"
"Well, he'll be tried for treason, for starters."
A single eyebrow rose.
"Treason? What's his crime, General, aside from being a proverbial pain in your side?"
"Endangering the Empire," the General replied sharply. "He treats that rift in Cardiff like it's his own personal plaything. Bloody fool, he's likely to blow the whole city… Hell, the whole of Wales sky high if we don't do something about it now!"
"I see."
"Look, we'll give him a fair hearing, but he can't be allowed back into Torchwood. Far too much power for the likes of him."
The shadow-cloaked figure regarded the General piercingly.
"I'll go, but I'm going alone. You aren't to send your people in unless I ask for them. Am I understood, General?"
"Yes, perfectly…"
"Good. Because I have no intentions of taking Torchwood out of the hands of one potential madman, only to place it into the hands of another. You'll play by my rules on this, or you might just find my sympathies landing with Captain Harkness. And don't think it wouldn't happen, either."
The General made no attempt to hide his cynicism, and his guest allowed himself a knowing smile.
"You think it's so impossible that I could side with Torchwood?"
The General snorted loudly.
"Please, spare me. We all know how you feel about Torchwood, after everything they did."
"That was Torchwood London, General, and I know for a fact that Torchwood Cardiff is a significantly different entity. Oh, don't look so surprised, General. If you can look me in the eye and tell me that Captain Harkness has ever deliberately done anything, ever, to put this planet at risk, anything to warrant a charge of treason – and I want specific examples, too – then I will deliver him to you personally. But I warn you, think very carefully before you respond. If you lie to me, then it won't be Jack Harkness who has anything to fear from me. It'll be you."
The General was looking considerably uncomfortable by then, and couldn't look his guest in the eye.
"Well… perhaps nothing deliberate, as such… But the man is dangerous!"
"So am I, General." He stood up abruptly. "As I said, I'll go and find out what's going on, and sort it out. But I will not be your lackey to play out a grudge match between you and him. If he has gone too far, then I'll deal with him, in my own way."
"You heard him on the phone! He was raving like a lunatic!"
"I heard an angry man who seems to be under the impression that you're planning to wrest control of Torchwood from him. Are you?"
"Torchwood has the capacity to do an awful lot of damage, as you well know. I just want to ensure that it never gets to that point again."
"So do I, General. So do I."
They watched the surveillance footage on the Hub monitors until nearly midnight before Jack finally turned away. He was a little on the pale side, but didn't appear too shaken.
"Time to wrap it up, people. They're not there, and it's nearly closing time. We'll try again tomorrow night."
"I'm sorry, Jack," Gwen murmured with sincere sympathy. He nodded, but said nothing, his eyes fixed resolutely on the opposite wall of the Hub.
"Look," Tosh spoke up, "if the rest of you want to get out of here, I don't mind staying. I have some equipment to sort through and catalogue anyway."
All eyes turned automatically to Jack, who seemed to consider it for a moment before speaking.
"I appreciate that, Toshiko. Thankyou, but it's okay. I'll set the alarms to divert to my phone, and I'll let you all know if there's an emergency. None of us are staying here tonight. But thankyou for offering."
She favoured him with a sweet smile, and reached out cautiously to brush her hand over his. The pleased surprise was evident on her face when Jack caught hold of her hand and squeezed gently in reply.
Ianto smiled to himself, and walked back to the couch, to collect his mobile phone from where he suddenly realised he'd inadvertently left it just before they'd started watching the surveillance footage. It was flashing an image of a closed envelope on the screen to indicate a new message and, by the looks of it, he also had a string of missed calls.
He checked the calls first – they were all from Kathy Swanson. There were eleven in total.
Ianto felt his stomach begin to knot up, and he reluctantly checked the message.
"Fuck!" Ianto exploded, bringing down a very abrupt silence.
"Ianto?" Jack queried. Ianto held up his phone.
"Message from Detective Swanson. It says 'suspect arrested. Twenty year-old Chris Kendle of Butetown." He let his free hand drop to his waist in a familiar, nervous gesture. "Released on bail three hours ago. And this message came through an hour ago, so in reality it was four hours ago."
"Bloody hell," Owen hissed. "No wonder none of them were there tonight. They were probably waiting on their mate to get bailed, and then spent their time find out what he told the coppers! Shit, why didn't she let us know? I thought she'd agreed to work with us on this!"
Ianto waved his phone at Owen in irritation.
"She tried to call my mobile phone eleven times, Owen. We never got the calls because I left my phone over here while we were busy watching the footage from the pub. I think I can reasonably say she made every effort to let us know."
"Go home, everyone," Jack said quietly. "I'll stay and call Kathy, and find out what's going on. Ianto…"
Ianto shook his head stubbornly.
"I'm not leaving unless you come with me. I'm not letting you stay here on your own, Jack."
To his relief, Jack actually appeared grateful.
"Thankyou," he said softly, without protest.
"We don't have to go either, right?" Gwen spoke up, looking around at the others for support. They all nodded in agreement, but Jack cut them off and spoke in a slightly gruffer tone.
"I said go home! It'll be a long day tomorrow, and I want you all to be able to think straight. Go, get out of here!"
They went, if somewhat reluctantly, leaving Jack and Ianto alone in the Hub.
"And what about you?" Ianto asked quietly. "Will you be able to think straight?"
Jack couldn't quite meet his gaze.
"I'm just going to call her. I want to know what happened, and how hard it's likely to be to pick the kid up tomorrow."
Ianto felt a touch of relief that Jack obviously wasn't planning on going out to find this Kendle person straight away, but at the same time he couldn't quite stop that knot in his gut from tightening.
"He's the one who baited you, isn't he?"
"Yeah," Jack murmured as he headed into his office. "He was the lure, and I went for it like the damned fool that I am..."
"Jack, don't," Ianto told him. "You said it yourself, that you didn't go through with it, and I would never hold you accountable just for flirting. It's a part of who you are. There's no reason or excuse for what they did to you."
Jack said nothing as he set up the speaker phone and dialled Kathy's number.
"Hello?"
"Kathy, it's Jack."
"About bloody time! Do you realise I've been trying to reach you people for the last four hours?"
"Yeah, I know," Jack admitted ruefully. "Where are you right now?"
"On bloody nightshift, would you believe it? I keep wondering whether my superintendent knows that I'm working with you lot, because he kept me in a useless bloody meeting all afternoon, and then assigned me to cover another detective who couldn't do his shift. God, I hope he doesn't know."
Jack exchanged wry looks with Ianto before speaking again.
"We got the message about Kendle. Are you keeping tabs on him?"
"We tried, but he gave us the slip. Little sod isn't as stupid as he made out to be, apparently."
Jack released his breath in an irritated hiss, and had to swallow a scathing remark while reminding himself that it wasn't her fault.
"Okay, so we'll just have to go looking for him ourselves. I assume we have an address to start from?"
"Yes, but you won't find him there. Odds are he's holed up somewhere with the same mates that took part in the attack on you."
Jack smiled a true predatory smile that sent chills down Ianto's spine.
"That, Kathy, is something I'm counting on."
"I'm not really ready to go yet," Jack admitted as they finished closing the Hub, and setting the alarms to divert to their phones if an emergency arose. Ianto joined him where he stood near the lift.
"You don't want to stay here, do you...?"
"No!" Jack burst out, "No, I want to come home with you. It's just... I want to go for a walk, even if it's just around the Plas. I'd really like to get some fresh air, Ianto."
Ianto smiled, then.
"Why not? If you like, we can go down and walk around the boardwalk. Might be a bit brisk, but it looks like a lovely, clear night."
"I'd like that," Jack murmured appreciatively. "Thankyou."
"Are you taking the lift up?" Ianto queried. "It's just, I need to make sure everything is secure upstairs in the tourist office."
"You do that," Jack told him. "I'll go up this way, and I'll meet you down outside the tourist office."
Ianto acquiesced, watching with a slight smile as Jack rode the lift up to ground level. He could have pointed out that it made more sense for Jack to accompany him upstairs to the tourist office, but he was happy to indulge the Captain in this particular whim. It wasn't about expediency or convenience. It was about letting Jack prove to himself that he still had the confidence to be by himself away from the immediate sanctuary of the Hub.
Granted, walking across the Plas from one Hub entrance to the other wasn't exactly a ground-breaking act of independence, but it was a start.
He waited until the lift was almost to the top before heading out through the other entrance. By the time he stepped through into the tourist office, he figured Jack was probably waiting outside the door. Or, if not, was close to it.
Quickly locking up, he stepped outside to greet his lover, and froze. Jack was nowhere in sight.
Heart pounding, Ianto hurried towards the stairs leading up to the Plas. It was fine, he told himself. Jack was just taking his time. That was all. Nothing to worry about.
Ianto came up onto the Plas, and almost sagged with relief. There was Jack, standing perhaps fifty or so metres away, staring up at the clear, starry night.
A silly grin broke out over Ianto's face and he began to walk towards Jack. He'd barely taken three steps when a new sound broke the stillness. It was a sound that he had only ever hear once before, and that was in the aftermath of the Canary Wharf carnage.
The grin dropped away like a rock and, even as he started forward again at a run, a big, blue shape began to shimmer into existence around Jack himself.
"Jack!" Ianto yelled as the box that he recognised as the Doctor's time ship began to solidify. The Captain looked around at him, an odd expression of shock, dismay and even a touch of panic on his face, before the walls completely solidified and Jack vanished from sight altogether.
Ianto uttered a wordless howl of rage as he slammed bodily against the door, but there was not even the slightest bit of give. He was locked out, and left with no other option than to wait.
Jack hadn't meant to dawdle. He really hadn't. He'd planned on heading straight for the tourist office and being there when Ianto emerged, so that they could take that walk together. And he really was looking forward to it. For starters, he'd been outside the Hub a total of three times since he'd fully recovered, and not one of those times had he really been able to just take a step back and enjoy being outdoors. Twice he'd almost literally been cowering in Ianto's car, and the other time he'd been focused on the weevil they were hunting. And oh, hadn't that little outing turned out so well.
So, when the lift had carried him up to ground level, he'd been completely taken by the clear night, and found himself stopping to stare at the stars.
How long he'd been there for, he didn't really know, but he figured it must have been a while, as he spotted Ianto appearing out of the corner of his eye. He was about to call Ianto over, intending on pointing out some of the more obscure constellations, when a familiar whirring and grinding sound filled the air around him.
For a brief moment, his heart leapt in an deeply instinctive reaction. Just as quickly, though, darker and less noble feelings took hold. Then, he was distracted once again as he realised suddenly that the TARDIS was not merely appearing near him, but around him.
"Jack!"
He heard Ianto yell, and looked around to see the young man running towards him as fast as he could. The last thing that registered in Jack's mind before the TARDIS took solid shape around him was the very real fear on his lover's face. Then Ianto was gone, along with all glimpses of the outside world.
tbc...