A/N; Deepest apologies for the delay as usual. Thanks for sticking with me.

Jack was standing by the window, arms clasped across his chest, gazing at Ianto with a faraway look in his eyes and making no attempt to answer the accusation put to him.

"Well, are you?" Ianto repeated angrily. Although his eyes were glistening they fixed Jack with a hard stare, "is that what all this is about because if it is I wish you'd just say so and go. I'm sure you'll be very happy with the Doctor. He is what you've always wanted after all."

Jack let out a heartfelt sigh.

"I'm not going anywhere with the Doctor," he said, "he doesn't want me anymore." He moved away from the window and sat on the coffee table in front of the Welshman, "in fact he never did, not really, and now finally, I realise I don't want him either. I spent all that time hankering after something I never wanted in the first place, when all the while what I really wanted was right there in front of me."

Ianto's gaze softened. He reached up and pushed a stray bit of fringe out of the immortal's eyes,

"I don't understand, Jack. You're talking in riddles again."

"Okay." Jack took a deep breath before continuing. "I never told you what happened the last time I ran away from you, did I? Thing is, I met up with the Doctor not long after Gwen had told us about the 456."

Ianto's eyes flashed angrily.

"Oh, nothing happened, not like that anyway. I'd hitched a lift on a cargo ship and ended up on a space station somewhere lightyears from here. I don't even know where exactly but I was drowning my sorrows in a bar when he showed up. I was on my fourth or fifth hypervodka so the details are a bit hazy but for some bizarre reason he was trying to fix me up with some stranger. Admittedly the guy was kinda cute," Jack grinned and Ianto rolled his eyes at him, "although he was a little jug eared for my taste," he chuckled a little but soon grew serious again, "He was gonna leave without even speaking to me. The Doctor that is, not the guy. But I caught up with him and asked him what he thought he was up to and he told me he was about to regenerate. Like I said the details are sketchy but it seems the Universe had given him the opportunity to make things better for some of his friends, even if by doing so it meant changing the time line. Now, that's a big deal, Ianto, because the Doctor knows what can happen if certain events don't play out how they are supposed to. Some things are fixed points in time and can't be messed with, like you're kidnapping for example. Even with a time machine I wasn't able to go back and stop it happening because that would cause a paradox and the Universe could implode. But then the Doctor's standing there, telling me he had a one-off, no questions asked licence to do something nice for me, even it it caused a change in one of these fixed points. I couldn't believe my ears, I was so excited. We could do it, we could actually do it, we could go back and prevent you from being taken. I could have you back as you were before. Before everyone thought you were dead, before I'd given up hope of ever seeing you again." As Jack was speaking he grew more and more excited, his eye's lighting up, but suddenly the light was gone again and he sighed, "But he wouldn't," he went on sadly, "I begged and pleaded but you know what? He would budge, not even an inch. He said he'd only been given one chance for each of his companions and this was what he'd chosen for me. I felt a little sick to be honest, especially when I found out what he'd done for the others. Sarah Jane's son, Luke was run over and killed in the original time line, Mickey and Martha were saved from a mission that went wrong, Donna got the financial security she needed to make her marriage work, and me," Jack snorted, "I got a cheap fuck for the night. Can you imagine how that made me feel. I ask you, what does it say about the Doctor's opinion of me? It's like he doesn't think I'm capable of having real feelings about anything because I'm sure if he'd looked into it properly he would have known that losing you was the most significant event in my life."

"I'm so sorry, Jack," Ianto touched him on the cheek and Jack leaned into the touch, smiling sadly.

"Doesn't matter now," he said. "Point is, I asked the Doctor to bring me back to you and told him I didn't want to see him again unless the world was ending so I'm not going anywhere," he paused, cocking his head to one side to look at the other man with a thoughtful expression on his face, "but I am moving out," he sighed.

"Why? I mean, I know you haven't been happy."

"Because this, this thing with John," he used his hands in a gesture which took in the whole room, "it was only meant to be temporary remember? Just until you were strong enough to choose between us. So I guess I'm asking you to choose now," Jack smiled tightly and shook his head, "but I'm not expecting you'll choose me."

He paused, half hoping Ianto would contradict him but when no words were forthcoming, he continued.

"Well?" he asked, cursing himself for sounding like a love sick school boy, "will you? 'cause just say the word and we'll leave together or I'll ask John to leave. It's your call, Ianto."

He held his breath waiting for some response. The younger man's eyes darted left and right. He licked his lips, pulling the bottom one in and sucking on it. Finally his gaze met Jack's head on and he leaned forward a little. For a second Jack thought he was going to lean in a little closer and kiss him but just as he opened his mouth to say something, an almighty crash came from the room above and they heard John's voice let rip with a loud expletive. As if a spell had been broken, Ianto's jumped away, his eyes drawn up to the ceiling. The look on his face conveyed such concern that it broke Jack's heart a little. He sat back and sighed.

"Go," he said.

When Ianto rushed out of the room without a backward glance, Jack knew he had his answer. He quietly let himself out of the house, giving one last look at the front bedroom before moving away.

TWTWTW

On his way to work, the next day, Ianto contemplated the course of events. If someone had told him a few years ago that one day he would be with John and not Jack he would have smacked them up side the head and told them they were a liar. But then, he supposed, the attraction had always been there even then, even though the John that had first shown up wasn't the John he knew and loved now. Ianto supposed that was because the former Time Agent had been using then and the narcotics had caused his personality to be slightly on the psychotic side. This gave the young Welshman pause for thought, but he immediately shook it off, deciding he'd deal with that later when the pain from losing Jack was less raw.

He walked into the break room and was surprised to see the man in question sitting there. He blushed and looked away, keeping his head down as he walked towards the coffee machine.

"Wasn't expecting you," he mumbled.

Jack chuckled.

"Nice to see you too," he laughed.

To Ianto, the older man sounded his usual happy go lucky self and he felt a bit stupid for any misplaced guilt he'd had about choosing John. How could he have imagined that a man like Jack was lonely for company, that he'd been lying in some soulless hotel room thinking of him? He'd probably been on the pull. Come to think of it, he had the look of a man who had recently had sex. Sure he'd seemed downhearted the day before but they'd been talking about the end of his friendship with the Doctor too so he'd probably been sad about that.

"Sorry," the Welshman said, turning around to face the immortal, "I meant I didn't realise we had anything on that required your input."

"Your guess is as good as mine," Jack shrugged. "All I know is your boss rang me this morning and asked if I could meet with him."

He smiled softly.

"Anyway," he went on, "how are you, Ianto?"

Ianto turned back to the coffee machine. He gritted his teeth in an attempt to control his irritation. If Jack wasn't bothered about the breakup, he sure as hell wasn't going to get the satisfaction of thinking Ianto was cut up about it.

"I'm fine," he said stiffly, "Oh and John sends his love," he snapped.

As soon as the words left his mouth he mentally kicked himself. John didn't even know he was going to be seeing Jack today so why would he send his love. He studied the coffee machine intently as if he was expecting it to do something more amazing than produce great coffee. He knew Jack would realise his slip up and probably thought he was trying to make him jealous and that would mean he still had feelings for the older man. He could feel Jack's self satisfied smirk boring into his back. He mouthed the word "fuck" to himself before plastering a smile on his face and turning around.

"Best go see what the boss wants then," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible.