LOVE

FIVE

As Ianto hurried up to Roald Dahl Plass he was surprised to see Rhys Williams sitting in the dark on a bench outside of the Tourist Information Office. "What are you doing here?" the young Welshman asked breathlessly.

Rhys scowled as if the answer was obvious, "Waiting for you!"

Ianto nodded toward the entrance but Rhys held up a cautionary hand, "Wait a minute! Sit down here and tell me what's going on. I want to know before we go back in there."

An exasperated look was flashed in Rhys' direction but Ianto took a deep breath and sat down next to the man. "You know about Jack's brother Gray, right?"

"You mean the psychopath? Damn straight I know about him. But it was my understanding you dealt with the bugger – took care of him so that he wouldn't ever pose a threat to anyone ever again."

Ianto steepled his fingers, pressed them to his lips and thought. Finally he nodded and placed his folded hands on his lap. "Yes, that is what you, and all of us, were meant to believe. Gray was initially dealt with by Wil's ship, you also know about her right?"

Rhys nodded.

Ianto swallowed hard and put himself into verbose mode.

"Well, Wil's ship enclosed Gray in a sort of a small – um – confinement chamber, for lack of a better term. And then it was left up to Jack to decide what to do with him. After all, Gray is Jack's brother. At any rate, Jack spoke with all of us," Rhys shook his head vehemently and Ianto corrected himself. "All of us who'd been directly impacted by Gray when Jack was last in Cardiff. You weren't excluded purposefully but… well… I can't speak for Jack. He talked to who he talked to. Let's leave it at that for now and move on. He consulted with me, with his former colleague at the Time Agency John Hart, with Wil Beinert, and with The Doctor. I believe he must've talked to Gwen, too, but I'm not one hundred percent sure of that. Although… I'd be surprised if he hadn't spoken with her."

Ianto paused and inhaled deeply before continuing, "I can only tell you with total confidence what I, myself, said to Jack. And perhaps I'm more than a little ashamed to admit it, but I told him in this situation I concurred with Grasshopper – that's Wil's ship, by the way – that Gray should be disposed of, to put it crudely but succinctly. I strongly felt he should be executed. I didn't want the dirty deed to be done inhumanely, you understand. And my recommendation wasn't necessarily easy to make because I know… I know how important family is to Jack. There are ways in which Jack is so alone – there's so much about him that is incredibly lonely and having any family at all would be such a blessing. Beyond that, and despite everything that's happened, Jack still loves his brother and I think he always will. But in the end I agreed the container should be sent into the core of the sun. That's what Grasshopper proposed to do and I concurred. My reason being… well, you said it yourself: Gray is a psychopath. He's a recidivist evildoer.

"I don't know what the others said. How the others advised Jack. I wouldn't be surprised if John and Wil agreed with me. There's no love lost between John and Gray – well between either of them and Gray. I don't think that there's much doubt The Doctor would've counseled leniency, but who knows? I have always suspected there's a lot more to the mysterious man from Gallifrey than he chooses to reveal to us, and that some of what he's hiding behind that beguiling smile of his is foreboding and sinister as hell, if not downright nasty. There are things even the darkness is afraid of…" the young Welshman hesitated for a long beat before continuing. "I believe The Doctor may be one of those things. And as for Gwen…?"

Rhys interrupted Ianto's rambling soliloquy, "And as for Gwen… Gwen is a bleeding heart and a soft touch. She would've recommended compassion and mercy. She always holds out hope that the adrift can be rescued, that the lost can be found. And in Jack's brother's case? Well, it would've punched all the right buttons wouldn't it: missing family, prodigal sons, abused aliens…"

Ianto nodded. "You may be right. But in the end it was Jack's decision. And rightly so – no one could deny that ultimately the judgment was his to make, although I believe Wil was quite concerned, if not extremely worried, and John… well I know you've not met him but John would've been simply adamant and determined and totally inflexible – he's quite a piece of work, John Hart. In fact I think that the Captain started avoiding him, and I believe it was because Jack had just about if not already made up his mind, and he knew John would, erm, dissent stringently. I half-expected another fight to break out between them, and I wasn't looking forward to having to deal with that situation again."

Once more Ianto paused but this time the silence stretched on and on… longer than Rhys was comfortable with.

"And so?" Rhys finally asked when he could wait no more.

The Welshman nodded. "And so Jack made his choice. Mind you, all this happened very quickly, over the span of a couple of hours. But just like when he sought our advice, he again spoke separately with each of us and informed us that he would not be sending his brother into the core of the sun. He would not be committing fratricide. Instead he would preserve his brother in hope that one day…" and here Ianto shrugged, "that one day his brother might be saved.

"He didn't explain why or how he came to his decision or by what method he hoped to one day save his brother. He did not at that point encourage or solicit any further discussion – not with him directly and certainly not amongst ourselves. The case was closed and the verdict was in. There would be no death sentence and there would be, as is usual, no second-guessing the Captain. Not another word was spoken of it and Jack never said, exactly, what he'd done with his brother. But…"

"But…?" Rhys prodded.

"Come on, I'll show you."

The two men went into the Tourist Information Office and then down to the bowels of the Hub and into Jack's, now Gwen's, office. There Ianto Jones pointed to the lower left-hand corner drawer of the Torchwood Three secure storage area. Rhys had been correct… the drawer's door was ever-so-slightly ajar. "As I was telling you… there was much left unsaid but I had my suspicions as to what happened to Gray. This particular area of secure storage is more secure than the others. I once, under Jack's strict orders, removed something from it for him… something that would not be returned. That specific receptacle is double-deadlock-sealed and booby-trapped both from within and without. It is designed so that nothing can get in or out lacking the proper codes. If you mess around with that bin without those proper codes, it would be a very bad thing. The fact that it is now open…"

"Yes?"

"Well, let me just say the fact it has been left open is a very, very bad thing."

"Fuck."

Ianto smiled thinly, "You do have a way with words Rhys Williams."

-00-

"Why love if losing hurts so much? We love to know that we are not alone."
C.S. Lewis