There were no surprises when Jenny woke early the next morning, Jack was gone and a note was left on the arm of the sofa he had fallen asleep on. Jenny read the beautiful copper script and snorted. She folded the paper back into the envelope and called for room service before going to check on Ianto. He was still spark out, probably not helped by the twice she had roused him to see if he still knew is own name, he had and the second time he had also remembered a few choice words in Welsh that Jenny hadn't heard in a few centuries.
Ianto groaned as he was pulled back to the real world, truth be told he had heard movement in the rest of the suite and he had tried to will himself back to sleep by refusing to open his eyes or move a single fibre. He had heard the door open quietly and he knew someone was watching him and as the person was being quiet it was unlikely to be Jack, his suspicions were confirmed as he heard a glass being placed on the bedside table.
"I know you're awake Ianto." Whispered a female voice and Ianto knew there was no point in pretending anymore. He opened his eyes and groaned moving his head to the side away from the light streaming through the door, he thrashed the other way as she then pulled the curtains open and allowed the only sunny day Cardiff had seen in a month to stream in. He tried to push himself into a sitting position but the bruised muscles in his back screamed in agony. He tried to suppress the sound that came involuntarily out of his mouth but it ended up sounding even worse.
Jenny raised an eyebrow and came over to the bedside. She opened her hand to reveal three tablets.
"You upto eating?"
"I wouldn't exactly call those food." Said Ianto trying more slowly to sit up. She put the tablets down and helped him get more comfortable.
"No but you really don't want an ulcer to add to your problems, if you are still feeling nauseous I'll get Owen to bring something else over."
"I'm ravenous." He said smiling.
"Good, I ordered nearly everything on the menu because I didn't know what you would want. It shouldn't be long, one's a pain killer, one should help with relax your muscles and Owen tells me the bright green one should help the bruising but I don't exactly think it is FDA approved."
Ianto threw the tablets back with gusto and took a deep swig of the water.
"The green ones are brilliant." He touched the deep purple patch that had taken over half his face, "It'll be gone by tomorrow, he got them in return for a favour to some tentacled three eyed aliens that sort of broke down near Newport last year."
"Oh you mean Fravens, nice guys but they get a little carried away with the hugging thing."
"Yep, Owen wouldn't stop going on about it for weeks. It got worse when Jack told him they were all male and that they left their females on the home planet."
Jenny laughed picturing the scene, she thought she knew enough about the team to picture the scene. She stopped when she heard a knock at the door.
"That will be room service, Jack left this." She offered him a letter, "Two minutes, I'll bring it in here."
He nodded and turned the envelope over in his hands. Just like Jack to run out and leave a note, so impersonal yet as he read the words he knew Jack wouldn't have managed to say it out loud. For all he went on about 21st century repression Jack wasn't a roses and small talk person, he was more of an action man, Ianto suddenly had an image of Jack in combats and a tight t-shirt, he smiled. He looked up as Jenny brought in a trolley, white cloth, silver dome, just like the movies.
"Jack said he would bring you some clothes when he came back, something about not trusting Owen with a Weevil early doors."
Ianto waved the letter "He said." He looked hungrily at the near cornucopia of goods in front of him, he struggled to get out of the bed.
"Stay still" she said lifting a tray out from under the trolley and placing it on his lap. "Let me guess you don't like crumbs in the bed."
"No I don't like tidying up afterwards, have you ever seen Jack eating?" Jenny mimed covering her ears
"TMI Ianto"
"Once he brought me egg and soldiers for breakfast in bed, you really don't want to know where the crumbs ended up."
"You don't like other people looking after you either." Said Jenny
Ianto stuck a finger in the jam and then wrapped his tongue round it cleaning it efficiently.
"I take it you do have psychic ability." He asked, doing what he did best – avoiding the question.
"Nah just 500 years of people watching, and that is a disgusting habit by the way." She said using her knife to point at the finger in the jam for the second time.
Ianto went red and picked up a knife instead and busied himself with a few pancakes and more of the jam. He took a few mouthfuls and then cleared his throat self-consciously.
"Jack also said he wanted to take me away for a day or two, said I could pick and we would go at the end of the week." He shoved a rasher of bacon in as if he didn't trust himself not to shut up.
"Where do you fancy, Prague is beautiful at this time of year."
"He said he didn't want to be too far, just in case, well you know."
"I guess leadership has changed him, he would go missing for weeks at a time and when he didn't want to be found."
Ianto munched pensively and then made up his mind to speak again.
"Tell me about what he was like then."
Jenny looked up, he could imagine her with half glasses looking over the top to silence a thousand children as a school teacher, he looked down at his plate again.
"Hmmn" she said spiking a sausage, "Look I think you need to ask him." She paused again, "Can I be permitted to give you a little advice."
Ianto stopped eating and looked straight at Jenny, giving a slight nod.
"Torchwood in the past was a very dark place, it was never very pleasant below the surface and if you've read my file you know it only got worse." Ianto looked down, he felt like he had been caught peeping through the net curtains. "They had Jack over a barrel, they knew how to press his buttons and they exploited anyone to get what they wanted. Some of the things they left him to do in the early days." She paused as she thought of what was lurking in some of those files, she doubted Jack had ever read them if he had given Ianto access she had been forced to trawl through them to bring together all the information held on 'The Doctor'. "If he ever refused they hurt someone he knew or hunted till they found him and made him pay. I don't know if it will help you understand him."
Ianto looked up and fixed Jenny with a stare. "I don't need to understand him, I can take him on a day by day basis but I think he needs to talk to someone who won't judge him, I rather get the feeling he has been bottling it all up for rather too long."
"I see why he likes you." She said smiling and then made a sharp turn in the conversation. "Is Tintern close enough to be far away?"
"I used to go there with my family when I was younger, the drive up the valley was stunning at this time of year." He said wistfully.
"I've a little cottage I keep there, let it for holidays, the farm next door think it belongs to a religious order and they go round and clean it for me, been in the family for years."
"I think Jack would like that." Said Ianto without looking up, "I'd like that." He added quietly.
"Anytime." She said clearing away the last of the meal.
"What are you going to do now?" he said quietly
"My first job is to finish off the 50's room in the achieves, if Jack will let me back in the Hub now he knows I can override the armoury codes."
Ianto chuckled at the thought, the code wasn't at all difficult to break if you knew his birthday, "And after that?"
She just shrugged and carried on clearing up "Jack asked me to stay but I don't know, I'll think about it."
"It isn't something he does too often."
"I know." She said, "I just need to work out if it he's asking out of guilt."
"I don't think so, but I would say that, I think you'd make a great part of the team." He said looking up at her
Jenny smiled and threw one of the luxurious hotel bathrobes at his head.
"I'll take it under advisement, make yourself decent." She smiled to hide the blush that was starting to bloom and clicked the door shut.
It felt funny to wait for the cog to make its way open, as visitors in the fifties they had come in through what was now the armoury. It had been much more formal then and still had the air of Victorian primness. Various Rift flares, the cessation of the private railroad, the docks disappearing and the appearance of a cover for the Rift manipulator that had been cunningly designed to look like a fountain in the Plass, made the place feel different. Pity the alien design hadn't taken into account the prevailing wind off the Bay, it meant the fountain was off more than on so it didn't soak the passing tourists. Tosh looked up and smiled, Owen – at his desk, leant backwards because he wasn't taking his feet off the desk while he had the chance and Gwen gave a smile that would have been praised by Kan, the snake in the Jungle book.
Gwen appraised her with a PCs eyes, flash suit by the excellent cut, a little nervous by the way she looked round, hiding something by the way she held her hands in front of her and Cosmo reader in Gwen clocked the bitch was wearing another pair of bloody wonderful shoes, Choos this time. Jack had dropped her off on the way to Iantos and promised to return when he had him settled, she felt like he had promised to come and show her the inside of the tiger house after she had walked through the lions den.
"Come and have a coffee." Said Gwen in her smiley singsong, I'm not hiding an ulterior motive really, voice.
Jenny smiled, she knew exactly what was about to happen but it was a necessary thing to keep Gwen on side for the future. She sipped the cup of instant and smiled back at Gwen who she noted, had taken the seat at the head of the table.
"So, you feeling better today then?" Asked Gwen barely concealing the fact she didn't really care.
"Much thank you, tomorrow you'll never know apart from the Torchwood tattoo, seems like that is becoming permanent."
"Hmmn, good." Said Gwen making the correct noises at the wrong time. "Look Love, Jack told us he has asked you to stay but we work as a team so we all get a say." She looked pointedly over her coffee, the team weren't asking - this was personal. "Before we can work together I need to know one thing,"
Jenny held her hand up, "Before you go any further I haven't actually said I will stay."
Gwen nodded in acknowledgement but ploughed on anyway, "Well I need to know something, I need to know why you killed those people, why you didn't think we could save them, we've changed here you see we try to save the ones we can." She paused for effect, "So we don't tend to shoot humans, or even people that were once human, without trying other things."
"I guess the rows of teeth about to eat your face off weren't enough of an indicator." The voice was exasperated.
"Did you really know that you couldn't save them or did you really mean you would shoot first."
"Well apart from meeting the species before and the fact that I had a deep seated suspicion that it was either them or you?"
Gwen had the grace to look sheepish and took a sip of her own latte, made from Iantos special stash. She pouted in a way that most men found endearing but never really cut it with other women, she had no idea how she was going to get out of this with any sort of dignity intact.
"Do I pass the test?" Asked Jenny in a kind way, which was more than she really deserved. Gwen nodded and grabbed her hand, "Question is do we?"
Jenny had finally managed extricate herself from the boardroom when Jack had come back into the Hub, Gwen had bounced off like a puppy after her master not realising in the ten minutes they had sat there she hadn't had a straight answer. Taking the opportunity she had slunk away back to the archives and carried on repacking and cataloguing the artefacts disturbed by the last earthquake. In the corner she had found a distinctly in its time transistor radio under a large pile of equipment possibly from the Treng - a race of purple blue creatures, which she had turned up to find it was still playing radio stations from the sixties. She fiddled with the dial till Radio Caroline filled the room with music that sounded more like it was playing from the bottom of the ocean than a ship on top of it. More able to bend than yesterday she went to work on the pile of mainly useless earthly crud that was in the vicinity of the box that once held Iantos pen. Revelling in the freedom of being just exactly who she was, and not pretending to be, she started singing along with the music that had been playing in a much lighter age. Mainly in tune but not particularly bothered she gaily threw things into boxes and was being particularly loud during Elenor, she'd chosen that name for a time when she had come back from hiding in America after her Torchwood escape. She remembered the crush she had on Johnny Walker.
"Elenor Dear I think you're swell"
She gave a scream as a hand touched her shoulder, she turned round with the only thing she had to hand, Iantos silver pen.
"Assault with a deadly writing implement gotta add that to the list of unusual deaths."
"Jesus Jack you nearly gave me a heart attack." She said letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"And you a god fearing woman, shame on you. I also think you'll find the lyric is Gee I think you're swell. They were a good band live."
"I know, I was there too, free love, watch the Beatles on the roof, all that. Do you ever wonder where time goes when you watch all those flashback programmes and the people in the flashback are grandparents now?"
"I was going to ask you how you felt when you see them digging up graves that are younger than you on TimeTeam." He smiled as she started laughing. "Say is that Iantos pen? He's been looking for it everywhere and it would sure score me some brownie points to give it back."
She handed the fountain pen over, "Ianto thinks that the minor tear probably fixed itself when you last tried to destroy the world, either that or I think turning time back a year closed it."
Jacks head snapped up and he fixed her straight in the eye. "How do you know about that?" Only the people at the centre of the vortex were supposed to remember.
Daintily she stepped out the decreased but still noticeable pile of rift junk and turned radio off. Turning back to face him she took a deep breath, "As humans you have five senses that you use,"
Jack held up his hand, "21st century humans stop at 5, but it all changes."
"Ah your incredible sixth sense Jack I forgot. Perhaps then you will know what I mean when I say I can sense time, see when people aren't in the right place, feel when time is bent out of shape, hear when the clock is ticking backwards."
Jack nodded, it wasn't one of the things that made him different but he'd heard other extra-terrestrial life talk about similar things, even The Doctor talked about time as a living thing. She reached out and felt the air around his head. "Of course your time signature is so messed up I can't tell where the Hell you've been. There's the crackle of the TARDIS, massive and prolonged Rift travel and of course just the plain wrongness of you in the here and now."
Jack chuckled, "Someone else told me I was wrong recently." He reached out and put his hand on the side of her face, she could feel the tendrils of his talent reaching into her mind, she closed her eyes and allowed him to go where he wanted. Suddenly she felt his presence recede and his hand dropped away.
"You're very trusting." He said looking her straight in the eye, "So much in there and nothing locked away."
"Nothing to hide from." She shrugged.
Jack went round to clasp her by the shoulder and guided her out of the room, he didn't like people touching what he come to think of as his things.
"Come on time for lunch and for you to tell me you're staying here to bring us all into line."
***
Four hours of gentle brow beating later and the Team hadn't changed her mind. She hedged her answers with non-committal grunts all the time knowing exactly what she was doing. When the early morning call came she was awake and ready to leave, all she was taking to catch the early morning flight to Geneva was hand luggage. She signed the final bill at the front desk in the early morning light and was surprised when the slightly snotty night receptionist handed over a small parcel.
"Arrived in the night." She said expecting white powder to come spilling out of it.
Jenny nodded and snatched the parcel in one last gasp of her three day persona. She tapped out across the marble on her vertiginous heels and threw herself into the waiting car, it purred across the M4 to Bristol. One thing she knew about Torchwood was to at least pretend to make it less than obvious, Jack would have the image recognition programme across Cardiff airport and stop the flight if he thought it would change her mind.
As she sat in the executive lounge surrounded by early morning business men she read the papers and got bored with the stories of wannabe celebrities and corrupt politicians, suddenly she remembered the brown paper covered box she had stuffed in the top of the wheeled case. She started puling a corner neatly then within seconds she was ripping the paper way and tearing the top off the cardboard box. Inside there was a letter and something squishy, she started reading the neat script, it had to be Ianto, not curly and exacted like a man who lived through an age where writing was the only way of communicating, but neat and perfect like the man himself. It must have been written in the fountain pen she had found for him, the letter thanked her for finding the pen again and for the work she had done on the archive. As she read through she pulled out the object in the bottom of the box, one small stuffed toy cat and smiled.
The first time you met you said you were looking for a cat, then you told us you stayed around as long as your cat did. Well I hope you will come back with Fluffy and stay around as long as she does.
It certainly gave her food for thought, for the first time in a long time she had felt as if she had come home, her normal motto was Never look back, but round Torchwood time was screwed anyway. As the lounge manager came to escort her to the flight she stroked the cat and placed it a little more carefully in the top of her bag, she wondered if Ianto had chosen the toy knowing that it was the spit of Tommy her last moggie. The flight hurtled down the runway, in the next few days she would reconnect with her past and she had the chance to become anyone but as the runway and Bristol Channel grew smaller she knew it wouldn't be long before she was back.
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Well that's all for now folks. Many thanks for those of you who stayed the course, I wasn't expecting it to turn out like this at all but the story just went the way it wanted too! I have another plot line bubbling if you want another and I think it needs to start soon before my head explodes!
See you again soon!!!