Here it is! The last chapter! The Doctor is going to take care of that 'thing' he was working on, and Jack and Ianto are going to celebrate with some...ahem...fun smexyness!
To my faithful reviewers: UP2L8 (my fanfic wife from the Great White North), Nikkie Sheepie, special francine, junior051, and my darling editor (Maestro), Jorgmund Piper, Thank you! Your words did a lot for my motivation, and I sincerely appreciate it. You all have my everlasting love (not redeemable for cash or prizes).
So, on with the story. And I hope you all enjoy...
Chapter 15: Everything in its Proper Place
Edinburgh, Scotland, Present Day
In the semi-darkness, between dank walls, a child's laugh echoed. In a place where no child should be, this sound repeated itself like a music track stuck on skip, over and over again, into eternity. In long forgotten rooms, crumbling beneath the creeping damp, a little girl sat playing, because that was all she could do, because that was all she had ever done. She sat and played with her toys, her offerings, in the shelter of the shadows, waiting for her mother to come. Waiting, waiting... Waiting for a mother who never came.
Over and over again, into eternity...
Up the close and down the stair,
Up and down with Burke and Hare.
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
Knox the man who buys the beef.
The slapping sound of a jump rope hitting the ground kept time with the girl's song, beating in time with a pulse that had been extinguished long ago. And yet the little girl still sang. She jumped and she sang, because it was all she could do. Because it was all she had ever done...
"Hello, sweetheart."
The little girl stopped jumping at the sound of the man's voice. She slipped away, retreating into the shadows away from the light. Away from the unfamiliar eyes that always looked so horrified whenever they saw her face. Looks which she did not understand, could not comprehend. So the little girl always hid herself, and now she watched from the shadows. Watched as the man with the funny tie and hat came into her room.
Oh, she remembered the man with the funny tie! She remembered playing ball with him. The man with the tie was the only person to have played with her in almost two hundred years.
"Have you brought me a doll, mister?" she asked. Asked, because that was what she always did. Because it was what she had always done...
"Doll? A doll? Oh wait, yes!" The little girl watched as the man pulled a stuffed animal from inside his jacket. A funny looking monkey with red eyes. The man held out the offering, and the little girl inched forward and snatched the toy from his grasp. She stood examining the animal beneath the circle of amber light, a half smile adorning her face. Half, because one side of her face was burned beyond recognition. The man with the tie didn't flinch, didn't flee from her, and the little girl was surprised by this. Because once they saw her face, they always fled. They always ran away.
Always.
"What's your name, sweetheart?"
"Annie."
"And is this where you live, Annie? Down in these vaults?"
"I live here with my ma."
"Oh, I see."
"What's your name, mister?"
"They call me the Doctor."
"Would you stay and play a game with me, Mr. Doctor? Until my ma comes home?"
"Of course I will, sweetheart. In fact, I have the perfect game in mind: Finders Keepers." The man held up a funny-looking torch that glowed green in the dimness. "See this crystal? The first one to find another one, a bigger one, wins the game."
"It's pretty," said Annie, gazing at the stone.
"Ah-ah! No touching; this one's mine. But I'm pretty sure we can find one for you, if we look hard enough. Yes?"
"Yes."
Annie watched as the Doctor knelt down by her pile of dolls, watched him pull one out, a brunette with a velvety garnet dress. Then she watched him do something completely unexpected: he casually yanked the head off the doll and turned it upside down and shook it. When nothing came out, he chose another doll and did the same thing; he tore the head off and shook it. Soon, half the pile had been decapitated. Annie laughed and laughed as the silly man 'played' with her dolls, and she dropped to her knees beside him, peering inside the headless dolls, copying his actions. No green crystal was to be found. Still, the Doctor kept going: snatch, yank, shake, drop. Snatch, yank, shake, drop. Annie squealed with delight and hugged the monkey and said, "You play funny games, Mr. Doctor."
"I certainly do, Annie. I certainly do."
Two-thirds of the pile was now headless. The Doctor continued to dig through the pile, his long fingers searching, grasping; from the center, he pulled out a very old looking doll with a cracked porcelain face and a dirty dress of spun wool. A very old doll, decades old. With a twist! and a pop! he had the head off, and suddenly the room was flooded with a unearthly green light. The Doctor smiled a green tinted smile and said, "There you are, you naughty little thing, you." He turned the doll upside down, and out fell a green crystal, bigger than the one in his torch, just like he had described. "Finders keepers! Oh, you lovely little piece of TARDIS fuel..."
"You talk weird."
"Yes I do, Annie. All the time, in fact."
Annie stared with her good eye at the glowing gem. "Does this mean we're done playing now?"
"Yes, we're done playing now. Because once I take the 'fuel' away, this time loop will end."
"Will my ma come home then?"
The Doctor smiled; it was strange, because he also looked sad at the same time. "Yes, you'll finally get to see your ma now, dear." The Doctor stood up and dropped the crystal inside his jacket. He turned and began walking out of the room. Before he got out the door, Annie bounded forward and threw her arms around his waist and said, "Thanks for playing with me, Mr. Doctor." She gazed up at him with her mangled, heartbreaking smile.
"You're very welcome, Annie." The Doctor hugged her back. And then, after carefully detaching himself, he turned and left the vaults.
And inside the vaults, the image of the little girl faded. Faded, with a happy smile on her face...
"Shit! Shit! Shit!" Jack cursed through gritted teeth. A sheen of frustrated sweat broke out on his forehead. "I will not be defeated by you, godammit! I will not! I'm Captain Jack Harkness, for Christ's sake. I can do this..."
"What are you doing?" asked Ianto, walking into the room. He found Jack standing before a full length mirror. He was out of his old clothes and was dressed from head to toe in a full tuxedo. The whole thing was perfect, except for-
"-I can't get this freakin' bow-tie to look right!" Jack whined miserably. Ianto shook his head and came forward, pushing Jack's hands aside saying, "Here, let me do it." Jack had an eyebrow arched, and Ianto had a hard time suppressing a tiny smile.
"Don't think I didn't notice that cheeky smile of yours, Jones," said Jack.
"Sorry, sir. But you're positively dreadful when it comes to tying ties."
"I know I'm 'dreadful.' Why do you think I never wear the things?" Jack looked down at Ianto's own dress suit, and he reached out to finger the material of his waistcoat. "Gold brocade? Very nice, Mr. Jones. Very nice, indeed."
"Thank you, sir. And the actual color would be 'champagne.'"
"Champagne? Hey, are you sure you weren't gay before I met you?"
"Now who's being cheeky?"
"Touche."
Ianto finished with the tie and stood back to admire his handiwork. "There. Now you look perfectly presentable for dinner at the Witchery."
"Presentable? That's all? I need to look more than just 'presentable.' After all, I'm going to be escorting the most handsome man in the place..."
"Alright, you look like James Bond. You know, if James Bond was into time-travelling and galaxy hopping. And into sleeping with men."
"Mr. Bond doesn't know what he's missing." The Jack Harkness smirk emerged. He reached out and snagged Ianto's hand, pulling him against him. He whirled him around once, twice, in an impromptu waltz. Finally, Ianto said, "If we don't get going, we're going to be late, sir."
"What did I tell you about dropping this 'sir' shit?" said Jack for the umpteenth time. He casually hooked a leg around the back of Ianto's knees, tripping him up and landing him on the plush cushions of a small blue settee. There was a determined, devilish gleam in his eyes as he pounced on top of him, holding his face just a fraction of an inch above Ianto's own. Ianto swallowed hard and said dryly, "I take it we won't be making this engagement, either."
"Uhm, I don't think so," and Jack nudged forward, pressing his already prominent arousal into Ianto's thigh.
"But it's our last night here. Our flight home is tomorrow morning-"
"-so cancel it. Let's stay here another night. Hell, let's stay two nights. Make it a real holiday."
Ianto smiled at the suggestion, mainly because that had been his intent for this trip the whole time. "What shall we tell the team then?"
"I don't care what you tell the team. You can tell them Edinburgh castle is infested with weevils. That Sontarans have invaded Holyrood palace..." Jack allowed the words to trail off as he bent forward to brush his lips teasingly over Ianto's own. "All I care about is...dessert." Jack pushed forward then, breaching the infinitesimal space between them, sealing Ianto's lips with his own. The kiss was long and drawn out, ending with a breathless, lust-laced comment of, "Mmm, bet they don't have desserts like that at the Witchery."
"I've always been overly fond of dessert," Ianto commented, as he reached up to drag Jack's face back down to his own, going back in for an even hungrier, hotter kiss. They stayed wrapped together on the settee, making out like a pair of horny teenagers, until Jack finally dropped to his knees on the carpet beside the couch, tearing at the clasp of Ianto's trousers in lust-fueled haste.
"Jack," Ianto gasped hoarsely, "I can't-"
"-shhh," said Jack, before engulfing his erection completely with his mouth. His left hand worked at the base as his right snaked up into his shirt to pinch roughly at his nipple. Meanwhile, Jack's lips and tongue pulled at him hard. Ianto lay prone against the blue cushions, eyes rolled back, mouth open, delirious with sensation. So many, many good sensations. "Jack, I'm going to-"
"-not yet," Jack commanded, and he leaned back up for another kiss. Ianto groaned his disappointment into his mouth, his whole body keening at the loss of Jack's mouth on his cock. Jack gazed at him through half-lidded eyes and said in a whisper, "Don't come until I'm inside you. That's an order."
His response was an almost inaudible whisper: "Yes, sir."
Jack pulled at his clothes, tearing buttons and casting them rudely aside in his rush to get him naked. When Ianto tried to undo Jack's buttons, Jack shoved his hands away and said, "Leave it. I'm going to fuck you like this." Ianto's eyes blazed with overpowering lust as Jack laid down on top of him in his full suit; the material was like silk against his naked flesh. Alien, unexpected, and completely arousing. Jack had never looked so good, had never tasted so good.
And Ianto had never wanted anyone so much...
He was more than ready when Jack sucked on his first two fingers and pushed them inside of him. He arched into the invasion, welcoming, pushing. "Somebody's eager," Jack said by his ear. He could hear the smirk in his voice, the taunt, and Ianto blushed but said anyway: "Please Jack-"
"What was that?"
"Please."
"Hmmm?"
"Put it in, goddam i-"
Ianto groaned as Jack greased up and pushed all the way into him, neatly cutting off his sentence. He maneuvered Ianto's hips over the edge of the couch, so he could get a better angle, a better position from which to push. Ianto watched as Jack watched himself in the full length mirror across the way: his tuxedoed body against his pale,naked one. And Jack, seemingly spurred on by the image, huffed, "That...(thrust)...looks...(thrust)...awesome!"
"Egomaniac," Ianto gasped out beneath him.
"Yey, but you love me anyway, right?"
"I love you completely...oh, god!" Ianto arched suddenly and dug his heels into Jack's back as Jack's thrusts hit that familiar place inside of him, the one that had the power to drive him over the edge. "Uhn, Jack, I'm sorry, but I'm going to-"
"-it's alright, Yan. I want you to come." Jack breathed heavily against his lips, melding his hips with his own.
"No...uhn...I'm going to ruin...ah...your tux," Ianto gritted out in halted words as orgasm hit him, as his body convulsed wildly against Jack's. His cock twitched between them, semen spurting, staining the expensive cloth. Jack hastened his strokes, hurrying to catch up, groaning and cursing loudly as he collapsed on top of Ianto, as his own orgasm upset his ability to stay upright. Ianto could feel Jack's heart racing (the heart that would never, ever stop racing), beating frantically against his own. With effort, he pushed the negative thoughts of Jack's immortality aside, buried them, and he allowed himself instead to drift on a tide of post-orgasmic bliss. To drift on an ocean where his love was assured, where love would keep him afloat. Even in the darkest of times. Even if it wouldn't-couldn't-last through Jack's own forever...
Ianto felt soft lips caressing his own. Felt the silky touch of cotton, of warm, wispy breath. The feel of Jack against him. The feel of the two of them, locked together. The feeling of...
Perfection.
"That was the best money I've spent on a suit, ever," commented Jack wryly.
"You mean two suits," said Ianto, eyeing the torn remnants of his own on the floor.
Smiling, Jack said, "Wanna reserve another table for tomorrow night?"
"At this point, the maitre d' is likely to tell me to go to hell."
"Who cares? As long as I get 'dessert,' I'm good."
"Oh, you're more than good," said Ianto insinuatingly.
Jack gazed down at him. "I love you, Yan."
No hesitation: "I love you too, Jack."
"Even with all the death and the body switching and the gun battles, this was the best holiday ever."
"Definitely, sir. But...can we perhaps have a holiday without all that?"
"In Torchwood? I don't think so."
"Hmm. I don't think so either, sir."
"But this made it all worth it, right?"
"Oh yes," Ianto said, smiling languidly, smiling happily. Then:
"It was definitely all worth it."
End/Fin.
Final review?