Author's Notes: This is – quite obviously – a filler chapter because I'm still going by the prompts and it was there. I know that it's a stretch of it and that shopping is barely even mentioned, but it's there, and I'm currently writing the Big chapter of the story, so I couldn't pay it too much attention.

By the way, I got my Internet back so I'm back to posting in the hours that I usually do. Or so I hope.

Day Eight: Shopping

Jack had heard that old superstition millions of times and since the details were different on every planet, he had heard a lot of versions of it, too – that you had a limited number of heartbeats and that the faster it was, the sooner it would stop. It was ridiculous, of course; he knew enough about human biology to understand how the heart worked – but right now, he couldn't get it out of his head.

Ianto had still not returned at that point and no one else had seemed overly worried about it – Gwen and Rhys had been talking, each sharing what they'd seen in the last few days, making suggestions and theories about the children and the alien that was controlling them while Jack had been pacing around, trying to do something that didn't include sitting and panicking.

He wasn't sure how it had all come to this. There he had been at the beginning, sharing subtle and not-so subtle touches with Ianto, both of them still healing from the betrayal and the wound left in Ianto after Lisa's death. It had all been very patient and gentle and neither had asked for anything but comfort from the other. And here he was now, in an abandoned warehouse with Jack waiting for Ianto to come back, already desperate and scared that he'd been caught, that he'd been killed and a million other things and he wasn't even sure why.

There was this general unease that reigned over him, and it drove the Captain mad. At first, he'd thought that it was something natural – it was his team he was talking about here – but then he'd looked at Gwen, only to realise that the feeling wasn't there. He was worried, yes, but nothing to this extent, when it actually had to be her he worried the most about – she was pregnant, after all – and yet there was so much calmness around her, like an aura, despite her own apprehension – that he was completely sure she'd be all right.

When Ianto finally came back – bringing gifts for everyone, including Jack himself who had truly felt like he had survived the explosion only when he had got his coat back – the unease not only did not disappear but seemed to get stronger and later at night, when Gwen and Rhys were already asleep, he shared it with Ianto.

He could barely see the man in the darkness of the warehouse, but he could feel his heart under his fingers – his pulse racing like the heart of a trapped bird, stumbling over its efforts to go even faster as Jack spoke and the Captain couldn't understand the reaction, but the thought he'd had before – the old superstition he'd tried to ignore – came back to him with full force.

The warehouse was almost completely dark, save for the fire they'd kept to light up the place, and Jack could see only the fine contours of Ianto's face as his lover whispered, "Don't be ridiculous, Jack. I'll be fine. I'm always fine." It was the voice of reason in a world that had gone insane days ago and still, Jack realised that the reassurance hadn't helped. The fear was still there, eating him from the inside out.

"I can't help it," he murmured. It wasn't cold by any means – it was already summertime, after all – but he had thrown his new coat over the both of them as if it would shield them from the rest of the world. It felt like such a childish thing to do and yet, it made him feel better.

"You could have been caught today," jack scolded softly, bringing Ianto closer to himself. "You could have been killed, do you understand that?"

"Jack." It was a single word but Jack immediately fell silent as if it had been a command. It had been like that ever since the beginning – Ianto had automatically taken the leading position in their relationship and that had been a surprise to neither of them. Jack was the Captain, yes, but he was also just a soldier forced into leadership by the circumstances and Ianto enjoyed – and was capable of – taking charge of everything and everyone around him. "I chose to do this job years ago when I chose to work for One and I've never once regretted it since. No, never," Ianto insisted when Jack gave a snort of disbelief. "Not even in the darkest moments. I've always thought it would be better to go out in flames when I choose to do so instead of quietly fading away into the night."

"Really?" Jack's voice was sharper than he'd intended it to be, but he couldn't stop himself. Couldn't even imagine why someone so young – not even a quarter of a century yet – would like to waste the years that he had in something that had so far brought him mostly pain. "Let's look at it this way, then: what if you were given the choice between having one year – just one year – left with the aliens and everything else, or a happy, long life without them? Actually happy – you get everything you want from life save for the aliens. What do you choose?"

Even in the near-darkness, Ianto's eyes told him everything he needed to know.

"Why?" Jack whispered, genuinely unable to understand. "What for?"

"Because I can't even imagine it and when I do, it doesn't seem very appealing," Ianto admitted quietly. "The happy, long life. I have no idea what it means – well, I do, from movies and stuff, but I can't see how I would fit into it. What would I do? I'd be content, not happy – and believe me, there is a difference. I'd have a long time to delude myself that I'm doing great when really, there would be a big gaping hole inside of me where something is always missing and is just out of reach."

"And what would that thing be?" Jack asked, his voice unintentionally quieter and Ianto smiled at him in the dark.

"I don't know. I'm only halfway there yet."