Author's Notes: I'm writing for this story and there is actually daylight outside. And they say that miracles don't happen. Anyway, this is the first chapter of a few that'll be closely connected, so I'll try to update as frequently as I can.

Day Twelve: Eating Ice Cream

Watching Time Lords fight over books – or sometimes politics – was amusing, but it really, really wasn't when they were furious. Especially when they've narrowly avoided death – or, well, what passed for death for the three of them. Jack could almost feel the anger that was pouring off of them and they were attracting attention even in a place where a civil war had just ended.

"You didn't have to kill him," the Doctor was saying, addressing both of them but mostly Ianto. "It was all over; he was harmless!"

"He's killed thousands already; you think he's going to stop just because the war is over?" Ianto's voice was disbelieving. "Because if so, you're even more naive than I thought, and that's saying something."

The Doctor turned around swiftly and wrenched the gun from Ianto's hand and that marked the point where Jack decided to interfere. It didn't even cross his mind that he might do anything with said gun and still, he preferred the two of them without any weapons around in the state they were in.

"He did what he thought was right, Doc," he said peacefully. "And I can't really blame him. Pyxis deserved it. Hell, he deserved something worse."

"Prison," The Doctor said quietly, the fury still burning in his eyes and his voice. "What he deserved was prison."

"What difference would it make?" Ianto put in and the Doctor turned to him again, this time almost shouting, "It wasn't your choice to make!"

Ianto laughed incredulously "And you are the one who has any right to tell me that, aren't you?" The Doctor tried to speak, but Ianto cut him off. "No, you will listen to me this time. You keep going on and on how you can't expect anything good from someone who entered the Time War by choice, but you know what?" Ianto stepped closer to the other Time Lord and stared at him dead in the eye. "I wasn't the one who ended it, Doctor."

There were several moments of stunned silence, then the Doctor turned around and walked into the TARDIS, slamming the door shut behind himself.

Ianto sat on a nearby bench – or rather something that resembled one – and hid his face in his hands, not moving even when Jack sat down next to him, rubbing his back soothingly. The Captain looked around in the destruction that reigned around them – there wasn't really much to do and he didn't fancy going after the Doctor right now.

"What d'you think – do they still sell ice cream?" He asked, pointing at a nearby sweets stand. Ianto raised his head and smiled. "Do they even have ice cream on this planet?"

"Sure they do. Every sensible race has invented some variation of ice cream at some point. Come on," he insisted when Ianto didn't show any enthusiasm at the prospect. "Learn something new every day, that's what you always say. Why miss the opportunity? They might even have some exotic flavours you might actually like, you pretentious man."

"Me? Pretentious? Never." Ianto grinned and stood up, following closely after Jack as the Captain determinedly headed for his destination.

o.O.o

They ended up getting chocolate ice creams, Ianto's accompanied by strawberries and Jack's with caramel on top of it and it turned out not to be their brightest idea, especially when Ianto started moaning that he had a headache fifteen minutes later.

"What is it with you and ice cream?" Jack asked as he licked the last remnants of his own ice cream from his fingers. "Seriously, I thought it might be fixed now. Lower body temperature and all that." He turned around to see that Ianto's face had lost its smile and he was lost in thought again. "He had no right to say what he did," Jack offered gently, but Ianto shook his head.

"Neither did I, really. It was cruel."

"But so was he," Jack protested. "I'm sorry. That – it went like that. For both of you."

"Don't be. Maybe that was it and we'll stop blaming each other for that; he'll stop saying that it was people like me that started it and I'll stop throwing in comments that do nothing but rile him up." He fell quiet for a while, then kept going. "You know, I wanted to kill him. That's what I said when River told me that he was the one to put them in the Time Lock. I wanted to find him and kill him, but then he found me and... I don't know. He suffers for it every day, you know. I can feel it. It eats his alive and I'm not even happy that it's like that. I feel sorry for him."

Jack searched through his mind desperately for a thing to say, then blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "Is River some sort of Time Lord Information Centre?" He couldn't help but remember that the Doctor had mentioned the same name when he'd came into Jack's room looking for Ianto and there it was again.

Ianto laughed quietly. "No. River's a–"

Just then, the door of the TARDIS opened behind them and the Doctor came out and his eyes danced between them before settling on Ianto. He gave him a questioning look and the younger Time Lord only nodded in response, and that was it. Jack couldn't stop the sigh of relief from leaving his lips.

The Doctor smiled, then held up the psychic paper for them to see. It was filled with some chaotic scrawl that Jack couldn't make out before the man pocketed it again and said, "In you get, and I want you in both in the wardrobe in fifteen minutes." He seemed more excited than Jack had ever seen him, and that was saying something. "We've got mail."