10

They were in a control room, Jack and Ianto finding themselves alone and Ianto turned to face him with a look he had come to know well in the short time they had known one another. His 'I need a word' look.

"Look" Ianto began, as he usually did "I know you saw the TARDIS back there and I know you hesitated for a moment. Just a moment. I fully expected you to drop my cousin on her butt and take off. I did. I would not have stopped you. I know how he can lure you in and the thought of escape must have been so sweet of a taste… you took a beat. And then chose."

"I know" Jack said softly "and I did stop… for a moment."

"Look, but here's the thing... but then you kept going"

Jack reached out to touch Ianto's arm, sliding his hand down to snag Ianto's and pull him closer "Look yourself. I… I am timeless. I will be here in another hundred years or so still running about causing chaos. So will he. The Doctor will always come back, come around and I will see another chance in the future. You though… I know this is finite. This. Here. I hesitated before that voice in my head reminded me of that simple fact."

Ianto stared at him long and hard "So… you pushed pause? You hear voices in your head? How long has that been happening for, you should really talk to someone."

Jack grinned as he pulled Ianto in until they were flush, pulling him into his arms and brushing their lips together "You are infuriating, you know that. Like I had any choice. Like you said. Yvonne could see it, everyone could see it. This is not something that happens every day and I have come to respect the rare times I find a soul mate. You were my only Achilles heel."

"Oh, a weakness?"

"Well… I can be a bit of a heel apparently but…"

This kiss was deeper, stronger and Ianto did not pull away, deepening it as he shoved Jack against thee console behind him to give him a good hard snog, then as they stood panting with their foreheads together he gasped "shut up."

Not much more to be said, except for Ianto's yodel later when Martha slammed into the room looking for them and squealed while racing back out, her laughter outside the door as Ianto struggled to get his boxer shorts back on, making Jack laugh too.

"Are you both decent?" she called after a while.

"Ianto is but I am rather prone to leaning more to the indecent side" Jack yelled back and she laughed some more, then entered to look at her cousin with his messy hair and wide eyes.

"So. This is what it comes to now. You have to steal your fucks" she said with a grin.

"I did not steal Jack… merely… uplifted him and he is much more than just a fuck, I will have you know" Ianto said in a haughty voice that showed he was insulted.

"I am a good blowjob too" Jack helped.

Ianto looked at him.

Not helping?

Jack grinned as Martha roared with mirth. "Come on you two, this thing… whatever it is … seems to be over. There was a big opening in the sky and the things were all sucked up."

"The Doctor" Ianto and Jack said at the same time, both going to stand at the entrance to the mine with everyone else, looking up.

"So what now?" Clive asked.

"Now you lot go home I guess" Ianto replied sagely "It's over."

"And you?"

"Well… me and Jack have to book it I guess. I don't know how much of Torchwood survived that and to be honest, I don't care to find out. Jack needs some sand under his feet and I want a drink with a little fucking umbrella in it" Ianto shrugged.

"Banana Boat can get passports and other photo IDs for you" Martha chimed in "he's the best contact."

"Banana Boat?" Jack asked.

"A local hood rat that can procure things" Ianto nodded "I have the money aside so… I think for now we just need to hunker down and stay hidden. When we have or new identities we can then decide what we are going to do. Yvonne might have survived Torchwood probably has and they will likely notice us gone in the clean up and come looking for us"

"We?" Jack asked.

Ianto looked at him with undisguised amusement "Are you kidding? This boring old life I was slowly dying in? Or the excitement of living in a wilderness retreat watching you chop wood with your shirt off… oh dear. I see the problem."

"Wilderness retreat?"

"There is an old Jones Cabin up in the valley where we used to go a lot. Fish in the lake, deer and rabbit aplenty… we can live off the grid and away from humanity as long as we need to" Ianto expanded with a wide grin. "We give it a few months to see if she is hunting us or not… the official bullshit line will come out and the unofficial one will filter thought he underground. Once we know if Torchwood fell or is simply charred… then we can work out our next step."

"Sounds like a plan. So… what now?" Jack asked, looking like he was about to race for the driver's seat.

Ianto laughed as he waved a hand at him "steady on there Jumping Jack flash, we need to decompress and let the family go home, find out if everything is OK. Give it a few days to find out what happened, for the Heddlu to calm the hell down and everyone to get back into a routine. We can move a lot easier then. Right now we will stick out moving in the wrong direction to everyone else racing towards the mess… like salmon going upstream… no. We wait and assess."

Jack nodded, knowing he was right but the thought of all that space and silence after so long underground… Jack turned and walked back into a new metal bunker knowing the door would never be locked again.

But it still felt a little like a tomb.

He wanted that lakeside view now.