Ianto was preparing five cups of coffee for the conference meeting with John Hart. He was out right refusing to serve the perverted Captain Hart who was far worse than Jack ever was. Something about the man creeped Ianto out and he wanted him out of Cardiff as soon as possible. Suddenly Gwen burst into the kitchen looking rather upset.

"I couldn't do it!" she blurted out. "I couldn't tell him that not only was I never going to be with him that I took you away as well, I ended up claiming I was engaged to Rhys. I'm so sorry Ianto, I messed it up, god what are we going to do? What if something insane happens and we all end up retconned or worse?"

Ianto cupped Gwen's face. "Deep breaths Gwen, you need to calm down" Gwen slowly took deep breaths, her face beginning to relax as she rested her head into Ianto's hands. "It's going to be fine, if Jack made the first move on you and you rejected him then that means either tonight or tomorrow he'll make a move on me. I'll reject him, he'll sulk and lick his wounds then we ease him into the idea of us getting married"

"You think it'll work?" Gwen asked.

"Yes" Ianto said firmly. "We'll just have to lie to Jack for a while, Tosh and Owen can help us but this does mean for a while we can't publicly display our affections"

"Can't we still hug?" Gwen asked nervously, unsure how she'll cope without having some sort of comfort from Ianto.

Ianto's hands slid down her face, brushing against her collarbone, dancing down her waist before pulling her in and wrapping his arms round her tightly, his nose buried into her sweet scented hair. "Of course" Ianto whispered. "We can't deny each other some contact otherwise we'll go insane" he felt Gwen's lips form into a smile against his shoulder as she wrapped her arms tightly round his body. "I love you Gwen"

"I love you too"

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

Ianto gritted his teeth in annoyance. He knew why Gwen wanted to work with John, he knew she was going to make him talk, work out how his mind works but the man was a flirt and just won't stop hitting on her. If he heard one more cheesy line he might spill scolding hot coffee on the man's crotch. Taking a deep breath to calm down and he moved to stand with Tosh and Owen who were preparing to find their canister.

"So did she tell him?" Owen asked. "Because the tension in that room was running high and Jack looked rather pissed off"

"She panicked" Ianto said quietly. "And ended up saying she's engaged to Rhys"

Owen banged his head against the desk. "Fuck" he muttered.

"Tosh, could you help delete some of the CCTV whenever I ask?" Ianto asked pleadingly with what Gwen called his puppy dog eyes.

"Of course" Tosh said.

Owen's head shot up. "Oh no way, no way, we cannot lie to Jack! Seriously the man can read minds or something; I think he's Dumbledore's kid or maybe he is Dumbledore! Its rule number one, if you lie to someone it can't be Jack!"

"Well if you like to be the one to tell Jack the truth..."

"And be hung out of a window in a very high building by my ankles? I think not"

Ianto smirked. "Then you have to help us as well"

Owen groaned. "We're doomed and incredibly fucked up"

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

The doors of a lift opened up and Jack stepped out with Ianto a couple steps behind him. Jack took a deep breath and exhaled. "Oh, yeah! Loving that office-y feel!" he said looking round the room, it was a plain, slightly crowded with desks office which Ianto began to go through. "I always get excited in these places. To me, they're exotic. Office romances ... photocopying your butt ...well, maybe not your butt, although as we're here, why don't we ..."

"The rift was active at these coordinates approximately two hundred feet above ground. That means this floor or the roof" Ianto interrupted, feeling slightly irritated. He tried to shrug of Jack's penetrating glare by going back to looking through a desk drawer.

"How are you, Ianto?" Jack asked pleasantly.

"All the better for having you back, sir" Ianto said politely as he turned and checked through a desk that was furthest away from Jack.

"Can we maybe drop the sir, now? While I was away, I was thinking ... maybe we could, you know, when this is all done ... dinner? A movie?" Jack asked nervously, Ianto swallowed last year this would have been a dream for him. Jack had never asked him out before; it was literally just sex in the Hub and some other places.

Ianto turned to look at Jack in disbelief. "Are you asking me out on a date?" he asked.

"Interested?"

"No" Ianto said flatly before going back to the drawer.

Jack was gobsmacked. Being turned down by Gwen was sort of expected, she was stubborn and as the saying goes hell has no fury than a woman scorned. But Ianto to turn him down? Really unexpected, Ianto was always he's backup. If he can't get a date then he'll go to Ianto. Yes it was selfish and yes it was unfair on the handsome man in the suit but Jack had come to care for Ianto almost as much as Gwen. It was hard to pick between the two but never had he thought both would reject him. His ego, pride and feelings were rather hurt by this, he had thought if the Doctor didn't want him around then the team, Gwen and Ianto especially would want him forever.

"Why not?" Jack demanded. Ianto gave him no answer, he just continued looking and Jack had a feeling he won't get his answer tonight. "Looks like we're gonna have to go through every drawer, bin and plant pot" he said impatiently.

"Right. Okay. I'll do this floor, don't want you getting overexcited, and you take the roof. You're good on roofs" Ianto said in what Jack thought as a rather bitter tone thought he can't imagine why.

TWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTWTW

Ianto never thought he would hate anyone completely until he met John Hart. First Ianto had to find Owen and Tosh, fumbling as they stitched Owen's gunshot wound up and then hurrying to find Gwen. Ianto felt his insides freeze at the sight of her lying there frozen; as if she was already dead it was lucky the med-kit had anti-toxins that revived her back to health. They cornered him in Owen's autopsy room with their guns; Jack terrified him when he revealed he was immortal. When they dragged him back to Jack's office and assembled the pieces together to reveal that John killed a beautiful woman who tricked him, instead of a diamond it was a bomb that attached itself to John. It was about to go off in ten minutes and there was no way they could take it off without it exploding. Ianto was gleefully counting down with his stopwatch.

Then the bastard grabbed Gwen and handcuffed her to him.

Owen was venting out exactly what Ianto was feeling by trying to shot John, Gwen and Tosh calmly discussed the rift predictor programme, Gwen planning to sacrifice herself by throwing herself and John into the rift before it exploded. Ianto felt tears run down his cheeks though he calmly counted down.

Gwen hauled John out of the Hub, Ianto and Tosh began to follow.

"Cut his hand off! " Ianto hissed.

"That would activate the bomb" Tosh told him calmly causing Ianto to let out a frustrated growl.

Gwen drove the whole way back to where they found the dead body. The rift whole was already beginning to grow as she pulled John across the roof towards it. She turned round and told Ianto she loved him, Ianto was pretty sure she was going to give him permission to go back to Jack. Something he couldn't do, Gwen dies then he'll take retcon something he had decided long ago.

Before Gwen could finish her sentence Owen and Jack appeared. Owen furiously driving a needle into John, injecting what looked like blood. Whatever it was it worked because the bomb dropped off and Jack chucked it back into the rift. It exploded and caused time to revert. Ianto groaned at the idea of instead of sleeping, spending the night doing paperwork on John Hart.

Three tiring hours later and Gwen was practically knocked out on her desk, drooling slightly. Ianto smiled down at her fondly; putting down the coffee he was going to give her and stroking her hair.

"We're going to go home" he told Tosh who was still typing rapidly, Owen was snoring in his chair didn't say anything while Tosh nodded.

Ianto scooped Gwen out off her chair and carried her in his arms towards the cog door when Jack appeared glaring. "Where do you think you're going?" Jack asked coldly. Ianto knew he was jealous. "If you're going to take her home, don't bother I'll do it since her flat is further away from yours"

"Actually sir, Gwen moved flats recently" Ianto lied smoothly. "She now lives in my building and I have a spare key to her flat. So I can easily take her home, after all this isn't exactly the first time I've had to carry her home. She's been working overtime since she took over"

Jack glared with an icy look but said nothing as he stepped aside for Ianto who was feeling rather smug. Unknown to both men Tosh had pulled out a small sheet and began a tally chart.

Ianto was winning.