A short time later he let both Jack and Gwen know that the food was ready. Invariably, if it was slow enough they ended up sitting near the sofa with a card table that Ianto had set up for them. Since it was just the three of them these days it didn't make sense to do anything more formal.

He had just finished setting up for the meal when Jack came down from his office, wiping his hands together. "Mmmm, I'm starving!"

"Can't have that, sir. Please, take a seat." Ianto said, moving back to the kitchenette area and pulling some drinks out of the fridge. He got a couple of bottles of water and some iced tea for Gwen. She murmured thanks as she sat down. Ianto surveyed the table to make sure nothing was missing.

"Sit, Ianto. You're making me nervous." Jack said, grinning as he indicated the seat next to him. After a moment Ianto took a seat and dished some of the food from the serving dish onto his plate. He had a glass of sparkling water to drink. Gwen moaned in delight as she took a bite of the pot roast. It was heavenly! She was so glad that they weren't eating take-away all the time anymore. She did feel a twinge of guilt that she wasn't home with Rhys, but she made a promise to herself that she would get out early, once she had finished the paperwork that needed to get done.

"Any luck?" Ianto asked Jack after they had all been eating quietly for a few moments.

"I think so. I seem to remember something similar on a trip once," Jack said before he took a gulp of water. "It was from when I was in the Time Agency, which is probably why I'm having such a hard time tracking it down." He caught Ianto's slight frown at his mention of the group of which John also was a member. "Ah, don't look like that – it wasn't all bad."

"What do you remember?" Gwen asked, curious. For all the man's faults, she did like John Hart, though she could see why Ianto would feel a wee bit threatened by the other man. John represented a past that Ianto had no part in, and was an unknown.

"It was on a planet in a galaxy far, far away," Jack started. Ianto snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Did you see Yoda?" He asked, deadpan.

"No, no Yoda," Jack said with a grin. "Who's telling the story here?" He mocked glared at Ianto who held his hands up in defeat. Jack turned to Gwen who had to stifle a giggle. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, I think it was on a planet called Stilariken. Or something close to that, anyhow. It was in the Andromeda galaxy, if I remember correctly."

"Andromeda isn't a galaxy far, far away, Jack," Ianto quipped, unable to resist teasing the other man. "It's practically next door. It's only two point five million light years away."

"Okay, so maybe it wasn't Andromeda. " Jack stared pointedly at Ianto, daring him to contradict him again. "It was one of those ones with an A though."

"Ah, that narrows it down," Ianto nodded sagely. Jack turned to Gwen, who was obviously proving to be a better audience. She put another forkful of food in her mouth to stifle her giggle.

"Anyhow, there I was on Stilariken, in whatever galaxy it was in," Jack said, pausing for a moment to make sure he wasn't going to be interrupted again. "When I ran into something with a similar design. There was a colony of prospectors there, very gentle folk. Multiple eyes on stalks and they had great claws for mining. And I seem to remember that they used something similar when mining the surface. Stilariken was a low gravity world. Gorgeous green skies and not a cloud in the sky. Made getting around the surface easy as well."

"So this device was used for mining?" Gwen asked, pulling Jack back from the distant place his memories had drawn him.

"Well, the Pontarkins used it for mining. Not sure if it was theirs, or just something they got from another race. One has to admit, it would be hard to make a lot of your own technology with lobster claws for hands," Jack said, scooping up another forkful of food and taking a bite.

"I did take a look in the archives, but nothing seems to match the device on your desk," Ianto said. "Not that I've had time to clean up all of the archives, of course, but nothing in the computer system that I've found so far."

"We can file it then," Jack said with a wave of his fork. "It was only interesting to me because it seemed familiar. Now that I pegged it, we can put some notes on it and stick it away in the basement."

"Jack, would you mind if I asked you a question?" Gwen asked, curiosity eating at her. Jack took a sip of his water and nodded to her to continue. "With all you've seen and all the places you've been, you still choose to stay here with us. Why is that?"

"Because the human race is fascinating, Gwen," Jack replied, putting his glass down on the table. "When you think of it, someday not too far from now, man will really venture out into the stars, creating colonies and homes away from this tiny bit of rock that would take your breath away. And it all starts here." He pointed a finger down at the table. "In this tiny world that is mostly ocean, under what most races would consider an ordinary star, man will reach out and populate not only this galaxy, but others; much farther than you can imagine.

"And why stay?" Jack continued, looking from her to Ianto. "Because this world needs protection from others until it's ready to head off on its own. You two have seen some of the worst that the universe has to offer, but there is a lot out there that is beautiful as well. And because, thanks to a dear friend, I've grown fond of this world, and the people here. And because you two are here, and are worth coming back for."

They sat in silence after he finished, touched by his comments. Gwen reached out a hand and placed it over Jack's stroking the back lightly. Jack glanced down at their clasped hands before reaching across the table and pulling Ianto's hand so that it was sitting on top. "This makes everything we go through worth it." They sat for a moment in contemplative silence before Jack and Ianto both pulled back simultaneously.

"Okay, what's for dessert?" Jack asked with a grin, shaking off the moment.

"Oh, so I have to cook and provide dessert as well?" Ianto asked, attempting to sound shocked, but the grin on his face belied the attempt. Jack raised an eyebrow at him but otherwise stayed silent. "Well it just so happens I have something that I was going to save for tomorrow's tea, but if you insist, I can get it out now." Jack put up his hands in a sign of prayer and mouthed please at him. Ianto sighed. "Oh, all right."

He got up, picking up their empty plates as he headed back to the kitchenette. The topic turned to something that was going on with the rift monitor, and he worked quickly at making a fresh pot of coffee, keeping one ear on the conversation between Gwen and Jack. Pulling a box over, he lifted a rhubarb crumble out of the box and cut it, putting some on plates for each of them. Closing the box, he put the coffee mugs on the tray along with the crumble, he brought it back over to the table, setting a plate and mug before each of his team mates.

"Oh I love crumble!" Gwen exclaimed. She took up her fork and ate a bit, savoring the flavor. "Lovely."

Ianto stifled a chuckle. Between the two of them it was like having two children in the room. Jack was just as bad. He shook his head as he sat back down and sipped his coffee. For him, this was better than the crumble. He watched as they each dug into their food, moaning in delight.

"Ianto, are you going to eat that?" Jack asked, indicating his own untouched plate. Ianto shook his head, so Jack pulled it towards himself and started to eat that too. He complained when Gwen took some, too, and they squabbled together good naturedly. Ianto just sat with his arms on the table, the cup to his lips as he watched them. He thought about how their lives could go from the ordinary such as this to the extraordinary, which usually made up their days when the rift was active. He relished these quiet moments, when they could just sit back and relax. More often than not their days tilted towards the opposite end of the spectrum, so it was nice to just sit and enjoy these moments.

A phone rang off in the direction of Jack's office. Ianto put up a restraining hand and went to get it. Since it was on Jack's private line, it was probably some government official. Unless it was a dire emergency, Ianto was determined to put whomever it was off. Jack needed some down time just now, and he wasn't going to get a petty bureaucrat cause trouble just now…

~*~