Once they reached the Plass Jack gave Gwen a kiss and sent her on her way. He turned towards the entrance to the Hub and went in search of Ianto. Making his way quickly through the Tourist Center, he went through the secret door and down the lift to the Hub. Once he got through the doors he looked around. There was no sign of the other man. Searching quickly through the main level he moved down to the vaults. No sign of Ianto. He must be in the archives. Jack felt energized, eager now that he had made the decision to find his lover.

It took him almost a half hour to search through the Archives until he found Ianto in the middle of a dusty room, surrounded by boxes and artifacts. Ianto usually retreated to the older archives when he was upset, usually because the messy work from previous archivists allowed him to vent his anger outwards, instead of inwards at himself. Jack had noticed a pattern with Ianto on this, and it brought home to him Gwen's words again. She was right, he had upset Ianto. And he had been wrong to assume that Ianto would instinctively understand what he had been doing. He sighed. This was one of the reasons why he avoided relationships in the past. They could cause pain.

He heard the sounds of Ianto moving boxes before he got to the doorway, and he paused, a bit unsure of how to start the conversation. Should he try to explain what he was thinking at the time? Could anything he say take away the hurt he had caused? He shrugged. Something would come to him. He peered around the doorframe.

Ianto stood in shirtsleeves and trousers, his suit jacket and waistcoat long abandoned to the dry heat of the room. He looked at something in his hands, his face frowning in concentration. Turning, he referred to a folder lying open on a box nearby and picked up a pen to make some notes. Muttering softly he angled the item towards the light again.

"Is that a deviated flight preceptor tool in your hand or are you just happy to see me?" Jack quipped as he leaned against the door. Startled, Ianto jumped at the sound of his voice. He must have been lost in thought since usually he had a second sense about Jack when he was around.

"A what?" Ianto asked, turning to look at the older man who was standing in the doorway. Jack looked windswept, his hair tousled, his cheeks flushed. He wore his standard uniform of trousers, shirt and bracers. He leaned against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets, a small smile on his lips. "Is that what this thing is? I was trying to update the atrociously bad notes about the items in this room and was at a loss at how to describe this. Really, these people called themselves archivists? Their records were abysmal." He turned his attention back to the item in his hands.

Jack pushed away from the doorframe and walked into the room. "Not everyone has your attention to detail, Ianto." He came to within a couple of steps of Ianto before stopping. "I think it's a flight preceptor. I've seen something like it before."

"And what does it do, sir?" Ianto asked, not looking at Jack, but keeping his attention on the item in front of him. Jack sighed inwardly. There he was with the sir again. Ianto was not happy, and Gwen had been right. He hated it when she was right.

"Beats me, I just remember seeing something like that once," Jack said. He reached out to touch the item and traced a finger from the top of the unit down to Ianto's hand. Ianto didn't react. "See here, those markings tell you where to change the settings. I don't know the language, but the principle is the same as other preceptors I've used."

"Well, that's more than I had to start with. Thank you," Ianto said and pulled back so he could turn and make another note on the archive folder. When Jack stayed where he was Ianto looked up again. "Is there something you wanted?"

Jack looked into Ianto's eyes, at a loss for how to begin. This wasn't how he had thought about it, not that he had been able to think about how this conversation was going to go. "It's late, time to stop work for the day."

Ianto shrugged. "I have nothing else more pressing to do, so no reason to stop." He turned and put the preceptor back in the box before pulling another item out. "Any idea what this is?"

Jack looked at the item in his hands and shook his head. "No idea."

"Neither did the archivist from twenty years ago," Ianto said, resignation in his voice. "You'd think they would have at least given a half decent description other than," he turned to refer to the paper in front of him, "box with blue markings. Really, what is that supposed to tell me?"

Jack felt a smile tug at his lips. If there was one thing that Ianto appreciated, it was order to his life. He was amused by Ianto's sense of indignation that his predecessors were so lax at their jobs. "Ianto, I do believe you are vexed."

Ianto paused for a moment before looking up at Jack. "I am. This is poor work. And I have to fix it." He turned the box in his hands, carefully making notes about it on the paper in front of him. Jack moved around so he could see what Ianto was writing. It was a detailed description of each side of the box with assumptions about indentations and lines which may lead to a better identification at some point.