Luke was fascinated with Jack. There was no other way to put it. Here was a fully grown man who had the emotional maturity of the six year-old who lived two houses away from him and his mother. And yet, where he often lost patience with that six year-old, he didn't have that issue with Jack. He genuinely liked this man-child who was currently showing off his colourfully adorned bed with all the pride of his mother when she'd first introduced him to K-9.

"Where are your books?" Luke asked as he looked around the room with interest. One of the things that Luke had done when Jack and Ianto had left was to provide Jack with a small selection of books to take with him. The intention had been for Ianto to read to Jack, and hopefully help him to relearn the skill. At Luke's question, though, Jack's face fell.

"I don't know," he admitted. A mixture of emotions flared across his face – primarily misery and fear – and Luke's stomach rolled unpleasantly as he realised that Jack was genuinely afraid of his reaction. "I lost them," he went on in a small voice that had taken on a telltale tremor. "I'm bad, aren't I?"

Luke felt honestly confused. It seemed a logical explanation to him that as Jack had been recaptured by Torchwood near Jackie Tyler's home, then that was probably where the books would be. He didn't fully comprehend Jack's lack of rationale – even given his childlike mentality – but he did understand Jack's need for comfort.

"It's all right, Jack. I'm not mad. I bet you just left the books at Mrs Tyler's place. Mum could get them, and we can give them to you when you come to visit again."

Sniffling, Jack laid his head on Luke's shoulder in an endearing fashion.

"Really?"

"Really," Luke confirmed. "They're not lost. You'll see."

Jack's arms snaked their way around to engulf Luke in a bone-crushing hug.

"I love you, Luke."

Luke wasn't entirely sure how to react to that sentiment. So far in his comparatively short life, his mother was the only person who had said those words to him. He'd learnt to respond in kind initially because he'd realised it was the expected and socially acceptable response, but eventually too because he had begun to genuinely love her as his surrogate mother. To have Jack tell him that now was confusing, but he supposed the basic rules were the same.

"I love you, too," he answered, knowing he had to respond in some way, and figuring it was the most acceptable. What he truly wasn't expecting, though, was for Jack to utter a happy noise, and then kiss him squarely on the mouth.

Luke froze in shock, but only until he felt the very distinct sensation of Jack's tongue swiping clumsily and wetly over his lips and teeth. Breaking out of his paralytic state of shock, Luke planted both hands on Jack's chest and shoved him backwards.

"Stop it! What are you doing?"

For long seconds, man and boy stared at each other – Luke in wide-eyed shock, and Jack in wide-eyed confusion.

"I… I'm sorry," Jack stammered. Tears brimmed in his eyes at the perceived rejection. He started to reach out tentatively to Luke, but the boy jerked away from him and quickly shifted beyond reach.

Shaken, Luke got up and began to edge towards the door.

"I… I have to go. I can hear Mum calling."

The teen fled before Jack could utter another sound.

By the time Luke found the garden again – and he was positive the TARDIS had sent him there via an extended route to give him a chance to calm down and think rationally – his shock had diminished to a manageable level and he was starting to feel more than a little embarrassed at his panicked reaction. The more he considered it, the more he began to realise that Jack had not meant any harm, and had certainly not meant to scare him. The kiss hadn't been meant as part of that sex stuff that Clyde had told him about. It had just been Jack's unique… and kind of sloppy… way of saying 'I love you'.

Luke grimaced and rubbed at his mouth. He just wished that Jack had stuck to a hug and a kiss on the cheek. That he could have coped with.

He felt a pang of guilt as he walked back into the garden alone. Chances were that Jack thought he'd really done something bad this time, and was probably sitting in his room in absolute terror that he was about to get into serious trouble. In hindsight, he supposed he shouldn't have run out on Jack in the way that he had.

"Luke?" Ianto asked as he approached the group. "Where is Jack?"

Luke had just seconds to make up his mind. If he was truthful, then it probably would result in Jack getting into trouble. If he lied, though, then he would have to make it extremely convincing. That in itself was a daunting prospect, with not only his mother there, but the Doctor and the Brigadier as well. With Jack's confused and distressed expression at the forefront of his mind, Luke plastered a smile onto his face and spoke as normally as he could.

"Still in his room. Mum, are we going?"

Sarah Jane blinked in surprise. She had honestly expected to have a fight on her hands to get him out of the ancient time ship, and wasn't sure whether to be relieved or suspicious that he was willing to leave without extra persuasion.

"Yes, well, I suppose we'd better get moving. Alistair?"

The Brigadier nodded his acquiescence. With the questions about Jack and Ianto answered, he was perfectly happy to see the Doctor on his way once more.

"Yes, time we were off, I think. Doctor, don't you forget. UNIT would still like to get their hands on Jack. Don't give them the opportunity."

"I don't intend to," the Doctor promised.

"Ianto, say goodbye to Jack for me," Sarah Jane said as she hugged him once more.

"I will," he promised. Then they were gone, and the Doctor began hustling Ianto towards the control room.

"All right, let's go and call your parents, Mr Jones. You too, Mr Adams. I imagine you have family as well that you'd like to let know that you're quite safe. Have to do it from the control room, since someone broke their phone."

"Oi!" Rose grumbled. "Wasn't my fault, thankyou very much."

The Doctor flashed her a brief grin.

"Rose, go and get Jack, would you? He's probably hungry by now, so take him to the kitchen."

Rose rolled her eyes as Ianto and Gage went with the Doctor, leaving her to see to Jack. It wasn't that she minded, of course, but Jack seemed to respond far better to Ianto and Gage than he did to her. Residue issues of mistrust, stemming from Satellite Five, she supposed unhappily. She could hardly complain about it, though. This would be her first time alone with Jack since before that fateful battle, though, and she had to confess that she was nervous.

It was easy enough to find Jack and Ianto's room, and she had intended on taking a moment to compose herself before going in. The TARDIS, it seemed, had other ideas. The door slid open of its own accord, revealing Jack's distinctly forlorn figure, sitting on his bed and clutching his dog and blanket in a death grip. Even from the doorway, she could see the tears on his cheeks, and the tremors that went through his body as he struggled with his see-sawing emotions.

"Jack? What's wrong?"

Forgetting about her own reticence, Rose rushed to his side. When he refused to look at her, she crouched down so that she could look him in the eye.

"Jack, c'mon now. Talk to me. What's wrong?"

He spoke in fragmented stutters which were interrupted by his hitching breath.

"I… I d… did a bad th… thing… and now Luke h… hates me!"

He broke into noisy sobs, leaving Rose confused and a little scared.

"What happened? What did you do?"

"I… I k… kissed him…"

Rose gulped, not sure whether to laugh or cringe. It was clearly no laughing matter for Jack, though, and now that she thought about it, Luke's sudden desire to leave the TARDIS as quickly as possible also made sense. She crouched in front of him, at a loss for what to say or do.

"I'm sure he doesn't hate you," she said anxiously as he wept into the tattered blanket. "You probably just startled him, that's all. I mean, he's just a kid, after all. Anyway, why did you kiss him?"

Jack wiped the back of his hand miserably across his eyes.

"I said I loved him, and he said he loved me, and so I kissed him because that's what you're supposed to do when you love someone. It said so on the television."

"Oh…" Rose murmured in stunned realisation. Jack wasn't talking about an innocent peck on the cheek here – he was talking about a full-on snog. "Oh, Jack, you silly goose. Didn't Ianto talk to you about the tellie? How it's not real?"

The blank look on Jack's face answered her question in spades, and she sighed as she realised that any explanations were now up to her.

"All right, listen up. Everything you see on the tellie is just acting. It's not real. What happens on the tellie isn't how things happen in real life."

Jack thought of his failed attempt in Jackie's flat to convince Ianto not to leave him, and a slow comprehension began to dawn.

"It's pretend?" he asked tentatively. Rose nodded, enthused by his comprehension.

"Yeah, that's right. It's just pretend. So you shouldn't try to copy what you see on it. The other thing is, kissin's not a bad thing in itself, but Luke is just a kid. You can't kiss a kid the same way that you kiss a grown-up."

She could see him struggling to understand, and waited patiently for Jack's thought process to catch up.

"I can't kiss Luke like I kiss Yan," he said haltingly. Rose did an admirable job of hiding her amusement at the idea of Jack snogging Ianto. He still looked confused, though. Finally, she decided that the only way to make him understand was through a practical demonstration.

"Here, look," Rose said, and she drew Jack around to look at her directly. She paused, and her breath caught briefly as she gazed on his familiar, beautiful face. It broke her heart to think that he remembered nothing of what they'd experienced together with the Doctor. Realising that Jack was still waiting, she shook herself out of reverie.

"Okay, look. This is how you should kiss a kid like Luke… and mind you, that's only if you know them really, really well. Most people don't like their kids bein' kissed by a strange bloke. Anyway, this is how you should do it."

She leaned in and gave him a very quick and extremely chaste kiss on the cheek.

"There, you see?"

Jack frowned adorably before mimicking the gesture and kissing her on the cheek.

"There you go," Rose encouraged him. "That's how you should've kissed Luke."

"I'm sorry," Jack said softly. "I didn't mean to upset him."

"Don't worry about it," Rose reassured him. "I don't think he was mad, or anything. Just… a little confused. You just say sorry to him next time you see him, and it'll be like it never happened. Okay?"

"Okay… But what about the other kind? Grown-up kissing?"

Rose had a niggling feeling that she was moving into dangerous territory, and she wished Ianto were there to take control. He wasn't though, and she had to finish what she'd started. Trying to ignore that little voice of warning, Rose leaned back in and captured Jack's lips in a slow, tender and increasingly heated kiss.

She took control from the start, sliding one hand behind his head and teasing his lips open with her tongue. He responded, clumsily but with a natural talent that she remembered so vividly from that one, bitter-sweet time that he'd kissed her. It was easy – far too easy – to lose herself in the sensations and the absolute pleasure of Jack's mouth.

It was far too easy to forget that the man she was currently kissing was, in too many ways, only a child himself.

A loud cough cut into her diminishing awareness, and she broke the kiss off as it occurred to her with jarring abruptness that they were no longer alone. She looked around guiltily, and wasn't sure whether to be relieved or worried to find Gage there, looking markedly unimpressed with what he'd just walked in on.

"Rose, can I speak to you outside for a moment?" he asked coolly. She flushed with embarrassment, and hurried out without a word.

"Gage?" Jack asked tentatively, and Gage smiled warmly at him.

"Just wait there for a moment, sweetheart. I just need to give Rose a message from the Doctor, and then I'll be right with you, okay?"

Satisfied that he was not in any trouble, as well as generally oblivious to the tension between Gage and Rose, Jack returned his attention to his dog, nuzzling it affectionately with his cheek. Out in the corridor, with the door safely closed behind them, Gage turned towards Rose with an expression of controlled anger.

"Exactly what the hell do you think you were doing in there?"

Rose ran her fingers through her hair. It was hard enough trying to put together a straight answer in her own mind without having to vocalise it to one of Jack's protectors.

"Look… Jack had a kind of misunderstanding with Luke."

"What sort of misunderstanding?" Gage asked. He couldn't stop the frown that darkened his features, but at the same time he knew it would be pointless to just explode at the young woman. After all, she was clearly still the Doctor's favourite, and Gage had no wish to do anything to provoke the Time Lord into booting him out prematurely.

"Jack apparently got a little too affectionate with Luke, and he… you know… kissed him."

Gage's eyebrows shot up.

"Kissed him? I gather you're not talking about a peck on the cheek here."

"No. I mean a full-on snog. Jack was upset about it. He thought Luke was mad at him…"

"And what? You thought you'd offer a little personal comfort? Or did you just decide to jump on the bandwagon?"

It was an unfair accusation, and Gage regretted it the moment the words were out of his mouth. It was too late to take them back, though, and for her part, Rose was not exactly trying to argue with him.

"He thought he was in trouble! And you've seen how he is when he thinks he's done something bad."

That thought sobered Gage up considerably, and served to douse his anger. She was right, of course. Despite improvements and progress, Jack still existed in a world of fear and uncertainty. He was constantly worried about doing something wrong and making people angry with him. Much like any little child, he desperately needed constant validation that he was a good boy, and well-loved.

"I wasn't trying it on with him," Rose insisted in a soft, albeit tense voice. "It wasn't like that. I was talking to him, and trying to make him understand the difference between kissin' a kid, and kissin' another adult, but he wasn't getting it."

"So you decided to give a practical demonstration," Gage said flatly. As much as he understood her motives, it didn't excuse the stupidity of it.

"He's not a kid!" Rose snapped.

"Maybe not physically," Gage argued back, "but mentally and emotionally he's only around five years old!"

Rose let her breath out in a rush.

"He may be only thinkin' like a kid, but his body is reactin' like a grown-up. Now, back when the Doctor and I met Jack, everything was about sex with him. It was as natural as breathing as far as he was concerned. He's startin' to react like that again, and we're not going to be able to stop it by tryin' to keep him at kindergarten level. He needs to understand the differences, and what is or isn't acceptable. So maybe I shouldn't have done it the way that I did, but at least I was tryin' to help him understand. And I think that now he gets that he can't kiss kids like Luke with an open mouth and tongue!"

Gage grimaced. She was right, and he knew it. He'd seen how openly affectionate Jack was with Ianto. He knew how Jack was with him, and he knew Ianto was concerned about the possibility of Jack starting to respond sexually to other people. They were walking a very fine line between educating Jack, and awakening him sexually. Gage knew well enough that the latter would happen eventually – especially if what the Doctor and Rose had said about his character pre-Torchwood was true – but right then it was something that they wanted to avoid for as long as possible.

Mentally and emotionally, Jack was not ready for sex, and they all knew it.

"I'm sorry, Rose," Gage apologised quietly. "I know you're trying to help, but please… Do you think you could avoid the practical lessons from now on?"

She smiled somewhat nervously.

"Sure. Next time something like this happens, I'll make sure to find you, will I?"

Gage rolled his eyes. The dig was fair, though he wasn't going to openly admit it. Shoving her hands into her pockets, Rose eyed him quizzically.

"So, did you really have a message for me from the Doctor? Or was that just a line to get me out of the room without upsetting Jack?"

He blinked in surprise, and then smiled sheepishly.

"No, I really do have a message for you. The Doctor asked if you could go to the control room. He said he's taking the TARDIS to Wales, so that Ianto can visit his parents."

She nodded and started off down the corridor, only to turn back to him questioningly.

"What about you? What are you going to do?"

Gage grimaced.

"Me? I get to try and distract Jack for the next couple of hours, and hope to God that he doesn't realise Ianto is gone."

Gage entered the bedroom, wracking his mind for some way to keep Jack occupied. It wasn't going to be an easy task, he knew, and he dreaded what might happen when Jack inevitably got around to asking where 'Yan' was. Two bloody hours, Gage thought ruefully. How the hell was he going to keep Jack from asking for Ianto for a whole two hours?

He was two steps inside the door, and froze in shock at the sight before him. Jack's dog and blanket were abandoned on the bed, and he himself was sitting on the edge of said bed. He was holding the waistband of his sweatpants open and was peering inside with a look on abject fascination on his face. The reason why was painfully obvious, even from where Gage was standing on the other side of the room.

Through the material of his pants, it was very obvious that Jack had an erection.

Suddenly aware that he was no longer alone, Jack looked up at Gage and spoke wonderingly.

"Gage, what's this?"

And with that he promptly pulled his pants down to reveal what Gage had to concede was a rather impressive erection. There was no embarrassment on Jack's part – only innocent curiosity, and Gage had to stifle an urge to bolt from the room and find Ianto.

"Rose kissed me and then this happened," Jack told him. "Why?"

Gage fought a desire to swear. On the other hand, he supposed he should be grateful, in an adverse sort of way. Now, he had a way to distract Jack from Ianto's absence.

"C'mon, lad, pull your pants up," Gage told him. He could feel his face burning red as he tried to avoid looking directly at Jack.

"But Gage, what is it?" Jack persisted. Gage ruffled his hair lightly as Jack tugged the sweatpants back up over his hips.

"Come with me, sweetheart."

"Where are we going?"

"To the bathroom. I'm going to introduce you to the benefits of a cold shower, and then you and I are going to have a nice, long talk."

to be continued...