"I really am not comfortable with this."
The Doctor looked sideways at Ianto, and smiled wryly. The young man looked dashing in period clothing for the late 1800s. Jack had apparently tried three times to coax Ianto into indulging in a bit of role playing later on, to which Ianto had responded with an exasperated eye roll. The Doctor was positive that he'd heard Ianto mutter something under his breath about burning the clothes as soon as they got back.
"No? Jack was right, you do look quite dashing."
Yet another eye roll.
"That isn't what I meant, and you know it."
The grin that adorned the Doctor's face tightened just fractionally.
"I know."
"Just tell me why," Ianto begged him. "Now, while we're away from the TARDIS. Is it just plain curiosity? Something else entirely?"
"I can't explain it," the Doctor admitted, and wanted to cringe at the expression on Ianto's face.
"You don't know? You're dredging all of this up again for Jack, and you don't even know why? Bloody hell, I'm going back to the TARDIS."
"Too late."
Ianto turned sharply, and gasped a little in shock. At the other end of the alley, a man was being held by two very burly lads while a third belted the living daylights out of him.
"Jack," Ianto whispered in dismay, and instinctively started forward.
"No," the Doctor growled, grabbing him and pulling him into the shadows of the alley, and out of sight. "We can't interfere. We can only observe."
Ianto pulled free angrily, but didn't try to move forward again.
The man doing the punching finally stopped and moved away. Ianto felt a surge of relief that was short-lived, and could only watch in horror as the man smashed the bottom off a discarded liquor bottle and drove it into Jack's stomach.
They cleaned him out of all of his cash and valuable while he was still bleeding out, and left him slumped there against the tavern wall, dead.
"What now?" Ianto asked bitterly. He wanted nothing more than to go to Jack and get the glass out of his stomach, and then hold him until he woke up. The only thing stopping him was the memory of Jack's stern warning to him earlier that he was not to try and stop anything that he saw from happening – no matter how hard it was to witness. "Are we supposed to just leave him here? Doctor?"
"Quiet," the Doctor hissed. His expression had changed completely, and he was the epitome of intensity. Ianto looked in the direction that the Doctor was staring, and felt his stomach turn unpleasantly. There were two women standing not too far away. They didn't appear to be aware of the presence of Ianto and the Doctor; their attention was very firmly on Jack.
"Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd," the Doctor whispered grimly, recalling his conversation with Jack from the previous day. "The barracudas of Torchwood, Jack called them."
A wild gasp alerted them to Jack's resurrection, and Ianto wanted to weep at the man's obvious pain, distress and confusion.
"He didn't understand what was happening to him at all," he said bitterly. The Doctor didn't answer, but observed the scene before them grimly.
It was over in less than a minute. Jack realised he was being watched, attempted a bit of crass flirting that had Ianto rolling his eyes, and was then taken down with calculated efficiency.
"He can't have expected that," Ianto whispered as they two women dragged Jack's limp form into a waiting carriage.
"No," the Doctor agreed. "He didn't."
"So, what now?"
"Now, we wait. Jack said he was initially held inside Torchwood for approximately three or four hours before they released him in exchange for doing a job for them. We need to find the Griffin Arms Tavern, and wait there."
Ianto was at the bar, getting himself a whiskey, when Jack came in storming in nearly five hours later. It had been a mind-numbing wait, and Ianto had been tempted to drink himself into oblivion more than once.
He froze as Jack strode up to the bar and demanded a full bottle of whiskey. Ianto dared not spare him a look, and for his part Jack appeared to not even notice his presence. The barkeep handed over a bottle and a glass only after Jack waved a wad of cash under his nose, and the Captain then headed over to a dark corner to wallow.
"Ah, Jack," the Doctor murmured as he joined Ianto at the bar. "Liquor never solved anything."
Ianto glanced at him sourly before returning his attention to Jack. He appeared to be talking to himself in between large swallows from the glass that he kept refilling, but Ianto was no lip reader.
"Do you know what he's saying?" Ianto asked finally. The Doctor answered with obvious reluctance. His expression was stony.
"He's saying 'no, I won't do it. I won't join them. I won't betray him'. He's saying it over and over again."
Ianto felt ill.
"He's been here on Earth for how long now...?"
"Thirty years."
"And he still won't do anything to betray you! You don't deserve his loyalty, Doctor."
The Doctor looked tired all of a sudden.
"I know that."
They watched as Jack finished the bottle, and then called for another. Ianto was about to asked just what it was they were waiting for, when he realised that the barkeep was pouring something into the bottle before taking it over to Jack. He turned to ask the Doctor if he'd seen the same thing, only to freeze when he spotted the familiar figures of Emily Holroyd and Alice Guppy, watching Jack with predatory smiles from the other side of the tavern.
"Doctor...?"
"I know," the Doctor whispered. "This is it. This is where they take him."
"They had the barkeep poison him," Ianto growled. "Bitches. No wonder he was caught off-guard. He would never have seen that coming."
They watched as Jack drank the tainted liquor and collapsed shortly after.
"Is he...?"
"Dead," the Doctor confirmed in a low voice. "Of course, no one here would realise that they'd just witnessed a murder. They'll all think he'd drunk. Look out, here we go..."
Holroyd and Guppy wasted no time. They motioned to two men who had been sitting at a nearby table, and they got up and obediently carried Jack's lifeless form out of the tavern.
"C'mon," the Doctor said as soon as they were gone. Ianto followed, but was confused when the Doctor turned left on exiting the tavern, away from the TARDIS.
"Doctor? Where are you going? The TARDIS is that way..."
"I know," the Doctor answered with an almost obscene enthusiasm. "But Torchwood is this way."
Then he was off, jogging away up the cobbled street. Cursing angrily, Ianto took off after him.
The Doctor was deceptive in his speed. Ianto could have sworn he was only moving at a loping gait, and yet they had made it almost to what would one way become Roald Dahl Plass before Ianto was finally able to catch him.
"What are you doing?" Ianto demanded breathlessly. He wasn't sure whether or not to be relieved that Guppy and Holroyd were nowhere in sight. It either meant that they hadn't yet arrived back with Jack's body, or they had and were already somewhere within their base.
"I'm finding out the truth," the Doctor stated. "Jack was trained Time Agent from the fifty-first century, Ianto. At this point in time, Torchwood should not have had any means of confining him, not for a prolonged period. Jack should have been able to escape sooner or later. I want to know exactly what these people did that kept him from escaping."
"Jack may have been a Time Agent," Ianto argued, "and he may be from the future, but he's still human! We saw how they took him down at the tavern. How much more do you need to see? Doctor, please, this is pointless. You're the one who insisted that we can't interfere. Tell me, how much good is this going to do?"
"Too late now," the Doctor murmured, and Ianto's heart stuttered when he saw Guppy and Holroyd enter the square, leading a cart pulled by a well-groomed horse. Jack's body was just visible in the cart.
"Doctor..." Ianto whispered tensely.
"Just keep quiet, and go along with whatever I say," the Doctor warned him before turning to the two women and holding out a square of psychic paper.
"Mr Gage Adams at your service," he introduced himself in a perfect imitation of Gage's broad Irish accent. "And this is my associate, Mr Jones. We've been sent here from Torchwood House in Glasgow to inspect your facilities."
Holroyd and Guppy exchanged looks before Holroyd spoke with restrained suspicion.
"We never received notification of such a visit."
"Her Majesty thought it best that we arrive unannounced. That way, we'd be more likely to get a true picture of how Torchwood Cardiff is operating." The Doctor raised an eyebrow sceptically as he made a show of looking past them to where Jack's body was sprawled in the back of the cart. "Unless this is a bad time...?"
To Ianto's quiet dismay, Guppy offered them a rather shark-like grin.
"Not at all. You can help us secure our prisoner."
"Very well," the Doctor agreed. "Mr Jones?"
Ianto wanted to throttle the Time Lord as he stepped in to help carry Jack's body down into the depths of Torchwood Three.
"So, what's the story with this one?" Ianto asked, trying to keep his tone as detached as possible. Being inside the Cardiff facility with two women whose reputations for cruelty and madness had endured over a century, basically frightened the hell out of him. He wanted out of there as soon as possible.
"We don't believe him to be human," Holroyd told them. "Not entirely. It also appears that he can't be killed, so for the sake of the Empire we need to contain him."
"Sorry, did you say he can't be killed?" the Doctor echoed. Guppy grinned with mad delight.
"When he wakes up, I'll be more than happy to demonstrate."
"No, thankyou," the Doctor said with distaste. "That won't be necessary. I am curious, however, as to exactly how you intend to contain him."
"Well, we initially considered bringing him into the employ of Torchwood. After all, a man who cannot die would be a most valuable asset."
"But...?" the Doctor pressed. Holroyd smiled demurely.
"We reconsidered. We offered him a position with the Institute, and he refused. We don't make a habit of asking twice."
"So you're going to just keep him locked up, then?" Ianto asked. He struggled to keep any emotion out of his voice, and wasn't entirely sure just how successful he was. Neither woman seemed to notice, though.
"For the time being," Holroyd answered in a flippant tone that made Ianto want to slap her hard across her pretty face. "We will bring him out occasionally to experiment with."
"But for now," Guppy continued, "we just want to break his spirit, and the best way to break a man is through isolation."
They had come to a lower level, which consisted of only a long, dank corridor and an ominous steel door at the far end.
"In here, please," Holroyd stated, as though she was directing them to put away the groceries.
Ianto felt sick to his stomach as they carried Jack into the cell. This was turning out far worse than he could have imagined. They weren't just observing Jack's imprisonment – they were taking an active part in it. He wanted to scream, cry, do something, but he felt paralysed and helpless to act.
No sooner than they had set Jack down than the two women moved in and stripped Jack of everything but his long johns. They had just finished chaining him to the wall when Jack resurrected with a gasp.
"What...? Where...?" Then his gaze came to rest on Guppy and Holroyd, and realisation dawned. "Oh, brilliant. It's the hags from Hell, back for round two."
"We warned you," Holroyd said matter-of-factly. "If you'd accepted our offer, you'd still be a free man."
Hatred burned in Jack's eyes.
"I will never, never betray the Doctor to this place. Do you hear me?"
"Oh, we hear you," Holroyd answered. "But not for long."
Jack stared at her with a potent mix of fear and suspicion on his face.
"What are you talking about?"
Again, that cruel smile that sent shudders through Ianto.
"Do you see that door?" Guppy asked. "It operates using a very special type of deadbolt. It has a time-lock, and once it closes it won't open again for six months."
Ianto risked a glance at Jack, and wasn't at all surprised to see the other man had gone noticeably pale.
"You can't do this! Let me go!"
"We're never going to let you go," Holroyd said flatly.
Jack looked past her to Ianto and the Doctor with wild, panic-stricken eyes.
"Help me! Please, don't let them do this!"
While Ianto looked away, unable to maintain eye contact, the Doctor walked forward to stand over Jack. The two stared at each other for a long and painful moment, neither saying a word. Then, suddenly, Jack uttered a soft, strangled gasp. Ianto looked back just in time to see a myriad of emotions flood Jack's face – predominantly shock, realisation, grief and despair.
He knew, Ianto realised in horror. Jack knew who it was that was standing before him. He'd recognised the Doctor.
Without a word, the Time Lord turned and walked out, with Guppy and Holroyd right behind him. Ianto delayed leaving for just a moment, long enough to register the utter hopelessness in Jack's eyes. Then, the door slammed shut and the time-lock slotted into place, cutting Jack off from everything and everyone.
Rose was pissed. There really was no other word for it. She had been all set to go with the Doctor, only to be told that Jack had specifically asked that she stay behind in the TARDIS, and that Ianto go instead. The Doctor had told her why, ignoring Ianto's face palm, and that had just pissed her off all over again.
So she was on her way to find Jack, and tell him exactly what she thought – none of it complimentary. Now that he was back in his right mind, she didn't feel the need to hold back and she had no intention of doing so.
Rose entered Jack and Ianto's room at full steam, only to be brought to a complete halt by the sight before her. Gone was the enormous bed that the TARDIS had gifted Jack and Ianto with, and in its place were the two original single beds.
Jack lay in his own bed, huddled beneath the bright duvet, cuddling his precious dog and blanket and crying silent tears. For an instant, Rose thought that Jack had regressed again. She ventured closer, not knowing what to say or do, and her anger dissipated as she got near enough to see his grief.
"Jack?" She sat carefully on the edge of the bed and touched her fingertips lightly to his tear-stained cheek. "What's wrong?"
Jack looked up at her, and the devastated look in his eyes just about broke her heart.
"Please don't be angry with me, Rose. I couldn't do anything about it. It had to be Ianto who went with the Doctor."
She couldn't help but feel a fresh spark of annoyance at his words.
"I can look after myself, you know. I wouldn't have let them Torchwood cows know who I was."
Jack shook his head.
"No. That isn't why. I gave that reason to the Doctor, but it isn't the real reason."
"Well, what then?"
Jack just stared at her, and suddenly realisation dawned.
"Oh my god..."
"I don't remember seeing you," Jack whispered. "I only remember seeing Yan and the Doctor."
"When did you see them? Please tell me it was before they caught you...? Oh god, it wasn't, was it?"
Jack shuddered and tightened his grip on the dog and blanket.
"I was poisoned in the tavern. That's how they got me back inside Torchwood. It was my own fault. After they let me go the first time, I went and got drunk. I never tasted the poison. When I came back, I was chained up in a little cell deep inside Torchwood Cardiff. Emily Holroyd and Alice Guppy were there, gloating over me. Told me the cell door had a time-lock on it, and once it was sealed, it wouldn't open again for six months. But there were two men there, as well. One of them couldn't bring himself to look at me, and the other just stared at me."
Tears filled Rose's eyes.
"Please tell me you didn't recognise him."
"Not at first. Different face, different body... but his eyes. Those eyes will never change, no matter what he looks like. I sat there, chained up like an animal, and had to watch him leave me behind for a second time. It felt like... like my world had ended all over again. He wanted to know why I didn't fight for my freedom? That was why. I watched him walk away from me and leave me in the hands of those Torchwood psychos, and I just lost my will to fight."
"Why did you let him go?" Rose burst out. "Why didn't you stop him?"
The sadness in Jack's eyes was palpable, and he reached out to take her hand and pull her gently down onto the bed beside him.
"I know you understand why, Rose. You told me about what happened when you tried to save your father. You tried to change an established event, and it brought the reapers. I couldn't stop the Doctor from going because it had already happened. I remember it. The Doctor had to go, and he had to take Ianto with him. It would've been a disaster if they didn't go."
"I know," Rose said bitterly. "Still, I can't help thinking that there should've been some way to stop it from happening."
"There wasn't," Jack whispered as Rose curled in beside him. "It's a fixed event, Rose. It can't be changed, not without causing a paradox."
She stared at him incredulously.
"You really wouldn't want to do a thing to change what happened?"
"Of course I'd want to," Jack said bitterly. "But I know better. Do you think I'm happy about it, Rose? I'm not, and right now I just want to curl into a ball and scream until I'm hoarse."
His voice broke, and the tears came in a flood. Silently cursing whatever deity had condescended to deal Jack such a cruel fate, Rose wrapped her arms around him as best as she could and held him as he wept.
Ianto quickly realised that it was pointless trying to get the Doctor's attention as they walked back through Cardiff to the TARDIS. The Time Lord, for once, was absolutely cloaked in silence and ignored all attempts to communicate. As they neared the TARDIS, though, Ianto lunged forward and grabbed the Doctor's arm.
"We helped!" he said in a strangled voice. "We bloody helped them to lock him up!"
The Doctor didn't speak. He simply stared at Ianto with one eyebrow quirked and an expression on his face that told Ianto more than anything so far just how alien the Time Lord really was. Ianto drew in a ragged gasp of air.
"Just tell me one thing. Did you know it would happen that way?"
Still the Doctor didn't speak. Silence hung between them like a thick veil, and Ianto was just about ready to hit him when the Doctor finally responded.
"No. No, I didn't know what would happen." He paused as he looked grimly back at the door of the TARDIS. "But I think there's someone else who did."
Neither Rose nor Jack had moved an inch when the Doctor and Ianto walked in. Exchanging looks, they walked over to the bedside, and the Doctor crouched to bring himself to eye level with Jack.
"You remembered, didn't you? That's why you insisted that I take Ianto instead of Rose, and why you insisted I stay away from Torchwood."
Jack managed a watery smile.
"Knew you wouldn't be able to resist."
The Doctor sighed as all the pieces of the puzzle finally slotted into place.
"They never threatened you, or anyone else. They didn't have to."
"I realised who you were, and I thought you were abandoning me all over again. It... It broke me, and I didn't have anything left after that. It wasn't until now that I finally understood. You had no choice but to leave me there because you were only completing an event that, for me, had already happened."
"I think I'm getting a headache," Ianto muttered.
"Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey," the Doctor murmured humourlessly. "What happened today couldn't have happened any other way because even though it only happened for us right now in our timelines; for Jack, today's events happened over one hundred years ago in his timelines. We couldn't change it or do anything to stop it..."
"Because it had already happened," Ianto concluded softly. "I think I understand it. I don't like it, but I understand."
"Jack?" Rose asked. "You gonna be okay?"
"I'm fine," Jack answered, though it was severely muffled by his toy dog. Ianto looked around at Rose and the Doctor.
"Could you give us some time? Please..."
They left quietly, without protest, and once they'd gone Ianto lay down on the bed behind Jack. He slipped his arms around the older man and spooned him lovingly.
"I can't imagine how it must have hurt," Ianto murmured. "I have to admit, I'm surprised you're not angry with me."
"Wasn't your fault," Jack insisted. He twisted around so that they were lying face to face. "You had to do it. And now that I remember it, I can remember how horrified you were... How unhappy you looked. I didn't understand why at the time, but I do now. It does hurt, but I don't blame anyone except Alice Guppy and Emily Holroyd."
Ianto brushed his lips against the base of Jack's throat and then proceeded to work his way up to his jaw line.
"Cry all you want, cariad, but don't forget. It's over. You're free and you're safe. You've got your life back."
"I know," Jack whispered, and he sounded almost disbelieving. "Thanks to you. I know others helped, but its mostly thanks to you. It's not over, though."
Ianto pulled back a little, suspicion in his eyes.
"You haven't remembered something else, have you?"
Jack laughed softly.
"No, there's nothing else that I know of. No, I was just thinking. Canary Wharf was destroyed, but Torchwood is still there. Cardiff... Glasgow... If someone doesn't step in and take charge, it could be that it'll just end up in some other power-mad person's hands. Or just as bad, UNIT might take control. I can't let that happen. I can't let Torchwood hurt anyone else like it hurt us."
"It sounds like you have a plan."
"Not so much my plan," Jack admitted. "I remember hearing the Doctor talking to Queen Elizabeth..." He paused and grimaced at the memories of that visit. "Damn, that was embarrassing. I fell over and bawled like a baby in front of the Queen."
Ianto chuckled.
"Not to mention you also fell asleep on my shoulder in front of her. I wouldn't worry, though. She was utterly charmed by you, and I think that was what the Doctor was hoping to achieve."
"Cunning bastard. I'll have to watch myself, won't I? Between you and him, you have enough blackmail material to last all the way into the thirtieth century."
"Jack, tangents."
"Right. Sorry."
Ianto shifted a little and pulled Jack closer to him. Jack willingly allowed himself to be manoeuvred, and snuggled contentedly against the Welshman.
"This is something that's different," he mused. "Never used to do the cuddling thing. Guess I was too busy conning people. My best trick was always to just fuck them senseless, and then take off while they were still recovering."
Ianto had to bite his tongue to keep from asking if that was what he tried to do with the Doctor when they first met. Jack went on, oblivious to Ianto's discomforting train of thought.
"I never wanted to get close like this to anyone. You knocked my world right out of kilter, Ianto. I can say the words again, and really mean them. I love you."
"I'd tell you you're a soppy git again, but then I'd be equally guilty. I love you, too, but you're going off on tangents again. You were talking about what you heard when the Queen and the Doctor were talking... Hold on! I thought you were asleep!"
Jack smiled sheepishly.
"I was, mostly. But you know when sometimes you're not quite asleep, and you can still hear what's going on around you? I learnt to sleep like that when I was a prisoner. You know, so I didn't get caught off-guard. Even when I was in that room, with the time-lock in place, they'd still find ways to... you know."
"I know," Ianto murmured. "I'm sorry. All right, then. What did you overhear?"
"The Queen told the Doctor that she wants me to take over Torchwood."
Ianto was silent. Yes, he'd heard that as well, and he still wasn't sure what he thought about it. He could see the Queen's point of view, of course. The concept of Torchwood was good. It was just that the actual execution of the idea had gone horribly awry because of a few unfortunate misconceptions. In the right hands, Torchwood could do a great deal of good and help to pave the way for Earth's future. As the Queen had said, who better to take the reins than Jack? He didn't voice that opinion, though. Jack deserved to be able to make a choice on his own, without outside influence.
"What do you want to do?" Ianto asked, keeping his question as neutral as he could.
"I don't know," Jack said. "I guess I'd have to know how it would work. I mean, I don't think I could ever go back to Torchwood in London."
"Cariad, that place was destroyed. No one will ever work there again. And besides, I would never make you go back there."
"And that's the other thing," Jack said. "I could never do it without you."
Ianto sighed a little. He was equally touched and concerned by Jack's reliance on him.
"One day, Jack, I'll be gone and you're going to have to move on without me."
Jack mumbled something incoherently into Ianto's shoulder.
"What was that?" Ianto asked bemusedly. Jack lifted his head a little, and Ianto got a glimpse of a familiar, petulant expression.
"Said, I don't wanna."
Laughter bubbled up inside Ianto's throat, and he nearly gagged.
"Yes, well, childish refusals to accept reality won't make it any less true. Still, that's in the future. We're talking about the here and now. Are you trying to say that you'd be willing to run Torchwood as long as it's not in London, and as long as I'm with you?"
Jack considered that for a moment before nodding.
"Yes. I know you said you'd stay with me, but I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to go back to Torchwood."
"Let's not pre-empt each other, Jack. Truth is that I would have thought that you would have wanted to be as far away from Torchwood as possible. I actually, thought..."
Jack tilted his head to peer up at Ianto.
"What?"
"I thought that you would have wanted to go home, once you got your faculties back."
"I am home," Jack protested with a confused frown. Ianto shook his head.
"No. I mean back to where you came from. You know... from the future?"
"Oh," Jack murmured. "No. I don't have a home there anymore. I don't belong there, and if I ever went back to the fifty-first century... that's where I'm from... If I ever went back, I'd find myself in a whole lot of trouble. I used to work for the Time Agency. We were supposed to be like police... making sure that no one messed with the vortex, or time lines. Stopping paradoxes from being created, and that kind of thing. Only trouble was, the Agency was as corrupt as Torchwood. Agents were only in it for what they could get for themselves. We didn't care, not really. And yeah, I was a willing part of it. Oh, my intentions were good when I joined, but it didn't take long for my intentions to take a nose dive." Jack paused and sighed softly. "I'd rather not talk about all that right now. Just... something happened. I don't know what. I saw something, did something, said something... I don't remember. All I know is that I woke up one morning to find they'd wiped two years of my life from my memory."
"Two years?" Ianto echoed in shock. "And you really have no idea why?"
"None, and I decided I wasn't going to hang around waiting for them to do even worse. I ran, and went rogue. Last I heard was that I had a pretty little price on my head. So no, I can't go home and frankly, I wouldn't want to. As far as I'm concerned, my home is wherever you are."
"Are you certain you were never this soppy?"
"Not without it being a con," Jack admitted honestly. "But this isn't a con, and I don't have any reason to lie to you. You've given me something that I haven't had since before my dad was killed, something that not even Rose and the Doctor were willing to give. You gave me love, with no strings attached. I'm not afraid to say that I love you, and really mean it. You do believe me, don't you?"
"I believe you," Ianto assured him. "As for us taking over Torchwood, why don't we just take that one step at a time? Maybe, in a couple of days, we can talk to the Doctor and ask him to take us to present day Cardiff, and we can take a look at the facility there. We have to know whether you can handle going back in there, Jack."
"I know," Jack conceded. "Can't say I'll be looking forward to it, but I know you're right."
"Okay, then," Ianto murmured. "And in the mean time..."
He trailed off, and looked down in amusement as he felt Jack's skilled fingers alight on his knee and begin to creep up along the inside of his thigh. A glance upwards told him all he needed to know when he saw the lustful expression on Jack's face.
"You should be having a rest," Ianto admonished him lightly, but it ended in a gasp as Jack's hand reached his groin and stroked his cock through the material of his trousers.
"You're still wearing that sexy outfit," Jack purred. "Do you have any idea how hot you look right now, with your face all flushed?"
Ianto licked his lips, unable to take his eyes off Jack's hand.
"I think I can probably guess. But Jack... I'm not so sure that doing this in your bed is such a great idea."
"Don't you mean our bed?" Jack asked. Ianto gaped as he realised that the single bed had vanished right out from beneath them, to be replaced by the king-sized bed that that they had slept in together the night before.
"I swear this ship is plotting against me," Ianto grumbled as Jack shifted and straddled him. Jack grinned.
"I prefer to think of it as plotting for us. She loves us both, Yan. It makes her happy to see us together."
Ianto reached a hand up to gently cup Jack's cheek. No words came, and nor did they seem necessary. The loving smile that graced Jack's face told Ianto that Jack knew exactly what he was thinking.
This time, as Jack leaned down to claim Ianto's mouth in a lingering kiss, Ianto surrendered himself without a second thought.
to be continued....