Ianto was still out cold by the time Jack had driven back to his house. It was a house in the sense that it had four walls, a roof and rooms, but to Jack it was headquarters. Jack had brought the six bed back in the 1920's, while it was still derelict and damn cheap. He'd done it up over the years moulding it to fit his exact needs. The bottom floor now acted as a control centre, kitted out with computers, tracking devices, material analysers and so on since Tosh's arrival. Owen had commandeered the 'dining room' turning it slowly into a rather remarkable clean room and medical bay that had all the equipment to double as an autopsy space, their line of work could be very, messy.
The kitchen, by popular demand, had remained just that, a kitchen, while the study had been replaced by a makeshift lounge. The second floor housed a room each for Jack, Owen and Tosh. They had all moved in slowly, Jack had nowhere else; his work was his life, and the other two finding it easier and a hell of a lot safer to move in too. The other three rooms became two 'cells' and one interrogation room. The basement was Jack's domain, a gym, shooting range and weapons storage. The loft was nicknamed 'The mess', in reality it held all the, unorganised, paperwork from previous jobs and research for new ones. It may no longer be a house but to them it was home, sort of.
Jack had Ianto in a fireman's lift as he carried him through the door, kicking it open and enjoying the feel of the slighter man weighing on his shoulder.
"Honey I'm home." Jack hollered into the darkness, apparently his housemates where out.
"Kitchen"
Jack almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of Owens call. As it was he lost focus and dislodged Ianto from his balanced position sending both of them barging head first into the hallway wall. Jack swore, breathily, as his shoulder collided with the brick, and a second thud ringing out meant Ianto's head had hit the wall too. Jack pressed his body to the brick, using it to steady himself while he readjusted the, thankfully, still unconscious Ianto.
"What the hell? Why are all the lights out?"
"Hey Jack," Toshiko's voice chirped out as Jack rounded the corner entering the kitchen "nice catch." She said with a pointed nod to Ianto's form, she proceeded to blush when Jack winked and slapped Ianto's arse.
"Yeah sorry mate, I was making Tosh black light the kitchen."
"Um, why?" Jack's raised eyebrow was lessened by the size of Owen's smirk.
"Yeah right Jack, like two towns over couldn't here you 'interrogating' that guy last night! I'm just exercising my basic human right to eat in hygienic conditions."
Tosh had looked away to hide the giggles that now erupted from her, giggles that were, as it happened, completely masked by Jack's roaring Laughter.
Thirty minutes later saw Owen stuffing his mouth in a satisfactorily clean kitchen, while Jack and Tosh discussed the still sleeping body of Ianto Jones, slumped over a clear worktop.
"He can't stay in the cells Jack."
"Why the hell not?"
"Well while you and Owen were doing whatever the hell it is you pass off as work, I did some research. He was Torchwood one Jack." Tosh was serious, her eye's held Jack's in an unblinking stare, her body dead still. Usually so animated, her hands and face explaining temporal shifts or something far better than her mouth would, this dead stillness made everyone pay attention, really listen.
"So?"
"Torchwood one Jack. Not only that but Yvonne's personal bodyguard. A cell wouldn't hold him, let alone a cage that used to be a bedroom!"
"He stayed at the station Tosh, didn't escape that."
Tosh clutched at her head, sometimes trying to get through to Jack was harder than fighting Owen for that last beer.
"Exactly Jack. He stayed put, he stayed through choice. I've read his file, the little of it I could get, Ianto was calculating Jack, no offence but you're an easier target than the whole damn station."
"Ok! Alright I get it. Just what the hell am I supposed to do about it, huh?" Jack had started to pace, he'd done his homework too; Ianto Jones had gotten out of far tighter scraps than this. He'd been hoping to gloss over it, but that wasn't possible now Tosh had brought it up. "Really, any ideas? I'm drawing blanks."
"Sleep with him."
Jack snorted, while Owen choked on a mouth full of crisps, both shooting Tosh disbelieving looks.
"Oh get your minds out of the gutter, really. I meant keep him with you, lock him in your room. He can hardly escape if you're watching or you're going to notice. Plus it's the last thing he'll expect."
"Did I ever tell you you're amazing?" Tosh turned a deep pink at Jack's compliment and merely nodded before heading off to shut down the computers and lock up base.
"Right, well before you watch him, I'll need to check him over."
At Jack's newly raised eyebrow and teasing grin Owen groaned and rolled his eyes, slamming his crisps down and walking away Owen threw a "Mind, gutter," over his shoulder.
Ianto Jones regained consciousness in a pure white room. His head was thumping, duelling for attention with his barren mouth and stinging nose. Trying to move Ianto found that he could do no more than jerk his arms and legs. It was about then that he became aware of a hard cold pressing against his back and fresh air brushing his uncovered torso. Ianto stared to struggle, not panic but test the limits of his bonds; leather straps that he realised were restraining his limbs.
"It's alright mate. Calm down. I'm just checking you over, but keep struggling like this and you'll do yourself damage."
The disembodied voice was soon connected to a hand placed softly on his bare shoulder.
"He's fine Jack, no physical wounds or concealed . . ." Ianto let the voice trail off as he recollected where exactly he was now, Gwen, Jack, a struggle, car, so now he must been at holding place two, in Jack's custody. ". . . Clear from biological weapons too." Ianto caught back up with the ongoing speech as his eyes located the Captain. Slouched against a wall, arms folded, staring pointedly right back at him. If Ianto had been anything less than a professional he would have blushed.
Jack was satisfied, Ianto was clean and he hadn't failed to notice the bobbing of Ianto's Adam's apple, the hidden gulp. For now he'd leave Ianto to stew, this would be fun.
Owen watched as Jack left. He'd done this a million times over, each new 'pay cheque' was looked over, or cleaned up, by himself, quizzed by Tosh and generally harassed by Jack. Owen might just feel sorry for them, if being treated like luggage wasn't bad enough they had to spend time in the house of flying innuendo.
Ianto was in good shape, although he had far more scarring than most. He was quiet too. Owen had always preferred the loud ones, insults, screaming, the occasional threat helped him lose that awkward feeling when he faced them and it doubled as a reminder to Owen that he held all the cards.
However when Ianto did start talking Owen longed for the earlier silence.
"Look, um can I have my top back. As much as I love your boss gawking at me it's cold in here."
Ianto Jones wasn't afraid. Shock, anger, silence, sorrow all that Owen could deal with but this, indifference, or was it courage, was foreign to him. Owen didn't know how to handle someone who didn't care.
"Owen? It is Owen, right?"
"Look mate no offense, here's your top, but I am so not about to tell you anything."
Back in the personal protection game, before Torchwood had, for all intense and purposes, stolen him, Ianto had learnt to read people. Fast. It tended to be very helpful when deciding whether or not to tackle the guy with the gun.
Owen read like this, he was smart, not just intelligent but smart, he knew when to bluff and when to fold. Neither was he a stranger to fighting, Ianto could see it in Owen's stance, always slightly bent and tense, in fact he'd only relaxed when Jack was in the room. He had a skinny frame, slight build, but his posture, the way he held himself to fill up more space than he needed, heighten his presence told Ianto he wasn't joking around. Where ever Harkness had picked this one up from Ianto wasn't going to get anything from him.
Xxx
"What the hell?" Owen chucked the fifth mutilated cup in the bin, "I'm gonna kill him! I lost one hundred and fifty quid. A HUNDERED AND FIFTY!"
Owen kicked the bin. That was the last time he bought anything from outside retailers. Harkness was a liar and a cheat.
Owen had first met Jack when he had been sold the 'latest in surgical technology, remove tumours and foreign bodies without the slice 'n' dice.' Owen had been sceptical, he wasn't an idiot, but the papers had all been in order.
He knew he probably should have seen the scam when Harkness asked for cash.
Jack had been preparing this con for a while. He'd picked Dr Harper because he was a competent doctor and had the uncanny ability to stay so very calm when faced with even the weirdest of casualties. But also because Owen Harper wasn't a tool, he didn't stick to strict rules and guidelines, he was an improviser and by consequence the most likely to go for Jack's pitch.
It wasn't so much a con as a deception, Jack could claim this because the device worked exactly as Jack said it did, the ability to vaporise one layer through another without any other damage. It was just that the device happened to be alien and happened to be grossly overpriced.
Jack had made the trade with Owen and vanished. It wasn't that Owen hadn't done a good job of trying to find him; Jack had just done a better one of hiding.
The pair didn't cross paths again till almost six months later. Jack had been making a trade when his 'employers' had tried to rip him off, rip being taken rather literally. They had set lose three weevils, using stun guns to protect themselves and angle the newly hacked off creatures in Jack's direction.
Jack had run shooting down two weevils, but not before gaining painful slashes down his chest and sides. Not that mortal wounds made the slightest bit of difference to him, but they might have to the poor girl he crashed into.
The girl with short brown hair and bright scarf was oblivious to Jack's approach, focused solely on the headphones in her ears. Jack was equally as shocked when he ploughed into her, his focus tugged by the fast approaching weevil.
Lifting himself from the crumpled woman on the floor he spun to face the weevil.
They collided, Jack's hands grabbed boiler suit covered shoulders, and head leant away from the dripping mouth he was grappling with.
Then she'd started screaming, the woman on the floor previously stunned to silence was creating such a racket that Jack couldn't blame the weevil for its adverse reaction.
Lashing out with his leg he stunned the weevil and struck it across the face with his elbow. While the weevil stumbled and shook its head Jack took a moment to knockout the screaming wreck of a woman.
Jack was fed up, now he'd hit the woman he'd have to seek medical help rather than sulking away to heal. Removing his Webley Jack emptied the ammunition clip into the still stunned weevil without sympathy. Lifting the annoyance of a woman Jack set off to find Dr Owen Harper.
Owen was far from happy, really far. But standing by his moral code Owen offered his help on one condition, the truth.
It was at this moment Jack decided he really did need a medic on his staff of one. So jack told Owen everything, weevils, time travel, aliens, alternate realities, the lot. And Owen, well Owen laughed, that was until Jack started to give explanations for some of the doctors more troubling cases, answers that were weird as hell but completely faultless. It was in that moment that Owen decided he wanted more from life.
Xxx
Owen had been able to stand about ten minutes of Ianto's unblinking stare. Even with his back turned it felt like little beads of heat on the back of his head. Storming out of the reformed dining room, after taking pleasure in securing Ianto again, Owen went to find Tosh.
Toshiko Sato's story was a lot simpler in telling if not in morals. She had been a prisoner, one of Jack's marks to transport for UNIT, but he'd broken her out. It wasn't the white knight tale that it seemed, Jack had seen potential in Tosh, and it helped that his pay for this job had been piss poor. He'd given her an ultimatum, stick with him or become UNIT's lab rat.
Tosh's had stayed with him because it had been and was the better option, but now she stayed because she wanted to. Jack treated her with respect, gave her freedom and let her see the light of day. When Owen had joined they'd become what resembled family, severely dysfunctional but family.
"I can't hack it Tosh!"
"What?" She looked over from her laptop to see Owen pacing backwards and forwards in a sickening fashion.
"He's staring Tosh, it's scary he doesn't even freaking blink."
Tosh burst out laughing, Owen looked at her with an indignant gawp.
"It's not funny! Where the hell is Jack? The bastard can have him back."
This only served to increase Tosh's laughing tenfold.
"Bloody hell, fat lot of help you are!" Owen stormed from the room in search of Jack.
Jack as it happened was already with Ianto, sneaking in after Owen left and smirking at his irritation. "You really shouldn't tease him; he's the one who's got to patch you up."
"Planning to get me hurt?" Ianto replied, ice slipping into his tone. Jack was treating this like a game.
"Depends, you going to behave?"
Ianto shot Jack a deadly glare but kept his lips firmly sealed.
"Right, well you have the pleasure of my company tonight."
"What?"
Jack laughed at Ianto's expression, moving around him to unlock the cuffs and reseal them once Ianto was free from the table. He then explained the sleeping arrangements to Ianto.
Ianto was cuffed to Jack's headboard and the latter was gaining far too much pleasure from the situation. Turing off the light Jack climbed into his side of the bed.
"Goodnight sweetheart." Jack joked, reaching out he stroked Ianto's leg. Ianto more or less growled and pulled his body as far away from Jack's grip as he could manage, causing Jack to fill the silence with hearty laughter.
A/N: Okay people what do we think? Please would really love some input, is it worth continuing? Oh and love you all for reading hope it didn't suck too much :3
