A/N: Short one this time, more of an interlude. You know me, I can't just give you a happy ending right away. (: How I'm going to wrap this up in 3 chapters I dunno - however soon I'll have more time on my hands because of exams so they'll be three long chapters, I think. Anyways, enjoy as best you can!


Somehow when Jack asked him, "What was I thinking?" something inside Ianto snapped.

He showed no trace of it in his face, and controlled the sudden shake in his hands while he buttoned his shirt, but something was broken and he was damned if he knew how to fix it. The double-meaning of Jack's words might not have been intentional, but Ianto felt that there might have been an instance of a Freudian slip somewhere.

So he pressed a kiss to Jack's temple after the older man had fallen asleep, and now, somehow, that simple contact – which would usually erase any dark thoughts Ianto harboured – wasn't enough to heal him.

As he left the room, dapper in his suit once more, hair smoothed, clean, he spotted the Doctor seated at the TARDIS controls.

"Ianto."

"Doctor."

The Doctor's tone was accusatory, and Ianto's lips furled back into a smile which was more like a grimace. The Timelord's expression darkened.

Just by looking at the archivist, the Doctor could tell that something had gone wrong. Stay calm, he advised himself. You warned yourself this would happen at some point.

"Ianto, don't do this."

This brought a wry and bitter laugh to Ianto's lips as he cracked his knuckles, "Do what, pray tell?"

"Whatever it is you're thinking, don't do it. You don't need to go back to them."

Ianto snorted, staring despondently back at the Doctor. The young man's dark hair was a bird's nest next to Ianto's casually coiffed style. Despite his flyaway appearance, the Doctor's gaze had a fierce magnetism to it, and Ianto found it hard to look away.

He lowered his eyes, but could still feel the other's eyes on him. Something about the way he looked at him made Ianto fearful.

"I'm a monster, you know. Really, this time. I could kill you so easily."

The Doctor observed the Welshman with a cursive look, and decided that despite the botched delivery of the words, directed at his feet, he had a point. There was something wrong with Ianto Jones that he didn't think he could repair.

"You can't leave without the TARDIS landing somewhere, Jones. She won't just stop."

Ianto grinned wolfishly, and the Doctor's spirits sunk.

Take me to the Basement again, Ianto commanded in his mind.

The TARDIS gave what felt like a nod. Good girl, he thought approvingly.

The landing siren blared into action and the Doctor stared at Ianto's cruel smirk in disbelief. Not many had the power to speak to his TARDIS – maybe Ianto really was made to be an Official, after all.

"Goodbye, Doctor. Blow Jack a kiss for me."

The suited young man buttoned up his jacket and flung open the TARDIS' door. With a harsh laugh, Ianto Jones stepped from his old life with Torchwood

to his new life

with the Officials.