Disclaimer: RTD and BBC (and all that it entails) owns them and all rights, if I owned them I would have fic writers doing the scripts, regardless of what RTD thinks (hmmm assassin!Ianto, Empath!Ianto, or vampire!Ianto or even all three as cannon, that'd be fun)

A/N This was also a fill for my 2011 BINGO, for the prompt Missing Persons

A/N2: NOT very Gwen friendly, you have been WARNED

Anchoring the Adrift

Ianto followed Jack as he stormed out of the meeting after Gwen demanded they investigate the missing people, or at least help those left behind. People who were taken by the Rift.

"I told you she wouldn't let it go," he said, putting a hand on Jack's arm.

Jack turned toward him, obviously upset. "Damn it! Why can't she just listen for once?"

"Because she's Gwen?" Ianto responded, raising his eyebrow before continuing, "You do know she's not going to let this drop, don't you?"

"Can't a guy hope?" Jack asked. At Ianto's look he sighed.

"I know, but I don't…I don't want to tell them…tell her. She thinks everything is fixable, and it's not. Hell, I'd have probably told Tosh and Owen by now if I wasn't sure how Gwen would be."

"Overbearing and demanding that we return everyone to their families?" Ianto replied with a small smile before sobering to continue, "She'll find out one way or the other. Would you rather her barging in where angels fear to tread, or have some control over the situation?"

"What do you suggest?"

"If she still keeps going, let's give her what she wants, but on our terms."

"I don't like it, I really don't, but I don't have a choice, do I?"

"Not really," Ianto said with a reassuring smile.

"Alright, I'll also arrange a meeting with Owen and Tosh; if the reason I wasn't telling them is gone now there's no sense waiting."

"I'll make preparations," Ianto replied with a nod.

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"Gods, I have to remind myself her tenacity is a good thing sometimes," Jack said as Ianto rejoined him in the hot house.

Ianto just looked at him for a moment.

"I know, you don't have to say 'I told you so.' Why do you always have to be right?"

"For the record, it's because I know everything, but I'm not always right," Ianto said with a warm smile.

"So did you?"

"Yeah, knowing Gwen she should be there tomorrow, lucky it's your normal day to visit so no need to make an excuse for coming another day."

"Will you be there?"

"Yes, I want to do some inventory any way, I'll be near if you need me," Ianto replied with a smile.

Jack sighed. "Now just to get through tomorrow."

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"Jack, if you lost someone wouldn't you want to know?" Gwen asked, trying to convince Jack to let her bring Nikki to Flat Holm.

Jack thought of Gray. Did he want to know? Yes, but was it the same?

"That's not exactly a fair question," Ianto replied, startling them both.

"Ianto, I didn't realize you were here," Gwen said, surprised.

Ianto ignored her before continuing. "Jack grew up where aliens are the norm and time travel a government job. If he were in that situation he'd understand better than most in this time period the ramifications of what these victims have been through. Ms. Bevan would not."

"He's right, Gwen."

Gwen looked enraged and rounded on Ianto. "Well, what about you, Ianto, wouldn't you want to know?"

Ianto just shook his head. "Still not exactly fair to ask any of us that, since we're Torchwood, but the me from before I joined Torchwood? I was just a child when my dad left with no note. If he were to have been taken by the Rift and he was at Flat Holm, and you had told me before I joined Torchwood and lived Torchwood some, I would not have been prepared to deal with what the Flat Holm residents deal with."

Gwen seethed.

"There's your answer, Gwen, and it's still no," Jack said as he stood up and walked away with Ianto, leaving Gwen alone on the rocky shore.

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The next night, Gwen stood solemnly in front of her wall of missing people.

Jack felt sorry for her; she had just learned the hard lesson that not everything or everyone can be fixed, but this conversation had to happen.

"Didn't I tell you not to bring her?"

"I thought she deserved to know, to have her son back. She even took the time travel and aliens well, but I never thought it could be as bad as it was."

"Deserved to have her son back? Hmm…interesting idea, and very noble, except one thing, Gwen."

He paused, waiting for Gwen to look at him.

"He can't be the son she remembered. He's lived forty years in Hell; none of them can go back to who they were, who their families remember and expect to find again."

"It's just not fair," she cried.

"It's no different than anyone else. I can't go back to who I was years ago; neither can you. You're a different person than you were four years ago. It's the nature of living beings and time."

"Where's Ianto?"

"Retconning Nikki."

At Gwen's surprised looked he continued, "In this we can let her have her hope back; we'll see if we can do something to at least give her closure, maybe a body." He held up his hand when he saw she was about to interject. "JUST Nikki Bevan, and only because you dragged her into it. We are not here to make people feel better; if that's what you want to do, Torchwood isn't the place for you."

Gwen's mouth clicked closed and she looked somewhere between devastated and enraged.

"Go home to your husband."

"Oh, and Gwen?" Jack added as she started to storm out, "You're suspended for three days without pay and on probation for the next month, and we'll be discussing what you're supposed to do when your boss and leader gives you an order. When you get back, be prepared to help Ianto with cleaning duties."

Gwen gave him a look that could kill as he breezed by her to his office to wait for his lover to return.