Rhiannon put away the last final dishes from dinner and looked out the window; he was standing still there, he had been standing there since dinner ended just staring into space. Was he thinking about where he would go next, what he would do, or did Jack Harkness actually still stargaze? Her eyes followed him as he sat down on the grass and tucked his knees to his chest, running his fingers over something in his hand.

"What's he doing?" Johnny came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. "He's a right odd bastard sometimes."

"Oi!" Rhiannon nudged him away. "He's family."

"He's still odd."

"Look at him Johnny." She held his arms around her and laced her fingers with his. "He looks so lonely here, so sad. Why does he even keep coming back?"

"There's an easy enough way to answer that."

Johnny let go of Rhiannon and grabbed two cans of beer from the fridge and took them outside. He walked down the garden path and stood behind jack, nudging him in the shoulder with one of the cans.

"Drink, Jacko?"

Jack put his hand up in the air and took the drink from the other man's hand and opened it. He didn't used to drink much, but Jack Harkness was a fast learner and what he had learned was that if Johnny offered him beer he should take it or face the consequences. Johnny sat down beside him.

"Thanks"

"So." He mirrored Jack's sitting position and took a few drinks, looking up at the sky. "Is he up there somewhere?"

"No." Jack shook his head. "I've looked. Every planet I go to I hope there's a version of him, just standing there waiting for me to show up, but there never is. I've given up now, resigned to the fact the he's gone."

"Not space you daft sod, heaven?"

"Heaven doesn't exist."

"Then where is he then?" Johnny looked contemplative for a moment. "Is he in Hell? Because when I was a kid they used to say that if you were ga-"

"There's no hell."

"So, if there's no heaven and no hell, where is he? Just floating around in the air?"

"You really don't want to know." Jack ran his fingers over the stopwatch that he held in his hand, the hand ticking time away. "He's gone and that's all that matters, what does it matter where?"

"Rhi wonders," he said. "All the bloody time."

"Tell her that heaven exists. I don't know what she would do if she knew where he actually was."

"She worries about you when you come here, she says you look depressed."

"I like it here."

"Here?" Johnny laughed and looked around. "You're bloody crazy, mate."

"It's the closest thing to home. You, Rhiannon and the kids, you're the closest thing to a family that I've got."

"They're hardly kids any more. David is twenty-two now, and Mica's eighteen. Neither of them show any bloody sign of moving out and giving us any peace and quiet."

"Ianto would have been thirty eight." Jack stared straight ahead, a slight smile curving at the corner of his mouth. "He would be freaking out about almost being forty, worrying about turning grey, starring in the mirror to see if he had wrinkles yet."

"And how old are you then?"

Jack smiled and took a long drink. "I don't think I even know the answer to that one any more. I come back every few months, and to you he's been gone thirteen years, but for me it has been longer, a lot longer."

"How's that?"

"I come back once a year, every year on the same day, but not in your time. I'm a year older every time you see me."

"So how long has it been, for you like?"

"Seventy-two years and counting."

"Bloody hell. So, this shit council estate in Wales is like your holiday?"

"I guess so." Jack laughed.

"I'd rather go to Malaga myself, but I suppose anything is better than bloody Butlins."

Johnny finished his beer and stood up and started to walk away.

"I am still welcome, aren't I?" Jack asked the question without looking up and Johnny put a hand on his shoulder.

"Family is family. Ianto was family and you two were-"

"Together." Jack smiled sadly. "A couple?"

"Yeah." Johnny squeezed Jack's shoulder reassuringly; he might have been as rough as a bag of broken bottles but he had his softer moments. "A couple of daft sods in love, now put a smile on your face and stop being so bloody depressing. Ianto wouldn't have wanted that."

Jack watched him go inside and lay down on the grass, looking up at the stars. Seventy-two years was a long time, even in his world, but the pain hadn't gone away. If he could stay away from earth, away from Wales, it would have been a little easier, but Jack never broke a promise.

Ianto was down in the archives when Jack finally found him, filing away Toshiko's workings.

"She never finished this," he said, hearing Jack as he walked in. "A few more equations and she would have had it, but she never got the chance."

Jack wrapped one arm around him, holding his back to his chest. "I know this has hit you hard."

"She's dead, Jack." He sighed and dropped the paper file. "And Owen, and God knows how many others there have been. Who's next?"

"If we asked that every time we lost someone then we would never stop asking." He kissed Ianto's shoulder. "We need to carry on."

"It'll be me. I'll be next, I know it."

"Please tell me that we're not going to have this conversation?"

"One day it'll be me." Ianto swallowed hard and closed his eyes, letting a tear roll down his cheek. "You'll be packing my work away and carrying on like any other day."

"Never." Jack hugged him tightly from behind and closed his eyes to savour his scent. "Carrying on without you will never be the same."

"Yes it will. Your world won't stop just because I'm not in it."

"Wanna bet?" Jack held him tighter, resting his head on Ianto's shoulder. "I'm not even going to think about that. I don't want to, not when I've just lost them."

"I have family Jack, a sister, did I ever tell you that?" Ianto turned around.

"A few times."

"She has kids. Mica and David." He put his hand on Jack's neck and kissed his lips softly, letting the taste of him linger. "When I die-"

"We're not having this conversation." He pushed himself away, distancing Ianto by his shoulders. "You're not going to die any time soon."

"Yes, I am."

"I don't want to talk about this."

"Well I do." Ianto took his hand to stop him walking away. "They won't remember me Jack. I never see them, I'm always working, but I love them so much."

"What are you asking?"

"Just protect them, keep them safe and don't let them forget me."

"Ianto-"

"Promise me that you won't let them forget me."

"I promise." Jack caressed his cheek. "How could anyone ever forget Ianto Jones?"

Ianto wiped a tear and moved away from Jack. "You will."

Mica Davies peeked out in the gap between the curtains in her bedroom, watching Jack as he finally went inside; he had been out there for hours, just looking at the sky and pressing buttons on his wrist strap. Mica didn't know what he had been doing, maybe he was planning his next journey, but whatever it was it was taking some time. She heard a knock on the door and jumped back a little.

"Who is it?"

"It's Dave, open up ratface!"

"Hold on!" Mica walked over to the door, checking that her dressing gown was straight, then opened the door; she leaned on the frame."What do you want?"

"Lend me a tenner till Monday."

"No!"

"Come on sis." He flicked her nose with his finger and she batted it away. "You owe me."

"Not a bloody tenner I don't."

"I'll pay you back, don't get your knickers in a twist."

She sighed heavily and grabbed her purse from the computer desk. She took out a tenner and held it out to him then pulled it back.

"If I lend you a tenner, and lend being the most important part of that sentence, do you promise you will leave me alone?"

"Yes." David tried to grab it, but she pulled it further away from his reach.

"And I'll get it back?"

"Yes."

She pulled it away from him again. "Promise?"

"Yes. For God's sake just give it me!" He grabbed the money. "Oh, and by the way, I can see your jeans. If you're going to sneak out you should really be better at hiding it by now." He pointed at her legs and at the smallest hint of rolled up denim. "I don't know why you bother sneaking out anyway, it's not like you're a kid any more."

"You know what Mam is like."

"Mica?" He narrowed his eyes. "What are you up to?"

Mica grabbed her brother by his Jacket and pulled him towards her, glaring through him with threatening eyes that only a sister could manage. "You need to learn to mind your own business."

"And you need to learn to give gifts to your brother when he's skint." He smiled.

"Fine!" She let him go. "You can keep the tenner, but I don't take kindly to blackmail."

"I'm your brother," David said. "Blackmail is how I show you that I love you."

"Bugger off." She put her hand over his face and pushed him out of the door, then shut it.

"Thank you!"

Mica locked the door and hung up her dressing gown; she unrolled her jeans and pulled on her boots, then put on her short leather jacket. Grabbing the rucksack from underneath her bed, she walked back to the window and checked the garden again, scanning the whole area. When she was certain the coast was clear, Mica opened the window and sat on the windowsill, dangling her legs out. She checked her ponytail, making sure it was tight, and tucked it into the back of her jacket before zipping it up to her neck. She took her trusty PDA out of her pocket and pressed a few buttons, waiting a few moments until the thin metal poles stuck out of the brickwork on the side of the house; It was only half an inch but it was just enough.

Mica climbed out the window and lowered herself down the make-shift ladder carefully, jumping the last two feet. She stopped for a moment for the time to pass and waited to check that her escape route had disappeared back into the wall. After ensuring the wall looked normal again, she walked over to the fence, checking behind her, and climbed over it. When she hit the ground on the other side she looked at her PDA; Mica slipped her earpiece in and listened to the frequency signal, then turned to her left and started to run.