Fish and Henry put Ianto onto the trolley and then wheeled him into Jack's office while Hart and Gwen unloaded everything into the boardroom. Jack sat on the sofa with Ianto's head in his lap and began to wait. He vividly remembered the first time he'd done this the whole way through, from death to revival. Though Jack hadn't been there when Ianto had revived the very first time, not a month later, Ianto and Jack had seen to a late night spike together. What had fallen through was nothing more than a paint canister but it was pressurized for completely different atmospheric conditions. The canister had exploded, sending shrapnel hurtling through the air. Jack had been too far away to protect him and a piece of the canister had imbedded itself in Ianto's abdomen. He'd died in Jack's arms and Jack had endured the long minutes and seconds as he'd waited for Ianto to revive. It had given him a better perspective on what Ianto had had to endure each time Jack had died.
When Jack had first returned from the Year that Never Was, his mind had started to leap to one place after he revived - the Valiant. Reviving had become more violent, more chaotic. He woke with so much more terror. Ianto, unable to endure the sight, had started holding him as he waited to revive. Jack had scolded him for it. Now, he understood. There was no way Jack would leave Ianto here to revive alone nor would he even consider watching Ianto from across the room.
Ianto had been immortal little over a year. He'd died numerous times but there was only so much a person could adjust to the unnatural act of coming back from the dead. The Welshman's revivals were violent, he often thrashed as the pain and confusion of reviving took hold. Jack, whenever possible, stayed with Ianto through it all, never leaving his side. The minutes dragged and passed like hours. Jack tuned out the rest of the world while he waited for Ianto to come back to him. He looked up when he heard his office door open.
It was Miranda. Once the boardroom table was littered with everything they'd taken out of the abandoned shop, she'd come to check on the two lovers.
"How long has it been, Jack?" Miranda asked.
"Thirty six and change," he said. He didn't even look at the stopwatch. He'd stared at it since she'd handed it to him.
"Wait with him. I'll handle the evidence sorting," she said. She squeezed his shoulder and turned to walk away but Jack grabbed her hand.
"I'm sorry, Will, about before. I should've included you-"
"It's fine, Jack. I understand why you didn't want to. If I'd persuaded you to not tell the others, I would still know. I can live a long time, long enough to see this future you speak of. The more you tell me, the more likely it is that I can impact the flow of time." She bent and kissed the top of Jack's head. "I'm going to get everyone organised."
"I'll be out once he's awake," Jack said, turning back to his husband.
Miranda stepped out of Jack's office, quietly shutting the door behind her. She called out, "Fish? Get everyone into the boardroom."
Once everyone was assembled, the table looked sparse even with Henry sitting next to Fish. Miranda spoke from her usual place at the foot of the cluttered table. "Jack is waiting with Ianto but we're at another dead end. We've flushed them out. Best case scenario? They're going to be looking for another place to bunker down while they wait to carry out their next objective. Worst case scenario? We've forced their hand. I know we're all tired and I'm sorry that there's no time for sleep right now. Gwen, we need the locals on this one. I'd also like for you to look over everything we collected from the abandoned shop with me and Captain Hart. Fish, I hate to say it but it's back to the CCTV footage for you and Henry. We need to track where they're going. Let's go everyone."
Fish and Henry left the room while the rest of them started to sift through what they'd found at the abandoned shop. Most of it was trash but some of it could prove useful. Miranda was laying out the various weapons and other dangerous items they'd recovered, examining each one in turn. Gwen was sifting through the papers. Hart had gotten the short end of the stick, sorting through the trash. He didn't seem to mind though.
"Captain? Do you recognise this manufacturer mark?" she called out, pointing to a small stamp on the bottom of the concussion grenade. She was still using the futuristic language despite Gwen's presence. The former PC was engrossed in her own work, ignoring them or, more specifically, ignoring Hart.
"Dynamos Industries," he said, rolling his eyes. Hart had heard of the rubbish manufacturer. The large conglomerate manufactured a wide array of items and its weapons were complete and utter junk but they were cheap. You get what you pay for… "This grenade is a piece of crap. They're lucky it even worked."
"They've tried to deceive us before. We can't assume all their equipment is substandard," she replied.
"I suppose not. Your pronunciation is getting better, Dollface." He'd been correcting her grammar as she spoke. Listening to him was also expanding her vocabulary. She'd improved quickly and had a remarkable gift for language. He wondered if he should tell her that Ekumen is actually what English turns into in three thousand years.
She asked, playful, "And the accent?"
"Tolerable," he said with a smile and she laughed.
Gwen rolled her eyes. Even in another language, she knew flirting when she saw it.
Miranda's comm unit went off. It was Jack. UNIT wanted to speak to someone and Ianto still wasn't awake. She didn't really want to leave Hart and Gwen alone but Torchwood was in hot water and there was no way she could ignore a call from UNIT. It would also be unwise to allow Jack to field the call while he was distracted with Ianto so Miranda excused herself from the room.
Hart stepped back over towards the munitions and Gwen stuck to her end of the boardroom table, examining the other evidence. He tagged all the items to be properly disposed of, following the protocols he'd learned over the past few weeks. All the weapons and explosives had the Dynamos Industries' logo on them. Under other circumstances, Hart may have elected to keep some of the items in the archive or the armory but not this trash.
"Do you think Eye Candy's awake yet?" Hart asked, absently.
Gwen didn't answer him.
"I'm going to get some water, do you want anything?" Hart sighed. He wondered why he was still trying. Just as he got up, Gwen spoke.
"Don't pretend like you give a damn whether or not Ianto's okay," she snapped. "I don't know what your game is here, Vera, but you're not fooling me."
"No games this time," he said. He didn't know what he had to do to convince everyone around here he was actually being honest this time. Didn't they get how infectious all this noble, sentimental drivel of theirs was?
"You're a lying, murdering bastard," Gwen sneered, "and you best leave Miranda be. She doesn't need to be consorting with the likes of you." She gave Hart a mean glare. "Don't think I don't notice the way you look at her. She might not see it but I do."
Hart had had enough. He'd taken her licks because he knew he deserved them, but now, he was done. She called him a lying, murdering bastard and she was right on all accounts. There was no real way to take back the murdering bastard portion but he could work on the liar bit. "Listen, Gwen. You're right. I am a lying murdering bastard. I'm a right scoundrel and I know it. I've never been anything else because, honestly? I haven't bothered trying."
She opened her mouth to argue but Hart cut her off, slamming his hand down onto the boardroom table.
"No, I'm talking now!" he shouted. He shook his head and lowered his voice. "Haven't you ever met someone who made you want to be better? I'm the best version of myself around her. She makes me want to be a better person, the kind of person that deserves someone like that. But don't you worry yourself, Gwen, because I'll never be good enough for the likes of her and she knows that. So how about you back the fuck off me."
Hart spun on his heel and left the boardroom leaving a gobsmacked Gwen behind. He didn't care if Gwen believed him or not. He didn't care what any of them thought about him. He didn't…
He crossed the Hub towards the kitchen. He took a glass out of the cupboard and filled it with water. He drank deeply, wincing a bit at the strange flavour of the processed water. He still hadn't gotten used to it. The bottled and filtered water was better. Maybe, now that Ianto was actually giving him the time of day, he'd ask about having some water filtration installed into the Hub. It certainly was looking like he would be staying longer than he'd intended.
Back when he'd told Jack he was going to take a look around Earth, he'd meant it. He spent quite a bit of time touring the planet, even taking a few forays into its past. He'd liked some of the people, found some of the cultures, food and drink interesting, but all in all, he'd found the place boring. He still didn't understand what Jack saw in this rock. Then he'd met Miranda Ryan.
The cold calculating look she'd given him down the barrel of her gun had sent his heart into his throat. He had never met anyone like her in his travels on this planet. Or anywhere else for that matter. The hollow cold tone she'd used when she'd told him Gray was taken care of had had Hart's cock hard in seconds. After Jack had offered him the job and he'd had an excuse to wander about the place, he'd checked Gray's cryodrawer. She had taken care of it.
There was a small amount of magnesium chloride solution in the line that held the cryodrawer's reversal agents. It was separated from those reversal agents by two small bubbles of air, close to where the line entered the drawer's occupant. A slight bend in the tubing hid the tampering from sight. When and if the drawer's reversal process was activated, the magnesium chloride would react with the reversal agents in the blood stream and stop the occupant's heart from restarting. Unless someone was looking for it specifically, no one would notice. Gray's death would be attributed to some failure of the cryodrawer, the reversal agents or both.
Hart couldn't have done it better himself. He had planned to engineer some sort of failure in the drawer's power supply. That plan anyone would interpret as direct sabotage. Her solution was better. It was patient and subtle. Not only was she beautiful, but she was full of lethal cunning and deadly creativity.
Sure, that had intrigued him but it didn't matter. He could have found her dull as powder, he'd had no choice in coming back really. It had already happened. He'd seen it with his own eyes. This ice queen had fallen in love with him. Hart had no idea how he'd managed that, really. In fact, when he'd first gotten here, he hadn't much liked Miranda Ryan. He'd been fascinated and intrigued, yes. He still was. But fancy her? Not that he was all poodles and two headed kittens or all that picky about who he stuck his dick into but he didn't think this woman capable of loving anyone. He'd had absolutely no idea how he could manage to get her to care about him let alone develop feelings for her himself. What had surprised Hart the most was when he'd started to fall in love with her all on his own.
He'd watched her from a distance during this trial period Jack had given him. The woman seemed to be a contradiction in every way. He had seen her be cold yet capable of deep hearted kindness. He'd watched her anger burn white hot but had seen a gentleness. At first, Hart thought that Miranda had won the war he fought within himself every day. It didn't take him long before he realised, Miranda hadn't won anything. She carefully mediated the dark and the light. The dichotomy wasn't a war within her, but a careful and precarious balance. But she seemed an unattainable goal. Hart wasn't an idiot. He could tell how repulsive she found him. At least, she wasn't threatening him with bodily harm anymore.
He turned as he heard the door to Jack's office swing open. Jack was walking towards the boardroom and Ianto was walking over to the kitchen. The Welshman had cleaned up and changed clothes. He didn't look well. He was a bit paler than usual and there was a slight blue tinge to his lips.
"Captain," Ianto said with a nod as he fixed himself a hot cup of tea. He'd found out the hard way that the more caffeinated coffee would give him a roaring headache after reviving from an exsanguination death.
"Good to see you up and about, Eye Candy," Hart said and he meant it. He'd seen men die before, of course, quite a few of them by his own hand but this different.
Here at Torchwood, Hart felt like he was a part of something and he hadn't felt like that since his Time Agency days. Even though Fish was his only real friend here, he still felt like he was a part of something. The longer he stayed, the more he realised how screwed up he was and the more he regretted how he'd behaved the last few times he'd been here… and in most of his life, if he was really being honest with himself. John Hart had decided to turn over a new leaf.
When Hart had come back, both times, he had thought he was still in love with Jack and all he could think about was getting the man back and reliving the good old days. After he'd cleaned up and thought about it, Hart realised that he didn't miss the good old days with Jack. He missed drowning himself in whatever booze, drug or body he could and he missed having someone to do it all with. Misery loving company and all that. Still, he cared about Jack and had loved him once.
There was a time when he would've left Ianto bleeding and he would've bet real money that Ianto would do the same to him, but Hart had a feeling that time was passing. So when the light had gone out in Ianto's eyes, Hart had actually felt something. It wasn't really for Ianto, it was for Jack. After watching them for over two weeks now, even Hart had to admit that they were more suitably matched than he and Jack ever were.
"Can I get you something?" Ianto asked, wrapping his hands around the hot mug. He didn't bother blowing on the scalding liquid before he took a deep gulp. He winced a bit as the pain seared across his tongue and down his throat. He tolerated the pain, eager to get the hot liquid into him so he would heat up faster. The odd tingly sensation of burning the inside of his mouth would subside in minutes, probably before he was even finished with the tea. Another perk of his immortality.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" Hart asked. "You're looking a bit peaky."
"No time," Ianto said. "I was about to order something from the Indian restaurant. Any special requests?"
Hart could tell Ianto was bracing himself for the coming innuendo. "Anything vegetarian is fine, Eye Candy."
"Spicy?" Ianto asked, purposefully baiting the former Time Agent.
"However they usually make it," Hart said with a shrug.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Ianto asked, his brow furrowing with concern.
"Fine, why do you ask?" Hart asked, sipping his water.
"The distinct lack of sexual innuendo from this conversation," he replied.
Ianto was slowly realising that he and Gwen were using the former Time Agent as a convenient scapegoat and target for their anger. Deep down, neither he nor Gwen had wanted to direct their feelings where they belonged for fear of inflaming Jack's already substantial guilt. Fish's scolding had cast an uncomfortable spotlight on Ianto and Gwen's treatment of Hart. True, the two of them had felt very justified in their spurning of the former Time Agent but Fish had been right, enough was enough. Ianto had no idea when Gwen would relent, but even thought Ianto was immortal he knew that life's too short to hold onto so much anger.
Hart shrugged. "Just tired I suppose."
Just then Hart caught sight of Miranda walking across the Hub. His eyes followed as she walked, the boots on her feet accentuating her legs. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear as she went.
Ianto followed his gaze and smiled. The look on Hart's face was plain as day. Ianto remembered a time not all that long ago when he had a similar look on his face about Jack. When he'd stopped being so bloody angry with the man, Ianto began to notice the looks the former Time Agent was throwing in the immortal woman's direction. The man was lovesick. Ianto never thought he'd see the day that he felt sorry for John Hart.
"Ah, I see," Ianto said with a smile, downing the scalding hot tea. He went about putting on some coffee to brew.
"You see what, Eye Candy?" Hart asked.
Ianto jerked his head towards the boardroom. "Mandy."
Hart didn't meet Ianto's gaze, he just rinsed his glass and put it into the dishwasher.
"Have you tried talking to her, John?" Ianto asked as he arranged the mugs on his tray.
Hart was startled by the friendliness and the use of his name. Ianto always referred to him by title the same way Hart always referred to him by his nickname. He decided to return the gesture in kind.
"Nothing to talk about, Ianto," he said with a shrug.
Hart couldn't believe he was having this conversation with Ianto Jones but he wasn't one to look a gift horse in the mouth. He said, quietly, "She'd probably dislocate my shoulder first. A woman like that is above my station."
The coffee pot beeped and Ianto began pouring. "I didn't take you for a coward, John."
Hart narrowed his eyes in anger. He'd killed people for less. Sinking a blade into Ianto might be satisfying but not only would it be moot, it would be completely counterintuitive to this new leaf he was turning over. He concentrated on the sound of the liquid sloshing in the mugs. He said, coldly, "You don't know me, Eye Candy."
"No, I don't, but I do know her and you should talk to her," Ianto said. He opened the fridge and took out the cream. He started fixing the coffee to everyone's preferences. He didn't look up as he stirred. "One thing though… Hurt her? And she'll do more than dislocate your shoulder."
The former Time Agent hung his head, reacting to Ianto's half-hearted warning with sadness. With a strange tone to his voice he replied, "I'm not the one it's going to end in tears for, Eye Candy."
Confused, Ianto watched the former Time Agent walk away.