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"No those are the terms, you are my agent you sort it Mags" Jack snapped then turned to find Ianto in the doorway looking like a startled deer. "Wait. No, not you Mags."
Jack closed the call and looked at Ianto with open excitement. "OK. Sit down"
"Where is Owen?" Ianto asked looking at the couch and the rumpled bedding on it, "Already ran for his life?"
"Bog" Jack said, motioning with impatience, "Come on. Sit. Please?"
Ianto sighed and reluctantly did so, already feeling stupid for the previous night's drama thanks to his drug induced stupidity. He was formulating the apology to Owen when Jack leaned forward and knocked on the table's surface to focus him.
"I've been asked back onto the Doctor for a few episodes, a special" Jack said and Ianto felt his stomach drop. Right. He was leaving him.
"School holidays next week, right?" Jack was asking as he jiggled in his chair, "We can get the penthouse apartment at the Hyatt, then the kids get a room and we get a room. We can do some sightseeing between work and when I am done we don't have to rush back."
"What?" Ianto asked with confusion.
"A trip" Jack repeated, "Studio will pay the accommodation and travel for the gig, you and the kids come for free. It's best going out at night and the kids will love eating out and stuff, come on. Maybe even a play? Have they been to the theatre?"
"You want to take us with you" Ianto whispered.
"Well, I clearly can't leave you behind again. We both handled that badly right?" Jack snorted, "Come on, you know you will love it. Room service, tinted windows, you can Goth all you want."
"Goth" Owen huffed as he entered and sniffed the air, "No coffee? Shit."
"It's still heating up" Ianto said absently as he stared at Jack, "Really?"
"I would offer to write it in blood but you might eat it" Jack said, gaining a swing of annoyance that had him laughing.
"Owen, I am sorry" Ianto turned to him, "sorry you found out my secret, sorry you had to find out like that and sorry they were such shit drugs none of us enjoyed the evening."
"You know, I could have handled it ok" Owen said as he watched Ianto rise to begin the coffee, "You could have trusted to tell me."
"No" Jack said with a frown, "He couldn't even tell me. I guessed and cornered him. Owen, he's only been like this a few years, it's still fucking scary."
"Like a dead man walking" Owen sighed and Jack frowned as he pointed out that Ianto wasn't a zombie.
"I don't mean that, I mean like a reanimated one" Owen rolled his eyes as Jack frowned.
"Is there such a thing?" he finally asked and Owen launched into the entire 'Zombie versus undead' thing as Ianto placed mugs down and relaxed, now fully sober and straight, seeing Owen did not hate him, Jack was not rejecting him and Ianto vowed to never again imbibe without checking for needle marks.
"What are you thinking?"
Gods, he liked asking that one.
"That I don't want to imbibe drugs again" Ianto grimaced as Owen laughed.
"Yeah, talk about paranoid downer. I was tempted to shoot you" Owen said poking at him, "Like a kicked puppy."
"My wife said I was a lost Waif on a bad trip" Ianto smiled as he relaxed back against the chair, "Please sir I want some more."
Owen laughed heartily and Ianto looked at him some more, "Tell me Owen. How do you know Vampyre?"
"In the ER, I saw victims and then one night one came in looking for one that was not quite dead, some sort of honour killing, weird" he shrugged, "I never told, was a bit freaked out."
"Thought it would be Tosh" Jack sighed then elaborated, "To work things out?"
"Oh she has at least the alien part of the show. Doesn't really care as long as she gets citizenship." Ianto replied calmly, "I think she has known for a while. Not about me though, I can't say it out loud, it sounds so absurd."
"Especially with that accent" Owen said and Ianto glared at him, "No, well seriously mate. You know it is. Come on."
Ianto smiled and turned to Jack, "So you finished Apocalypse?"
"Changed the name again" Jack said and Owen huffed.
"Oh course you did."Ianto said calmly, "Don't tell me. End of Days."
"How did you…ooooo you are good" Jack shook a finger at him, "Real good."
"Right, I'm off" Owen stood and placed his cup in the sink, a small act that Ianto smiling at him like a proud parent seeing his child take a first step. "See you at the wrap party at the weekend?"
"Yes, thank you Owen" Ianto smiled as he watched Owen shrug on his leather and wave happily then waltz out into the sunshine.
A good friend, Ianto was relieved to see that had not changed.
"Well?" Jack repeated, "Coming to London for a while?"
"Yes" Ianto decided, "What the hell. The kids have a separate room, right?"
Jack rushed to make the booking and tell Margaret to agree to the contract while Ianto sat and looked back over the night before's chaos.
Somehow it had cleared the air.
Jack said he was not leaving him again.
.
.
.
.
End of Days working title was Apocalypse.