"I wish you'd let me iron those," Ianto said as Jack pulled on his clean trousers.
"Thanks, but you don't need to do that," Jack smiled. "I never do, not anymore. Used to, years ago."
"I still do. Every morning. Been told I'm a bit of an uptight prick."
"I don't agree with that," Jack said firmly. "Well, not in the figurative sense at any rate."
Ianto just smirked and snaked an arm around Jack's waist. Jack in turn wrapped his arms around Ianto and held him close.
"I think you're the most incredible person I've ever met, actually," Jack murmured.
Ianto pulled back as far as Jack would let him and blinked. "You're a space-and-time-traveler and you think I'm the most incredible person you've ever met? You've really been wasting your skills, then. Furthest I've ever been from home is Brittany."
Jack shook his head. "That isn't what makes you incredible, not by a long shot. It isn't where you've been or what you've done. It's what's in you, in your heart and your mind."
"There's love for you in my heart," Ianto said softly, trying not to choke up.
"See what I mean?" Jack said, beaming and pulling Ianto into a tight hug.
"So, what you're saying is that there are sort of astrophysical fault-lines all over the universe, and Cardiff's city centre happens to be located on one," Ianto said, dipping a bit of bread into his potato soup.
"That's it," Jack nodded.
Ianto pondered that for a moment, then said, "What about London? Is there one there as well, or does this one cross the bay?"
Jack shook his head. "Nope, just the one here. Although, I have a theory there are some little incursions elsewhere on Earth. Bermuda and Roswell, for example."
"I see. But, then what about the last few years at Christmas? And that whole thing that happened at Canary Wharf?"
Jack cocked his head with a raised brow. "Biological terrorism. Psychotropics in the water supply."
Ianto smirked and shook his head.
"No?"
"Nope. And if you lot came up with that explanation, you really need better writers on staff."
Jack shrugged. "It gets a little boring coming up with new ideas, frankly. The London stuff, Christmas particularly, has generally been aliens who've decided to come here. The ones we get around here are nearly always victims of the Rift. Involuntary visitors, as it were."
Ianto rolled his eyes. "Typical. They want to go to London, they get forced into coming to Cardiff."
Jack smirked. "Trust me, it's better that way. Now, the Canary Wharf thing…." Jack sighed. "This is where it gets complicated."
"You don't have to tell me, Jack. Official secrets… I understand."
"I'd like you know, though. It's a part of who I am. And you've told me all about your work." Jack reached across the little café table and covered Ianto's hand with his. "I don't want to keep secrets from you. It's been a very long time since someone's really known me."
Ianto put his other hand on top of Jack's and said, "Then I'll listen to anything you want me to."
Jack leaned across the table to lightly kiss Ianto's lips.
"So, Canary Wharf?" Ianto said, going back to his soup and salad.
"Yeah." Jack leaned back, sipping his water. "Torchwood Cardiff isn't the only branch. There was a London location – Torchwood One - that was at Canary Wharf. We've kind of got a guy in Scotland, which is Torchwood Two, but Archie doesn't see much up his way."
"Other than the Loch Ness monster, eh?"
"Nah, she's never a problem," Jack said with a dismissive wave. "Torchwood Four is… well, we don't really know. And we're Three. Anyway, what happened in London was… what happens when a leader loses perspective. On a really terrible scale. I was never very good with One, but they usually left us alone out here, so I reciprocated in kind. Except, eventually Yvonne started being more than an annoyance I was glad to ignore. She went too far. Way too far. Started experimenting with things that no one should mess with, ever."
Jack sighed again. "I've been with Torchwood in some capacity for a very, very long time. Seen it all, been asked or ordered to do things that made me sick. I've hated Torchwood to the darkest depths of my being. But ever since I got stuck being the leader, I've tried so hard to do right by everyone. It's not always easy, and I've ballsed it up more than a few times, but I've tried."
"How long have you been leader?" Ianto asked.
"Since approximately 00:01 AM, first of January, 2000. And I'd been thinking the Y2K Bug was an overgrown cockroach. I'll tell you about that night some other time. It was one of the worst things I've lived through."
Ianto reached to hold Jack's hand again. "Sounds like it wasn't a promotion you were vying for, then."
Jack shook his head.
"Fancy having a walk?" Ianto asked, standing up and finishing off his water. He figured Jack could do with a little change of subject as well. "Tell me some of the good stuff, then. There've got to be friendly aliens or useful things you've scavenged."
"Oh, definitely. Like, there was this one time, also at Christmas, incidentally, when these Sirap ships kept hovering and dancing over Cardiff Bay. We had no idea what they were doing, because I've known Siraps to be very cordial in the past, but you can never be too careful, right? So, we sent up a message asking them to vacate our airspace as people were starting to get a bit freaked out. Well, they responded back with profuse apologies and said that they'd just seen all of our lights down here, heard it was an Earth holiday, and wanted to return the favour with their own 'fairy lights'."
Ianto couldn't help grinning at the thought of aliens wanting to decorate the night skies to help brighten the darkest time of the year.
"It's that kind of thing, ya know, that makes me really wish more people were ready to learn about the existence of other lifeforms and the really cool stuff that's out there. I come from a time when it's not 'aliens' visiting Earth, but humans out there amongst the stars. Popping around in time is possible, though usually only for licensed users, and what is commonly thought of as galactic distance is something that can be spanned in a few days' travel with a good ship. Or instantaneously with a vortex manipulator. Again, properly trained and licensed users only."
Ianto shook his head in wonder at such an amazing thought. "And how do you get trained and licensed in… um, that vortex thingy."
"Vortex manipulator. You've been in very close proximity to one the entire time," he grinned, pushing up his sleeve.
"That's one?" Ianto said, wide-eyed.
"Yep. Well, more or less. The actual VM capability is shot to hell. Shorted out when I came back here to look for the Doctor after my first resurrection – another long story. It has a lot of other features though. Kinda like a smart phone having all sorts of apps besides just phone and text messaging. You get trained and licensed by joining up with the Time Agency," Jack said, wrapping his non-VM arm around Ianto's waist as they strolled through the park.
"Time Agency, what do they do?"
"Ostensibly, the Time Agency existed to keep timelines in check. This veers off a bit into space-time physics, but the general idea is that if someone with the ability to time-travel does something, like, say, preventing the assassination of Abraham Lincoln or evacuating Pompeii before Volcano Day, the Time Agency has to step in. See, there are things called Fixed Points. Fixed Points are events or individuals that actually have to occur or exist for the overall good of the space-time continuum. A lot of them are very difficult things, things most people would want to keep from happening. The agency did a lot of other work, too. Busting up intergalactic drugs and sex rings, stuff like that. But, like all large organizations, there was room enough for corruption. Something happened while I was an agent. For some unknown reason, they… stole some of my memories."
"You mean like the retcon stuff?"
"No. Random memories, from my childhood. Not a specific duration of recent time like retcon does. I believe those were stolen, not wiped or obliterated, because I've had loads of psychic training and I've done everything I know of to retrieve those memories. When I found out about it, I left the Time Agency, went AWOL. Traveled around for a while, living on my wits, as it were. I picked up a Chula ship and thought I could use some of their stuff to bait the Time Agency into doing a deal with me." Jack breathed out a half-bitter, half-nostalgic laugh.
"No deal, then?" Ianto asked.
"It wasn't the Time Agency that took the bait. It was the Doctor, and Rose."
"Is that the same Doctor you were looking for after your resurrection?"
"Essentially," Jack shrugged.
"What sort of a Doctor?"
"A very difficult to find one," Jack huffed. "I've been here for decades waiting for him to come back here. He can use the Rift to refuel his ship, so I figure he'll come eventually. Time being what it is, though, who knows what year he might drop in for a top-up."
"What will you do if he does come?" Ianto asked hesitantly.
"I've spent more time pondering that question…. Almost 150 years. I'm pretty sure I'm going to kiss him first, then kill him."
Ianto gave Jack a doubtful look.
"Not what you meant, I know. I used to think that the minute he came back, I'd finally be outta here, back up to the stars, traveling again, seeing what there is to see, loving people I'd never have known otherwise…. Now, though… I don't really want to leave. I like it here, for a lot of reasons. One in particular."
Ianto smiled and tugged Jack a little closer as they walked.
"He might be able to fix me, though. So I'm still waiting."
"Fix you how?"
Jack glanced away. "The not-dying thing," he muttered. "If he could reverse it… I could just have one, normal life, like everybody. I could… promise 'forever' in the usual human terms. Grow old with someone."
"Except if you got shot again or something," Ianto frowned. "Then you'd died like anyone else would, permanently."
"Yeah," Jack acknowledged. "But maybe I could retire from the alien game. Spend the rest of my days… catching up on my reading, or… roasting coffee beans."
Ianto laughed, though he knew what Jack was doing, injecting levity to avoid the very real issue of mortality. Deep down, he hoped Jack's Doctor never turned up, though he hated himself for thinking so selfishly.