Ianto spun round to see who'd shot the Blowfish. His other three team members were doing their best to help the rest of the family, so it obviously wasn't any of them. Ianto groaned aloud when he saw the ex-Time Agent standing there smirking.
"Why the hell did you do that? That was my bloody shot!"
"Then you should have taken it, Eye Candy. And aren't we getting competitive these days?"
Ianto clenched his jaw in an effort to not tell John to go fuck himself, knowing he'd like that far too much. Instead he put his gun away and walked out to the SUV to fetch a body bag. Returning to the house, he shoved it into John Hart's hands, growling, "Your shot, your clean-up."
"Guess you don't want to hear the news, then?" John teased.
"If the news is that you're getting married and quitting to go be a housewife on Planet Oglaroon, then I'd love to hear every detail," Ianto muttered.
"Hm. But not if the news is that I picked up a signal on Jackie-boy, huh? Fair enough. Good on you for getting over -"
Ianto grabbed John by the arm and turned him around. "Where?"
"Easy, mate," Andy said, calmly intervening. "He's probably winding you up. Don't buy too much of it until you know more."
"You people never believe me, do you? But I told you that Rift storm was coming, and you weren't prepared, were you?"
"It was weeks later," Rhys shot back, passing out bottles of Retcon water to the traumatized family.
"Where did you find him?" Ianto demanded again. "Did you talk to him?"
John rolled his eyes at all of them. "Not so over him, after all. Well, don't get too excited. I picked up a signal on a UNIT aircraft carrier, but when I arrived there, all I found was a crew that mainly seemed shell-shocked and wouldn't discuss anything with me. In fact, they were rather unhappy to see me there. Something about breaching their shields. Sounds like another bit of Jack's old handiwork to me. Anyway, I couldn't find any other signal after that. So, it may have been nothing."
"You are thoroughly useless," Ianto snapped, grabbing the body bag away from John and getting on with the work himself.
"Suit yourself, Eye-candy," John shrugged. He turned to head out the door, but stopped when the door opened.
"What, did everybody have a party and not invite -"
The entire team froze when they heard Jack's voice at the door. Jack was equally dumbfounded by the tableau before him. He really rather expected to be crashing a party… not a Torchwood cleanup operation.
"Told you so," John said over his shoulder at Ianto, who by then had turned back to what he was doing, before striding up to Jack. "Where the hell could you have been that my VM couldn't locate yours?"
Jack ignored him, staring instead at the sight of Ianto Jones calmly tucking a deceased Blowfish into a standard-issue Torchwood containment "body" bag. "What… what is going on here, exactly?" Jack stammered.
Rhys was the first to find his voice. "Rift arrival, nicked sportscar, hostage situation – all sorted, cleanup in progress, Captain."
"Not what I meant," Jack said, an edge creeping into his voice. This was not how he'd pictured his homecoming at all.
Zipping and securing the body bag, Ianto removed his protective gloves, set them neatly on top of the bag, and stood up, straightening his jacket. "If you mean what am I doing here," Ianto said, taking his gun from his waistband and setting it on top of the gloves, along with the Torchwood ID he kept in his top pocket, "just helping your team, like I offered in the first place."
"Ianto, wait!" Andy called as Ianto headed for the door.
"I said it was only until Jack returned," Ianto said quietly. "You're not short staffed anymore, I'm no longer needed. I'll bring my written resignation round in the morning and you can let me know what else needs to done, in terms of separation procedure, then. Oh, keys," Ianto said, feeling the SUV's keyring in his pocket, and handing them to Andy before he walked out of the house.
"You're not letting him leave like that?" Rhys stared in disbelief at Jack.
"I'm not sure I know what I'm doing anymore," Jack said sullenly.
For Jack, the confusion and conflict he felt were worse than anything he'd endured onboard the Valiant. Had Ianto simply refused to see him when he came back, it would have been hell for Jack, but at least a familiar hell. But this… this felt like betrayal, and all of Jack's year-long desperate desire to run and hold on to Ianto was suddenly dampened. And, yet again, it was all because of Torchwood.
"The important thing is you're back," John said, squeezing Jack's shoulder.
Jack gave him a glare that plainly said "hands off!" and was starting to think that no matter what the outcome would be, Rhys was right and he couldn't let Ianto walk away without saying anything at all. Just then, though, a beeping at the far end of the room drew everyone's attention.
"Rift alert, guys," Tosh said, looking up from her PDA.
"Right. Tosh, come with me and navigate, ok?" Andy said. "Rhys, can you and John manage wrapping up here and join us after – whether we're in the Hub or still in field?"
Jack's wounded pride stung even more at watching the team – at least they'd taken his suggestion to bring Toshiko on – operating as a unit independent of his leadership. Was even the one place he felt wanted and needed, at home, better off without him?
"And where do you want me?" Jack asked, unable to keep the pointedness out of his tone.
Andy sighed with a sympathetic look. "Jack, if you don't know where you're most needed right now, none of us can tell you."
"Maybe now isn't exactly the best time," Jack mumbled.
"Yes it is, Jack. You've put him through enough," Rhys insisted.
Jack was ready to shoot back a response when he recognized it was his stubbornness kicking in, trying to insulate him from yet more pain. Jack wasn't sure how much more he could fight. Again he thought it might be better to just go and get it over with. "Ok, fine," he breathed. "Finish up here, get after that Rift alert… I'll see you all back at the Hub," he said, trying to gain back some measure of control before going back out to find Ianto.