Same Ianto, Different Jack
Chapter 16
by Gracefultree
A/N: Please enjoy my latest chapter! I was in a silly mood when I wrote it, as you'll see, so be prepared. Mild Gwen-bashing.
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New Jack opened clear eyes to find himself laying on Ianto's lap. His headache was gone, he no longer felt nauseous, and he could tell that all the alcohol he'd had before was gone from his system. He wondered how long he'd been asleep, for all that to happen. There must not have been any alerts that Tosh and Owen needed their help with. Ianto, for his part, was sitting with his eyes closed, though New Jack could tell he was praying by the shape of the words he mouthed.
"Please, God, help me get home. Help me find him again. Let him not be too broken by this."
"You believe in God?" New Jack asked softly, hoping not to startle Ianto when it seemed like the man had finished his prayers.
"Off and on," Ianto answered, almost as if he expected the question. "I suppose you could call me agnostic, but there are times when I need to believe. Times when I do believe, at least enough to talk to him."
"You want to go home," New Jack stated.
"Yes. You know that."
"I do."
They stayed silent for a long time, Ianto absently stroking New Jack's arm.
"I've come to a realization," Ianto said as he let out a deep breath. He closed his mouth.
"Care to elaborate?" New Jack asked when Ianto didn't continue.
"I need to live for him, and get back to him, but I also need to live in the here and now."
"And that means?"
"It means you've got yourself a partner, if you want me. None of this 'it's just casual' or 'it's just sex' bullshit. I'll be your sounding board. I'll be your support, emotionally as well as at work. I'll keep you warm at night and have sex whenever you want. I'll be your boyfriend."
New Jack reached up to tilt Ianto's face so he could meet his eyes more clearly. "You never called yourself that with him, did you?" he asked astutely.
"No. We didn't call each other anything."
"But you'd call me that?"
"Yes."
"What about him?"
Ianto shrugged, broke eye contact. "When I get back, I'll call him that, I think. It's long past time I did it."
"Who held back from labeling it?"
"Both of us. I was scared of being called gay, of people knowing what I had with him, of being intimate with a man emotionally, despite all the sex. He didn't think labels mattered. But we never talked about it, so I guess that last bit is just speculation on my part. He once told Gwen that we had 'quaint' notions of sexuality."
"If my lover didn't want to call us anything, I wouldn't push it," New Jack said. "But I'd be calling him or her my lover in my head. Knowing myself, he probably called you his boyfriend in his head, though he didn't say it out loud to respect your feelings."
"You think?"
"You were together off and on for over a year and a half before the Rift took you, right? That sounds like being a boyfriend to me."
Ianto sighed. "We never talked like this," he admitted. "We never really talked about what happened with the Cyberman, either, other than to say we'd both said and done horrible things to each other and wanted to move on. We forgave each other, but it took him leaving and coming back for it to be more than just words."
"I can imagine, given how you seduced him for your own gains."
Ianto grunted.
"As you pointed out this morning, I had to finish things with Gwen before we could be together," New Jack said after a while. "I well and truly ended it with her, you know. I won't go back to her, not after that fight, not after what she admitted about sleeping with all those people. I do want to date you."
"Owen called while you were asleep. He has something to talk to you about that relates to her," Ianto said, not acknowledging New Jack's comment about dating beyond giving his hand a squeeze.
"She's pregnant," New Jack said with a sad sigh. "I know. I found out last week when my vortex manipulator told me."
"You know? You knew?"
New Jack sat up and rolled his eyes. "You all seem to think I'm stupid, or something, don't you? I knew she'd been cheating on me, though I didn't realize there were so many of them. That's how I justified my own dalliances. She's already had an abortion while we've been together, and it wasn't mine. She got pregnant while I was away, and ditched it as soon as I turned up again and asked her to marry me."
"She what?" Ianto demanded.
New Jack ran his fingers through his hair. "She had an affair with someone while I was gone, got pregnant and had an abortion within days of me being back. She never told me, but I knew. That's why I haven't had unprotected sex with her since I got back. Who knows if she'd do the same thing again? I didn't want to risk having a baby with her when she'd be so cavalier about getting rid of one."
"You don't believe in abortion?"
"It's a woman's choice. It was her choice to do it. It was the way she did it that bothered me. It was the cheating, the secrecy. Whoever's baby it was isn't part of her life anymore. She might not have even told him. She might not know whose it was. Besides, if I'm going to have a baby, I want to plan ahead about it. I want to find a way to be a part of the child's life. My daughter hates me and won't let me see my grandson very often because I don't age, because I work for Torchwood. I'd need to do a lot of thinking before I tried to have a child again."
"You have a daughter?" Ianto asked in a hushed, incredulous whisper. "You have a grandson?"
"I've had a lot of children, Ianto. Alice is the only one left alive, and while some of the others had children and grandchildren of their own, I never knew them. I always left before they knew I couldn't age or die."
"You have a daughter," Ianto repeated.
"Her name is Alice. My grandson in called Stephen, and he thinks I'm his uncle."
"You have a daughter."
"She's older than you," New Jack pointed out.
"You have a daughter."
New Jack sighed and waited for Ianto to process the information.
"Do you think he had her, too?" Ianto finally asked, not needing to clarify that he was asking about His Jack.
"So much about us is the same, so, maybe."
"Well, given how things have been between us, and assuming she hates him the way Alice hates you, I guess it's not surprising he never told me," Ianto mused after another minute or two to think.
"It's not the kind of thing I share lightly."
"Then why are you telling me?"
"I trust you," New Jack said simply.
"Why?"
New Jack paused, thinking. "I'm not exactly sure," he decided. "I just know I do."
Ianto nodded thoughtfully. "It's Saturday," he said out of the blue. "You slept a long time."
"Well, we know I'm not getting married. I've ended things with Gwen. We're dating…" He trailed off, waiting for Ianto's nod, confirming the last statement. It wasn't long in coming. "Now all we have to do is figure out if she can still work with us or not."
"How will you decide?" Ianto asked.
"We'll see what her attitude is like on Monday. If she can pretend to be professional, we can give it a try. If she comes in, guns blazing, out to get either one of us, I'll have to retcon her."
"Take a year and a half of memories from her," Ianto commented.
"Yes."
"It's all rather anticlimactic, you know," Ianto muttered.
"What?"
"This. You knowing about her being pregnant. Having a plan to get rid of her if she can't be professional. Us getting together. It wraps up the story very cleanly, without much drama or unexpected angst. If it were a story, it would be a boring ending."
New Jack sat up. "You think I'm boring?" he demanded angrily.
"Not you," Ianto protested, rubbing New Jack's shoulders and giving him a quick kiss to calm him. "The story."
"The story," New Jack repeated. "I gotta say, I'm very confused here, Ianto."
"It's nothing, really. I was just thinking, if someone were to write about this, it wouldn't be a very good ending."
"And what would be a good ending? A bomb going off right now and killing us both and me having to live without you or Gwen? Gwen showing up to try to kill you to win me back? Me actually marrying her and somehow managing to convince you to stay on as a lover on the side? The Rift taking you back right now? Or sending you somewhere else entirely?"
"No, it's nothing. Really. I just had a thought, is all."
"Oh, I know! The Doctor could show up and insult me again so you could defend my honor. Or he could tell you that you're actually a Time Lord in disguise as a human. Or you could be an alien, or vampire, or a zombie like Owen! Oh, even better: You could be immortal like me so we'd never have to say goodbye to each other!" New Jack grinned wildly, his enthusiasm growing as he came up with more and more farfetched possibilities. "What about you and me and Tosh having a threesome, and me being your sub in a weird, three-way S & M thing? Or you could be my sub. Or Owen could become normal again and be our sub?"
"You really have a thing for bondage and dominance, don't you?" Ianto asked drolly with a raised eyebrow. "My Jack had a healthy appreciation, sure, but not this level of obsession." He looked New Jack directly in the eyes. "And I never have, and never will, find Owen Harper sexually attractive. In any way."
"Or, you'll like this one, we have sex right now and everyone lives happily ever after," New Jack declared triumphantly, talking over Ianto's comment about Owen. "End of story."
"It couldn't be the end if I never get back to him," Ianto pointed out, deciding to let go and play along. "The readers would want to know how he's handling my absence. Has he turned to Gwen for support and she's seduced him? Has he killed himself over and over in an attempt to numb the pain of me not being with him?"
"Has he declared his undying love for you in absentia?" New Jack suggested.
"I doubt he'd do that," Ianto muttered.
"Maybe not, but it's a story, isn't it? Anything could happen."
Ianto rolled his eyes. "This really is a ridiculous conversation," he pointed out.
"You started it."
"No, you did."
"Did not!"
"Did too!"
"Did not!"
"Did!"
They glared at each other for a brief moment before bursting out laughing simultaneously. Ianto wiped a tear from the corner of his eye. New Jack smiled happily.
"It's nice to see you laughing," he said, reaching out to give Ianto's arm a squeeze. "I don't think I've seen it yet." Ianto shrugged. "No, really, it's nice. You look good."
"Thanks."
"Do you think we could have sex, though? Right now?" New Jack asked, batting his eyes at Ianto. "Now that everything's just about resolved and we're dating?"
Ianto laughed again before leaning forward for a kiss. "I think that can be arranged," he murmured against the other man's lips, tossing his suit jacket aside. "Just one rule, though. Never, and I mean never, let body fluids touch my clothes if I don't have anything else with me to change into."