Jack - Chapter Three

The next two weeks at the Hub were difficult, to say the least. As the executive chef, Jack oversaw everything in the kitchen, and he felt it was his duty to keep his grieving team together in the wake of Suzie's death. It was difficult because he was hurting too. He and Suzie had been at the Hub the longest, and though they weren't close in the traditional sense, they'd had a friendship of sorts that Jack would miss in the kitchen each night. She had overdosed on the painkillers she'd been taking since the accident, and Jack felt guilty that he hadn't seen her struggling.

He talked with Tosh several times, wanting to make sure that she was all right. She and Suzie had been good friends, before Suzie had drifted away. He checked in with Martha as well, and even Owen. Owen had dated Suzie long before the accident, but after the initial shock, he seemed to be coping with the loss. He confessed to Jack that yes, he and Diane were dating, and she had been a big support for him.

Jack worried most about Ianto. Even though the Welshman had not known Suzie for long, and Jack suspected that he'd liked her about as much as she'd liked him, knowing how recently Ianto had lost someone still made Jack worry. He wasn't sure how to ask about it, though.

It was Ianto who approached him first, hands tucked into his pockets as he entered the kitchen a few days after the announcement. There was a lull before the late dinner rush, and Jack was having a quick bowl of soup in the corner when Ianto came over.

Swallowing quickly, Jack offered a bright smile. "Hungry?" he asked, though Ianto rarely came to the back for something to eat. Ianto shook his head.

"Not really," he murmured. "Potato leek soup smells good, though."

"Thanks," said Jack, spooning another mouthful into his mouth. "It is. Perfectly seasoned and everything."

Ianto rolled his eyes, then gave Jack a thoughtful look. Jack raised his eyebrows in question.

"How are you, Jack?" Ianto asked quietly, and Jack froze with his spoon halfway to his mouth. He set it back in the bowl and placed the soup on a nearby counter as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"I've been meaning to ask you the same thing," he replied, searching Ianto's face for an honest answer. The other man shrugged.

"I'm fine, really. I didn't know Suzie as long or as well as everyone else. Tosh told me you started here together." When Jack nodded, Ianto met his eyes and continued. "I wanted to say…to offer…when you said if I ever needed to talk about London…if you needed to talk about Suzie, I could listen. Because I've lost people, too."

Jack stared at the other man, trying not to let his face crumple, because this beautiful man was offering a shoulder to cry on when he was still hurting from his own loss. Jack swallowed hard before he could speak.

"I might take you up on that," he murmured, echoing Ianto's response and relieved when his voice didn't crack.

"Right," said Ianto, sounding uncertain, as if he didn't believe Jack. "Well, anytime, Jack. I'm really sorry about Suzie."

He turned to leave, and Jack called out impulsively after him. "How about tonight?"

Ianto whirled around with such a surprised look on his face that Jack almost laughed out loud. Then his face morphed into a genuine smile, and Jack suddenly wanted to kiss the man, he was so beautiful and perfect. "Tonight's good. The Dockside after closing, or someplace more quiet?"

"Let's try a café," suggested Jack. "I know a good place for all night coffee and pastries. They even make decent decaf." They stared at one another until Ianto nodded and turned to leave once more. "Thanks, Ianto."

"See you later, then," said Ianto. "And you're welcome."

Jack watched him leave, a grin pulling at his lips. Glancing up, he saw Martha watching him with a matching smile. If he were one to blush, he might have felt the heat rise in his cheeks, but Jack didn't do blushing. He wagged his eyebrows instead, got a small laugh from Martha, and returned to his soup, feeling better already.

They met after work and walked to the cafe that Jack had suggested. Sitting at a quiet booth with tea and scones, Jack talked about Suzie, sharing a bit of their start at the Hub with the other man and once more finding Ianto to be an attentive and compassionate listener. Ianto did not talk about his girlfriend, though he shared some of his own experiences at Torchwood London, stories Jack could relate to. They talked late into the night, sharing memories, until Ianto begged off with the suggestion to continue another time.

Which they did a few days after Suzie's funeral, though this time they went to the Dockside, found a table on their own, and had a few pints while they talked. After that Jack suggested they meet for lunch before work, given how late they tended to stay out, and it quickly became habit for them to meet before or after work at least two or three times a week. Though they still went out with the staff, Jack loved the times it was only him and Ianto, and they were able to talk and laugh and listen. Ianto finally opened up about the burglary in London and the death of his girlfriend Lisa, and Jack grieved with a man who was much too young to have suffered such trauma and loss.

Ianto and Lisa had been about to lock up the restaurant when three thugs broke in through the back, catching them by surprise. Though it had started out as a robbery, it had ended as murder when one of the gunmen had panicked. Lisa had been reaching for her mobile phone, and he'd shot her in the stomach. Ianto had tried to rush to her side, only to be shot in the shoulder. And even then, he would have crawled to her if the nearest man hadn't held his foot to the wound, grinding into it and holding Ianto there. He had laid under the man's boot and watched Lisa bleeding out until the three men had what they wanted, coldcocked him, and left them both to die.

Fortunately he had regained consciousness quickly and hurried to Lisa. She was barely alive, and died in his arms within minutes as they'd waited for help. Ianto himself had suffered a slight concussion, severe blood loss, and infection from the ordeal. He'd been in hospital with sepsis, then had to undergo physical therapy to rebuild the strength in his shoulder and arm. Though he'd eventually gone back to Torchwood to work part time, he'd quickly spiraled into a depression that had forced him take a medical leave. It was during that time off that he had decided to return home to Cardiff to rebuild his life.

Jack admired the hell out of the man. He knew how hard it was to recover from something like that; his time in the army had exposed him to more than his fair share of trauma and loss, some of which he began to share as well, though certainly he had secrets he kept to himself, afraid of Ianto might think if he knew such damning things. Drawn to a kindred spirit, Jack felt himself developing more than a passing attraction to Ianto Jones in both mind and body. It was as if Ianto were the calm to Jack's storm, the order to Jack's chaos. Whenever he was with Ianto, Jack felt balanced and more himself than he ever had before.

Owen started giving Jack a hard time about how much time they spent together, but Jack shook him off, enjoying his close friendship with Ianto too much to let it bother him. One night Ianto came over while Owen was closing down the bar, overheard one of Owen's pointed comments about him and Jack, and put Owen in his place so fast and so hard that Jack wanted to grab Ianto's hand, snog him senseless, and waltz out of there with his head held high. Ianto turned and winked at Jack before moving away, and Owen grumbled something about new boys and their toys while Jack grinned stupidly after the remarkable Welshman.

It wasn't as if Owen was free to hang out with anyway. He was still dating Diane, and Tosh had started seeing the bloke from the pub, Tommy. Martha had met a doctor, and Jack even caught Mickey and Rose, two of the younger staff, having a snog in the alley one night. In a way, Jack was somewhat envious of the couples that seemed to surround him, yet he was growing closer to Ianto and didn't want or need anyone else. Well, he wanted Ianto, even though he knew it would never happen. Sometimes he wondered if his developing friendship with Ianto was holding him back from dating someone else, but then they met for dinner and a game of snooker on their day off, and Jack didn't care. He was happy.

The Doctor had brought in a new pastry chef after Suzie's funeral, a man by the name of Eugene Jones. He tried hard, but was sacked within a fortnight. After another search, the Doctor hired a woman named Gwen Cooper. She'd worked early mornings at a local high-end bakery and seemed eager to move on in her career. She was friendly and attractive, and Jack suspected she would fit right in at the Hub immediately. She was far more outgoing than Ianto, and sometimes Jack wondered if talking to Gwen was what it felt like to talk to him. She was more physical and quite flirtatious, and there were times when he couldn't help but respond. When he did, he always found Martha giving him a raised eyebrow, as if he were doing something wrong.

He told himself it was just flirting. Gwen had a serious boyfriend, after all, a man named Rhys Williams who, in spite of her own coy manner, she was always talking about. Jack knew nothing would happen between him and Gwen anyway, because he was far too interested in Ianto Jones to seriously consider it. He wanted Ianto, not Gwen. And even though he and Ianto were nothing more than friends, it would feel like cheating if he were to ever make a move on Gwen Cooper. So he flirted back, but he flirted even more with Ianto, and tried to be happy with what he had even though he desperately wanted more.

But then a phone call changed everything, and Jack feared he might lose the best thing that had happened to him.

Author's Note:

I know it was short, but the next chapter should make it worth it. Let a girl know what you think of these last two, yeah? We authors live on comments and reviews; they fuel our fingers as well as our hearts and confidence.