Love at First Glance
Chapter Three
(A/N: This is based on the Hallmark Channel original film of the same name. I have added a few of my own scenes, events and dialogue, and I've omitted a few scenes that weren't really necessary to tell the story.)
Daffyd pulled his mail from the bank of locked boxes and was thumbing through absentmindedly as he wandered toward the lift. He glanced up to push the button and found himself staring in amazement at Ianto, who was kneeling with his arms around a dog which was licking his face.
"Ianto?"
Ianto looked up and grinned, standing up as the dog fell into position right at his side. "Daffyd, hi."
Daffyd couldn't take his eyes off the animal sitting there and he would have sworn it had a knowing smirk on its face, as though it knew all about him and found him wanting in more ways than one.
"What's wrong?" Ianto slid a loving hand along the dog's body, from head to haunch and the dog leaned into him and cast an adoring glance at his new master.
"Whose dog is that? Who…"
"Mine." Ianto's grin widened. "This is my new dog. This is Boyfriend." The two men knelt in unison and Ianto wrapped an arm around the dog's neck. "Say hello to Boyfriend, and Boyfriend? This is Daffyd."
Daffyd was startled, not only by the dog itself but by the name as well. "Okay, I'm really confused here. I thought always said that you hated dogs. I mean, I always wanted us to get a dog, but you always said, 'over my dead body!' cos they barked and made a mess and had to go for walks at the most inopportune times."
"Oh, well, what can I say? Boyfriend is different. He loves me just the way I am, and I love him right back. Isn't he wonderful?" Ianto stood up as the lift doors pinged open and he led his dog inside the car. "Are you coming?"
"Ahh, no gotta collect my mail…" he gestured at the envelopes and magazines that were now on the floor, having been nudged out of his hand by a very wet but inquisitive nose.
"Okay, then. Say good-bye to Daffyd, Boyfriend." Ianto's smile was filled with happiness. "Bye, Daffyd," and Boyfriend added his woof as the doors closed on a very unhappy Daffyd.
Ianto sat in the middle of his bed, working on his story about Jack. Boyfriend lay at the foot of the bed, his brand-new dog bed lying on the floor still unused. Ianto had just finished re-reading what he'd written so far, crossing 'T's, dotting 'I's and making minor changes here and there when his mobile beeped with a text.
Greetings from Paris where it is beautiful and romantic
Isn't Paris always romantic? he answered.
It took a moment for the reply to come through. Ever been?
With a rueful smile, Ianto typed in, No. I've never left the UK but a boy can dream
There was another long pause and then, what's in your dreams?
Ianto smiled at the phone and shook his head. "What it is it about this guy that makes me want to tell him everything?" he asked Boyfriend, who left off licking his paw to gaze at him adoringly.
"Jack and I used to work in a photo lab." The man had to shout to be heard over the sound of wind rushing past the plane's open door. "Back then I barely ever left my house; I went to work, came home and played video games." He gently urged Ianto to slide down the bench seat, closer to the door.
"Then one day Jack brought me up here, told me to step out of my comfort zone." The man laughed gleefully, showing a mouthful of very white teeth. "That guy showed me how to love life and look at me now!" He gestured towards the door. "Shall we?"
Ianto made the mistake of glancing out that door, seeing how very far away the ground was and he turned to his instructor looking like a deer caught in headlights. "No!" Ianto knew he was probably shrieking from fright. "I don't think so! I'm too scared!"
The man shook his head, refusing to take no for an answer. "Goggles…" He pointed to Ianto's head. "Goggles!"
Without even thinking about it, Ianto reached up and slid his goggles down over his eyes.
"Ready?" Ianto was pulled to his feet and pushed toward the metal step bolted on the outside of the plane's door. "Set…!"
"No!" Ianto whimpered. "No…" His words were whipped away by the wind.
"One…"
Ianto stepped out onto the little metal platform, all that stood between him and thousands of feet of nothingness.
"Two…"
His torso moved outside the door frame, while his hands had a death grip on the door's edges.
"Three!"
There was a gentle nudge to Ianto's back and suddenly, he was outside the plane, flying through the air like a bird on the wing. His initial scream of abject terror quickly changed to a shout of elation as he found himself soaring on the wind; it was over far too soon for his liking when his parachute automatically deployed, yanking him sharply upward and then letting him enjoy the more controlled downward drift.
His heart was pounding in his chest like it was a jackhammer and his mouth was dry as a bone from shouting, and he was absolutely sure that a bug of some kind had gone down his throat, but Ianto Jones had never, never, never felt so free in his entire life.
"I love Jack," the woman confided as she set a mug of tea in front of Ianto and then sat down next to him. "I don't see enough of him; he's always off on some great adventure, taking pictures."
"How did you meet Jack?"
"Oh, we were neighbours," the woman pushed the milk and sugar closer to Ianto. "Back then he used to help me around the house, you know, little things, like bring in the groceries, set the bins out, mow the lawn. He liked my son, Daniel. When I met Jack, Daniel was only eight, and he used to play this old keyboard." She got up and moved some sheet music out of the way. "He used to play the same songs over and over again; drove me crazy!" She laughed.
"You know, some nights when I had to work late, Jack would look after Daniel for me and he would sit and listen to my son play this keyboard, I mean, he just loved it. Thing is, Jack saw something in my child that I didn't see. Then one night I came home from work and found Daniel sitting at this beautiful piano…" She took several steps to the side and Ianto could see an upright piano, its polished wood gleaming in the sunlight.
She pulled out the bench and sat down, lifted the lid and ran her fingertips gently along the keys without making a sound. "It was a gift from Jack. No one had ever done anything like that for me, for us. What kind of man cares so much for another's child like that?" she asked. "Jack used to sit right here and watch Danial play and before you knew it, my child got pretty good." Her face beamed with pride.
Ianto was almost afraid to ask the question, lest it have an unhappy answer but, "Where is Daniel now?"
If he'd thought she was smiling before, the way her face lit up the room was like the arena lights at the Millennium Stadium coming on for a match.
"He's finishing up his degree in Music at Oxford this spring and then in the fall, he's moving to New York to attend Julliard! And next month, he's playing a concert at Carnegie Hall! Can you believe it?" There was a note of awe in her voice as she spoke of her son's achievements. "All because Jack saw my boy's raw talent and then nurtured it."
Ianto finished his tea and se his mug down. "You know, it's funny. I don't even know him, but everyone I've met just makes me love him more and more," he confided. "Crazy, right?"
"Not really," she shook her head knowingly.
"Every day I just want to hear more about his acts of kindness, his crazy adventures, his total fearlessness."
"The most important thing you need to know about Jack is that it all comes from a place deep within his heart." The woman smiled fondly. "You know for me, it wasn't about him buying a piano but about the time he spent sitting here at the piano with my child, or the way he would sit on his porch and wait for me to come home from shopping just so he could help me carry in the groceries. He never let me pay him for any of the time he spent raking my leaves, fixing the kitchen faucet, washing my windows – mind you, he never said no to a plate full of cookies straight from the oven!" She laughed gaily at the memory. "Chocolate chip still warm and gooey, and a big glass of ice cold milk!"
Ianto rolled his eyes with delight. "The best! I can still remember coming home from school when I was a kid and finding that me mam had left me the very same thing on the kitchen table. I never knew how she could time it so perfectly, have the temperatures so spot-on."
"It was all about Jack teaching us the truth about living a worth-while life," she was earnest again. "Teaching us that love is everything."
The drive inland to Caerphilly was peaceful, not too much traffic on the road, and it let Ianto relax as he gazed out the windows at the passing scenery. Once again, he gave thanks for being born a Welshman.
He entered the small café at precisely one pm and found Matthew already sitting at a table by the window. After they ordered a coffee and a pastry – "Best you'll ever have," the older man promised – Ianto pulled out his portable recorder and set it down between them.
"Do you mind?"
Matthew shook his head. "Not at all."
"Thank you for agreeing to meet me."
"It's my pleasure, Ianto, really."
"So, you're a journalist, Matthew?"
"Well, I'm a nurse but I cover elementary school sports for the local paper." He grinned. "Every parent loves to read about their kids, and who knows, maybe someday, one of our local players will make it big and everyone can go back and read about them as a child."
Ianto smiled at the image. "Do you work in a hospital?"
"Centre for Brain Injury and Rehabilitation," he nodded. "They do some really great work there."
"How did you meet Jack?"
"There at the Rehab Centre."
Ianto paused for a moment, then he asked, "You said on the phone that you haven't seen Jack for a while."
"No, we text, but I think that at the end of the day it's still just too painful for him." There was a note of sadness to Matthew's words.
"Oh…"
Seeing the concern on Ianto's face, Matthew began to explain. "Jack hasn't had the easiest life. His mother was absolutely devoted to her son. She thought the sun rose and set on her only child. She was a stay-at-home mum, so she was there when he woke up in the morning, when he got home from school and when he went to bed at night."
Ellyse set the mixing bowl down on the kitchen counter and looked over to see what her son was working on. Jack was perched on a stool at the other end of the counter, surrounded by coloured construction paper, crayons, markers, a bottle of glue and several containers of coloured glitter.
"That's the way, Jack, put the glue on first, right along the lines," she encouraged.
"Then the glitter?"
"And then the glitter, that's right. It's going to be so pretty!" Ellyse set the tins of flour and sugar on the counter, retrieved the vanilla and chocolate chips from the cupboard, and then opened the fridge and took out the eggs. "Drat," she murmured.
"What's wrong, mum?" Jack paused in his drawing and looked up at his mother. She was making cookies, one of her normal Saturday afternoon baking pursuits. Next would come bread and he'd be allowed to 'help'; Ellyse would give him a small blob of the risen dough to work with and he'd follow her lead in kneading and shaping it. Never mattered what it looked like when it came out of the oven she'd always declare that it was the best tasting bread roll she'd ever eaten.
"I forgot to stop and get milk." Ellyse untied her apron and set it on the counter. Just then, Jack's dad came home from work; he was working on a big project and the client was only available to meet that Saturday afternoon.
"Hey there, big guy," Franklin stopped at Jack's side and kissed his son's head. "Whatcha working on?"
Jack moved his hands to show his dad the big heart he'd drawn on red construction paper. "I'm making it glued so I can glitter it, see?"
"I do, and it looks great, buddy." He hugged and kissed Ellyse, "I've got to make one quick call and then I'll change and come back to help, yeah?"
Ellyse smiled warmly at Franklin and then stepped down to Jack's end of the counter. "You're doing such a great job," she praised.
"Will you keep this card forever?"
Her face glowed with love. "Every year we'll put this up on the mantel for everyone to see, yeah? Cos it is the most beautiful valentine I have ever seen."
"It is?" Jack looked down at the paper with surprise.
"Yes, it is," Ellyse confirmed. "And one day when you're all grown up, you can give it to the person you love."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, one day you're going to fall in love and get married, and then you'll make your own traditions, just like daddy and I have now."
Jack's face lit up as he thought about being happy with someone special just like his mom and dad.
"Now, I've got to run down to the market and get some more milk."
Jack looked up from his gluing. "I want to come with you."
Ellyse smiled at her son. "You've got to stay here and make sure daddy doesn't eat all our chocolate chips!" She moved over to the doorway and caught her husband's attention. He was at the dining room table with the phone to his ear, papers spread out before him just like Jack had, although his weren't as interesting or as glittery as Jack's. "Going to the market, be right back," she whispered and Franklin nodded before returning his attention to his call.
"Okay, now you work on your valentine and keep an eye on your daddy for me, all right?" Ellyse slipped on her sweater, collected her purse and took the keys from the hook by the door. She looked back at Jack, who was carefully pouring glitter atop all his glue, and smiled sweetly at him.
"Jack?" He looked up at her. "I will always love you forever and ever," she promised.
"Those words, 'forever and ever', stayed with Jack his entire life." Matthew told her as he leaned back in his seat as the waitress arrived and set down large mugs of steaming coffee and a plate of scones with little pots of clotted cream and jam in front of them.
Ianto raised his mug to his nose and inhaled deeply, he could tell that he was really going to enjoy his coffee, and the mouth-watering scent of the scones made it clear they'd just come from the oven.
While the glitter dried over the glue, Jack painstakingly wrote his mother's words, 'I will always love you forever and ever' around the pink, red and white heart on his card. Just as he was writing the 'ever' part the sound of an approaching siren caught his attention. Like any little boy, always thrilled to see the emergency vehicles with their flashing lights and brave men, Jack slid off his stool and ran to the living room window, arriving just in time to see an ambulance go racing past his house and on up the street. He watched until it was out of sight and then went back to the kitchen, catching his dad in the act of stealing some of the chocolate chips, just like his mom had warned him about.
Matthew cradled his coffee mug in front of his face for a moment before looking up at Ianto. "Jack's mother died instantly," he said softly, "leaving behind only Jack and his father, Franklin."
"That is so tragic." Ianto felt a lump rise up in his throat as he tried to comprehend how Jack must have felt the day he finally understood that the ambulance he was so excited to see go by his house was actually taking his mother away from him forever. The thought made Ianto's heart ache to hold the little boy, to protect him from the harsh realities the world was about to throw at him.
"Their lives were forever changed," Matthew agreed. "Franklin threw himself into his work, staying away at the office until late at night, leaving Jack home alone to think about what had been lost. He'd hired a sort of nanny/housekeeper but I remember Jack telling me once that she had all the warmth of the frozen food section at the market. It was a like a second loss, first his mum and then all the love and physical contact he was so used to getting from both his parents."
The lump in Ianto's throat grew larger and he gave up trying to eat his scone, settling for just crumbling it up and squishing it around on his plate.
Jack sat at the opposite end of the dinner table, rather than next to his father in what had always been his seat. Now the space that had been his since was old enough to sit in a highchair was taken up by scads of papers, reports and print-outs. There was no room for a sad little boy to sit next to his dad; he had relegated to a spot as far away from his father as possible and still be at the same table. He looked at the slice of pizza on the plate before him and couldn't find any interest in eating it.
"May I please be excused?"
It took a moment for Franklin to realise that Jack was speaking to him and he glanced over the top of the report he was reading. "Finish your dinner first," and he went back to making notes on a different report than the one he was studying. Just then the phone rang; Franklin glanced at his watch, traded in the report he'd been holding for a sheaf of print-outs and got up from his chair. As he left the room he turned back to Jack, pointed at the uneaten food and nodded sternly, then he was gone.
Jack sighed a very deep sigh for a little boy. He looked at the pizza and then looked up, the top of the mantel catching his eye. Suddenly struck with an imperative mission, he slid from his chair, went around the table and climbed onto the extra chair next to the fireplace. Stretching on his tiptoes, Jack was just able to get his fingers on the beautiful red and pink valentine sitting pride of place on the wooden mantel. Taking great care not to bend the paper, Jack clambered back down and hurried into the lounge, where he crouched in front of 'his' bookcase.
It was his bookcase because his mother had told him so. It was where she put the books that he liked to look at and which they read together, where a tray held his school papers and things, including photographs of many beautiful and faraway places he had carefully cut out of magazines – 'I'm going to go there one day,' he'd show them to Ellyse, 'and you can come with me,' he would tell her – and where a box held all his crayons, markers, glue and an entire rainbow of glitter; there were also packs of coloured paper, drawing paper and all the other things a budding young artist could possibly need to be creative.
Hidden behind the row of books was Jack's treasure chest; it was an old tin lunchbox, painted yellow, faded, dented and scratched with age. It had been his grandmother's once upon a time, and now it held Jack's most special possessions. He pulled it from its hiding place and carefully placed the valentine card inside, looking at it for a long time before hiding it away. It would be years before he saw it again.
Matthew thanked the waitress for their coffee refills, stirred sugar and cream into his, and finally he spoke again. "For many months after that, Jack felt very alone, at home and in school. That is, until he met Gareth, a year to day, in fact. It was art class and they were seated at the same table, sharing the supplies. He happened to look over in time to see him write 'I will always love you forever and ever' across the front of his card."
Gareth finished writing in his very best printing on the Valentine's Day card he was making for his mother and glanced up to see Jack watching him intently. He smiled at him tentatively; he was new to the class and hadn't really made any friends. To his amazement, instead of smiling back or saying hello, the boy sitting next to him abruptly jumped up from his seat and ran out of the room. Confused and worried, Gareth followed him, finding him outside in the playground, sitting on a swing.
Sitting down in the swing next to him, Gareth studied him for a moment. "What's wrong, Jack?"
"Nothing." Jack shuffled his feet in the dirt, unable to look at Gareth.
"Don't you like making valentines?"
Jack just shook his head.
"That's all right, then, we can just sit out here," he began swinging gently, to and fro. "Besides, I like Easter much better than Valentine's Day anyway." His words were blurted out as though he were confessing something to him that no one else knew. "Don't you, Jack?"
Jack looked over at him and smiled, nodding before looking back down at his feet. He didn't want to have anything to do with Valentine's Day ever again, but that afternoon the art teacher wouldn't let him work on anything else but a big card for his mother. She too was new to the school and didn't know that Jack's mum had died on the holiday the year before.
Gareth paused in his swinging long enough to let go of the chain with one hand. "Every year I get to wear my big straw hat…" he lifted his hand over his head to indicate just how impressively tall his hat was, "and eat lots and lots of chocolate, and paint eggs every colour under the rainbow."
Interested and amused by Gareth, Jack looked over at him again, this time maintaining eye contact albeit silently.
"Tell me, Jack, tell me you like Easter best of all!" he commanded. "Tell me!"
There was something special about Gareth, something he'd never noticed in a boy before and was unable to resist, Jack sat up a little straighter in his swing. "I like Easter best of all," he told him quietly.
Gareth put his hand to his ear, "Louder! I can't hear you!"
"I like Easter best of all."
"Louder! I can't hear you!" he repeated.
A grin lit up Jack's face and when Gareth put out his hand, Jack took hold of it and with big smiles, together they declared as loudly as they could,
"I like Easter best of all!"
Matthew returned from a quick trip to the men's room, and after he'd sat down, Ianto cocked his head and said, "it sounds like Jack was lucky to have a new friend like Gareth." He'd been thinking a lot about little Jack in the few minutes he'd been alone at the table.
"Yeah," Matthew agreed, "that's the wonderful thing about love; it's just as great a gift for the giver as it is for the one who receives it."
Ianto smiled a very happy agreement over the rim of his mug as he sipped his coffee. 'That is the perfect way to look at it.'
"Their lives were never the same after that," Matthew held the café's door open for Ianto to follow him outside. "They were the best of friends all through school, then they went to college together at Oxford, and after four years they came back to Cardiff, rented a small house… I remember Jack was a portrait photographer back then, while Gareth was an accomplished baker. He used to make pies, cakes, and all kinds of cookies and pastries to sell to the local restaurants and coffee shops."
They strolled slowly down the sidewalk, Ianto holding the small Dictaphone up so that he could catch Matthew's words.
"They were very much in love and even talked about getting married someday, hoping that on some day way in the future, they could make things official. And then on one day, everything just…" Matthew paused and sighed deeply, "changed."
It was a beautiful fall day, the air was crisp, the leaves were turning colours, and because it was mid-week, they had the bike trails pretty much to themselves.
Gareth was ahead, feeling the wind in his face as he pedalled along, and he glanced back over his shoulder. "Come one, slow poke!"
"Slow down!" Jack laughed, "let me catch up!"
"You go faster!" and Gareth put on a burst of speed before looking backwards again. "Only two more miles!"
"Two more… you've got to be kidding me!"
"You're getting old, Harkness!"
"I'll show you old!" Jack yelled but Gareth had disappeared around a bend and was out of sight.
The next time Jack saw Gareth only a few seconds had passed, but as Jack rounded the bend he saw Gareth turn to look behind him to see where he was, leaving just a split second when he wasn't looking at the trail. The front wheel of his bike hit a rock protruding from the ground; it was a small rock to be sure, but it was big enough to knock the tire sideways, causing the bike to pitch forward in a reverse wheelie.
It was over in an instant.
Gareth pitched head-first over the handlebars and crashed into the stone wall of a decorative bridge over a small stream.
"Gareth!" Jack's agonised scream brought several people running, some kneeling next to the young man's body, others pulling out their mobiles and calling for help.