A/N: Jack comes to his senses :)

Spoilers: Sleeper

Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian

After Gwen had left Jack strolled around the Hub with his hands in his pockets. It was truly empty; he could tell that from the sound around him. Ianto didn't stay for a round of anything. It was pity really, but Jack wasn't alarmed by it. It was a long day, and there were plenty of reasons to be wasted and tired. Jack was still all wired up, the global war had been avoided for now, or so it seemed. Jack was used to living in temporal times of peace and accepted them. He knew it was inevitable for him to walk into a time of war; he had lived long enough to know they always have their cyclises of repeating.

Sick bay was all cleaned up; there was a smell of refresher in the air, no traces of blood and steel. Ianto had done his job, so he must have calmed down after Beth went down. Even Gwen managed to accept her sacrifice. There were no traces of turbulence of the day, everything was sorted, cover stories sent out. They had more information about a new hostile species. It was a good day at Torchwood.

As he strolled, his gaze was drawn to one trash bin that hadn't been emptied. It was the one by the armoury and on top of it there was the gray T-shirt he'd taken off earlier. Now, in the silence, he finally remembered where he'd gotten it. It was Ianto's, no wonder it was too tight. What a coincidence that Ianto hadn't emptied that bin. Jack frowned, he didn't believe in coincidences, he looked around; everything else was sorted. He laughed shortly; it could explain part of Ianto's coldness. Not only that he ruined his shirt, but he threw it away carelessly. That kind of small thoughtless act, that Jack was full of, could end a relationship in a matter of seconds. Jack picked it up from under a few crumpled pieces of paper. Jack hoped it was just scribbles on the paper and not some dangerous information, he did warn them about throwing out papers in pieces. The shirt was torn and bloody, it was ruined, but he could at least return it with an apology so that Ianto could throw it out.

Jack smiled as he studied it. Last night had been quite wonderful, when you ignore all those disturbing emotions. Jack didn't like his emotions disturbed like that, he liked them polite and hidden. Jack folded thinking about Ianto and how soon would he have to fix this small guff. That reminded him that they did have loose agreement about tonight. He promised lasagne to Ianto. But maybe tomorrow, it would be too much to go over there tonight when Ianto had shown clear signs of irritation with him. He would have to explain himself, and he wanted to keep that space where he could withdraw without explanation.

Work, he decided, it was best to get some work done, tomorrow he'd work some more on lightening up Ianto. That is if some nasty alien doesn't crumple his plans again. They always did, but Jack was an optimist, countless deaths couldn't break that, so he didn't expect it to change.

Jack sorted Beth's files together with the data gathered from her transmitter, info on her weapon, and autopsy. Ianto would be pleased with him, he liked when Jack made an effort to sort the reports for filling. Then he accessed the CCTV footage of the Hub. He'd put a copy of her death in the records for future references.

Looking at her execution from a top view, Jack thought how that death looked awfully familiar. All of them united, shooting. There were not often cases of such clear cause that all of them would shoot at same time. As he thought, his memories of deaths were vast, the video rolled on and he spotted Ianto standing there with a gun in his hands while they managed Gwen. He just stood there all blank and Jack remembered. Lisa, they executed Lisa just like that. Ianto kept standing there, just staring, and then he moved. As he moved, Jack moved too, jumping up, grabbing his coat, the gray shirt, keys, taping his wrist strap, and hurried as the cog door rolled open. On the tape that kept rolling, he didn't see Ianto carry Beth with a calm expression on his face.

Here, 500th page breached. :)