A/N: here we go pushing along. Ianto is pushing too, but not the way you would like him to :) Maybe Moffat himself is reading this story. Some of things lately seem like they were inspired by me :)

No spoilers

Beta-ed: TattoedLibrarian (Thnx for stopping Hercules from entering this chapter, don't know how I would justify him in the next one:)

Ianto was nervous about the stake out. It was their first time alone since he had realized the nature of his feelings towards Jack. He didn't like to say it too loudly, even in his own thoughts. It seemed silly and childish. But Jack was easy to distract and fool, he just needed to turn the conversation on Jack, Jack liked to tell his stories and now Ianto was interested in all of them. He wanted to know everything he could about his Captain Harkness. Especially after Tommy was gone. That made Ianto acutely aware how near loss was in their lives.

Ianto got into the car after everyone was gone and Jack actually parked them in front of an empty road and started to stare at it intensively. Ianto looked at it too but soon enough he got bored.

"That's really the plan, to stare at the pavement?" Ianto spoke up finally.

"Yeah" answered Jack simply.

"Is this a test of patience?" continued Ianto, "cause I'm good at taking tests, but tests have to have some purpose, to show some ability. Is that it? Or it's just a random thing you've decided to do for the evening, because it sure isn't a date."

"I wasn't inviting you on a date" smirked Jack "you would have known if I did. It's a stake out, readings were strange; sometimes you have to wait to see something happen."

"I hate waiting" murmured Ianto.

Jack smiled, "I got accustomed to it" he said mildly still looking at the pavement. "I had to." That drove Ianto to the edge, he was too respectful of Jack and his privacy, true Jack was older, much older, a leader, a Captain, but he was also his lover, at least for the time being. He'd have to cut him down to size or he'd lose a way to handle him, and he did love to handle Jack.

"Ok, then a story, you still owe me a story about Greece and Achilles" he said bluntly.

"Not Achilles, Hector, I never knew Achilles, only saw him once from a distance, luckily we left before the bitter end."

"You and…" Ianto offered him.

Jack just smiled.

"You would make a good Paris, if a comparison is needed."

"A coward, thank you very much."

"Don't think of him in that way" Jack frowned. "True he was beautiful as he was remembered, but he was a fierce fighter with a bow and arrow, not all men are built for swords or axes."

"What were you doing there?" Ianto got back on track.

"Oh, the usual. Some drunken idiot went there and made a commotion, we had to save that timeline. Many things depended on that moment in time."

"Not like this one, nothing depends on this one" grumbled Ianto looking at the pavement.

"Don't be so sure" answered Jack seriously, "you never know what will set history in motion, besides maybe not in great scale things, but for me it surely will mean something."

"You're just saying that so I don't leave you alone to stare at that pavement." Ianto smiled a bit.

"But I brought cookies" Jack offered him one.

"No, I brought cookies" Ianto took it "you just told me to."

"See, I know how to order things around."

"Sure you can" sighed Ianto. "What are you hoping to see here?"

"Really don't know" Jack shook his head "it's just a feeling that there is something familiar and I'm missing it."

Ianto looked at that pavement for few moments.

"Nah, I don't have that feeling" he said seriously and got a flash of his smile in return. "I'm bored" Ianto deadpanned.

"What? I'm not entertaining enough anymore?" Jack smiled that confident smile of his.

Ianto pondered it for a moment.

"Maybe" he said indecisively "if you tell me a story."

"I felt the extortion coming" nodded Jack. "What story?"

"Hector's' story" answered Ianto simply.

"How did you sense there's a story involved?" Jack resisted.

"You don't just say things" Ianto smiled and patted him on his arm "there's always a story behind your little hints."

Advice: Get up, use the commercial break and then come back with some pop corns for the story of Hector.