7.

Ianto's thumb was rubbing the tape holding the plastic sheet over Jack's broken passenger window, still talking to Bernie's father on his mobile. "We thought," he said, "that maybe we could get together and talk about how this could happen."

Bernie's father hissed a breath. "If we have to."

Ianto glanced at Jack who was sulking in the driver's seat. "We just want to avoid the police getting involved," he said. "I mean, we can settle this among ourselves, right? We're all adults here."

"I didn't want to involve the police anyway," Bernie's father said. "Were you the bloke who-"

"Me?" Ianto interrupted. "No, no, that was-"

"Let me talk to him."

Ianto handed Jack the phone, who at first didn't want to take it but then reluctantly gave in. "Harkness?"

Ianto watched him listen with an impassive face. It had been his idea to call Bernie's father before the boy would arrive at home and tell his own version of the story. Jack had been against calling, apparently seeing nothing wrong with his behaviour.

Now he turned his head to look at Ianto, seeming surprised. "Huh," he finally said. "Okay." He gave a nod. "Yes, bye." With that, he hung up.

"What did he say?" Ianto asked.

"That Bernie is a little bastard and that I can slap him whenever he's causing trouble because that's the only thing that helps."

Ianto's eyes widened, dread settling in his belly. "Oh God, that's awful. We need to help him." He saw Jack roll his eyes. "What?" he asked. "You disagree?"

Jack scoffed and handed him his mobile back. "You want to help Bernie, that's fine, but there are other kids like him. Loads of them. So whatever you do, it has no use anyway. You can't help all of them."

Ianto frowned. "So you think it's not worth the effort?"

Jack shrugged.

Ianto looked at him, waiting for an answer … and finally realised that he wouldn't get one. "You know that an abusive home can lead to criminal acts later on?"

Jack's blue eyes locked on his, defiant.

"We can nip this in the bud," Ianto said. "That's our job."

Jack snorted. "Not every teacher would agree with you."

"That doesn't make it any less true." He sighed. "Let's have dinner."

"Where?"

"I know an Ethiopian place."

Jack snorted a laugh. "I need real meat," he answered. "I know a place."

xxx

Jack claimed a table close to the poles where the girls of the Exotic were warming up for the evening customers. At the moment, the bar was still closed. Most of the girls weren't even dressed for work yet, chatting and laughing. Some of the men from the Nevada were hanging about as well, making use of the fact no loud music was thumping through the room for once by playing cards or watching telly in a corner.

Ianto was sitting across from Jack, stiffly looking around and hesitantly eating his spaghetti. He'd followed Jack inside only reluctantly and had seemed a bit shocked at Gwen kissing Jack's lips in greeting and leering at Ianto, offering a discount for "any friend of Jack's".

Jack smiled at him now. "The food here is really good. The whores are great cooks. Most of them have children, you know."

Ianto stared at him. "Occupational hazard, I guess."

Jack turned back to his burger with a smirk.

"You know," Ianto said and seemed to shake his reluctance off, focusing on his meal, "you should talk to Bernie again. I think he needs to learn to compensate his aggressions in a different way."

Gwen took the pole on the stage next to them and started to warm up.

Ianto glanced at her and quickly averted his eyes when he saw how scantily dressed she was. "I'm worried about him and about the others. Suzie told me that she did the time capsule with them that every Year 10 buries behind the building and Bernie and Jonah said in their letters that they want to become criminals. Carys wants to win Britain's Got Talent and Annie wants to have as many children as possible to get money off the state."

"Are you always thinking about the job?"

Gwen leaned back, shortly blocking Jack's view of Ianto. She winked at him and mouthed "Cute". Jack rolled his eyes at her.

Ianto cleared his throat. "We have responsibility."

"They're not our children."

Gwen crouched down. "Is the food okay?"

"Yes, thanks," Ianto said. "Could you please just … go to another pole. We're kind of having a work thing here." He smiled at her.

Gwen shrugged and left.

Ianto looked at Jack. "It's our job to make sure they are all right. It's bad enough everyone thinks teachers are lazy, but I want to make a difference. Even when they act like monsters – they're still children."

"Do you really think that every child is a little flower just waiting to be watered?" Jack asked mockingly.

Ianto frowned at him, his eyes narrowed. "I think that many children didn't learn to believe in themselves and don't know right from wrong. And if their parents miss out on it and we don't tell them then … I don't know. They go to prison."

Jack stared at him. His teachers certainly had never cared about him like Ianto did for the 10b. He wondered how different his life could have turned out to be if he'd had someone like Ianto in his life.

Sheila stopped at their table with a tray. "Right, boys, I've got your Morning Wood," she said, setting down a cocktail with a banana cut to look like a penis in front of Ianto, "and the Licking Vagina." She set the other brightly coloured cocktail topped by a provocatively cut fig in front of Jack and left.

Ianto stared at the banana with wide eyes.

Jack smirked. "You can eat it, don't be such a wuss."

"It's a penis," Ianto replied carefully.

"Am I supposed to believe you never had one in your mouth? Don't go all vanilla on me." Jack shook his head. "You're never going to get a guy into bed like that. They'll all think you're uptight."

Ianto glared at him. "I'm not uptight, how many times do I have to say so? I can be very … wild if I want to be."

"If you do one wild thing right now," Jack said, "I swear I will help you turn the 10b into better human beings."

Ianto looked at him as if he wasn't quite sure Jack was telling the truth. "You will?"

Jack nodded.

A grin started to spread over Ianto's face and he got up. He walked past Jack and when Jack turned to let his eyes follow him, he saw that Alonso had entered the bar in his dancing outfit and was talking to Harold. Ianto walked straight up to him and grabbed him into a kiss so hot, that Jack had to swallow. Harold was getting a rather speculative look on his face that told Jack he would love to offer Ianto a pole in the Nevada, while Alonso returned the kiss eagerly.

The girls started to whistle and clap and Gwen wrapped her arms around Jack's neck, whispering into his ear, "Is that a ruler in your pants, Mr. Teacher, or are you just happy to see him?"