8.
"What game?" Bernie asked and leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. "I don't want to play a game."
Jack already regretted following the advice from the book Ianto had handed him the evening before. It was a guide on how to handle aggressive students and the man on the cover had looked like an uptight wuss. If Jack hadn't promised Ianto to help, he wouldn't have read one word of it.
Ianto shook his head. "It's a role play." He had joined them, saying he wanted to help Jack out. Jack thought that he actually wanted to make sure he was keeping his promise.
Carys scoffed. "Fifty Shades of Grey or what?"
"No that kind of role play."
Jack said, "Annie, you want to get married as soon as you're eighteen?"
Annie was playing with her blond hair, twirling it around her fingers while she answered, "And have four children. 'Cause then I get four times child benefits."
"Okay, you play the wife and Bernie, you play the husband."
Bernie pulled a face. Annie smiled brightly and got up to walk towards Jack at the front of the classroom. Bernie followed her reluctantly when Jack glowered at him and flexed his fist in warning. Some of the other students snickered. Jack silenced them with a glare and stood to the side with Ianto, watching while Annie leaned against Jack's desk. "Aw!" she said, starting the game. "Thank you, honey, this is a posh flat for our family."
"Piss off and make dinner, I'm hungry," Bernie answered, gaining laughter from the other boys in class.
"Hey!", Jack interrupted."Shut up and do this right." He looked at Annie. "Do you have a job?"
She frowned in disgust. "No! I'm married."
Jack looked at Bernie. "What about you?"
Bernie snorted. "Fuck work."
"So there won't be a posh flat," Jack said. "Just you two and your four brats in a tiny hole on some council estate. Go on."
Annie crossed her arms. "You have no right to talk to me like that. We just got married."
Bernie scoffed. "I married you so that someone will clean my flat and cook my meals while I go out shagging whores."
Ianto stiffened beside him and wanted to say something but Jack shook his head at him. He snickered along with the other students and then asked, "How are you going to shag whores if you don't have money to pay them?"
"I'll have money," Bernie groused.
"From your criminal career?" Jack asked. "Someone like you won't last a year before the police will catch up and then you'll go to prison to be someone's bitch."
Bernie frowned. "You're just saying that because you have to because you're a teacher."
"I'm saying that because school is important," Jack answered.
"Fuck school!"
"Mind your language, you arsehole!" Jack said. He looked at the class. "Do you really think that's how life works out? That you just happen to be discovered in some dumb telly show or that you just happen to make a lot of money committing crimes or that you can just lay back and let the state pay for your life? That's no how it works."
Carys glared at him spitefully. "And you would know. Fancy bloke having enough money and brains to got to university. Not everyone does!"
It was quiet for a long moment. Then Carys got up and left the room, wiping her eyes. Ianto looked at Jack and followed her. Jack put his hands on his hips and took a deep breath. "Not everyone does," he said with a nod. "But everyone should do their best because if you do, you will make something out of your life. Maybe you'll never be rich, maybe it's going to be tough but at least you can say you did your best and you did it honestly and that will give you a good feeling. I should know, because I will never get to feel that way." And maybe Jack didn't fully believe in what he was saying, but he'd always kept promises he'd made and he'd always been a good con man. "I was wrong when I told you at the beginning that you're the losers in this school."
Jonah raised his eyebrows. "We aren't?"
"Of course you are," Jack answered. "But you can do better. You can show them that you are everything they don't see in you." He opened his bag and got out a book. "Romeo and Juliet from William Shakespeare," he said. "I'm told it's a classic."
Bernie scoffed. "It's not even written in English!"
"Yeah, fuck you, Shakespeare!" Jonah agreed.
Jack shrugged, leaning against his desk. "I have never read it."
Everyone stared at him in disbelief.
Annie shook her head. "But you're a teacher."
"Still," Jack replied. "I haven't."
The door opened and Ianto entered, Carys following him. She sat down in her seat, but avoided everyone's eyes.
"Mr. Jones here," Jack said, "has read it, though. Several times."
Bernie muttered, "That's gay."
"He will help us understand it and we will write a test on this," Jack continued, ignoring him, "and if anyone in this class doesn't participate, that's too bad, but you will be sitting here, quietly, and at least give those who want to do better a chance." He smirked. "Or they will have to deal with me."
xxx
"She wants to be a veterinarian," Ianto said, stirring the soup. "Apparently, somebody got it into her head that she can forget about that because she doesn't have the money or intelligence to study." He winced and looked up at Jack who was leaning against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed. "She didn't come out and say it but I think that it was mainly her parents telling her that." He sighed, his focus going back to the soup. "Imagine that … parents not backing up their children."
Jack shrugged. "Can't trust parents."
"Really?" Ianto asked, looking at him. "That's what you say to that?"
Jack shifted slightly as if uncomfortable, then he met Ianto's eyes. "I never met my father. My mother gave me into the child care system when my brother died. I haven't seen her since."
Ianto swallowed, one hand reaching out to touch Jack's arm in sympathy. "You grew up in a foster family?"
"Several," Jack answered with a shrug. "As I said, you can't trust parents."
Ianto considered digging deeper, but Jack's mobile chimed and he grabbed it off the counter, looking almost relieved to have a way to back out of the topic. When he looked at his mobile, though, he made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and surprise.
"All right?" Ianto asked.
"Yeah," Jack answered and tucked the phone into his jeans pocket. "But I can't stay for dinner."
"You should eat before you go to that club to work half-way through the night."
"I can't," Jack said, "I'll grab something on the way."
With that, he was gone.
xxx
"20.000," John said with a grin, looking Jack up and down, the influence of alcohol already clear in his clouded blue eyes. "And then it's off to California, just the two of us, love."
Gwen set down another round of drinks for them, giving Jack a warning look. He nodded at her to leave them alone. "I don't know, John."
John sighed in annoyance, sipping his beer. "It's a money transport. My cousin has been watching it for six weeks. It's a safe deal."
Jack was all too familiar with John's 'safe deals'. They were rarely that. His last safe deal had put both of them in prison. He shrugged. "I'm still doing my own thing, John."
John rolled his eyes. "You would just have to drive the car, Jack. Just the get-away car."
"Christ, John, this is your first day of freedom. Look for a proper job, would you?"
John stared at him in disbelief, then he chuckled and brushed one hand through his messy, dark-blond hair. "Fuck, Jack. You can't be serious." He shook his head. "You're in love with that little teacher and now you actually want to do better in life."
Jack stared at him. "How do you know about Ianto?"
"You brought him here, Jack. Whores gossip." John shrugged. "And I was with Alonso before you came. He was quite impressed by your boyfriend."
"He's not my boyfriend." Jack got up, grabbed his jacket and tried to walk out the door, but John caught his arm. Jack shrugged him off and turned around, glaring in warning.
John seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he scoffed in disbelief. "What about the job then?"
"Not interested!" Jack snapped and left.
Once outside, he walked a small distance and then leaned against the wall. He couldn't believe he had just done that. The reason for turning down John hadn't even been Jack's plan of laying low until he'd found the money. It had been Ianto.
And the kids.
He buried his hands in his jacket against the cold. His fingers curled around the small book he'd shoved in there and he knew before taking it out what it would be. He'd purchased Romeo & Juliet only yesterday but it already looked a bit battered, some of the pages marked.
"You're actually reading it," Gwen said, stopping next to him.
Jack didn't answer.
"What is it about?"
"People who fall in love and can't be together." He smile sadly. "They come from different worlds."
"Hm," Gwen said. "Like in Avatar?" Jack smiled at her and Gwen pulled him into a hug. "I think it's great you're doing this. Even if it's just to get him to spread his legs."
"It's not just that," Jack said. "I mean … it's not just because I have to … the kids are all right, really."
"Really?" Gwen asked.
"They just need someone who respects them without taking any shit."
Gwen smiled at him, brushing her dark hair behind her ears. "You're all right, too, you know? Don't let John drag you down again, yeah? I like you out of prison."
"Hm," Jack said, "the showers were great, though."
Gwen snorted a laugh.
xxx
Jack was close enough to the money that he started using a shovel. He was quite impressed with his work and the speed at which he' progressed. Tonight, though, he didn't feel that motivated. Maybe it had to do with John, or with the way he started to feel whenever Ianto was there, or with how the 10b had looked at him when he told them they could do better. As if nobody had ever told them that before … or as if they never believed it when somebody did.
His work came to a halt entirely when he found something. It was a box, sealed shut with tape, buried underneath the gym like a second bag of money – waiting to be found.
He crawled back out of the tunnel to settle down in the basement and wiped the tin can as clean as possible. Among the dry, caked dirt, letters came to the forefront.
Time Capsule 10a, 2009
He was holding one of the time capsules Ianto had been talking about.
Curious, he pried the lid open with his knife. Inside, he found letters, all of them neatly folded into envelopes. He chuckled, opening some of them and reading through the words the students had written to themselves, of what they wanted to achieve and what they hoped wouldn't happen. Some of the letters were stupid, others idealistic, others again inspirational.
He froze when he found an envelope with the words Ianto Jones written on its front. He opened it quickly and found a picture in it of a much younger Ianto, looking at him with a shy smile. Jack smiled back and unfolded the letter.
Hello!
I doubt that this will work out or that anyone could be as organised as to dig out these letters in twenty years. In general, I also don't comfortable with strangers reading this.
But I wish I wasn't so scared of telling everyone that I'm gay. I would also like to get a love letter with little check boxes saying 'yes', 'no' and 'maybe'. It's silly, I know, but I haven't received one yet and it seems kind of important.
And I want to become a teacher because that's the only job that I can imagine myself doing.
Goodbye,
Ianto Jones
Jack laughed. At the bottom of the page, he found another short note that made his stomach feel heavy.
P.S. I want to get married (if gay people will ever be allowed to do that) to a man who is smart and always honest.
Jack didn't know why that made him sad.
xxx
Jack didn't feel bad about his life choices. He sometimes thought that, yes, he could have done better, but it was too late to go back and wish he'd done different. He wasn't one to wallow in self-pity. He'd been in prison, had done his time, accepted the stamp society had put on him and that was that. He deserved the money to start a new life.
Wherever it would lead him.
That was how he'd lived his life until now and it was too late to change it.
He'd spent his childhood after his mother had abandoned him to go kill herself being pushed from one foster family to the other and never fitting in. His first break-in had been a dare of some friends, then it became a matter of getting money for cigarettes and alcohol. He'd met Gwen at the Exotic and got to know John through her and with him, he felt like somebody understood him for the first time in his life. Even though they'd never made an official relationship out of their casual affair, John was the only person Jack had ever confided in. Even more so than in Gwen. They got along. They were similar.
John was like him. Ianto wasn't.
That was why Jack didn't understand the reason for Ianto's letter hurting him so much. Ianto would probably scoff at the very idea of being with someone like Jack. He already did hate the very thought, after all. Physical attraction aside, Ianto wasn't one for casual. That was easy to see and no matter how attractive he thought Jack was, he would never make a move on him simply because he couldn't bear being close to Jack's personality. The only opinion they shared was that the 10b could be turned around.
Despite all his grousing, Jack could admit to that by now. Maybe it was pathetic, but trying to give the 10b a second chance felt like making up for his own mistakes. He saw so many facets of himself or John in them … with the difference that it wasn't too late for the kids yet. If somebody would have cared about him back then, he would have had quite a different life today. He wouldn't have gone to prison, wouldn't be known by the police. His life would probably not be great, but at least it would be honest. The 10b could still have that.
Jack stared at Ianto's letter, the words of his own school principal coming back to him. He could still remember how he'd felt, sitting in that chair in her office, all of eleven years old and already a lost cause in her eyes. In everyone's eyes.
"Everyone knows that you're the one who took the money, Jack. There's no use in denying it. You will never become anything more than a little thief, and the Carltons surely won't be the last foster family that wants to get rid of you."
Jack sighed and shook his head. It was what it was. He'd had a plan from the start and he should just keep to it: Get the money and get out.
That didn't mean that he couldn't try and make a difference for the kids while he worked.
Even if it was just to see Ianto smile.