14.
Jack stumbled when Ianto tripped over the threshold, instinctively tightening his hold around Ianto's waist to keep him from falling.
The lounge was the better option. Jack wasn't in the mood to drag Ianto all the way up to his own room. The early-morning light was illuminating the lounge. The tests Ianto had corrected the evening before were lying discarded on the coffee table. It didn't look like anybody else had been here in the meantime. Then again, it was Saturday and Owen and Mica were probably still asleep.
Ianto tripped again. "Oops!" He giggled.
"Wonderful," Jack muttered, righting himself and dropping Ianto onto the couch.
"Oh my God," Mica said, entering the room. She was still in her pyjamas, her long dark hair unruly. "What happened?"
"He fell down some stairs," Jack answered, taking his jacket off while Ianto proceeded to bury underneath the blankets piled at one end of the couch, muttering the word "clutz" every now and again.
Jack sighed heavily. "And on our way home from the hospital, we found out that he doesn't exactly respond well to pain medication."
"You …," Ianto said, peering at Jack. "You steal things."
"Yeah," Jack interrupted him quickly. "Right." He looked at Mica. "Give him a few hours to sleep it off and he will be right as rain."
"Stole my trust and my …" Ianto frowned. "Uh … paper thing."
Mica glared at Jack. "We don't have a few hours! Youth welfare services are coming here in an hour to do the evaluation and they are already skeptical 'cause he had depression when he was young and took medication."
"Medication," Ianto said with a nod. "I was sad. 'Cause nobody liked me. 'Cause I'm a clutz." He looked up at Jack blearily. "You don't like me. You said you did. But you don't. Or you wouldn't have stopped kissing me."
Mica wiped her eyes. "I'm going to have to go to a foster family! Thank you very much, Uncle Ianto!" With that, she stormed off.
Ianto looked after her and then at Jack. "You are very tall."
Jack rolled his eyes.
xxx
A lorry must have hit him. There was no way Ianto would feel this bad for no reason.
He groaned.
Faintly, he remembered Jack and money and John and stairs … and the hospital.
"Oh God," he muttered. "Two criminals in a room with me and I get hurt through my own fault?" he asked nobody in particular. He blinked when the shrill laughter of a woman echoed through the house and into his bedroom.
And then he really remembered.
The youth welfare services lady was supposed to be here! One look at the clock showed him that she must have arrived half an hour ago.
"No, no, no," he muttered and stumbled out of bed and, noticing with relief that he was fully dressed. He limped to the door, pulling a face at the pain in his hip, and pulled it open to hear more laughter from downstairs.
He made it down the stairs as fast as possible … and stopped at the sight that met him in the kitchen.
"Mr. Harkness," Donna Noble said loudly, slapping at Jack playfully. "Stop with the cream already. I need to watch my figure!" Miss Noble was a tall, resolute woman who always wore her hair in a tight bun and had an acidic wit that had Ianto cringe. Now, she was sitting at the kitchen table with Jack and Mica as if they were old friends, her hair open and her expression one of giddy excitement.
That wasn't the oddest thing in the room, though.
Jack was wearing pressed trousers and a polo shirt and looked like the kind of man that was normally printed on the front pages of cheap romance novels. He was smiling widely, his blue eyes sparkling. "If somebody can afford it, then it's you, Miss Noble," he said, adding cream to her plate. There was cake on the table, Mica looked as representable as a boarding school student, and the house was spotless.
Ianto stared.
"Please, call me Donna," she said and the icy woman Ianto had got to know when he'd applied to take Mica in for good seemed to melt in Jack's presence.
"Only if you call me Jack."
Ianto cleared his throat. "Uh … hi!" he said awkwardly and stepped forward into the Twilight Zone.
"Uncle Ianto," Mica said, smiling sweetly, "are you feeling better?"
"Mr. Jones," Miss Noble said, getting up and shaking his hand. "Your partner already told me that you had a bad fall at school. Please sit down."
Jack pulled out a chair and guided Ianto to sit with a gentle hand on his back.
Ianto nodded dumbly. "I'm a clutz," he said and was served cake with cream by Jack who fussed with Ianto's plate a bit and then poured coffee. Lastly, he took Ianto's chin and planted a firm kiss on his lips before dropping into his own chair.
Ianto licked his lips, cursing himself for the weak moment one second later.
"You held out on me," Miss Noble said and Ianto turned back to her. "You didn't tell me that you were in a relationship." She started taking notes. "I admit I was extremely sceptical about you taking in a child at your age and with your career just starting out, but I think your sister would be very happy with what you achieved."
Mica grinned widely. "Yes, we all get along so well. Me, Uncle Jack and Uncle Ianto. And of course Owen."
Ianto stared at her, wondering if he'd seen her smile that brightly since her family's death.
"So, tell me," Miss Noble said, "how long have you been together?"
Ianto cleared his throat. "Actually-"
"About one year," Jack interrupted him. "Got to know each other on the internet and I took a job at his school to be close to him. It went from there." He smiled at Ianto and Ianto couldn't help but smile back at the open affection on Jack's face … before he reminded himself sternly that it was just a show. He would play along, could see that Jack was obviously trying to make up for what had happened, but it was just that: an act.
Miss Noble looked at them as if she was looking at a newborn kitten. "I have to say, Mr. Jones, I'm infatuated with your partner. If we ever look for role models concerning alternative families, we will look you two up." She winked at him.
xxx
"Thank you," Ianto said when Jack had closed the door on Miss Noble.
"Jesus," Jack replied, burying his hands in his pockets. "Did it hurt to say that?"
Ianto frowned. "Can you maybe just appreciate that I'm grateful?"
"No need to be grateful," Jack answered. "A stupid low-life like me can be grateful that you even took me in after all. Seems like I owe you a thousand times more than this."
Ianto shook his head. "I didn't say it like that."
Jack stepped closer, staring directly into Ianto's eyes. "Yeah, well, you came pretty close."
Ianto answered his gaze steadily, reminding himself that he was the victim here. Jack had lied to him, had actually been committing a crime behind everyone's back in all the time he'd been at the school … Ianto squared his shoulders. "You have no right to talk to me like that. You're the one who robbed a bank."
"I did my time."
"It doesn't matter!" Ianto snapped. "You're a criminal." He could see that he'd hurt Jack and part of him wanted to backtrack and apologise, but he couldn't. Jack's lies had struck something deep inside: a scar that hadn't quite healed over yet and that was now opened anew.
Jack stepped back, his face going stony and his eyes cold. "You know what's funny?" he asked. "You thought me not all that smart all along and you didn't like my manners or the way I talk … but given half the chance, you would have let me fuck you. Funny how I was good enough for that."
Ianto felt tears gather in his eyes. "Leave," he said.
"With pleasure," Jack replied and went upstairs, the door to his room slamming shut. Ianto went to his own room and sat on the bed, shakily trying to breathe through the nausea raging through his stomach.
He didn't hear Mica come in. He only realised she was there when she put her arms around him. Ianto returned the embrace and held on.
xxx
It had started to rain a while ago, the glass of the window to Gwen's room slick with water, the street lamps orange blotches. The mobile in Jack's hand felt heavy and he put it down with a sigh, hating himself for actually giving in and trying to call Ianto to … apologise maybe. He didn't know what he would have said if Ianto had picked up.
It turned out that he shouldn't have worried about it: Ianto had been ignoring him for the last 24 hours or so, not picking up any of the three rings Jack had given him.
Gwen entered from the bathroom only wearing a bra and panties, her wet hair hanging down on her shoulders. She looked gorgeous … and Jack felt absolutely nothing in reaction.
Sadly, as if she knew, Gwen smiled at him and wrapped herself into a robe Jack had given her a few Christmases back. "You liked him, didn't you?"
Jack stared out the window of her room, his arms crossed.
"I liked him, too." She wrapped her arms around him. "You could go to him, you know. Apologise."
"He wouldn't want to hear it," Jack said.
"How would you know?"
"I do."
"Jack-"
"Because I called him, okay, and he didn't pick up the phone!" Jack shook her off and walked towards the bed where he'd deposited the bag with the money. "I never called anyone before to apologise." The rejection stung but he could understand Ianto, in a way.
Gwen sighed. "What's your plan now?"
"I don't know. I don't want to go the airport. I have no idea whether he called the police."
"Oh, Jack," Gwen said, hugging him and then kissing his lips firmly. "I'm so sorry."
He returned the embrace, tucking his face into her hair to breathe in, encountering a scent so familiar to him that he calmed a bit. "Yeah," he muttered, "me too."
xxx
Ianto stared at his mobile. It was vibrating against the kitchen table where he and Owen sat, correcting tests. Jack's name was flashing on the display. Owen gave him a strange look, probably wondering again whether Jack really only left to see family up north. Ianto knew he quite possibly hadn't fooled Owen for even a minute, but thankfully, he didn't seem inclined to push for the truth at the moment.
The mobile stopped vibrating and quiet returned to the kitchen.
Owen cleared his throat. "You're not going to call him back?"
"No," Ianto answered.
Owen shrugged and went back to his tests. Ianto tried to focus on his work as well but he couldn't. He still wasn't sure whether he should call the police on Jack. Somebody would have to pay for repairing the tunnel and it seemed right, somehow, to report what he'd seen.
On the other hand, though, he didn't quite know if he should after what Jack had done for him and Mica.
And he hated himself for it.