3
"Hi"
Ianto looked up from the floor he was doing pushups on to find Jack looking down at him, the gym usually silent this time of night. Ianto rose to face him and he felt a slight thrill from the widening of Jack's eyes as he saw the graceful movement of the man.
"Hi" Ianto finally said back.
"I thought I was the only one who came here in the middle of the night for some alone training time."
"Well, I don't like people but unfortunately can't seem to shake them off" Ianto shrugged "a whole vessel full of the fuckers."
Jack roared with mirth as he moved to the weights and started to choose some.
Ianto knew this was now going to be a shared space so he moved over to the bars to start doing some pull-ups. He became aware of silence again, the clanking of the weights gone. He looked over to find Jack standing there openly watching him as he raised himself up to chest height, then lowered himself again. It never occurred to Ianto that he was showing immense strength, he only felt weirded out that Jack was watching to he dropped silently to his feet.
"You've had militarily training?"
Ianto nodded silently, his expression hooded and Jack knew he was making the man feel uncomfortable so he added "Me too. I am a captain. I can actually fly this bird if I wanted to. I've flown large Militatiral Space Planets."
Ianto still didn't speak, instead he picked up the weights Jack had just been laboring with and effortlessly swung them back into their spot next to the others. OK. Jack had just been silently told something that made him reassess this man. He was Bio engineered. This man was… a soldier. Not often you meet one in the real world, Jack should know. He was one too.
Clearly Ianto knew this too.
"So, why are you moving out to the boondocks?"
Jack sat on a weight bench as he answered "My wife died and I have my daughter to contend with. Unfortunately I am older than appearances but, as you know, our super slow ageing is not passed to our offspring. So my daughter appears more like my sister, as does Steven, my grandson with similarities to me, look like my son."
"Rhiannon is my daughter too" Ianto admitted "but… I have not loved since then."
"Dangerous, to love a Standard. Yeah." Jack agreed with a grimace "My wife… her aging and eventual death felt like a betrayal. Silly really, not her fault but… each new wrinkle each grey hair, I felt so… left behind."
"Rhiannon's father was a good man and I loved him but not really. She was a … surprise" Ianto said and Jack felt the ground shift, looking around with alarm.
"Did you feel that? Did the vessel just list?"
"No. You did."
Jack laughed softly "Shit, sorry. You are a dam. I… fuck you are a rare bred indeed. Only one in ten of us can do that. So Rhiannon…."
"I hoped she would gain some sort of longevity coming from me but… no. even offspring we birth ourselves are mortal."
Mortal.
He said it.
The unspoken truth of the Super Soldiers staring back at one another and Jack grimaced like the air had just left the room, and then he said softly "Yeah. It's a bitch, isn't it."
Ianto tuned to leave, packing up his things as he said softly "and we are forced to endure, for the sins of our service."
Jack did not answer, feeling that too.
The things he had done, the people who had died, the planets conquered in the name of their King… yeah. They deserved to live lives of hopelessness and sorrow for those who had fallen for what… for their King… their owner…. To feel bigger.
Jack sat for a long time in the silent room.
But the voices of the dead kept him company whether he wanted them to or not.
.
.
"Where were you?"
"working out in the gym, you know I like to burn off the excess energy and I think running around the vessel like a mad thing might get me shot" he retorted and Rhiannon laughed salty as she nodded, knowing his running was both fast and amazing to se.
"So, I thought you would be longer actually."
"Jack came in for the same reason and I felt… like leaving him to it." Ianto admitted.
"Jack. Harkness?"
"Mmmmm"
"Is he a danger Tad?"
"No darling, like us, he just wants somewhere quiet to exist without the bullshit." He assured her, kissing her forehead as he told her the truth, even if she never understood the words, he did warn her right?
"Hey Gee" David said as he walked out in his Pajamas, scratching at his stomach "did you get a workout in?"
"Hey Davie Boy. Yeah, I got all sweaty" Ianto rose and advanced, the boy shrieking as he ran from the outstretched arms.
Rhiannon laughed softly as she watched her Tad do something he used to do with her as a small child, and then the sorrow came. One day he would do this with David's offspring too, and she would be long gone by then.
The cancer in her body already rampant.
This new beginning was also an ending, her Tad trying to make sure the kids were safe and she would be comfortable in the last year or so of her life.
Rising from the table she squeaked as he engulfed her, "gottcha."
Yes.
He has her for as long as she can fight. For him, for them.
Her family.