Ianto's Journey, Part V-Redemption, Chapter 81-Cherished

[aviv_b_artwork]

IANTO'S JOURNEY, PART V- REDEMPTION
TITLE:   Chapter 81- Cherished
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 81- G/PG
CHARACTERS::  Ianto, Rhiannon, friends & family
DISCLAIMER:  Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 2555
SUMMARY:  Ianto and Rhiannon say goodbye to their spouses

Title is from: "He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man." ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.

 

The events of the next two weeks rushed by Ianto in a blur. Years later, Ianto only had vague recollections about the drive to Cardiff with Stephen. He recalled standing with his sister as Johnny was lowered into the ground, Rhiannon so steadfast while David and Mica cried softly. There was a minister who spoke but Ianto had no memory of what he had to say.  Due to the curfews and travel restrictions in place, the family hadn’t been able to hold a visitation before the funeral so they invited everyone back to the house afterwards.

He would never forget going back afterwards to Rhiannon’s house, to find Gwen and Rhys waiting there. And Gwen, beautiful Gwen, sitting in the wheelchair with a smile on her face.

“Sorry we couldn’t make the funeral, the ground was a bit too muddy to get the chair through,” she said. “And Aaron, we are truly heartbroken about Aaron.”

Ianto took one look at her and burst into tears.

Rhys put an arm around his shoulder. “Oi,” he said softly, “all things considered, we got off lucky. Our kids are OK, and Gwen isn’t letting this get her down. So don’t you start moping about it.”

Ianto nodded and wiped his eyes.

‘It’s just everything really. I feel overwhelmed by the carnage, the loss, the grief. And for the first time, I feel afraid for the future. Even with the 456, I never felt so afraid.’

“Remember when Jack said the 21^st Century is when it all changes,” Gwen said. “Do you reckon that this is what he was talking about.”

Ianto nodded. ‘He once told me that something catastrophic was going to happen on Earth sometime before the mid-century mark. He said that the records were sketchy, so he wasn’t sure what exactly happened but that we had to be prepared.’

“What I don’t understand is why there wouldn’t be better records. We have digital records now of everything. Why would no one remember?” Rhys pointed out.

‘I think it might be that by the 51^st Century mankind has been gone so long from Earth and there is so much more history from many different planets, that maybe over time, the things that are remembered about Earth have been distilled down to just a few basic facts.’

Gwen added, “That’s a good point, by then would anyone care about the Kings and Queens of England or what the state flower of California was, or who the Premier of China at any given point was during this century?”  

‘But they probably could name the last five Presidents of the Interplanetary Exploration Association,’ Ianto replied. ‘Listen, I need to go see how my sister and the kids are doing. I really appreciate you coming. Could you make sure Tosh and Owen know that I understand why they didn’t attend. And please let me know as soon as they hear anything about Kimiyo.’

“We will, I promise,” Gwen replied. “We’re going to do our best to come for Aaron’s funeral next week.” Ianto gave her a kiss and Rhys a hug and wandered off toward the kitchen where he heard his sister’s voice.

“There you are, I wondered where you got off to,” said Rhiannon. Ianto started to explain but Rhiannon waved him off. “Then Stephen told me you were visiting with Gwen and Rhys, poor woman. She’s still as beautiful as ever, even if she can’t walk.”

Ianto was a bit startled by Rhiannon’s insensitivity. David whispered in his ear, “Yeah she’s been hitting the bottle pretty hard the last few days.  Mostly for courage, I suspect. But Claire and I will be keeping an eye on her, so please don’t be worried.”

Claire and Rose, who was nine, wandered over. Claire whispered to David, “Your Mum’s getting pretty loaded, please see if you can’t change the conversation before someone takes offense.” Ianto crouched down and spoke to Rose while David made his way over to his mother.

“If I could have your attention, please,” David said to everyone. “I’d like to propose a toast to my Tad, who was a grand man all round.” David continued on sharing his fondest memories about Johnny, serious moments and funny stories. When David was done speaking everyone drank to Johnny’s memory,

David continued. “I’m afraid there has been one additional casualty we must report.” 

Ianto took in a breath afraid of what David had to say. He was surprised to see slight smiles on some of the faces. “Yes, we had another heart attack in the family. Mr. Mumbles also passed away during the invasion. He was twenty-one years old and frankly it was long over due. So let’s drink a toast to Mr. Mumbles, the nastiest, orneriest, most disagreeable cat in Wales.” Everyone laughed as they had another drink.

“Alright Mum, let’s hear the story about how you and Johnny met.”

Rhiannon wiped her eyes and began to reminisce about meeting Johnny in high school along with everything that led up to them getting married.

Ianto backed out of the crowd in the kitchen and went into the lounge. Mica came in a few moments later. ‘So how did Edinburgh weather the invasion?’

“We were barely touched. London and Cardiff had much more damage than we did. Mostly we have some destruction of communications transmitters, and police stations, but not much else. Some casualties to people who were using the transmitters along with a handful of others. I think less than a hundred persons overall. Lucky really.”

‘Did you ever imagine a day would come when a hundred casualties would be considered lucky?’ Ianto said shaking his head ruefully.

Micas’s husband, Stuart joined them. “I heard about the Harpers’ daughter,” he said solemnly.   “Rotten luck that.” Ianto nodded. Stuart was a brilliant theoretical physicist, but Ianto always thought he lacked a bit in the social graces. Still, Mica adored him, so Ianto generally gave him a pass.

Over the course of the afternoon, Ianto knew he had spoken to dozens of other people, neighbors from Johnny and Rhiannon’s estate, old work mates of Johnny but he couldn’t later recall who they were or what they said.

As it got toward evening, Ianto started looking around for Stephen. He found him outside organizing games for some of the children that had been dragged to the house by their parents.

‘Wow, Stephen playing games with the kiddies. I wish I had a camera so I’d have evidence of this to hold over you.’

“I really don’t know anyone except you and frankly, I still get a bit twitchy being around so many people drinking.”

‘Sorry, I never even thought about that…’

"No problem, it’s just best for me to stay away from temptation".

Not long after they made their goodbyes and Ianto slept most of the drive back to London. It was a long and exhausting day and he was glad to put it behind him.

***

It was shear luck that Aaron’s funeral didn’t turn into a three-ringed circus. Given his ‘hero’ status, and the King’s possible attendance, the press swarmed around the cemetery. Ianto didn’t want a big fuss made as he felt it would look bad for this funeral to get so much attention when so many people had lost loved ones. Nonetheless, UNIT troops were posted at every entrance to the cemetery and only those on a pre-approved list were allowed in.

This proved fortuitous as there were a few attempts at gate crashing (‘I’m Aaron’s cousin from Liverpool, I swear it’) as well as attempts by some the press to climb over the fence surrounding the cemetery.

What they didn’t expect was the number of few people who had to be given last minute clearance. Ianto had tried to think of everyone who needed to be admitted, but in the confusion and the disarray that still prevailed, people were inevitably left off the list. Ianto’s close co-workers including Martha (and Tom) and Mickey were formally invited, but numerous other Torchwood employees just showed up. In addition to his family from Cardiff and Gwen and Rhys, Owen, Tosh, and Ricky came as well. A few of Ianto’s childhood friends came, not knowing that they needed clearance. 

One of the Brigadier’s retired UNIT Commanders who was well in his ninety’s arrived along with a group of high ranking UNIT officers. Ianto was shocked that their former neighbor, Mrs. Goldsmith was there, her daughter having brought her from the nursing home she had been living in for the last several years. A few minutes before the service was scheduled to start a large UNIT bus pulled up filled with men and women who had trained under and worked along side Aaron in the Royal Marines. They had traveled the better part of a night from the commando training center at Lympstone to attend the funeral and it took time to clear everyone through security. Aaron’s sister Tamara was able to get to the funeral from Israel only because Mickey pulled some strings and got her a spot on a UNIT flight from Tel Aviv the night before.

And then there was the King. Ianto had been told he wasn’t going to attend but he apparently changed his mind at the last minute. He showed up just as the last UNIT attendees were being cleared which again delayed the service.

The only person who missing that Ianto was upset about was Jack. No one had heard a word from Jack Harkness since the beginning of the invasion.

As the guests were slowly checked for security clearances Ianto finally had a chance to speak to Tosh and Owen. After expressing his condolences and receiving theirs he was surprised by Tosh’s announcement.

“We’re going to fly to Osaka on the first available commercial flight. Mickey’s gotten us a priority booking so we may be leaving as early as the weekend. I don’t know how long we’ll be there but we’re not coming back until we find out what happened to Kimiyo.” Tosh began to cry and Ianto took her into his arms.

'Shhh, she’s a hero just like Aaron. Everyone who stood up to the Toclafane gave Jack the time he needed to defeat the Master.'

“It’s a nice thought,” Owen replied. “But they should have never let Torchwood Osaka mount their own defenses. That was a huge mistake. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to totally forgive Jack and Mickey for it.”

Ianto didn’t know what to say. Tosh and Owen were right, but mistakes were bound to be made when trying to protect the entire planet. Still, Ianto had to admit that this was a classic case of the shoemaker’s children going barefoot. They were so focused on making sure that every country had the equipment they needed, it was easy to forget that Torchwood’s stance that they were outside the government, above the law, left them vulnerable. Some countries like India included protecting Torchwood facilities as part of the planning, while others like Japan did not. 

Stephen came over to where they were standing to let Ianto know that the last of the guests had been cleared. Two hours after the funeral was scheduled to start, they were finally able to begin.

Fortunately, the service was short. There was an honor guard from the Royal Marines present, a bugler played the Last Post and Aaron’s coffin was draped with the flag of the United Kingdom as well as Israel. The Rabbi made a few remarks on what he thought a hero was. Ianto would never forget the Rabbi saying that real heroism wasn’t just dying to save a king but living each day facing everyday problems and persevering through good times and bad.  Ianto noticed that the King was frowning during the remarks.

Stephen spoke next telling everyone how his brother had helped him through some tough times and had never turned his back on him. Ianto didn’t speak as he didn’t trust his emotions and knew that he lacked the words to express how deeply he felt the loss of Aaron. Mica read a short statement from him saying he mourned along with everyone who had lost loved ones during the invasion.

He and Stephen and Tamara received visitors at Stephen’s residence for several days. Many of the attendees at the funeral had to immediately return to work as they had critical roles in the efforts to restore some sense of normalcy to Britain. And numerous others from UNIT and Torchwood couldn’t be relieved for the funeral and wanted to stop by and pay their condolences. By the end of the weekend following the funeral, Ianto felt completely drained. He thought he could sleep for a week, but he too was needed at back at Torchwood London the next week.

On Monday, Ianto drove Tamara over to Heathrow where she would once again be transferred via military transport back to Israel. While the airport wasn’t open for commercial travel, Ianto was amazed to hear that the first commercial flights might begin again within a couple of days. As he drove back to his house, he noticed that the city seemed to be getting back to normal. Most of the curfews had been lifted except for a few neighborhoods where looting was a problem. Some shops were beginning to open, a few essential businesses were operating on a limited schedule and the immediate problems of food, water, sanitation, electricity and medical care seemed to be under control with distribution points set up around the city.

He switched on the radio to hear the latest news. Most of it related to schedules for the various distribution centers, where to go if you needed medical help, where to call if you had an emergency and the like. As he pulled up to his home, he was startled to hear a reporter say, “The UN Security Council has issued a request for an investigation of Torchwood’s performance during the recent invasion. Some members of the Security Council question whether more could have been done to prepare for the attack and specifically whether the head of Torchwood, Captain Jack Harkness withheld critical information from the Council during the run-up to the invasion."

Ianto was so angry he had to sit in the car for several minutes before his hands would stop shaking. ‘Bastards,’ he thought. ‘You fucking little bastards. Wasted almost nine months dithering about whether you thought there was really going to be an invasion and now you’re going to try to pin any blame on Jack. And he isn’t here to defend himself. Lovely. Just lovely.’

There were things that Ianto knew that no one but he and Jack and a few commanders at UNIT knew about the discussions with the UN. He didn’t know how UNIT would react to this news, but as far as he was concerned the UN had declared war not only on Jack but on all of Torchwood.  And by god they weren’t going to get away with it. ‘You are so going to regret this. You want to play rough, fine. Let the games begin,’ he thought as he got out of the car. As far as he was concerned preparations for battle would begin first thing when he arrived at work the following morning.

 Chapter 82  here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/47704.html 
Addendum to Chapter 82 here:  http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/48371.html