Ianto's Journey, Part VI, Chapter 89 - Transitions

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IANTO'S JOURNEY, PART VI- RESOLUTION
TITLE:   Chapter 89-Transitions
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 89- G/PG
CHARACTERS::  Ianto, Jack, Mickey
DISCLAIMER:  Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1618
SUMMARY:  Big changes are in store for Jack and Ianto.  And they're not the only ones. How have the lives of the rest of Torchwood and friends changed since the Invasion?

Title is from:  Not in his goals but in his transitions is man great.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

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

We now enter the final part of Ianto's Journey. While the story was originally structured to end with Chapter 88, I decided to add a short final section to resolve some unfinished business that readers have expressed interest in. 

 

It took more than another full year for Jack and Ianto to return to Cardiff. Jack discovered that it was no easy matter to ready Mickey to take over Torchwood. While Mickey was highly competent at mission planning and execution and seemed to easily gain the trust of UNIT and the UN as well as the King, he sometimes had difficulty delegating authority. This made some of his direct reports resentful and uncooperative.

Much like Jack, Mickey had created his own team at Torchwood Three and knew intimately everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. But Torchwood London was Jack’s team, used to Jack’s style and loyal to him. So Jack spent a lot of his time helping Mickey to understand each Department Head’s capabilities and how to get the best out of them. 

And then there were a few outsiders that both Jack and Mickey found infuriating.

“He’s a git, Jack, a 100% certified git. It’s beyond me why you hired him,” Mickey fumed.

Jack sighed, “Mickey, the Director of Financial Oversight is appointed by the Prime Minister. It’s his job to be a git. Your job is to let him know as much as possible about the mundane activities and as little as possible about anything that the PM can use to undermine us.”

“And how did you, Mr. Congeniality of the Boshane Peninsula get him off your back.”

“Uh…actually I almost never spoke to him. I let Ianto handle it.”

“Figures. And now with Ianto leaving, I have no one to cover me on these issues.”

“What you need is a really savvy PA. I don’t know if you remember Alonso Frame, he acted as my PA when he was here. After he left, I delegated out some of his duties to the Department Heads, and Ianto volunteered to take over handling officials at the Palace as well as the Prime Minister’s office. He already knew most of them from Torchwood Three so it was no problem.”

“Now where am I going to find someone like that?”

They spoke some more about possible candidates. Penny was still the archivist at Torchwood Three, and while she was certainly smart and capable, her temperament hadn’t mellowed over the years.

“Oi, Penny would just as soon blast someone who annoys her into dust as compromise with them. I’d probably be recommending her as my replacement at Three if she wasn’t so hot-tempered.” Mickey laughed.

“What about Ricky Sato-Harper? Isn’t he your government liaison at Three?” 

“Yes, and he is brilliant both intellectually and personally. I’m concerned how Tosh and Owen would react to him coming to London. And actually he was my choice for heading up Torchwood Three. I’ve already spoken to the King about it…”

Jack agreed that Ricky was a fine choice to head up the Cardiff operation but could also prove an invaluable resource in London. As the rift there had quieted down, most of the Hub had gradually been transformed into a think tank, continuing the work on the rift predictor and return programs as well as some other similar projects that Torchwood wanted to keep under the government’s radar. Ricky had started doing a little work there helping Tosh with the rift return project while still teaching high school math. By the time of the Invasion by the Toclafane he had eclipsed her brilliance and refined the program to upwards of 97% accuracy. He had joined Torchwood full-time only three months before the Invasion.

And while Owen and Tosh had resigned from Torchwood after the Invasion, they seemed to have no objection to Ricky continuing to work there. But they were still grieving the loss of Kimiyo (whose body was finally recovered while they were in Osaka) and to move Ricky away seemed unnecessarily cruel.

“There’s an additional consideration,” Mickey reminded Jack. “His wife.”

Jack smiled. Much to everyone’s astonishment, Ricky, like his parents had also made a Torchwood match of sorts. No one was sure quite when they noticed each other, but not long after Ianto and Aaron’s 25^th wedding anniversary party, Ricky began seriously dating a young lady named Bronwen Cooper-Williams. They had married in the fall of the previous year.

“Ok, I give up. You’re right of course,” Jack conceded. “If Tosh and Owen didn’t kill us for moving them, Gwen and Rhys would.”

“And with Gwen retired due to her disability, I would guess that Bronwen is going to be helping out her parents a lot more. And don’t laugh, with all the upheaval in Cardiff, the animal shelters including the one that Claire Davies runs and Bronwen assists at are overflowing.” Mickey paused a moment adding, “We are an incestuous bunch, aren’t we?”

Jack nodded thinking how everything in people’s lives had changed. Even taking care of a pet was a challenge when people were still scrambling for food and shelter for themselves. “I’ll keep thinking about who might make a good PA for you, but I’m out of ideas at this point.”

Mickey sighed. The search for the perfect personal assistant would have to continue.

 ***

Ianto had to prepare a replacement for his job as well but he had already been grooming a successor as he knew that at some point he would want to move on. The plan had originally for Ianto to retire at sixty so that he and Aaron could resume their travels, this time strictly as tourists.

Now as the months passed, Ianto began to test the waters for several ideas he had. The first was to convert the house that he and Aaron had lived in into a museum about aliens. While Jack found the idea of an ET museum amusing, UNIT adamantly opposed it. So that was out. After some additional discussions with the Defense Council, UNIT, Jack and Mickey and the King, he received approval to create a museum dedicated to the heroes of the Invasion of the Toclafane. And while the emphasis would be on heroes of the United Kingdom and its territories, a section would be devoted to other heroes worldwide.

The King was delighted when all the plans were finally in place. He and Ianto sat drinking tea in one of his private sitting rooms at the Palace reviewing Torchwood reorganization plans. The room looked like it had hardly changed since late Victorian times. The floral covered sofas still looked like no one ever sat on them and the rest of the dark wood furniture was highly polished. Ianto sat rigidly drinking his tea; this was not a room for relaxed conversation.

Ianto noticed that several blaster holes created in the walls during the Invasion had been patched but not repainted. ‘Even the King is having a little trouble getting his house back in order.’ he thought. The King noticed where Ianto’s attention had drifted and cleared his throat. “I still don’t see why you are moving to Cardiff when you will have this project going on. Given your personality, I’d think you’d want to be there to oversee every detail.”

‘That’s exactly why I won’t be there on a day to day basis. Obviously, there will be some mention of Aaron, and I don’t want to influence the presentation.' Ianto shrugged as the King gave him a look of disbelief. ‘Well too much anyway,’ Ianto admitted.

“That would be why you’re appointing your brother-in-law, Stephen Hamilton to be the Director of this project. Not to mention several of your father-in-law’s retired friends at UNIT, two decorated officers that served under Aaron in the Royal Navy as well as Jonathan Bennett, Lieutenant, British Army retired. And then we have Gwen Cooper-Williams of Torchwood, recently retired…now that’s interesting.”

‘The house was supposed to revert to the Brigadier’s family, so it only seemed right that Stephen should play a role And the others are people that are trusted by all the branches of the Armed forces, Torchwood and UNIT. Mr. Bennett is a personal friend but he was wounded during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan as well as during the Invasion. Gwen, well you already know about her.  She’s going to be in charge of gathering testimony from ordinary citizens for inclusion in the museum. I think it’s important that we include the heroics of everyday people.’

The King listed carefully and nodded his understanding and approval. “I wonder…” King William said as he smiled at Ianto, “if some Welshman I know might have some recognition in this museum as well?”

Ianto felt himself blushing. ‘I suppose there might be something…’ 

‘Oh there will be if I have anything to say about it and...why yes I do,’ William thought with satisfaction.

“Well I’m sure everything will be splendid when it’s finished. You say it should open in two years? That’s perfect. I’m going to award Aaron a Knighthood you know. I think it would be nice to have the ceremony in conjunction with the museum’s debut.”

Ianto was shocked and thanked the King profusely.

“In all seriousness, I’m assuming of course, that I won’t have been deposed, or we have another invasion, or we still can’t take care of our citizens by then,” the King continued.

They spoke a bit more about the upcoming changes at Torchwood and Ianto’s future plans. Ianto promised to make an appointment to see the King again before his final move to Cardiff. As Ianto said his goodbyes and as the King departed the private sitting room he turned back to Ianto.

“I almost forgot to mention, you’ll be receiving a Knighthood as well. So please do me a favor and don’t get yourself into any trouble in the next two years, OK?”

For once in his life Ianto was too stunned to say anything.


Chapter 90 here:  http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/52912.html