Ianto's Journey, Chapter 96/97 + Epilogue

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IANTO'S JOURNEY, PART VI- RESOLUTION
TITLE:   Chapter 96 - Well & Good
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 96- G/PG
CHARACTERS:  Ianto, Jack
DISCLAIMER:  Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: 3605
SUMMARY:  Ianto and his teammates, family and friends grow older. Jack does not..

Title is from: Be well, do good work, and keep in touch. Garrison Keillor

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

A/N:  This was meant to be the last chapter. But LJ decided differently. Due to the length, I had to split it into two parts. So there will be one more chapter up no later than Saturday AM (US time) and an Epilogue early next week.

 

With the Canary Wharf Anniversary behind them, Ianto and Jack settled back into the quiet rhythms of life in Cardiff. A little gardening, leisurely meals they cooked for each other, a weekly visit to the pub with friends, watching old black and white films in Ianto’s lounge and occasional gentle lovemaking became the universe around which their lives revolved. Ianto continued to age while Jack did not. And if this bothered Ianto he never said anything to Jack except to encourage him to look a bit older so as to not make people suspicious.

‘I bought you something at the store today,’ Ianto told Jack as he was unpacking several bags he had carried into the first floor flat.

“Sex toys. You bought us sex toys!” As expected, Ianto rolled his eyes. “I’ve always love when you do that; I just wanted to see if you would.”

‘Looks like I should have bought you a blow up doll, ‘cause that’s what you’re going to need if you keep this up.’

“Dolls are good. We could have a three way.”

‘Ok Casanova, sit down and I’ll show you.’

Jack sat down eagerly awaiting his surprise. And he was quite surprised when Ianto pulled out a package of…’

“Hair dye! I don’t believe it, you bought me hair dye. I barely have any gray…” Jack looked at the package. “Oh, you bought me hair dye to make me grayer.”

‘Yep. It’s getting a little embarrassing to be asked about my ‘young friend.’ They think you’re my boy toy or something at Tesco’s and the postman asked me the other day if I had any more young studs stashed away.’  Jack snickered. ‘Jack its not funny. Please do this for me, I hate having people question our relationship.’

Jack sighed but in the end agreed. The color came out salt and pepper which really wasn’t a bad look for him. He couldn’t wait to see the reaction at the next pub night.

The group just stared at him as he sat down with them. Ianto had gone to get the first round of drinks with Andy and Jack was left alone to deal with his team’s reaction.

“So your finally starting to look if not act your age,” Owen snarked.

“Do I get to call you grandpa now?” Gwen teased.

Jack went to retort, but Tosh got in first “Well I think he looks very dashing and handsome.”

Andy smiled, “Yeah for an old guy.” Jack was strangely disturbed by these comments. He knew he shouldn’t be, but he couldn’t deny that he was proud of his still youthful appearance. But he wasn’t vain of course, never vain.

“Oi, he’s sulking,” Rhys put in as Ianto and Andy returned.

“Ianto, this is all your fault. I dyed my hair at Ianto’s insistence,” he told the others, “and look what I get for my troubles.” Jack put an exaggerated pout on his face, and truth was he did feel a bit put out.

‘Well I think it’s very sexy and since he’s going home with me, it’s my opinion that counts.’ Ianto leaned over and gave Jack a big wet sloppy kiss. Everyone groaned.

Jack smiled and pretended to get up from the table. “Well so nice to see you, we’ll just be getting home now.”

“Hey, where are you going?”        “Sit back down.”      “We were only winding you up.”

Ianto pulled Jack back into his chair. ‘Be good and I’ll reward you later,’ he pushed out to Jack. Jack smiled.

And so it went for the remainder of 2056 and the first part of 2057. Then came the two years that Jack would always remember with sorrow.

Rhys was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in May of 2057 and was gone by September. Gwen soldiered on bravely, assisted by her children at her home for a while but eventually agreeing to move in with Ricky and Bronwen.

Ianto and Jack had barely come to terms with Rhys death when they received a call from London. Stephen was dead of a massive heart attack. A neighbor who kept an eye on him became concerned when she hadn’t seen him for several days. When the police broke into his house it was apparent that he had been dead for some time. The only comfort Ianto had was when an autopsy showed that he had been dead when he hit the floor.

‘At least he didn’t lie there by himself suffering,’ Ianto told Jack as they stood with a few friends and neighbors at the graveside. Of course, as there was no other family, Ianto and Jack had to take care of selling the Brigadier’s old house and Stephen’s personal effects. With both Stephen and Jonathan gone, Ianto lost the desire to travel to London. New appointments were made to the museum board under his direction, but he chose to limit his contacts with them to text or email.

Jack could see that Ianto’s world was gradually shrinking. They still had their weekly pub night, and Gwen still came to almost every one, but a layer of sadness hung over Ianto. And Jack also noticed that Ianto seemed to be struggling a bit with walking, but when he tried to talk to him about it, Ianto denied anything was wrong.

‘Would you give it rest Jack. I’m fine, really. The constant hovering is getting on my nerves.’ And yes, Jack couldn’t miss that Ianto was becoming more irritable.

“You know Ianto you are acting like a crotchety old man.”

‘I am a crotchety old man. Not all of us look and feel like we’re forty.’ Ianto got up to leave the lounge, he had enough of Jack for one afternoon.

“Hey,” Jack said, getting up and following him with concern, “what the hell is the matter with you?” Jack reached out and grabbed Ianto’s arm to stop him from storming out. Ianto pulled away from him abruptly, lost his balance and fell hitting his head on the coffee table. The cut wasn’t too deep, but like most head wounds, it bled a lot. 

More frightening was Ianto not making any sense. ‘I can’t go fishing today, its too cold outside,’ he typed on his smart phone when Jack asked him how he felt. ‘No don’t say you will, I need you to get Shayna from doggie daycare,’ was Ianto’s reply when Jack asked him if he could stand up.

Jack found himself coming unglued. He wrapped Ianto’s head in a towel and quickly dialed Owen explaining what happened.

“Take him to University Hospital immediately, Tosh & I will meet you there.”

Ianto put up no resistance as Jack walked him to the car, buckling him into the passenger seat. Jack drove as fast as he dared to the hospital and was relieved to see that Owen was already there and had alerted the ER staff. 

Ianto was lucky. While he had a mild concussion it appeared that the damage was largely superficial. But as time passed Jack could see that Ianto continued to deteriorate both physically and mentally. His balance was affected by the concussion and even with physical therapy he still was a bit unsteady on his feet. He agreed to use a cane, but balked at a walker.

‘Get that thing out of here,’ Ianto said pointing his cane at the walker Jack had brought home. ‘I’m not using it and that’s final.’

Jack sighed. “You’re going to end up in a wheelchair you know. Another hard fall and that will be it. Do you want that?” Inside, Jack winced.  He knew that his comments would only make Ianto more belligerent.

‘Fine, then that’s where I’ll end up. If its too much trouble for you why don’t you just go.’ Once again Ianto got up to leave the lounge and this time Jack didn't stop him.

Jack sighed as he ran his fingers through his hair. What the hell was happening to them? They spent as much time arguing now as everything else combined; why was Ianto pushing him away? ‘Pushing away..oh, yeah, that actually makes sense.’ he thought.

He waited a bit and went into the master bedroom.   Ianto was lying on the bed staring at the ceiling.

“Hey, is there room for me?” Ianto didn’t say anything but slid over a bit. Jack lay down next to him. “Ianto. Please don’t push me away. I know we don’t have that much more time together, so please let me help you.” Ianto snorted. “I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to make it easier for me to go on…uh…once you’re gone. You think if you make yourself unlikeable enough I’ll be glad when you die and won’t feel so bad.”

Jack saw a few tears trickle down Ianto’s face. He propped himself up next to Ianto.

“Look at me Ianto. Pushing me away doesn’t make it easier, it actually makes it harder.  Don’t make me go on alone thinking I didn’t take proper care of you. Or that you hate me. I have such a long road ahead and I need to have good memories with you to keep going. Please don’t destroy what we have. A thousand years, a million years from now, memories are all I’ll have.”

He took Ianto into his arms and held him tight, trying to memorize the smell of him, the feel of him, everything about him. Ianto fell asleep soon after but Jack stayed awake the entire night just listening to Ianto breath, watching his brow furrow and then relax as he went into and out of REM sleep, and chuckling when Ianto began to snore. ‘You’re stuck with me,’ Jack thought. ‘We’re in this together to the end.’

***

Jack and Ianto settled back into their familiar pattern for a while. Then came a series of falls, with broken bones, more rehab and eventually Ianto was forced to use a wheelchair when they went out for any lengthy period of time. They didn’t go to pub night anymore, Ianto was often tired and he refused to use a wheelchair at the pub. Most nights they continued to watch movies or sit in the garden if the weather was nice. Gwen would call them after each pub night and good-naturedly berate them for not showing up.

“We’re beginning to think that you don’t like us anymore,” she told Ianto. “You’re not mad at us are you?” Ianto assured her that everything was fine and he was just going through a difficult rehab following his most recent fall. Gwen texted Jack and arranged to meet him when Ianto was next at rehab. They danced around the subject for a while until Gwen thought she would scream.

“What’s going on Jack? We hardly see you both anymore.” Gwen was shocked when he told her about Ianto using a wheelchair. “I had no idea, none of us did.”

“And that’s the way he wants it. He’d rather stay home than use it to get around. We argued about it for some time until I just gave up. I don’t want to force him to do something he finds embarrassing, but his life now consists of sitting around the house, watching TV and napping.”

“Jack Harkness, has anyone every told you that you’re an idiot.” Jack looked at Gwen in shock. “No seriously, why don’t we move pub nights to your house, at least some of them anyway.” When Jack didn’t say anything, Gwen continued, “What? You can’t buy beer and pizza and get out some board games and hang out for an evening? The point is not the pub, it’s the being together.”

Once Gwen said it, It seemed so obvious. But Jack had been so absorbed in the daily care of Ianto that it hadn’t occurred to him that their friends would be happy to come over and spend the evening with them. “I am an idiot. But how do I get Ianto to agree?”

“You just let me take care of that.” And she did. The next time there was a scheduled pub night, Gwen called and asked Ianto if he would be able to make it. When he said that he didn’t think so, she effectively invited herself and the rest of their friends over for the evening. Ianto was totally caught off guard and found himself agreeing to the idea even though he hadn’t checked with Jack.

When he told Jack about his conversation with Gwen, Jack acted totally surprised. “Are you telling me, she just invited herself over?” Ianto nodded.

“Have we ever had a group of people over? What do we need? Ianto you need to make a list for me. I’m not very good at this entertaining stuff.”

Ianto sighed and rolled his eyes. Jack had several errands to run and left Ianto busily making plans for the next pub night. He called Gwen from his car and told her how Ianto was busy planning the evening. “I tell you Gwen, I’d come over and give you a big smooch but I think Ricky would kill me. I saw the light come back into Ianto’s eyes, now he’s got something to put his energy to. I’m hoping that this will be the start of some better times for Ianto.

They alternated between the pub and Jack and Ianto’s flats for the next six months. Ianto was still pretty frail, but his energy improved and with that his attitude as well.

Then disaster struck.

Winter came to Cardiff with a vengeance. Not only did it rain, it sleeted and then rained some more and then everything froze into a sheet of ice. Power was out all over town and getting around was treacherous. They had to cancel a pub night and a Ianto night (as they had come to call it) because driving was just too dangerous.

Jack and Ianto had gone to bed early that Saturday. The heat and lights had been out for several hours in the morning, and though it had been restored, the house was still chilly. So when Ianto suggested that they warm things up, Jack was delighted. Their lovemaking had gotten a little raucous and afterwards Ianto was exhausted.

“You never fail to amaze me,” Jack told Ianto as they snuggled together under the covers. “I can’t remember the last time we carried on like this.”

‘Hmmm,’ Ianto pushed out as he drifted off. Jack smiled and wrapped himself around Ianto tightly and soon dozed off as well.

When Jack’s cell rang several hours later, he immediately came awake. Ianto continued to sleep. When he saw the name of the caller he looked at the clock to check the time. 3 AM, this couldn’t be good. He tiptoed out of the bedroom and answered the call.

“Ricky, what’s wrong.”

“Its mum and dad, they’ve been in a car accident. They decided to go to the pub on their own. Said staying inside was making them crazy. They skidded off the road on the ice. They don’t think mum’s going to make it, and dad’s not much better.”

After ascertaining that he and Bronwen were at St. David’s Hospital he went and woke Ianto up. They dressed in silence and Jack drove very slowly and carefully to the hospital. Gwen was there having come with when Ricky got the call.

Tosh was in dire condition. Jack and Ianto were allowed to see her for a few minutes. Jack stroked her head and cried while he whispered how much he and Ianto loved her and that she had to fight to get well. Ianto held her hand pushing out to her all the love he had for her. They were hustled out of her room a few minutes later. Ricky and Bronwen stayed outside of Tosh’s room while Jack, Ianto and Gwen went to check on Owen.

Owen was bruised and banged up and only semi-conscious. Jack and Gwen whispered words of encouragement while Ianto held his hand. Owen opened his eyes for just a moment, and said “Tosh.”

Ianto felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise and he quickly left the room to check on Tosh. He arrived back at her room just in time to see Ricky and Bronwen leave her room sobbing. Ianto didn’t have to ask, he knew Tosh had died.

Owen was so badly injured that he couldn’t even attend Tosh’s funeral. He was in the hospital for almost a month and was then transferred to a rehabilitation facility. And while everyone tried to keep up hope, it soon became apparent that Owen was never going to be able to live independently again. 

Christmas that year was a somber occasion. Tosh’s death was still on everyone’s mind and no one felt like celebrating. To make matters worse, David and Claire & Rose had made arrangements to visit Claire’s parents who had retired to Colwyn Bay at the northern end of Wales. Mica was still getting over her divorce from Stuart and had opted to go with some friends on a trip to Belgium. This left Jack and Ianto on their own for Christmas.

Ianto was very depressed and didn’t feel much like celebrating anyway. But Jack was not to be deterred. On Christmas Eve, Jack was up in his flat most of the day tending to some year end tax papers he said he had to finish. 

A little after 18:00 hours, Jack called Ianto from his flat and asked Ianto to come upstairs. This rarely happened; they mostly stayed in Ianto’s lower level flat now, as stairs were difficult though not impossible for Ianto to navigate.

“Come up, I have to show you something.”

Ianto sighed. He had just started watching the news on BBC1 and really didn’t feel like dragging himself upstairs. Still, Jack didn’t ask him to come up all that often, so it was probably something important. ‘I hope we’re not going to owe even more in taxes on the property than we did last year,’ Ianto thought.

As Jack opened the door to his flat he motioned Ianto in with a “Ta Da.”

Ianto snorted as he took in Jack’s attempts to decorate the flat for Christmas. Garland was strung haphazardly everywhere and flashing lights lined the three windows at the front of the lounge. And on a coffee table in the middle of the lounge was the smallest, scrawniest Christmas tree Ianto had ever seen, complete with tinsel, and colored foil balls that were much too large for it.

‘Oi, is that a tree or a weed gone wild?’

Jack started to laugh. “When I went to buy a tree, I wanted it to be a surprise and I realized that there was no way I could sneak a big tree up here on my own. And then I spotted this little guy, sitting so lonely at the edge of the lot. He looked like we’ve been feeling so I just knew he was ‘our’ tree.”

‘Duw, do we really look that pathetic?’

“Well its not been a great few months, has it? But its Christmas tomorrow and I think we should still celebrate.” To Ianto’s astonishment Jack had prepared a roast beef, potatoes and spinach for dinner which he served with a 2005 Château Margaux Bordeaux.

Ianto didn’t want to think about how much the wine would cost today. He was pretty sure that this was the wine Jack had purchased to celebrate when he was reinstated to Torchwood 3. He thought he remembered that Tosh had told him it had cost almost a thousand pounds back then. ‘Tosh, oh fuck,’ he thought. Jack noticed the look on Ianto’s face and asked him what was wrong.

‘I was just thinking about Tosh…and Owen. Sorry.’

“Hey, its only right to think of our friends who can’t be with us today, what ever the reason. I propose we toast all our friends, past, present and future.”

They finished the meal, but Jack wasn’t finished with the surprises. He motioned Ianto back into the lounge and turned on some music. Ianto smiled as Pearl Bailey and Hot Lips Page sang “Baby Its Cold Outside.” 1940s Christmas music, wasn’t that just Jack to a T.

“May I have this dance, Mr. Hamilton-Jones?” Jack said holding out his hand to Ianto.

Who could resist Jack Harkness at his most charming?  Ianto certainly couldn’t. They continued to dance to the slow song mix Jack had created just for them. Ianto’s two favorites were there - Frank Sinatra’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, and Jerry Wayne’s “I’ll Be Home for Christmas, which they danced to several times.

Ianto pushed out to Jack, ‘Who would think that we’d have such a lovely Christmas this year?’

“I’ll tell you something I learned from actually living through World War II; when the world is crashing down around you, that’s the time you need to hold your loved ones the closest.”

‘Yeah, I’d like to hold you closer still.’

“I think that can be arranged.” As they walked towards Jack’s bedroom Jack stopped Ianto in the doorway. “Oh look, there’s something hanging from the door,” Jack teased. Ianto looked up and saw that Jack had attached a huge chunk of mistletoe to the door frame.

‘What am I going to do with you, Jack?,' Ianto pushed out.

“Oh, I’ve got a few ideas,” Jack said as he maneuvered Ianto over to his bed.

‘I like a man with new ideas.’

“Hey, a handsome young Welshman once told me I was innovative and avant garde.”

‘Then get over here,’ Ianto pushed out pointing to the bed, ‘and avant garde me out of my mind.’

“With pleasure,” Jack said moving to straddle over Ianto. “Both our pleasures.”


Chapter 97 here:  http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/57986.html