![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aviv_b_artworkTITLE: Chapter 85- An Ending (but not THE End)
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 85- G/PG
CHARACTERS:: Ianto, Jack, Mickey (but not a cross-over)
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 2500
SUMMARY: Jack is back. But what happened to him? And how is Ianto going to handle his return?
Title is from: The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy. John Galsworthy
Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.
Mickey reached Jack first and couldn’t stop himself from shaking Jack’s hand furiously and slapping him several times on the back. “I never thought there’d be a day I be so happy to see you,” Mickey stated.
“Well thanks for the vote of confidence Mickey, uh let’s be careful you don’t break my ribs there.” Jack said smiling. “It’s good to be back, you have no idea how good.”
Ianto moved more tentatively toward Jack. ‘He’s aged, my god, he looks ten years older. How is that possible?’
The moment Jack saw Ianto coming towards him he moved out of Mickey’s grasp in concern. ‘Something is terribly wrong, behind that smile there is pain, so much pain I can hardly bear to look,’ Jack thought.
Jack looked at Mickey his eyes pleading for an explanation. Mickey turned away so that Ianto couldn’t see him as he whispered, “Aaron’s dead.” He didn’t have time to say anything further as Ianto caught up with them.
As Ianto went to shake Jack’s hand, he was startled when it was batted away and Jack enveloped him in a hug. “I’m so sorry Ianto, so sorry I should have been here for you.”
Ianto pulled back to look Jack in the eye. ‘Don’t be an idiot. You’re not to blame; you had to save the world after all.’
While many of the employees surrounding Jack had politely backed away after welcoming him home, a few were still hovering close by. He could see the bone deep weariness in their postures and how worry was etched on each of their faces. Jack addressed the small group.
“It’s good to be back, thank you all for doing a splendid job in my absence. Now if these two men have told me correctly,” he said nodding to the men he met up with in the washroom, “I seem to be in a spot of trouble with the UN.” A little nervous laughter was heard. “Don’t worry kids, I’m back and I have a few surprises for the Security Council. But I think I’d better start working with my two esteemed colleagues here so I’m up to speed for the hearing.”
As the rest of the employees melted away one of them turned back saying, “We won’t let them railroad you Captain, don’t you take any crap from the UN.”
As the three remaining men headed toward Jack’s office, Jack glanced over at Ianto who was lost in thought. ‘He looks like a zombie. Wonder if he’s been eating or sleeping. And the bags under his eyes…’
‘..yeah well you don’t look so good yourself…’ he heard Ianto push back. Jack was startled to realize that he had been broadcasting so loudly.
“Looks like we’ve all taken quite a beating here,” he said out loud.
Mickey smiled at Jack. “I think you’ve taken the biggest hit Captain Cheesecake. Didn’t think that seven weeks without hair dye would make you look so old. And did you miss your last set of Botox injections?”
“Yeah, you got me Mickey Mouse. Vanity, thy name is Captain Jack.”
They spoke for a short while and once Jack felt he had a handle on the situation, he suggested that they all get a good night’s sleep and reconvene in the morning.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted. We have all of tomorrow, I think that will be more than sufficient to get organized.”
As Mickey and Ianto got up to leave Jack asked if Ianto could stay behind for a bit. They spoke a little about Aaron, but when Ianto asked why Jack had aged, Jack asked for Ianto’s patience as he wasn’t quite ready to talk about it. Ianto understood completely. After all anything that could make an immortal age that quickly must have been terrifying.
As Ianto and Jack headed toward the parking garage Jack realized that he didn’t have a car on site. When he asked Ianto for a lift he was startled to hear Ianto suggest, ‘why don’t you come over and spend the night.’
As he turned toward Ianto in disbelief, Ianto realized his error. ‘Not like that, just come and use a guest room. I don’t think either of us should be left completely on our own right now.’ Jack agreed.
As Ianto was driving, Jack took a call from Mickey on his cell phone. “Listen Jack, I’ve just spoken with Ambassador Ing and he’s agreed to postpone reconvening the hearing for two additional days. The word of your return made it from London to New York City in less than an hour and he called to see if it was true. When he asked how you were, I almost said ‘fine,’ but then decided to see if I couldn’t get us a little more breathing room. So I said you were exhausted. He had heard that you, and I quote; ’looked like hell’ so I told him that things might be better if you had a few days to recuperate. Surprisingly he agreed. So why don’t you and Ianto take the day off tomorrow and we’ll get meet the following day.
“Yes sir,” Jack laughed seeing how easily Mickey had taken on the leadership role.
“Crap, sorry Jack, I just got used to…”
“Mickey, I’m just giving you shit. Seriously, you did a great job, a truly amazing job while I’ve was gone. So if you wouldn’t mind doing it for a bit longer, I’d really appreciate it.”
Of course Mickey agreed but when they ended their call, Mickey wondered what had really happened to Jack.
'That sure isn’t the Captain Jack I love to hate. He should be strutting around giving orders, but he seems like a beaten dog that just wants to be left alone.'
**
Jack awoke with a start the next morning. It took him a few moments to remember where he was. He wandered around looking for a bathroom finally remembering there was one near the kitchen.
He found a note on the refrigerator from Ianto telling him that he had gone to the grocery store as there wasn’t anything for breakfast. It also told him that there were towels and a change of clothing in the guest bathroom but he couldn’t remember where that was. Finally it dawned on him that it was probably back near the guest bedroom. He climbed back up to the second level and began to check every room. After finding his own bedroom again he realized that the bathroom was just on the other side of the bedroom door. ‘Well it’s been a thousand years, after all, don’t beat yourself up because you couldn’t remember where it was.’
He showered and dressed in what he thought were his own clothing. He recalled that he used to leave several changes of clothes at Torchwood in case he had an all night meeting or had to go somewhere directly from work. That must be where these were from. And they still fit. ‘At least I didn’t put on any weight, I guess that’s something,’ he mused.
By the time he went back downstairs Ianto was making breakfast. And there was coffee. Ianto’s delicious, perfect coffee. Ianto poured him a mug and Jack sighed after the first sip. “Now this was worth coming back for. In all my travels, I never found a cup of coffee that even came close to yours.”
Ianto rolled his eyes as he put down two plates. Scrambled eggs (almost burnt the way Jack liked them), rye toast, jam and thick cut potatoes. ‘Now if there was just some bacon…’ Jack thought.
‘And before you ask, there’s no bacon to be had yet. It’s probably a government conspiracy to lower everyone’s cholesterol. Lots of conspiracies going on lately.’ Jack looked puzzled.
'Did you know Jack, that you are the anti-Christ, or perhaps one of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse?’
“That’s Mondays and Tuesdays,” Jack retorted. “Wednesdays, I’m the Easter Bunny and Thursday, I’m Popeye the Sailor Man, and …this isn’t working at all is it?”
Ianto shook his head ‘no.’
'How much do you want to know Ianto? You’ve been through enough, you don’t have to know anything if you don’t want to.'
“How much can you take Jack, because Aaron isn’t the only bad news.” Jack paled.
After a little more dancing around the subject they agreed that Ianto should tell Jack everything that happened first since Jack was more likely to get blindsided by hearing something terrible that he hadn’t been forewarned of. At Jack’s insistence, he started with personal losses and moved from there.
Jack was fairly stoic about the losses to Torchwood London staff, government officials and UNIT officers he worked with but when Ianto reported the Cardiff casualties, he ran from the kitchen.
Ianto found him a few minutes later curled up on the guest bed crying. “Is there no hope for Gwen? Has Owen checked the archives for any”… his voice trailing off as he realized that Owen was in Osaka. “And Kimiyo, how could I have miscalculated so badly on Torchwood Osaka? And Aaron and Johnny, I should have been here, for her, for them, for you, for all of you.”
‘We all made mistakes Jack. If you hadn’t gone to kill the Master its possible that none of us would be alive right now. Gwen is surprisingly upbeat. She’s a fighter and with Rhys and her children to help her, she’ll be OK.’
Ianto hesitated before he told Jack the next part. ‘I’m not going to lie to you, Owen and Toshiko are very upset and angry at Torchwood.’
“And me,” Jack said as Ianto helped him to sit up. Ianto nodded and took Jack’s hands in his own.
‘Look at me Jack. You saved the world and you better start remembering that or the Security Council will eat you alive. I’m certain we’ve exonerated Torchwood as an organization from anything except the mildest rebuke. And it’s the UN, really who cares. But they still need someone outside the UN to blame and you’ve become the target. They’ve implied that you aided the enemy, a few have even suggested that you were hidden on earth directing the Toclafane.’
Ianto saw the anger in Jack’s face. ‘A good sign’ he thought. ‘Now I’ve got something to work with.’ Ianto made fresh coffee and they moved into the lounge to continue their discussion.
Ianto decided to skip the details about Aaron for the moment and moved into telling him about the success and failures of various nations fighting the Toclafane. Jack was not surprised to hear about the fuss raised by the French and Nigerian ambassadors but when Ianto told him about the number of casualties in Jakarta he wept uncontrollably.
“Twenty million people. We did all that preparation and still lost twenty million people.”
‘And saved an estimated eighty million other people and prevented the rest of the population from being enslaved. From what I’m seeing online if there is blame being placed, its individual governments that are taking the largest hit following by the UN with Torchwood and UNIT tied for third place.’
Ianto ended with a summary of what had happened at the hearings and how with some skillful use of some of the video conferences Ianto had been able to show that Torchwood had tried to help every nation to the best of their ability. And when Jack learned what the Indonesian ambassador had said, he almost started crying again.
‘Ok, enough with this, tell me what happened to you so we can figure out what to tell the Security Council about where you’ve been.’
Jack gave Ianto a brief but accurate depiction of how he had chased the Master across time and space with the help of the Tardis and the disapproval of the Doctor. When he described the final showdown, Jack was startled to see Ianto’s hands begin to tremble. “What’s wrong Ianto, what did I say?”
Ianto said nothing but stood up and went to look out the front picture window. ‘That’s almost exactly how Aaron died. He blew himself up too. Are you sure you two aren’t related? Because I have never met two men so infuriatingly alike in so many respects.’
‘Or that I love as much,’ Ianto thought to himself. Ianto asked him to continue. He listened to the end of the story without comment. When Jack asked if he had any questions, Ianto nodded.
‘So you don’t actually know that the Master is dead, at least permanently.’ Jack agreed. And when Jack explained that the Doctor had prevented him from killing the Master during the year that never was, Ianto sensed that the battle between Jack and the Master wasn’t finished. Not if the Doctor somehow regenerated him. Ianto had never discussed that missing year with Jack, but he suddenly knew that Jack had suffered greatly during that year but had never told anyone.
‘Time and place,’ he reminded himself. He was horrified as he realized that he had utterly failed Jack when he returned from that year by not allowing him to explain what had happened. It wouldn’t have changed their paths, but he hadn’t cared about anyone’s feelings but his own. His hurt and anger overwhelmed his compassion and he failed to see that something profound had happened to Jack.
‘One last question. You’ve aged. Why? Did you lose your immortality? What happened?’
“What? You don’t like my new more mature look?” Ianto rolled his eyes. “I’ve been gone a long time, Ianto a really long time.”
‘What like years or decades?’
“How about a little more than a millennia?”
Ianto felt a pain in his chest. Jack must be joking. A thousand years? Did he actually experience 365,000 sunrises and sunsets, eat a million meals and live through ten human life spans? He looked at Jack in confusion.
Jack nodded. “So you won’t be surprised if I tell you that I couldn’t remember where the guest bathroom was this morning.” Ianto snorted. “And really, I think I look pretty good for a man who hasn’t been born yet, but is also one-thousand one hundred and eighty four years old. I guess I do age, but very slowly…and I think all the time travel might have played havoc with my internal systems.”
Ianto smiled and blinked back a few tears. ‘But what are you going to tell others, the UN, UNIT, the King?’
Jack sighed. “That’s a very good question. Seriously, how much do you think I’ve aged… if I were aging naturally?”
‘Except for your hair graying so much, I’d say five to eight years. With the grey hair, it looks closer to ten.’ Jack winced. ‘Sorry, sorry, but you did ask.’
Jack smiled his first real smile. “So I can say I traveled for five years and yes I’m vain, and no I didn’t dye my hair while I was away and I decided I like the natural look. That would make me…”
‘Forty-eight.’
“Not that I’m vain, but let’s make that forty-five, Ok?”
Ianto smiled.
Chapter 85(b) here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/50846.html
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 06:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 07:47 pm (UTC)And what's that about a bonus fic???
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 08:44 pm (UTC)yeahhhhh!!!!!
Date: 2010-05-20 07:52 pm (UTC)BUT ...(shrugs) where is jack giving the UN heck( would love to type the other word as you may know...BUT might get censored)....
Expecting an answer when you come back from vacation young lady....LIFTS LEFT EYEBROW and give you the LOOK
and YES you are going to tell (ME) you know I can keep a secret now huh,huh,huh,?
Re: yeahhhhh!!!!!
Date: 2010-05-20 08:45 pm (UTC)Re: yeahhhhh!!!!!
Date: 2010-05-20 10:07 pm (UTC)hurry up and get back from vacation already...***snickers*** your not even left yet and I miss you already.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 06:34 pm (UTC)Oh my poor jack that part where Ianto talks to him in the guest bedroom just broke my heart fore them both.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 06:55 pm (UTC)Don't forget, bonus fic up tonight!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 07:20 pm (UTC)This makes Jack and Ianto kind of the same age. .You know I can't imagine remembering anything over one thousand years. Jack has done very well!
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 08:47 pm (UTC)Jack is actually a big 'younger' than Ianto even without the age fudging.
Hey I can't remember what I had for breakfast so Jack's not doing too badly. (Aren't you glad I didn't give you a day by day description of his chase for the Master, LOL....day 6454- Jack washes his clothes and takes a nap).
no subject
Date: 2010-05-20 10:05 pm (UTC)I do like Mickey here :)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 02:20 am (UTC)No one would believe 1,000 years - and not everyone is going to buy 5 years, but you can wrap your head around several years vs 1 on earth, but 1,000 - no way.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 12:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 10:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 12:35 pm (UTC)The Earth's population is so large (and will be much bigger by 2039) that 20 million is a timy number. When I did the populations chart - most nations lost about 3-4% of their population - which isn't enough to turn the planet upside down.
no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-21 09:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-05-30 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-10-22 02:33 am (UTC)