Gwil's Guide to Growing Up Torchwood: Year 3, Chapter 2

[amuly]

Title: Gwil's Guide to Growing Up Torchwood: Year 3, Chapter 2
Pairing: Jack/Ianto + Team
Word Count: 2,836
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When a seven-year-old boy falls through the Rift, Ianto and Jack decide to adopt him. This is the story of his life at Torchwood.
Chapter Summary: Martha notices something shiny glinting on Ianto's ring finger; Ianto and Owen have a (very manly) heart-to-heart.
Warnings: none
A/N: Nothing much to say. Enjoy!

 

Previous Chapters:

               Prologue          |          The First Year:          |          The Second Year:          |          The Third Year:
              1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10         1, 1.PWP, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7              1
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17               8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13      

 

 

Ianto thumbed at the heavy platinum band on his ring finger, smiling quietly to himself. The coffee machine whirred and hissed as he brewed that first batch of the day. As he reached out to pull at the lever, he paused, watching his ring glint in the light of the Hub. It was odd, certainly, to see it there. And he wasn't used to its presence, rubbing at his other fingers, clinking against his morning cup that he held as he ushered Gwil off to school and Jack into the shower... which he might have allowed himself to be dragged into, rings clinking against each other as Jack entwined his fingers with Ianto's.

Soft smile still tugging at his lips, Ianto placed the mugs onto his silver platter and started his rounds, humming quietly to himself. After he made sure everyone was squared away with biscuits and coffee, he'd head down to the Archives. He had a theory about where the 1819 archives had disappeared to in 1842, and was determined to make some headway locating them today. At least he'd be able to eliminate a few sections of the lower levels-

“Ianto!” Ianto blinked, spinning around to the source of the voice. Martha was just coming in, bag slung over her shoulder and Mickey heading off in a different direction. With a squeal Martha started forward, dropping her bag to the ground and clacking over the metal grating in her heeled boots. Gwen peered out from Toshiko's workstation, where she had taken over for Tosh on her day off. Owen glanced up from where he was wiping off a scalpel, dissected body splayed out on the autopsy table before him.

Practically upsetting the coffees Ianto had carefully balanced on the tray, Martha scrambled with the tray and passed it off to Gwen, before tugging at Ianto's left hand. “What is this?!”

Ianto tried to get away, to grab at his coffees and move quietly on to his archives, but Owen was clambering out of his autopsy pit, and Gwen, Mickey, and Martha were all gathering around. Above them, Ianto heard Andy's footfalls over the metal grating as he clambered downstairs. Trapped.

Martha was clutching at Ianto's hand like it was a brand new pair of pumps. “What are you doing wearing a wedding ring?!”

On instinct Ianto's first reaction was to glance at Gwen. Her eyes were big, but mouth turned up into a wide, gap-toothed grin. No conflict there, then. His next reaction was to turn to Owen. To his surprise, Owen was grinning too, thin lips spread even thinner over his gums.

“'atta boy, Ianto. Finally managed to get the good Captain to settle down.” He smacked Ianto on the shoulder before heading back down to the autopsy bay, leaving Ianto feeling rather confused. But the other members of Torchwood were so busy swarming around him, chattering away, that he didn't have a moment to think on Owen's odd behavior.

“What's going on here, team? It doesn't look like working.” Jack strode over, hands in his pockets and big grin indicating that he knew exactly what was going on. Ianto turned to him, pleading with his eyes for Jack to save him. He had work to do – work that he actually wanted to do.

Of course, Jack entirely ignored Ianto's silent pleas for extraction.

Instead, he whistled appreciatively, reaching forward and taking Ianto's left hand in his right. “What's this?” he questioned. “Fancy ring you've got here.”

Gwen and Martha were bundles of barely-contained bouncing delight, holding onto each other and squealing like little girls who just laid eyes on their very own pony. “Which is it?” Martha asked breathlessly, as Gwen scrambled in her back pocket for her phone. “A wedding ring or an engagement ring? Don't tell me you got married without us! Honestly, Jack: I could have at least tried to invite the Doctor! It would have given him a laugh to hear the news!”

Ianto tugged his hand away from Jack even as the other man was shaking his head in reassurance to Martha. Meanwhile Ianto was busy trying to figure out where Gwen had put the platter with the coffee mugs. Said woman was currently screaming into her mobile, jumping up and down. “No! Really! Ianto and Jack! I know! I'm calling Rhys next. You'll see the ring tomorrow, Tosh! No: don't come in. It's your day off! It's gorgeous. Looks like platinum. I KNOW!”

Jack was a constant presence at Ianto's side, grinning broadly and taking the whole spectacle in. Meanwhile, Ianto still desperately wanted to sneak off, down into the archives and into his comfortable solitude.

To Ianto's surprise, it was Owen who came in and saved him. “Alright,” the doctor said, peering up from the bottom of his autopsy pit. “Let Ianto get back to work. I need my coffee.” Owen held his single ungloved hand out significantly.

Finally managing to locate his coffee platter – on Mickey's workstation, for some reason – Ianto picked it up and handed Owen his coffee, ready to pass out the rest and leave as quickly as possible. Just as he passed the coffee to Owen, though, the doctor grabbed his wrist, holding him in place. “Drinks tonight, then? For the men!” Owen insisted, upon seeing Gwen and Martha's face light up. “And no Harkness.” Jack pouted. “Just the boys, to give Ianto a proper send-off into married life.”

Up on the main level of the Hub, Mickey shouted with delight and pounded Andy's back, causing the former policeman to splutter and cough. Figuring it would get him out of the scrutiny of the rest of the team members for the time being, Ianto quickly nodded his assent. “Tonight?”

Owen winked and gave him a quick thumbs up. “Sounds good. And we'll get to see if we can't talk you out of the sheer insanity that must be behind your decision to marry our good Captain.”

Mickey started laughing his arse off, clutching at Martha as tears slid down his face and he jeered at Jack. “I'll never have to watch the missus again! You'll be married! I don't... I don't...” Mickey gasped for breath. “How will you even be able to speak?!” He pointed rather viciously at Jack, who was starting to pout more dramatically at everyone's comments. “You won't!” Mickey continued. “You'll go up to someone, and start to say something flirty, but you've got a wedding band, so you'll never be able to speak again.”

Jack frowned, catching Ianto's attention just as he finished passing out the coffee and was about to head downstairs. “I'll still be able to flirt, won't I?”

“Absolutely,” Ianto reassured him, straight-faced. “In fact, I think Mickey's in need of a bit of friendly sexual harassment, don't you?” With that, Ianto finally managed to hurry away underground, Mickey's cries of despair bringing the spring back to Ianto's every step as he headed farther underground.

**

At some point during the day their drinking group had expanded to include Rhys as well – “I'm here purely as a spy for Gwen. Just thought I'd make that known up front.” – and so Ianto found himself crowded into a booth with Rhys, Mickey, Andy, Owen, and copious amounts of alcohol, potato skins, and crisps filling their table.

Mickey held up his glass. “So, first thing first,” he titled the glass at Ianto. “We gotta have a proper toast for the newly engaged man. So, to Ianto, for getting Jack to pack it in for more'n ten minutes at a time.”

Ianto acknowledged the toast graciously, clinking his glass with everyone else's and taking a long swallow of his ale.

Owen was the next to hold his glass up, grin teasing at his lips. “And now, a drink to the dearly departed: to Ianto's sanity. It had a good run, but up against Harkness for four years, it didn't stand a chance.”

Good a sport as ever, Ianto clinked his glass with everyone's and downed the rest of his ale in one, reaching for another immediately.

Rhys was next, though not holding up his glass, just speaking around a mouthful of potato skins. “Alright, so since the wife's going to be on me about it, I need to know:” Ianto waited for the question. “How'd it happen?”

Ianto blinked as he took another drink. “Sorry?”

“The engagement! Who 'popped the question', you know? He ask you, you ask him, was it on the London Eye or somewhere 'romantic'...” he shrugged. “Gwen's dying to know.”

Ianto hesitated. “Er...” The other men sat around the table, drinking their ale and waiting for an answer. Ianto took a swallow of his own as a stalling tactic. Finally he decided to stick as close to the truth as possible. “It was a mutual agreement, one night.”

Owen and Mickey screwed up their faces, both taking a pull from their ales. Owen nodded at Andy and Rhys. “I think that means they were fucking when it slipped out.”

Ianto blushed. “No! No! Nothing like that!” He thought back, trying to put the rather emotional evening in an explainable context. “Gwil instigated it. He asked me if Jack and I could get married, and then decided to broach the issue again at dinner.” Ianto took another swallow of ale as he tactfully left out the ensuing fight. “So we discussed it, and decided it might be for the best.”

Rhys nodded, leaning back in his seat. He was apparently satisfied with the explanation, and started to settle in to serious drinking. Ianto could only try and follow suit, hoping that the questions might end. Though the look in Owen's eye indicated he had more to say on the matter, but it could wait. A little while.

Andy left first, sputtering a half-hearted excuse that seemed to Ianto to be a cover-up for trying to return home to a woman. Ianto wasn't aware of any girlfriends that Andy might have, but the way his face turned bright red and the only two pints he consumed definitely seemed to Ianto to indicate that he had someone waiting for him at home. Then again, it could always be a boyfriend, though Ianto was fairly certain he would have picked up on that before.

Mickey and Rhys left at the same time, checking their watches and happily heading home to their wives. Which just left Owen and Ianto, who decided to walk home from the pub for a ways before they split off to their respective “houses”.

“So,” Owen started. Ianto waited, hands tucked into his jacket's pockets. “When did this engagement conversation take place?”

“Well, it was... couple months ago, actually. Well...” Ianto tried to think back. It was before his birthday, so... “Almost five months ago, really.”

“Five months?!” Owen laughed, shaking his head and throwing it back as he stared up at the night sky. “Fuck, Ianto, you could have told us. I could have backed off Harkness months ago.”

“'Backed off'?” Ianto raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. The only reason I kept riding Jack about you two was so he'd actually do something about it. Or cut you loose. It wasn't fair on you for him to keep stringing you along like he was if he wasn't serious. I didn't think you'd ever have the stones to confront him on it,” Ianto was fairly certain he should take offense to that, but he let it slide, “and I didn't think Jack would ever let himself admit how much you mattered to him, if you did at all. So I figured: annoy the Captain until he broke it off or gave in!”

Ianto frowned, glancing over at Owen. The young doctor appeared to be serious, in his own, nonchalant sort of way. Feeling that this required some sort of acknowledgement, Ianto took one hand out of his pocket and squeezed Owen's shoulder. He received a thin-lipped smile in response.

“I don't agree with your methods,” Ianto cautioned as he removed his hand and put it back in his pocket, “but thanks. I think.” They fell silent for a moment as they walked. “Though in the end, it was Gwil that showed Jack and I the light, not your... prodding?”

“Eh, well,” Owen smirked. “It was worth a shot. You deserved better than Jack treating you like some cheap fuck.”

Ianto frowned. “He never treated me like that.” He hesitated, staring at his shoes tapping over the pavement with each step. “Even at the beginning. He's a good man. Beneath the flirting and hardened façade.”

They fell silent again, the sounds of the city humming in the night surrounding them. As they drew within a few blocks of where they would go their separate ways, Ianto spoke again. “I thought it might have been jealousy. With-” Ianto hesitated, glancing sidelong at Owen. It was a sensitive subject, but Ianto had just enough alcohol in his blood to spur him on. “You and I come from similar pasts. Both of us had girlfriends-”

“Fiancée,” Owen growled.

“Significant others,” Ianto conceded. “That were killed by aliens. And we both ended up working for Torchwood. But then I found Jack-” Ianto cut himself off. He didn't mean it to sound narcissistic, or condescending, or holier-than-thou, but Owen's behavior had required an explanation in Ianto's mind, and that was the best Ianto had come up with.

Owen didn't seem too offended by what Ianto had presumed. He shrugged, laughing a little sardonically. “I'm doing just fine for myself, Ianto, thanks. In case you hadn't noticed, I managed to pull two birds' numbers just tonight.”

They stopped, at the crosswalk where they would split off: Ianto to head back to the Hub, Owen to his flat. “I know,” Ianto agreed. “But sometime you might want more. You did with Katie. And Diane.”

Now Ianto had struck a nerve. Owen looked off into the distance, shaking his head. “Not again, Ianto. Not in this job. You've got some kind of security, with Jack.” Ianto bristled at Jack's condition being spoken of so off-handedly by Owen, but let him continue. “I've already lost two women I love to this fucking Rift. I don't need to go through that again.” Owen fell silent for a moment, and Ianto thought maybe he should say his goodnights and head off. But then Owen forced a smile onto his face, devoid of any true happiness and tinged with desperation. “Besides, I'm doing just fine for myself. I pull a bird whenever I need one, and... s'fine.”

“What about...” Ianto hesitated, wondering if he should suggest it. Again, the alcohol helped ease the decision. “What about a girl who already knew about the Rift? Who was capable of defending herself against it?”

Owen snorted. “You got another girlfriend in the basement, Ianto? Because the only birds who know about the Rift are on our team, and two of those are married.”

Ianto waited for a beat, and when Owen didn't continue, he prompted: “And one of them...”

Owen laughed. “One of them is Tosh. I mean, come on.”

Ianto bristled at that, coming to the defense of his friend. “What's wrong with Tosh?”

Owen held his hands up, laughing. “Nothing! She's a pretty bird and all. Nice... you know.” He gestured in front of his chest. “But she's Tosh.”

Ianto nodded: not agreeing or disagreeing, just leaving the idea to percolate in Owen's mind. It seemed to be taking some sort of root, as Owen fell silent and frowned. Good.

They said their goodbyes, patting each others' backs in manly displays of affection. Then Ianto started down the Cardiff streets, back in the direction of the Plass. The day had gone better than expected, all things said and done. He hadn't wanted a fuss over his and Jack's engagement, yet out of all the celebrations and attention, some good had come. He now had the perspective to reevaluate his increasingly negative opinion of Owen – even if Owen had honestly been a total idiot in the way he had gone about things. And maybe he helped Tosh out, too, by bringing to Owen's attention something which had, apparently, never occurred to him before.

As Ianto stepped briskly across the Plass and onto the invisible lift, he grinned. Plus Jack had promised him every-now-knows-about-our-engagement sex. Sure enough, as the lift descended, Ianto saw Jack staring up at him expectantly, arms folded over his chest and big grin on his face. Ianto smiled back.

A good night, all in all.



Continue on to Chapter 3.