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1.
Gwen glared at Owen as he made yet another (bad) joke at her expense and then decided that the better part of valour was to ignore him. So what if they were dealing with another meteorite? It wasn’t like she had released the alien on purpose the last time! And this one was nothing like it anyway, bright blue with yellow stripes that had ensured Torchwood's interest in the first place, that and the little puffs of red mist that kept erupting from its surface. Tosh insisted it wasn’t dangerous, but it was one of the reasons Gwen wasn’t fighting too hard the team’s unanimous decision that she not be allowed near it.
So there she was, watching Owen and Tosh collect samples and Jack arrange transportation back to the Hub – no way that meteorite was going to fit in the SUV – while Ianto interviewed their only witness, a pretty girl in her mid-twenties who had been out jogging when she had almost been hit by their rock. Gwen decided to head in their direction – maybe she could give Ianto a hand – when she noticed something interesting.
The girl was flirting. With Ianto. And Ianto was smiling back at her, although Gwen couldn’t quite tell whether he was flirting back or just being polite. She grinned. It’d do Ianto good to date. Actually, she reflected, it’d do all her co-workers a lot of good to have someone to go home to. And God knew she had tried, dropping hints right and left, even going as far as to introduce Tosh to a friend of Rhys – and what a fiasco that had been! – but so far none of them had showed the slightest interest in dating. But finally, one of them was making the effort.
She resumed her approach with more stealth, hoping to overhear their conversation and gauge Ianto’s interest. However, her happy thoughts quickly evaporated as she caught sight of Jack advancing towards the pair with a devilish look on his face.
Gwen knew that look, and it meant no good. She hurried in his direction, hoping to intercept him, but he was much closer than her. He reached them before she could stop him, walking right into Ianto’s space and leaning against him to whisper something in his ear, his lips grazing Ianto’s skin.
Annoyed, Gwen huffed at his cheek and glanced quickly at the girl to see what she made of Jack’s little display. And sighed with relief. The girl didn’t seem too put out. In fact, she was grinning at the two of them, her mouth forming words Gwen was still too far away to hear – damn it! But whatever it was she said, it made Jack laugh out loud and Ianto roll his eyes at the two of them.
Enough was enough, Gwen decided and abandoning all attempts at discretion she stalked towards them, determined to steer Jack away to give Ianto some privacy.
Unfortunately, by the time she got there the girl was walking away, her hands cradling the cup of coffee Ianto had thoughtfully provided. But Gwen wasn’t going to be deterred that easily.
“She fancies you.” She smiled, nudging Ianto in the ribs and then shot Jack a glare for good measure. Why did he have to go and ruin Ianto’s chances anyway? “Are you going to call her?”
Ianto looked at her blankly. “Well… no. Considering she won’t remember me.”
Oh.
Gwen fought back a blush, feeling a little silly – Ianto had that effect on her sometimes – but she was on a mission and a little embarrassment wasn’t about to stop her.
“Still, you should date more. Find someone. It’s been, well...” she shot Jack a glance, a little uncomfortable to bring their past relationship into this with him standing right there, but since Jack didn’t appear to be going anywhere – even going as far as raising an eyebrow at her, daring her to continue! – she forged on. “It’s been six months. Oh, I know! I could introduce you to someone! I know plenty of girls who –”
“Gwen. Gwen!”
Ianto’s forceful use of her name yanked her out of her little fantasy and she shut up, looking at him inquisitively.
“I don’t need you to fix me up with anyone.” He colored a little, glancing furtively at Jack who gave him a slight nod in return, a faint smile playing on his lips. Gwen frowned at the exchange, feeling like she was missing something important, something that should be obvious if she could just take the time to figure it out, but Ianto’s next words diverted her from that line of thoughts. “In fact… I’m already seeing someone.”
“You are?!” Gwen’s squeal came out louder – and higher – than she intended, alerting Tosh and Owen that something interesting was going on in their corner. “What’s her name? Do we know her? How long have you two been together? Is it serious? Oh, I know! We should double-date –”
“Him,” Ianto corrected gently, interrupting the flow of questions, and Gwen’s mouth closed with an audible click. She hadn’t seen that one coming! Brimming with curiosity she forced herself to stay quiet, hoping he would elaborate.
In the corner of her eye, she saw Jack’s smile grow.
“And it’s been...” A slight pause and a glance towards Jack. “– six months?”
Gwen’s eyes grew wide. Six months?!
“What’s going on?” Owen asked, strolling up to them with Tosh in tow.
“Ianto’s seeing someone!” Gwen said, and if her voice was a little shrill, well, that could be excused. And there she had thought she was more observant than most!
“What, you’re shagging Jack again, Ianto?” Owen joked, and the pregnant pause that followed made it a lot less funny.
“Oh my God you are!” Gwen squeaked, and that was about when Owen started to laugh his head off.
She barely heard Tosh offer her congratulations, watching Jack and Ianto share a look that spoke volumes. She blinked. And blinked again. And stared some more. Jack’s smile couldn’t possibly grow wider and Ianto’s quiet happiness was written all over his face, a look that, when she thought about it, had been more and more present lately.
It suited him. In fact, it suited them both. She grinned.
Well, damn!
2.
Tosh walked into the Hub earlier than usual, eager to get to work. She had woken up early this morning, and had been unable to go back to sleep. After an hour of tossing and turning she had finally given up and decided to go and work on her latest programming. Gwen would probably shake her head and say she needed a life outside the Hub, but Tosh didn’t mind. She liked it there, it was… it was a bit like home. And her co-workers were more than friends, they were family.
Of course, she wouldn’t mind an actual boyfriend, if a certain someone would just show some interest…
As she made her way towards her station, she glanced towards Jack’s office – no light, he was probably still sleeping – when a patch of white caught her attention. It seemed Jack was up after all. She took in his damp hair and white T-shirt and the way he was leaning against his desk with a smile on his face, relaxed and at ease. Jack was in a good mood – then again, he usually was these days.
Diverting her course to go and say hello, she froze when Jack said something. She hadn’t been paying attention and didn’t quite catch his words, but the message was clear. Jack wasn’t alone.
She felt herself redden – the idea of walking in on Jack… well, she didn’t want to intrude – and started to back away when a dark hair emerged from below. A very familiar dark head.
Ianto?!
But she thought… Gwen had said… Curious, she watched the scene unfurled.
Ianto was a little more dressed than Jack, his shirt buttoned up with his tie hanging around his neck, and Jack’s smile widened at the sight. He held out a hand and, when Ianto took it with a grin of his own, used it to pull him close, cradling him between his thighs.
Both of their smiles softened as Jack reached for the tie and started to tie the knot with slow teasing movements.
Tosh gawked at them.
This wasn’t casual. It wasn’t a random fuck at the end of a hard day. They were too comfortable with each other, too… domestic? It was a bit strange to think of Jack as domesticated, but there it was. It was also very private, and Tosh felt a little guilty for watching.
But the look on both their faces… She knew that look, she thought with a pang, knew it intimately. It was how Tommy had looked at her.
It was love.
“There, all done,” Jack said, jerking her from her thoughts as he gave Ianto a quick kiss to punctuate his words, his hands smoothing inexistent wrinkles, following the tie’s path and disappearing from view.
“Tease,” Ianto told him and Jack chuckled.
“You love it.”
Ianto rolled his eyes but the way they twinkle gave him away. “Lucky for you.” And kissed Jack back.
This one lingered and when Ianto finally pulled back Jack made a noise of protest, his questing fingers trying to draw Ianto back to him. But Ianto evaded them, dancing out of reach.
“I’ll go make breakfast,” he said with a smirk and Jack pouted.
“You’re the tease.”
“You love it.” Ianto tossed Jack’s earlier words back at him as he walked backwards towards the door, keeping his eyes on the other man.
“Lucky for you!” Jack called after him, and Tosh found herself grinning along with them.
And then froze as she realized she was about to get caught spying on them.
Indeed, a second later Ianto turned around and walked out of the office, his steps faltering for a moment as he saw her standing there. She hastened to smile at him, trying to convey both an apology for eavesdropping and that she was happy for them. Ianto seemed to get the message as he visibly relaxed and smiled back at her.
“Good morning Tosh. Do you want some breakfast?”
“No, I’m fine, thank you.” She had already interrupted their morning routine, she wasn’t about to disturb their breakfast as well.
“Coffee?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her and she caved, nodding. Well, it was coffee!
While Ianto opened and closed cupboards in the kitchen Tosh made her way to her desk, turning on her computer before taking off her coat. She sat down, typing her password, and almost jumped out of her skin when a hand landed on her shoulder.
She looked up to see Jack standing next to her.
“Are you okay?” he asked and she looked at him inquisitively. Why wouldn’t she be? Surely he didn’t think that… And then she remembered that it was barely seven in the morning.
“Yes,” she answered, smiling reassuringly at him. “Just woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Figured I could at least get something done here.”
He nodded and with one last squeeze made his way towards the kitchen. Ianto had his back on him, but unlike Tosh he either heard him coming or just knew he was there because he didn’t jump when Jack walked up to him. He threw him a smile over his shoulder before focusing back on the coffee, and Jack took the opportunity to plaster himself against his back, his hands at home on Ianto’s hips. He kissed the back of his neck before resting his chin on Ianto’s shoulder, swaying a little to a song only he could hear.
Ianto turned his head to kiss the corner of his mouth before reaching for the mugs, and Jack stepped back to put bread in the toaster.
“Tosh?”
Tosh blinked and redirected her attention towards Ianto, blushing a little when she realized she had been staring again.
“Coffee is ready.”
She got up to retrieve her mug and was about to retreat to her desk when Jack patted the seat next to his. She sat down with a grateful smile – for some reason, working had lost its appeal – and watched as they teased each other throughout breakfast – and her occasionally.
When they left to finish getting ready she washed the dishes and thought that was what family felt like.
It felt good.
3.
Ianto tried to push back his worry as he waited for the rest of the team to come back from their latest ‘adventure’. Since Jack had gone missing he had started to join them more and more often, and it now chafed to be told to stay behind. But they had needed someone to supervise from the Hub, and Tosh had been needed in the field. Still, he worried.
It didn’t help that he hadn’t heard from them since Owen’s short communication informing him that they had retrieved the artefact. What was going on?
“Jack? Owen?” he tried, his fingers hitting the keyboard as he tried to locate the SUV on the CCTV. There they were – on their way back, from the looks of it. “Is everything alright? Girls?”
“We’re fine.” Gwen answered. “There was… a little problem.”
Ianto sighed. Unforeseen complications always meant extra work. And he had plans with Jack for the evening. Guess they would have to reschedule.
“Nothing too dire, I hope?”
“We’re not sure…”
“Oh for Christ’s sake!” Owen interrupted. “Just have a containment cell ready for when we get there.”
“Got it.”
Heading below, Ianto wondered what mess Jack had gotten himself into this time – and make no mistake, it was for Jack the cell was intended, or he would have been the one giving the orders. At least they would have the small comfort to know that whatever had happened wouldn’t kill him.
Shaking his head, Ianto tried to figure out what might have happened. The mission had been simple enough, the artefact armless and inactive. So much for nice and easy!
Then again, was it ever?
He was just finishing when Owen burst into the Hub, dragging Jack by the wrist, Tosh and Gwen trailing behind with twin expressions of worry. Ianto hurried towards them, stopping short when Jack… had Jack just growled at Owen?
“What’s going on?” he asked, and Jack’s head whipped into his direction so fast Ianto winced in sympathy – that must have hurt. Jack shrugged off Owen’s hand and bounded across the room to stop next to him, wrapping both arms around him and squeezing hard.
Ianto blinked.
Not that he wasn’t used to Jack hugging him, but they were at work, surrounded by their co-workers – who were currently gaping at them.
“Hum, Jack? What’s going on?” Ianto asked hesitantly, glancing at the others for some answers when Jack didn’t seem inclined to give any, otherwise engaged in nestling against his side with a huge smile on his face, humming happily.
“Owen? Hel-lo?”
Owen tore his eyes away from Jack to settle on Ianto. “He hasn’t done that before,” he explained – though what on earth he thought that explained was a mystery to Ianto. “Interesting.”
“Yes, it’s fascinating,” Ianto snapped, his patience growing thin. Jack whined a little at his raised voice and he forced himself to calm down, experimentally patting Jack on the head. Strangely enough – or not – that seemed to work and Jack went back to purring. “Would anyone care to explain why our dashing leader has suddenly turned into an overgrown puppy?”
“Well…” Gwen started, and Ianto could have kissed her. “Jack picked up the canister and there was this noise, and then he got sprayed by… was that gas?”
The other two nodded. “Right, purple gas. And then he started acting weird.”
“Define weird.”
“Well, for one he isn’t talking. And he kept growling at us. So we were a bit surprised when he…” she trailed off, trying to find a tasteful way to put it.
Owen had no such qualms.
“Jumped you,” he finished for her, earning a glare from everyone – except Jack, who was still in lala land, or rather too busy nuzzling Ianto’s throat to notice anything else.
Gwen took a step towards them. “Let me help you with –” she started, but before Ianto could tell her he was just fine, thank you very much, Jack stiffened against him and turned dangerously narrowed eyes on Gwen. She froze, the words dying on her lips.
“Mine.” Jack informed them all, daring Gwen to come any closer.
“O-kay,” she said, looking around for advice.
“Maybe you should back up a little,” Tosh helpfully pointed out.
“Right.” She immediately complied, moving back a few steps.
Jack relaxed visibly but remained alert, his eyes darting from Gwen to Owen to Tosh as if assessing a threat.
“Mine.” He stated again, yanking Ianto closer.
“Yes, Jack, I think they got that part,” Ianto said tartly, a little irritated by the manhandling – and secretly thrilled, though he would never admit that part out loud with the others watching.
At Ianto’s words, Jack’s attention snapped back to him, a wounded puppy look on his face. Unfortunately for him Ianto was familiar with that look – it was the one Jack usually wore when he flooded the bathroom or forgot to pick up the dry cleaning – and it didn’t work as well as it might have on someone who hadn’t been dating him for five months. Still, it had some measure of effectiveness left and Ianto relented, petting Jack who sighed contentedly in return.
Someone giggled.
“So what do we do now?” Ianto asked Owen who seemed to find his predicament highly entertaining.
“I’ll get some blood samples to see if I can pinpoint what’s causing it.”
“Let’s do that.” He dragged Jack towards the medical bay, sitting him down, and Owen came forward, the girls looking on cautiously.
But as soon as Owen got within ten feet of them, Jack started growling again.
“Mine.” He glared at Owen, who glared right back.
“Don’t worry, I’m not interested in your boytoy.”
“Hey!” Ianto’s protest ended with a squeak as Jack kissed him, and he couldn’t stop himself from responding, those lips and tongue familiar despite Jack’s altered state of mind. When he finally came back to his senses and pulled back from the kiss, it was to see Jack looking very pleased with himself, his eyes fixed on Owen.
“Mine.”
“Yeah, yeah. Like I said, no contest from me mate. Now I’m going to take some blood.” Owen grabbed a syringe and took another step forward.
“Mine.”
“Whatever. Ianto, could you at least hold his arm when you come back from your happy place?”
“Mine.”
Ianto shot him a glare that could rival Jack’s but complied. “Sure. Anything else?” he asked sarcastically.
“Mine.”
“Well, do try to stop him if it looks like he is about to bite.”
“Mine.”
“Of course,” Ianto answered sweetly.
“Mine.”
Unfortunately Jack did not bite, though the litany of ‘Mine’ turned into ‘MINE.MINE.MINE.MINE’ when Owen reached their side. Still, a part of Jack that understood what was going on must still have been present somewhere because he let Owen take his blood and waited ‘til he was done to drag Ianto away from the doctor.
“Well, that was fun,” Owen muttered and disappeared somewhere to analyze the blood.
Meanwhile Jack had gotten Ianto to the couch and snuggled next to him, the repetition of ‘mine’ slowly decreasing in both urgency and intensity until it became a hypnotic murmur against his skin. Ianto relaxed, carding his fingers through Jack’s hair and closing his eyes for a minute, letting himself be lulled Jack’s voice. Despite the circumstances this was… rather nice.
When he opened his eyes again Tosh and Gwen were looking at them with interest and he realized he was absently petting Jack again.
“So,” Gwen cleared her throat. “Are you and Jack back together then?”
“What tipped you off?” Ianto said, and Tosh stifled a laugh.
“That’s nice,” Gwen continued valiantly.
“Yes, it is,” Ianto said softly, grinning at Jack who grinned back brightly. And promptly licked his nose.
Oh dear.
This was going to be a long night.
4.
Rhys yawned as he walked into their bedroom, taking off his clothes before diving into bed, making Gwen giggle. He had gone out to the pub with his mates earlier in the evening, Gwen choosing to stay at home to avoid explaining her latest Torchwood-related injury – nothing serious, but it was still too bad, really. It wasn’t often that she was home before dark. Today must have been special.
“I saw that boss of yours tonight,” he said, cuddling next to her.
“Oh really? Where?” she asked, putting her book down to look at him, curiosity written all over her face. “Jack said he had plans for tonight – wouldn’t say what though…”
“When we were leaving the pub. He was with that other bloke – the one with the suit? What was his name…” he trailed off, trying to remember.
“Ianto?” Gwen sounded vaguely surprised.
“That’s right! Ianto!” Rhys nodded to himself. Ianto. He ought to remember that. They were friends of Gwen, after all. Maybe he should invite them all to dinner, get to know them better. “You didn’t tell me those two were dating,” he added as an after-thought, his mind already busy making plans. Next week-end wouldn’t do – not enough time to get ready – but maybe the one after that?
Gwen’s incredulous laughter derailed him from his line of thoughts.
“Dating? Jack and Ianto? You must have gotten it wrong!”
It was Rhys’ turn to look surprised and Gwen took advantage of his silence to elaborate.
“I mean, they used to sleep together before Jack went missing – a couple months ago, remember?” – Rhys sure did remember! He had barely seen Gwen during those few weeks – “But that stopped. I don’t think it ever was very… serious, you know?”
Rhys snorted.
“Well, they sure looked serious tonight.”
And really, he could have used that kind of information when he had first met Jack – it would have done a lot for his peace of mind. The man was unnerving, and so was Gwen’s behaviour around him.
He stretched, thinking this was the end of the conversation – damn, he was tired! Maybe he shouldn’t have gone for that last pint – but Gwen seemed to disagree. She sat up and fixed him with a stare.
“Why, what did you see?”
“Gwen…” he sighed. “Do we really have to talk about it? It’s creepy! The man is your boss – if he didn’t tell you, then maybe he doesn’t want you to know!” And Rhys would rather not say anything. He didn’t have anything against gays, honest! He just didn’t see the point in thinking about it too much.
“Come on,” she cajoled.
“Gwen…”
“Rhys…”
He groaned. “I’m not going to get any sleep unless I tell you, am I?”
“Nope!” she said cheerfully. “You know me so well.”
“Yes I do.” He kissed her and for a couple of seconds she kissed him back, until –
“Now, don’t try to distract me!” She pulled away, looking very smug for having thwarted his diversion. “Spill!”
“It wasn’t much, really,” he finally relented with a grimace. “They were coming out of that fancy restaurant – you know the one where we went last year for our birthday?” She nodded and he went on. “Jack had his arm around that Ianto bloke’s waist and…” he trailed off, blushing faintly in embarrassment as he thought back on the scene.
“And what?” Gwen prompted, her eyes wide.
“He kissed him,” Rhys mumbled unintelligibly.
“What?”
“He. Kissed. Him.” He repeated, making sure to articulate every word – he didn’t think he could say it a third time.
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. So I’m pretty sure they’re dating. But you’ll have to ask them if you want more details.”
There. That was final. Rhys turned off the lights and yanked the covers unceremoniously up to his neck. Honestly, the things he did for Gwen! This was almost as bad as when she had dragged him to see that cowboy movie!
A couple of seconds later, she spooned behind him, and he remembered that it was all worth it.
5.
Owen glowered at the lift – why did it have to be so slow? He had a date tonight, an important one, and he didn’t want to be late. But of course, as he had been getting ready, he had realized he had left his wallet at work. He could see the scene replaying in his mind, taking it out of his pocket when his pants got ruined by an alien that wouldn’t stop spraying green goo everywhere. He had put it down next to the EKG machine while he had looked for something else to wear, and promptly forgotten all about it.
Until he had been heading out for the evening, and had remembered. And since it wouldn’t do to end a first date by asking the girl to pay, he had to swing by the Hub to retrieve it. Which meant that unless he hurried he would be late – and that wouldn’t make him score any point either.
So there he was and finally the lift touched down.
“Useless piece of junk,” he muttered and hurried towards the medical bay.
A moan stopped him in his track.
Oh, what now? And since when did Jack bring his dates back to the Hub? To the medical bay – and shit he was going to have to sterilize everything the next day, or make Ianto do it. Did he retcon them afterwards? That was… kinky, even for Jack. Owen would have thought he would want them to remember him. Then again, he had always suspected that half of Jack’s stories were made up.
The unspoken code of sportsmanship between men demanded that he not interrupt and wait ‘til Jack was finished but he did have a date so…
“Don’t mind me,” he said loudly just before striding into the room, spotting his wallet right where he had left it.
There was a scramble on the other side of the room and Owen couldn’t resist a glance in that direction – it never hurt to know what Jack was up to these days. And stopped dead.
Ianto?! Those two were shacking up again? He had thought that had stopped when Jack had buggered off with the Doctor.
Well, damn! Good for Ianto!
He grinned, picking up his wallet and looking back at them. Ianto looked positively mortified while Jack… well, Jack looked smug, but Owen expected no less from him. Maybe he could spare a couple of minutes after all…
“Well well well…” He leaned back against the wall, making himself comfortable. This was going to be fun. “What do we have here? And in the medical bay no less. You know I’m going to be having nightmares about this, right?”
Ianto glared at him. “Didn’t you have a date?”
Owen nodded, waving his wallet. “Forgot my wallet. And how do you know anyway?”
It was Ianto’s turn to look smug. “I know everything.”
“Right.” Owen snorted, looking around the room to make sure they hadn’t damaged any of his precious equipment – you could never be too careful with those two. He frowned. What on earth had they been doing with his ultrasound machine?
Maybe he didn’t want to know. In fact he was sure he didn’t want to know. But he had a responsibility to make sure they hadn’t broken it – damn, but he really didn’t want to know. He walked up to it – it looked okay – and turned it on – that still worked, at least.
Looking at the two of them suspiciously – everything seemed to be in order – he saw that they were both trying – and failing miserably – to conceal huge smiles that kept threatening to spill over.
That was when he noticed the printed pictures still hanging from the machine. Absently he glanced at them and…
What the hell?
He picked them up and looked at them closer and…
“What’s this?” he asked, his voice an octave higher than usual.
“You’re the doctor Owen. You tell us,” Jack teased, wrapping an arm around Ianto’s shoulders.
“But you– you –” Owen sat down abruptly, feeling a little faint, his eyes darting from the prints to Jack and Ianto. This… had to be a joke, right? He hadn’t even known they were dating – or whatever it was they were doing.
Alright, deep breath. He had a date to go to – he couldn’t afford to lose it now. And of all the things he had seen since joining Torchwood, this probably wasn’t the weirdest. It was close, though.
“Okay,” he muttered to himself. “Okay.”
Awkward. And since Owen didn’t like awkward, he quickly covered it up as best as he could.
“So which one of you is the mum?”
Jack and Ianto glanced at each other with a nauseatingly sweet expression
“Who do you think?” Jack said, raising a hand and – perfect. Just perfect. Just what they needed. A hormonal Jack and an overprotective Ianto.
The next few months were going to be hell.
And how weird was it that he wasn’t freaking out? It must be the shock.
“Don’t you have a date to go to?” Ianto said charitably, giving him an out.
“Right!” Owen jumped to his feet, backtracking out of the room. “I’ll be going then. Jack, I’ll do a full physical tomorrow. And I need to redo that ultrasound – the image sucks. We need to make sure the kid doesn’t two heads, or something.”
“Go, Owen!”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m going.”
“And say hi to Tosh for us, will you?”
Owen sputtered a little – how on earth did Ianto know that? Deciding to ignore that comment – and Ianto’s smirk – he activated the lift, tapping his foot impatiently as it started its slow ascension.
And realized he had forgotten something.
“Oh, and congratulations guys!” he called out and grinned again.
He couldn’t wait to see the look on Gwen and Tosh’s faces when they found out!