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Title: What Never Should Be: Two In The Hand
Chapter 2: Of Pteranodons and Treachery
Author: blucougar57
Summary: Secretive behaviour and a persistent PC creates headaches for Captain Jack as he and Ianto continue working to reinvent Torchwood; and all the while the universe doesn't seem to want to let him forget he was once Torchwood's prisoner...
Rating: Strong T
Warnings: References to past abuse.
A/N: Sorry for the late posting. I promised to get this chapter up this last weekend in thanks for the help and advice about my now pending trip to the UK later this year. Unfortunately, I have to confess that I am rather easily distracted... :/
Chapter 2: Of Pteranodons and Treachery
"You did what?" Ianto exploded.
They were standing in the kitchen of their home, and Jack had just dropped a bombshell. Rather than retcon Suzie, he'd allowed her to test the newest piece of alien tech that they'd found.
"Ianto..."
"No! No, I need to get my head around this. Not only have you let Suzie stay, even after what you saw and heard today, but you've also given her a free hand with a piece of tech that we'd already agreed should go straight into Secure Archives! What were you thinking? Were you even thinking?"
Jack huffed in annoyance.
"I don't think I needed to sack," Jack argued. "Sure, she had no right to bail you up like she did, and I spoke to her about it..."
"You spoke to her," Ianto snapped. "That's wonderful. Everything will be just fine now!"
Annoyance and frustration darkened Jack's features in reaction to Ianto's anger. Not so long ago, he knew he would have backed down and given in to the young Welshman, but times were changing and so was he. As much as he loved his Ianto, no longer was he complete subservient, either.
"She hasn't done anything to justify firing her, or retconning her. Until she does, she stays on the team."
Later on (or, more specifically, immediately afterwards), Ianto would fervently wish that he could take back his next words. He let his anger get the better of him, though, before he could take a moment to try and calm down.
"Goddamn it, Jack! What is it about Suzie that you don't want to take off your damn blinkers? Do you want to shag her? Is that it? Are you bored with me? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but then I was actually stupid enough to believe you had at least a modicum of respect for me!"
Jack looked as though he'd just been slapped. In the space of a few seconds, his expression went from confused to angry, to plain hurt. Without uttering a sound, he circled around Ianto and headed to the door. He was halfway out when he turned back to gaze forlornly at Ianto.
"I love you, Yan. Let me know when you've remembered that."
Then the door closed quietly, and he was gone.
* * *
It took Ianto a full ten minutes to calm down properly and comprehend the possible ramifications of his fight with Jack, although 'fight' was probably an inappropriate choice of word. It had been far too one-sided to be a real fight. Guilt set in quickly as Ianto reluctantly admitted to himself that Jack had been right. Suzie had done nothing to warrant being sacked and retconned, and he had no right or reason to demand it.
Jack's parting words sat heavily on Ianto's subconscious as he took his car and went in search of his lover. Of course he knew that Jack loved him and oh, how he wished he could take back the hurtful things he'd said.
Why was he so angry? When Jack hired Owen, Ianto had explained it away as melancholy that Jack was finally starting to make independent decisions. Given how long and how hard they'd worked towards that, Ianto knew he had no business being upset – either then or now. The difference was that Owen had proven himself. In Ianto's opinion, Suzie had yet to do so.
Jack was right, though. Suzie had not breached any protocols, or put anyone in danger, there was no just cause to cut her loose from Torchwood.
He tried Jack's mobile, only to get a message. He growled in frustration, and had to resist the urge to call Tosh. As much as he wanted to find Jack quickly, he knew damn well that this was his mess to fix.
"Stupid," he hissed, thumping his hand on the steering wheel in anger. He knew that Jack still harboured insecurities and to accuse him so callously was unhelpful, to say the least. The annoying and frustrating part, though, was knowing that Jack harboured suspicions – or at the very least, uncertainties – as well. He'd admitted that he didn't trust Suzie completely, but he insisted on keeping her on the team. If it was primarily so that he could keep an eye on her, then so be it, but why the hell couldn't he just come right out and say so?
So caught up in his own thoughts was he that he nearly didn't see the man standing in the path of the SUV until it was too late. Stomping hard on the brake, Ianto held onto the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip as the SUV skidded to a stop mere inches away from the Captain of Torchwood. Ianto's emotions warred between anger and concern as he climbed out, finally falling in favour of concerned.
"Jack, are you all right?" he asked anxiously. "God, cariad, I almost ran you down!"
Jack smiled, but it was a pale imitation of the real thing.
"Got your attention, didn't it?"
Ianto grabbed Jack and yanked him in close for a fierce hug, which Jack immediately returned with interest.
"I'm sorry," Ianto murmured. "You're right, there's no reason to get rid of her."
"But there are reasons to be cautious around her," Jack conceded. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have walked out like that, and I do know that you love me. I just... I don't know what to do about this, Yan."
"We both made mistakes," Ianto offered, and Jack nodded; happy to accept even that slightly unbalanced compromise.
"I shouldn't have given her the glove," Jack said.
"No," Ianto agreed, "but what's done is done. We'll just have to keep a close eye on her. On the other hand, at least we'll find out what the blasted thing does."
"I still think it's a fancy oven mitt," Jack retorted. Ianto answered with a familiar eye-roll.
"For someone who professes to hate household chores, you have a curious fixation on kitchenware." The cheeky grin that lit up Jack's face was enough to lift Ianto's mood, and he grinned back. "How about we go and get take-away, and head home and watch a movie?"
"Something funny?" Jack asked hopefully and Ianto readily agreed. After the tension of not just that evening but the last few days, Ianto was more than ready to have something to laugh at, and to hear Jack's carefree laughter again as well.
"I think that's quite doable."
"Great! Can we get Indian? With extra poppadums?"
"If you like," Ianto conceded with a relieved grin.
"Yes, please. Wait!"
Ianto froze in the middle of putting the SUV into gear.
"What?" he asked, tensing automatically at the thought that something else was wrong.
"I nearly forgot," Jack exclaimed with an excitement that had Ianto more than a little worried. "I got a rift alert on my manipulator after I... I mean, while I was out. I tracked it to a warehouse, and you won't believe what I found!"
* * *
Ianto couldn't help but gape as he stared up at the pteranodon as it circled around above their heads. Jack had been right – he didn't believe his eyes.
The short journey to the warehouse had been filled with mixed tensions as Ianto tried to get Jack to tell him what he'd found. Strangely, when Jack had made an off-the-cuff about finding a guard dog, for some idiotic reason Ianto had actually thought he meant he'd found a dog. He'd just been contemplating having to clean up after some mutt that sorely needed house-training when Jack had flung open the warehouse door with relish for the big reveal.
"It's a dinosaur, Jack."
Jack grinned widely.
"I know. Isn't she beautiful?"
Ianto decided he wasn't going to ask how Jack knew it was a female. He didn't feel particularly in the mood to delve into the mysteries of dinosaur sex.
"It's a bloody dinosaur."
"Yeah, I think we established that."
Ianto looked sideways at Jack.
"Okay, let's deal with this one step at a time. What, exactly, do you want us to do?"
"Catch her," Jack said, sounding very much as though he thought it was the most logical thing in the world.
"Of course," Ianto muttered. "What else?"
"Ianto," Jack said in a softer and mildly less enthusiastic tone, "whatever we do later on, we still have to catch her. Can you imagine the panic if she's seen?"
Ianto snorted, though he had to concede to Jack's reasoning.
"It'd go in the same police file as all the UFO reports. And then we'd have to catch her anyway."
"Exactly. At least here and now we might be able to avoid killing her. And who knows? Maybe she can be trained."
Ianto could feel his eyebrows lifting entirely of their own accord, and for a split second he had a flashback to Jack sitting on the couch in Jackie Tyler's apartment, innocently asking if he could have a dog. Though he would never said so to Jack, he was sure there was some level of self-compensation going on there.
"A guard dog?" Ianto queried in weary amusement, and Jack grinned hopefully.
"I promise I won't call her Sam."
That broke the last of Ianto's resistance, and he sighed audibly.
"All right," he conceded wearily. "There's a space up near the top of the water tower that might make do as a nest area... but so help me, Jack, you had better do your share of the cleaning up! I will not be solely responsible for a dinosaur that's likely to crap everywhere."
"We can train her," Jack protested, to which Ianto replied with a piercing look.
"Jack, do you realise how small that thing's brain is? And you honestly think we can train her?"
"It's a misconception that dinosaurs aren't intelligent," Jack said dismissively.
"Right. The fact that they're extinct has nothing at all to do with their intelligence."
Jack rolled his eyes then in a gesture eerily reminiscent of his young lover.
"Look, I promise I'll help clean up after her. Now, can we please focus on catching the nice dinosaur before she decides we're her dinner?"
That, Ianto decided, was probably a reasonable idea. Jack edged forward, his attention now almost entirely on the prehistoric creature that had landed a short distance away and was watching them carefully.
"Oh, you are beautiful," Jack breathed, at the same time edging steadily towards to the winged creature. "But you can't stay here. Come with us, we've got a nice, big open space where you can fly around."
"As long as you don't even think about setting her onto that PC," Ianto muttered, to which Jack responded with a brief smirk.
"Just remember, you gave me the idea."
"Me and my big mouth," Ianto bemoaned. "Jack, what's the plan?"
Jack held up the enormous syringe that he'd collected from the back of the SUV.
"Take this. I'll distract, and you slip up from behind and sedate her."
"How are you going to distract a pteranodon?" Ianto demanded to know, grabbing Jack's arm to stop him. "It had better not include feeding yourself to it, or anything else like that."
Jack's expression softened. It never failed to touch him that Ianto was still so protective of him. It was a mutual feeling.
"I promise, there will be no intentional self-sacrificing," Jack assured him. Ianto grimaced. He could see where this was going, regardless of Jack's best intentions.
"Right, change of plan. I'll distract, you inject. If I let you distract her, she'll tear you to pieces."
"Nah," Jack scoffed, though he didn't object when Ianto thrust the syringe into his hands. "I used to have dinosaurs for breakfast. They were the only source of pre-killed food protein after the asteroid hit."
Ianto's eyebrows shot up again.
"Time Agency mishap?"
"Yeah. Half a dozen of us were stranded on prehistoric Earth for nearly a month. It wasn't pretty."
A smile quirked Ianto's lips but he resisted the urge to ask more questions.
"You can tell me about it later. Just be ready to use that thing."
"But what are you going to do?" Jack pressed, a hint of anxiety creeping into his voice.
"Don't worry, I have a secret weapon," Ianto told him, and pulled a large block of chocolate from his jacket pocket. "Chocolate, preferably dark."
"Hey, that was gonna be our dessert!" Jack protested. "I got the fondue set out specially, and I never ate the marshmallows, either!"
"Relax, cariad," Ianto murmured as he edged around to the other side, drawing the pteranodon's attention as he did so. "There's more chocolate at home. I would never dream of making you go without."
Jack's grin was positively evil and Ianto had to actively ignore it. He unwrapped the chocolate and the crinkle of the foil drew the dinosaur's attention further.
"Hey," Ianto said, feeling like an utter fool. "Look at what I've got for you." He tossed the entire block down, letting the creature's curiosity take over. "It's good for your serotonin levels. If you've got serotonin levels..."
All the while, Jack was creeping ever closer, syringe at the ready. He was just about within reach when the featherless bird turned and pinned him with a beady-eyed stare. The next thing Ianto knew, Jack lunged just as the pteranodon launched itself back into the air. He was left on the floor, watching helplessly as Jack was carried all around the warehouse, laughing with delight and shouting Ianto's name in absolute glee.
Right at that moment, Jack sounded just like he had in that time between his rescue from Torchwood, and when he'd finally recovered all his faculties. He sounded completely innocent and carefree, and the sound of his laughter brought a smile to Ianto's lips.
He was so caught up with his memories that he almost missed the moment when Jack shoved the syringe into the pteranodon's leg. As it was, he barely had time to brace himself before Jack plummeted straight down into Ianto's waiting arms, effectively flattening the younger man and squashing the air right out of him.
"Sorry," Jack gasped in between giggles. The giggles turned into a grunt, though, when Ianto forced them both to roll to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the pteranodon as it fell.
"That was close," Jack said, starting to giggle again. Ianto couldn't help himself. Jack's laughter was contagious in the best possible way, and he began to laugh as well.
Eyes alight with enthusiasm, Jack lunged upwards and claimed Ianto's lips in a ferocious kiss, which Ianto returned with equal enthusiasm.
"Do we forgive each other?" Jack asked softly, hopefully. Ianto stroked his cheek lovingly.
"Absolutely. But unfortunately, our dinner date at home is going to have to wait. We have to get our new guest back to the Hub and get her settled before we wakes up. Then we're going to have to stay with her so that she gets used to us. It'll be up to us to make sure she doesn't try to eat Tosh, Owen or Suzie."
Jack opened his mouth to say something, and Ianto cut him off quickly.
"Not even nosy PCs. We're also going to have to work out a way to keep her from eating everything she sees. We don't need her chewing on the rift manipulator cables."
"Right," Jack agreed, though he seemed not the least bit inclined to let Ianto up. Smiling wryly, Ianto levered himself up and held a hand out to help Jack up.
"C'mon, sweetheart. Work to do."
Jack's smile faltered fractionally as he joined Ianto in manoeuvring the dinosaur back to the SUV.
"I still miss Gage."
Ianto shut his eyes just briefly, willing away the old hurt. He'd known the moment the word 'sweetheart' left his lips that it would invoke memories of their old friend, but it was too late to take it back.
"So do I, love. Maybe we'll see him again. I hope we will."
"Me, too," Jack murmured. He fell silent as they tied a blindfold lightly over the pteranodon's eyes, and followed it with a tie to keep its long beak closed.
"Back to the Hub, now," Ianto said with a sigh of relief. "And remember, no training the dinosaur to eat people. Not even as an emergency measure."
Jack pouted, but Ianto didn't miss the renewed sparkle in his eyes. Yes, they both missed Gage, but the hurt was somewhat lessened from what it had once been. Ianto knew that Jack no longer blamed himself for Gage's departure, and the loss of that sense of blame had helped Jack in his journey to full maturity. Now, both men shared a quiet hope that they would be reunited with their friend at some point in the near future, but right then Ianto was content that they could at least talk about Gage without it turning into a complete conversation stopper.
Tosh knew most of what there was to tell about Gage Adams' involvement in their lives pre and post-Canary Wharf's destruction, and Owen had heard some stories but again, Suzie had been told nothing about Gage. Suzie had been told nothing about Jack's history at all. The most she knew was that they were survivors of the Canary Wharf disaster, and that was all. Not that that information had served to improve her opinion of Ianto in any way...
"You're thinking too hard," Jack said lightly, his voice breaking into Ianto's stray thoughts. Ianto offered Jack a weary smile, but on looking out of the side window was startled to realise that they were almost back at the Hub. Jack had driven and allowed him to retreat into his own thoughts for the duration of the drive.
"Just musing," Ianto assured him. "Let's get our new pet inside before someone notices."
* * *
The eerie quiet that blanketed the Hub served as a stark reminder to both Jack and Ianto why they had a home of their own, away from the underground base. To put it simply, it was plain creepy. With no small amount of difficulty, they managed to get the pteranodon up into the cave-like formation within the Hub, and not a minute too soon as the creature began to wake up.
"Any ideas how we're going to keep her calm and keep her from eating us?" Ianto wondered. Jack quirked a smile at his lover.
"Her? You've decided to go along with me that she's a girl?"
"Until we have proof otherwise?" Ianto retorted. "Might as well. It's not as though I can easily check, is it? But I swear, Jack, if you think we're calling her Magenta or anything along those lines, you've got another thing coming."
"You name her," Jack encouraged. He glanced down as the pteranodon uttered a half-hearted warbling noise and tried to move. "I named Brad. You name her."
Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and instead contemplated the creature lying between them. It wouldn't be long before she was fully conscious and then it would be interesting, to say the least.
"I don't know, Jack..."
"Something good and Welsh," Jack suggested quickly, eagerly. Ianto snorted softly.
"I'll think on it, and let you know in the morning."
"There's a diplomatic answer, if ever there was one," Jack said with a chuckle. "Oh, she's waking up..."
Deciding it was all in, Ianto leaned in and laid one arm across the pteranodon's neck whilst rubbing his hand up and down the creature's beak in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. Jack copied, leaning in close and stroking the pteranodon up and down her back.
"Easy, girl," Ianto murmured as the dinosaur began to struggle against her restraints.
"Have you got anymore chocolate on you?" Jack wondered. Ianto's first instinct was to ask why, but instead he reached into his pocket and pulled out the still half-wrapped block that he'd retrieved from the floor of the warehouse. He broke it into pieces and handed some to Jack before carefully loosening the binding around the creature's beak.
"Now, if you're nice and gentle and don't take my hand off, you can have more of this," Ianto murmured as he slipped a piece of chocolate into her beak. The increasingly distressed cries subsided to be replaced with a less threatening warble.
"Hey, I think she likes it," Jack said with a grin. Ianto raised an eyebrow.
"Of course she likes it. It's Godiva."
Jack shook his head even as he took a turn to feed a piece to the pteranodon.
"We're feeding our best dessert chocolate to a prehistoric bird. On the bright side, we have a new slogan for the people who make the stuff. Godiva, chocolate that'll soothe the wildest beast."
Ianto snorted and uttered a choked laugh, but anything he'd intended to say was cut short by the sound of the Hub's cog door rolling open, and the alarms ringing to alert them to the fact that someone had entered the Hub.
"Easy, girl," Jack murmured, stroking the pteranodon's neck soothingly as Ianto got up and crept to the edge of the new eyrie to see who had bothered to come in so late.
"It's Suzie," Ianto hissed back over his shoulder at Jack. "What the hell is she doing here now?"
Leaving the dinosaur to continue devouring the chocolate, Jack joined Ianto at the edge and peered down into the Hub. Sure enough, Suzie had entered the Hub with a large bag slung over her shoulder. She paused just inside the cog door, looking around pensively before hurrying across the floor and disappearing through the door that led to the archives.
"What's she up to?" Jack wondered with a frown. Ianto shook his head, quietly fuming at the thought of Suzie rummaging around in his archives. If he found so much as a single file out of place, he was going to retcon Suzie back to her nappies and damn what Jack thought of it.
They watched in silence, and nearly ten minutes later, Suzie reappeared, her bag noticeably heavier than before. She paused at her desk, and Jack and Ianto watched breathlessly as she picked up the metallic glove that Jack had given her to research. For nearly half a minute, she stood with the glove clutched in her hands before shoving it quickly into her bag and rushing out of the Hub.
Jack and Ianto moved back from the edge of the eyrie, and Ianto shot a flat stare in Jack's direction.
"I can't wait to hear how you're going to defend her this time."
To his credit, Jack looked genuinely angry at what they'd just witnessed.
"She took tech out of the Hub. Tech that we don't even know what it does!"
"Not to mention whatever it was that she took out of the archives," Ianto added. "Jack, it's your call, but surely you're not going to turn a blind eye to this?"
"No," Jack conceded with a sigh. "No, I'm not. But... I want to know what she's up to before I confront her. Ianto, do you think you can find out what it was that she took from the archives?"
"I'll try, but it won't be easy, depending on how careful she was with whatever she took. One thing about Suzie, she's meticulously careful. She won't have left behind any obvious evidence."
"Well, try anyway," Jack encouraged him. "I'll set up a watch on Suzie..."
"How?" Ianto wondered with a frown. "I don't know that it would be too wise to involve Tosh or Owen."
"No, I don't want to drag them into it," Jack murmured. "I just want this between us for now, and I don't want to jump the gun, either. I want to know what she's doing before we make a final decision."
Ianto shut his eyes briefly and made a concerted effort to speak calmly.
"Jack, we're going to have to retcon her. You know that. She's becoming a liability. Even you can see that now."
"I know, I know... but there are more options than just retconning her. There's always Flat Holm."
Ianto gazed at Jack thoughtfully, noting the anxiety in his lover's eyes before smiling and nodding.
"All right, cariad. Now, let's focus on Myfanwy for now, and worry about Suzie Costello tomorrow."
A bright grin lit up Jack's face.
"Myfanwy?"
The younger man shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
"It seems to fit."
Jack grinned as he settled down next to the pteranodon and urged her to take another piece of chocolate, which she did with a throaty warble.
"Yeah, it does."
* * *
to be continued...
Chapter 2: Of Pteranodons and Treachery
Author: blucougar57
Summary: Secretive behaviour and a persistent PC creates headaches for Captain Jack as he and Ianto continue working to reinvent Torchwood; and all the while the universe doesn't seem to want to let him forget he was once Torchwood's prisoner...
Rating: Strong T
Warnings: References to past abuse.
A/N: Sorry for the late posting. I promised to get this chapter up this last weekend in thanks for the help and advice about my now pending trip to the UK later this year. Unfortunately, I have to confess that I am rather easily distracted... :/
"You did what?" Ianto exploded.
They were standing in the kitchen of their home, and Jack had just dropped a bombshell. Rather than retcon Suzie, he'd allowed her to test the newest piece of alien tech that they'd found.
"Ianto..."
"No! No, I need to get my head around this. Not only have you let Suzie stay, even after what you saw and heard today, but you've also given her a free hand with a piece of tech that we'd already agreed should go straight into Secure Archives! What were you thinking? Were you even thinking?"
Jack huffed in annoyance.
"I don't think I needed to sack," Jack argued. "Sure, she had no right to bail you up like she did, and I spoke to her about it..."
"You spoke to her," Ianto snapped. "That's wonderful. Everything will be just fine now!"
Annoyance and frustration darkened Jack's features in reaction to Ianto's anger. Not so long ago, he knew he would have backed down and given in to the young Welshman, but times were changing and so was he. As much as he loved his Ianto, no longer was he complete subservient, either.
"She hasn't done anything to justify firing her, or retconning her. Until she does, she stays on the team."
Later on (or, more specifically, immediately afterwards), Ianto would fervently wish that he could take back his next words. He let his anger get the better of him, though, before he could take a moment to try and calm down.
"Goddamn it, Jack! What is it about Suzie that you don't want to take off your damn blinkers? Do you want to shag her? Is that it? Are you bored with me? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but then I was actually stupid enough to believe you had at least a modicum of respect for me!"
Jack looked as though he'd just been slapped. In the space of a few seconds, his expression went from confused to angry, to plain hurt. Without uttering a sound, he circled around Ianto and headed to the door. He was halfway out when he turned back to gaze forlornly at Ianto.
"I love you, Yan. Let me know when you've remembered that."
Then the door closed quietly, and he was gone.
It took Ianto a full ten minutes to calm down properly and comprehend the possible ramifications of his fight with Jack, although 'fight' was probably an inappropriate choice of word. It had been far too one-sided to be a real fight. Guilt set in quickly as Ianto reluctantly admitted to himself that Jack had been right. Suzie had done nothing to warrant being sacked and retconned, and he had no right or reason to demand it.
Jack's parting words sat heavily on Ianto's subconscious as he took his car and went in search of his lover. Of course he knew that Jack loved him and oh, how he wished he could take back the hurtful things he'd said.
Why was he so angry? When Jack hired Owen, Ianto had explained it away as melancholy that Jack was finally starting to make independent decisions. Given how long and how hard they'd worked towards that, Ianto knew he had no business being upset – either then or now. The difference was that Owen had proven himself. In Ianto's opinion, Suzie had yet to do so.
Jack was right, though. Suzie had not breached any protocols, or put anyone in danger, there was no just cause to cut her loose from Torchwood.
He tried Jack's mobile, only to get a message. He growled in frustration, and had to resist the urge to call Tosh. As much as he wanted to find Jack quickly, he knew damn well that this was his mess to fix.
"Stupid," he hissed, thumping his hand on the steering wheel in anger. He knew that Jack still harboured insecurities and to accuse him so callously was unhelpful, to say the least. The annoying and frustrating part, though, was knowing that Jack harboured suspicions – or at the very least, uncertainties – as well. He'd admitted that he didn't trust Suzie completely, but he insisted on keeping her on the team. If it was primarily so that he could keep an eye on her, then so be it, but why the hell couldn't he just come right out and say so?
So caught up in his own thoughts was he that he nearly didn't see the man standing in the path of the SUV until it was too late. Stomping hard on the brake, Ianto held onto the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip as the SUV skidded to a stop mere inches away from the Captain of Torchwood. Ianto's emotions warred between anger and concern as he climbed out, finally falling in favour of concerned.
"Jack, are you all right?" he asked anxiously. "God, cariad, I almost ran you down!"
Jack smiled, but it was a pale imitation of the real thing.
"Got your attention, didn't it?"
Ianto grabbed Jack and yanked him in close for a fierce hug, which Jack immediately returned with interest.
"I'm sorry," Ianto murmured. "You're right, there's no reason to get rid of her."
"But there are reasons to be cautious around her," Jack conceded. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have walked out like that, and I do know that you love me. I just... I don't know what to do about this, Yan."
"We both made mistakes," Ianto offered, and Jack nodded; happy to accept even that slightly unbalanced compromise.
"I shouldn't have given her the glove," Jack said.
"No," Ianto agreed, "but what's done is done. We'll just have to keep a close eye on her. On the other hand, at least we'll find out what the blasted thing does."
"I still think it's a fancy oven mitt," Jack retorted. Ianto answered with a familiar eye-roll.
"For someone who professes to hate household chores, you have a curious fixation on kitchenware." The cheeky grin that lit up Jack's face was enough to lift Ianto's mood, and he grinned back. "How about we go and get take-away, and head home and watch a movie?"
"Something funny?" Jack asked hopefully and Ianto readily agreed. After the tension of not just that evening but the last few days, Ianto was more than ready to have something to laugh at, and to hear Jack's carefree laughter again as well.
"I think that's quite doable."
"Great! Can we get Indian? With extra poppadums?"
"If you like," Ianto conceded with a relieved grin.
"Yes, please. Wait!"
Ianto froze in the middle of putting the SUV into gear.
"What?" he asked, tensing automatically at the thought that something else was wrong.
"I nearly forgot," Jack exclaimed with an excitement that had Ianto more than a little worried. "I got a rift alert on my manipulator after I... I mean, while I was out. I tracked it to a warehouse, and you won't believe what I found!"
Ianto couldn't help but gape as he stared up at the pteranodon as it circled around above their heads. Jack had been right – he didn't believe his eyes.
The short journey to the warehouse had been filled with mixed tensions as Ianto tried to get Jack to tell him what he'd found. Strangely, when Jack had made an off-the-cuff about finding a guard dog, for some idiotic reason Ianto had actually thought he meant he'd found a dog. He'd just been contemplating having to clean up after some mutt that sorely needed house-training when Jack had flung open the warehouse door with relish for the big reveal.
"It's a dinosaur, Jack."
Jack grinned widely.
"I know. Isn't she beautiful?"
Ianto decided he wasn't going to ask how Jack knew it was a female. He didn't feel particularly in the mood to delve into the mysteries of dinosaur sex.
"It's a bloody dinosaur."
"Yeah, I think we established that."
Ianto looked sideways at Jack.
"Okay, let's deal with this one step at a time. What, exactly, do you want us to do?"
"Catch her," Jack said, sounding very much as though he thought it was the most logical thing in the world.
"Of course," Ianto muttered. "What else?"
"Ianto," Jack said in a softer and mildly less enthusiastic tone, "whatever we do later on, we still have to catch her. Can you imagine the panic if she's seen?"
Ianto snorted, though he had to concede to Jack's reasoning.
"It'd go in the same police file as all the UFO reports. And then we'd have to catch her anyway."
"Exactly. At least here and now we might be able to avoid killing her. And who knows? Maybe she can be trained."
Ianto could feel his eyebrows lifting entirely of their own accord, and for a split second he had a flashback to Jack sitting on the couch in Jackie Tyler's apartment, innocently asking if he could have a dog. Though he would never said so to Jack, he was sure there was some level of self-compensation going on there.
"A guard dog?" Ianto queried in weary amusement, and Jack grinned hopefully.
"I promise I won't call her Sam."
That broke the last of Ianto's resistance, and he sighed audibly.
"All right," he conceded wearily. "There's a space up near the top of the water tower that might make do as a nest area... but so help me, Jack, you had better do your share of the cleaning up! I will not be solely responsible for a dinosaur that's likely to crap everywhere."
"We can train her," Jack protested, to which Ianto replied with a piercing look.
"Jack, do you realise how small that thing's brain is? And you honestly think we can train her?"
"It's a misconception that dinosaurs aren't intelligent," Jack said dismissively.
"Right. The fact that they're extinct has nothing at all to do with their intelligence."
Jack rolled his eyes then in a gesture eerily reminiscent of his young lover.
"Look, I promise I'll help clean up after her. Now, can we please focus on catching the nice dinosaur before she decides we're her dinner?"
That, Ianto decided, was probably a reasonable idea. Jack edged forward, his attention now almost entirely on the prehistoric creature that had landed a short distance away and was watching them carefully.
"Oh, you are beautiful," Jack breathed, at the same time edging steadily towards to the winged creature. "But you can't stay here. Come with us, we've got a nice, big open space where you can fly around."
"As long as you don't even think about setting her onto that PC," Ianto muttered, to which Jack responded with a brief smirk.
"Just remember, you gave me the idea."
"Me and my big mouth," Ianto bemoaned. "Jack, what's the plan?"
Jack held up the enormous syringe that he'd collected from the back of the SUV.
"Take this. I'll distract, and you slip up from behind and sedate her."
"How are you going to distract a pteranodon?" Ianto demanded to know, grabbing Jack's arm to stop him. "It had better not include feeding yourself to it, or anything else like that."
Jack's expression softened. It never failed to touch him that Ianto was still so protective of him. It was a mutual feeling.
"I promise, there will be no intentional self-sacrificing," Jack assured him. Ianto grimaced. He could see where this was going, regardless of Jack's best intentions.
"Right, change of plan. I'll distract, you inject. If I let you distract her, she'll tear you to pieces."
"Nah," Jack scoffed, though he didn't object when Ianto thrust the syringe into his hands. "I used to have dinosaurs for breakfast. They were the only source of pre-killed food protein after the asteroid hit."
Ianto's eyebrows shot up again.
"Time Agency mishap?"
"Yeah. Half a dozen of us were stranded on prehistoric Earth for nearly a month. It wasn't pretty."
A smile quirked Ianto's lips but he resisted the urge to ask more questions.
"You can tell me about it later. Just be ready to use that thing."
"But what are you going to do?" Jack pressed, a hint of anxiety creeping into his voice.
"Don't worry, I have a secret weapon," Ianto told him, and pulled a large block of chocolate from his jacket pocket. "Chocolate, preferably dark."
"Hey, that was gonna be our dessert!" Jack protested. "I got the fondue set out specially, and I never ate the marshmallows, either!"
"Relax, cariad," Ianto murmured as he edged around to the other side, drawing the pteranodon's attention as he did so. "There's more chocolate at home. I would never dream of making you go without."
Jack's grin was positively evil and Ianto had to actively ignore it. He unwrapped the chocolate and the crinkle of the foil drew the dinosaur's attention further.
"Hey," Ianto said, feeling like an utter fool. "Look at what I've got for you." He tossed the entire block down, letting the creature's curiosity take over. "It's good for your serotonin levels. If you've got serotonin levels..."
All the while, Jack was creeping ever closer, syringe at the ready. He was just about within reach when the featherless bird turned and pinned him with a beady-eyed stare. The next thing Ianto knew, Jack lunged just as the pteranodon launched itself back into the air. He was left on the floor, watching helplessly as Jack was carried all around the warehouse, laughing with delight and shouting Ianto's name in absolute glee.
Right at that moment, Jack sounded just like he had in that time between his rescue from Torchwood, and when he'd finally recovered all his faculties. He sounded completely innocent and carefree, and the sound of his laughter brought a smile to Ianto's lips.
He was so caught up with his memories that he almost missed the moment when Jack shoved the syringe into the pteranodon's leg. As it was, he barely had time to brace himself before Jack plummeted straight down into Ianto's waiting arms, effectively flattening the younger man and squashing the air right out of him.
"Sorry," Jack gasped in between giggles. The giggles turned into a grunt, though, when Ianto forced them both to roll to the side, narrowly avoiding being crushed by the pteranodon as it fell.
"That was close," Jack said, starting to giggle again. Ianto couldn't help himself. Jack's laughter was contagious in the best possible way, and he began to laugh as well.
Eyes alight with enthusiasm, Jack lunged upwards and claimed Ianto's lips in a ferocious kiss, which Ianto returned with equal enthusiasm.
"Do we forgive each other?" Jack asked softly, hopefully. Ianto stroked his cheek lovingly.
"Absolutely. But unfortunately, our dinner date at home is going to have to wait. We have to get our new guest back to the Hub and get her settled before we wakes up. Then we're going to have to stay with her so that she gets used to us. It'll be up to us to make sure she doesn't try to eat Tosh, Owen or Suzie."
Jack opened his mouth to say something, and Ianto cut him off quickly.
"Not even nosy PCs. We're also going to have to work out a way to keep her from eating everything she sees. We don't need her chewing on the rift manipulator cables."
"Right," Jack agreed, though he seemed not the least bit inclined to let Ianto up. Smiling wryly, Ianto levered himself up and held a hand out to help Jack up.
"C'mon, sweetheart. Work to do."
Jack's smile faltered fractionally as he joined Ianto in manoeuvring the dinosaur back to the SUV.
"I still miss Gage."
Ianto shut his eyes just briefly, willing away the old hurt. He'd known the moment the word 'sweetheart' left his lips that it would invoke memories of their old friend, but it was too late to take it back.
"So do I, love. Maybe we'll see him again. I hope we will."
"Me, too," Jack murmured. He fell silent as they tied a blindfold lightly over the pteranodon's eyes, and followed it with a tie to keep its long beak closed.
"Back to the Hub, now," Ianto said with a sigh of relief. "And remember, no training the dinosaur to eat people. Not even as an emergency measure."
Jack pouted, but Ianto didn't miss the renewed sparkle in his eyes. Yes, they both missed Gage, but the hurt was somewhat lessened from what it had once been. Ianto knew that Jack no longer blamed himself for Gage's departure, and the loss of that sense of blame had helped Jack in his journey to full maturity. Now, both men shared a quiet hope that they would be reunited with their friend at some point in the near future, but right then Ianto was content that they could at least talk about Gage without it turning into a complete conversation stopper.
Tosh knew most of what there was to tell about Gage Adams' involvement in their lives pre and post-Canary Wharf's destruction, and Owen had heard some stories but again, Suzie had been told nothing about Gage. Suzie had been told nothing about Jack's history at all. The most she knew was that they were survivors of the Canary Wharf disaster, and that was all. Not that that information had served to improve her opinion of Ianto in any way...
"You're thinking too hard," Jack said lightly, his voice breaking into Ianto's stray thoughts. Ianto offered Jack a weary smile, but on looking out of the side window was startled to realise that they were almost back at the Hub. Jack had driven and allowed him to retreat into his own thoughts for the duration of the drive.
"Just musing," Ianto assured him. "Let's get our new pet inside before someone notices."
The eerie quiet that blanketed the Hub served as a stark reminder to both Jack and Ianto why they had a home of their own, away from the underground base. To put it simply, it was plain creepy. With no small amount of difficulty, they managed to get the pteranodon up into the cave-like formation within the Hub, and not a minute too soon as the creature began to wake up.
"Any ideas how we're going to keep her calm and keep her from eating us?" Ianto wondered. Jack quirked a smile at his lover.
"Her? You've decided to go along with me that she's a girl?"
"Until we have proof otherwise?" Ianto retorted. "Might as well. It's not as though I can easily check, is it? But I swear, Jack, if you think we're calling her Magenta or anything along those lines, you've got another thing coming."
"You name her," Jack encouraged. He glanced down as the pteranodon uttered a half-hearted warbling noise and tried to move. "I named Brad. You name her."
Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes, and instead contemplated the creature lying between them. It wouldn't be long before she was fully conscious and then it would be interesting, to say the least.
"I don't know, Jack..."
"Something good and Welsh," Jack suggested quickly, eagerly. Ianto snorted softly.
"I'll think on it, and let you know in the morning."
"There's a diplomatic answer, if ever there was one," Jack said with a chuckle. "Oh, she's waking up..."
Deciding it was all in, Ianto leaned in and laid one arm across the pteranodon's neck whilst rubbing his hand up and down the creature's beak in what he hoped was a soothing gesture. Jack copied, leaning in close and stroking the pteranodon up and down her back.
"Easy, girl," Ianto murmured as the dinosaur began to struggle against her restraints.
"Have you got anymore chocolate on you?" Jack wondered. Ianto's first instinct was to ask why, but instead he reached into his pocket and pulled out the still half-wrapped block that he'd retrieved from the floor of the warehouse. He broke it into pieces and handed some to Jack before carefully loosening the binding around the creature's beak.
"Now, if you're nice and gentle and don't take my hand off, you can have more of this," Ianto murmured as he slipped a piece of chocolate into her beak. The increasingly distressed cries subsided to be replaced with a less threatening warble.
"Hey, I think she likes it," Jack said with a grin. Ianto raised an eyebrow.
"Of course she likes it. It's Godiva."
Jack shook his head even as he took a turn to feed a piece to the pteranodon.
"We're feeding our best dessert chocolate to a prehistoric bird. On the bright side, we have a new slogan for the people who make the stuff. Godiva, chocolate that'll soothe the wildest beast."
Ianto snorted and uttered a choked laugh, but anything he'd intended to say was cut short by the sound of the Hub's cog door rolling open, and the alarms ringing to alert them to the fact that someone had entered the Hub.
"Easy, girl," Jack murmured, stroking the pteranodon's neck soothingly as Ianto got up and crept to the edge of the new eyrie to see who had bothered to come in so late.
"It's Suzie," Ianto hissed back over his shoulder at Jack. "What the hell is she doing here now?"
Leaving the dinosaur to continue devouring the chocolate, Jack joined Ianto at the edge and peered down into the Hub. Sure enough, Suzie had entered the Hub with a large bag slung over her shoulder. She paused just inside the cog door, looking around pensively before hurrying across the floor and disappearing through the door that led to the archives.
"What's she up to?" Jack wondered with a frown. Ianto shook his head, quietly fuming at the thought of Suzie rummaging around in his archives. If he found so much as a single file out of place, he was going to retcon Suzie back to her nappies and damn what Jack thought of it.
They watched in silence, and nearly ten minutes later, Suzie reappeared, her bag noticeably heavier than before. She paused at her desk, and Jack and Ianto watched breathlessly as she picked up the metallic glove that Jack had given her to research. For nearly half a minute, she stood with the glove clutched in her hands before shoving it quickly into her bag and rushing out of the Hub.
Jack and Ianto moved back from the edge of the eyrie, and Ianto shot a flat stare in Jack's direction.
"I can't wait to hear how you're going to defend her this time."
To his credit, Jack looked genuinely angry at what they'd just witnessed.
"She took tech out of the Hub. Tech that we don't even know what it does!"
"Not to mention whatever it was that she took out of the archives," Ianto added. "Jack, it's your call, but surely you're not going to turn a blind eye to this?"
"No," Jack conceded with a sigh. "No, I'm not. But... I want to know what she's up to before I confront her. Ianto, do you think you can find out what it was that she took from the archives?"
"I'll try, but it won't be easy, depending on how careful she was with whatever she took. One thing about Suzie, she's meticulously careful. She won't have left behind any obvious evidence."
"Well, try anyway," Jack encouraged him. "I'll set up a watch on Suzie..."
"How?" Ianto wondered with a frown. "I don't know that it would be too wise to involve Tosh or Owen."
"No, I don't want to drag them into it," Jack murmured. "I just want this between us for now, and I don't want to jump the gun, either. I want to know what she's doing before we make a final decision."
Ianto shut his eyes briefly and made a concerted effort to speak calmly.
"Jack, we're going to have to retcon her. You know that. She's becoming a liability. Even you can see that now."
"I know, I know... but there are more options than just retconning her. There's always Flat Holm."
Ianto gazed at Jack thoughtfully, noting the anxiety in his lover's eyes before smiling and nodding.
"All right, cariad. Now, let's focus on Myfanwy for now, and worry about Suzie Costello tomorrow."
A bright grin lit up Jack's face.
"Myfanwy?"
The younger man shrugged and smiled sheepishly.
"It seems to fit."
Jack grinned as he settled down next to the pteranodon and urged her to take another piece of chocolate, which she did with a throaty warble.
"Yeah, it does."
to be continued...
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"As long as you don't even think about setting her onto that PC," Ianto muttered, to which Jack responded with a brief smirk.
"Just remember, you gave me the idea."
That totally cracked me up. LOL Love that devilish streak in our boy.
Also yay for mention of Gage - hopefully a sign of things to come in the future? :)
Love this universe. Can't wait for more. :)