Silver Service by a_silver_story | 22
Nov. 15th, 2009 04:21 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
a_silver_storyTitle: Silver Service
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
a_silver_story
Chapter: 22/?
Genre: AU, Romance, Angsty, fluffy
Rating: NC17 / 18
Pairings: Main Pairing is Jack/Ianto. Also includes Ianto/Martha, Ianto/Tosh friendship, Ten/Tosh, Mickey/Martha (mentioned)
Warnings: M.M, rentboy!Ianto, Alternate Universe
Disclaimer: If I owned anything in this, I'd be a rich rich rich bitch. However, I am not a rich rich rich bitch so you may all, therefore, assume I own nothing. Which I don't. It all belongs RTD and the BBC, in case any of you didn't know. Now pass the retcon ...
Summary: Started as a PWP, but since it's me (sorry folks!) and I really can't do things by halves, it grew and grew and grew (and not in an innuendous sort of way). Doctor Smith owns a posh Cardiff hotel, and the respectable Sixth Earl of Boeshane is coming to stay - and he brings with him some very specific demands.
The story follows Ianto from being born, meeting Toshiko and them running away together to the city, right up until Ianto is taken to work in the Doctor's hotel as a 'service' butler for - you guessed it - Jack.
Everyone's fave OTP ensues. BOO YA!
Torchwood Index/Masterlist
FIRST PART | Chapter 1
Lisa was a little on edge, and no matter what Ianto or anybody said she wouldn’t relax. She’d barely spoken more than a ‘Happy Birthday, Ianto’ that morning, and as the day drew on she was getting all the more tetchy.
She'd spent a weekend away getting to Martha, seeing as she was her half-sister. She'd come back bubbling and happy, babbling about shopping, how Martha and Mickey lived in a canal boat and the freedom they had to just sail along wherever they wanted. They'd got on well, and found they had very similar characteristics, as well as very different ones. Lisa had, at first, found it unnerving how much like her mother Martha looked, but the more time they spent together the more differences she saw (taking into account the age gap, too) and soon Martha and Adeiola looked like completely different people in her eyes.
Ianto was pleased to see Lisa getting on well with Toshiko, too - though it did unnerve him a little that they were seemingly on constant conversation about Toshiko’s baby, babies in general and having babies. He had tried having a bit of a chat with Owen, but he seemed to be stuck on the baby subject, too. Ianto was happy for them, really ... but seriously: he knew they were having a baby and that they were over the moon about it. Did they have to keep going on and on and on?
Finally Martha and Mickey arrived, Martha flashing a shiny rock on her wedding finger and bringing the conversation around to the equally uncomfortable (for Ianto) subject of marriage. Eventually Mickey dragged him and Owen off into the front garden, and they sat on the bench, Ianto in the middle, with a bottle of beer each while the girls stayed inside to watch Loose Women.
“I can’t believe we all got out.” Owen pondered aloud.
“Don’t worry,” Mickey told him. “they’ll notice we’ve disappeared eventually.”
They laughed.
“I meant out of the business.” Owen clarified. “Me and Tosh moving up here next week – thanks for that Ianto, you uptight git – you and Martha have your canal boat. Ianto and Lisa and their posh cottage. Gwen with Rhys. We all got out.”
“Apart from Suzie.” Ianto reminded him.
“What happened with Suzie?” asked Mickey, and the other two remembered that he’d left before ... all that.
“She ... went on a bit of a murder spree.” sighed Owen. “Her punters were arriving and never leaving.”
A thick silence fell.
“So ...” Ianto tried again for conversation. “... you and Martha ...?” It was an open ended question, and Mickey raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. Figured it was about time I made an honest woman out of her. Y'know, hopefully she won't stray to fuck pretty little boys behind my back.”
“Ah.” realised Ianto. “You’re still a bit ... sore ... about that? It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t even know you two had a thing! And she came on to me! And you overreacted! I mean ... I think that little of it as ... significant ... that I never even told Jack! And it was like ...” He counted in his head. “... eight years ago!”
“I have my pride, though, innit?” scowled Mickey.
Owen sighed heavily to distract them. “What’s done is done. Accept what you cannot change, or keep a receipt in the future.”
They both glared into their bottles.
“You ... you turned out good anyway.” muttered Mickey. “All grown up now.”
“I don’t feel grown up.” Ianto massaged a temple with the hand not clutching the beer. “I still feel like ... I dunno. My life still isn’t my own, despite pretences. I’m still guided and cared for. You two ... you can go and do or say or be anything you want now. I still feel the need to ask permission.”
“From the Missus?” smirked Mickey.
“From higher up than that.” Ianto muttered. He sighed heavily. “He says I can do what I want, but he doesn’t mean it. If I was to walk away from this job or this house I wouldn’t be going without strings. Even though he’s miles away, even though we haven’t seen each other for months and even though he says we’re moving on: it’s all pretending, really. We’re not moving anywhere. I’m where he can see me, he’s wherever he wants to be knowing exactly where I am, what I’m doing ... keeping tabs. And even if I did go: what would I do? I can’t exactly hold an honest job – enough to pay the bills – with no qualifications. And I’m not going back to where I was before.”
“Possessive, much?” asked Mickey sarcastically.
“He’s ... messed up.” Ianto eventually said. “You meet him and he’s this big ball of charisma, happy-go-lucky, a bit cheeky, flirtatious. But ... you hang around, you get to know him, you scratch the surface and ... he’s fucked up. He’s totally fucked up. I mean ... I’m here now because a Tarot reader told him to leave me. Now we have to wait until he decides he’s redeemed himself of his past enough to deserve me.”
Mickey sighed heavily. “Don’t fall for the punters, Ianto. Golden Rule Number One.”
Ianto glared at him. “He’s not a punter! He’s ... it’s different. It’s complicated.”
The conversation died as the rumble of an engine could be heard approaching from the dirt road that ran past Ianto's cottage. All three of them turned their heads as a large, black car appeared in the distance, purring along towards the cottage. Ianto frowned. He’d only ever known Jack to ride in Cadillacs, Bentleys and Rolls Royces. A Jaguar? He’d have put that down as a car you’d more likely find ...
“Adeiola!” he realised. “Shit! Get Martha hidden away! I’ll ... see if I can get rid of her ...”
Owen and Mickey darted inside, and Ianto went to stand just inside the gate and wait for the car. Lisa joined him.
“Did you invite your mother?” Ianto asked her under his breath. “It’s my birthday. I don’t want her here.”
Lisa brushed off his concern. “I didn’t invite her. I heard a car coming and thought it was my Dad.”
The car came to a halt and the chauffeur got out, opening the door and standing aside as Lady Harkness stepped out of the car, smiling as if she was expected. Ianto kept his well-practiced stoic mask on, his arms stiff by his sides.
“Lisa!” Adeiola beamed, going to hug her daughter and kissing her on the cheek. She looked a lot more tired than when Ianto had last seen her, and was quietly smug about it. Apparently she was losing badly in her divorce case, according to the papers. Ianto made a mental note to ask Jack in his next letter.
He fidgeted guiltily thinking about letters to Jack – neither had sent any after their last meeting.
Adeiola ignored him as she breezed past, and he had to hurry to catch up with her, standing in the doorway to stop her getting in. “I don’t want you here.” he told her bluntly. “Give or take or ask or whatever it is you’re here for, just get it over and done with and leave.”
“Ianto!” chastised Lisa.
“It’s my birthday.” he scowled at her. “My birthday; my rules.”
“Awww. Isn’t he still such a sweet little cherub?” cooed Adeiola, going to pinch his cheek as he flinched away from her. “Twenty-four now, is it? And still pedalling ‘my birthday; my rules’? I’d thought you’d have made him grow up a bit since you got him Lisa. But no. Still a petulant, selfish little boy, aren’t you, Yan?”
He flinched again, this time at the name.
“Stop it, Mum.” sighed Lisa.
“What?” she asked innocently. “Just being observant.”
“He’s not selfish or petulant. Or a little boy. Just leave him, okay? Let’s go and get a cuppa ...”
“No!” snapped Ianto. “I don’t want her here!”
I don’t want her near Martha he thought silently. Ianto didn’t know if Martha still had a contract on her head – he was guessing she maybe didn’t, but he couldn’t be sure – but he definitely didn’t want her meeting Adeiola.
“If you want to spend time with her, take her shopping or something.” he scowled.
“You’re taking orders from him?” Adeiola raised an eyebrow.
“That ... stop twisting ... it was a request!” Ianto sputtered. “Lisa!” he implored.
“Just a cup of tea, Ianto. Then she’ll go. Won’t you, mum?”
“Hm? Yes, yes, of course, of course.”
Ianto glared at Lisa, realised she’d already offered her only compromise, and stepped aside. He refused to look Adeiola in the eye as she brushed past him, nose in the air and a haughty aura. “A bit of a lonely birthday party.” she commented, entering the sitting room without being directed and scanning her eyes around. She sat gracefully in the armchair, perched on the edge. Lisa sat comfortably on the sofa, but Ianto remained standing, trying not to glare at them both.
“Tea, Yan?” Adeiola reminded him, and he rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue as he made his way to the kitchen. He reached for the leaf tea instead of the tea bags with the logic that if it tasted better, she’d drink it faster and be gone sooner. He glanced out into the back garden, and saw movement behind the shadowed windows of the little playhouse built at the bottom of it. That must’ve been where they’d all decided to hide.
While the tea was brewing, he idly wondered what time Jack would arrive. Knowing Jack, it would be the wrong time. Like ... in the next fifteen minutes. He also considered the thought that Jack might have forgotten.
He hesitated with his tray, listening to Lisa and Adeiola’s voices floating into the hall from the sitting room.
“... oh your father will come to his senses. He already did about Ianto. Punishing him for being such a brat. That’s what he is, Lisa. A selfish little brat. Demanding whatever he wanted, and your Dad just pandered along to his every whim. That’s what you are, Lisa: punishment. Second best until your father decides he deserves The Great Jack Harkness again.”
“No. I don’t think it was like that.” insisted Lisa. “Dad doesn’t pander after anyone! And Ianto's lovely, Mum. He really is. He isn’t selfish at all – he does more for other people than he does for himself. He’s been through so much, Mum, and instead of doing what Dad does and turning it in on himself and becoming cynical and self-destructive, he turns it outwards and thinks of others, and he loves them with all he’s got. He loves me.”
“He’s a prostitute, Lisa. A whore. It’s his job to make you believe what you want to believe. He managed to make Jack infatuated with him – no innocent little boy would be able to do that.”
“He’s only ever slept with two people – and I’m one of them.” Lisa snapped.
“You believe that? He was twenty-three when your father bought him.”
“Stop calling it that,” sighed Lisa. “and stop trying to rile him.”
Ianto rattled the tray noisily before he entered the room, and felt the thick atmosphere in the room as he entered. He poured the tea for the two women, added cream and sugar to Lisa’s taste but left Adeiola to do her own.
They sat in uncomfortable silence, Ianto sat on the chair by the writing desk, glaring into the middle distance while Lisa and Adeiola sipped their tea. The tension was growing, Ianto and Lisa fidgeting more and more as the minutes dragged agonisingly by while Adeiola seemed perfectly at ease and comfortable.
“So ...” tried Lisa. “... are you ... doing okay? You haven’t called in a while.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine!” smiled Adeiola sweetly. “Your father’s got it into his head he wants to divorce me again, but don’t you worry.”
“Oh. Erm ... Mum? Have you ever considered that maybe ... y’know ... your marriage is over?” Lisa asked tentatively. “I mean ... you’ve hardly spoken to each other for eight years. Maybe it it’d be better for everyone if you ... cut loose.”
“I will not be divorced.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being divorced, Mum. If just didn’t work out – no one will look down on you for it.”
“In your humble, normal, peasant existence maybe.” sniffed Adeiola, still haughty. “And ‘what’s best for all of us’ is what we have now. Well ... apart from him still hanging around ...” She indicated Ianto with her head. "But bad news does tend to go away eventually."
"You've been hanging around a while." Ianto muttered, and she glared at him. Lisa gave him a wide-eyed 'don't you dare' look.
The phone in the hall started ringing, and Lisa was on her feet to answer it before Ianto could offer. As soon as she was gone, Ianto glared at Adeiola.
"Right ... what do you want?"
She fixed him with a cool gaze, then reached into her bag and withdrew a silver cheque book case and matching pen.
"I want you to leave." she said.
Ianto blinked.
"How much will it cost to make you leave?"
She took the lid from the fountain pen and held it poised and ready over the cheque. Ianto closed his mouth, that had dropped open in shock, and returned her icy gaze. "I won't leave."
"Fifty thousand pounds?" she offered.
Ianto shook his head. "No."
"A hundred thousand?"
"No."
"Five hundred thousand?"
Ianto stared at her, then shook his head slowly.
"A million pounds?"
"No."
"C'mon, Yan! Name your price!"
"There isn't one." he replied hoarsely. The sound of Lisa laughing down the phone permeated the room, then quietened as she returned to speaking.
"There is." smiled Adeiola. "Two million? Three million? Seven, eight, nine million?"
Ianto's breathing quickened, and he bit his lip. He shook his head almost imperceptibly.
"Ten. Ten million?"
"You're unbelievable. I can't be bought."
Adeiola nearly glared at him. "I'm not going up any higher than fifteen million. Imagine ... imagine what you could do with that amount of money, Ianto. Think about it: you wouldn't have to work anymore. You could buy your own things instead of having them given to you. You could be free from Jack, and his constant and obsessive watch. You could have anything and everything you and your friends wanted. All you have to do is agree to leave. Everything you've ever wanted, Ianto. Everything."
"Lisa is everything I've ever wanted."
"Lisa is trapped in this luxurious prison, too. You're the one that's trapping her. So fifteen million - yes or no?"
Her laughter pealed through to the living room again as Ianto mulled over Adeiola's offer. Was Lisa trapped? He knew she stayed here because of him - her heart belonged to Kenya, really. And with all that money ... he could help so many, but he loved Lisa. He wanted to stay with Lisa, and Adeiola was trying to tear them apart like he'd been torn from Jack, breaking all their hearts just for her own satisfaction and greed and ... and ... and ... and Ianto knew what he had to do.
He raised his eyes to her, and nodded once.
Adeiola's face split into a large grin, and she began scribbling out the cheque.
"You have to be out by Friday," she instructed. "The cheque will have cleared by then. No email, no phone calls, no notes, no letters - to Lisa or Jack. Understand?"
Ianto was pale, gripping the arms of the writing desk chair. He nodded again, slowly. Her smiled widened and she handed him the cheque. He stared down at the numbers, checking the signature in case it was false, making sure it was all in order.
He folded it carefully and put it in his jacket pocket. "I'll be gone by Friday." he said quietly.
"Wonderful thing about whores," smiled Adeiola. "you can pay them to do anything."
"You should know." he scowled. Her face slipped almost invisibly.
Lisa came back into the room, grinning. "That was Camille on the phone. She just rang to say happy birthday but you know what me and Camille are like once we get go- what? What's happened?" She sensed the tense atmosphere in the room - well, tenser atmosphere.
"Just mutual dislike left to stew." shrugged Adeiola.
"Not entirely. We have realised something we have in common interest." Ianto bitterly cut in.
"Oh?" asked Lisa. "What's that then?"
"You." smiled Ianto. "Look!- your mother's given us some money so that we can get our own place ..."
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the cheque, hiding his gleeful smirk as Adeiola's face thundered while Lisa couldn't see. He gave her the slip of paper, and she read it.
"Mum, you know I don't like hand outs ... but ... oh thank you!" she grinned, hugging her mum and kissing her cheek. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! See Ianto, she's not as bad as you think she is!" Her smile was massive, and Ianto knew she was already thinking about what area to move to, what sofa to buy, the colour scheme for the kitchen ...
"Not bad at all." he smiled.
Adeiola was giving him a look that probably should have killed him.
"I'm going to have to go." she practically snapped, getting to her feet. Lisa was still babbling her gratitude, saying it was far, far, far, far too much and she really, really shouldn't have. Ianto could tell Adeiola was really, really wishing she hadn't. He could hardly suppress his laughter.
Lisa took her time saying goodbye, and Ianto even hugged Adeiola in farewell, standing by the gate to wave her off quite jovially.
"See!" Lisa nudged him. "Told you she wasn't bad!"
Ianto felt a pang on annoyance, and wondered if he should have just told the truth. He wandered into the back garden to the playhouse where Toshiko, Martha, Mickey and Owen were hiding, as well as Gwen and Rhys (though Ianto had no idea when they'd got there). They read his wicked expression, and instantly started asking questions.
"Okay, okay!" he yelled over the din. "Adeiola bribed me to leave Lisa."
"Bitch!" snapped Owen.
"Cow." muttered Toshiko.
Ianto grinned. "I accepted."
Silence.
"I accepted, and when Lisa came back, made out that Adeiola had actually gifted us the money as a couple rather than as a bribe to make me leave her."
"You slippery, slimy git." smirked Owen. "Lemme guess - to save her relationship with her daughter, she went with it and now you've got thousands of pounds to spend?"
Ianto nodded, flushing a little and looking sheepish. "Millions, actually ..."
"Yeah ..." sighed Owen. "You would get the best of everything, wouldn't you?"
Toshiko cleared her throat loudly.
"Erm ... I meant ... materially. Didn't I Ianto?"
Ianto and Toshiko shared a smirk. "Definitely. Now let's go back to the house ..."
They walked up the garden, and the sound of a deep, American-accented timbre floated around the house from the front.
"Jack!" exclaimed Ianto, practically breaking into a run. He burst in through the back door and ran to the hallway to see Lisa being lifted up by Jack in a fierce hug. Ianto approached slowly, a little shyly as they broke apart and grinned at each other. Jack sensed the movement and glanced up, his grin fading slightly when their eyes met.
"Hey." he said.
"Hey." smiled Ianto.
Lisa flicked her eyes between them, feeling the tension.
"C'mere you!" Jack held his arms out, and Ianto walked into them gratefully, laughing as he was lifted up, feeling a sneaky kiss pressed to his neck where Lisa couldn't see.
Jack was, indeed, looking considerably better than June. His hair was again cut and styled, his face clean-shaven and looking a lot more energetic, the shadows under his eyes disappeared. He was still a lot less sparkly, though.
"You gonna show me in, or is the gathering in the hall?" Jack asked, looking between them both. Lisa moved quickly, grasping Ianto's hand firmly and dragging them both to the living room, where the others were all waiting patiently.
Ianto introduced them all enthusiastically. "You've met Toshiko, but you don't really know any of the others. That's Owen, this Gwen and that's her husband, Rhys. That's Mickey - where's-"
"Martha?" Jack finished, peering around.
Mickey cleared his throat. "She's ... a bit nervous. In the kitchen." he indicated with his head.
"I'll see if she's okay." Ianto offered as Jack sat on the sofa, totally at home, right next to Toshiko.
"May I?" he asked, holding his hand over her large belly. She smiled and nodded, and he pressed his hand to the baby gently. Toshiko gasped.
"It kicked!" she exclaimed.
Jack pulled his hand away. "They haven't done that before?"
"Owen! Quick!"
Owen was already there, his face concentrating on his hand, then grinning.
Rhys had a turn next, before Toshiko batted them all away, telling them they'd all get turns eventually. Jack kept quiet, smiling to himself.
"I've spent ages tryna get the baby to kick." scowled Owen.
"He's been poking my belly while I'm asleep." Toshiko rolled her eyes, and the others laughed. Owen's ears turned a bit pink as he sat by her feet.
~*~*~*~
"Martha?"
She was sat on the floor in front of the cupboards, hugging her knees. "Hey." she whispered, her voice cracking. He sat beside her.
"What's up?"
"What ... what do I say to him?"
"Hello, I'm Martha. Thanks for everything, really appreciate it. Love the coat, by the way - and it's definitely not gay."
Martha smiled then sniggered, pinching his nose. It sounded like there was some form of excitement in the next room, but they ignored it for a moment.
"He's noticed you're not there." Ianto told her. "I think he wants to see you."
"I don't know what to say to him. I just ... don't."
"Just go in there, take a deep breath, say what I just told you to say and look to me for reassurance. I'll give you the thumbs up, everybody laughs, ice is broken."
Martha shrugged. "Okay."
They helped each other to their feet, and Ianto lead her to the living room. An unintentional and equally unwelcome silence fell as Martha went to stand in front of Jack. He gave her an encouraging grin that seemed to light up his face, and he sat forward on the sofa.
"Hi, I'm M-Martha ..." she stammered, doing her best impression of a kid in a nativity. "Thanks for ... everything - I really appreciate it." She glanced up at Ianto. "Um ... and I love the coat? It's not gay. At all."
Ianto gave her the thumbs up, and everyone laughed, including Jack. Conversation started again, and Martha settled on the sofa on the other side of Jack while he asked her questions about her well-being, her upbringing and how she'd got to where she was now. The conversation expanded to a group discussion, all of them sharing their stories up until the part where they came together.
"I was born on the streets," began Mickey. "and my mum somehow managed to keep me until I was ten. Then she was ... she died. She just disappeared one day. I took myself to a care home, and got fostered by about three different couples before getting adopted by the Smiths. Didn't particularly get on with my older siblings, and ran away when I was about seventeen. College was overrated, and I was stupid enough to think the sex trade would be a fun job." he said bitterly. "Worked the streets a bit, got enough money for an All Day train ticket and took random trains until I wound up in Cardiff. Floated around a bit, taken in by a house, moved on. Then on to Sarah Jane's."
"And when you left?" asked Ianto, sitting in the floor by Jack's feet, his fingers brushing his hair. Lisa kept glancing over at him, but he hadn't noticed.
Mickey took a deep breath and let it out. "I stole a car, and drove until the petrol ran out. I sold it for scrap, and got quite a lot for it. I bought a tin can car, drove down to Kent where my adopted siblings lived and made amends. Got set up with a job, then the company transferred me back up north to Chester. I stayed there until Martha came. Got her a job, saved up, bought ourselves the canal boat two months back. No rent, no council tax - and if we want to move cities or whatever, we can."
Owen's turn was next.
"Erm ... well ... London again." He gave a nervous laugh. "My ... uh ... my dad was a lawyer and my mum was a surgeon. They met when someone was trying to sue my mum because their relative died in surgery - he was on the opposite side." Owen laughed to himself, smiling fondly. "I wanted to be a doctor, and my mum was getting me set up properly, keeping my grades up, giving me extra lessons, teaching me discipline. My dad set up a fund, putting money aside to help me through uni so that I wouldn't be paying off student loans until I was old and grey. Everything was ... brilliant. And then I met Katie ..."
Ianto looked away. He knew this bit.
"Katie was ... something else. I was sixteen, and she was nineteen. Blonde, sweet and totally crazy. But ... my parents didn't like her - more to the point, my dad didn't like her. He'd put her dad in prison for something, but wouldn't tell me what. We decided, on a mad, totally spontaneous whim, to elope. I stole money from my dad, got us on a National Express bus and we picked a number of stops and ... just got off. I was mugged on our first night in ... wherever it was. Somewhere east. No money, no where to stay, no way to contact home: we slept rough for a week, begging in the day, starving. We were desperate, so ... Katie agreed to sleep with this guy. He paid her loads because she was a virgin."
Owen's face darkened, and he glanced over at Ianto and Jack. Jack looked away, and Ianto continued staring at the floor, tipping his head back almost imperceptibly to feel Jack's hand on the sofa in his hair.
"Anyway, we got to a hostel, thinking that no one at home would ever let us come back now. Katie went on the game, and she said it wasn't fair that I didn't have to do anything. So ... yeah. This guy stopped me, and we fucked in an alley ... and he told me that if I wanted to earn a regular wage, I should meet him the next night at this place and this time ... and of course, I was naive, and sixteen." He shrugged. "I took Katie with me, in case they could get her something too. But ... no. We stood there in the dark and waited, and someone got me from behind. I ... woke up in the back of a lorry with a few other boys. Cardiff was where we were let out, after hours and hours sitting in the dark. We were inspected by the Crawleys and sent off all sorts of places. I drifted around the district for a couple of years, made name for myself for being cockney and vicious and the punters really went for that. I was recruited by Sarah Jane and ... here we are ..." He gestured around the room, and Lisa blew her nose.
They all turned expectantly to Martha.
"I lived with my mum ..." She glanced at Lisa. "... and my grandma and granddad. When I was four, my mum ... went. And in the same year, so did my granddad. We thought she was dead but ... yeah. So I was living with my grandma in the suburbs, and I developed this wild streak. Started ... smoking the good stuff. Then the really good stuff. I was out of my head, about ... eighteen? For a lark I went to Kings Cross and pretended to be a hooker, thinking it was hilarious when this guy asked me how much. But ... he expected me to go through with it. I shrugged and did what he wanted, took the cash and was shocked at how much I got. Seemed like an ideal fix to my gran's money struggles as long as she didn't find out where it was from. So ... for a year I did it, and got thousands of pounds. A ridiculous amount of money. I told my gran I'd won the Lottery - matched five numbers or something - paid off the sharks and we were ... good.
"My grand died six months later, and I had nothing left. I'd ..." She glanced nervously at Jack. "... I'd kinda enjoyed it ... y'know? So ... I went into it full time. Took the guys back to the house for extra cash. But ... it wasn't enough. I wanted to get away from the ghosts, and I heard that Cardiff was where all the sleazy money was, so I bought a train ticket and went up there. Dropped by Sarah Jane's and got the job on the spot."
She resolutely refused to make eye contact with anyone, waiting for whoever was next.
"Toshiko?" Gwen suggested.
Toshiko's eyes snapped up from where she'd been staring at her belly. "Oh ... erm ... pass ..." she mumbled.
"We've all shared." Gwen pressed.
"You haven't." pointed out Tosh.
"Okay then. Well, I was born in Swansea, and my mam and dad were typesetters for a publishing company. We lived in a tower block, full of drug addicts, teenage parents who'd been kicked out by their folks and old people who couldn't afford the bills of non-council houses. My parents were just too lazy to move anywhere else, so bought the flat when they got their jobs. I remember ... me and David next door used to play Doctors and Nurses with the syringes we'd find. We never ... pierced the skin or anything ..." she assured them, seeing their alarmed looks. Rhys was nodding like he already heard all this. "... we just pretended. Anyway, my dad had an aneurism when I was twenty and died suddenly, and my mam became so depressed she was bedridden. I started sleeping with the neighbours to support my mam and keep the payments up on the flat, before eventually she hanged herself. It was like I'd sacrificed part of myself for nothing ... like she didn't appreciate it ..."
"She will have," Jack assured her, and they all turned, surprised he had spoken. "believe me, Gwen. She will have."
Gwen sniffed and wiped away a tear that managed to escape. "I ... I ... I moved downstairs. David had a spare room, and said I didn't have to pay rent if I slept with him. And then if I slept with his friends. And then if I slept with some 'business partners'. I was smoking pot most of the time and barely noticed, really. How bad it got. Next thing I know he's moving to Cardiff, and I'm going with him. I ran away from him after six months, and that's when I met Ianto."
They smiled at each other, a sad understanding.
"I cried and cried, and he had no idea what to do. You were what ... how old? A teenager. He took me the only place he knew as safe. So I moved in there with you an' your 'orrible lot." she grinned. "Next?"
Jack found expectant eyes on him, the next in the circle he supposed, and shifted uncomfortably. "Erm ... I don't generally talk about ... the past ..."
"Neither do we." said Toshiko, Owen, Martha, Gwen and Ianto in one. Mickey smirked.
"Oh ... okay ... well ... I was born in ... America. West Chester, just outside New York. In the more rural bit. We had a large-ish house, and my dad ... had the meagre remnants of a title ..." He glanced around, seeing they were all listening intently. "Erm ... my little brother died when he was seven."
Ianto blinked. "I never knew you had a brother."
Lisa didn't either, but said nothing.
"It was my fault." Jack muttered, almost to himself. "I was told to keep an eye on him ... we went swimming in the lake on the grounds and he was ... he was too small. And a weak swimmer. We were only supposed to go paddling but ... he kept going deeper and deeper and I told him to come back and not to go too far. He slipped and went under, knocked himself out on rock beneath the surface. He drowned."
A tear rolled down his cheek, and Toshiko and Martha shifted on the couch so that Ianto could sit beside Jack, clasping his hand and putting an arm around him. Lisa kept her face blank as some of the others glanced at her.
Jack continued talking, even though he was clearly distressed. "It was my fault ... I should have dragged him back ... but ... it was too late. I pulled his body to the bank and ... I tried to do something. But ... there was nothing ... I tried blowing air into his mouth to get the water out but ... he'd been dead long before I pulled him out of the water ..." He took a deep breath. "I got ill - really ill. Depression and pneumonia, and I had a lot of fevers. It took me a year to recover, and then ... I was ... sixteen? Then my family moved here. To this cottage."
He raised his eyes as if expecting to see ghosts from the past wandering around. "My dad was getting good at business - he'd completely thrown himself into it with my brother's death - and he'd set aside enough money to buy the surrounding land and start building a house similar in size to the one stateside. My parents moved up there when it was done, and I stayed here. They ... told me I needed independence. But they just couldn't stand me after what happened to Gray ..."
"That won't be true, Jack." Ianto said softly, kissing his temple.
"They ... they were different. Anyway: I went traveling a bit to prove I could be independent and ..." He smiled dopily. "... and in Venice I met Lucia. Italian, big eyes, olive-skinned and ... she was beautiful."
Jack knew he'd have to start lying soon, or none of his dates would add up; he couldn't help but keep talking, though. Ianto was silent, and so was Lisa. Even Adeiola didn't know about Lucia. He hadn't spoken of her since Christmas, and he hadn't spoken of her before then since she'd died.
"We married in Rome, and I took her to live with me in Los Angeles. We had a little girl called Alice."
Lisa gasped. "What?"
Ianto's eyes darted over to hers, and Jack raised his to meet her.
"I have another half-sister?" Lisa asked, disbelieving.
"No." Jack's voice was hoarse. "She died too. And so did her baby ... brother. Her baby brother. Stephen."
Lisa was staring at him. "What other secrets are you keeping?" she asked harshly, then remembered herself. "sorry ... Dad ... sorry ..."
"What happened?" Ianto asked, urging him to keep opening up.
"Car crash. The doctors assured me they didn't feel a thing. And ... and Lucia ... it was my fault. I bought the car. Stephen was mad about cars, kept nagging for one. We didn't need one at the time, so didn't have one. But ... you should have seen his little puppy-eyes! Big, blue puppy eyes and sandy hair!" Jack laughed. "So ... I couldn't say no. I bought the car, and the driver crashed."
He looked around, and they were all staring at him and hanging on his every word. He swallowed.
"I ... came back to the UK. I tried living here again but ... it was too small for me. I felt trapped no matter where I was, like everything was ... closing in. Suffocating. So I joined the RAF, thinking about planes and how ... how flying made you feel free for however long you're in the sky. Even in the wars. I was ... captured on a mission during an ambush - my plane was shot down, and I had to parachute to land. I was captured, as well as a few territorials and held in a prison. That's where I met John. I was tortured while they asked him questions."
"Fuck." breathed Owen. He made eye contact with Jack a second, and they both looked away.
"We got out soon enough - John fed them some false stuff they didn't bother to check - and I managed to steal us a plane and get us back to base. Our families had already been told we were dead." He sighed heavily. "We made our way to England and got a Civil Partnership. But ... it didn't work out. I got home and found out that upon learning I was dead, my mother couldn't handle losing two sons and shot herself. My father had already taken a new wife and she was in the early stages of pregnancy when I showed up with John. My father hated him, refused to accept him and his more ... promiscuous ways ... and tried to disown me. I didn't particularly care - until my father died of a heart attack before he'd had the chance to sleep on it. Suddenly I was the Earl of this non-existent place, with an empty treasury and a house newly built but already falling apart. I had to concentrate on the land, and on the family, and ... and that meant John had to go. He was insane anyway. He ... went a bit mad as a POW, and it set in once his Partnership with me put him a little bit above the law.
"I started attending the social gatherings, making a name for myself, investing. I started running for chairs, making the right friends and the right connexions and the right impressions - and bringing the right people down so that I could stand in their place. I ... lost a lot of myself in those years. A lot. I'd lost so much I stopped caring ... and then I met Adeiola Simmonds, maiden name; Oshodi."
Martha nodded at that. Jones was her father's name, but her mother's parents were Oshodi.
"Her husband, Jake, was ... an underdog. He'd risen through the ranks, and he was the one to aim for. Addy was two months pregnant when I met her, three months pregnant when I married her. Jake ... disappeared. Turned up in a club, dead as a doornail. I thought nothing of it possibly being anything to do with Adeiola - she was ... perfect to me. His property became mine through marriage, as well as the title but I discarded it. Then we had Lisa, and ... I'm sorry I missed so much. I was so absorbed in ... I don't know. Having everything ... but ... anyway: Adeiola and I grew apart, and we started spending more and more time apart. Most of my lands were in the UK, so I set up my wife and child here, at the manor. At Hillcrest. I had it extended and repaired and stuff and ... just left them here." He hung his head shamefully. "I ... I wasn't surrounded by anyone real anymore. No one cared for anyone but themselves. Everything was fake, and ... and I was so alone when I was away from home. I started clinging to the tiniest little bit of love I could find ... and that's when I started seeing prostitutes."
He and Lisa were avoiding each others' eyes as if they're have their souls sucked out if they made contact.
"Erm ... then I got Ianto." Jack finished. He looked around at them all, and tried to grin.
None of them really knew what to say. They thought his life had been a bed of egyptian cotton, constantly kept warm, and he could see the surprise in their eyes.
"Next?" he asked.
Lisa cleared her throat, and pointed towards Ianto. He'd never really told her what happened, and she needed her mind off everything she'd just learnt about the father she thought she'd at least known a bit.
"Um ... ah ... ahem ... right ... erm ... well. Well then. I was born - well, no - I was found on the doorstep of a little orphanage in Newport, about a day old. Erm ... I'm called Ianto because that's the Welsh equivalent of 'John', because they were going to call me 'John Doe' at first."
Something stirred in the back of Jack's mind, but he couldn't quite recall what. He knew a vague outline of Ianto's childhood, but nothing more than what had been shouted at him in anger.
"... I ... lived there until I was ten, when I stole Matron's purse and ran away. I walked all the way from Newport to Cardiff - took ... took me weeks. I met Toshiko on the way and we ... stuck together. We slept a week rough on the streets and then the Crawley's came. I was sent to Peacock bath house -"
Jack managed to mask his familiarity with the name.
"- and stayed there until I was thirteen. Scrubbing pipes and stuff. Disgusting. Then I went to go and live with Sarah Jane and Toshiko. Sarah Jane didn't think I'd ever be good enough for the punters - she just kept me on to clean, make coffee and generally just piss off Owen."
They all gave a small laugh, and Owen scowled.
"Then I went to Jack ... and now I'm here." shrugged Ianto.
Mickey cleared his throat. They all turned to him.
"What?" asked Ianto, frowning.
"You missed a bit, is all?"
"... I did?"
"Yeah ... I think you did." Mickey gave Martha a pointed look and Jack narrowed his eyes at the gesture. Ianto understood and his eyes widened in a silent plea. "Aren't you and Martha going to share?"
Martha's head shot up, and she shook her head violently, a warning in her eyes. "Stop it, Mickey."
Jack laughed. "What's ... what's going on?"
"Nothing." said Ianto quickly. Jack narrowed his eyes, and so did Lisa in a very similar gesture.
"Iantoooo ..." Mickey drawled. ".... lost his virginity to Marthaaaaa when he was sixteen."
Jack stiffened, searching Mickey's face for the lie. All he saw was the malicious smirk.
"And now ..." Mickey sat back and gazed coolly at Martha. "... we're even."
She gasped and put her face in her hands. Lisa looked horrified - he hadn't even told her. She'd understand not telling her father ... but ... her? Maybe her mother had been right ... maybe he was playing her ... maybe he was too perfect.
Haughtily, and looking at no one, she stood up and left the room, climbing the stairs and slamming a door. The rest of them stared at the floor, apart from Jack who was staring into the middle distance, stiff and pulsing. Ianto was watching him carefully, touching his knee.
"Jack?"
Jack's head snapped around, and Ianto saw the real hurt there.
"You lied to me." he whispered. "I don't care you slept with her but ... you could have told me ... any time after I took you away ... when I ... when I helped her ... you could have told me ... but you lied to me ..." His handsome face changed suddenly, darkening with thunder and Ianto felt a twinge of fear.
"I'm sorry." he breathed.
"Not good enough."
Ianto loosely covered his mouth with his fingers, searching Jack's face for anything other than anger. He found nothing.
"I think you should pack your things, Ianto." Jack said smoothly, then heaved himself up from the couch. Ianto was still frozen, staring where Jack's face had just been, fingers still brushing his lips in his shock. Slowly he turned and gazed up at Jack, his eyes big and shining. "What did I just tell you?" Jack snapped.
Ianto sprung into action, racing up the stairs, trying to find a hold all. He rushed into the bedroom, and went headlong into Lisa. Her eyes slid down to the bag and back up over his shaking hands and pale face. "He's taking you." she stated, emotionless. Ianto nodded. "Good. I can't stand the sight of you."
Ianto gasped like he'd just been shot. "Lisa! I ... I'm sorry ..."
"You should have told me. You made me believe that ... I thought I was the only one ... the only woman ...."
"Does it matter to you?"
"Yes." she snapped.
"You are like your father." he stated calmly.
"IANTO!" Jack bellowed.
Ianto pushed past her and started rolling up his plastic-covered suits and shirts and ties. He got his pyjamas, socks, underwear and belts. Lisa had gone to the bathroom, so he squeezed his toy in there as well, not sure why.
He didn't take any casual clothes.
He was already wearing the burgundy shirt that Lisa had forced him to buy, as well as the coffee bean cufflinks she'd bought him herself. He'd left his jacket downstairs, and his black waistcoat snagged on the watch on his wrist as he picked out a spare pair of shoes.
The heavy thud of boots on stairs started pounding towards him, and he knew Jack would drag him out of the house whether he needed to or not. Jack entered the room, dramatic as thunder, and glared at him.
"I just need a few more things, sir."
"What things?"
"My ... shower things and ..."
"There's toiletries where we're going." Jack stepped forward and grasped his forearm.
"Wait!" he gasped by the front door as Jack wrenched it open. "Let me say goodbye."
Jack turned and hauled him roughly over his shoulder, not caring that he hurt him. Ianto yelled out for Toshiko and Owen, and they hurried into the hall. Jack put Ianto down behind him, pulled out his Webley and aimed it at Owen. "One move ..." he threatened, then stopped, narrowed his eyes and then realised something. "Ianto? When we met, and you promised you were a virgin ... didn't you swear on Owen's life that no one had touched you?"
Ianto's eyes widened in fear, and he lunged towards Jack, trying to grab the firearm, finding a kneed shoved hard into his groin. He fell to the floor, retching in pain, and heard a gun shot and Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys' screams. Martha and Mickey were still yelling in the living room, but their voices halted when the loud bang pierced the air.
Jack lowered his gun. "Let's put that oath to the test, shall we?"
Trying to sit up, Ianto stared at Owen lying on the ground, blood pouring from his chest. "Owen!" he cried, and started to get up. "NO!" he yelled as Jack's arms closed around him, dragging him and lifting him as he kicked and struggled and wept. "OWEN!"
He was tossed into the back of a four-seater convertible and ordered to lie still. Jack climbed into the drivers' seat and set off harshly, speeding his way wherever he was going. He glanced back while at some traffic lights, and saw Ianto trying to use his PDA. He snatched it from him, and Ianto gave little resistance. "And your phone!" snapped Jack. Ianto gave it up. They were doing a hundred and thirteen miles and hour down the motorway, hood down, when Jack tossed them out of the car.
Ianto shivered and wept, the cold air lashing him cruelly as if it knew what he'd done. He tried to pull his burgundy shirt close to him, praying forgiveness from Mickey, and from Lisa, and from Jack. He was terrified what Jack would do to him, and several awful scenarios slid through his mind at lightning speed. He thought of Owen, and shook himself to the core: it was his fault Owen had been killed. Or nearly killed. Shot.
They drove for what felt like an age, until Jack pulled up outside a large tower and got out, dragging Ianto and his bag with him. Ianto gazed up, and recognised where they were as the Doctor's hotel. Jack had driven them all the way to Cardiff.
A firm arm around his shoulders, Jack roughly guided Ianto to the desk and checked them in for their old suite. The Sapphire Room - Jack's - wasn't free, but the one down the hall that had belonged to Ianto was. Jack paid for it, and took the keycard, and forced Ianto into the lift.
Alone, Ianto turned to him. "Please, Jack ..." he began, but was cut short by Jack's mouth on his, nearly choking on his tongue he pushed it too deep and claimed him. He dug his fingers and nails into Ianto's biceps, bruising hard until Ianto gasped and whimpered in pain. He was tugged harshly from the lift and shoved into his old room, and he gazed around as if expecting it to have changed. It looked exactly the same. It just felt different.
Jack locked the door behind them and took off his coat. "Take off your clothes." he ordered.
"Jack ..."
"NOW!" Jack spun and shouted, and Ianto jumped back. "Now! ... or do I have to tie you down and cut them off?"
Ianto shook his head, tears running down his face, and started on his waistcoat. Jack was getting undressed too, and Ianto copied him and simply threw the clothes aside. Jack pulled back the covers of the bed and climbed under. He knelt up. "Get. In." he commanded through gritted teeth.
Crying, Ianto shook his head. "No."
"Get in this bed." Jack said coolly.
Ianto shook his head again.
The Captain glowered, balling his fists, kneeling up high and snarling. "You will get in this bed right now, and you will love me until I tell you I've had enough!" he yelled.
Ianto couldn't look at him, cuddling himself, back into the wardrobe. Jack got out of bed, walked over to him and gathered him up in his arms, forcing him to move despite his protests, dragging him and forcing him down onto the mattress.
It was then that Ianto fully realised that Jack wasn't getting hard. Even on top of him, their flaccid cocks together, Jack wasn't reacting. Ianto whimpered, his head thrown back roughly into a pillow, not fighting back as Jack positioned him how he wanted. Satisfied Jack lay down, spooning Ianto into his back and forcing his bicep under his head. A strong arm pinned them together over his middle, the Captain holding Ianto's hand solidly in place ... and Jack seemed to calm, pressing himself against Ianto. Eventually, he fell asleep, while Ianto lay awake, the tears subsiding.
"You will get in this bed ... and you will love me ...."
Jack's words scrolled through Ianto's head like a marquee.
"You will get in this bed ... and you will love me ...."
This wasn't what Ianto had expected, this was so different ... he wanted to be held? He wanted to sleep in the same bed and be held. He wanted to be loved, and he wanted Ianto to love him. The discovery of the betrayal had made him crave and desperately seek the old times in Cardiff before everything went so very, very wrong.
"You just made it worse, Jack ..." he thought to himself, not daring to move away. "So much worse ..."
Still the words echoed through his head:
"You will get in this bed ... and you will love me ..."
FIN
Apologies! Six days and no update! How terribly evil of me ....
Next Part | Previous Part | Torchwood Index | Request a Convo/Prose Fic
Author:
a_silver_storyChapter: 22/?
Genre: AU, Romance, Angsty, fluffy
Rating: NC17 / 18
Pairings: Main Pairing is Jack/Ianto. Also includes Ianto/Martha, Ianto/Tosh friendship, Ten/Tosh, Mickey/Martha (mentioned)
Warnings: M.M, rentboy!Ianto, Alternate Universe
Disclaimer: If I owned anything in this, I'd be a rich rich rich bitch. However, I am not a rich rich rich bitch so you may all, therefore, assume I own nothing. Which I don't. It all belongs RTD and the BBC, in case any of you didn't know. Now pass the retcon ...
Summary: Started as a PWP, but since it's me (sorry folks!) and I really can't do things by halves, it grew and grew and grew (and not in an innuendous sort of way). Doctor Smith owns a posh Cardiff hotel, and the respectable Sixth Earl of Boeshane is coming to stay - and he brings with him some very specific demands.
The story follows Ianto from being born, meeting Toshiko and them running away together to the city, right up until Ianto is taken to work in the Doctor's hotel as a 'service' butler for - you guessed it - Jack.
Everyone's fave OTP ensues. BOO YA!
Torchwood Index/Masterlist
FIRST PART | Chapter 1
Lisa was a little on edge, and no matter what Ianto or anybody said she wouldn’t relax. She’d barely spoken more than a ‘Happy Birthday, Ianto’ that morning, and as the day drew on she was getting all the more tetchy.
She'd spent a weekend away getting to Martha, seeing as she was her half-sister. She'd come back bubbling and happy, babbling about shopping, how Martha and Mickey lived in a canal boat and the freedom they had to just sail along wherever they wanted. They'd got on well, and found they had very similar characteristics, as well as very different ones. Lisa had, at first, found it unnerving how much like her mother Martha looked, but the more time they spent together the more differences she saw (taking into account the age gap, too) and soon Martha and Adeiola looked like completely different people in her eyes.
Ianto was pleased to see Lisa getting on well with Toshiko, too - though it did unnerve him a little that they were seemingly on constant conversation about Toshiko’s baby, babies in general and having babies. He had tried having a bit of a chat with Owen, but he seemed to be stuck on the baby subject, too. Ianto was happy for them, really ... but seriously: he knew they were having a baby and that they were over the moon about it. Did they have to keep going on and on and on?
Finally Martha and Mickey arrived, Martha flashing a shiny rock on her wedding finger and bringing the conversation around to the equally uncomfortable (for Ianto) subject of marriage. Eventually Mickey dragged him and Owen off into the front garden, and they sat on the bench, Ianto in the middle, with a bottle of beer each while the girls stayed inside to watch Loose Women.
“I can’t believe we all got out.” Owen pondered aloud.
“Don’t worry,” Mickey told him. “they’ll notice we’ve disappeared eventually.”
They laughed.
“I meant out of the business.” Owen clarified. “Me and Tosh moving up here next week – thanks for that Ianto, you uptight git – you and Martha have your canal boat. Ianto and Lisa and their posh cottage. Gwen with Rhys. We all got out.”
“Apart from Suzie.” Ianto reminded him.
“What happened with Suzie?” asked Mickey, and the other two remembered that he’d left before ... all that.
“She ... went on a bit of a murder spree.” sighed Owen. “Her punters were arriving and never leaving.”
A thick silence fell.
“So ...” Ianto tried again for conversation. “... you and Martha ...?” It was an open ended question, and Mickey raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. Figured it was about time I made an honest woman out of her. Y'know, hopefully she won't stray to fuck pretty little boys behind my back.”
“Ah.” realised Ianto. “You’re still a bit ... sore ... about that? It wasn’t my fault! I didn’t even know you two had a thing! And she came on to me! And you overreacted! I mean ... I think that little of it as ... significant ... that I never even told Jack! And it was like ...” He counted in his head. “... eight years ago!”
“I have my pride, though, innit?” scowled Mickey.
Owen sighed heavily to distract them. “What’s done is done. Accept what you cannot change, or keep a receipt in the future.”
They both glared into their bottles.
“You ... you turned out good anyway.” muttered Mickey. “All grown up now.”
“I don’t feel grown up.” Ianto massaged a temple with the hand not clutching the beer. “I still feel like ... I dunno. My life still isn’t my own, despite pretences. I’m still guided and cared for. You two ... you can go and do or say or be anything you want now. I still feel the need to ask permission.”
“From the Missus?” smirked Mickey.
“From higher up than that.” Ianto muttered. He sighed heavily. “He says I can do what I want, but he doesn’t mean it. If I was to walk away from this job or this house I wouldn’t be going without strings. Even though he’s miles away, even though we haven’t seen each other for months and even though he says we’re moving on: it’s all pretending, really. We’re not moving anywhere. I’m where he can see me, he’s wherever he wants to be knowing exactly where I am, what I’m doing ... keeping tabs. And even if I did go: what would I do? I can’t exactly hold an honest job – enough to pay the bills – with no qualifications. And I’m not going back to where I was before.”
“Possessive, much?” asked Mickey sarcastically.
“He’s ... messed up.” Ianto eventually said. “You meet him and he’s this big ball of charisma, happy-go-lucky, a bit cheeky, flirtatious. But ... you hang around, you get to know him, you scratch the surface and ... he’s fucked up. He’s totally fucked up. I mean ... I’m here now because a Tarot reader told him to leave me. Now we have to wait until he decides he’s redeemed himself of his past enough to deserve me.”
Mickey sighed heavily. “Don’t fall for the punters, Ianto. Golden Rule Number One.”
Ianto glared at him. “He’s not a punter! He’s ... it’s different. It’s complicated.”
The conversation died as the rumble of an engine could be heard approaching from the dirt road that ran past Ianto's cottage. All three of them turned their heads as a large, black car appeared in the distance, purring along towards the cottage. Ianto frowned. He’d only ever known Jack to ride in Cadillacs, Bentleys and Rolls Royces. A Jaguar? He’d have put that down as a car you’d more likely find ...
“Adeiola!” he realised. “Shit! Get Martha hidden away! I’ll ... see if I can get rid of her ...”
Owen and Mickey darted inside, and Ianto went to stand just inside the gate and wait for the car. Lisa joined him.
“Did you invite your mother?” Ianto asked her under his breath. “It’s my birthday. I don’t want her here.”
Lisa brushed off his concern. “I didn’t invite her. I heard a car coming and thought it was my Dad.”
The car came to a halt and the chauffeur got out, opening the door and standing aside as Lady Harkness stepped out of the car, smiling as if she was expected. Ianto kept his well-practiced stoic mask on, his arms stiff by his sides.
“Lisa!” Adeiola beamed, going to hug her daughter and kissing her on the cheek. She looked a lot more tired than when Ianto had last seen her, and was quietly smug about it. Apparently she was losing badly in her divorce case, according to the papers. Ianto made a mental note to ask Jack in his next letter.
He fidgeted guiltily thinking about letters to Jack – neither had sent any after their last meeting.
Adeiola ignored him as she breezed past, and he had to hurry to catch up with her, standing in the doorway to stop her getting in. “I don’t want you here.” he told her bluntly. “Give or take or ask or whatever it is you’re here for, just get it over and done with and leave.”
“Ianto!” chastised Lisa.
“It’s my birthday.” he scowled at her. “My birthday; my rules.”
“Awww. Isn’t he still such a sweet little cherub?” cooed Adeiola, going to pinch his cheek as he flinched away from her. “Twenty-four now, is it? And still pedalling ‘my birthday; my rules’? I’d thought you’d have made him grow up a bit since you got him Lisa. But no. Still a petulant, selfish little boy, aren’t you, Yan?”
He flinched again, this time at the name.
“Stop it, Mum.” sighed Lisa.
“What?” she asked innocently. “Just being observant.”
“He’s not selfish or petulant. Or a little boy. Just leave him, okay? Let’s go and get a cuppa ...”
“No!” snapped Ianto. “I don’t want her here!”
I don’t want her near Martha he thought silently. Ianto didn’t know if Martha still had a contract on her head – he was guessing she maybe didn’t, but he couldn’t be sure – but he definitely didn’t want her meeting Adeiola.
“If you want to spend time with her, take her shopping or something.” he scowled.
“You’re taking orders from him?” Adeiola raised an eyebrow.
“That ... stop twisting ... it was a request!” Ianto sputtered. “Lisa!” he implored.
“Just a cup of tea, Ianto. Then she’ll go. Won’t you, mum?”
“Hm? Yes, yes, of course, of course.”
Ianto glared at Lisa, realised she’d already offered her only compromise, and stepped aside. He refused to look Adeiola in the eye as she brushed past him, nose in the air and a haughty aura. “A bit of a lonely birthday party.” she commented, entering the sitting room without being directed and scanning her eyes around. She sat gracefully in the armchair, perched on the edge. Lisa sat comfortably on the sofa, but Ianto remained standing, trying not to glare at them both.
“Tea, Yan?” Adeiola reminded him, and he rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue as he made his way to the kitchen. He reached for the leaf tea instead of the tea bags with the logic that if it tasted better, she’d drink it faster and be gone sooner. He glanced out into the back garden, and saw movement behind the shadowed windows of the little playhouse built at the bottom of it. That must’ve been where they’d all decided to hide.
While the tea was brewing, he idly wondered what time Jack would arrive. Knowing Jack, it would be the wrong time. Like ... in the next fifteen minutes. He also considered the thought that Jack might have forgotten.
He hesitated with his tray, listening to Lisa and Adeiola’s voices floating into the hall from the sitting room.
“... oh your father will come to his senses. He already did about Ianto. Punishing him for being such a brat. That’s what he is, Lisa. A selfish little brat. Demanding whatever he wanted, and your Dad just pandered along to his every whim. That’s what you are, Lisa: punishment. Second best until your father decides he deserves The Great Jack Harkness again.”
“No. I don’t think it was like that.” insisted Lisa. “Dad doesn’t pander after anyone! And Ianto's lovely, Mum. He really is. He isn’t selfish at all – he does more for other people than he does for himself. He’s been through so much, Mum, and instead of doing what Dad does and turning it in on himself and becoming cynical and self-destructive, he turns it outwards and thinks of others, and he loves them with all he’s got. He loves me.”
“He’s a prostitute, Lisa. A whore. It’s his job to make you believe what you want to believe. He managed to make Jack infatuated with him – no innocent little boy would be able to do that.”
“He’s only ever slept with two people – and I’m one of them.” Lisa snapped.
“You believe that? He was twenty-three when your father bought him.”
“Stop calling it that,” sighed Lisa. “and stop trying to rile him.”
Ianto rattled the tray noisily before he entered the room, and felt the thick atmosphere in the room as he entered. He poured the tea for the two women, added cream and sugar to Lisa’s taste but left Adeiola to do her own.
They sat in uncomfortable silence, Ianto sat on the chair by the writing desk, glaring into the middle distance while Lisa and Adeiola sipped their tea. The tension was growing, Ianto and Lisa fidgeting more and more as the minutes dragged agonisingly by while Adeiola seemed perfectly at ease and comfortable.
“So ...” tried Lisa. “... are you ... doing okay? You haven’t called in a while.”
“I’m fine, I’m fine!” smiled Adeiola sweetly. “Your father’s got it into his head he wants to divorce me again, but don’t you worry.”
“Oh. Erm ... Mum? Have you ever considered that maybe ... y’know ... your marriage is over?” Lisa asked tentatively. “I mean ... you’ve hardly spoken to each other for eight years. Maybe it it’d be better for everyone if you ... cut loose.”
“I will not be divorced.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being divorced, Mum. If just didn’t work out – no one will look down on you for it.”
“In your humble, normal, peasant existence maybe.” sniffed Adeiola, still haughty. “And ‘what’s best for all of us’ is what we have now. Well ... apart from him still hanging around ...” She indicated Ianto with her head. "But bad news does tend to go away eventually."
"You've been hanging around a while." Ianto muttered, and she glared at him. Lisa gave him a wide-eyed 'don't you dare' look.
The phone in the hall started ringing, and Lisa was on her feet to answer it before Ianto could offer. As soon as she was gone, Ianto glared at Adeiola.
"Right ... what do you want?"
She fixed him with a cool gaze, then reached into her bag and withdrew a silver cheque book case and matching pen.
"I want you to leave." she said.
Ianto blinked.
"How much will it cost to make you leave?"
She took the lid from the fountain pen and held it poised and ready over the cheque. Ianto closed his mouth, that had dropped open in shock, and returned her icy gaze. "I won't leave."
"Fifty thousand pounds?" she offered.
Ianto shook his head. "No."
"A hundred thousand?"
"No."
"Five hundred thousand?"
Ianto stared at her, then shook his head slowly.
"A million pounds?"
"No."
"C'mon, Yan! Name your price!"
"There isn't one." he replied hoarsely. The sound of Lisa laughing down the phone permeated the room, then quietened as she returned to speaking.
"There is." smiled Adeiola. "Two million? Three million? Seven, eight, nine million?"
Ianto's breathing quickened, and he bit his lip. He shook his head almost imperceptibly.
"Ten. Ten million?"
"You're unbelievable. I can't be bought."
Adeiola nearly glared at him. "I'm not going up any higher than fifteen million. Imagine ... imagine what you could do with that amount of money, Ianto. Think about it: you wouldn't have to work anymore. You could buy your own things instead of having them given to you. You could be free from Jack, and his constant and obsessive watch. You could have anything and everything you and your friends wanted. All you have to do is agree to leave. Everything you've ever wanted, Ianto. Everything."
"Lisa is everything I've ever wanted."
"Lisa is trapped in this luxurious prison, too. You're the one that's trapping her. So fifteen million - yes or no?"
Her laughter pealed through to the living room again as Ianto mulled over Adeiola's offer. Was Lisa trapped? He knew she stayed here because of him - her heart belonged to Kenya, really. And with all that money ... he could help so many, but he loved Lisa. He wanted to stay with Lisa, and Adeiola was trying to tear them apart like he'd been torn from Jack, breaking all their hearts just for her own satisfaction and greed and ... and ... and ... and Ianto knew what he had to do.
He raised his eyes to her, and nodded once.
Adeiola's face split into a large grin, and she began scribbling out the cheque.
"You have to be out by Friday," she instructed. "The cheque will have cleared by then. No email, no phone calls, no notes, no letters - to Lisa or Jack. Understand?"
Ianto was pale, gripping the arms of the writing desk chair. He nodded again, slowly. Her smiled widened and she handed him the cheque. He stared down at the numbers, checking the signature in case it was false, making sure it was all in order.
He folded it carefully and put it in his jacket pocket. "I'll be gone by Friday." he said quietly.
"Wonderful thing about whores," smiled Adeiola. "you can pay them to do anything."
"You should know." he scowled. Her face slipped almost invisibly.
Lisa came back into the room, grinning. "That was Camille on the phone. She just rang to say happy birthday but you know what me and Camille are like once we get go- what? What's happened?" She sensed the tense atmosphere in the room - well, tenser atmosphere.
"Just mutual dislike left to stew." shrugged Adeiola.
"Not entirely. We have realised something we have in common interest." Ianto bitterly cut in.
"Oh?" asked Lisa. "What's that then?"
"You." smiled Ianto. "Look!- your mother's given us some money so that we can get our own place ..."
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the cheque, hiding his gleeful smirk as Adeiola's face thundered while Lisa couldn't see. He gave her the slip of paper, and she read it.
"Mum, you know I don't like hand outs ... but ... oh thank you!" she grinned, hugging her mum and kissing her cheek. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you! See Ianto, she's not as bad as you think she is!" Her smile was massive, and Ianto knew she was already thinking about what area to move to, what sofa to buy, the colour scheme for the kitchen ...
"Not bad at all." he smiled.
Adeiola was giving him a look that probably should have killed him.
"I'm going to have to go." she practically snapped, getting to her feet. Lisa was still babbling her gratitude, saying it was far, far, far, far too much and she really, really shouldn't have. Ianto could tell Adeiola was really, really wishing she hadn't. He could hardly suppress his laughter.
Lisa took her time saying goodbye, and Ianto even hugged Adeiola in farewell, standing by the gate to wave her off quite jovially.
"See!" Lisa nudged him. "Told you she wasn't bad!"
Ianto felt a pang on annoyance, and wondered if he should have just told the truth. He wandered into the back garden to the playhouse where Toshiko, Martha, Mickey and Owen were hiding, as well as Gwen and Rhys (though Ianto had no idea when they'd got there). They read his wicked expression, and instantly started asking questions.
"Okay, okay!" he yelled over the din. "Adeiola bribed me to leave Lisa."
"Bitch!" snapped Owen.
"Cow." muttered Toshiko.
Ianto grinned. "I accepted."
Silence.
"I accepted, and when Lisa came back, made out that Adeiola had actually gifted us the money as a couple rather than as a bribe to make me leave her."
"You slippery, slimy git." smirked Owen. "Lemme guess - to save her relationship with her daughter, she went with it and now you've got thousands of pounds to spend?"
Ianto nodded, flushing a little and looking sheepish. "Millions, actually ..."
"Yeah ..." sighed Owen. "You would get the best of everything, wouldn't you?"
Toshiko cleared her throat loudly.
"Erm ... I meant ... materially. Didn't I Ianto?"
Ianto and Toshiko shared a smirk. "Definitely. Now let's go back to the house ..."
They walked up the garden, and the sound of a deep, American-accented timbre floated around the house from the front.
"Jack!" exclaimed Ianto, practically breaking into a run. He burst in through the back door and ran to the hallway to see Lisa being lifted up by Jack in a fierce hug. Ianto approached slowly, a little shyly as they broke apart and grinned at each other. Jack sensed the movement and glanced up, his grin fading slightly when their eyes met.
"Hey." he said.
"Hey." smiled Ianto.
Lisa flicked her eyes between them, feeling the tension.
"C'mere you!" Jack held his arms out, and Ianto walked into them gratefully, laughing as he was lifted up, feeling a sneaky kiss pressed to his neck where Lisa couldn't see.
Jack was, indeed, looking considerably better than June. His hair was again cut and styled, his face clean-shaven and looking a lot more energetic, the shadows under his eyes disappeared. He was still a lot less sparkly, though.
"You gonna show me in, or is the gathering in the hall?" Jack asked, looking between them both. Lisa moved quickly, grasping Ianto's hand firmly and dragging them both to the living room, where the others were all waiting patiently.
Ianto introduced them all enthusiastically. "You've met Toshiko, but you don't really know any of the others. That's Owen, this Gwen and that's her husband, Rhys. That's Mickey - where's-"
"Martha?" Jack finished, peering around.
Mickey cleared his throat. "She's ... a bit nervous. In the kitchen." he indicated with his head.
"I'll see if she's okay." Ianto offered as Jack sat on the sofa, totally at home, right next to Toshiko.
"May I?" he asked, holding his hand over her large belly. She smiled and nodded, and he pressed his hand to the baby gently. Toshiko gasped.
"It kicked!" she exclaimed.
Jack pulled his hand away. "They haven't done that before?"
"Owen! Quick!"
Owen was already there, his face concentrating on his hand, then grinning.
Rhys had a turn next, before Toshiko batted them all away, telling them they'd all get turns eventually. Jack kept quiet, smiling to himself.
"I've spent ages tryna get the baby to kick." scowled Owen.
"He's been poking my belly while I'm asleep." Toshiko rolled her eyes, and the others laughed. Owen's ears turned a bit pink as he sat by her feet.
"Martha?"
She was sat on the floor in front of the cupboards, hugging her knees. "Hey." she whispered, her voice cracking. He sat beside her.
"What's up?"
"What ... what do I say to him?"
"Hello, I'm Martha. Thanks for everything, really appreciate it. Love the coat, by the way - and it's definitely not gay."
Martha smiled then sniggered, pinching his nose. It sounded like there was some form of excitement in the next room, but they ignored it for a moment.
"He's noticed you're not there." Ianto told her. "I think he wants to see you."
"I don't know what to say to him. I just ... don't."
"Just go in there, take a deep breath, say what I just told you to say and look to me for reassurance. I'll give you the thumbs up, everybody laughs, ice is broken."
Martha shrugged. "Okay."
They helped each other to their feet, and Ianto lead her to the living room. An unintentional and equally unwelcome silence fell as Martha went to stand in front of Jack. He gave her an encouraging grin that seemed to light up his face, and he sat forward on the sofa.
"Hi, I'm M-Martha ..." she stammered, doing her best impression of a kid in a nativity. "Thanks for ... everything - I really appreciate it." She glanced up at Ianto. "Um ... and I love the coat? It's not gay. At all."
Ianto gave her the thumbs up, and everyone laughed, including Jack. Conversation started again, and Martha settled on the sofa on the other side of Jack while he asked her questions about her well-being, her upbringing and how she'd got to where she was now. The conversation expanded to a group discussion, all of them sharing their stories up until the part where they came together.
"I was born on the streets," began Mickey. "and my mum somehow managed to keep me until I was ten. Then she was ... she died. She just disappeared one day. I took myself to a care home, and got fostered by about three different couples before getting adopted by the Smiths. Didn't particularly get on with my older siblings, and ran away when I was about seventeen. College was overrated, and I was stupid enough to think the sex trade would be a fun job." he said bitterly. "Worked the streets a bit, got enough money for an All Day train ticket and took random trains until I wound up in Cardiff. Floated around a bit, taken in by a house, moved on. Then on to Sarah Jane's."
"And when you left?" asked Ianto, sitting in the floor by Jack's feet, his fingers brushing his hair. Lisa kept glancing over at him, but he hadn't noticed.
Mickey took a deep breath and let it out. "I stole a car, and drove until the petrol ran out. I sold it for scrap, and got quite a lot for it. I bought a tin can car, drove down to Kent where my adopted siblings lived and made amends. Got set up with a job, then the company transferred me back up north to Chester. I stayed there until Martha came. Got her a job, saved up, bought ourselves the canal boat two months back. No rent, no council tax - and if we want to move cities or whatever, we can."
Owen's turn was next.
"Erm ... well ... London again." He gave a nervous laugh. "My ... uh ... my dad was a lawyer and my mum was a surgeon. They met when someone was trying to sue my mum because their relative died in surgery - he was on the opposite side." Owen laughed to himself, smiling fondly. "I wanted to be a doctor, and my mum was getting me set up properly, keeping my grades up, giving me extra lessons, teaching me discipline. My dad set up a fund, putting money aside to help me through uni so that I wouldn't be paying off student loans until I was old and grey. Everything was ... brilliant. And then I met Katie ..."
Ianto looked away. He knew this bit.
"Katie was ... something else. I was sixteen, and she was nineteen. Blonde, sweet and totally crazy. But ... my parents didn't like her - more to the point, my dad didn't like her. He'd put her dad in prison for something, but wouldn't tell me what. We decided, on a mad, totally spontaneous whim, to elope. I stole money from my dad, got us on a National Express bus and we picked a number of stops and ... just got off. I was mugged on our first night in ... wherever it was. Somewhere east. No money, no where to stay, no way to contact home: we slept rough for a week, begging in the day, starving. We were desperate, so ... Katie agreed to sleep with this guy. He paid her loads because she was a virgin."
Owen's face darkened, and he glanced over at Ianto and Jack. Jack looked away, and Ianto continued staring at the floor, tipping his head back almost imperceptibly to feel Jack's hand on the sofa in his hair.
"Anyway, we got to a hostel, thinking that no one at home would ever let us come back now. Katie went on the game, and she said it wasn't fair that I didn't have to do anything. So ... yeah. This guy stopped me, and we fucked in an alley ... and he told me that if I wanted to earn a regular wage, I should meet him the next night at this place and this time ... and of course, I was naive, and sixteen." He shrugged. "I took Katie with me, in case they could get her something too. But ... no. We stood there in the dark and waited, and someone got me from behind. I ... woke up in the back of a lorry with a few other boys. Cardiff was where we were let out, after hours and hours sitting in the dark. We were inspected by the Crawleys and sent off all sorts of places. I drifted around the district for a couple of years, made name for myself for being cockney and vicious and the punters really went for that. I was recruited by Sarah Jane and ... here we are ..." He gestured around the room, and Lisa blew her nose.
They all turned expectantly to Martha.
"I lived with my mum ..." She glanced at Lisa. "... and my grandma and granddad. When I was four, my mum ... went. And in the same year, so did my granddad. We thought she was dead but ... yeah. So I was living with my grandma in the suburbs, and I developed this wild streak. Started ... smoking the good stuff. Then the really good stuff. I was out of my head, about ... eighteen? For a lark I went to Kings Cross and pretended to be a hooker, thinking it was hilarious when this guy asked me how much. But ... he expected me to go through with it. I shrugged and did what he wanted, took the cash and was shocked at how much I got. Seemed like an ideal fix to my gran's money struggles as long as she didn't find out where it was from. So ... for a year I did it, and got thousands of pounds. A ridiculous amount of money. I told my gran I'd won the Lottery - matched five numbers or something - paid off the sharks and we were ... good.
"My grand died six months later, and I had nothing left. I'd ..." She glanced nervously at Jack. "... I'd kinda enjoyed it ... y'know? So ... I went into it full time. Took the guys back to the house for extra cash. But ... it wasn't enough. I wanted to get away from the ghosts, and I heard that Cardiff was where all the sleazy money was, so I bought a train ticket and went up there. Dropped by Sarah Jane's and got the job on the spot."
She resolutely refused to make eye contact with anyone, waiting for whoever was next.
"Toshiko?" Gwen suggested.
Toshiko's eyes snapped up from where she'd been staring at her belly. "Oh ... erm ... pass ..." she mumbled.
"We've all shared." Gwen pressed.
"You haven't." pointed out Tosh.
"Okay then. Well, I was born in Swansea, and my mam and dad were typesetters for a publishing company. We lived in a tower block, full of drug addicts, teenage parents who'd been kicked out by their folks and old people who couldn't afford the bills of non-council houses. My parents were just too lazy to move anywhere else, so bought the flat when they got their jobs. I remember ... me and David next door used to play Doctors and Nurses with the syringes we'd find. We never ... pierced the skin or anything ..." she assured them, seeing their alarmed looks. Rhys was nodding like he already heard all this. "... we just pretended. Anyway, my dad had an aneurism when I was twenty and died suddenly, and my mam became so depressed she was bedridden. I started sleeping with the neighbours to support my mam and keep the payments up on the flat, before eventually she hanged herself. It was like I'd sacrificed part of myself for nothing ... like she didn't appreciate it ..."
"She will have," Jack assured her, and they all turned, surprised he had spoken. "believe me, Gwen. She will have."
Gwen sniffed and wiped away a tear that managed to escape. "I ... I ... I moved downstairs. David had a spare room, and said I didn't have to pay rent if I slept with him. And then if I slept with his friends. And then if I slept with some 'business partners'. I was smoking pot most of the time and barely noticed, really. How bad it got. Next thing I know he's moving to Cardiff, and I'm going with him. I ran away from him after six months, and that's when I met Ianto."
They smiled at each other, a sad understanding.
"I cried and cried, and he had no idea what to do. You were what ... how old? A teenager. He took me the only place he knew as safe. So I moved in there with you an' your 'orrible lot." she grinned. "Next?"
Jack found expectant eyes on him, the next in the circle he supposed, and shifted uncomfortably. "Erm ... I don't generally talk about ... the past ..."
"Neither do we." said Toshiko, Owen, Martha, Gwen and Ianto in one. Mickey smirked.
"Oh ... okay ... well ... I was born in ... America. West Chester, just outside New York. In the more rural bit. We had a large-ish house, and my dad ... had the meagre remnants of a title ..." He glanced around, seeing they were all listening intently. "Erm ... my little brother died when he was seven."
Ianto blinked. "I never knew you had a brother."
Lisa didn't either, but said nothing.
"It was my fault." Jack muttered, almost to himself. "I was told to keep an eye on him ... we went swimming in the lake on the grounds and he was ... he was too small. And a weak swimmer. We were only supposed to go paddling but ... he kept going deeper and deeper and I told him to come back and not to go too far. He slipped and went under, knocked himself out on rock beneath the surface. He drowned."
A tear rolled down his cheek, and Toshiko and Martha shifted on the couch so that Ianto could sit beside Jack, clasping his hand and putting an arm around him. Lisa kept her face blank as some of the others glanced at her.
Jack continued talking, even though he was clearly distressed. "It was my fault ... I should have dragged him back ... but ... it was too late. I pulled his body to the bank and ... I tried to do something. But ... there was nothing ... I tried blowing air into his mouth to get the water out but ... he'd been dead long before I pulled him out of the water ..." He took a deep breath. "I got ill - really ill. Depression and pneumonia, and I had a lot of fevers. It took me a year to recover, and then ... I was ... sixteen? Then my family moved here. To this cottage."
He raised his eyes as if expecting to see ghosts from the past wandering around. "My dad was getting good at business - he'd completely thrown himself into it with my brother's death - and he'd set aside enough money to buy the surrounding land and start building a house similar in size to the one stateside. My parents moved up there when it was done, and I stayed here. They ... told me I needed independence. But they just couldn't stand me after what happened to Gray ..."
"That won't be true, Jack." Ianto said softly, kissing his temple.
"They ... they were different. Anyway: I went traveling a bit to prove I could be independent and ..." He smiled dopily. "... and in Venice I met Lucia. Italian, big eyes, olive-skinned and ... she was beautiful."
Jack knew he'd have to start lying soon, or none of his dates would add up; he couldn't help but keep talking, though. Ianto was silent, and so was Lisa. Even Adeiola didn't know about Lucia. He hadn't spoken of her since Christmas, and he hadn't spoken of her before then since she'd died.
"We married in Rome, and I took her to live with me in Los Angeles. We had a little girl called Alice."
Lisa gasped. "What?"
Ianto's eyes darted over to hers, and Jack raised his to meet her.
"I have another half-sister?" Lisa asked, disbelieving.
"No." Jack's voice was hoarse. "She died too. And so did her baby ... brother. Her baby brother. Stephen."
Lisa was staring at him. "What other secrets are you keeping?" she asked harshly, then remembered herself. "sorry ... Dad ... sorry ..."
"What happened?" Ianto asked, urging him to keep opening up.
"Car crash. The doctors assured me they didn't feel a thing. And ... and Lucia ... it was my fault. I bought the car. Stephen was mad about cars, kept nagging for one. We didn't need one at the time, so didn't have one. But ... you should have seen his little puppy-eyes! Big, blue puppy eyes and sandy hair!" Jack laughed. "So ... I couldn't say no. I bought the car, and the driver crashed."
He looked around, and they were all staring at him and hanging on his every word. He swallowed.
"I ... came back to the UK. I tried living here again but ... it was too small for me. I felt trapped no matter where I was, like everything was ... closing in. Suffocating. So I joined the RAF, thinking about planes and how ... how flying made you feel free for however long you're in the sky. Even in the wars. I was ... captured on a mission during an ambush - my plane was shot down, and I had to parachute to land. I was captured, as well as a few territorials and held in a prison. That's where I met John. I was tortured while they asked him questions."
"Fuck." breathed Owen. He made eye contact with Jack a second, and they both looked away.
"We got out soon enough - John fed them some false stuff they didn't bother to check - and I managed to steal us a plane and get us back to base. Our families had already been told we were dead." He sighed heavily. "We made our way to England and got a Civil Partnership. But ... it didn't work out. I got home and found out that upon learning I was dead, my mother couldn't handle losing two sons and shot herself. My father had already taken a new wife and she was in the early stages of pregnancy when I showed up with John. My father hated him, refused to accept him and his more ... promiscuous ways ... and tried to disown me. I didn't particularly care - until my father died of a heart attack before he'd had the chance to sleep on it. Suddenly I was the Earl of this non-existent place, with an empty treasury and a house newly built but already falling apart. I had to concentrate on the land, and on the family, and ... and that meant John had to go. He was insane anyway. He ... went a bit mad as a POW, and it set in once his Partnership with me put him a little bit above the law.
"I started attending the social gatherings, making a name for myself, investing. I started running for chairs, making the right friends and the right connexions and the right impressions - and bringing the right people down so that I could stand in their place. I ... lost a lot of myself in those years. A lot. I'd lost so much I stopped caring ... and then I met Adeiola Simmonds, maiden name; Oshodi."
Martha nodded at that. Jones was her father's name, but her mother's parents were Oshodi.
"Her husband, Jake, was ... an underdog. He'd risen through the ranks, and he was the one to aim for. Addy was two months pregnant when I met her, three months pregnant when I married her. Jake ... disappeared. Turned up in a club, dead as a doornail. I thought nothing of it possibly being anything to do with Adeiola - she was ... perfect to me. His property became mine through marriage, as well as the title but I discarded it. Then we had Lisa, and ... I'm sorry I missed so much. I was so absorbed in ... I don't know. Having everything ... but ... anyway: Adeiola and I grew apart, and we started spending more and more time apart. Most of my lands were in the UK, so I set up my wife and child here, at the manor. At Hillcrest. I had it extended and repaired and stuff and ... just left them here." He hung his head shamefully. "I ... I wasn't surrounded by anyone real anymore. No one cared for anyone but themselves. Everything was fake, and ... and I was so alone when I was away from home. I started clinging to the tiniest little bit of love I could find ... and that's when I started seeing prostitutes."
He and Lisa were avoiding each others' eyes as if they're have their souls sucked out if they made contact.
"Erm ... then I got Ianto." Jack finished. He looked around at them all, and tried to grin.
None of them really knew what to say. They thought his life had been a bed of egyptian cotton, constantly kept warm, and he could see the surprise in their eyes.
"Next?" he asked.
Lisa cleared her throat, and pointed towards Ianto. He'd never really told her what happened, and she needed her mind off everything she'd just learnt about the father she thought she'd at least known a bit.
"Um ... ah ... ahem ... right ... erm ... well. Well then. I was born - well, no - I was found on the doorstep of a little orphanage in Newport, about a day old. Erm ... I'm called Ianto because that's the Welsh equivalent of 'John', because they were going to call me 'John Doe' at first."
Something stirred in the back of Jack's mind, but he couldn't quite recall what. He knew a vague outline of Ianto's childhood, but nothing more than what had been shouted at him in anger.
"... I ... lived there until I was ten, when I stole Matron's purse and ran away. I walked all the way from Newport to Cardiff - took ... took me weeks. I met Toshiko on the way and we ... stuck together. We slept a week rough on the streets and then the Crawley's came. I was sent to Peacock bath house -"
Jack managed to mask his familiarity with the name.
"- and stayed there until I was thirteen. Scrubbing pipes and stuff. Disgusting. Then I went to go and live with Sarah Jane and Toshiko. Sarah Jane didn't think I'd ever be good enough for the punters - she just kept me on to clean, make coffee and generally just piss off Owen."
They all gave a small laugh, and Owen scowled.
"Then I went to Jack ... and now I'm here." shrugged Ianto.
Mickey cleared his throat. They all turned to him.
"What?" asked Ianto, frowning.
"You missed a bit, is all?"
"... I did?"
"Yeah ... I think you did." Mickey gave Martha a pointed look and Jack narrowed his eyes at the gesture. Ianto understood and his eyes widened in a silent plea. "Aren't you and Martha going to share?"
Martha's head shot up, and she shook her head violently, a warning in her eyes. "Stop it, Mickey."
Jack laughed. "What's ... what's going on?"
"Nothing." said Ianto quickly. Jack narrowed his eyes, and so did Lisa in a very similar gesture.
"Iantoooo ..." Mickey drawled. ".... lost his virginity to Marthaaaaa when he was sixteen."
Jack stiffened, searching Mickey's face for the lie. All he saw was the malicious smirk.
"And now ..." Mickey sat back and gazed coolly at Martha. "... we're even."
She gasped and put her face in her hands. Lisa looked horrified - he hadn't even told her. She'd understand not telling her father ... but ... her? Maybe her mother had been right ... maybe he was playing her ... maybe he was too perfect.
Haughtily, and looking at no one, she stood up and left the room, climbing the stairs and slamming a door. The rest of them stared at the floor, apart from Jack who was staring into the middle distance, stiff and pulsing. Ianto was watching him carefully, touching his knee.
"Jack?"
Jack's head snapped around, and Ianto saw the real hurt there.
"You lied to me." he whispered. "I don't care you slept with her but ... you could have told me ... any time after I took you away ... when I ... when I helped her ... you could have told me ... but you lied to me ..." His handsome face changed suddenly, darkening with thunder and Ianto felt a twinge of fear.
"I'm sorry." he breathed.
"Not good enough."
Ianto loosely covered his mouth with his fingers, searching Jack's face for anything other than anger. He found nothing.
"I think you should pack your things, Ianto." Jack said smoothly, then heaved himself up from the couch. Ianto was still frozen, staring where Jack's face had just been, fingers still brushing his lips in his shock. Slowly he turned and gazed up at Jack, his eyes big and shining. "What did I just tell you?" Jack snapped.
Ianto sprung into action, racing up the stairs, trying to find a hold all. He rushed into the bedroom, and went headlong into Lisa. Her eyes slid down to the bag and back up over his shaking hands and pale face. "He's taking you." she stated, emotionless. Ianto nodded. "Good. I can't stand the sight of you."
Ianto gasped like he'd just been shot. "Lisa! I ... I'm sorry ..."
"You should have told me. You made me believe that ... I thought I was the only one ... the only woman ...."
"Does it matter to you?"
"Yes." she snapped.
"You are like your father." he stated calmly.
"IANTO!" Jack bellowed.
Ianto pushed past her and started rolling up his plastic-covered suits and shirts and ties. He got his pyjamas, socks, underwear and belts. Lisa had gone to the bathroom, so he squeezed his toy in there as well, not sure why.
He didn't take any casual clothes.
He was already wearing the burgundy shirt that Lisa had forced him to buy, as well as the coffee bean cufflinks she'd bought him herself. He'd left his jacket downstairs, and his black waistcoat snagged on the watch on his wrist as he picked out a spare pair of shoes.
The heavy thud of boots on stairs started pounding towards him, and he knew Jack would drag him out of the house whether he needed to or not. Jack entered the room, dramatic as thunder, and glared at him.
"I just need a few more things, sir."
"What things?"
"My ... shower things and ..."
"There's toiletries where we're going." Jack stepped forward and grasped his forearm.
"Wait!" he gasped by the front door as Jack wrenched it open. "Let me say goodbye."
Jack turned and hauled him roughly over his shoulder, not caring that he hurt him. Ianto yelled out for Toshiko and Owen, and they hurried into the hall. Jack put Ianto down behind him, pulled out his Webley and aimed it at Owen. "One move ..." he threatened, then stopped, narrowed his eyes and then realised something. "Ianto? When we met, and you promised you were a virgin ... didn't you swear on Owen's life that no one had touched you?"
Ianto's eyes widened in fear, and he lunged towards Jack, trying to grab the firearm, finding a kneed shoved hard into his groin. He fell to the floor, retching in pain, and heard a gun shot and Toshiko, Gwen and Rhys' screams. Martha and Mickey were still yelling in the living room, but their voices halted when the loud bang pierced the air.
Jack lowered his gun. "Let's put that oath to the test, shall we?"
Trying to sit up, Ianto stared at Owen lying on the ground, blood pouring from his chest. "Owen!" he cried, and started to get up. "NO!" he yelled as Jack's arms closed around him, dragging him and lifting him as he kicked and struggled and wept. "OWEN!"
He was tossed into the back of a four-seater convertible and ordered to lie still. Jack climbed into the drivers' seat and set off harshly, speeding his way wherever he was going. He glanced back while at some traffic lights, and saw Ianto trying to use his PDA. He snatched it from him, and Ianto gave little resistance. "And your phone!" snapped Jack. Ianto gave it up. They were doing a hundred and thirteen miles and hour down the motorway, hood down, when Jack tossed them out of the car.
Ianto shivered and wept, the cold air lashing him cruelly as if it knew what he'd done. He tried to pull his burgundy shirt close to him, praying forgiveness from Mickey, and from Lisa, and from Jack. He was terrified what Jack would do to him, and several awful scenarios slid through his mind at lightning speed. He thought of Owen, and shook himself to the core: it was his fault Owen had been killed. Or nearly killed. Shot.
They drove for what felt like an age, until Jack pulled up outside a large tower and got out, dragging Ianto and his bag with him. Ianto gazed up, and recognised where they were as the Doctor's hotel. Jack had driven them all the way to Cardiff.
A firm arm around his shoulders, Jack roughly guided Ianto to the desk and checked them in for their old suite. The Sapphire Room - Jack's - wasn't free, but the one down the hall that had belonged to Ianto was. Jack paid for it, and took the keycard, and forced Ianto into the lift.
Alone, Ianto turned to him. "Please, Jack ..." he began, but was cut short by Jack's mouth on his, nearly choking on his tongue he pushed it too deep and claimed him. He dug his fingers and nails into Ianto's biceps, bruising hard until Ianto gasped and whimpered in pain. He was tugged harshly from the lift and shoved into his old room, and he gazed around as if expecting it to have changed. It looked exactly the same. It just felt different.
Jack locked the door behind them and took off his coat. "Take off your clothes." he ordered.
"Jack ..."
"NOW!" Jack spun and shouted, and Ianto jumped back. "Now! ... or do I have to tie you down and cut them off?"
Ianto shook his head, tears running down his face, and started on his waistcoat. Jack was getting undressed too, and Ianto copied him and simply threw the clothes aside. Jack pulled back the covers of the bed and climbed under. He knelt up. "Get. In." he commanded through gritted teeth.
Crying, Ianto shook his head. "No."
"Get in this bed." Jack said coolly.
Ianto shook his head again.
The Captain glowered, balling his fists, kneeling up high and snarling. "You will get in this bed right now, and you will love me until I tell you I've had enough!" he yelled.
Ianto couldn't look at him, cuddling himself, back into the wardrobe. Jack got out of bed, walked over to him and gathered him up in his arms, forcing him to move despite his protests, dragging him and forcing him down onto the mattress.
It was then that Ianto fully realised that Jack wasn't getting hard. Even on top of him, their flaccid cocks together, Jack wasn't reacting. Ianto whimpered, his head thrown back roughly into a pillow, not fighting back as Jack positioned him how he wanted. Satisfied Jack lay down, spooning Ianto into his back and forcing his bicep under his head. A strong arm pinned them together over his middle, the Captain holding Ianto's hand solidly in place ... and Jack seemed to calm, pressing himself against Ianto. Eventually, he fell asleep, while Ianto lay awake, the tears subsiding.
"You will get in this bed ... and you will love me ...."
Jack's words scrolled through Ianto's head like a marquee.
"You will get in this bed ... and you will love me ...."
This wasn't what Ianto had expected, this was so different ... he wanted to be held? He wanted to sleep in the same bed and be held. He wanted to be loved, and he wanted Ianto to love him. The discovery of the betrayal had made him crave and desperately seek the old times in Cardiff before everything went so very, very wrong.
"You just made it worse, Jack ..." he thought to himself, not daring to move away. "So much worse ..."
Still the words echoed through his head:
"You will get in this bed ... and you will love me ..."
FIN
Apologies! Six days and no update! How terribly evil of me ....
