Jack sped back to the Hub, alternating between anger and disappointment.
First Ianto had messaged him out of the blue ordering him to meet him at the warehouse. Jack had been annoyed that Ianto had called him out and just expected him to come running. However, once he got there and heard why Ianto had called for him, he realised that there wasn’t much else that Ianto could have done. After all, who sends a message along the lines of: “Hey, I’ve found a pterodactyl, let’s catch it” and expects to be believed. Even for Torchwood, that was pushing it a bit.
But when they were in the warehouse lying against each other on the floor, with the way they were looking at each other, he had thought – had hoped – for one brief moment there was a chance their encounter was going to take a decidedly different turn. Jack couldn’t deny he was physically attracted to Ianto, and had been since the first time he saw him. If Ianto hadn’t turned out to be the new director that night in the park, Jack might have been tempted to pursue him further right there and then.
In the warehouse though, Ianto had closed his eyes like he couldn’t stand the sight of Jack, and had just upped and left with barely another word. He hadn’t even hung around long enough to help bundle up the pterodactyl into the SUV, instead stalking off leaving Jack behind to do the clean up.
He wasn’t expecting Ianto to treat him like the servant the other directors had. Jack had begun to think that Ianto actually seemed to like him; Ianto had treated him like every other member of the team and he hadn’t treated Jack any differently when he saw him come back to life after Suzie killed him. Most other directors couldn’t look at him straight the first time they saw it happen, but Ianto had just carried on as if nothing had changed. Tonight though, Ianto had seemed to treat him more like the other directors had.
Jack stayed up most of the night building a habitat for the pterodactyl. By the time morning came, he had created a fairly sturdy sleeping area for it near the roof of the Hub. He would also build automatic doors to be able to shut it into its section, should they have visitors.
As usual, Ianto was the first to arrive in the morning. Jack waited for Ianto to come over and speak to him, still not entirely comfortable with the previous night. Beyond a discussion about how the pterodactyl had settled in though, neither of them mentioned the previous night, and they went their separate ways.
Suzie and Tosh were amazed by the sight of the creature flying around the Hub. Both girls jumped when they first heard it screech. Ianto had already heard it the previous night in the warehouse, so he was mostly prepared for the deafening loudness of the creature’s screeching but it still sounded louder than expected within the confines of the Hub.
Jack announced that he had decided during the night that the pterodactyl was a female, and a short while later Ianto came up with the name Myfanwy. He refused to explain how he had come up with that name.
A string of profanity heralded Owen’s arrival as Myfanwy swooped at him as soon as he entered the Hub.
By the time Gwen arrived Myfanwy had retreated back to the area Jack had set up for her, so Gwen didn’t immediately notice anything different. The rest of the team looked at each other, and with a few hidden grins, it was silently agreed not to say anything to her. They watched her settle down at her desk with her morning coffee, wanting to see how long it would take her to realise something else was in the Hub with them.
The team only had to wait a few minutes before Myfanwy decided it would be a good time to fly down for a closer look. The pterodactyl swooped down with an enormous screech just as Gwen was lifting her mug for another sip of coffee causing her to jump in fright, spilling her coffee on her desk and on herself.
“What was that?” Gwen had gone pale.
“Pterodactyl,” Tosh called out from her desk.
Gwen looked up at Myfanwy in disbelief and looked back down at Suzie and Owen who were standing there laughing at her reaction. She muttered “Bloody Torchwood” under her breath and disappeared into the kitchen to grab a cloth to clean up her mess, leaving them all to watch after her, still laughing.
“Does it have a name?” she asked when got back from the kitchen.
“She is called Myfanwy,” Ianto replied.
As Gwen thought about the meaning of Myfanwy, it was her turn to laugh.
The next few weeks turned out to be very busy for the Torchwood team. A seemingly endless number of rift alerts, combined with more and more Weevil attacks, had the entire team run ragged and, at some stages, struggling to keep up. With Suzie’s return, they were back up to a full team and, with Ianto capably co-ordinating their alerts from the Hub, they found they functioned well together.
Suzie seemed to settle back in quite nicely. There were a few moments of awkwardness when the conversation had drifted towards things that had happened during the period of time that Suzie no longer remembered, but overall she had fitted in with the new team dynamics remarkably well. Both Owen and Tosh observed that she seemed to be happier than she had been previously, more like how she had been back when they first started working with her. Jack said it was like nothing was weighing her down any more. Neither Gwen nor Ianto had worked with her long enough to notice any real difference, but Ianto was reassured by the others’ comments.
Suzie was showing herself to have a brilliant mind with a wicked sense of humour and Ianto was extremely pleased to have her there. He did ask her once if she wanted to return to UNIT, but she was adamant she wanted to stay with Torchwood. She didn’t know what had happened during the time she couldn’t remember, beyond what Jack had told her, but she thought the best place for her to be was Torchwood, not UNIT.
Also helping her to settle in was Ianto continuing to take them out for drinks every so often, whenever the rift alerts gave them a few hours peace. He tried to make sure that all of the team were there, and that no one was left out. Occasionally though he would send the rest of the team out while he behind stayed at the Hub.
Jack would sometimes stay back too, arguing that if an alert came up he would be able to respond sooner from the Hub than from a pub. They continued to avoid speaking to each other about anything personal and, on those nights, Jack would usually disappear into the lower levels claiming there was work he needed to do in the archives.
With the ongoing high number of alerts, Ianto had taken to working later and later each night, stating that all the team, including Jack, needed to go home to get their rest. Eventually it seemed like he hardly ever left the Hub. More and more Jack would return from a late night call out or just a night out to find Ianto asleep at his desk. Jack eventually started sending him down into the bunker again to get some proper sleep.
One night Jack felt really run down and he desperately needed some sleep. Ianto was already asleep in the bunker so Jack climbed quietly down the ladder to get himself something more comfortable to sleep in. He was going to get changed and then go back up and rest on the sofa in the main Hub. Since Jack’s body only needed a few hours to recuperate, he figured he’d be awake and off the sofa again before Ianto even woke up. He knew that Ianto wouldn’t be happy with the thought that he had kept Jack from his bed for his own sake.
He hadn’t counted on Ianto usually being such a light sleeper, and as he started to climb back up the ladder Ianto had called out to him softly.
“Jack?”
Jack stopped and turned around to look at Ianto.
“What’s happening?” Ianto asked.
“Nothing much, I’m just going to get a few hours rest. The rift seems to be quiet for the moment.” Jack replied.
“Oh.” Ianto sat himself up. “Do you want the bed back?”
Jack shook his head. “No, I’ll just be on the sofa.”
Ianto yawned. “It’s OK. Like you said, there’s enough room for two here.”
Jack looked back Ianto. “You sure?”
Ianto didn’t reply, he just moved over making room for Jack. Jack paused a moment and then with a small shrug, he climbed in next to Ianto.
“Just make sure you behave yourself there, Captain,” Ianto said with a sleepy grin, poking at Jack’s shoulder with a solitary finger.
Jack smiled back at him, wishing they would joke around together more often, and then he lay down, promptly falling asleep.
Jack woke a few hours later and looked over thoughtfully at the sleeping director. This was not the first time he had shared his bed with one of the directors, but it was definitely the first time when all they had done was sleep. A number of directors, both male and female, had demanded his ‘services’ and there were even a few times when Jack had been the initiator. But simply sharing the bed, with no demands being placed on him, that was something different.
Perhaps Ianto would turn out to be different to the other directors after all.
Over the next couple of weeks with no let up in sight with all of the rift activity, Ianto and Jack gradually fell into the habit of sharing the bed more often. Jack would come in for a few hours before getting up again to continue monitoring the alerts. Ianto would wake up in time to go home, shower and change then come back and start all over again.
Neither of them really spoke much to each other about it and neither of them expected it to progress any further. They both found they enjoyed having someone there with them; it had been a while since either of them had someone to wake up next to. It also helped to break the ice between them, and they slowly started talking to each other again.
One night Jack was woken by Ianto having a nightmare. Jack knew that Ianto was regularly troubled by nightmares and had often heard him having nightmares. This one in particular seemed to be particularly bad.
After a while, Jack moved over closer behind Ianto and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Ianto?” he said gently.
Ianto only groaned, still lost in the nightmare.
Jack shook his shoulder. “Ianto,” he said a bit louder this time.
“Lisa… No… Please don’t…”
Jack wasn’t surprised. Many of Ianto’s dreams or nightmares seemed to revolve around Lisa. There were also some nightmares about someone called Ethan, but those seemed to have disappeared recently.
“Ianto!” Jack shook Ianto’s shoulder a bit harder and spoke a bit louder this time. Ianto was usually a light sleeper, but when he was caught up in a nightmare it could be near impossible to wake him.
Ianto jumped a little and rolled on to his back. His eyes slowly opened and he looked up at Jack. “Sorry, did I wake you again?”
Jack shook his head. “It’s alright.” He paused. “Do you want to talk about it? Your nightmare?”
Ianto closed his eyes briefly and rolled back on his side facing away from Jack. “Not really,” he mumbled.
“OK then. Get back to sleep.” Jack squeezed Ianto’s shoulder and lay back down.
During the night more nightmares came. Jack was able to fend these away by rubbing his hand up and down Ianto’s back, by brushing his fingers through his hair, whispering calming words. Jack was mostly able to calm him down without waking him up. Only once more during the night did Ianto actually wake up.
He was writhing on the bed, almost as if he was under attack from someone. He sat up at one stage flinging his arms in front of his face. Jack sat up with him and took hold of his arms and wrapped them around his own body, allowing him to hold Ianto closely. Ianto responded by grabbing hold of Jack tightly, his hands clutching at Jack’s shirt. The fight slowly left Ianto, and he slumped weakly against Jack, still gasping and shuddering. Unable to wake him up or calm him down properly, Jack held him tight and sang him a lullaby from his home world on the Boeshane Peninsula. It was a song that his mother always sang to him whenever he woke up from his own nightmares as a child.
After Ianto had calmed down and had eventually woken, Jack asked him if he normally had that many nightmares. Ianto was confused as he only remembered the two nightmares that had woken him up. Normal for him was four or five of those nightmares. Jack then told him about the smaller ones he didn’t wake up for; Ianto didn’t remember any of them. That made them both wonder how many he really had each night when he was on his own.
Towards morning, Jack woke up feeling something across his chest. Opening his eyes, he smiled in surprise to see that Ianto was lying close beside him with an arm casually resting over Jack. Even more surprising was that Jack was actually resting his hand on Ianto’s arm.
Ianto woke not long after him, and realising where he had his arm he went to remove it but Jack tightened his hold on Ianto’s arm, stopping him from moving. Jack had seen the sudden panic in Ianto’s eyes about the physical contact.
“Stay,” Jack whispered. He kept his grip on Ianto’s arm until he felt him relax. They instinctively snuggled a bit closer to each other and stayed there until the alarm went off for them to get up.
Jack found he was quite content to be lying there like that with Ianto.