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Published:
2020-11-05
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2007-09-09
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2/2
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Late Home

Summary:

Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen, Tosh
Rating/Warnings: PG, contains references to injuries and some m/m kissing. Character death.
Summary: The Doctor gets the timing wrong for Jack’s return. It is twenty years since he left The Hub and some things have changed but others haven’t.
A/N: this is my first serious foray into this fandom. I love the show and I love the characters and don’t know if I have done them justice yet. This may or may not be continued into a series, I am not sure if I am happy with the storyline yet.
Submitted through CompleteKingdomOfSlash

Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Chapter Text

 

 

Late Home
by Lilithangel
abchainey@xtra.co.nz
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lilithbint

 

Gravity is not a force acting at a distance; it is mass gripping spacetime, telling it how to curve, and spacetime gripping mass, telling it how to move.

Sometimes it felt like the Doctor was his gravity controlling him and telling him how to move. He hadn’t expected it even when he knew he had fallen in love with the Time Lord, even when he found himself falling in love with the new face which still held the old gaze.

But he was wrong in those eyes and he knew if he stayed he would end up hating or fearing the object of his long held obsessions. He needed to find another orbit before he was crushed by it.

Cardiff looked pretty much the same as he had left it. He watched the Tardis disappear and this time he didn’t mind as much. They hadn’t been the answers he had been looking for but they were at least answers and he was content.

Now he wanted to see his team again.

He stopped at the door of the Tourist office the welcome bell jangling above his head. This wasn’t the dusty poky room he had left. It was light and airy and the reception counter had been replaced by a low table. The beaded curtain was still there but it wasn’t his Ianto who pushed them aside.

The open cheerful smile froze on Jack’s lips as Owen wheeled out looking angry and not surprised at his presence.

"Owen, what happened while I was gone?" he demanded before the expected pleasantries he had rehearsed.

"A lot can happen in twenty years Captain," Owen replied flatly.

"Twenty years," Jack said, "what do you mean twenty years? He promised me no more than eighteen months and less if he could."

Owen seemed to relax a little at Jack’s obvious confusion, "you better come down."

Jack followed Owen down his mind still reeling from the words. He noted the changes to the Hub and the ease with which Owen could get down to the main area. These were not changes that could have happened overnight but twenty years seemed impossible.

If for no other reason than Owen didn’t look any different from the day he had left. Aside from the chair of course.

Waiting just inside the main door were Tosh and Ianto both looking exactly as he remembered them. Their faces had comforted him when he had waited for the Doctor’s plan to play out although their names had never passed his lips when he had been a guest of the Master. He may have left them but he would never betray them.

Just like the last time it was Tosh who moved first, Tosh who came forward and hugged him. Not with the same relief and abandon of his last return but still with the warmth he remembered.

Ianto looked at him with those big haunted eyes but this time it was Jack who was grabbed and kissed instead of doing the grabbing.

Owen continued on into the conference room and Jack let himself be led there by Tosh while Ianto went to make coffee. It felt so much like his dreams that he nearly lost control of his legs and sank gratefully into a chair.

"Now this twenty year thing is just revenge for me leaving right?" he had to ask. "You don’t look any older."

"Yeah well we are," Owen said, "we’ll catch you up on world history later, so where the fuck have you been to miss twenty years?"

"How long do you think it’s been?" Tosh asked as Ianto returned with coffee.

"A year, eighteen months top," Jack said in a daze. They weren’t smirking and there was a weariness about them he didn’t remember being there. "What happened?"

"The Rift so far as we can tell," Ianto said sitting next to Jack and passing around the coffee.

"We didn’t know at first, didn’t think anything was different," Tosh said.

"Too busy reeling from your vanishing act to notice anything else," Owen added.

"Gwen kept us together," Tosh said, "while we tried to find out what had happened to you."

"In the end we had to give up on you and get on with business," Owen finished.

"Where is Gwen?" Jack looked at them.

"She’s dead," Owen said bluntly.

Jack held on tight to his coffee mug and tried to come to terms with what they were telling him.

"At first we didn’t notice anything except improved healing time and none of us were complaining about that," Owen continued, "until Ianto took a wound that should have had me amputating."

Jack put down his coffee cup knowing the shaking in his hands was going to cause an accident.

"I’m alright sir," Ianto said seeing his reaction, "I healed."

"Too right he healed. Completely and in less than two weeks," Owen added.

"So Owen decided to test our new found ability," Ianto said with an affectionate glare that convinced Jack of the time that had passed more than anything. "After Tosh patched him up and put his intestines back inside, we called Torchwood One."

"They did some tests," Tosh explained and all three exchanged glances that told Jack the tests had not been easy.

"Turns out our DNA had been fucked with. We’re not immortal like you Jack but we’re damn hard to kill and our aging has slowed," Owen said.

"Gwen found out we weren’t immortal," Tosh added sadly.

"It was confirmed that we were all sterile," Ianto said, "it was too much for Gwen to know she wasn’t going to age with Rhys, couldn’t have a family with him and would probably have to watch him die again. She stepped in front of a bullet that would have hit Owen and didn’t heal."

Silence fell as Jack tried to take in everything he had been told.

"Where have you been, Captain?" Owen finally said.

"I found someone who had answers about what I am. Things happened, I wasn’t even sure I could ever come back to you at all," he said unconsciously rubbing his wrists.

"We had just got you back and you fucking left us," Owen said, "You were our centre and without you we spun apart. It took a lot of time and a lot of pain to find our balance again."

"It wasn’t supposed to be twenty years." Jack shook his head, "god you could have all been gone when I returned. Why hasn’t Torchwood One sent support?"

"Since nobody is certain how this happened they didn’t want to take the risk with any other staff," Tosh answered, "and we’re a pretty formidable team now."

Jack picked up his coffee again and let the aroma ground him. He had dreamed of Ianto’s coffee during the year he had been on the Valiant never expecting to miss such a simple thing.

"What happened to you?" he asked Owen.

Owen shrugged, "severed spines heal too given enough time. Should be out of this thing in another couple of months."

"You sound so blasé about it."

"Like you were about dying," Owen snapped back, "it wasn’t heroics at all was it? You knew you couldn’t fucking die."

"Still hurts though, doesn’t it?" Jack said calmer than he felt.

"Yeah," Owen agreed with a sigh.

"We have missed you," Tosh said.

"You were the reason we never pushed for support from London sir," Ianto said, "Gwen never stopped believing you would return, even at the end."

"Did she mean to die?" Jack had to ask.

"We’re not sure. She believed there was something more out there and at times truly regretted what we had become and feared what it meant," Ianto answered, "one of them was going to die that day and Gwen chose it to be her."

Owen’s face was carefully blank but Jack could see the lines of strain around his eyes that spoke of always suppressed emotions.

"It’s a lot to take in," Jack finally said.

"Try living it," Owen said.

"So it was a year for you?" Tosh asked him.

"Not a good year I’m guessing," Ianto said.

"No, not a good year but it’s over now. Twenty years… whew, that’s going to take some catching up with." He smiled weakly. "How’s the Rift been?"

"It’s kept us occupied," Tosh said looking around to her station, "speaking of which…"

"Go," he said to her, "we’ve got plenty of time to catch up."

"Have we?" Owen asked.

"Yes. I’m not going anywhere anytime soon," Jack said as much to himself as to his team.

"It’s good to have you back," Tosh said hugging him again. He held her tight for a moment and then let her hurry away.

Owen pushed away from the table, "I should go back to the desk in case some other bloody American turns up looking for directions this time."

Jack got out of his chair and knelt in front of Owen. "I am glad you’re alive," he said kissing Owen lightly on the lips before the other man could protest.

When Owen left uncharacteristically silent Jack turned to face Ianto. "Do I still have a room here?"

"Of course you do," Ianto said, "but if you’d rather we have set up much nicer rooms down below. They are a lot more comfortable than your cot."

"Are you trying to get me into bed Ianto Jones?"

"Always sir," Ianto replied with a smirk that softened into a more genuine smile, "I’ve missed that."

"So have I," Jack confessed.

"I put most of your things into storage about five years ago but it won’t take long to sort them out. You can choose a room and I’ll bring them to you."

"I choose yours then."

"I don’t think so sir, Owen doesn’t like to share so much anymore."

"I beg your pardon?" Jack nearly gave himself whiplash turning to look at Ianto.

Ianto smirked at him, "the room next to mine is free however. Owen has the one on the other side. After everything that happened we all ended up moving here, it was easier than trying to explain to our friends and neighbours why we looked so good for our age."

"So you are aging?"

"About one year in ten but yes." Ianto led the way down to the redecorated level which now contained large rooms with ensuites.

"We put in extra rooms just in case," Ianto said opening the door for Jack, "I can change anything you don’t like."

"It looks fine." Jack took in the airy room with a large bed which was all he really cared about. Suddenly he felt very tired. "I might just lie down for a while, could I tempt you to join me?" he asked as much out of habit as need.

"Maybe later," Ianto smiled and kissed him softly, "welcome back sir."

"It’s good to be back," he said and he meant it.

He had tried to set his orbit around the Doctor and ended up fearing the consequences of that pull no matter what his face had shown.

The pull of his team, his wonderfully complicated humans was a much safer gravity to find his balance again.

 

 

End part 1
abchainey@xtra.co.nz
http://www.livejournal.com/users/lilithbint