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Evan was hanging up the phone when Ianto came out of the bedroom.
“Harkness just called.”
He always refers to Jack by his last name, and Ianto isn’t sure why. It’s always Harkness or Sir, never Jack or Captain.
“Any particular reason?”
Evan smiles and holds out a steaming mug of coffee to Ianto, which he accepts gratefully, closing his eyes and breathing in the scent. “He wants you to stop by the store and pick up some muffins on your way in today.”
Ianto nods. “Must be ATR day.”
“ATR?”
“Alien Tech Reclassification. We’ve got an entire section of the archives for tech that we couldn’t identify. Every so often, Jack likes to pull it out and have us all go through it to see if we can come up with anything. And he always wants muffins when we do.”
Evan looks confused. “Muffins.”
“Yes, muffins.”
“Why?”
“I’m not sure really, but he’s asked for them every time we’ve done ATR since I’ve been with Torchwood.”
“Huh. Well, do you think he’d mind if we brought donuts too?”
He’s using his wheedling smile. The one he always puts on when he wants Ianto to do something he knows is a bit ridiculous. “Why donuts?”
“We always had donuts when I had to work in the labs in Atlantis. Working with tech makes me want donuts.”
Atlantis. It’s very nearly the only thing Evan’s said about his life before. Ianto doesn’t know much about it, just that it was some sort of secret project the U.S. Air Force was working on, and it had something to do with aliens. He’s seen Evan’s paintings though, and if they’re anything like an accurate depiction of where he was before, it’s no wonder he was so melancholy when they first met. Ianto wouldn’t have wanted to leave either.
“I don’t suppose anyone would complain if there were donuts and muffins.”
Evan grins. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
***
When they get to the Hub, the others are already there. Ianto carries the muffins and donuts down to where they’re all gathered around a table with a large tub in the middle, and Lorne stops to grab a cup of coffee.
When he gets to the table, Harkness is pulling items out of the tub and placing them on the table. He’s holding one in his hand and Owen says, “Not that one again, Jack. I told you, it’s an alien gameboy whose batteries have run out.”
“And I told you, I don’t think it was designed for personal entertainment,” Harkness answers as he sets it on the table. “Besides which, it’s still giving off an energy reading, so whatever the power source is, it’s not dead.”
Lorne glances at the object, and he grins in recognition. “Sweet! LSD.”
Five faces turn to look at him.
“What?”
Ianto speaks first. “Please tell me that’s an acronym for Logic Systems Design or something else equally un-drug related.”
“Oh, right. Yeah it’s a Life Signs Detector.”
He picks it up and it lights up in his hand, sending a familiar thrill through him. It’s been too long since he turned something on just by thinking.
Owen snatches it from his hand, and the lights turn off. “How’d you do that?”
Lorne rolls his eyes and takes it back. “You have to have the gene to work it.”
Harkness’s eyebrows shoot up. “Gene?”
“Yeah. The ATA gene.”
“Bloody Americans and their acronyms,” Owen mutters.
Harkness is still looking at Lorne. “ATA gene?”
“Ancient Technology Activation Gene. Wait a minute,” Lorne looks around the table before letting his eyes fall on Harkness, “I thought you said you knew all about Atlantis.”
This is the first time Lorne has ever seen Harkness look sheepish. “I may have exaggerated just a bit on that. I mean, I don’t know all about Atlantis.”
“So you lied to get me to join Torchwood?”
Harkness is giving him that grin that Lorne is pretty sure Sheppard had patented. “I didn’t exactly lie. I know that Atlantis is a secret side-project of the SGC. And I know that the SGC deals with protecting Earth from alien invasion. So I knew that you must have dealt with aliens. That’s why I asked you to join us. I knew what I needed to know.” He’s trying to calm Lorne down. “Now...tell me about this gene.”
Lorne figures it’s too late for secrecy, and if he can trust anyone not to go blabbing to someone about Atlantis, it’s these people, so he says, “The Ancients, the guys who built Atlantis and the stargates? Most of their technology required the user to have a specific gene to activate it. It’s extremely rare. That’s how I ended up out there in the first place.”
“Because you’ve got some sort of mutant gene?” Gwen asks.
“It’s not a mutation. It’s a genetic difference. It just means that somewhere in my family history, one of my ancestors shacked up with an Ancient.”
Harkness is looking at him with a disturbingly feral gleam in his eye. “So you can operate Ancient Tech? Like this...LSD?”
“Yup.”
He takes the tub and turns it upside down on the table, spilling the contents everywhere. Ianto looks appalled and the other three are staring at Harkness like he’s lost his mind, but Harkness is still looking at Lorne. “What else do you recognize?”
***
By the time Ianto brings them their lunch, Evan has found a personal shield (Owen was terribly upset that only Evan could use it), two more LSDs and a communication device (useless without an Ancient comm system). Jack is practically bouncing.
“You do realise,” Owen says, “that most of this shite is useless to us. I mean, what are we going to do with three Life Signs Detectors if Captain America here is the only one who can use them?”
They all turn to look at Evan.
“Well...”
He’s looking at them all as though he’s deliberating whether or not they can be trusted.
“There is a gene therapy.”
Tosh looks up at this. “Gene therapy?”
“Yeah, our head of medicine developed it in the first year. Something to do with a mouse retrovirus. It works in 50% of those inoculated.”
“Are there any side effects?” Ianto asks. He’s well aware that Evan has dealt with more than one alien disease.
Evan gets a wistful, slightly sad smile on his face as he answers, “The usual. Headache, dry mouth, nausea, the irresistible urge to run on a small wheel.”
Jack laughs, but Owen looks as though he thinks Evan might not be joking.
“Any way you could get a hold of some?” Jack asks.
“Not without saying what it’s for.”
Jack nods. “Well then. Looks like Owen’s got a new project to work on.” Owen snorts. “Don’t worry. Tosh can help you with the hard bits.”
“That’s not what I...”
Jack claps his hands together, cutting Owen off. “So, Chinese today is it?”
***
Lorne’s brushing his teeth that night when Ianto comes up behind him, slips his arms around Lorne’s waist and asks, “Why do you never call him Jack?”
Lorne looks at Ianto in the mirror and shrugs. “For all intents and purposes, he’s my CO. It wouldn’t feel right.”
Ianto’s eyebrows come together as though he is considering Lorne’s answer. Eventually he says, “So why do you never call him Captain?” placing a kiss on Lorne’s shoulder as he does.
Lorne smirks and looks a bit sheepish. “It’s stupid really.”
“That’s very likely true, but I’d still like to know.”
Lorne rinses his toothbrush and spits into the sink, rinsing his mouth with water. Ianto’s hands are still on his hips, and he turns to face him. “It feels like I’ve been busted back to lieutenant.”
Ianto’s face scrunches up in confusion, and Lorne laughs and kisses him. “I haven’t taken orders from a captain in years. I worked hard to make major, and if Sheppard hadn’t made so many promotion-endangering decisions, I’d have made lieutenant colonel before I left. I don’t like taking orders from someone I should outrank, so I don’t call him Captain if I can help it.”
Ianto smiles at this. “Fair enough.” He turns and walks into the bedroom, and Lorne goes to lock the doors and turn out the lights.
As he makes his way down the hallway, Ianto calls out , “Coming to bed, Major?”
He smiles and stands in the doorway for a moment, watching Ianto. “You know, I’ll gladly take orders from you, any time you want,” he says before flipping the switch.
fin