Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I lost our baby.” Jack blurted to Ianto, with a rushed and panicked face, as they rendezvoused, having previously gone different directions on that evening’s mission.

“I… beg your pardon?”

Listen, Ianto is a sensible and smart guy, heck, he knows exactly what’s happening with everything around them, but at that moment he wondered if he’d missed a few chapters. What’s worse is that Jack was looking at him as if Ianto was supposed to know what the hell he was on about.

“The weevil child! The one we’ve been following, it’s smaller than all the others-”

“CHOOSE DIFFERENT WORDS!”

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The winter air was turning to spring and spring was bringing new life into the world. In the form of flowers and lambs and chicks and - Owen was stuck being dead.

The wind was picking up. The salty breeze from the seafront was thick in the air - and Owen couldn’t feel it.

Everyone was taking their growing children out on walks, getting older, letting years pass, a new spring had arrived. With the last twenty almost-world-ending-events, most people felt that was something to be celebrated. He stayed the same.

He felt as stuck as the evergreen trees - refusing to change.

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A black cat crossed Jack’s path when he, the Doctor and Rose were travelling. The superstition felt stupid at the time… but a century later? The things that had happened to him. The people he’d lost. A curse was the only explanation. Jack reckoned that since the Doctor left, it had been nothing but bad luck. The Timelord had taken a long time to face Jack, but when he did, his infliction of immortality crushed him.

Perhaps the Doctor felt he owed Jack: he brought back Ianto, Owen and Tosh. The family reunion could be enough to uncurse him - right?

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Jack had a way of talking, it felt coated in honey and some kind of godly ambrosia that convinced anyone to do what he said.

Of course this was only put towards the team when they were annoying, misbehaving or arguing with the plan. Hence, used on Toshiko one day into agreeing to some kind of sacrificial idea.

It was only after Tosh had agreed that she realised Jack had literally reasoned that he, alone, entered a nest of flesh-eating creatures (who’d come through the rift, parading around with general flesh-eating intentions) to try to reason.

“Wait - no you idiot!”

Chapter Text

Valentine's Day in the hub went interestingly.

Gwen got a sickeningly obvious “mystery” card from Rhys and kept showing the team, enjoying their exasperation as they saw the obnoxious glitter, bears, hearts and insane quantity of pink.

Owen got three in the post, which everyone was surprised about, especially Owen, even more so Tosh, who later admitted to Gwen that “I thought I’d send one - just so he felt accomplished, you know what his ego’s like, but three?!”

“So it was only for his ego, huh?” Gwen inquired innocently.

Tosh ducked her head, turning away, suddenly very busy with paperwork.

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“Hey, who was the last person everybody kissed?” Gwen queried.

They were on a sort of stake-out - anticipating signals of an incoming threat, which was a nightlong wait. And ended up having all the attributes of a sleepover.

“That is such a primary school game, and didn’t you learn your lesson from last time?” Owen reasoned exasperatedly. He glanced at Tosh and Ianto, who’d previously been hurt by the cute but harmful pastime.

The air fell stiff.

“Guess we have nothing else to do,” Gwen murmured innocently.

Owen folded his arms before smirking, “Fine… Tosh.”

On cue, Tosh flushed pink.

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“Jack! I found you on character.ai!” Ianto hysterically announced as his boyfriend sauntered past.

“What.”

Ianto pulled him down so they were sitting next to each other and hectically he showed the conversation he’d been having.

“Yeah, well, you’re not named, I’m talking to ‘Hot WW2 Soldier’, but that’s definitely your face on the icon.” Ianto explains, grinning frantically.

With an eyebrow raised Jack read the flirtatious messages. Then incredulously asked “Why have you been asking it about it’s ‘tragic and angsty backstory’?”

“Meh, no reason.”

Jack hummed and kissed Ianto’s temple, “Alright, but don’t leave me for me.”

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“I don’t believe in psychics,” Owen grumbled as he, Toshiko and Gwen strolled towards the eerie shop.

“There’s paranormal activity spotted in this area. We’re not here by choice, Owen,” Tosh reasoned.

Inside they were greeted by a woman, waving her bony hand ‘magically’. The aroma in the room was enough for everyone to gag - except Owen, who couldn’t smell - or breathe for that matter. She gestured for them to sit. Then stated suddenly, pointing at Gwen, “You need a divorce,” then at Owen, “You need a wife”, to Tosh, “You’re never going to marry.”

The mood was officially ruined.

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“Are we... a ‘couple’ now?” Ianto asked, regretting the question as soon as he’d closed his mouth. Jack had this sad trait about not wanting to be one, and Ianto understood why. To an extent. The immortal wanted to numb the upcoming heartbreak as much as he possibly could. An impossible action. “Because I will always love you, whether you like it or not.”

“I don’t believe in always,”

“I don’t believe in never,” Ianto retorted.

Jack smiled, a little sadly, but in the way he reserved only for Ianto, “Well, opposites attract.”

“Never,” Ianto replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Always.”

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“Is that blood?!” Tosh stuttered as Gwen stumbled into the hub drowsily, collapsing against the rail and desperately clutching at her forearm, which was oozing a dark liquid.

“No?”

“That’s not a question you’re supposed to answer with another question,” Tosh remarked sternly, hurrying over in order to support the fainting Gwen, “Owen, can we have some medical attention over here?!”

“So that’s the only type of attention you want from him, huh?” Gwen smirked, eyes glazed a little from the pain.

“Shhhhhh, you’re experiencing delirium,” Tosh hurried and helped her into Owen’s arms, giving him a small (awkward) smile.

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Jack and Ianto were famous to the whole team for sneaking off to Jack's office together.

The other three would giggle and joke that the couple were always having a quick "break" in the middle of the workday.

But that wasn't exactly right.

Each time the captain died, Ianto felt like a part of himself died with him. He would feel his Jack's heart stop beating and when it came back eventually his hands were numb, tainted from emptiness.

Often the two would be curled up (clothed) together. Ianto sprawled against Jack's ribcage, feeling the thrum of his beating heart.

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As Tosh did a mandatory check of the CCTV history, she came across the day when Suzie died - for the second time. Her stomach turned as she remembered. It’d been horrible, wrong, someone who wasn’t dead coming back to life - well, ignoring Owen of course. He struggled and lost himself, but never lost his mind like Suzie did.

Shuddering, she moved on, but another file caught her eye, towards the end of the same dreadful day, when Jack was in the morgue. Ianto there also.

“Wait - are they flirting next to the BODIES of their DEAD co-workers?!”

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"Jack, this approach is stupid!" Owen yelled as they watched the horde of angry weevils approach, screeching.

"Got a better plan?" Jack yelled in return as they prepped the tech.

"Well, no, but-"

"On the count of three... Three! Two!... One!"

On cue, Gwen shoved a microphone in Owen's face.

"Oh, jeez..." he muttered, causing an unpleasant screech, "Uhm... this is your... king. Stand down."

All of the weevils stopped - crouching - listening.

"Go back to the sewers the lot of ya."

Without hesitation they dispersed.

Owen sighed, hands on hips, "The citizens will think I'm a weird, prejudiced busker."

"You're not!?" Gwen gasped.

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Owen loved staying late in the hub. He physically couldn't sleep, so he might as well be productive.

One of these extremely productive activities was found by Jack, working late, who came across Owen blaring music and-

"Are you making cookies, at three AM, on a Bunsen burner, at work!?" inquired Jack from behind, face a mix of shock, sleep-deprivity and overwhelming pride.

"Uhm..." Owen considered his options - it was quite simple wasn't it, "yeah."

"You... you know you can't actually eat anything right, zombie-boy?"

"It's Tosh's birthday tomorrow," he muttered, batting Jack's hand away from the half cooked food.

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Before Rhys found out about Torchwood, Gwen would usually come home adorned with new scatterings of bruises, bloody gauze and broken ankles and fingers. At worst: a bullet wound. At best: a daily, shallow scar. Not to say she wasn’t sensible about this: each injury would’ve been cleaned with a doctor-like precision and wrapped in bandages. However unobservant Rhys was, it would have been impossible not to point out Gwen’s state.
Safe to say - before the truth was revealed - Rhys was terrified his girlfriend was a part of a fight club.
He found he preferred that scenario to the truth.

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“Jack, I miss working somewhere with HR,” Gwen complained, watching Owen flirt with Tosh in the autopsy chamber, “that kind of behaviour wouldn’t be deemed acceptable in the police.”

“Sometimes we have to sacrifice things for our job,” he suggested, waving to Tosh as she noticed them watching.

“Yeah, but by that you mean a life outside of here - family, hobbies - not the loss of dignity from the hands of sexual coworkers.”

Ianto walked past and kissed Jack on the cheek, to which Gwen groaned.

“You’re just sad because you’re not dating a coworker,” Jack teased.

“Give me a break.”

Chapter Text

“The stars are beautiful tonight,” Ianto commented. He meant this in a way of pure wonder of the star's beauty, not in the romcom sense it’s usually used in.

“They really are.”

“It’s… silly but I’ve always had a favourite one,” Ianto claimed quietly, “I don’t know their names. But, the dim one… there, I think it’s part of the big dipper.”

The Cardiff scene was dark and silent, but for once it wasn’t eerie at all. It was peaceful.

Jack smiled watching Ianto’s eyes.

“That’s Megrez,” he whispered, smitten, before: “If I could, I would show you them all.”