Title: Close to home


Ianto's mood completely confused Jack. Coming back home to Earth always left them in a good mood after having spent the week catching up with family and friends. Usually Jack could hardly get Ianto to shut up about everything. Had he noticed that new cafe on the corner of Bute Street who's menus looked just the same as the one they'd haunted fifty years ago? Weren't Eleri's dahlias in the front garden lovely? Could Jack believe that Myfanwy was still getting up to her old mischief down by the docks stealing the local catch on a regular basis?

In short, Ianto should have been perky and chatty but as soon as they boarded their ship, he'd gone off on his own, silent and sullen without any explanation for it. Jack let him go for the time being, proceeding to the flight deck and starting up the engines, setting course for their humble little home on a faraway planet three weeks flying time away. He wished it were a little closer to earth, truth told, but it was just such a perfect little mountain idyll that they'd become settled there on something of a permanent basis.

Jack took time to carefully navigate the asteroid belt before putting the ship on autopilot and going to find out why his husband was in such a mood. He searched all the usual spots first - brooding over the kitchen counter with a cup of tea, reorganising his collection of coordinating shirts and ties in their large walk in robe, cleaning the bathroom or doing a check on their supplies. In the end it was the library, with Ianto curled up in one of the comfy armchairs, knees tucked up and looking very cosy except for the expression on his face. He didn't have a book on his hand, simply sitting there staring out through the large window at the dark starlit skies.

'What's up? You left in a bit of a hurry.' Jack could feel the anxiety and low mood ebbing inside Ianto through the bond that they shared. They'd long ago dispensed with trying to lie about how they felt when it was always so apparent to each of them. The specifics behind those feelings however continued to remain a mystery. Jack supposed it would take all the fun out of life to know exactly what someone was thinking all the time.

Jack took a stab at what the problem might be. 'We could have stayed longer if that's what you wanted. You only had to say so.' They visited Earth several times a year, always coming back for big occasions and birthdays. Their own children and grandchildren were slowly scattering themselves across the galaxy and only two of them still called Earth home, but it was always good to see them, still living and working in Cardiff, keeping the Torchwood Institute going, even if it was a vastly different organisation these days than it had been fifty years ago when they'd been at the helm. No matter how many years they spent living and travelling elsewhere, Ianto would always think of Earth as home.

'It's not that,' he replied. 'It's… seeing Gwen and Rhys.'

Jack felt even more confused than before. ''What's wrong with seeing them? They're our oldest friends.'

'Exactly. Oldest. As in old. Really old.' He bent his head and pinched at the bridge of his nose, remaining quiet for a moment. 'I suppose I should have known this was coming, shouldn't I? Everyone keeps getting older but we just stay the same.'

Jack took a moment just to let the silence hang in the air between them now that it was obvious what had caused Ianto's distress. Knowing what lay ahead wasn't the same as actually experiencing it. Watching the friends and lovers from long ago suddenly grey and aged was hard. Harder still was seeing them right at death's door, passing out of life altogether. He'd had three hundred years to get used to it and it still gnawed at him some days. He'd stopped going to funerals decades ago. There were simply too many of them, the people that had come and gone through Jack's long life. It was better just to let them live on in his memory, immortal just like him. They hadn't even reached the hardest part yet, having to say goodbye to child and grandchildren - generations of Harkness-Joneses that would never share the one gift Jack wished he could pass on through their genetics.

'It never really gets any easier,' Jack said, as if that were any consolation.

Ianto looked guilty at the admission. 'It was really lovely to see them, don't get me wrong, but every time I looked around the house, all I could see were all the little signs that we're running out of time with them. There was a walking frame sticking half out of a cupboard, did you notice? Rhys' of course. Gwen was trying to hide it, but there was so much clutter in that cupboard it was spilling out, shoving everything with it. And their garden was a mess, all strangled with weeds. Don't you remember how proud they used to be about it? They were always out working in it but Gwen's poor hands could hardly hold that cup of tea without shaking. I doubt she has the strength left in them anymore for gardening, and Rhys with his arthritic knees and bad back…' His expression turned suddenly stony. 'Why aren't their kids coming over on the weekend to help out? Or the grandkids. Bloody hell, even our kids could go over and offer a hand. Everything they've done for our families over the years and now they're just left to sit there and rot?'

Jack rested a hand on his shoulder as he lowered himself into the arm of the chair, immediately soothing the rising temper. 'Okay, I think rot is a bit harsh. I've no doubt that if Gwen wanted them over to do to something she'd have them there by the ear.' Of course, the counter argument would be that Gwen was too proud to ask for help, but he didn't think so. She was still tough but she'd also mellowed. That was what happened when you became a grandparent, Jack knew. Life just sort of fell into place and the job of being the fierce protective one fell to the next generation.

Ianto shrugged off Jack's hand in his shoulder. 'She shouldn't have to ask. If we can see the place is getting run down, then so could they.'

'They've got their own lives to live, Ianto. And maybe Gwen and Rhys don't mind things being a little more cluttered and casual these days. Our perspectives on what things are important change over time.'

'But they're old now.'

Jack moved a little closer on the arm of the chair so that he could both touch Ianto and look him in the eye. 'We're old too, remember? We might not look it, but we are. We love having family and friends with us, but we like our independence as well. So do they. We can't lay claim to having a perfectly tidy house all the time, either.'

'We try,' Ianto argued.

'You try,' Jack said. 'I'm not so fussed.'

Ianto smirked. 'I've noticed. But we've still got the youth and energy to handle it.'

Jack fixed him with a look. 'And did they look too worried about it?'

'No, but…'

Jack cut him off before he could make any more excuses. 'The point is, we're more like them than you think. Let them enjoy their years together and stop worrying that the house is slowly falling down around them. There's a time for being sad about the fragility of life, but this isn't that time.' Jack stood up.' Hold that thought,' he said, leaving the room and coming back a few minutes later.

'Where did you go?'

'Just had to turn off the hyperdrive and reset course back to Earth.'

Ianto's eyebrows knitted together with concern. 'Did we leave something behind?'

'Yeah. Call me crazy, but why don't we stick around for a few more years? No one's expecting us back for a while. We could move back into our old house in Cardiff. It needs a bit of fixing up after all the years it's sat there empty. And maybe in between we could find a little spare time to help fix up Gwen and Rhys' place? You know, just the odd visit, a few hours a couple of times a week.' He waggled an eyebrow at Ianto, hoping he'd catch Jack's drift.

Jack could tell Ianto was leaping to say yes to Jack's suggestion just by the subtle change in his body language and the quiver of excitement that flowed through their bond. Truth be told, Jack wouldn't mind spending some time back in Wales, but more so if it made Ianto happy to spend more time with the important people in their lives whilst they still had the time.

'But you'll tell them we were just feeling a little homesick, right?'

Jack grinned. 'Right. After all, what are friends for?'