Title: Do-over

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 1,705 words

Content notes: None

Author notes: Written for Challenge 384 - Second

Summary: Ianto wanted a second chance, so Jack is determined to make sure he gets it.

Jack found himself pouring through his admin tasks with ease. It was still relatively early and though he hadn’t slept much last night, he felt more refreshed than he had done in months. Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps having a slightly clearer conscience that he was doing the right thing by his team had helped him get a good night’s sleep. Either that or Owen had been right all along – that a decent shag was the cure all for restless nights. Maybe it was a bit of both.

Tosh and Gwen had avoided him somewhat, which he supposed was fair enough. He’d had them both burning the midnight oil and hadn’t even asked them for a report back. He should probably make some effort to seem interested but he’d get around to that later, once he’d cleared his desk of all the things he’d been putting off.

Only the sound of a gentle knock at the door disturbed him from setting a new record for blitzing through administrivia. Jack knew the sound of that knock, polite yet firm, and the aroma of coffee that usually followed it.

‘Ianto Jones. Good morning,’ he said, trying to make it as normal as possible. That’s what he’d told Ianto last night. Today, they went back to whatever counted as normal in their lives. Coffee and paperwork were definitely normal. The post coital buzz that Jack was still feeling to a lesser degree was somewhat less than normal.

Ianto stepped cautiously into the office space with his tray held in front of him like a shield. ‘I'm here.’

Jack eased back slightly in his chair. ‘So you are. And with my favourite beverage, no less.’

Ianto’s look was part furtive, part determined. ‘No, I mean, I'm here. As in, I'm here for my second chance.’

‘Oh. Right.’ How had Jack forgotten about that promise? Probably somewhere between getting his clothes off and having Ianto's tongue halfway down the back of his throat last night. He'd said something about facing consequences as well, but now Jack couldn't for the life of him decide what those should be. How did you punish someone who served you up to an alien slave colony, then came back to rescue you and spent the rest of the night making love with you? Jack was used to Torchwood being complicated but this was next level complicated. Ianto had taken the phrase kiss and make up rather more literally than Jack ever imagined. Punishing him now for his temporary lapse in judgement just didn't feel right.

Jack cleared his throat. ‘Well, coffee is a good start,’ he said, realising how stupid that sounded.

‘I can do more than just coffee, you know,’ Ianto reminded him with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.

‘I know,’ Jack quickly replied. ‘I think we covered that last night, don’t you?’ Jack’s intention had been to make Ianto feel more at ease, but it seemed to only cause a creeping blush to rise in his cheeks. ‘What I mean,’ Jack added, feeling a need to make himself clear, ‘is that I know you’re capable of a lot more than we’ve ever given you credit for. I stop making assumptions as of today. You’re one of us, Ianto. I’m just sorry it took me so long to say so.’

‘Well, apology accepted,’ Ianto said, rather quickly leaning forward to deliver the coffee mug onto Jack's desk and looking like it was an apology he really wasn’t ready to accept after everything he’d done last night. That was okay with Jack. It might take time, but he really would make sure Ianto felt like a proper part of the team.

‘There’s a team briefing at nine,’ Jack called out even as Ianto was making a hasty exit. ‘ I expect you to be there.’

Ianto turned and nodded briefly. ‘Yes, sir.’

Nine o’clock came swiftly and Jack was only the second last to arrive, surprised that even Owen had managed to get in on time. Ianto was last to show, but that was to be expected since he brought the coffee and biscuits, working his way around the table to serve them all in turn. It was only as he slid into the last seat at the table and opened his leather folio that the rest of the team sensed a change in the air.

Jack studied the faces looking at him with the question in their eyes. Ianto always attended general briefings, but things that were case specific were much more ad hoc and by request. Mostly he served the coffee and then left to do whatever it was Ianto did when they were all busily engaging in an investigation. Taking a seat at the table this morning was a red flag as far as they were concerned.

‘Shall we begin?’ Jack asked, even though no one made a move to speak. They were all still seemingly waiting for Jack to explain himself as to why Ianto had joined them.

Why was this so hard? He was the boss. People would just do what he told them to do and that was that. Nobody knew what had happened last night. So why did it feel like everybody knew? It was like they could read it in his face – how he'd gone back to Ianto's and let the man have what he wanted, which was to say he wanted Jack. Not that Jack was complaining. It had been a lot more pleasant than he expected.
No one knows, he told himself more sharply. Ianto is the last person on the planet that would ever want anyone to know anything about his private life. Their secret was safe just so long as Jack kept up his side of the bargain. And it had just been a one-off. That much he'd made clear. Ianto needed to get it out of his system and now they could go back to just being boss and employee; friends, Jack's corrected.

He leaned forward and clasped his hands on the table. It was a pose he used to great effect when he had a point he wanted made clearly. ‘Ianto is joining us for the briefing because he's expressed a desire to be more involved in our field work.’

‘So who's going to have the coffee on when we get back if you're out with us?’ Owen complained, directing his question at Ianto.

There was a curving of an eyebrow as Ianto considered the question. ‘What? You can't possibly wait ten more minutes? Are things that dire?’

Owen squirmed a little. ‘Well, it's just…’

‘I'll make the bloody coffee, Owen,’ he snapped, rather testily if Jack could say so. ‘Or you can go without. Your choice.’ If Gwen and Tosh were taken aback by the response, they kept their best poker faces on despite. Jack admired the man for standing up to Owen over such a petty thing.

A silent huff signalled a victory for their quietest member. ‘Fine. We'll wait.’

‘Good.’ Jack nodded his approval and everyone else simply fell into line, just as he'd expected. ‘Now, firstly, an update on the situation last night.’ He cast his gaze back towards Gwen and Tosh, feeding them an apologetic look, knowing they'd spent the whole night chewing over dead ends whilst he'd been enjoying himself. ‘There was an incident at the Ferret Pub in Radyr. We confirmed that a string of missing people in the area were in fact connected. The local bar owner was harbouring an alien slave trader, convincing innocent people down on their luck that they could escape to paradise by stepping through an active rift portal. Needless to say where they ended up was anything but paradise. The alien was injured in the altercation and returned back through the portal to its home world.’

‘And the portal technology?’ Tosh asked, enthused by the prospect, her long night of fruitless analysis forgotten in an instant.

‘Destroyed,’ Jack replied bluntly. ‘It was one way tech and not something we want lying around as a doorway to this planet.’

‘Hang on,’ Gwen said, not quite as easily distracted by shiny new information. ‘You had us researching the place last night but it sounds like you already knew enough to go investigate.’

‘Actually,’ Jack began, ‘it was Ianto who flagged it with me.’ That naturally raised the eyebrows of everyone in the room, the man himself included. ‘He's been doing some after hours investigating since it was close to home, shared his suspicions with me and last night we went to check out whether it had any legs. Turns out he was spot on the money.’ It wasn't entirely the truth, by why not give him some credit? The rest of them hadn't picked up on it and even though he'd flown under the radar to do it, they had managed to stop it. It was an olive branch that said, I trust you and now the others need to know that they should trust you too. ‘It was good work. We saved countless lives from being stolen and traded on alien worlds. A timely reminder that we should all stay vigilant to even the smallest anomalies.’

‘And the crazy bar owner?’ Owen asked.

‘Fled with a death threat on her head if she should ever return,’ Ianto said, looking every bit as if he meant it.

‘And on that note we call it case closed,’ Jack announced. ‘Now, to other business… Gwen?’

Gwen leapt headlong into a lengthy piece of research on reports of a ghost ship leaking oil off the Gower coast, accepting without question that things were now back to normal.

Jack spared a glance at Ianto who returned it with a small but grateful looking smile, before returning it his notepad and scribbling down details from Gwen’s briefing. Perhaps this might work, Jack thought. All Ianto had wanted was to be a proper part of something to fill his life with meaning and purpose. That was something Jack could relate to. He was waiting for his Doctor to return, but until then, Torchwood was all he had. A second chance for both of them to make up for the mistakes of lives past.