Title: Building bridges
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,972 words
Content notes: A post-CoE AU.
Author notes: Written for Challenge 412 - Bridge
Summary: Jack has to accept that he no longer controls Ianto’s future but is simply one part of it.


Jack smiled even though his stomach was twisting itself in knots. ‘Do I shake your hand or salute?’ he asked, trying to diffuse his own nervousness at the petite woman standing on the other side of the desk.

He'd never met Kate Lethbridge-Stewart before, but her father's reputation preceded her. He'd been one of the good guys at UNIT but that was decades ago now. As far as Jack had been concerned, UNIT were a necessary evil and he had only dealt with them when he had to, or when he thought they should owe him a favour – like lending him a frigate and a submarine. They were handy in that way, but otherwise he didn't much care for their brand of politics. In that much he'd been proven right. They'd not only stood idly by when Torchwood's own people were being hunted down by the government, but they'd aided and abetted in the negotiations to surrender a tenth of the world's children to an alien invasionary force. That kind of fence wasn't easily mended no matter what had transpired since then.

Kate looked across at Ianto instead. ‘I warned you,’ he said, explaining away Jack's behaviour as if they'd come to expect nothing less from him.

Kate folded her arms behind her back and gave him an authoritative stare. ‘How about we start with Kate, given present company,’ she replied, taking a seat behind the desk.

‘Okay,’ Jack said, mirroring Ianto in settling into one of the two chairs opposite. ‘Just used to UNIT being all military precision, that's all,’ he said, filling in the silence. ‘Not that I'm opposed to it being run by a scientist, of course. I happen to like scientists. Dated a few I'd then over the years and–’

‘Jack…’ Ianto's warning tone was enough to make him clamp his mouth shut.

Jack cleared his throat, acknowledging the awkwardness. ‘Sorry.’ It was strange to feel like the least powerful person in the room. He'd gotten used to having everyone taking their lead from him and now here he was trying to negotiate a way back into the fold as it were.

‘I'm not going to ask you to apologise, Captain. Your reputation precedes you. And I doubt that UNIT has given you much reason to have faith in us. That is something we are working hard to rectify.’

Jack noted the way she used the word "we" and not "I". He was very cognizant of the dynamic in the room, Ianto and Kate having an implied understanding of what they wanted. The thought made Jack's stomach twist again. Ianto as a part of UNIT. It was still such a strange idea. He'd always thought of Ianto as Torchwood and nothing else. Ever. The whole world had changed and it seemed like Jack was the one who wasn't ready.

When Jack didn't reply, Kate carried on speaking. ‘I don't believe for one second that it's going to be an easy road to right all the wrongs of that past, but I do believe, after having worked with someone who was very much at the heart of the old Torchwood regime, that if we are to have any hope of protecting this planet from threats into the future, that we are going to have to work together.’

Jack nodded. So, Ianto had briefed her of the main crux of their discussions before they'd even been had. Of course he had. That was Ianto through and through – organised and prepared for anything and everything. No doubt they'd had multiple conversations on this and related subjects since Jack had suddenly reappeared in Ianto's life searching for a way back into Ianto's good graces. Having to accept that Ianto had sought a job from them being just the tip of that very large iceberg.

‘I do want to restart Torchwood,’ Jack said, making the statement public for the first time. Even if he was only doing it because he didn't know what else he was supposed to do with his life. He didn't have a Doctor he was waiting for anymore. Nothing and no one to pick him up and take him away from this place. He could of course have left under his own steam if he really wanted to – and had been planning on doing just that before he'd confronted Ianto one last time to say goodbye.

‘I think that is a wise decision,’ Kate observed. ‘Actively monitoring the rift in Cardiff is a full time exercise. It has not been part of UNIT’s remit, nor would we want it to be.’

Jack knew that for a fact. But it wasn't so much just monitoring the rift and what it spat out. It was managing the aliens who were already here, keeping weevil populations in check, constantly being on the lookout for things that had slipped past them, falling into the hands of innocent people, and the general diplomacy of passing vessels and lifeforms, long before they reached the radar of any UNIT or private civilian facility. All of it was a finely balanced act, which he'd done without thinking about it for so long that he no longer found it a chore. It was just life, or at least how life had once been. Even he had to admit that it only took one thing to tip the scales and send everything toppling into unbridled chaos. That was simply what Torchwood did, and had done for as long as he'd been in charge of it, coming up to ten years, plus the century before that when he'd been a part time agent for them. He didn't know who or what he was without Torchwood.

‘It’s going to take a while to get the necessary infrastructure in place,’ Ianto said, carrying on the conversation as if they were simply arranging the construction of a council car park. The hub was gone, or at least buried. Nobody really knew just how deep the destruction went from the bomb that had exploded from inside Jack's body. Once the military had evacuated the scene, UNIT had cordoned the whole thing and covered it over, filling in the large crater left behind. Maybe some of it had survived and maybe not. Either way, they needed the hub if they were going to operate as before.

Kate nodded. ‘I expect that until you can get a team up and running you shan't need all of your usual facilities. But whatever you do need, UNIT are happy to provide.’

The only word Jack heard was team. Who was his team? Did he even have one anymore? Gwen was at home with a two-month old, struggling with an unending rota of feeding, sleeping and laundry. And as for Ianto…

‘Whatever Jack needs he can arrange via me,’ Ianto said. ‘I already have a substantial list of things that we need to move on, but operationally the priority will be a secure lockable facility. Torchwood can make do on most things but having a place to detain dangerous lifeforms is critical.’

Jack shuddered slightly at the clinical way Ianto described it all. Not that he wasn't completely correct on all counts. He'd always been better at logistics and administration than Jack ever would be. If anyone could get Torchwood's facilities back up and running, it was Ianto Jones.

Kate tapped her pen on the leather blotted in front of her. ‘I'll be brutally honest and address the elephant in the room, if I may, she said, turning her attention to Ianto. I didn't expect you to hold your word. You're certain that you won't join Captain Harkness?’

Ianto turned to look Jack in the eye as he said it. ‘I'm certain.’

That twang of pain struck Jack again. The one fly in the ointment was having to hear Ianto say that he was staying behind to remain with UNIT. Jack had always assumed that if he started up Torchwood anew that it went without saying that Ianto would be there with him – his man Friday, just like he'd always been. He never anticipated a scenario where Ianto would say no, and chose to stay in with UNIT.

Even the working arrangements were strange. Ianto proposed to be Torchwood’s liaison, among other things. He would live in Cardiff half of the time and in London the other half, keeping the luxury apartment that had been their collective hiding hole whilst they each worked out where the other stood.

Jack felt strange about it, even after weeks of conversations around the topic and slowly getting used to the decision. He'd hoped that whatever they did, they would either move back to Cardiff permanently or stay on here in London. Not having Ianto with him under the same roof and in the same bed at least half of the time seemed unfathomable. They were finally starting to work things out, coming to terms with their relationship and how Ianto's death had changed their lives, but the separation was something Jack didn't want.

Perhaps it was selfish, but he needed to make things right with that man he loved,and he didn't see how he could do that when they wouldn't be together all the time. For now he would simply cling to the hope that Ianto would see sense and come around. They were meant to be together, even if Ianto couldn't bear the idea of rejoining the place that had caused his death. Jack just wanted him there in Cardiff, doing anything, just so long as he would be there to come home to every single night.

Ianto turned in his seat and placed a hand uncharacteristically on Jack's arm. ‘I know you don't agree with this arrangement, but it's important to me. Like Kate said, we need to start building bridges. We're better together than we are apart. You don't even have to trust UNIT. You just need to trust me.’

Of course he trusted Ianto. More than anything or anyone else on the planet. Ianto had made Torchwood a better place just by being a part of it. Perhaps he could do the same with UNIT. Why else join the one organisation that had helped to perpetrate the situation that had very nearly killed him, if not to fix the things that were wrong with it. Perhaps that was what Ianto was hoping for as well. Jack didn't like it at all but just like Torchwood's relationship with UNIT, Jack's own relationship with Ianto was a series of bridges that needed rebuilding.

Much of what had been broken was of his own making. He still had so much of his past that Ianto didn't know about. Sharing all of it all at once was bound to drive him away. Instead he was feeding it to Ianto in unpalatable little pieces, hoping each time he did that Ianto would forgive him for all the terrible mistakes he'd made. In the same way that Ianto had set about joining UNIT to fix the things that were inherently wrong with the organisation, so too was he having to confront all of Jack's faults, choosing to fix them or treat them as never able to be unmade. Jack knew just how broken he was, but he wasn't so easily fixed as a corrupted organisation. Some things he’d done in his life were simply unforgivable.

‘I'm prepared to do whatever it takes,’ Jack said, hoping that Ianto read the subtext of the words behind it. It was more than just a vow to rebuild Torchwood. ‘I made the mistake of walking away from it all once before and regretted it.’

Ianto forced a broken smile onto his face and squeezed Jack's arm. ‘We’ll keep working at it until we get it right.’

‘We will,’ Jack agreed. Some things were worth making sacrifices for.