Title: Put to good use
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,491 words
Content notes: Extension of my double drabble “Diamond in the rough”
Author notes: Written for Challenge 434 - Amnesty, using Challenge 72 - Lost and found
Summary: Ianto is searching for one thing but finds another.


‘Of all the places to have to search for something,’ Ianto moaned, looking at the wide expanse of beach that stretched out before them. As much as he enjoyed getting out of the hub and seeing something other than mildewing Victorian Age tilework, there was nothing fun about a day at the beach that wasn’t comprised solely of lounging on a towel with a good book.

‘And it’s small,’ Gwen replied, confirming the fact on her PDA. ‘Somewhere within a one square mile radius of here.’ One square mile of sand and tussock grasses surrounded by rough Bristol Channel ocean might as well have been a hundred square miles as far as things were concerned.

‘Well, I hope you packed your buckets and spades,’ Jack said, unperturbed by the impossibility of the task ahead. He simply set off down the dunes, having zero regard for the sand getting into his shoes and clinging to the edges of his coat. ‘Glorious day for it!’ he yelled back to them, already schucking his coat and simply dropping it onto the sand in a heap as he kept moving. ‘Who said I never bring you anywhere nice?’

Ianto stared down at his polished shoes, knowing that in about two seconds they were going to be full of sand and that he’d never get it all out, finding random grains forcing their way into his socks for weeks to come. Even Gwen’s sneakers weren’t going to fare much better. Jack needed to work on his definition of “nice”.

‘I really hope that no one decided to take an early morning walk down here to collect seashells,’ he muttered, praying that what they were searching for was in fact still here. If not, it was going to be a really long day.

They scoured the beach for an hour before Ianto spotted something from the corner of his eye. AT first he thought he must have imagined it, but then, as the clouds parted slightly on their passage across the sky, he spotted it again, walking the short distance to bend down and carefully pluck it from the sand. He cried out. ‘I think I've got it!’ Then he frowned. ‘Nope, nevermind,’ he added, running his PDA over the shining object. ‘No traces of residual rift energy. Keep looking.’

Jack jogged over regardless, spotting the diamond ring between Ianto's fingers. ‘Aw, Ianto! This is all so sudden! Aren’t you going to get down on one knee before you make me say yes?’

Ianto rolled his eyes. ‘This isn’t a proposal, you idiot. It’s what I found. It was twinkling in the sand and caught my eye.’

‘It’s not all that caught your eye, I hope.’

Comedian, Ianto thought. ‘S’pose we should hand it in to the local police. Someone must be upset that it’s gone.’

‘Or we could just pawn it,’ Jack offered. ‘Looks like it wouldn't be cheap. Unfortunately, it hasn’t cut short our search.’

Ianto sighed. ‘No, it hasn’t.’


They carried on wandering up and down the length of the beach, hoping beyond hope that their missing rift item might make itself known to them.

Ianto was having a hard time staying focused as he continued to search the beach. Jack’s earlier words were still eating at him as he’d shown Jack the sparkling engagement ring he’d found glinting in the sand. Jack was always toying with words. He never said things and meant them like “I love you,” or “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’ Why then should Ianto put any stock in the teasing words he’d just used, expecting that Ianto was using the ring to propose to him. It was silly. Then again, it was Jack, and Jack was never going to say those things and mean it, because that would be facing up to how he really felt, and wasn’t how he really felt more important than whether he could actually say the words out loud?

‘Jack?’ He called out from where he could see Jack, ironically, down on one knee, brushing back the top layer of sand with his hand trying to see if what they were searching for had been hidden by the gusty sea breeze. Ianto walked over and dropped down to the same level as him, before plucking the diamond ring back out of his pocket and holding it out for Jack to see.

Jack arched an eyebrow in surprise. ‘Another one? What, did you rob a jewellery store and hide it all out here or something?’

‘Did you mean it before?’

Jack’s eyebrows knitted in confusion. ‘Did I mean what?’

‘That you thought I was going to propose to you. Only because I'm never sure if you're joking with me or not, and you're rubbish at saying how you feel, and sometimes I wonder if you’re having me on only to wonder later if maybe you were serious and I just fobbed you off and now you’re hurt that you think I didn't care and–’

Jack put a hand over his lips to stop him talking. ‘Ianto, you’re babbling. Endearing at times but downright infuriating at other times.’

Ianto pulled Jack's hand away, determined not to be cut off. ‘Because I would, you know. Because I love you, probably more than you love me back, but I don;t care because I know you’re only trying to protect yourself from getting hurt and that’s why you pretend that we’re not serious when we are, and why you think its funny to make light of people trying to propose to you and…‘ Now he consciously knew he was indeed babbling, so he thrust the ring back out again. ‘So for god's sake, I mean it. Would you please marry me and stop driving me so bloody crazy thinking that you don't love me back?’

Jack blinked and Ianto worried he’d made a terrible misstep. This was exactly why he shouldn’t be impetuous like Jack.

‘You’re down on one knee,’ Jack observed.

Ianto, in a fit of blinding fury, shoved Jack in the sand and then Jack lay there laughing, before rolling onto his side and grabbing for Ianto's ankle before he could stand up and get away, annoyed at himself more than at Jack’s rebuff. ‘Ianto! Ianto, come back here! Don't be mad. Of course I'll marry you, you idiot. I’ve only been wondering why it's taken you this long to ask!’

Then it was Ianto’s turn to stare and blink. ‘Seriously?’

Jack crawled over on hands and knees through the sand and grabbed Ianto's hands. ‘Ianto, I love you. I know you don’t believe me when I say it, mostly because I don’t say it, and I treat it all as a bit of a joke sometimes, but I really, really do. I would be honoured to be the person you want to spend your life with.’

‘Oh. Well that's… good,’ Ianto replied, still caught a little bit off guard by the response.

Jack held the ring between Ianto's fingers and looked him straight in the eye. ‘Yes.’

Ianto was silent for a whole minute and then he burst out laughing himself.

Jack frowned at him like he’d become the butt of the biggest practical joke ever. ‘What?’ he asked in an annoyed tone that implied he was going to be really mad if this had all been a setup.

Ianto tried to regain his composure. It wasn’t easy given that his mind was racing, his heart going a million miles an hour and trying not to see the absurdity in it all. ‘It’s not going to fit!’ he said, before devolving into more laughter.

The penny dropped and Jack crash tackled him backwards onto the sand, before smothering his mouth with a kiss. ‘Idiot,’ Jack muttered before going in for another kiss, Ianto's arms wrapping around his neck this time to keep him there.

‘Oi!’ Gwen’s voice burst out of nowhere, breaking up the moment. ‘Enough with the face shagging! Are you two going to help me find this bloody thing or what?’

‘We’re getting married!’ Jack yelled back, a big fat grin stretching from ear to ear.

Gwen brushed her hair out of her face. ‘Right, good for you,’ she said without enthusiasm, putting it down to one of Jack's many excuses as to why they weren’t lifting their weight.

‘She doesn’t believe us,’ Jack said.

‘I’m not sure I believe it either,’ Ianto replied. Had he really just proposed to Jack and had Jack say yes?

‘Can I keep this?’ Jack asked, picking up the ring from the sand before they lost it again.

‘I’d better not catch you pawning it down the shops,’ Ianto warned him.

‘Oh, no,’ Jack replied, shaking his head. ‘This is a promise I'm holding you to.’

‘Jack Harkness, you don’t need a promise. I’ll marry you if it’s the last thing I do. No sparkly ring is going to change that.’