The garden room in the TARDIS was flourishing. Graceful trees provided shady areas, as well as giving the growing flock of tiny, jewel bright birds somewhere to perch, when they weren’t flitting about, meeping happily, hunting for seeds and tiny insects. Wild areas contrasted with more formal flowerbeds and expanses of short, blue-green grass, and everywhere there were flowers, some of them from earth, and some from other worlds, all of them blending together into a vibrant tapestry of living colour.

There was even a kitchen garden, where Ianto had various fruit and vegetables growing, both for himself and for whatever visitors might be aboard. The Tallans had their own section where they lived and worked, being more at home in an outdoor setting, but they tended the gardens as a whole when Ianto was too busy with other things, including his ongoing search for Jack.

Technically, the TARDIS could have taken care of all the garden maintenance herself, but the Tallans needed to feel useful, like they were doing something for Ianto in return for him rescuing them from slavery and trying to get them back to their homeworld. They were in their element, working among the plants, even the ones they’d never encountered before, and were eagerly learning the proper cultivation techniques for those fruits and vegetables they hoped to take back to their own planet, once it could be located.

Ianto enjoyed working in the garden himself, and spent as much time there as he could, sometimes weeding and planting, or harvesting crops, and other times simply lying in the shade of a tree, listening to the meeping birds, and the buzzing of the bees as they flew between the flowers and their hives. It was restful, the sounds and scents of nature helping to soothe him when the stresses of his seemingly interminable search for Jack were weighing him down.

He knew, or at least hoped, that he would track down his lover eventually, but it had already been months, and he was no closer to finding Jack than he had been at the start. In some ways, he felt even further away, because the distances in space were so mind-bogglingly vast. Lightyears, parsecs, whatever measurement he used, he still couldn’t wrap his brain around the sheer scale of it all.

Earth, and even the entire solar system to which his homeworld belonged, was nothing more than a tiny speck among billions of similar specks. Thinking about that never failed to make him feel tiny and insignificant, which he supposed he was, so whenever he started to feel that way, he retreated to the garden, where everything was on a more understandable scale. It restored his equilibrium.

Today, he was sitting high up in one of the tallest trees, surrounded by small, meeping birds. They were already becoming quite tame, hopping from twig to twig only inches away from him, and sometimes even taking seeds from the palm of his hand. Ianto enjoyed watching them, and he was glad now that the TARDIS had persuaded him to buy the cageful a few months ago. They were far better off here, where they were able to fly free. In their own way, they’d been as much slaves as the Tallans had.

One day, Ianto thought to himself as he bit into the ripe, juicy peach he’s brought with him, one day, he and Jack would sit here in the garden, listening to the birds and the bees, breathing in the scent of honeysuckle, roses, lilacs, and jasmine. It was just a matter of continuing to search until he eventually caught up with the man he missed so much.

“I’ll never give up, Jack,” he promised. “I’ll keep looking until I find you, and then, if you still want me… well, I guess we’ll see where forever takes us.”


The End