Title: Memories of a Could Have Been
Fandom: Torchwood/Harry Potter/Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Length: ~1600
Content notes: Time Lord!Ianto, Time Lord!Harry, AU, Episode Tag "Cyberwoman"
Author notes: I don’t own anything but the idea! This is a universe where Ianto was not in Canary Wharf on the day of the battle. Lisa already died there.
Summary: Ianto dreams about a timeline where he saved Lisa from Canary Wharf. It's traumatizing to say the least, since until now he thought that she could be healed. Jack on the other hand meets Ianto's younger brother that is actually older than him.



Jack was awake the moment Ianto started to trash around in the bed the two shared. He knew that he was just the rebound shag for Ianto since the young man had lost his girlfriend in the Battle of Canary Wharf, but he didn’t care. It wasn’t the first time that this was the case for him and it would, most likely, not be the last. Also both of them had nightmares and it was always good to have someone to help you through them.

And now Ianto was in a nightmare again. Only this time it wasn’t about what had happed at Canary Wharf, but, from what Jack could see in Ianto’s mind that was always wide open when the younger man slept, and especially when he had nightmares, it was about Ianto’s girlfriend. Only this time she hadn’t died in Canary Wharf, but was in the Hub in one of the unused rooms, half converted.

Jack shuddered. He hated the Cybermen and what they had done at Canary Wharf with the Daleks. It regularly gave him nightmares and he had not been there. Ianto hadn’t been either, but somehow the young man knew exactly what had happened there that day despite this. Jack had no idea how this worked, since Ianto had been suspended for the week around Canary Wharf due to the fact that he had apparently told Yvonne Hartmann off for using the ghost shifts and the woman had of course seen this as insubordination. Due to this, Ianto had not been at work the last few days before the battle and had only come back into the country the day after it, when the worst had already been cleared away.

The younger man had told Jack that his brother had taken him out of the country during that week. Ianto still hadn’t forgiven his brother for this since he thought that he could have done something to stop what happened if he had been there. Jack didn’t know about this and he didn’t want to even consider the Welshman in the Battle.

By now, Ianto was trashing around even more and Jack could see with one look into his mind why, the Cyberwoman had started to run amok in the Hub and had killed one person already. She was at that very moment killing Jack with electricity.

The immortal raised an eyebrow as he tried to get Ianto to wake up without success. He continued to watch the events unfold, while still trying to wake his lover. It was only after Lisa was dead that the young man gasped awake.

He was disoriented for a moment, before seeming to recognize where he was. Only a moment later, he broke down in tears.

“Oh god,” he breathed. “What have I done?”

“Ianto?” Jack asked. “What do you mean?”

Ianto looked at his lover with devastated eyes.

“I killed them, Jack,” he said, sure in the knowledge that Jack had seen what he had seen in his dream. “It’s my fault that they died.”

“What are you talking about?” Jack asked. “Who died?”

“That pizza girl and Doctor Tanazaki,” Ianto answered. “And you. God I was such an idiot for believing that she could be saved.”

Jack looked at his lover, not understanding what the other was talking about. He had always wondered about Ianto’s dreams since they had always felt too real to be just that.

Ianto looked at his lover and knew that he had to come clean about this part of himself to get Jack understand.

“I can see the past. I can see what really happened and what could have happened if I had taken another road. After Canary Wharf, I have always seen in my dreams a Now in which I had saved Lisa and in which I had been in the battle. I was so blinded by my love for her, that I never realized that she was this monster. I hated my own brother for keeping me from the battle, thinking that I could have saved her, had I been there. God, I was so naïve.”

Ianto scrambled out of the bed and over to his suit trousers in which he had his mobile. However, the moment he had it in his hands, it all came crashing down on him and he fell to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably. He could have killed all these people. He could have been the cause that a new Cyberman invasion could have started. It would have been his fault.

Jack followed his lover out of his bed, and gathered the younger man into his arms, rocking him back and forth to calm him down.

“Do you want me to call someone for you?” he asked and Ianto nodded into his shoulder, where the Welshman’s face was buried.

“Harry,” Ianto hiccupped. “Please, I want Harry.”

Jack nodded and rubbed Ianto’s back with one hand, while using the other to scroll through the contact list until he found the name “Harry”. He pressed call.

“Yes?” an English sounding voice picked up after only one ring, despite it being in the middle of the night.

“Harry?” Jack asked, wanting to make sure, even if this was a rather common name.

“Yes,” the voice repeated.

“I’m sorry for calling so late. Ianto’s asking for you. Can you come?” Jack asked voice apologetic.

“I’ll be there momentarily,” the one on the other end of the line said and then hung up. Jack was glad that they were at Ianto’s flat and not at the Hub.

Not five minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Jack had by now managed to get Ianto back into his bed and was still holding the younger man close. Now he untangled himself from his lover and practically ran over to the door, pulling on his pants on the way so that he wouldn’t give whoever it was an eyeful.

He opened the door and could only blink. In front of him stood a young man that looked exactly like the one he had just left behind, just a bit older.

“Harry Potter,” the young man said, stretching out his hand. “Ianto’s brother.”

Jack took the hand numbly, not offering any resistance when the young man entered the flat and made his way into the bedroom where Ianto still was. He sat down on the bed, pulling an unresisting Ianto into his lap and running his fingers through his hair.

“It’s gonna be okay,” he said, soothingly.

“I killed them,” Ianto whispered, tears in his eyes and voice. “It’s all my fault. They could be dead and she could have gotten loose.”

“But none of this happened in this time line,” Harry said and Jack could only watch as the young man calmed Ianto down. “I’m sorry she died, but this would have been worse, for both of you.”

“Why couldn’t you save her?” Ianto asked, voice small. “You made sure that I wasn’t at Canary Wharf, why not do it for her as well?”

“Because she had to die. There was no version of the future where she survived. Her death was fixed. It’s just the way she did that wasn’t,” Harry answered. “I’m sorry, but time would have been stubborn that way and the way she died, she was in the least pain.”

Ianto started to cry again, and this time it was for his lost love. Harry kept on rubbing his back and stroking his hair soothingly until the young man fell into a fitful sleep once more.

When Harry was sure that Ianto was asleep, he looked up to the man that was watching him. He raised an eyebrow in silent question.

“Who are you?” Jack asked.

“Ianto’s younger brother,” the man answered.

“You don’t look younger than him. You look older,” Jack said eyes narrowed.

“That’s probably because I am, Captain Jack Harkness,” Harry replied eyes full of laughter.

“But you just said that you are younger than him,” Jack accused. Something wasn’t adding up here.

“Ianto was born earlier than I was, but I have lived more years,” Harry explained and elaborated when it was clear that the immortal couldn’t follow, “I travelled with the Doctor. Due to this I lived longer than Ianto, even though he was born earlier.”

Now Jack understood. Time travel did funny things to ages and tenses.

“Can you contact him?” Jack asked. “I travelled with him as well and I have some questions I have to ask him.”

Harry shook his head. Sure, he could contact the Doctor now, but the timelines were more important than giving Jack his answers right now.

“No. I can’t,” the younger man said. “And even if I could, I wouldn’t since there are things that have to happen before you get your answers. I’m sorry. Just like Ianto sees memories of a past that never happened I can see possible futures. It’s not your time yet to meet the Doctor again. But I can tell you that it will be soon. I am sorry for what will happen, but it has to. The alternatives are much worse.”

Jack nodded. He understood that the timelines had to be preserved or horrible things would happen.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Thank you anyway and thanks for coming.”

“Ianto’s my brother,” Harry scoffed. “Of course I’ll come. Thank you for being here for him. Remembering the could have been is sometimes just as bad as seeing the could bes.”