| Date: 11 January 2008
Characters: Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness Location: hotel dining room Link to IJ: thread #30630 |
 Ianto was actually relaxed after putting up his bulletin board and a good night's sleep, wandering around the hotel with a cup of coffee, sleeves rolled up and tie loose. He caught sight of Jack, grabbed another cup of coffee and jogged a bit to catch up with him, offering it, "Morning, Jack." |
 He heard someone coming toward him and his name at the same time. He whirled around, coat flaring out around him as he pivoted."Who the hell are you?" he asked, harsh and direct. His voice was rough, he was pale and his eyes were red. His hands were in his coat's pockets, keeping it pulled forward around him. |
| Ianto was startled for a moment, before taking in Jack's appearance and saying soothingly, "Ianto Jones. You don't know me?" |
| "No," he said, bluntly. "But you clearly know me. How?" |
| He held out the coffee again, "How long have you been here?" Pause and because he knew Jack when Jack was mad and this Jack? Seemed mad and tired. "And I'm not avoiding the question, it's directly related." |
| He freed one of his hands to take the coffee. "Thanks. I've been here a few hours." He was just as rough and direct with that as he had been anything so far. Well, maybe a little less, since he was talking while he tried to figure out if the smell of the coffee was making his mouth water because it was appetizing or nauseating. Mad and tired summed it most of the way up. With a healthy dose of scared shitless thrown in on top. |
| "There's-" he tilted his head, thinking how to say this, "This place is kind of a...nexus for different realities and timelines. We think. " |
| "I had a conversation earlier with a 5,000 year old Immortal who can only die if you cut his head off. I got the idea that something was up." He took a cautious sip of the coffee. A very, very cautious sip. |
| Ianto had made the coffee and he, by habit, always made coffee the way Jack- his Jack-liked it. "Something's up," he agreed, "There's another Jack here. At least one more." |
| The coffee was good - really good. Good enough for his desire to drink the stuff to win out over paranoid, and for him to take another careful drink. "The one you thought I was." |
| "The one I thought you were," he agreed, "Are you more hungry or tired?" |
| Yes. Extremely. "How long have you been here? How long have you known your Jack?" He had a lot of questions. He barely managed to stop asking at two. |
| "About a month," he sounded slightly disgruntled at that, but started herding Jack towards a table and chairs, "And I've known Jack for 2 years." |
| He kept himself out of reach without making a production of it and once he realized where Ianto was headed, he headed there on his own. "Well, shit," he said, and went pale. "Two years in what capacity?" He put his coffee on the table and pulled a chair out, but didn't sit. |
| Ianto sat, half because it would make Jack taller and it looked like he needed the reassurance, and half because he hoped it would encourage Jack to do the same. "How do you mean?" |
| He leaned against his chair, rather than sitting. Forearms on the back, one leg bent at the knee and the other straight out behind him, foot flat against the floor. He was stretching, straight line from his neck all the way down the back of his extended calf. He probably would sit down shortly, though. "Friends, lovers, enemies, commander, what?" |
| Ianto sipped his coffee. "Friends. Lovers. Captain." |
| "Is that a method of address or a role?" he asked. He sounded, just slightly, looser. Ianto's calm was starting to take the edge off his own roughness. That and leaning. |
| That was very, very reassuring and it made Ianto relax a little more- sincerely instead of the focused calm. "Both. I work with him. Are you with Torchwood yet?" |
| "Sounds messy." He didn't sound disapproving, and he managed a quick smile as he switched legs. "No. I know what it is, though. What year are you in?" |
| "2008. What about you?" |
| "1906," he said, after a long, and, for him uncomfortable, pause. |
| "Oh." He said after a moment. "That's. A long time." |
| "Isn't like I've lived through it." He straightened up, very slowly and carefully. |
| "Yet." he frowned a bit, "What did you do to your back that it's not healed yet?" |
| He pulled the chair out, setting it at a shallow angle to the table so he wouldn't have his back to the room, be trapped by the table, and would still be able to reach his coffee. Sitting down itself was less cautious, and more fluid than straightening had been, though he swept his coat back around him. Once he was down he braced one foot on the chair's cross-bar, one arm casually on that knee and resting in his lap and picked up his coffee with the other. "I didn't do anything to my back." |
| "Why is it like that then?" |
| "Why is it like what? Also, is anyone working on a way to get out of here, or figuring out how many divergent realities are present, looking for patterns or forming theories?" |
| "Kinked," he said before answering the questions, "Everyone is, I think. I know I'm working on numerating and trying to find a common thread. I know some people leave, but it seems like they don't remember it when they go back- and only remember being here once they return." |
| "Do you know if time is passing here?" he asked. He finally decided neither his stomach nor the coffee was going to kill him, and started actually drinking it. |
| "I know it's not passing there. A month isn't long enough to see aging and I've not tried to grow a plant so. No, I don't know." |
| "Do you need to shave when you wake up in the morning? Get hungry? Need to sleep?" |
| "No to the shaving, yes to the others." Not that Ianto usually had to shave that much anyway. |
| "Damn." He pushed his coffee cup away and rubbed his eyes. |
| "What's wrong?" |
| "I have a whole lot of questions, no answers, and a limited amount of time to find them in." |
| "Jack, you have nothing but time." |
| "Not right now." |
| "...What's wrong?" he worried, automatically reaching for Jack. |
| He moved his arm out of the way, as automatically as Ianto's reach for him. "I heard the Doctor's here. Have you seen him?" |
| "A couple of him, actually." |
| "Any idea how long he's been here?" He propped his elbow on the table and his head on his hand. |
| "Which one? Some as long as me, I think." Pause, then he sighed, "I'll find him for you if you go to sleep and don't tell me you don't, I know you do sometimes." |
| His mouth quirked up into a lop-sided grin that was just bright enough to show dimples. "Which one are you going to find for me?" he asked. "What good is it going to do if I'm asleep, and didn't you offer me food?" There was something about that sigh. |
| "Whichever one I can locate first, I'll bring him to you and he can wake you up, and I did. Would you like to eat some or are you going to keep shying away?" |
| He thought about it, and then decided. "Works for me. Shying away from eating?" |
| "Shy away from everything," he said, standing again, "Do you want to eat here or would you rather go to bed so you can rest your back?" |
| "There is nothing wrong with my back," he said, firmly and with slightly exasperated emphasis. "Eating here is fine. I'll find a room, later." |
| "Please," he rolled his eyes, going over and grabbing a menu, handing it to Jack, "You're talking to someone who knows a version of you. The only time I've ever seen him stretch like that was when he hurt it when he had to stop the office mascot from trying to lick him after sex." |
| He took the menu but didn't open it yet. "I don't care who you know, there's nothing wrong with my -" He stopped. "And what is the office mascot?" |
| "Pyterodacytal," he said serenely, sitting down across from Jack. "Are you serously going to tell me you just had a cramp?" |
| "I never learn," he said, with a tone that was usually reserved for talking about idiots and children. "Good to know." He flipped the menu open and looked over it before he went on, eyes flicking up over the edge ot Ianto. "My back was bothering me, but I swear to you I am not injured." |
| "Anymore?" he finished for him, sipping his coffee carefully. |
| "I was never injured!" He pinched the bridge of his nose. He was going to end up explaining. He could see it coming from here. That was going to go just great. "What is your name again?" |
| "Ianto," he said patiently, then sighed, "You don't have to tell me- we both know that. You can even tell me to bugger off and leave it and I will. Or you can tell me and I can help and I think we both know I can do that too because I'm a tenacious bastard." |
| He laughed, the sound a little rough, a little bitter and a little brittle. "I don't think you're equipped to help, but thanks for the thought, Ianto." He folded the menu again and put it down for the moment, hand on top of it curled into a fist. "You're right, I don't have to tell you. I don't particularly want to tell you to bugger off, so tell me. Why do you want to know?" |
| "I think you're underestimating me, sir," he said promptly, then tilted his head, "Because I want to help. Because I think I can. Because there's no reason not to. Because it tilts my worldview to see you in pain and I like it to stop as soon as possible because I'm a very selfish person." |
| "I don't think I'm underestimating you, but I may be underestimating your feelings about your Captain." He really wanted to say it now, and he couldn't. "I'm not in pain, by the way. I'm uncomfortable. I'm also pregnant." He said it in a way that made it pretty clear that if it got repeated he would skin Ianto alive, roll him in honey and stake him belly down over the face of a pissed off weevil. |
| Ianto blinked, processing that, "I always thought that was a joke." |
| "You always thought what was a joke?" he asked, all hard edges and demand again. |
| "When you said- when he said that he was on the pill so he wouldn't get pregnant again. I thought it was a joke." Ianto was abruptly all business, standing again and getting Jack a glass of water, switching it out for his water, "Bed, as soon as you've eaten. Red meat if you can stand it." |
| "Oh, fuck you," he said, without heat. "You haven't even been born in my time-line. I think I can manage to take care of myself." He took the water, gratefully, though. |
| "You can manage," Ianto nodded, "And well. But you tired and why do it if you don't have to?" |
| "Because I trust myself a lot more than I trust other people." He was tired, though, and smiled. "You want to clue me in on this ordering thing. You can tell me all about you, and me, while I eat." |
| "Just tell me what you want and I'll tell the android in the kitchen," Ianto said with a tiny nod, crossing his arms. |
| His eyebrows started up. "There's an android in the kitchen?" |
| "...All the staff here are androids." |
| "Oh, now that has promise." Not that he was going to eat the food. |
| "IT's good food. Do you want me to pick?" |
| "I want you to eat it for me. Where the hell are they getting food from, anyway?" |
| "Presumably a farm." |
| "How long has your Jack been eating here?" |
| "A month, I presume." |
| He realized damn well not eating was worse than risking it, and he was just going to have to trust his sense of taste to cue him in if there was something off. "Shepherd's pie. If they can manage that it'll get the whole meal and all the food groups out of the way." |
| Ianto nodded and headed into the kitchen, coming back a few minutes later with some cheese and crackers saying, "It's being prepared. They said give them ten minutes." He pushed the tray towards Jack, sitiitng down across from him. |
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