Title: No Answer
By: Teddy & Jaya
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: AO
Summary: Waking up one morning after crashing out at the Hub, Ianto Jones wakes up to find that everything has changed. The one bright spot in a world crashing down happens to be the fact that Captain Jack Harkness is the one team member there with him.

Ianto had fallen asleep on the couch in the Hub that night. He'd been too tired to return to his flat that night when things had finally wound down. Owen had walked Gwen and Tosh home none of them felt completely comfortable staying at the Hub. When Ianto had asked Jack if he could crash out on the couch he'd simply received one of those looks. The kind of slightly unsettling look that made Ianto think that Jack was contemplating sexual things. He had to admit that he wasn't immune to the sexual tension between them indeed it had kept him up for an extra half an hour.

Finally he'd drifted off to sleep only to wake up what felt like minutes later. Groggily Ianto sat up and looked at his watch, it was nearly half past nine and no one else was there. Only the bloody pterodactyl flying around above his head. Where was everyone?

Maybe he was coming down with a cold, it was a little chilly in the hub. Setting the coffee going, Ianto frowned at Tosh's empty work station. Had something come up? No Jack would've woken him up if something had happened. He knew for sure that if the door had opened that would've had him on his feet in no time. The door was obnoxiously loud.

However right then Ianto was beginning to understand the creepy vibe the others sometimes talked about when they were alone in the hub. "Jack?" His voice echoed but there was no other sound other then the dinosaur. Turning away from the coffee pot, Ianto had the sudden urge to get out of the Hub, to go outside. Though right then anywhere other then stuck under ground would've done the job.

He dialed Jack's number as he watched the door roll open, only to hear the sound of it ringing from Jack's office. Wherever Jack was he hadn't taken his phone with him. Tosh's phone went directly to the voice mail of a girl who claimed her name was Mimi Price. Owen's phone kept ringing and never answered. No voice mail came up nothing, but the maddening sound of the ring. Shutting it off Ianto stepped into the neat array of the tourist's office, he practically held his breath as he punched in Gwen's number.

"Hello?"

It was a male voice, "Rhys?"

"Who?"

"I'm looking for Gwen Cooper, is she about?"

"Look mate I don't know who you are but there isn't any Gwen Cooper here," The man on the other end of the line said the name like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Ianto stopped just inside the door to the tourist office, "Then, do you know a Rhys Williams?"

"Never heard of him either..." Ianto pushed open the door and completely forgot about the man on the phone. In fact he didn't hear anything not the explicit description of just where he could shove whoever he was trying to go. Finally the line went dead and only the beep of a dial tone echoed out of the phones speakers.

The sight that transfixed Ianto Jones was the fact that, where the bay in front of him should've extended there now stood what looked like a Japanese temple. It was as if the bay just stopped and there was a dry patch in the middle of Cardiff bay. Only he hadn't heard a peep from the rift monitor all night and there was no way Ianto could've slept through that.

Jack turned and looked back at Ianto as he come out of the entrance to the Information Booth.  He sighed.  If only Ianto had gone home...

"We aren't in Kansas anymore," he muttered.  

Jack did a 360 turn slowly taking in everything.  Most of it looked like Cardiff from this vantage.  Except of course the Bay and the rather noticeable Japanese Temple sitting in the middle of it.  Walking over to the railing, Jack glanced down into the water as it lapped at the cement wall a few feet below his boots.  It looked like Cardiff Bay, it smelt like Cardiff Bay.  Jack walked back to Ianto and squeezed his shoulder reassuringly.

"Lock up, Ianto.  We are going exploring.  These are the questions.  One, have we been kidnapped or has someone built a Temple in the bay overnight. Two, why aren't there people running around madly screaming like there normally is.  Three, is the fisherman's wharf coffee shop open for breakfast?"

He hadn't even noticed Jack when he'd first come out of the office, and at first the whole situation was so ludicrous that Ianto accepted the fact that Jack was there. Only a few minutes later he did a double take, "Jack, I could reach you or the others... I thought," He resisted the urge to throw his arms around Jack and hug him that was much more Gwen's style. Ianto reached into his pocket but only found his cell phone there.

The office keys weren't in his pocket, Ianto stepped back into the office. Hitting the button to close the hidden door he picked up his keys off the desk. Closing and locking the public office, after double checking to make sure the 'closed' sign was showing. Ianto walked over to the post box opening it he pulled the daily paper out of the box.

"Since no one is running and screaming I assume that means that the coffee shop is open for breakfast," Ianto said as he flipped open the paper, "The date is still the same, nothing unusual just more about the rash of disappearances according to this the number of missing people has risen not just in Cardiff but in Bristol. The author suggests that there are corresponding rises in other European countries and possibly in the U.S."

"So it is safe to assume we are missing," Jack replied. "We don't appear to be in any immediate danger. We have air to breath, tolerable temperature, sunlight. Somewhere to call home. Let's go meet the natives."

Jack sat down at a table outside and waited for the waitress. "The usual?" she asked.

Jack wondered what the usual was since he couldn't remember this particular waitress. "Yes," he replied.

She jotted something on the pad she was carrying and left. "Let's take a boat out to the Temple after breakfast," Jack said. "I have a feeling we will find more answers out of Cardiff than in."

Focused more on Jack then on the waitress or the food, "I'll have the same Suzann," He said and the waitress favored him with a smile that he didn't notice at all.  He looked passed Jack out the window of the diner towards the well temple, but it was more then just a temple. Behind the temple rose what could only been classified as a mountain, with covered paths of red running up its sides. It was vaguely familiar, ah yes it was an article he'd been reading in a magazine.

"It's a Japanese mountain shrine, actually more then one shrine from the Kyoto area," Ianto blurted out suddenly, with a grin. He prided himself on knowing things and while his local knowledge was his strong point he had a feeling that perhaps he might need to know more, farther a field soon, "Ahh... Fushi something," Ianto frowned, "Fushi mi Inari shrine!"

Jack stared at Ianto, realized his mouth was open and shut it. "Hmmm...yes, of course," he said, surprised at Ianto's knowledge. To him it just looked vaguely Japanese and nothing else.

Smiling into his coffee, Jack thought that at least he wasn't going to be lonely here. To everyone else it seemed like he was never lonely, always the centre of attention and he tried to make it that way to cover the loneliness he felt. Too many people had come and gone from his life. He'd been stuck in worse places in his life and with worse company. But this wasn't home and he had a life back there. Ianto had a life back there. He owed it to Ianto to find out where they were and how they could get back. He also felt he owed it to the others who had mysteriously disappeared to find answers. He owed it to them because he could ask the hard questions without fear. And besides all that he was looking forward to a bit of an adventure.

They were silent for a while watching the people walking by the dinner, or at least Ianto was watching the people outside. It was habit developed over his time associated with Torchwood first London and now Cardiff. However when a whole new world of possibilities was opened up, you never know what you might see around you. "Jack there was no on rift activity last night," Ianto pointed out after a few minutes, "Was there?" He knew that Jake didn't sleep and since he hadn't woken up to anything. Maybe he'd slept through it the past few days had been murder--quiet literally.

Little alien's incubating in people's nostrils, and then making their heads explode when they came out. Only to do it all over again. Not to mention the fact that they'd only been visible in the form of a swarm of tiny--purple--gnats. They'd had little faces to, if you got close enough which Owen had with the help of a microscope. The faces had been odd, almost human yet distinctly alien at the same time. It was curious how a face could have human characteristics and yet be so definitely not human. Just a few chances Ianto mused and none of us would look human.

"I didn't sleep through it, did I?" Ianto added after a few minutes looking out at the bay and the temple. If he remembered right one of the main deities that the shrine was built to was a Fox. There was a name for them the Fox people, but Ianto couldn't remember what it was right then.

 
Jack chuckled quietly. "No, Ianto. You didn't sleep through it. There was no more rift activity than usual. This is something entirely different." He looked over at Ianto, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "This is something new."


end