Title: Ebb and Flow
Author: Sqyd
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen
Rating: PG
Warnings: AU, brooding, WiP
Word count: 3,900
Disclaimers: I don't own Torchwood or any of the characters. If I did, I'd take better care of them.
Summary: Jack has moods, and everybody has secrets, but can they come clean?
Beta: The fabulous Rootesie whose advise helped greatly to round out the story. Of course, I couldn't stop tinkering. All mistakes are mine.
Notes: Sequel to Tide (previously Intermission, that I renamed just to complicate things). Still not a whole lot of plot.

***

Cardiff, Wales, Earth
Summer, 2009

It was a stifling hot day in late summer, the season's last hurrah before surrendering to the inevitability of autumn. Grateful for a break in Rift activities, Ianto retreated into the coolness of the archives. He hoped to make headway with cataloging the many artifacts that had piled up during their hectic summer. Gwen was doing the same with paperwork, while Jack was out to deliver supplies to Flat Holm. Ianto would have offered to help, but he decided it was best to give Jack some space.

Jack was getting mood swings again; he'd get inexplicably tense for no reason, or become uncommunicative and distant. There were times, not that long ago, when it would have made Ianto wonder and worry, but by now he knew his immortal too well. He knew exactly what was going on: Jack was bracing himself. Ianto couldn't quite blame him either; it was a frantic summer, and he and Gwen were given reminders of their mortality on a number of occasions. There were guns, claws, poison darts, and on one occasion an alien flower emitting toxic fumes. Jack himself died more times than Ianto liked (he liked none). Gwen was out with concussion for a few days, and Ianto acquired a new scar - a thin pink line that Jack took to running his fingers over when they were in bed. Jack himself didn't even realize he was doing it, but Ianto did. For all his secrecy, Jack was often  completely transparent.

Ianto wasn't a fool, he knew the odds were stacked against him and Gwen, but he refused to live life constantly fretting. It had taken too many sacrifices to get whatever happiness and joy he had cheated out of life, to give it up for something he had no control over. He was going to give Jack some room to brood, but then would knock some sense into him. Maybe they could get away for a weekend. The Rift was slowing down; their only current open case was the search for an errant and pretty much harmless alien parasite.

He picked up and opened the next containment box. It held the object they found on the beach months ago, of which he hadn't gotten around to taking photos for the digital database. He lifted it out of the box. Strictly speaking, he shouldn't have done it, but they had already determined it was inert, and he'd seen Jack handling it before. He turned to place it on the desk  - there was a bright white flash of light and it was gone. He stared at his empty hand, dumbstruck. He was waken from his trance by hurried footsteps. Gwen, holding a gun in one hand and a PDA-size scanner in the other, burst through the door.

"Ianto! Are you all right?!"

" I will be as soon as you stop pointing a gun at me. What's going on?"

"Sorry," Gwen huffed and holstered her gun. "There was a Rift activity alert from right here a minute ago." She walked around the room intently staring at the scanner, zeroing in on him. "You have faint Rift residue around you. What happened?"

"I... I picked up this object that was supposed to be inactive and it just disappeared in a flash of light."

"We have to check the CCTV!" they said almost at once.

What they found just got them more confused. They watched the grainy footage of Ianto standing stock still for about twenty minutes (twenty-one minutes and seventeen seconds to be exact), holding the alien object, both of them shrouded in a white glow. Next a micro rift opening appeared and the object hurtled through it. After that it was just bewildered Ianto, and Gwen with the gun.

They used the Bekaran scanner, and every other medical scanner they knew how to use to check Ianto over, but found only one small puncture mark on the palm of his hand, nothing else.

"Jack won't like this." Gwen said.

"We mustn't tell him, Gwen."

"Ianto!"

"You know how he's been lately. If we tell him, he'll just get more broody."

Gwen nodded, because she knew exactly what Ianto meant, but she still looked hesitant.

"Look," Ianto continued with certain urgency, "if we told him, he couldn't do anything more than we already did, but he would just get worried and suspicious, and probably for nothing. You and I can handle this. We can run the scanners again tomorrow, just to be sure."

Gwen sighed in surrender, and rubbed his arm. "Okay, love, but..."

"I know Gwen, at the first sign of growing a second head I'll let both you and Jack know."

They carefully deleted the incriminating CCTV footage.

“What if Jack notices it's missing?" Gwen worried.

“He won't, but if he does I'll just tell him we were shagging," Ianto deadpanned.

“Oh, don't be daft," Gwen giggled and elbowed him the ribs quite solidly. She had sharp elbows.

Weeks passed and nothing happened. Then something made them forget all about the disappearing alien object.

************************

"Jack."

The taut tone of Ianto's voice instantly alarmed him. He gripped the receiver tighter.

"Where are you? What happened?"

"In the Tourist Office. We have visitors. They say they have a delivery for you."

Jack scrambled to pull up the CCTV feed for the Tourist Office. He spotted Ianto behind the counter facing three... Jack started cursing in several languages.

"Don't do anything," he hissed into the phone, "tell them I'll be right there." He slammed the phone down and shot out of his chair. He hesitated for a moment trying to decide whether to grab his Webley, or maybe something bigger from the armory, but realized he wouldn't have much chance against three fully armed Judoon, not when they already had Ianto. His only chance was trying to sweet talk them out of whatever they were here for, or at least get Ianto away from them.

************************

It was eerily silent in the Tourist Office while they were waiting. Ianto felt a bead of sweat trickle down  his spine. The three aliens were not of any species he'd seen before. They had tall, massive humanoid bodies wrapped in black uniform. Their huge heads disconcertingly looked like those of rhinos. They all had what he was certain were energy weapons trained on him. The one that appeared to be the leader, the one who had spoken to him, had a device on the front of his uniform that was lightly glowing.

As soon as Jack burst through the secret door two out of three weapons switched to his direction, while the third remained firmly aimed at Ianto. Before Jack could speak, the head alien touched one hand to the glowing device and it went dull. He - Ianto assumed it was a he, but it was just a guess - spoke, and Ianto couldn't understand - realizing the glowing thing had to be a translation device. Whatever language he spoke, Jack must have understood, because he seemed to reply in the same. There was a short bit of heated exchange at the end of which the aliens holstered their weapons. Ianto was watching Jack like a hawk and didn't like what he saw. There was a strained, weary expression on his face that reminded Ianto of some the worst  moments they had experienced together. No, he didn't like it at all. After some more discussion, Jack punched something into his vortex manipulator. The head alien grunted and the three of them dematerialized in a quick flash of light.

"Sorry Jack," Ianto started, "they just appeared out of nowhere like that."

Jack nodded.

"I have to go out. You stay here." Jack's face was an expressionless mask, and it somehow made Ianto very angry.

"Jack!" his voice was a low warning growl, "I don't care what it is, I'm coming with you."

Jack looked at him with  angry resignation.

"Fine," he spat the word out, "don't say I didn't warn you."

************************

The drive was spent in  tense silence. Jack didn't say where they were going, but once they got to the run-down outskirts of Cardiff, Ianto guessed that they were headed for the warehouse Torchwood secretly owned out there in the wastelands. There were about two dozens safe houses, warehouses, and other buildings around Cardiff that belonged to Torchwood, hidden behind false names and shell companies. There were more in London, but nobody used those any more. This building was big enough to house a small plane - or spaceship - but had been empty for years now.

They entered through a small door at one side. It was completely dark inside. Ianto reached for the light switch, not knowing if the building was still connected to the electrical grid. It was; dim yellow light filled the space. The lighting fixtures were ancient, and most of the bulbs were burned out or missing. There was enough light to see the thing that didn't belong. It was a row of black lumps, sparkling clean and new against the general dust and grime of the place. He followed Jack as he marched up to them. They looked disquietingly like body bags, small body bags. Jack knelt down in the dirt and opened one. Ianto peeked over his shoulder and his breath caught in his throat at the sight. He had seen many sickening spectacles in his line of work; torn mutilated bodies of humans and aliens alike, and this wasn't even close to the worse of them, yet somehow more disturbing. The desiccated body looked so much like a human child, but was also warped like a sick fantasy from a horror movie.

He only realized that he gripped Jack's shoulder when he felt the muscles tense under his fingers. Jack stood up and stepped away from him, back turned.

"Jack, what is this?" Ianto asked warily. 

Jack didn't reply. Ianto waited. Finally, Jack turned around and looked him in the eye. He looked devastated.

"I did this."

Ianto forced himself not to step forward, not to grab Jack by the shoulders and shake him. He raised only his eyebrows, prodding Jack on.

"In 1965 aliens visited Earth. They released a virus. It was going to be called the Indonesian flu and kill more people word wide than the Spanish flu ever did. They promised a cure, if we complied with their demand."

"Which was?"

"Twelve children. Twelve kids in exchange for millions. So our government picked a dozen kids. They were orphans whom nobody would miss," he said ruefully.

"Was this a Torchwood operation?"

"No, it was the government directly. I was an errand boy, the one to hand the kids over. I was picked because they needed someone who wouldn't care."

Ianto couldn't suppress a derisive snort.

"Who were they... the aliens?"

"I don't know. Nobody saw them. We only knew them as "The 456", after the radio wavelength they used to communicate."

"This must have been eating at you since." Ianto knew that whoever thought Jack didn't care was an imbecile.

"I tried to find out more later, but the government buried it very deep. I don't think they had anything more than a radio wavelength anyway."

"So why this?" He gestured at the black lumps on the floor. "Why now?"

"I... when the Doctor brought me back," Jack was referring to the time when he suddenly left them without a note, then returned months later, just as unexpectedly, "we took a side trip. We stopped to talk to the Shadow Proclamation."

"The what?"

"The Shadow Proclamation is a sort of intergalactic law enforcement. They have no sense of humor, and they are not known for their leniency. I would normally avoid them, but they were the ones to deal with this. If the Doctor wasn't with me, I don't think they'd have let me go."

"The aliens earlier..."

"The Judoon work for the Shadow Proclamation. These ones do anyway. They brought the news that the 456 were apprehended, and brought the bodies of the children back - they thought we would want them."

This was a lot for Ianto to digest, but he had been with Torchwood long enough not to be surprised at the vileness the universe insisted throwing at them.

"Why did the... 456 want them anyway?"

Jack's face darkened and at first Ianto didn't think he'd get a reply, but then Jack started to talk again.

"I'm told they used them to get high. Pre-pubescent children produce a chemical that is a drug to them. They kept the children alive, in a suspended state."

Ianto was angry, angry at aliens who used Earth as their playground; frustrated with Jack and his secrets.

"I did this," Jack repeated, looking at the macabre figure of the 44-year-old child.

Ianto just had enough.

"Snap out of it Jack!" he yelled at the other man, who looked back at him stunned. "As much as I'd love to indulge your self-pity, you can't seriously take credit for this. You were in an un-winnable situation, with no good choices, and no power to actually affect the outcome. So maybe it wasn't your proudest moment, but at least you did something when you finally could - you stopped them. Right? What would have kept them from coming back for more if you hadn't done something about it?"

"Ianto..."

"No, listen to me. Gwen and I know you're not perfect, you make mistakes, but you always try. You're human. That's why we love you, not for the big damn hero pose you like to put on."

Ianto finished with eyes glaring, and all the space around them filled with awkward, tense silence. If Jack went on, taking blame for everything that had ever gone wrong, he was going to hit him. Jack stared back like he had seen Ianto for the first time.

"So I wasn't fooling you with big damn hero act?" He said, giving him a tired little smile.

"Not for a minute," Ianto replied, relieved. "We've been humoring you." He stepped closer to Jack; close enough to touch, to feel his body heat.

"I keep underestimating you two, don't I?" Jack reached out to run a hand along Ianto's arm, then he dropped it. Ianto turned back towards the body bags, but so that he pressed closer to Jack.

"Yeah you do. C'mon work to do."

Ianto surveyed the scene. Something was off.

"Jack? There are only eleven of them."

Jack turned and looked.

"You're right." He spread his arms with an uncertain gesture. "Maybe a body got lost. Or maybe one of the kids got away." There was a little bit of hope in his voice.

Ianto knelt and closed the open body bag. There was work to be done. He craned his neck to look at Jack.

"Cryo?"

Jack shook his head, to Ianto's relief. He didn't want them in the Hub as a constant reminder. They had too many of those already. However, he knew he couldn't just shove them into the incinerator either.

"I'll call Augie."

Augie was one of those rare people who had the misfortune of being caught up in a Torchwood case decades ago, but came out of it with his memories intact. Jack was the only person still living who knew exactly what had went down, and why Augie kept doing them favors. Ianto could only assume the man was working down some sort of debt.  Augie owned a mortuary, and that had come in handy more than once, and would do so again. They would cremate the bodies, and bury them in an unmarked grave. Not perfect, but it would do.

************************

"Don't tell Gwen," Jack said on their way back from the mortuary.

"Jack!"

"I want to tell her myself."

"All right."

At least it would their secret, not just Jack's alone, for a little while anyway, till Ianto and Gwen were no longer around to remember. Then it would become  Jack's alone again. Maybe by then it wouldn't matter any more. Now, if only he could somehow smother that pang of guilt he had about that other secret he and Gwen shared.

They drove in silence. They were almost at the Plass when Ianto spoke up.

"Jack, what happened to the 456?"

"Executed. Every last one of them," Jack exhaled the words with a shudder.

"Good."

************************

New Earth
3417.07.21, Earth Standard

If Mary were capable of feelings she would've been excited. Lemmy swore that the voicebox he had created for her had the capacity to express a full range of emotions, but the command had to come from the brain, and Mary's positronic brain was unwilling to produce the required signal. This fact rendered Lemmy's hard work pointless, and Lemmy himself deeply frustrated. Mary's knowledge of human emotions was purely conceptual. She had learned to recognize their outward displays. For example, Dr. Sebastian exhibited all the signs of excitement that Mary didn't feel, when she handed him GaMED-25 that had just arrived back through the Rift.

Out of the one hundred (forbiddingly expensive) GaMEDs that they had let lose through the Rift months ago, this was only the fifth that returned and none of the previous ones had any useable data. The devices were sensitive, and despite their best efforts to build up their protection, the two-way trip through the Rift put too much stress on them. Most hadn't come back at all, and with every passing day it seemed less and less likely that a functioning GaMED with its mission successfully completed would find its way back.

Dr. Sebastian hooked the small round device up to the diagnostic console. Mary observed his expression of excitement mix with expectant tension. When his muscles warped his features into a wide "grin", she made the logical deduction that this time the results fulfilled expectations. Her deduction was confirmed when he shouted, "Mary, we have a live one!" and grabbed her around the waist in an attempt to initiate a highly irregular form of "dancing". She complied - it was in her programming after all.

************************


Cardiff, Wales, Earth
Autumn, 2009

In the end, unburdening himself, divulging one of his most shameful secrets to Gwen and Ianto was easier than he had expected. Instead of the scorn and revulsion he felt he deserved, they showed him nothing but sympathy. It finally clicked for him: they were his family; they were closer to him than anyone had been for a very long time. They'd challenge him, disagree and fight with him, but their love was a given.

For the first time in months he felt upbeat; maybe all things didn't go up in flames around him, maybe he didn't wreck everything and everyone he came in contact with. Suddenly he had a bounce in his step and a mischievous glint in his eyes. However, his sunny mood wasn't fully reciprocated by his team of two. They justly claimed fatigue, but Jack's sixth sense was telling him that the two were up to something. Could they be having an affair? Well, it wasn't impossible, but why would they keep it secret? Especially from him? Ridiculous 21st century inhibitions...

************************

"No Andy, don't touch it. Don't lay a single finger on it, okay?" Ianto snarled into the phone. "Make sure nobody else touches it either. We'll be there in ten minutes."

Jack watched him whisper something to Gwen before heading to Jack's office with the news.

"It was Andy. Road construction unearthed something he thinks might be one of our "spookie-doos"."

"Did he give a more specific description?"

"Yeah, about grapefruit-sized, round, grey, possibly metallic. It was doing some glowing when one of the workers picked it up, but then it stopped."

Did Ianto sound apprehensive? It was not the first time Andy had alerted them of a potentially alien object, and despite jokes Jack liked to make at his expense, Andy wasn't completely incompetent. So what was the problem?

In the end Jack went alone to check out the possibly glowing alien object. He recognized it right away: it was identical to the one they picked up earlier that summer  at Swansea. It was a little bit more banged up, slight charred, but otherwise the same. He put it in the containment box and took it back to the Hub, where he unceremoniously dumped it on the workbench.

Ianto and Gwen stood shoulder-to-shoulder watching him. There was something definitely sheepish about them.

"Ianto, would you bring the other one up from the archives? I'd like to test them; maybe they work in pairs."

"About that Jack..."

************************

Jack didn't blow up at them. He figured he owed them as much. He gave them a very stern talking to though. Their motivations were understandable, even if their action still unacceptable. They ruefully gave him their accounts of the event. Ianto dug up the CD containing the CCTV footage, because Ianto never just completely deleted anything that could prove important.

He scanned, poked, prodded the "Glow Globe", as Ianto named it, every which way he could think of before taking it apart completely, and scanning all its parts again. The findings were run through every possibly applicable program Tosh and Owen left behind. He announced the results with considerable relief at their next team meeting.

"...so in all likelihood it's a medical scanner," he finished his account.

"Who would want to scan us, and why?" Gwen questioned him.

He shrugged. "Probably humanologists - scientists studying the human race," he added at the sight of their bafflement. "Like your scientists like to tag dolphins and lions, and kinds of animals. It's the same, with the tables turned."

"Are you trying to tell us that all those reports of aliens kidnapping and probing people are just extraterrestrial scientists cataloguing the human race?" Ianto asked incredulously.

"Well, that would be illegal, since Earth is a class five planet." Seeing their blank looks he clarified: "It's out of bounds. It explains the need to use  a remote scanner."

The rest of the meeting was spent with Gwen and Ianto whinging about the need to get new warm bodies into their little organization. Jack finally grudgingly relented and tasked them both to come up with a list of suitable candidates.

************************

Jack cornered Ianto at the coffee machine. It was most un-sportsmanlike to trap a man while distracted, and hands full with objects that could break or spill, especially if that man had a strong abhorrence of breakage and spillage, but all was fair in love and war. He stood behind Ianto, indecently close, almost, but not quite touching, his hands on the counter, framing Ianto on either side. Ianto stilled and slowly, carefully put the cups down. Jack leaned his head forward so his lips almost touched Ianto's ear. His warm breath suggestively wafted over tender skin.

"You know," Jack said in a low murmur that he knew would send prickles down Ianto's body, "all that talk about alien probes gave me some ideas."

Ianto braced his hands against the counter and minutely pushed himself back into Jack. A satisfied chuckle and arms wrapping around his waist, one hand resting barely above his belt were his reward.

"We haven't been doing any role-play in a while, and all those toys are just collecting dust. So what do you say?" Jack continued his seductive murmur between small nibbles on Ianto's earlobe and that small patch of skin accessible to him. Ianto answered wordlessly, grinding his hips against Jack's, arching his head back as Jack pulled him closer. Jack grinned into his neck. All was well with the world once again.

***