Title: Timeless
By: nixa_jane
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R
Summary: "There's a little place I know down by the docks," Jack told him. "Used to be a bar. Still is, when it's around."

The first time Ianto Jones saw Captain Jack Harkness, he was standing at the edge of a cliff, coat billowing behind him, bangs in his eyes. He looked unreal and so out of place that Ianto did a double take when he stepped out of the SUV.

"Strange place for an interview," Ianto told him, crossing his arms over his designer suit.

Jack didn't turn around. "You worked for Torchwood One," he said.

"I did," Ianto said.

"Don't think that helps your case," Jack told him, turning around. "You don't have an in."

"I didn't expect to," Ianto said.

Jack turned back to the cliff, close enough one more step would take him straight off. "You lost someone," he said.

Ianto's heart clenched. He remembered Lisa, what was left of her, what wasn't hidden, lowering into a grave. "I don't think--"

"I did too," Jack interrupted. "It's why we've both ended up here. It's what we're trying to make up for." Ianto stepped up beside him, mindless of the edge or even that slight muffled sound of the earth cracking beneath their feet. Jack glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "We'll fail, of course."

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try," Ianto said.

Jack grinned, and laughed, and spun on his heel. "You're hired," he said.

-----

Technically Ianto was supposed to be the receptionist. He didn't have field experience. He knew how to fire a gun because it was easy and he had good eyes, not because he'd been overly trained.

Jack often seemed to forget that.

Jack entered the Tourist entrance through the secret door, and jumped up onto the counter, knocking the magazines Ianto had been organizing into disarray. Ianto bit his lip to keep from snapping at him. "Sir?" he said.

"Ianto, I like you," Jack said.

"I like you too, sir," Ianto told him. "Now please don't sit on the counters. We have chairs just over there."

Jack laughed, but didn't move. "You know what I like about you, Ianto?" he asked.

"My dry wit?" Ianto asked.

Jack tossed him a sly grin. "Your sense of adventure," he said, and gave him a slap on the back. "Grab yourself a coat. We're going on a treasure hunt."

Ianto opened his mouth to protest but Jack was already out the door, and would be waiting, impatiently, right outside, for Ianto to follow. Ianto had a feeling Jack never bothered to look behind to make sure whoever he expected to be there still was--it was hard not to follow Jack, even for Ianto, and he doubted anyone had ever managed not to do it when asked.

Jack Harkness had an infectious kind of view of things, most days. The rest he could be as ruthless as anyone Ianto had ever known, but Ianto had a sinking feeling he wouldn't hesitate to follow him even then.

Jack had already started the car when he made it outside, and he spun out of the lot almost before Ianto closed the door, kicking up gravel behind them with an awful screech. Ianto hated it when Jack drove. "Do we need to review the traffic laws again, sir?" he asked.

"Do I look like a rules kind of guy?" Jack asked, speeding into the sixties to make a light. A horn was blaring behind them but they quickly left it behind.

Ianto sighed and leaned back against the seat, resigning himself to the ride ahead of him. "You said something about treasure?" he asked.

"There's a little place I know down by the docks," Jack told him. "Used to be a bar. Still is, when it's around."

"When it's around, sir?" Ianto asked.

"It only appears once every fifty years," Jack said, and glanced at his watch. "And it's due any minute."

-----

Ianto stepped out of the car into the rain. He would swear it had been blue skies when they left the Hub, but the sky was dark now, so grey it was almost black, and there were flashes of lighting in the distance where the water edged into the sky.

"This is it," Jack said.

There was an old building at the edge of the docks, said 'Charlie's Place' on an old rotting piece of wood that had been tacked up above the door. Ianto had driven by here a dozen times. He'd never seen it before.

Jack took out his old pistol, which did nothing to reassure Ianto at all. He wanted to ask him why he chose him, of everyone that works for Torchwood, to come with him--he's certainly not the first choice for something like this.

Jack glanced back, grinning. "Hear that?" he asked

There was the faint sound of music from somewhere, and Ianto stepped closer, almost despite himself. "It sounds like a party," he said.

"Oh, it is," Jack told him.

"Then why do you need a gun?" Ianto asked him.

Jack pushed his damp hair out of his eyes with the back of his hand. "Because they might remember me," he told him.

-----

They edged slowly through the back door and stayed to the shadows. Ianto's breath sounded overly loud to his own ears but Jack was completely silent, stepping along the wall in those old combat boots without a sound.

It was eerie and Ianto had to try twice as hard, just to manage quiet.

The bar was filled with smoke, and a young woman stood behind a microphone at the other end, belting out some song Ianto vaguely remembered hearing before on one of his visits to his grandfather's. It was sad and beautiful and then bright and loud, and the people kept dancing, through all the changing moods.

"Jack--" Ianto whispered, but Jack reached back and placed his palm over his mouth, said 'shh', and then let go.

Jack grabbed his hand once he'd lowered his own from Ianto's mouth, and tugged him further inside, behind him. There was a door a few feet down, and Jack stood with a hand on the handle, waiting until the singer let out a high note to push it open, and quickly closed behind them.

The new room was pitch black and Jack had a hand on his arm, holding him firmly in place. "It's a staircase," he warned. "Watch the third step down. It's broken."

Ianto was grateful Jack didn't let go as they start down, and once they made it to the bottom safely, Jack pulled the cord on a single light bulb in the middle of the room. "It's going to be where we least expect it," he said.

Ianto frowned. "What is?"

"Oh, you'll know it, when you see it," Jack told him, starting towards the selves on the right side. "We don't have much time, we've got to look quick. I'm not waiting another fifty years."

'Another fifty?' Ianto wanted to ask. He didn't, because he never does, because most days he's not sure he wants to know. He moved instead to the other side of the room, and started looking in boxes, in corners, for something he supposed he'd know when he saw.

"Hello, Nick." Ianto looked up, startled at the voice, and saw the shadowy figure of a man standing at the top of the staircase, still half hidden by the door. "Knew you'd be back here eventually," he said.

"David," Jack said, quietly, almost scared. It set Ianto on edge. "I suppose that means you remember. I thought you might."

David laughed. "You think I'd be taken in like them? I know time, Nick." David came down the stairs two at a time, and before Ianto could even let out a warning he had Jack against the wall, a knife at his throat.

Jack let out a laugh as the knife edged into his throat, just pushing it deeper. "Always were the dramatic one, weren't you? Tell me, if you're so clever, then why haven't you left?"

"The door won't open for me, I'm stuck here," David snapped. "Living this same damn day because it thinks I belong here."

"Maybe you do," Jack said. "Did you think of that? If you're here you're not anywhere else, and that sounds like a pretty damn good deal to me."

Ianto started forward and saw the knife edge deeper into Jack's throat. "One more move," David said, turning to look at him. "One more fucking step and he's dead."

Ianto froze, dragging in air, forcing it back out. He had got his gun but he didn't trust himself to hit what he was firing at.

David turned away from him again, back to Jack, but he kept the knife where it was, held close enough to the skin that blood was starting to drip down the blade. "Do you think you're getting out of here, Nick?" he asked. "You or your latest little conquest?"

"I know I am," Jack said.

"You're not," the man said, grabbing Jack's chin with one hand to give him a brutal kiss, before moving the knife away from his throat only to plunge it into his side. "I think maybe you're gonna stay. It's only fair, Nick. You're the one that got us stuck here."

David let go of him and stepped back and Jack slide down the wall, until he hit the floor, hands held to his stomach and already covered in blood. Ianto rushed to him, ignoring David completely, and started putting pressure on the wound.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ianto shouted, but David had already started up the stairs.

He paused near the top and looked back. "I have a feeling he'll live," David said. "Nothing here can die. And in another hour, nothing will be allowed to leave."

"Why are you doing this?" Ianto demanded.

David grinned, before opening the door. "Ask him," he said, before closing it behind him, and locking it tight.

"You're going to be fine," Ianto told him, but there was so much blood, and Jack was fading fast. "You're going to be fine. You are. We can fix this."

"Sure," Jack said quietly. "This? This is nothing."

Ianto noticed Jack's eyes slip shut and shook him. "Jack? Jack, stay with me, okay?" The Ianto paused. "That is your name, isn't it? Because he called you Nick."

"It's just a name," Jack told him softly. "I've got a dozen more of them."

"What did he mean before," Ianto said. "When he said I should ask you why he's doing this?"

"He's doing it for revenge," Jack told him. "I'm the one that got him trapped here."

Jack's eyes slipped shut again and Ianto shouted his name. "Jack! Jack, stay with me, tell me what happened."

"He caught me," Jack said. "Not supposed to be here, you know, they still think they own me." Jack laughed bitterly. "God. Oh, fuck. It all went so wrong. "

"Tell me," Ianto said quietly.

"He's a Time Agent, I used to be too." Jack sighed. "I'd just had him convinced not to turn me in and then he found it."

"Found what?"

"Something I wasn't supposed to have."

-----

The music was still playing in the other room. Ianto could hear the footsteps over their heads, dancing, dancing, seamless and endless. It had a beat of its own.

"I don't understand," Ianto told him.

"Probably better that way," Jack said, eyes pressed shut. His shirt was bright red now and the smell of blood was so strong Ianto was feeling nauseous. "We shouldn't be messing with time."

"I guess not," Ianto said.

Jack gave a faint half grin. "Still, we're never gonna stop."

"What did you mean that you trapped him here?" Ianto asked. "What happened to these people?"

"Temporal shift. They exist out of time--except for every fifty years, when the forces align right, and they shift back, just for a few hours." Jack bit his lip against the pain and then laughed. "Wasn't supposed to happen. Just did. Fluke thing."

The music was turning melancholy but the steps didn't seem to change, the taps of shoes against the floorboards kept their pace, and someone had started clapping their hands.

"He was trying to take me back," Jack explained. "Through the Time Vortex. He's got a wristcom that'll do the trick. Mine burnt out years ago."

Ianto's hands were covered in blood to the wrists and it was already started to dry and flake, felt a bit like turning to stone, and he blinked sweat out of his eyes and kept holding on. "You stopped him," Ianto said. "And it caused some kind of disturbance?"

Jack shook his head, grabbing onto Ianto's sleeve with weak fingers. "No," he said. "Wasn't me that stopped him. I had something protecting me. I didn't even know what would happen."

Jack let out a shaky breath. "It was like the world was falling apart. We were standing right here, screaming at each other, and he took it--snapped it from around my neck and then just disappeared. I fell backwards into the street and the whole building was just gone."

"What did he take?" Ianto asked.

"What we came for," Jack told him.

Ianto decided to let it drop for now. Jack was in no condition for an interrogation, Ianto just wanted to make sure he kept talking, kept awake, kept alive.

"What about all these people?" he asked.

Jack looked away. "There's no saving them now," he said. "They don't even know anything's wrong. They're just living the same day, over and over--no memory of having ever lived it before."

"Can't you fix it?" Ianto asked.

Jack sighed. "Not without causing something worse," he said. "And now we've got to get out of here, or we're going to end up just like them."

"He locked the door when he left," Ianto said. "And I don't think you'll even be able to walk."

Jack reached for his holster and pulled out his weapon, checked the rounds before snapping the revolver back in place. "I'll be fine in a couple minutes," Jack said.

Ianto frowned. "What are you doing?" he asked.

Jack shoved him back with what little strength he had left, sending Ianto tumbling a few feet away onto his rear. Then Jack raised the gun to his temple and let out a breath.

"I'm sorry you have to see this," Jack told him, and then he shot himself in the head.

-----

Ianto cried out in shock as Jack went limp, the gun clattering to the cement. He scrambled over to Jack and grabbed his shoulders, shook him and checked for a pulse. Didn't find one.

"No no no," he said. "He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't do that."

Ianto had learned a few things about Jack Harkness very early on. He'd flirt with anything. He was brave to the point of stupidity. And he didn't give up. Ever.

"You don't get to do that," Ianto yelled. "Wake up, damn you!"

Jack let out a gasping breath, surging up like he'd been drowning, latching onto Ianto with a dead man's grip. Ianto's eyes widened in disbelief. "Jack?" he asked cautiously. "Jack? What the fu--"

"Language," Jack scolded, letting out a breathless laugh and then falling against Ianto's chest, letting him keep him upright.

"You just shot yourself," Ianto said.

"Yep," Jack agreed.

"And then you woke up," Ianto continued.

"I knew I hired you for a reason. So observant."

"How, what--" Ianto rarely found himself at a loss for words, but his mind was still caught between that moment of horror watching Jack die and that moment of insane unbelievable relief when he woke right back up.

"David said we couldn't die here," Jack said. "I took a shot."

"It was a hell of a risk!" Ianto shouted.

"It wasn't," Jack told him, pushing himself away from Ianto and to his feet. "I was never going to die."

"You can't know that," Ianto said, scathingly. "You're completely insane--"

Jack met his eyes, focusing on him completely. "Ianto," he said. "Trust me. I wasn't going to die. Not for long, anyway."

Ianto shut his mouth then and nodded.

Jack shook himself out and then leaned his head to the side, cracking his neck. "Much better," he said. He took out his gun again, and Ianto fought to keep from rushing forward and taking it out of his hands. Jack wasn't aiming at himself this time, though. He pointed it at the door and hit the lock--the door crashed open and then swung shut.

"Okay," Jack said. "Time for you to leave. Don't look back."

"You're coming with me," Ianto demanded.

"Not until I get what I came for," Jack said. "I won't ask you to take that chance. I won't let you."

Ianto met his eyes fiercely. "You brought me here, there must have been a reason."

Jack let out a sound of frustration and went back to the shelves, ignoring him, searching. "I feel it," he said suddenly, eyes bright. "It's calling me. I can hear it."

Jack walked towards the other wall like he was possessed, and slammed the butt of his gun into one of the many tiles lining the wall. It cracked and fell to pieces, sending white plaster dust in a small cloud around them both. Inside, was a small key on a string, glowing softly, and Ianto found he couldn't look away from it.

He could almost hear it calling, too, faint and distant and irresistible.

Jack grabbed it and put it over his head. The key swung before coming to rest at his chest, and then Jack took Ianto's hand, and they started running up the stairs. David was waiting for them when they came skidding to a stop on the dance floor, but no one else seemed to even see that they were there.

They danced around them without seeming to realize they were doing it.

"I should have known you only came back for that," David said. "Part of me would have liked to have hoped your guilt brought you back to save me."

"Can't save someone from themself," Jack said, keeping himself in front of Ianto, between him and David and everyone else.

"You used me, Nick," David said. "You seduced me to get me to let you go and all along, all along, you'd been hiding him from us, we'd have forgiven you everything if you'd brought him in, you know that, right? But I bet all you did was take him to bed, too, didn't you? What exactly did you have to do to get that key?"

Jack swung out and hit him full force, knocking him back with a punch to the face. David laughed and wiped the blood from his mouth. "Oh, or was it the other way around, then?" he asked. "Finally find someone that could break your heart?"

"You deserve this," Jack shouted at him.

"No one deserves this!" David screamed. "Help me, Nick, please, you've got to."

"I can't," Jack said. "You know that. You know there's nothing I can do."

"There's one thing," David said.

"Yeah," Jack said. "But you're not worth it."

Jack grabbed Ianto and spun them around, sending them tumbling out the back door. David screamed at him to come back, but by the time Ianto and Jack turned around again the building was gone.

-----

They end up back where they started. Ianto found him standing at the edge of the cliff again, hands in his pockets, looking down. Now Ianto knew what he thought he might know he wondered if Jack had ever actually stepped off.

"Why did you pick me to go with you?" Ianto asked. "You have people working for you that are better trained."

Jack shrugged. "You were the only one I trusted to see it."

"I still don't know what I saw," Ianto said. "I suppose you think it's better that way."

"It's almost always better that way," Jack told him.

Ianto huddled into his coat as the wind bit at his skin. "David, he said you could save him--but you didn't."

"Would have caused aftershocks for years," Jack said. "People would disappear from history at random, some might appear, nothing would be the same, no way to tell if it would have been better or worse. I've found its best not to take the chance."

"So he's just stuck there, for the rest of his life?" Ianto asked.

"Oh, it's worse than that," Jack said, and closed his eyes. "He won't die. Won't even age because he's not living in linear time. Even when the rest of the universe is gone he'll still be around, at that party. People don't appreciate time for what it is. It's a terrible thing to be without."

Ianto followed Jack's gaze to the drop. In the dark he couldn't even see the bottom. "You wouldn't know anything about that, though, I suppose?" Ianto asked.

Jack glanced at him sharply, but said nothing.

"You killed yourself, Jack," Ianto said. "How did you know you'd come back?"

"Because I always do," Jack told him. "Time's kind of given up on me too."

"You were right," Ianto said. "We're failing. We haven't made up for anything, have we?"

Jack stepped closer. "You were the one that had it right. It's all about the trying." He leaned forward and gently kissed Ianto, tugging a little on his lower lip before pulling back. "We're going to keep trying."

"Because we always do?" Ianto asked.

"No," Jack said. "Because there's always that one in a million chance we'll succeed."

The key around Jack's neck was glowing again and Ianto stared at it for a moment, caught in place. "You never did tell me what it opens," he said.

Jack tucked it into his shirt, and grinned, distracting him with another kiss. "Nothing important," he said, but Ianto could feel it burning between them, beating almost like it had a pulse.