Title: Untitled
By: cupiecake
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Jack comes back.

***

The hub looks exactly the same.

The man at the desk might be the same man he'd left there, but - different.

"Ianto?" Jack says worriedly, and the man looks up from his papers, startled.

"I haven't heard that name in a long time," he says, softly, amazement in his features. "Jack?"

"OI, JONAS! THE BLOODY DINOSAUR'S EATEN MY CRISPS AGAIN!" comes over the loudspeaker, familiar, too, but - wrong. That's not Owen's voice. Ianto grins wryly, taps something unseen.

"Pretty sure that wasn't Gwyddion, Matt -" Gwy-thyun? Jack mouths. Not Myfanwy? "I think I saw Kelly eating them earlier," Ianto continues.

A female voice, then, strange and bell-like. "Sorry, sir, hey? Didn't have your name on them, hey? I thought they were for me, hey?"

"How many times do I have to tell you, Kelly, if you eat everything you find, you're going to get sick. I'm not cleaning it up."

"Jonaaaas," the man whines. "My crisps!"

"Get off your arse and go get more. I'm busy," Ianto says then, and he looks back up at Jack. Jack is boggled; Ianto looks more bemused. "My team," he says apologetically. "Well, most of it. Doc Cooper's out today, taking care of his kids."

The man, so much like Ianto, even holds himself differently. More confident, more like - himself. "What happened?" Jack finally asks, as Ianto/Jonas stands and comes towards him.

Gone are Ianto's neatly-pressed suits. Jonas apparently wears tight blue jeans, cuffed at the ends, and a black top meshed with computer-webbing. "You missed it, Jack," he says sadly. "The twenty-first century."

His eyes suddenly look painfully old. "But you're -"

"You," Ianto replies, gently, "and the rift. I'm - tied to you, I think. It made things difficult for awhile. But..."

"NO! NOT ON MY PAPERS! JONAS!" comes over the loudspeaker again, but Ianto's eyes don't leave Jack's, not until he's tugged Jack in, holding him tight.

"I missed you," he murmurs, and Jack wraps his arms around Ianto and wonders what else he's missed. It's a peculiar sense of time vertigo - this must be what it's like for the Doctor all the time - this must be what it was like to see *me* again - and his mind whirls.

He hopes Ianto won't mind him holding on for at least a little longer.

***