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Bedroom Factotum	By : RowenRaven Category: S through Z > Torchwood Views: 4859 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood as it belongs to BBC, nor do I make any profit out of this or any story.

Chapter List
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AN: This chapter contains both P.O.V Jack's and Ianto's, hope it's not too confusing in which part belongs to who. I have my reservations about this chapter and the one that fallows but I'll let you all be the judges.

Chapter 4

As it is to be expected things between Jack and Ianto are tense, if not cold. Of course Ianto doesn't show any signs that things are less then amicable with the captain. He still acts as if nothing has gone wrong with their affair when in company of the other members. The young man even responds to Jack's 'mock flirtations'; as far as the team goes they still shag. And Jack finds this admirably professional yet infinitely annoying. The 51^st century man is put out by their separation and -in his infinite vanity- not seeing any outward signs of the same in the Welshman bothers him. Though in reality he knows Ianto is probably much more torn then the ex-time agent. The difference being that Ianto has the amazing if not unhealthy ability to internalize his emotions.

Only when alone can Jack see the cracks in Ianto's facade. When everyone has gone home and only Ianto remains in the Hub cleaning up after the others or the inmates, sorting through files, documents and alien artifacts or disposing of evidence. Jack stands on his vantage point in the conference room looking down on Ianto, he notices how the younger man stops and looks around himself as if lost. When he is done for the night, at the point when he had normally retreated into the immortal's bed; now Ianto wandered aimlessly around until eventually he'd don his coat and drag his feet out the Cog Wheel. Slowly Jack sees Ianto deteriorate and he seems to be the only one who notices. The rest of the team is oblivious at how Ianto fidgets when he stands too long doing nothing, how he seems to become unsure and uneasy as if he doesn't quite know what to do with himself.

He watches Ianto round another pointless circuit across the Hub. There is nothing to clean up, nothing to file away; Ianto stands in the middle and looks around with -dare he say it- desolate eyes and sighs, he picks up his things and heads out. Jack is startled when Ianto pauses and looks back up at him, where he stands behind his window pane, with so much longing. And it dawns on Jack, he hadn't been the only one who sought solace in the tiny bed in the bunker under his office. The older man realizes, these moments of inactivity that now eat away at Ianto used to be filled with meaningful glances, suggestive words and flirtatious touches that occupied the younger man in between filing, coffee, cleaning and weevil hunting. Just like Ianto was his bedroom factotum, he was Ianto's. Only the captain has failed to step up to this task, no duty. He has to find out a way to fix things with the archivist. Maybe he can't return Ianto's feelings in the same measure, but he can't keep denying that he does feel something other then lust for the Welshman. He owes him that and much more. A scene surfaces in Jack's mind: “Coming here, gave me meaning again” Ianto had said. “you!” it was half gasped half whispered almost like an epiphany, as the big blue eyes had looked up at Jack so vulnerable, with so much need and devotion. The captain had leaned down and kissed his brow tenderly. Jack frowns he has no memory of that happening, when had that been? The ex-time agent tries to remember but it remains elusive, but he has an impression something important had happened between them, or was it his Ianto deprived imagination playing tricks on him.

Ianto fixes his tie and smooths imaginary wrinkles from his suit one last time before he steps in through the Cog Wheel. He immediately moves to the coffee machine, a few minutes later he is taking a cup of Industrial strength to Jack's office. He can hear the immortal moving around in his bunk and for a fleeting moment he flirts with the idea of taking the coffee down in to the manhole; but quickly decides against it, reminding himself he no longer shares such intimacies with Jack, as much as it pains him. Leaving the coffee on the desk – the aroma will bring the captain to the surface anyway- he proceeds to start his day's work before the other arrive. His days become a mindless blur, between cleaning, coffee, filing and the occasional rift alert; nothing to help him separate one day's event from the one prior to it. Not even his diary holds a clear semblance of dates and times. He doesn't write in it every day as he used to.

The young Welshman finds himself more often than not wandering aimlessly around the Hub. Its not many days later when he realizes there is a gnawing pain his gut... “like my stomach is full of rats.” Ianto is startled by the familiar thought passing thought his mind again. He curses his own stupidity and weakness, he has allowed himself to center his life

around one single person again, only instead of Lisa is Captain Jack Harkness. Now that he doesn't have the captain Ianto is back to the time when he lost Lisa completely. How come sex with the immortal had become the purpose of his existence? How that physical contact can mean so much so it defines not only his place in Torchwood team, but the very reason of his being. He hadn't realized just how important a role he has unwittingly given the captain in his life. Jack makes him laugh, flirt, blush. Kissing Jack made him feel appreciated. Sex with him made him feel he is something more than a tea boy, like he is needed, it made him forget he has nothing outside of Torchwood. Falling asleep in the 51^st century man's arms at night had felt like home. The stolen moments of heated kissing in the archives, the rushed “nooners” in the cells had made him feel alive, young again. Now Jack's piercing blue gaze hurts him, the smiling lips and expressive hands make him ache with longing. Now he feels dull, numb and weary, so so weary. “Like the world had ended” the thought popped in to his mind, it felt too familiar to be random, but what it's new is the image that accompanied it. Sitting in the conference room, Jack leans down and tenderly kisses his brow. But he can't connect the image with a memory, there is no such event in his diary; surely he would've written about it, but that has never happened. Had it?

Jack knows Ianto is at his wits end in trying to avoid him if he invites Gwen and Owen, of all people to the Electro movie theater. The captain is sure the irony is not lost in the archivist when this night out avoiding Jack, becomes a night of work along side said immortal. Jack becomes concern when the case seems to affect Ianto in a personal level. So much so that the younger man fails to respond with a witty quip at Gwen's barb about Jack needing Ianto's 'local knowledge' an obvious jab at their supposed relationship. He is amazed that the film and its characters touched Ianto so deeply. The younger man really feel's for the beings trapped in the time and space in a piece of film. Jack is grateful that the animosity towards him melts away to sympathy, as Ianto is struck; not for the first time, by the realization of Jack's sorrowful plight. How he too is stuck in time and space, literally and figuratively. But there is something else about the case that shakes Ianto. He seems inclined towards the victims, specially the kids. He seems desperate to save them. Ianto as the clean up operative, handles the collateral damage and casualties left by the rift; not with indifference but with cool detachment. He has to, if he is to mourn for every rift victim, for every life they don't save they'd have to throw him in the loony bin sooner rather than later. But not this time, this time around both The Night Travelers and their victims strike a cord that leaves the Welshman depressed and vulnerable.

Ianto laughs inwardly when it starts to rain. This as expected makes his two companions complain. The Welshman is not sure why he asked them to come along. And even less sure of why in the blazes they actually accepted. Probably he is too antsy to stay home alone and the Hub is out of the question. He needs to be as far away from Jack as possible. He misses the other man, more than he cares to admit, more than he had expected. He finds that if he is to remain near him he will give in to Jack's searching gaze, to his apologetic smiles and to his pheromones. Ianto can't afford to fall into Jack's bed again. Not like before, he loathes to admit it but he needs more than what Jack is willing to deliver. So as it is here he is soaked to the bone with Gwen and Owen complaining even before they've reached the theater. Just wait till they realize the film is not only black and white but mute. Then they will really bitch.

They had indeed bitched and moaned, but what really made Ianto heave a long suffering sigh is the fact that his night out away from Jack, turned out in to a working night out with none other than Captain Jack Harkness.

Its a bit amusing to see the kid trying to explain what had happened. If he hadn't seen so much, he'd be freaking out too. But now Ianto is like the rest of them. He enjoys it, the danger excites him. He is sure he too makes the same face he accused Tosh they all shared at Brecon Beacons, the adrenaline high. As they find the Night Traveler's victims Ianto wanders why they hadn't tried to do the same to him when they first escaped the film. Like for any other victim the tea boy feels sympathy for them. But the two children so close in age to his own niece and nephew made something almost break inside him. If they don't stop them, this too can happen to other families, to his own. He is so worried he lets slip he knows the psychiatric facility, thank God Jack makes no comment about it. When they talk to Christina and see how affected she is even in her old age, Ianto can't help but wander if the only thing the past does is to drag itself up to the present with the sole and only purpose to hurt us. He is tiered of seeing the past hurt people, hurt him. Why does the Night Travelers, like Jack; insist on clinging to the past, why can't they look forward to a future. He has let go of his past; he hasn't forgotten Lisa, but he has put her behind him and moved on. Like Jack said to him, and ironically enough to John Hart, but was incapable of doing it himself. Talk about preaching to the choir.

In the end they could only save one pour soul. Ianto holds his own breath as Jack returns the child's. He can't help the tears as the boy comes to life again, they have manage to save him but someones selfish desire for the times long past has robbed him of his family, he is now alone in the world. The young Welshman usually manages the archiving, not trusting anyone with his elaborate complicated filling system. This time however he can't seem to pull his stoic mask together and leaves Jack to deal with the damned flask. He can't even stand to look at the thing. As he leaves Jack's office he feels like the Night Traveler's victims, ghosts of the past -Jack's more then his own- have left him drained, dry out and left barely alive in the wake of nothing but tears and rain.
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