Janto: Falling in Love: Ch. 11

Jack looked up as the alarms of the cog doors went off, seeing a harried-looking Ianto burst through them, running his hands through his hair. He saw Jack and hurried over immediately.

"Sorry, sir, I overslept," he panted, straightening his tie.

"Don't worry about it Ianto, barely anything's happened," Jack chuckled. "Besides, you made it in before Owen. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's hung-over somewhere."

"I'm still sorry that I'm late."

Jack raised his eyebrows. "Seriously, Ianto, it's no problem. I would have called you if I thought you were too late."

Ianto nodded quickly before heading off. "I'm going to make some coffee, sir, care for some?"

"I'd love some, thanks, Ianto!" Jack called after him. He shook his head, thinking how easily Ianto had fit in to the team.

A few minutes later, Ianto showed up with a mug of coffee. "Here you are, sir."

He accepted it gratefully. "Thanks. Did you check if Tosh and Suzie wanted any?"

"Already taken care of. Now, you said you had some codes for me, sir?"

"Oh, that's right!" Jack picked up some papers and rifled through them. "Here you go." He handed a slip of paper to Ianto. He turned away. "Oh, wait!" Ianto spun around again. "Forgot to give you this yesterday. Comm unit. We all wear them at all times during working hours, it's essential for keeping in touch."

"Thank you." He walked away.

"Ianto, what about Owen's coffee?" Jack asked.

"If he wants coffee, he can get it himself," Ianto replied over his shoulder.

Jack smirked. "Oh, he's gonna love that," he murmured. He walked over to Tosh and Suzie. "How are my favorite girls today?"

"Doing just fine, thanks," Tosh replied, smiling. She turned back to her monitor and began typing with super human speed.

"Seriously, Tosh, how do you type that fast?" Jack asked.

"It's all in practice, Jack. You'd be faster if you ever did anything," she joked.

"Oh, ha ha, very funny," he grinned back. He turned to Suzie. "And how are you?"

"Just fine," she said, smiling. "I want you to take a look at something that I picked up, remember the rift alert earlier?"

"Yeah, sure, what is it?"

"Well, I'm trying to figure out what it is, any ideas?" she asked as she walked around her desk and picked up a metal glove.

"Hmm… ideas? Plenty. Anything definite? No." He examined it. "Looks interesting, though."

"Permission to experiment?" she asked excitedly.

He chuckled. "Permission granted."

Just then, the cog doors blared the alarms again, and a bedraggled Owen came in. Tosh looked up, raising her eyebrows. "Well, look at what the cat dragged in."

"Piss off," he muttered.

"Well, someone's in a lovely mood today," Suzie commented. Owen glared.

"You can piss off too, wise mouth."

"Oh, such wit," Suzie said sarcastically before sauntering off to her working corner.

Jack leaned in and surreptitiously sniffed, before leaning back in faint disgust. "Thought so. You reek of alcohol. Why do you decide to get pissed so often?" he asked exasperatedly.

Owen glared at him. "Is it any of your business?"

"Well, frankly, seeing as I'm your employer, yes." He looked at him again and sighed. "Well, I guess we'll just have to hope we don't require much of you today, go take a nap on the couch and try to sober up."

Owen crossed his arms defiantly. "I can work, Jack."

"No. You're in no fit state to work. Go and try to sleep it off, if you wake up and feel better, come talk to me and then we can decide if you can work." Owen slunk of sulkily.

"Jesus, what are we going to do with him," Jack muttered, running his hands through his hair.

"He seems worse than usual lately," Tosh commented.

"Hmm." Jack paused. "Wait… What's the date?"

"The 21st," Tosh said, surprised. "Why?"

"Well, that explains a lot. Nearly the anniversary of when he joined Torchwood."

"What, he's rethinking his job?"

Jack shook his head. "No, I don't think so. It's more what happened for him to get the job." He looked at Tosh. "You know how you joined Torchwood. Let's just say his situation wasn't much better."

Tosh stared at Jack, her mouth open. "Jesus..."

Jack shook his head. "He lost a lot."

"What happened?"

Jack smiled sadly. "That's not my story to tell. It's his decision, and I don't blame him for deciding to keep it to himself." He glanced over at the man on the couch. "I know only too well what it's like to not want to relive bad memories." He looked at Owen for a moment longer before letting out a breath and rubbing his hands together, trying to keep his voice cheerful to brighten the mood. "Now, we'd better get to work, Ianto's putting us all to shame!"

~*~

Jack pushed his comms. "Ianto!" There was no reply. "Ianto? Ianto, are you there?" He paused, waiting, and, frowning, deactivated his comms when there was no reply. He walked over to Tosh's desk. "Hey, Tosh?"

She glanced up, her glasses perched on the end of her nose. "Hmm?"

"Did Ianto ever come up from the archives?"

Tosh's brow furrowed as she thought. "No, I don't think so. Why?"

Jack frowned again. "I was thinking maybe he could get us lunch, but he's not responding on the comms." He leaned over her shoulder.

"Well, I could pull up some CCTV footage, see if he somehow sneaked out. Maybe he just forgot to put on the comms?"

"Hmm. Maybe. Could you do that, please?"

Tosh smiled. "Of course." She turned back to her computer and began tapping at some keys. Jack turned away and rifled through some papers, looking for a lost folder of paperwork. "Aw," Tosh sighed. Jack turned around.

"What?"

"Found him," Tosh said, a slight smile on her face as she pointed to the screen. He moved over to the computer to look at the footage.

Ianto was slumped down against a cabinet in the archives, fast asleep. Jack felt a pang of – something in his chest as he looked at the young man. All things considered, he did look pretty adorable.

Jack backed away. "I'll go wake him up." He turned and began walking toward the stairs.

"Are you sure you should?" Tosh called after him.

He hesitated, turned, and shrugged. "No." Then he turned again and made his way to the archives.

He made his way over to where Ianto was sleeping. He noticed that the young man's eyes were shut tight, and he was fidgeting slightly. He reached out and shook his shoulder gently. "Ianto," he said quietly.

Ianto jerked and woke up with a start, his eyes flying open. His breathing was a little shorter than normal, Jack noticed. He helped him to his feet. "Are you alright?"

Ianto took a deep breath, seeming to compose himself. "I'm fine, sir. Just tired. I'm sorry for falling asleep."

"Don't worry about it," Jack said, studying Ianto's face. He noticed for the first time that there were shadows under his eyes. "But I thought you were late because you overslept."

"I did," he said, "But I didn't sleep well last night. When I finally could sleep, I slept too long. That's all there was to it." He wouldn't look Jack in the eyes.

"Do you want Owen to prescribe you something?" Jack thought he saw a fleeting look of panic on Ianto's face.

"No, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? What kept you up?" Jack pressed.

Ianto hesitated. "Bad dreams," he muttered quietly. He shook his head. "Really, sir, it's no trouble. I'll see Owen if I need to." He smoothed his suit. "Was there something you wanted, sir?"

"Oh, right. I was wondering if you could order us lunch."

"Of course, sir."

"There should be menus in the tourist office. Most of them have team favorites circled, I think." He smiled. "Thank you."

"It's my job, sir," he said, smiling slightly. But Jack noticed that it didn't quite meet his eyes. He still looked shaken. He quickly strode away, avoiding looking at Jack. Jack stared after him.

"Tragedies always follow you," he murmured quietly before walking out of the archives himself.

~*~

About an hour later, they all congregated in the boardroom, with Chinese takeout that Ianto had ordered. They all chattered as they pulled out their respective orders. Jack swiftly ran his eyes over the boxes, doing a quick count, and then turned to Ianto in confusion.

"There are only four boxes, Ianto."

"I'm aware of how many boxes are there, sir."

"Aren't you eating?"

Ianto stared at the boxes for a moment before slightly shaking his head. "I'm not very hungry, sir." Jack realized for the first time how thin Ianto looked. He couldn't be sure, but he seemed underweight. Jack went to sit down at the table, and when he noticed that Ianto stayed put by the door, he motioned for him to come with. Ianto shook his head and shifted his hand slightly on his mug of coffee. Jack hesitated a moment before sitting down with the rest of the team, who were already involved in conversation.

"So, what's the glove for, Suzie?" Owen asked, an egg roll dangling from his fingers.

"I'm not sure yet. It's probably going to take months to work everything out," she groaned, pushing around some rice on her plate.

"Why's that?" Tosh asked.

"Well, we've never encountered anything like this, so I couldn't find anything exceptionally helpful in the records, and there are so many possibilities of what it could do that it could take a while to work out. Besides, I know Jack won't let me work on it all the time and neglect all of the other stuff like field work," she said, smiling in his direction.

Jack chuckled. "Yeah, you're probably right." He caught a movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced over to see Ianto quietly leaving the room.

"Well, I"m sure you'll figure it out anyway," Tosh said encouragingly.

Jack abruptly changed the subject. "Hey Owen?"

Owen looked up, his mouth full of rice. "Mmph?"

Suzie rolled her eyes. "Swallow first, please."

Owen glared at her before chewing his food and swallowing. "Yeah, Jack?"

"Have you given Ianto a physical yet?" His eyes were intensely fixed on Owen, and he couldn't quite place why he felt so strongly about it.

"No, haven't had the time." He looked puzzled. "Why?"

"He didn't get any food for himself, and he looks thin." The rest of the team stared at him. He shrugged slightly self-consciously. "What? I'm just looking out for the well-being of my team." He turned back to Owen. "Just make sure to get one for him, soon. It's protocol anyway."

"Sure, Jack." The team went back to their food, Jack somewhat more distracted than the rest as he worried over the health of Ianto Jones – a man he barely knew.