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sam_storyteller ([personal profile] sam_storyteller) wrote2005-07-18 01:55 pm
Entry tags:

Family Secrets

Title: Family Secrets
Rating: PG
Summary: Ianto and Rhi finally manage to have Words about his new job and his new boyfriend. Predictably, nothing goes as planned.
Notes: This is a coda to Family Business, the 10th episode of the Torchwood Virtual Season being "aired" at [livejournal.com profile] tw_itallchanges. If you're not following the Virtual Season, which takes place after canonical S2, essentially what you need to know is that in Family Business, Rhiannon is inadvertently involved in a Torchwood investigation, leading to her discovery of Ianto's secret life and Torchwood's discovery of Ianto's secret relatives.
Warnings: Discussion of domestic violence (no portrayal).
Beta Credit: Nick, C, Anya, Foxy, Jenny, Spider, Mandr. Dude, sometimes it takes a village.

First Posted 4.29.2010

Also available at AO3.

***

Somewhere into their third vodka tonic, Rhi turns to Ianto and says, "So."

Until now they've mostly been talking about her, though that makes it sound less charitable than Ianto's feeling. They've been talking about family, and she just has a lot more to bring to that conversation than he does. What her kids are doing, the mischief Johnny gets up to, what she learned as a Cosmetologica saleswoman. She's been considering taking that experience and getting a job in the shops, though the kids are a bit young. Ianto feels a certain kind of wonder for the dilemmas of her life. They're not anything he's ever experienced.

But now it's his turn, and no part of what he brings to the 'family' discussion will be easy.

"Yeah?" he asks, contemplating another slice of pizza. The box on his dining table is half-full still; apparently Rhi wanted to focus on the vodka as much as he did.

"Tell me about Torchwood," she says. He supposes Torchwood is easier than Jack, at least for her. Torchwood is just his work; Jack is -- well, a contributing factor to his very identity, as she sees it. He wonders what she really thinks about that. Her brother the fancy-boy? Does she expect him to mince? Or maybe she's just baffled by it, like he was, like he still is, and hasn't formed any conclusions.

Well, neither has he, not really, and she hasn't asked about Jack anyhow. But she has asked about Torchwood, which is the bigger, more dangerous secret.

He leans back. "Here's an idea," he says, turning his glass on the table, turning and turning. "You tell me first."

"Tell you first?"

"About Torchwood," he says. He can hear Jack's voice saying his words, knows he's maybe picked up too much from Jack. "Tell me what you think you know about Torchwood. Then I'll tell."

Rhiannon looks suspicious, then thoughtful as the idea takes hold.

"Well, people don't talk about it, do they?" she asks. "You remember when we were little kids, I used to make you behave by shouting that Torchwood'd come and get you in the night?"

Ianto has no memory of this at all, which bothers him.

"It's like the Easter Bunny, only if once in a while you saw the Easter Bunny running round, dropping eggs," Rhiannon continues. "Most people don't want to believe in it. They don't want to think about it. So they put it out of their heads. I don't want to think about it, but I haven't any choice, have I? My brother's in the secret police. The Cardiff Gestapo."

"Oh, come on, Rhi," Ianto says, and realises she's baited him right into it. He can't just let her talk about what she thinks; he's got to defend Torchwood, and that means reacting when she calls him the fucking Gestapo.

"But really though."

"But really though," he mirrors back at her. She looks annoyed. "What do you actually know? How does it work? Who's afraid of it?"

"Everyone," she says. "Stop talking about it as if you aren't in it."

"I want to know," he says, mulish, feeling like the fifteen-year-old who had to push back every time Dad pushed him.

"The police can't control them. You," she adds, just to drive in the blade a bit. "You go where you like, you do what you please. You said it's chasing down nutters with bombs, but you take whoever you like and sometimes they don't come back, or they come back...missing things. Sometimes people die and Torchwood clears away the bodies."

Ianto nods. "So why don't the police stop us? There's only four of us. What's stopping them throwing us in cuffs?"

Rhiannon gives him a level and equally stubborn look. "You tell me."

"Think about it," Ianto coaxes.

"I don't want to," she blurts. "I don't want to think about you with a gun, doing God knows what to people, you and your posh friends. I don't want to think about my baby brother being the kind of man who does things like that. Takes people away. Hides things. Doesn't answer to anyone. You think I want that for you?"

Ianto can't say he was expecting it, but it's not precisely a surprise, either. He knows how people look at him when they find out he's Torchwood, and not just local plod either. Strangers see him climbing out of the SUV to do the shopping for the week, and they whisper and pass him wide. Once he forgot and wore his gun out to dinner, and the waiter who served him nearly wet himself.

"Nobody stops us," Ianto tries, very slowly and carefully, "because even the police, somewhere near the top, know what we do. People aren't scared of us because we take people away in the night. We don't actually do that." Not very often, anyway, and never without cause. "People don't like to think about us because we're the dustmen. We do the dirty things nobody else wants to do or know about. But we do it to protect Cardiff."

"And what is it Cardiff needs protecting from?" Rhiannon demands, and Ianto raises his eyes to hers.

He's not sure what she sees in them. He knows what passes through his mind in that moment: weariness, longing for peace, memories of a dozen cases gone bad and half a dozen cases that at least nobody died on. Grief. And the knowledge that nobody, nobody but Torchwood, wants the answer to the question of what Cardiff needs protecting from.

Nor does Rhiannon. She sees enough, anyway, and pours him another drink. They sit in silence, a buffer of time to let the unanswered questions die.

"So," she says, coy now, "this Jack of yours."

"He's not mine," Ianto mumbles, turning away.

"That's not how it looked when we took Mica out for dinner," she replies. "Couldn't keep his hands off, could he? Under the table and all."

Ianto can feel a flush in his cheeks. "That's just Jack. He flirts with everything."

"Well, I notice he didn't have a hand on Johnny's thigh," Rhiannon says, and Ianto chokes on his drink. Jack was sitting between Ianto and Johnny while they ate, and it's true even Jack wasn't indiscreet enough to try anything on Johnny Davies, even in play. "But...you had girlfriends...?"

Ianto shrugs. "Yeah."

"And now a boyfriend."

"We don't really call it that."

"What do you call it then?" she asks, mischief glittering in her eyes. "Male bonding with orgasms?"

"Rhiannon!" He's aghast, though actually on occasion that's not far wrong.

"Well, if you're going to be all cryptic about it, I'll have to fill in the blanks, won't I?"

Ianto fiddles with his drink. "It's complicated. He's my boss. And...my, you know. First. I don't really...he doesn't like to put labels on things."

Rhi narrows her eyes. Ianto knows how it sounds to other people. It's difficult to put into words the difference between Jack and some arsehole who espouses some kind of "freedom from commitment" policy that really translates into "freedom from having to care about people". Arguably, these days, Jack's brand of fidelity is stronger than an average person's; at least he doesn't pretend that Ianto's the only person he finds desirable. There's a strange sort of liberation in knowing Jack could have anyone but chooses to have him.

But he knows what people think when they hear it, and what they think of him.

"Is he good to you, though?" Rhiannon asks, which surprises him. He sees her eyes drift to a half-healed scrape on his cheek, souvenir of the last time they'd been Weevil hunting. "Not like Iewan down the street?"

When Ianto was ten, "Iewan down the street" had, quite famously, been beaten to death by his wife when she decided to pay him back for many years of black eyes and broken bones all in a single go, after the first time he raised his hand to their daughter. Everyone knew, and no-one talked about it, not least because closing ranks against the cops meant Iewan's murder went mysteriously unsolved.

"God, no," he said, gesturing at his cheek. "Peril of the job."

"The job where you mostly do paperwork," Rhi says drily.

Ianto flinches. "Well, we do a lot of paperwork. But not only paperwork."

"So, you and this Jack. Are you serious?" she asks. Ianto hesitates, considering. Are they? For Jack, possibly they are, he has the impression this is above and beyond normal Harkness flings. For him...

It's not as though they're going to pick out china patterns and rent a hall or something. But Ianto has very realistic expectations about his lifespan with Torchwood, and part of those expectations are that, barring any massive screwups on his part, Jack will be the last person he is ever in love with, the person he spends the rest of his probably rather short life with.

"I think so," he says, teasing apart two layers of cardboard on the pizza box with a thumbnail.

"Well, I suppose you could do worse," Rhiannon pronounces, and Ianto laughs. "Makes a bit of cash, does he?"

"I pay for my own suits, Rhi."

"Explains the pink shirts," she says slyly.

"Oh, god..."

"No, Ianto, come on," she soothes, putting a hand on his. "Promise I won't tease. So long as you're happy."

He nods, wondering how true it is, but Rhiannon always had a good sense of what was important and what was just his childish self-importance. She must know how desperately difficult it is to have a thing, and have no name to put to it, and not know how to explain it.

He realises, with a sense of relief, that they are done with the Words. Rhiannon has what she needs to know, and Ianto isn't a wreck on the floor, so it can't have gone too badly.

"I need to talk to you about London," Rhiannon says, and Ianto's happy, rather accomplished feeling fades immediately. London wasn't on the table for discussion, not so far as he was aware. Torchwood and Jack, yes; London, no.

"I know why you didn't say," Rhiannon continues, not quite looking at him. "Maybe you couldn't, I dunno. But that was big, Ianto. You don't just walk away from things like that."

No, you stagger away, dragging your dying girlfriend with you.

"Did you get help? Did you talk to anyone?" she asks.

"They had therapists," he says dully, because they were well-intentioned but useless; he couldn't even tell them the reality of his situation, he'd had to talk in code. Much more helpful, if rather like grasping hot pokers barehanded, was Jack's swift, efficient, and precise process for rebuilding him during his month's suspension. "After Lisa died I talked to Jack about it sometimes."

"Ah," Rhiannon says knowingly. Ianto frowns at her. "Talked to Jack, eh? He's good at comforting the bereaved?"

God, it had been so unlike that as to be hilarious, but at the same time Rhiannon has a point he hasn't considered before.

"Maybe," he concedes.

"But you're all right now. I mean. You don't have flashbacks or get the shakes or anything."

Ianto shakes his head. "It leaves a mark, but -- yeah, I'm all right, much as I can be."

There's a noise from the front hall, and they look up; Ianto specifically had Rhiannon come to his for this talk, so they wouldn't be disturbed by Johnny or the kids, and so that she could see his home -- lots of dishes in the sink, all right, and some dead bugs on the windowsill, but his own place, tidy and well-kept for the most part.

The door opens and slams, and there's a rattle of keys in the dish on the hall table. Rhiannon looks at Ianto with a smug, knowing grin, and Ianto rubs his forehead. Of all the nights for Jack to decide to come over, it had to be this one. Maybe he has the place bugged.

"Ianto?" Jack's voice is strident in the foyer.

"In here," Ianto calls ruefully, while Rhiannon shakes with silent giggles. "Drinking. Heavily."

"Oh?" Jack appears in the doorway, coat off, unbuckling his belt so he can shed the Webley's holster. He looks up and sees Rhiannon and freezes.

"Mrs. Davies," he says, his smile a fraction too slow to be entirely real, though the delight at seeing her isn't faked. Ianto can tell this about Jack by now. "Pleasure and not business, I hope?"

"Just having some words with our Ianto," she says, and Ianto can tell she's trying to be disapproving, but when Jack puts his hand out she takes it automatically. Jack bows over to kiss it. Ianto rolls his eyes.

"I can go," Jack says, not to Ianto but to her, deferring to Older Sister.

"Nah. We've sorted it, haven't we?" she asks Ianto, who nods. "I should be off home anyway."

"I'll call you a cab," Ianto says, and the next few minutes are a flurry of goodbyes and love-yous and come-anytimes and call-mes, with Jack hovering in the background, calmly chewing on a piece of pizza. Once Rhi's safely in the cab and Ianto's pressed fare into the driver's hand over her protests, Ianto returns to his flat and sits down again. He pours himself another drink, no tonic this time. Jack's eagerly working on finishing off the pizza.

"So, you work everything out?" Jack asks around a mouthful of food.

"Mostly," Ianto says. "She wanted to know what Torchwood does. Then she didn't."

"Wise woman."

"Hm. She wanted to know if I was all right after London."

Jack stops chewing.

"I never told her, you know. That I was there. It's fine now," Ianto adds, waving a hand dismissively.

"Which 'it' are we talking?" Jack asks. Ianto shrugs.

"All of it, I guess."

Jack looks like he doesn't quite believe him, and yeah, perhaps London itself isn't fine, perhaps that bit of him won't ever be fine, but it's only a bit of him.

In less intoxicated hindsight he'll probably regret saying the next words out of his mouth. "She wanted to know about you. Me and you."

"Well, we're a fascinating pair," Jack replies, but there's a hint of worry in his face. "Anything in particular?"

Ianto gestures to the scrape on his cheek. "She asked if you were beating me."

Jack chokes on his food, actually so badly he has to thump himself on the chest, eyes streaming by the time he gasps clean air in. It's unsettlingly like watching him revive.

"I -- have never -- " Jack wheezes, and Ianto realises half of his incoherence is from anger. "I would never -- "

"I know that, but she didn't," Ianto steps in, gives him time to recover. Jack coughs a few times. "She knows now."

"Well, fucking great, because nobody's going to go around thinking I hit you," Jack says. Ianto is amused that he's too enraged even to add anything about unless you were into it.

"She asked if we were serious," Ianto continues, because what the hell, Jack's already furious that someone thinks he abuses his lovers. Jack, wiping tears of asphyxiation from his eyes, looks up.

"And you said...?" he prompts.

"I said I thought so. She said I could do worse," Ianto replies neutrally. He slides a sidelong look at Jack, whose face is unreadable. They stay that way for a while, Jack gulping in air, Ianto trying to read things Jack has had decades of practice at hiding.

Finally, Ianto stands and comes around to Jack's chair, pulling him up out of it, because there's no point to it all, is there? Rhiannon's satisfied, Ianto's safe, Jack's here. The rest can sod off.

They kiss -- deep, yes, but gentle, not let's-fuck-right-here kissing or gotta-go-see-you-later kissing. The kind of kiss you give someone you suspect might be around for a while. Jack's arms are locked loosely around his waist, Jack's shoulders are broad and perfect under his hands. Ianto finds, to his surprise, that he's happy just standing there kissing Jack, with a warm weight in his chest.

Jack pulls back a little to nuzzle affectionately against his cheek, lips grazing just the corner of his mouth, a chuckle huffed against his skin when he smiles.

"Do we need to sort this out?" Jack asks, tightening his arms a little. "We can. If you need a name for it -- "

"No," Ianto says, because honestly, he doesn't. Why, when he has Jack's warm body all pressed up against his, would he be upset because he didn't have a name for it? That seems very much to be missing the point.

"Good. Come to bed," Jack says.

Ianto goes. This is his life; Rhiannon and Jack can see into it, but no one can see all of it, which is just as well. It might not be neatly sorted, but it's as sorted as it needs to be.

END

[identity profile] keristor.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I love what you've done with that icon! (And it seems that I can read -- or at least transliterate -- upside-down Greek; this is a skill I didn't know I had...)

[identity profile] ataralas.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 07:35 pm (UTC)(link)
...and I just spent fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to actually say "Alternate Universe" in Greek. Best I came up with was "ta hola ta diallagmata" ( τά ὅλα τά διαλλάγματα.), or "the changling universes" .

Back to work. Or something.

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[identity profile] idamus.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Saves in memories to be read once I've read VS, I'm saving it for when they are done :)

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
I hope you like it!

[identity profile] eumelia.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
That was incredibly sweet.

Lovely coda for a remarkable episode.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you!

[identity profile] stlscape.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't read any of the VS except this, and, oh, Sam, you've got the voices down *so* perfectly. They're just right. And so is this story. Thank you so very much for continuing to share your work.

Finally, Ianto stands and comes around to Jack's chair, pulling him up out of it, because there's no point to it all, is there? Rhiannon's satisfied, Ianto's safe, Jack's here. The rest can sod off.

My favourite line.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
I'm glad you liked it! It was fun and light to write, a good time for me. :)

[identity profile] sadera992.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 06:39 pm (UTC)(link)
aww, wow. i like it. a different and nice way of rhi and ianto confronting the jack issue and the torchwood issue. lovely as always!

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks!

[identity profile] bare-bear.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Funny, I only just got into this series last week. Perfect timing, I guess.

Also, "Male bonding with orgasms?" almost made choke trying to keep my laughter quiet! :D

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
My timing is always good! It's 'cause I'm secretly a Time Lord. :D

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[identity profile] tassosss.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 07:34 pm (UTC)(link)
*from dw network*

I loved this! This is a very nice coda to the episode. I really like how you showed the ambiguity that Ianto has made his peace with where he stands with Torchwood and Jack.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it :) I like the idea that Ianto's okay with the ambiguity in itself -- that he doesn't need everything filed and labeled in his personal life.

[identity profile] misswinterhill.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I love this so much. I have to go to work now, but I will leave you a decent comment when I get home. ♥

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
Yay Jenny! I'm glad you like it :)

[identity profile] amand-r.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
I love angry indignant Jack!

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
I do too! :D I think I like best, though, that he's caught by surprise. That doesn't happen to Jack very often.
ext_76727: (Ianto awkward from COE)

[identity profile] remuslives23.livejournal.com 2010-04-29 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
That was perfect. I much prefer "It's complicated. He's my boss. And...my, you know. First. I don't really...he doesn't like to put labels on things." to 'It's only him' (although my fangirl heart does go all aflutter when it hears that).

Loved Jack's reaction to Ianto's comment about Rhi thinking he hits Ianto, and the ending... *fangirl heart goes all wibbly*

And Rhi is bloody marvellous.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
Thank you! I'm glad you liked it :) I had fun with poor choking Jack...
aelfgyfu_mead: Aelfgyfu as a South Park-style cartoon (Torchwood-Jack Ianto Gwen)

[personal profile] aelfgyfu_mead 2010-04-30 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
Very nice. I like how Rhiannon thinks of Ianto's friends/co-workers as "posh"; I never thought of Gwen (or Owen or Tosh) as "posh"! I suppose they'd look that way, though—especially with Jack swanning around in that coat.

Ianto is amused that he's too enraged even to add anything about unless you were into it.
Yes, I half expected Jack to add that! Poor man! Well, Ianto has set her straight on that count.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:08 am (UTC)(link)
Rhi's remark about posh refers in part to her encounter with Gwen in canon -- she's intimidated by Gwen, plus she thinks Ianto's put on airs a bit. :D

[identity profile] anyjen.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, lovely, and a perfect companion piece to that episode.

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ext_29271: (Default)

[identity profile] temporal-witch.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
And this is completely perfect. Thank you. ☺

[identity profile] durayan.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Is it wrong to love it this much when Jack is wrong-footed? Love the sibling dynamic. Love more the Jack/Ianto dynamic.

It's profoundly sad that Ianto has considered that this is likely his last serious relationship. Give him a dark, almost suicidal, undertone. Very depressing in such a young man.

Anyway, I loved this! An excellent episode, worthy of generating fanfic.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:59 pm (UTC)(link)
It's funny to catch Jack out, and it doesn't happen very often in a non life-or-death situation. :D

[identity profile] bbmcowgirl.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
Can you help me here. I've never heard of this virtual story. I went to the link at tw_itallchanges. and found family business (4 parts) but I have no idea if anything came before or after. Is there a master list somewhere? Because I couldn't make head nor tails out of that page and I'd like to read the entire series in order.

[identity profile] xtricks.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
Here's the link to the comm in general. http://community.livejournal.com/tw_itallchanges/

On the right side, scroll down past the CCTV images and there is an index of the episodes. You can also click on the various tags. The index looks like this:

http://pics.livejournal.com/xtricks/pic/000a4ady

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[identity profile] wynkat1313.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
love this! It could fit anywhere in the series, virtual or not...its just so lovely and right on. yum!

[identity profile] xtricks.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
I really liked the bit with Jack's outrage: being kind of a jerk sometimes doesn't mean being all kinds of a jerk and I could never imagine Jack being the sort of person to be abusive sexually.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:01 pm (UTC)(link)
That hit a note with a lot of people, I think perhaps because it's never been addressed -- it's never needed to be addressed, as regards Jack, but Jack does after all live in this century and Ianto does get hurt in the line of duty with reasonable regularity. It's something a sibling would ask, I think, especially since same-sex domestic violence is becoming more visible.

[identity profile] neifile7.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
Still loving this; the vodka-and-pizza debriefing was a missing scene that begged to be written. I really admire the balance between Rhi's forthright nosiness and her avoidance of some less pleasant truths; it makes her feel more like someone who has a history and some personality traits in common with Ianto.

[identity profile] mcparrot.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
This fitted the episode brilliantly. The siblings needing more vodka than pizza, Ianto's cleverness in getting Rhi to decide she didn't really want to know what Torchwood did ... and then the Jack/Ianto dynamic
Just great.

[identity profile] penny-sieve.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
This is just the perfect coda to the perfect episode on TW vs!
"Male bonding with orgasms?" being the line to be never forgotten :P

I like the way you wrote Ianto's and Rhi's relationship with just the right touch of familiarity and the right amount of discomfort while talking about the really personal stuff. Shows how they've drifted apart over the years.

[identity profile] elainasaunt.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
I love the whole VS, but this coda - well, a missing scene for an imaginary series is just so alternative universe ...

The story, though I chuckled throughout, made feel quite melancholy on several levels - for what I suspect has been the end of the real Torchwood, even though we don't know that for sure yet; for Ianto's fate in this or any other universe; for the coming end of the VS.

Much as I love Jack/Ianto, the real core of the story, for me, was the exchange about TW and London. Brilliantly done.

Did you work on the VS itself?

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
I did find some charm in working on a coda to an episode that doesn't technically exist in canon :D

I haven't worked on any of the VS episodes, no, but I know almost everyone who has.

[identity profile] lefaym.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 03:03 am (UTC)(link)
This was gorgeous.

When I think about the things that left me dissatisfied with CoE, especially regarding Jack/Ianto, it's not so much the issues that were raised, but the way they were raised; to me, it felt very much like an afterthought (and I say that with full respect towards people who felt otherwise -- I'm not trying to claim that my reading of CoE is the be all and end all). I think that in this fic (and in [livejournal.com profile] misswinterhill's VS episode), you raise those same issues in a way that I do find satisfying; you explore the implications of all this stuff (the nature of Ianto's relationship with Jack, the nature of his relationship with his family) for the characters in a way that feels consistent with what we saw in S2.

[identity profile] sam-storyteller.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 01:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm not sure I felt it was even an afterthought so much as random bits stuck on with tape. :D There was definitely something there, but what wasn't incoherent was either brief or incomplete. Which is a shame, because it's a fascinating relationship, especially to watch Ianto try to explain to an outsider.

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[identity profile] kel-reiley.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 04:18 am (UTC)(link)
"..You don't just walk away from things like that."

No, you stagger away, dragging your dying girlfriend with you.
- oh god, thank you for including this!

LOVE! wonderful missing scene/coda/whatever :)

[identity profile] marashapeshfter.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
That was perfect, thank you. Rhiannon's concern about what being in Torchwood does to Ianto, thinking Jack beat him, the trauma from London and everything else is very spot on, she sounds exactly like a proper Older Sister.

[identity profile] topgeargirl2.livejournal.com 2010-04-30 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
This was very good.

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