Chapter Text
Ianto froze as his gaze met that of the stranger standing in front of the elevator. He had never seen him before, Ianto was sure of that. And still, there was a jolt of recognition coursing through him.
The kind of recognition Ianto had only heard of in fairy tales.
The man was his soulmate. Not just a potential soulmate, as so many people met throughout their lives, sometimes even more than once. But there was no recognition of potential without a touch. Recognising the man as his soulmate while separated by the fast lobby of the Torchwood Tower meant that they had met many times in past lives and decided to spend those lives together as soulmates.
The stranger met his gaze, and the shaking of his head was so minuscule that Ianto was sure no one else would notice. Ianto didn’t react. He swallowed and kept staring because he couldn’t help himself despite knowing better, until the doors of the elevator opened and the man stepped inside.
Ianto blew out air through his teeth as he turned to continue his way to the archive. He had been working for Torchwood for three years, and for the most part, he enjoyed the work even if he was aware of the problems the organisation had and that many others liked to overlook. He had overlooked them, too, in the beginning, had been much too enamoured with the wonder over the new world he had discovered through Torchwood. Until he hadn’t been able to follow the directives and had been banished to the archives as punishment. Which was still a much better outcome than most other people got for defying an order.
And now, one of these huge problems no one here seemed to care about might just cost him his life, after all.
“Ianto!”
He barely kept himself from flinching and turned to Lisa with a polite smile. They were something like friends, as much as you could be friends with anyone in an environment where trust was hard won and might turn out false even then. For a little while they had dated, but soon decided that there was no place in either of their lives or careers with Torchwood for that kind of relationship.
“I’m in desperate need of some company for lunch,” Lisa said and hooked her arm around his. She leaned into him and whispered, “If I don’t find a way to make Carl back away, I’ll have to complain about his harassment. That will damage my career just as much as his!”
Ianto nodded, though he didn’t believe her perception was true. It shouldn’t be true, at least. It might lead to Carl being let go, though, and with Torchwood ‘being let go’ only happened one way. Ianto had wondered for some time now why Carl wasn’t worried about that and why Lisa kept insisting her reason not to report Carl’s harassment was her fear for her own career. But she also didn’t want to accept any help Ianto had offered other than being a shield for her, so Carl wouldn’t ambush her during any downtime while they were at Torchwood Tower.
Ianto let Lisa pull him to the cafeteria and listened to her complaint about the parts of her work she could share while they got their food. His thoughts kept going back to his soulmate, whose name he didn’t even know and who he could have never safely approached under the circumstances in which they had met.
He didn’t know how to find him again, and that was more disturbing than Ianto had expected. He hadn’t expected to find a potential soulmate, had never thought about that. Rejecting a potential soulmate would’ve been easy, and with working for Torchwood, there would have been no other choice. But now he knew there was a soul out there he had shared many lifetimes with before, and he wanted that connection again with an overwhelming intensity.
“You’re pretty distracted today,” Lisa said.
“I’m sorry,” Ianto said and shook his head. “Just before you invited me so charmingly out to lunch”—Lisa laughed, and Ianto grinned—“I saw a man who looked completely out of place here.”
Lisa was a gossip and knew so much about everything going on in Torchwood, maybe she would be able to help him. Ianto just needed to be careful not to say too much.
“A strange guy?” Lisa asked, her eyes shining. She leaned over the table. “Strange how?”
“He looked around 60 years out of place with the old military coat he wore,” Ianto said.
Lisa’s eyes grew wide. “Harkness? He is here?” she whispered.
Ianto raised his brows. That had been easier than expected. Too easy, probably. “Harkness?”
“Shhh!” Lisa put her index finger against her lip and looked around. “Not so loud! You’ve never heard of Captain Jack Harkness, really?”
Ianto shrugged, carefully memorising the name.
“He leads the team in Cardiff,” Lisa explained quietly. “But he is super shady about it. Doesn’t follow any of our rules. Rumour has it he has a pair of soulmates working for him.”
Ianto raised his brows. “Really?”
He had heard rumours about the team in Cardiff and about the main archive in Glasgow. People here in the tower didn’t have anything good to say about either place. The archive in Glasgow was considered to be the worst assignment anyone could get, but Ianto didn’t know anyone who had ever been there. And the team in Cardiff was only talked about in whispers.
Lisa nodded. “He apparently even recruited them together.”
“How’s he getting away with that?” Ianto asked, feigning appalled confusion.
“He’s been around a long time, and Cardiff started to separate from us decades ago,” Lisa said. “I’ve heard he has high contacts that somehow protect his actions so far. But I’m sure that won’t last for long. Director Hartman is working on detaining Harkness.”
Ianto nodded because it was expected of him. As far as he knew, Lisa had never questioned the regulations of Torchwood. And even if she had, talking about something like that inside Torchwood Tower would be the height of stupidity.
Most of the rules had been in place since Queen Victoria had founded the organisation. A few had been added over the past decade or so, and Ianto knew the regulations about soulmates were among those newer rules. Rules which Yvonne Hartman would see enforced with prejudice because she wouldn’t tire of lecturing people about the liability soulmates would be for their organisation. Ianto had always thought it was plain old bigotry and maybe even jealousy that were the real reasons for Hartman’s hatred.
Lisa leaned over the table. “I heard there is something going on with Harkness the director wants to have investigated. There is supposed to be a cell by the labs already wearing his name.”
“Do you know what?” Ianto asked.
“No.” Lisa shrugged. “Didn’t feel digging about that would do me any good. I’m sure we’ll learn about it once he is detained. I trust Director Hartman will get her will sooner rather than later. She just has a more important project to focus on right now.”
Ianto hummed and looked at his watch. The next ghost shift was scheduled for a little more than two hours from now. Everyone in the tower knew that it was Hartman’s personal pet project. He didn’t know any details, but the excitement about the project had been rising in the whole tower as everyone believed the project would come to a positive conclusion soon. Lisa was especially excited about it, and Ianto suspected that she might be part of that project.
“Bold of Harkness to come here if the Director has that much interest in him,” Ianto said. “Would have expected him to hide out and hope she’ll never find him. Not that he’d be successful with that for long.”
Ianto swallowed, hoping that his soulmate’s confidence wouldn’t be his downfall in the end. Director Hartman had a very far reach. Making people disappear was something Torchwood practised often, most of the time out of necessity when someone had been attacked by an alien or had had an unfortunate encounter with alien technology. But Ianto knew from his own experience that it wasn’t always unfortunate, dead victims of alien encounters whose disappearance needed to be explained.
Lisa laughed. “Right? Apparently, he is a cocky asshole. Also, the rumour is he flirts with everyone and everything and fucks just as freely. Kinda appears that’s all he does, so you have to wonder what kind of contacts he really has, right?”
Ianto hummed.
“Did you hear anything about why he is here?” Lisa asked excitedly.
Ianto chuckled and shook his head. “I was too far away to hear anything. I just saw him and thought he didn’t fit in. He clearly wears that coat a lot if you recognise him just by that.”
“I’ll go out for drinks with Sylvia today,” Lisa said. “I’m sure she’ll have heard something!”
Ianto huffed and wondered how he could get some of that gossip later on without it looking out of place.
Ianto felt even more lost now than when he hadn’t known his soulmate’s name yet. He knew his name now and even where to find him. But if anyone found out and told Hartman, she wouldn’t hesitate to use Ianto as bait for his soulmate. And he didn’t know how to get in contact with his soulmate without anyone noticing.
***
Jack sat at the kitchen table of the small flat, nursing the coffee he had brought with him while he waited. There wasn’t much of interest in the flat, which told him even more than the research he had already done that Ianto Jones’ life revolved around Torchwood London completely.
It wasn’t a surprise with the way London had been led for decades now, but this time, Jack cared about it. This time, it had been his soulmate who had been sucked into the life Torchwood London forced on their employees. Jack hadn’t ever expected to meet his soulmate again in Torchwood Tower of all places. The whole situation came with a load of problems he didn’t even know how to start solving. But he also couldn’t start to make plans until he knew what Ianto wanted this time around.
Jack remained silent when he heard the door open and close. He used his wrist strap to check for life signs to make sure Ianto had come home alone, then he leaned back and waited.
Ianto stopped in the doorway of the kitchen, no emotions showing on his face. His stand shifted slightly, then he tilted his head to the side. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find you here after everything I learned about you.”
Jack raised his brows. “Could be dangerous for you to start digging for information about me.”
“I got that much,” Ianto said. He crossed his arms over his chest and watched Jack carefully. “Thankfully, the biggest gossip of the tower kidnapped me for my lunch break. All I needed to do was mention this strange guy who looked very much out of time and out of place with his World War II coat.”
Jack grinned. “And what exactly is the gossip about me?”
“That Director Hartman has a cell ready with your name on it,” Ianto said. “Near the labs. Though, no information about what they want to test on you. You also lead Torchwood Three while disregarding all our regulations, especially those about soulmates. Apparently, you even dared to recruit a soulmate pair. And you clearly don’t have much fear of Hartman, as you showed up in Torchwood Tower despite her plans for you.”
“Yvonne can dream of making me her lab rat all she wants,” Jack said darkly. “She’d make enemies she’s not prepared to handle if she succeeded in confining me, and she knows that very well. If she learns about our connection, she might try to use you against me, though.”
Jack wouldn’t tolerate something like that, but he knew Yvonne wouldn’t care for it. If she saw a chance to control him through Ianto, she’d take it without any regard for Ianto’s safety or well-being. It would be her downfall, Jack would make sure of it, but preventing such a scenario outright would be for the best because he didn’t want to risk Ianto’s life in that way.
“I figured as much,” Ianto said warily. “What does she want with you?”
Jack raised his brows. “I’ve a question of my own first.” He took a sip of his coffee while he waited for Ianto to nod.
Instead, Ianto glared at the cup. “You didn’t dare bring coffee from some inferior coffee shop into my home, did you?”
Jack blinked, startled, and looked down at his coffee. “It’s pretty decent.”
Ianto lowered his gaze. “The only coffee that will be consumed in my home is my own.”
Jack laughed and put the paper cup down. “Okay. I promise I won’t repeat that affront. That you are a coffee snob is not in your file.”
It was nice to learn something true about Ianto, to get a glimpse of the person his soulmate had grown into in this life.
“You looking into me could be dangerous, too,” Ianto pointed out.
Jack shook his head. “One isn’t able to track our movement if we don’t want it. We learned that lesson long before Yvonne took charge. She wasn’t the one to put One on the path they’re on now. We’ll find enough leverage to take away One’s power eventually.”
“Your team isn’t exactly big as far as I know. And there are roughly 800 people working in Torchwood Tower,” Ianto said. “Doesn’t seem like the best odds for you.”
Jack shrugged. “You just need the right kind of plan. I just hope we’ll be successful before Yvonne creates a world-ending event. She might just be on the way to that with the ghost shifts.”
Ianto frowned. “Everyone in the tower is excited about it. But no one really knows anything.”
“I know. But whatever the ghosts are, it’s dangerous and neglectful not to consider them a threat until we can be sure they aren’t. Especially as they show up all over the world.”
Ianto nodded and pulled the second chair from the table to sit down.
“It’s the reason I had a meeting with Yvonne today,” Jack said darkly. “Not that she’ll ever be inclined to listen to anything I have to say. She won’t be able to say I didn’t warn her when it blows up in her face.”
“She’ll still blame you,” Ianto said. “She’ll go out of her way to blame you now that you warned her. She’ll accuse you of manipulating her project, and that manipulation leading to the failure, not anything she’s done.”
“I’m glad to hear you know the person you’re working for so well,” Jack said. “Especially as she has high hopes for you.”
“She doesn’t even know my name,” Ianto protested with a frown.
“Oh, she knows your name,” Jack promised. “Your file was an interesting read. Yvonne has a personal interest in your career and believes you’ll become a stellar asset for the organisation. Once she’ll have helped you get over your ‘unfortunate and misplaced compassion’.” He used air quotes, and Ianto huffed. “That was a personal note of hers concerning your confinement to the archive.”
Ianto made a face. “And how does she plan to do that?”
“I’m not sure you want to wait and find out,” Jack said.
Ianto nodded slowly. “You mentioned a question.”
Jack sighed. “What do you want to do about us?”
Ianto frowned. “I don’t understand the question.”
“We can turn away from each other if you decide that’s what you want,” Jack said hesitantly. He had waited decades to meet the next reincarnation of his soulmate. He hadn’t often wondered about this moment, but it had always been a much more light-hearted occasion in his mind.
“No,” Ianto said without hesitation, and Jack let go of a breath he hadn’t even noticed he was holding.
“Then we need to come up with a plan to extract you from London without Yvonne getting it into her head I’ve stolen you,” Jack said. “Would be much easier if she really didn’t know your name. Do you have any idea why she is so invested in you?”
Ianto shook his head. “I’ve never spoken with her. I could’ve sworn I’ve never been in the same room with her.”
Jack nodded. He’d have Toshiko dig deeper into the files of Torchwood One, and maybe she could find out something more. Ianto didn’t need to know that yet, Jack decided.
“You really waited here expecting me to tell you to never show up again?” Ianto asked sceptically.
“I hoped you’d not sent me away again,” Jack said softly. “I’d have approached you in a different way if we hadn’t met in Torchwood Tower for the first time.”
Ianto huffed. “Again? We never met before in this life!”
“In your life, that’s true,” Jack said. He cleared his throat and watched Ianto carefully. “You asked what Yvonne wants with me. I’ve been stuck in this life for nearly 140 years now.”
It was the first time that Ianto’s face shifted in a way that wasn’t carefully controlled. He stared at Jack with his mouth hanging open. “Come again?”
Jack shrugged. “I can die. And I’ve done so often in those years. But I always come back to life with all my injuries healed and all scars I might have gathered since the last death gone. That does include tattoos. I tested it out once just because I was curious.”
“And you’ve met one of my past selves during that time?” Ianto asked, sounding sceptical and unbelieving.
“It happened twice,” Jack murmured and lowered his gaze. The memories still hurt, but knowing that his soulmate was in this time had also helped him deal with the situation he had found himself in after discovering that he couldn’t die. “The first time was…” Jack sighed. “I was not born in this time. And I have a pretty good idea of the event that made me what I am today.” He raised his arm to show off his wrist strap. “I had my own means of time travel, and I tried to get to the early 21st century because I wanted to catch up with the Doctor. I hoped to get some answers from him. Though, I wasn’t seeking answers about my apparent immortality yet, because I didn’t know about it at that point.”
Ianto huffed. “There are a lot of holes in that tale.”
Jack looked up with a grin. “There are. I’ll fill them in later. The Vortex Manipulator burned out on the trip, and I ended up in 1869 instead, without any means to travel through time again. I met you in 1871. Your name was Julia in that life, born and raised just outside of London. Meeting you convinced me I might have been meant to end up in that time.”
Ianto nodded, but Jack wasn’t sure he had even just the slightest idea what that meeting had changed for Jack.
“We spent nearly twenty years together,” Jack continued. “Migrated to the US to make a life there. I knew enough about the time to give us a good life. Then Julia became ill. We knew pretty early on that she wouldn’t win that fight, even though it took months.”
Ianto gasped quietly.
“We both knew we’d leave this world together. And we had a couple of months to prepare. Except when we died, I woke up again a couple of minutes later. Gasping for air, hurting all over, and without the markings our soul bond had created. I didn’t know what was going on or what had happened to me. And I had no chance to explain any of it to anyone. So, I left and I haven’t returned to the town we had made our home since.”
Jack swallowed and shook his head. “I went a little crazy afterwards. Got tangled up with Torchwood because getting killed every other day got me on their radar, unsurprisingly. I met you in your next life in 1920 under very unfortunate circumstances. And the least of that was that you were only 17 when we met. You really didn’t like the idea of having a soulmate. So, we went our separate ways.”
“And you just accepted that?” Ianto asked.
“I wouldn’t ever force myself on anyone,” Jack said. “Just because we have chosen in thirty-four lives before to spend that life together doesn’t mean that’s true for every life.”
When he had been with Julia, some memories of past lives had resurfaced for both of them. Jack remembered being the one to refuse to spend one life at his soulmate’s side, and he remembered the loneliness of that life.
“Doesn’t mean I didn’t keep an eye on you for the rest of your life,” Jack admitted with a sheepish grin. “You lived in France.” Jack grinned when Ianto made a face. “And I knew what was coming. I’d spent a couple of months in London in 1941 before. I wanted to make sure you were as safe as you could be. I made sure you got your wife and children evacuated overseas, and I tried to keep track of you as well as I could while you fought the Nazis. Then I made sure your family had the means to rebuild their life. I also knew when you died in 1978. Even went to the funeral.”
“This sounds insane,” Ianto said and rubbed a hand over his eyes. “And at the same time…” He rubbed his other hand over his chest and shook his head. “I don’t know how to describe it any other way than that it resonates!”
Jack watched him silently for a while, giving Ianto time to process. Eventually, he said, “So, you see, we did decide in a previous life of yours to go separate ways. I won’t pretend it didn’t hurt, but I understand.”
“Why?” Ianto asked with a frown. “Why did I decide that?”
Jack shrugged. “There have always been religious groups out there who are very anti-soulmate. It might have been different if we had met a little later, but we didn’t.”
“If Yvonne Hartman finds out about us, I’m in a world of trouble,” Ianto said. “And that wouldn’t change even if I decided to reject you again. Which I won’t. I don’t understand how I could do it in a past life, and I won’t do it again.”
Jack smiled, relieved beyond imagination. He hadn’t even noticed how much he had been dreading Ianto’s answer the whole day. He had wondered over the past eighty or so years if his immortality would break their eternal soul bond. The stories went that once a soul-bonded pair had been hand fastened—spending ten lives together and earning a black ring embedded in their skin around each finger—that their bond was eternal. Jack and Julia’s markings had reached up all the way to their shoulders on both arms. Twelve rings on each arm in addition to the ten around their fingers—proof that it had been their 34th life spent together.
Ianto reached over the table with one hand, but Jack pulled away, standing abruptly to bring some space between them. “We can’t touch until you’re safe from Yvonne Hartman!”
Ianto fisted his hand but nodded. “Right. The markings would show immediately.”
“You’ve been banned to the archive,” Jack said.
Ianto chuckled. “I’d not call it banned. Or a punishment at all. You can learn a lot of interesting things there, you know? I’m not sure the Director is aware of what I’ve learned there so far.”
“Yvonne has given you the highest access because she believes seeing the horrors the wider universe could throw at us will make you reconsider your stance on certain rules.”
Ianto made a face. "Yeah, I think she is very much misjudging what I’m learning with all that access."
Jack chuckled.
Ianto frowned. “Usually, people who don’t follow the rules are just killed. I’ve been wondering how I got away with letting them go all along. I was told they were caught and executed anyway.”
Jack frowned. “They weren’t. I had to help them relocate. They’re living near Glasgow now, with a new identity and a new business of their own. They’ve been living peacefully among humanity for decades.”
Ianto exhaled slowly. “That’s great to hear!”
“Telling you they were killed is the kind of mind game Yvonne likes to play,” Jack said darkly.
“Sounds like her to use that kind of thing to manipulate someone,” Ianto said darkly.
“Archie is mostly running a huge archive in Glasgow,” Jack said. “And officially, he and I are very much at odds.”
Ianto raised a brow. “Unofficially not so much?”
Jack grinned widely. “Not at all. We’ve had tea once a week for … a very long time, considering Queen Victoria was part of those meetings once a month for a couple of years in the beginning.”
Ianto stared, his disbelief barely hidden.
“If Archie asked for your help with something concerning documents and artefacts sent to him that you signed off on, I don’t think Yvonne could find a way to say no without drawing attention she probably doesn’t want to draw right now. Not with her little pet project going into the hot phase.”
“Glasgow isn’t exactly near Cardiff.”
“It’s away from London,” Jack said darkly. “That’s the first goal. Everything else we’ll figure out then. But I want you out of that tower as soon as possible.”
Before Yvonne Hartman’s project blew up in her face, Jack thought. After everything Jack had seen in Torchwood Tower earlier, that was just a matter of time.
Ianto nodded slowly. "Then I’ll be waiting for a request from Glasgow. And probably pretend to be utterly displeased with it, just so Hartman will believe it will be more of a punishment for me."
Jack laughed and nodded, very much charmed by Ianto’s ability and willingness to use Yvonne Hartman’s weaknesses against her.