BTBD Challenge 22 - Bright future

[m_findlow]

Title: Bright future
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,233 words
Content notes: Written for Challenge 22 - Potential at beattheblackdog
Summary: Jack takes Ianto somewhere special

Their TARDIS whirred and hummed as it finally dropped them out of the vortex to the point where Jack had set the coordinates. He hadn't told Ianto where they were going, letting him sit there and grumble about not liking surprises, especially the sort that Jack usually orchestrated.

'We're here,' Jack announced, still twiddling with some dials whilst Ianto was shucking on his jacket.

'Finally we can get this over with,' he muttered, wandering down the gangway and hoisting open the door. He was about to step out, calling back over his shoulder to Jack, asking him if he was coming, when Jack was suddenly on top of him, grabbing him around his waist and stopping him from taking his final step over the TARDIS's threshold.

He was about to complain when he looked back around and realised that there was no ground underfoot, and that they there were in fact, still hovering in the darkness of space. Space he'd been about to go tumbling out into.

'You could've warned me,' he said, trying to disguise his panic behind gruff annoyance.

'I told you, it was a surprise. Besides, I wasn't expecting you to rush headlong out the door. I was still busy setting the external shields.'

'Pot meet kettle. So where are we then?'

'You don't recognise it?' Jack asked, sounding surprised.

'Should I?'

'We've been here before,' Jack replied, trying not to give too much away.

Ianto sighed and looked around, letting Jack have his little game. The planet stood before them in the vastness of space around it, sparkling with deep blues and greens, and patches of white at the top very top of it. Off to one side was a tiny grey moon, and far beyond that, somewhere behind their TARDIS was the glowing light of a sun, shining brightly as it accentuated the colours below.

It wasn't much to go on. It could have been any of dozens of worlds that they'd visited. Ianto was beginning to understand some of the peculiar problems of being immortal. It was all well and good, but he still had his human sized brain, and could keep only so much information in his memory. It was small wonder that Jack remembered half as much as he did, and why he so valiantly tried to keep alive the memories of the people he'd known. Ianto wasn't sure he could remember them all, and Jack had already lived so much longer than he had.

He looked out at the vista once more. There had to be more to it. Jack had brought him here for a reason. He tried to remember any particular planets they'd visited that held special significance, but even that left a reasonably long list in his head.

'I give up. Where are we?'

Jack's arms around his waist grew a little tighter and his face a little closer. 'Come on, think.' Jack wasn't going to let him off the hook that easily.

Ianto resisted the urge to growl, in frustration at his own inability to place where they were, as much as it was for Jack's childish insistence on making Ianto work it out for himself.

'Okay,' he said aloud, 'oceans, continents, polar caps, one moon,' he listed off the inventory of observations. 'Importance on a scale of one to ten?' he asked, seeking for a clue.

'Eleven,' Jack replied.

'Hmm,' he looked harder at the continents. Clearly Jack though he should be able to recognise them from above. It all just looked like one big patch of green. He turned his head slightly, focusing on one particular section. Was that? No, it didn't look right. He looked again.

'Is that Earth?'

'Yes, clever husband.' He could sense Jack grinning as his lips ghosted behind his ear.

'It looks different,' he observed.

'This is earth one hundred million years before you were born.'

'Oh.' He didn't know what else to say. Of all the bizarre and fascinating places they'd been, somehow seeing his home again took his breath away.

'What's down there?'

'Dinosaurs, mainly the vegetarian kind. Old T Rex won't be around for another forty million years yet. There's some basic mammals, fish, corals, turtles, leeches, bees,' Jack went on.

'Bees?'

'Bees are very important.'

'What about pterodactyls?'

'Oh yeah,' Jack chuckled. 'Lots of them.'

Ianto stared down and pondered this for a moment. 'Do you think Myfanwy is down there somewhere?'

'Could be. Or she might still be an egg, just waiting to hatch.' It was a nice thought, and it had been long years since they'd had to part ways.

'Why did you bring me here? If you were homesick why didn't we just come back to our own time?'

'I wanted you to see what I see when I look at this planet.'

'Dinosaurs?'

Jack laughed again. 'Humans are just a few million years old when you're born, but look at this place. They don't even exist here now, yet this is where it will all begin. Everything that we are now, and everything we have here around us had its tiny beginnings right down there. Life and love, art and culture, music, language, science and technology, born on a world that doesn't even know it yet. So much potential for good and greatness, and it all begins here with your first ancestors.'

'And yours,' Ianto added.

'I was born on another world three thousand years after you. You are my ancestors. It's your children and grandchildren that go out there and populate the infinite corners of the universe. I exist because of you.'

'Good to know I did something right,' he joked. He paused for a moment, the notion finally dawning on him. 'I think I finally understand why you used to go stand on rooftops all the time. You weren't looking down on what was, you were looking at what will be.'

Jack squeezed him again, confirming his thoughts. 'It's why I fought so hard to protect it. You are the future for all of us. You were born here, but so was I.'

Ianto felt taken aback. He knew that what Jack was saying was true, but he'd never considered himself, or anyone else from his own timeline particularly special. They were just plain old humans. Not like The Doctor or Jack, Time Lord and immortal hero respectively. And sometimes not even worthy of being considered human, when he thought about the criminals and the low lifes that sometimes terrorised his city and countless others, and the despicable deeds that humans sometimes perpetrated toward others; racism, starvation, genocide, religious persecution, homophobia, slavery and murder. But for every one of those thoughts he remembered that those people were still the minority. For every negative he found a positive; hope, charity, equality, honesty, courage, kindness, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and above all, love. Love had kept humanity ticking along through all the years, its potential for inspiring good seemingly unlimited.

'So what do you think?' Jack asked, breaking him from his thoughts, encouraging him to sit down on the edge of the TARDIS doorway next to him, their legs dangling out into nothingness as Jack wrapped his arms around him once more.

'I think this is the best place we've ever been.'

'Correction. It will be the best place we've ever been. The stars above might shine, but it's this planet that has the brightest future.'

Comments

[sagrario martínez castro (from livejournal.com)]

Wonderful story! VERY well written (I wish you were a writer of the show...)

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

You are too kind! Thank you!

[bk_forever]

Awwww, this is so lovely! Revisiting the world where it all began, but seeing it way back before humanity evolved, all that potential yet to be =)

It's a little bittersweet that Ianto had to work do hard to remember, but it's invitable too. What matters most is that he and Jack are still together, forever.

I love Janto

[(Anonymous)]

Jack does do romantic.

Showing Ianto the past in insure the future.
Glad that Jack stopped Ianto before he walked out into space.