Torchwood: Fanfic: Faded photographs

[m_findlow]

Title: Faded photographs
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Rhiannon, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,661 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for juliet316’s prompt "any, any, photo albums can bring forth all sorts of memories long thought forgotten" at fic_promptly
Summary: Photos reveal much about the past as they do the present

'The place looks good since you got it repainted,' Ianto said, sitting on the sofa and looking around at the living room as Rhiannon placed a plate of sandwiches on the coffee table. It was nice to visit after weeks of missing each other's calls. Torchwood had been busier than usual and the pair of them were guilty that they hadn't been there to help with the renovations.

'Yeah, well, it was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Finally a chance to offload all the junk we'd been holding for the last ten years. D'you realise how much stuff accumulates in just a few years?'

'Better than anyone,' Ianto replied dryly, thinking of how little of the archives had been brought to a state he considered acceptable.

'Nice sandwiches,' Jack interrupted, his mouth still half full. Rhiannon beamed at the compliment, even though she'd learned that Jack would eat just about anything.

'I found these when I was clearing out the loft,' she said, passing her brother a pile of worn leather bound albums.

'That's nice,' he said, running his hand over the top one, but not opening it.

'Oh, please tell me you've got naked photos of Ianto in the bathtub,' Jack said, snatching one from Ianto's grasp, before he had a chance to hold them out of reach.

'Because you've never seen me naked in the bathtub before?' Ianto quipped.

Jack threw it open to a random page and poured over the pictures excitedly.

'Aw, aren't you just the cutest thing?'

Ianto pulled a face, seeing the picture Jack was pointing to. 'I hated that school uniform. Yellow and green are not my colours.'

'God,' said Rhi, 'that must have been, what, grade two?'

'Three,' he corrected her. 'Right,' he said, standing up from the sofa, 'well if you two are going to sit there and embarrass me horribly, then I'm going to the kitchen to make coffee.'

'Have fun,' Rhiannon said.

'Bye,' Jack taunted, giving him a little wave to send him off. Ianto knew full well that Jack and Rhiannon would be perfectly happy without him there. The pair of them chuckled quietly as he stalked off, outnumbered.

Jack began flicking though the album. 'I think this is the first time I've ever seen photos of Ianto before we met.'

'He always hated photos. Half the battle just to get him in front of the camera.'

Jack saw a phot of a scrawny young man in his late teens, football jersey hanging loose about his frame. 'Is that really him?' he asked, holding the album up and showing her.

'Always was straight up and down, nothing on him but skin and bones. Still is.'

'Oh, there's some muscle under there,' Jack mused. 'He played football?'

'No build for rugby, but football was a different matter. What he lacked in width he made up for in speed.'

Jack could almost picture a younger version of him flying down the pitch, ball at his feet. Maybe he should take Ianto out to the park one day for a bit of one on one and see if he still had the old zip.

Jack turned the page over and saw a picture that caught his attention immediately. The two kids in the picture were clearly Rhiannon and Ianto, maybe fifteen and eleven, surrounded by their parents at the beach. He flicked back through the previous pages and returned to this particular photo. He recognised their father from some of the later photos, gruff and firm looking, as if he too, detested photos.

'Is that your mum?'

'Yeah,' Rhiannon said, leaning over to look at the picture.

Jack realised that he'd never asked Ianto about his mum. He knew about his dad's history, the real history, but he'd never spoken about his mum, and so Jack had never pressed him about it. He could have gone and looked up the details, but it felt like an invasion of privacy. He'd tell him when he was ready.

He started at the photo, seeing many of Ianto's features in his mother's face, and saw the kind eyes smiling back at him.

'She died young?' he asked. 'Ianto's never spoken of her.'

Rhiannon got up and came to sit next to him on the sofa. 'Thirty six. That picture was taken the day she disappeared.'

'Disappeared?' he said, surprised.

Rhiannon gave him a concerned but conspiratorial look. 'He doesn't like to talk about it. I don't think he's ever accepted that she's gone. Eleven's too young to lose your mum.'

Jack cast a glance at the kitchen, Ianto still preoccupied, organising coffee practically from scratch.

'We were holidaying at the beach. The three of us were out in the ocean, only Ianto wouldn't venture out as far as us where the water was much deeper. I was so busy yelling names at him, calling him a scaredy cat, that I didn't notice. One second she was right there next to me and then she was gone.' Her eyes began to fill with tears and Jack reached out a hand to hold her own. She sniffed loudly and hastily brushed a hand over her eyes, casting away the tears. 'Anyway, they think maybe there was an undercurrent and she got caught in it and drowned. They never found her body.'

Jack's heart sank. Hadn't their family been through enough? With every tiny thing he learned about Ianto's past, the more he came to understand the reserved individual that shared his bed at night, and what made him tick.

'I'm so sorry. I can't imagine what that must be like.' It was a lie of course. He knew exactly how it felt to have a family member taken away, with no real way of knowing what had become of them.

As the pair of them sat huddled there, lost in their own thoughts, neither one noticed Ianto standing at the threshold with the tray of coffee and biscuits. When Jack looked up and saw him, the expression on his face made it clear he knew what they'd been talking about.

'Ianto,' Jack said, not knowing what else to say after that.

'Ianto don't be mad,' Rhiannon pleaded. 'Jack was only asking.'

'It's fine,' he said tersely. 'Can't change what happened.' He was trying to shut down the conversation but the look on Rhiannon's face suggested that it wasn't over yet.

'No, it's not fine,' Rhiannon shouted. 'You pretend like she never existed, and you blamed dad for everything that happened afterward. Is that why you went off the rails? To get back at him?'

He looked like he wanted to hold back and say nothing, but he hated her always having the last word.

'I was never good enough for him,' he said dejectedly. 'What was the point in trying?'

'We all lost someone that day. You weren't the only victim.'

Jack sat there, stuck between them, unable to intervene and unable to leave.

'If I'd gone further out, it wouldn't have happened,' he stated quietly.

Rhiannon pressed her hands to her hips. 'Says who? You were eleven. What do you think you could have done?'

'I don't know!'

Jack stood up and stepped in front of a distressed Ianto, grabbing him firmly by the arms.

'Ianto, you know that when I was thirteen I lost Gray. I tortured myself for years thinking that I should have done more to keep him safe. I was just a kid, just like you. Don't do this to yourself.'

He was still a little shaky when Jack stepped back, leaving him to face his sister. 'I'll be outside if you need me,' he said, removing himself from the room.

Rhiannon took Jack's place, standing in front of him. 'I didn't mean for you to get hurt. I just thought we could have a laugh over old times. I thought Jack must have known already.'

'Why would you think that?' he replied glumly.

'Because he's family too, now. Families need to stick together. You blamed yourself for what happened to mum, but it never occurred to you that I blamed myself as well, did it? Or that dad blamed himself for not looking after all of us? If dad was upset with you, it was because he wanted you to be more than he ever was.'

'Rhi, no. I wasn't your fault,' he said, reaching out a hand to her. She grabbed it and pulled him into a hug.

'I miss her. And dad,' she muffled into his shoulder.

'I know. Me too.'

'They missed it. The weddings, the kids, all of it.'

They held each other for a long while, before Ianto remembered that Jack was still hiding out in the backyard.

'I should get Jack. He must be freezing out there.'

He stepped out onto the frost covered lawn, finding Jack sat on an old milk crate. He stood up as soon as he saw Ianto.

Ianto shoved his hands into his jeans pockets, looking apologetic. 'I'm sorry I didn't tell you about mum.'

'I understand why. But it was an accident. Nothing you could have done.'

The exchanged looks in that familiar way that always said more than words ever could.

'Come inside, you must be half frozen.' He lead Jack back inside were Rhiannon was now sat wearily in one of their armchairs. He gave her a wan smile.

'Pass me one of those albums. I want to show Jack that photo of when you and mum dressed up like clowns for Halloween.'

'Oh, you can talk! There's a photo here somewhere of that time dad took us to Tredegar and you bawled your eyes out because you wouldn't go down the mine shaft!'

'Guys, guys,' Jack said, trying to take control of the situation. 'That's nothing. You should see some of the photos I've got of Ianto. Priceless!'

Ianto gave him a coy smile. 'No one wants to see those photos, Jack.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Poor Ianto, and Rhi, losing their mum like that. Jack of all peope can understand.

Ianto's wrong. I want to see Jack's photos of him! ;)