m_findlow

Title: Time alone
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Gwen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 508 - Solitude at slashthedrabble
Summary: Ianto understands better than anyone why Jack sometimes needs to be alone.

Gwen came inside, her arms laden with the two pizza boxes, spattered with rain, just as she was. Now she knew why Ianto got them delivered. Still, she had offered to go and collect them. She felt like she'd been sitting all day, and really needed the excuse to stretch her legs and grabbed a bit of fresh air. What she hadn't counted on was that whilst she been sealed away down in the hub was that a storm front had swept in across the bay, bringing with it heavy rain.

She set the pizza boxes down and stripped off her sodden jacket, looking around for her two teammates. Only Ianto was readily visible, already bringing over plates and napkins.

'Where's Jack?' she asked. Usually he was scoffing down a slice of pizza before anyone else had even contemplated opening the box. She expected she'd have to fight him off just to get in the door with them.

'He's gone,' Ianto replied, setting out cutlery and two bottles of beer as if that wasn't unusual at all.

'Gone where?'

'Just gone.'

Gwen gave him a perplexed look. 'But I bought pizza. I was only gone twenty minutes.'

'Time enough for Jack to decide he didn't want any,' Ianto said, setting a slice on each plate and handing one to her before settling on the sofa.

Gwen gave him a skeptical look. 'Jack not want pizza? Unlikely. In fact, he was the one who suggested it.' It hadn't been a great day by all accounts, but Gwen was sure that the suggestion of pizza and beers was bound to lighten the mood and turn things around. Days like today just happened. All you could do was brush them off and move on.

Ianto gave her a shrug. 'He wanted some time alone. Probably gone to stand on one of his favourite roofs.'

'But it's bucketing out there,' Gwen replied.

Ianto swallowed his mouthful before replying. 'It's never stopped him before.'

'And you're not worried about him?'

'I worry about how that coat is going to be dry tomorrow morning, but no, I'm not worried about Jack.'

Gwen nibbled thoughtfully at the end of the crust. 'I don't know how you do that- just let him go off and brood.'

'All part of that long, complicated relationship we have,' he replied. She caught him gazing at her, trying to see if she understood what he meant. He set his plate down. 'As much as we want him to be, he's never going to be like us, Gwen. His troubles transcend this lifetime, because for him life is going to stretch on forever. If he sometimes needs to be alone to deal with that, then that's okay. Sometimes we all need a bit of solitude.'

'I suppose,' Gwen said, feeling less hungry than before. She didn't like to think that one day they'd both leave Jack forever. Perhaps this was his way of slowly getting used to that feeling of being totally alone.