Torchwood: Fanfic: First official act

[m_findlow]

Title: First official act
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, OC
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 2,112 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for badly_knitted's prompt "Any, any, sign here" at fic_promptly
Summary: Ianto has one final set of paperwork to sign to make his appointment official.

'Right this way, Mr Jones,' the Director of Homeland Intelligence said, indicating he should step inside the room.

Ianto swallowed, unsure why he should feel a wave of nervousness at being here. He'd visited Vauxhall House any number of times to assist or liaise on matters relating to national security, but for some reason this felt different. He wasn't just coming here as a representative of Torchwood. Now he was coming here as their leader - Director of Global Operations, was the official title. If you asked Jack however, it was Director of answering all those horrible phone calls. That was surely the only reason Jack wanted his old job split in two, so that the less palatable aspects, at least according to him, could become someone else's responsibility. As if Ianto didn't already do half of it. At least now he got paid for it, though having all that responsibility resting on his shoulders hadn't quite sunk in yet.

Technically, he outranked everyone here at Vauxhall House now. Apart from the Queen, there really wasn't anyone he had to take official instruction from. Being seen to be cooperative wasn't the same as not having the option to override something you didn't like. There was no reason he should feel nervous, unless it was of course looking like an idiot and bringing the whole organisation into disrepute.

'Can I get you a glass of water?'

'Ah, no thank you,' Ianto said, finding the room filled by a large mahogany table encircled by tall leather-bound chairs. Only one had anything placed in front of it, just a leather blotter and a sheaf of pages, all lined up squarely and perfect. Without asking he knew he should take that seat.

'Just one last set of formalities to finalise your appointment,' he said. 'And congratulations, by the way. I think there are a great many here, and within our counterpart organisations who, if I'm being polite, breathed a tiny sigh of relief at the news.'

'Thank you,' Ianto replied. He could have made a joke about having to still deal with Jack himself, but decided to keep things professional, at least for now.

'We just require you to sign off on the Official Secrets Act and then we can complete all of the necessary interagency communiques to put you in the loop as required. Just those pages there in front of you,' he said, pointing at them. 'Take your time to read them. There's no rush. I can have one of my aides wait outside the door until you're done.'

Ianto looked down at the pages and then up at the Homeland Director. 'I hate to break it you guys but I work for Torchwood. We've already signed the Official Secrets Act. It's pretty much the first thing they do.'

'We're well aware of that Mr Jones, however what we're asking you to sign is a whole other section of the Act.'

'Doesn't signing the whole Act cover me by virtue?'

'You were only required to sign those sections that befit your position at the time,' he explained.

Really? He dealt with aliens for a living. How could there possibly be anything higher up than that? Aliens were the biggest secret there was.

'There are separate sections within the Act that are specifically redacted only for the eyes of top government agency officials. Of which you areplied now one,' the Director went on.

An Official Secrets Act within an Official Secrets Act? Why didn't that surprise him? He frowned at the Director. 'Isn't that kind of wrong? Doesn't that mean we've all technically signed up to something we can't even see?' He'd read the Act cover to cover before putting pen to paper the last time, even though it had been a dreadfully dull read. Bureaucracy was even more ephemeral than he'd thought.

'Why do you think we're asking you to sign now? All those other Torchwood agents of yours aren't bound by these extra provisions. This binds you to secrecy even from them.'

'What?' His exclamation was neither polite nor proper.

'There's are things even they can't know, Mr Jones.'

'What about Jack? Captain Harkness, I mean,' he said, correcting himself.

'No exceptions. You will be privy to the most sensitive intelligence in the country. Less than one hundred people in the UK will know what you know.'

Ianto shook his head in disbelief. 'But he's my husband. We have spousal privilege. Besides, wouldn't he have had to sign this when he was in charge?'

'Of course, but just because he's bound not to speak about things that he signed the Act for when he was Director of the Torchwood Institute, that doesn't give him an automatic right to knowledge of matters once you take over.'

Ianto chewed over the statement for a moment before replying. 'So, what you're saying is I can't discuss anything with him because I can't be sure whether he knew about it beforehand?'  That was just plain confusing and he could see himself becoming totally maddened by it in short order. It wasn't like anyone was going to stamp his intelligence reports and other memos as pre- or post- Jack Harkness.

'Quite right, Mr Jones. Now if you could just review these few pages and sign and date each in the bottom right corner for me. We can incorporate these pages into the original copy you signed in 2005.' The Homeland Director set a rather expensive looking pen down on the blotter next to the papers.

Ianto stared at the sheaf of papers in front of him on the table. If by a few they mean at least fifty, then he'd be here all day. Surely Jack could have mentioned that this was part of what he had to do, or maybe Jack had just signed without reading a single word of it. After all, when he took over Torchwood, there was no one else to tell. Everyone who'd known anything about Torchwood Cardiff and its operations was dead. No doubt Jack told them he couldn't care less about some official paperwork in any case. He would have just done whatever so that he could go home and get on with the job.

He picked up the pen, clicking the top on the surface of the table as he stared at the top page. This was just part of what he had to do, he told himself. He accepted that there might be things he'd need to know that would be vitally important not to share with the whole world. So much of what they did every single day fell into that category but even though he and all his teammates had signed the Act, swearing themselves to silence, the actual signature itself was unnecessary. They all knew the cost of keeping the truth from the general public, as much as it was possible. It wasn't as if people who lived in Cardiff didn't know about Torchwood, they just didn't quite grapple with exactly what they did. Handled weird stuff was the general consensus, but they'd never know just how close any of them had come to being completely wiped off the face of the planet. Sometimes he wished he didn't know. It would certainly help him sleep at night.

But Jack was another matter entirely. It had always driven him mad that Jack kept so many secrets, and whilst he accepted that some of them were hidden in order to preserve Earth's timeline - since Jack's own existence had largely attributed to that particular headache in the first place - he could understand that. But to have to keep from him matters that impacted Torchwood and the planet as whole made him feel more than a little uneasy. Jack would have been privy to everything up until this point and somehow pulling the rug out from under him didn't sit well.

He'd agreed to take on this job on the basis that he'd still always have Jack backing him, providing him with support and guidance when he needed it, and as always, someone to bounce ideas off. He wasn't taking over per se, they were just carving up responsibility between them, playing to their strengths. Just because Ianto's roles slightly overarched Jack's was merely a bureaucratic delineation, putting him officially in charge. When it came to the end of the world however, he knew which of the two of them he wanted calling the shots.

'Nope.' Ianto said. 'Sorry, but I can't sign this.'

There was a little cough, as if Ianto had filled the air with indigestible words. 'Excuse me?'

'You heard me. I've been asked to head up Torchwood operations globally, but I still need my head of Cardiff operations to be in the loop. Jack and I have no secrets from one another. This job is hard and it's dangerous. The rift is unpredictable at best. I can't be asked to withhold information that could prevent us from properly managing the rift and what comes through it. And Jack's knowledge of all matters that have been addressed at this level to date will be invaluable to me. As will his continued input into matters that impact this planet.'

'You're asking us to make an exception to allow Captain Harkness to be allowed access?' His tone alone suggested that he thought this was the most outrageous thing that had ever been requested.

'No,' Ianto said, standing up to match the Director for height, so that his response would be considered clear and unequivocal. 'I'm demanding you make an exception. It's not as if we're not both still bound by all of the penalties that will apply if either of us were to breach the Act's secrecy provisions. I'm the one having to take on this job. I need full disclosure, and that means I need to be able to make decisions about what goes on in Cardiff even when I can't be there. Someone has to know. I can't think of anyone better than Jack. You've trusted him this far. I'm asking you to go on trusting him, just as you're about to trust me.'

The Homeland Director looked flummoxed, as if he'd never been told no in his life and didn't know quite what to do with Ianto's refusal. 'This is quite unprecedented.'

'I gathered that.'

'We don't have protocols for this.'

'In what way?'

'Once you sign those papers, the originals that Captain Harkness signed would become invalid. They would be scanned into our archives and then destroyed. We can only have one copy.'

Ianto sighed. Really? Did they have to make everything so ridiculously hard? 'And where is this copy? Aboard the Valiant in orbit around the Earth? Area 51? Down in your basement here at Vauxhall House surrounded by death rays?'

The  Director blushed, looking awkward. 'Actually, it's in in my briefcase here,' he said, casting his gaze down at the slim leather satchel. 'I was about to have it destroyed just as soon as you completed signing.'

'Well then, hand it over. I'll sign right next to Jack, then it's official. You've got your precious one copy and we're both in the loop. If we break you rules you can have us both strung up by our ankles or whatever it is you do to people that don't follow the rules.'

Flustered at being suddenly bossed around he fumbled with the locks of the case, pulling out the thick yellowing wad of papers, each one marked with Jack's familiar signature.

'Nothing has changed?' Ianto asked flicking his eyes up at the man as he flipped through the pages, checking each one was properly signed and dated by Jack before he sat down and properly consumed the contents for himself.

'The documents are always the most up to date laws. Any addendums are couriered by hand for additional signatures as required. That is a complete copy of everything.'

'Good. Now if you'll leave me in peace to read through this for a while it would be much appreciated. And a cup of tea if you can manage it. Black, no sugar.'

'I'll have them bring one round straight away,' the Homeland Director replied, disappearing quickly out the door.

'Give me a weevil over a public servant any day,' Ianto muttered to himself, wondering when he'd become as adverse to red rape as Jack. He sighed, easing himself back down into the chair and setting the pile of paper in front of him. Now that the hard part was out of the way, he could sit down and read the provisions in detail. At least then one of them would know what they'd signed up for.