Ficlet_zone Challenge 16 - All through the night

[m_findlow]

Title: All through the night
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Lisa, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,042 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 16 - House Reverse Fandom (5 to 9) at ficlet_zone
Summary: Ianto works both the day shift and the night shift.

Ianto's watch beeped so innocuously that he barely noticed it but for that fact that he wasn't alone.

Jack chuckled, startling him, and checking his own watch for the time. 'You know, you're supposed to set your alarm for seven am, not seven pm.'

'My mistake,' Ianto replied, clearing away the empty mug and plate from Jack's desk, stopping to neaten a pile of reports whilst he was at it. 'Some days it feels like I can't remember what time of day it is.'

Jack leaned back in his chair and chewed the end of the pen that was meant to be signing off mission reports from his team. 'Don't I know it? Speaking of... You are going home soon, aren't you? Everyone else already has. I didn't even have to kick Tosh out tonight. No reason you should put in more hours than them.'

'They work harder than I do,' he deftly replied, even if he didn't always believe it. Then again, if he spent half his day running around the city, only to arrive back at the hub dripping in some foul smelling substance, or covered in cuts and bruises, he'd probably be keen to go home too. Tosh and Suzie had espoused the restorative qualities of a hot bath and a glass of white wine more times than he could recall. What he wouldn't give for the luxury of time to have a hot bath.

'I think you work plenty hard, Ianto Jones,' Jack said, trying for a compliment. 'Wash up those dishes and then off home with you.'

'Yes, sir,' he said, taking the order to heart. Maybe not home, but he did have somewhere he needed to be.

It didn't take much for Jack to lose interest in Ianto's packing up routine. It was almost like the minute Ianto stepped out of that office he became invisible. He was just part of the furniture. Sometimes he hated it, but tonight he didn't mind one bit. The last thing he wanted were Jack's eyes following him around.

Finally pushing through the access door and out of the main hub, his legs felt like lead. They weren't looking forward to the ten flights of stairs that would take him down to the lowest part of the hub - lower than anyone else ever went. All he really wanted was one good night's sleep in a nice soft bed, but that wasn't to be. He still had a job to do, and this one was the most important of all.

Most people hated the nine to five grind. For him, it was the five to nine grind that wore him down. All those hours in between when everyone else was kicking back with a microwave dinner and trashy television, Ianto was at his most alert. Perhaps alert was the wrong word. More like at his most heightened sense of awareness. Some might even call it highly strung. His day job he could do with his eyes closed. The night shift took all his attention and more.

He slipped the key out of his pocket and unlocked the door, taking that habitual deep breath before pushing it open and sealing himself inside.

Lisa gave him a pained little smile as he stepped over. 'Hello, love.' He kissed her, long and slow and tender, and her smile was just that little less pain-filled for a second. He lived for that moment.

'Hello, Ianto.' He loved those two words. She was the only one who said his name without it sounding like they needed something from him. All she wanted was him, and he her.

'Good day?' He asked the question like they were back in their flat in London, chewing the fat as they threw something together for dinner. He checked all the machines, tweaking doses of painkillers and other things that helped keep her alive. It was easier to let her sleep during the day and be more alert at night, so that they could spend as much time together as possible. And so that he didn't feel so guilty about abandoning her down here all day. Even so, she was still a little drowsy. It was the drugs. He was needing more and more to offset everything else. Still, only another week and he'd have a real doctor here to help her. Not long to go now at all.

He perched on the end of a narrow stool by the machines. He could have gotten a nice comfortable chair to sit in but it would have made it way too easy for him to drift off inadvertently. From his breast pocket he extracted a book and held it up so Lisa could see.

'I got a new one for us,' he said. Her eyes were already closed, but there was the tiniest squeeze on his hand to let him know she'd heard him.

'Tosh recommended this one. Even let me borrow it. I think you two would get along well.' Not that it was ever likely to happen. When they got out of this mess, he planned on leaving Torchwood for good.

They were leaving all of it behind to start over somewhere new, maybe the west coast, someplace quiet with a bit of seaside. He could get a job at the university library and Lisa could manage accounts for some small law firm. Or maybe they'd open up one of those bed and breakfast type places in the country like they'd always talked about, but both knew would probably never happen. They could spend their days cooking up home style food and mending gates, feeding chickens and taking their guests on rambles through the countryside, pointing out the places of interest and flocks of local sheep. People who didn't live in Wales loved that sort of thing.

A few chapters of this new book first though, before Lisa was too tired to absorb any more of it. Then he'd have several hours before morning that he could start looking for rural property listings. Sleep could wait another night. There were still just enough five to nine shifts to catch up on sleep. Once Lisa was whole again, time wouldn't really matter anymore. They'd have all the time in the world.