Ficlet_zone Challenge 17 - No-brainer

[m_findlow]

Title: No-brainer
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Gwen, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,139 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 17 - Jerry Jeff Walker Song Titles (Takin' a chance on love) at ficlet_zone
Summary: Gwen puts a really simple decision into context.

Gwen's fingers made a sharp snapping sound. 'Hello? Earth to Jack?' Gwen waved her hand in front of his face, trying to garner his attention.

Jack blinked and looked at her. 'Huh?'

'You were doing it again. Any further off and you'd be as far away as is possible without actually leaving the hub. I can understand you staring out the window but he's not even there. It's like you're just staring off into space.'

Jack straightened in his chair and leant over the desk, resting his arms on its surprisingly uncluttered surface. Ianto must have been through earlier and cleaned up everything he hadn't needed any longer. 'You have my full attention, Gwen Cooper.'

'For now,' she said, sounding skeptical. 'Honestly, you never used to be this unfocused. The world could be ending and nothing would stop you, but now you can't even sit there and have a discussion about this,' she said, tossing the file down on his desk with an air of frustration. 'Would the two of you just get married and get over it? Trust me when I say that all the giggly, moon-eyed nonsense disappears just as soon as you're married. No more fussing about whether or not they're going to stick around, or if your jokes aren't funny enough or should you wear makeup on the weekend just so they don't see how you look without it. I can't help but think you'd benefit from a bit of that, Jack. No more pressure to impress, no more worrying about things not working out. Trust me, married life takes all the anxiety out of a relationship. Oh, sure. Me and Rhys have let ourselves go a little bit, but who cares? We love each other and that's all that matters.'

Jack frowned at her. Marriage? Where had that come from? He hadn't really been that off with the fairies, had he? 'You don't think he's that serious, do you?'

Gwen seemed shocked at the question. 'Ianto? We are talking about Ianto, aren't we? I don't think I've ever met anyone who takes everything as seriously as Ianto.'

'Well, sure, he takes stuff seriously,' Jack agreed, 'but-'

'But what? You think you're the exception?'

His finger began tracing invisible patterns over the leather blotter. 'I don't know.' They didn't really talk about stuff like how serious their relationship was. Jack knew he loved Ianto like crazy and that Ianto reciprocated Jack's affections. They lived together as much as was possible but so did lots of people. Life with Ianto was like walking a tightrope, never sure when he might make a fatal slip that ended everything.

Gwen scoffed at him and gave him one of her looks like she was about to lecture him. 'You of all people who can't decide if you love him enough to make him happy, so you pretend he doesn't love you all that much. What's getting married to you? I bet you've done it loads of times. I'd even suggest you didn't like all of them as much as you clearly love him.'

Jack shook his head. 'I didn't marry them. Only one.'

'One?' Gwen's eyebrows disappeared into her long brown fringe. 'You're telling me you've only been married once? In all those years you've lived. You've slept with half of Cardiff but you never tied the knot with any of them?'

Jack raised his eyes to meet hers. 'She didn't know what I did. About Torchwood. In that very last moment before she died, there was a look. Just a flash, barely a second before she was gone, but she knew. She knew that I'd kept something so big from her that she could scarcely believe it. I never wanted to see that again, that look of horror and betrayal.'

Gwen folded her arms and studied him. 'You think marriage makes it worse? You must have loved so many people, Jack.'

He nodded. 'I've learned you can't keep secrets from someone you love enough to marry.'

Gwen smirked. 'You've got that right. I can't imagine Rhys not knowing about all this. It was so hard keeping all of it a secret. But Jack…' She paused, seemingly trying to think how to phrase the next bit. 'Ianto's different. He knows what we do. He knows who you are and what you've done. All the ugly, terrible choices we've had to make and he still loves you more than anything. I don't think even he understands just how much he cares about you. You don't have secrets. You've both been to hell and back and you're still here, together. I know maybe you think this is a big thing but... If not him, then who?'

Jack's gaze settled back on the empty desk across the hub. He'd given up on the idea of marriage a long long time ago. Love and life were far too brief to spoil things with notions of fidelity and forever. But Gwen was right in a way. Ianto had witnessed all the horror inside Jack and had loved and forgiven him. They'd had their differences, their rows and misunderstandings, but somehow they always came back together at the end of it. If there was any one person Jack had loved through all the centuries that perhaps deserved a pledge like that...

'You think I'll stop going all mushy at the thought of him just because we get married?'

Gwen reached into her back pocket and pulled out a twenty pound note, slapping it on the desk. 'That's as much as I'm willing to bet, since it's you. But you should put Ianto out of his misery and make him the happiest bloke alive. He deserves a bloody OBE for putting up with you.'

'Gwen, Ianto already has an OBE.' They all did. Saving the world a dozen times qualified you for that.

'Well. A knighthood, then. I'm sure we could arrange one.'

Jack nodded. Funny how it had never seemed so simple to say yes to the idea before. 'Okay.'

Gwen seemed to almost choke on his response. 'Seriously?'

'If you think it will dampen the distraction of his absence.' A boyish grin began to break out on his face just thinking about it. As if! And Ianto was never going to get fat and comfortable on his watch. Jack had a rigorous exercise plan that would ensure that, though it might result in them getting less work done. Ah well. Wedding bells, though. Just the thought made him start tingling inside.

Gwen rolled her eyes at him. 'Now, before you start wanting to talk about rings and how best to propose, can we please get back to talking about this case file?'

Jack grinned. 'For the next five minutes, I'm all yours.'

'Wow. Four minutes more than I dared hope for. It's working already.'