Challenge 650 - Vital secrets

[m_findlow]

Title: Vital secrets
Character: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 200 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 650 - Guard at tw100
Summary: Jack is bestowing on Ianto something extremely important. A double drabble.

Jack raised his eyes to look up at Ianto from his desk, before reaching down and pulling open a drawer. He extracted a small notebook, and thumbed through until he found what he was looking for.

'You say you have a photographic memory?' Jack asked.

'More or less.'

Jack held up the notebook and pointed to one particular line of writing. The whole page was full of pencilled notes in Jack's familiar cursive nineteenth century script. 'Combination for the secure archive safe,' he said. 'I'm giving you this in case of an emergency and I'm not here. There's stuff in there that you won't find in any archive database records. There's things this world just isn't ready for, not even Torchwood. But, if you can find a record for it and it's in there, you have permission to use it in absolute last resort situations.'

Ianto nodded solemnly.

'You guard that combination with your life, do you understand me? No one else knows it. I'm only giving it to you because you're in charge of our archives.'

'And not because you think you might not be here when it all goes to shit?'

Jack tried to look reassuring. 'That's right.'