A/N: I know, I know, I've already typed one story just a little bit like this. But this idea… It'd been bothering me for ages and now it refused to stay silenced. Sooo… Here we go. Plus, this is my sign that I'm planning on returning to the 'TW' fandom. (grins)

WARNINGS: SLASH, SPOILERS to anyone who hasn't seen 'CoE', mentions of character death, general weirdness… Ya know, my usual lot.

DISCLAIMER: Ianto died in the series. Along with Tosh and Owen. NONE OF THEM would've died if I DID own something. But as it happens there just isn't enough money on my bank account. (pouts)

SONG INSPIRATION: 'Calls Me Home' from Shannon Labrie

Awkay, before I chicken out… Let's go! I REALLY hope that you'll enjoy the ride.

Calls Me Home

"… love you…"

"…Don't!…"

"… stay with me! …"

"… please! …"

"… don't leave me …"

Jack, I'm so sorry…!

It was the absolutely worst way he could've left Jack. With the Captain pleading, crying. Blaming himself. With the immortal's stubborn heart beating madly from terror, grief and despair while his own was giving out, slowly yet surely. With all the time they'd wasted shining in those eyes that'd be the last thing he'd ever see.

There, barely able to hear Jack begging him not to say goodbye, Ianto Jones realized that letting the immortal so close to him was most definitely the worst mistake he'd ever made. They'd known from the start that their story couldn't possibly have a happy ending. That a day would come when fate would come between them. But why now, when they were just about to get it right…? Just one more chance… Just a little more time…

But Ianto was fast on his way to losing the impossible battle. With the absolutely last remains of his strength he focused on Jack's eyes, took in their color, took in all the lava hot life in them while his own was running out. He wished dearly that he'd had enough breath for words of comfort because he wasn't scared. He hoped that he would've been able to say that he'd never been scared in Jack's arms.

And so he fell into a sleep from which there was no waking up, finishing one blip in time, fading away like a shooting star.

" … it was good, yeah? …"

Most people expect to have their own life flashing by their eyes at the moment of death. Instead Ianto saw Jack's. With so much feeling and clarity that it overwhelmed him.

He saw death, loss, heartbreak, betrayals, sacrifices and goodbyes. But it wasn't pitch black, not all of it. There was also love, friendship and hope. Ianto reached out for those and found a mysterious force clinging to him somehow. It seeped into him and swell, began to pulsate with such power that he would've groaned if he'd been able to.

And then he saw himself through Jack's eyes. Or perhaps through Jack's heart. It was hard to tell because none of what was happening felt real.

Their first meeting, the spark that came to life almost instantly. Jack's disappointment and hurt when the whole Lisa-disaster crashed down on them. All of those scars and tears beginning to heal, slowly yet surely. The turmoil between them settling to something that was almost friendship but not quite. And then, inevitably, something far stonger and more dangerous beginning to stir despite Jack's furious resistance. Once more Ianto felt their first kiss, their first date, the first time they explored one another's bodies. Along with all the ones that followed.

It was like holding on to quicksand but Ianto fought with everything he still had, refused to let those precious memories fade away. Refused to become a part of the nothingness that was sucking him in.

Because with every single beat of the pulsating inside him he could feel Jack calling him back to life.

So Ianto kept hanging on, let the force pulling him back towards the land of the living wrap around him like a blanket. He closed his eyes and let go. Unafraid, because he recognized this force, now.

And he'd never been scared in Jack's arms.

"… don't forget me …"

Jack sat beside Ianto's body for as long as he possibly could. Waiting, hoping against all hope. Begging and pleading anyone or anything willing to listen. He even kissed Ianto once more, just to try it, but the lips he met were cold and unmoving. In the end he was forced to give up. As he left Ianto there, all alone, Jack felt like he'd just left behind a piece of his heart and soul as well.

What Jack didn't know was that less than a day later Ianto opened his eyes on a coroner's table, gasping painfully on his way back to life.

"Never could."

It was pouring rain and the roads were dangerously slippery, especially for someone highly intoxicated. Jack was dimly aware that he was ridiculously drunk and stumbling badly while he made his way out of a reeking bar no sane person would've felt any appeal for. Clearly he wasn't drunk enough yet. Because Ianto's face still haunted him.

It wasn't a thousand years yet, only a thousand months, even if the elapsed time felt like a million years.

Was he drinking to forget or to bear remembering? Jack had lost track long since. It wasn't helping either way.

Jack was just about to disappear into the night, into the nothingness that swallowed him down just as it did Ianto and his grandson, until a entirely too familiar voice made him freeze. "Do you have any idea how hard it was to find you? But that coat… I'd recognize it anywhere." There was a great deal of moisture that had nothing to do with the rain in that brief, husky chuckle. "I really do love that coat."

Jack remained perfectly still for a very long time. Barely dared to breathe. Certainly not daring to trust. But in the end a fool's hope won and he turned around slowly, unable to comprehend how his legs were able to support his weight.

What he found made his heart thud so hard that it was a miracle it didn't stop entirely.

Because there, mere meters away, stood who could only be Ianto Jones. Pale, trembling and soaked from the rain but smiling, laughing from such joy that a person who has never been in love couldn't understand. Alive.

Jack gasped, like someone only just learning to breathe. Or like coming back to life once again. It took far longer than it should've before he managed to form words. "How…?" How can it be you? How can you be alive? How can you be here?

Ianto shrugged. "Simple, sir." It was impossible to tell which question was being answered. Maybe all of them. The Welshman seemed to swallow back a sob. "You called me back home."

End.

A/N: Aaaaaaaand, here we go! (smirks a bit sheepishly) I still have no idea where it came from. But it begged to be typed out and I couldn't stop it.

Soooooo… Any good at all? Deletion material? PLEASE, do let me know! It'd be fantastic to hear from you guys.

In any case, THANK YOU so much for reading!

Take care!