Oh, em, yeah... So apparently, this one demanded a coda. Ok. I promise i'll get round to some other, long-neglected stories again soon!

"So…," Jack asked as they finished dinner at the restaurant in their hotel. "Are you kinda tired of being in the car with me after the drive in, or might you be up for a night-time ride? No speeding in the dark, Time Agent's honour!" he vowed, raising his left hand in a Vulcan salute.

Ianto sat back and drained the last sip of his Riesling. "It is a gorgeous evening. Are you sure you're not too tired, though?"

"I don't think I could ever be too tired in your presence, Ianto."

Ordinarily, Ianto would have rolled his eyes at a line like that, doubly so from Captain Jack Harkness, but the way Jack said it just then, the way he looked at Ianto….

"Right. Where are we heading, then? Though, I suppose the whole point of a night drive is that it doesn't matter…."

Jack smiled at Ianto's conscious attempt to be more spontaneous. "I seem to remember some nice driving to up around Teeton from here. And some nice places to pull off, put the seats back, and star-gaze."

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Ianto smirked.

"They've been calling it that for centuries," Jack laughed.

"Ready when you are, Captain," Ianto said, untucking his napkin from his collar. Jack's genuine, relaxed laugh was already becoming so much more frequent than it had ever been, but Ianto was quite certain he would never tire of it.

"I'd recommend a jumper," Jack said. "I'll go turn on the heated seats and wait for you."

"You know how to spoil a guy," Ianto grinned.

Sitting back, cool breeze in his hair, surrounded by warmth from the neck down, Jack's fingers loosely threaded with his, Ianto couldn't help but think that only weeks ago he'd been more than just technically dead and frozen. Of all the mindfucks he'd been through since day one in Torchwood Tower, there was little chance that anything would ever beat that, even if it had been practically a routine occurrence at Torchwood 3.

Since 'coming back', Ianto had tried to think of it as little as possible, but there were times it was impossible to ignore. Ianto had always been a realist and never put much stock in dreams-come-true, mostly because every time he'd ever dared to hope, something always intervened to lay waste to his hopes.

Now, though, Ianto knew beyond any doubt that those days were over, for good. Though he'd likely always be the pragmatic one, he didn't need to worry about hope anymore. He had Jack, and Ianto knew Jack's greatest secret – he was more constant than fickle hope could ever touch. Though he'd once worried about the inevitability of Jack forgetting such a brief moment in the interminable life he was faced with, Ianto was beginning to understand that 'always' wasn't just something that had happened to Jack – it was something that was a part ofJack.

"Feel like stopping for a bit?" Jack asked softly, squeezing Ianto's hand.

"Ok," Ianto agreed.

Jack carefully maneuvered his F-type off the road and into a fallow field before shutting off the engine, reclining his seat, and putting his arm around Ianto's shoulders. It took a bit of shifting and trial and error before they could 'snuggle' comfortably over the centre console but eventually they found the proper angles.

"You happy, Ianto?" Jack asked after a long while.

"Doesn't begin to describe it, Jack. Not by a long shot."

"Me too," Jack murmured.

Although Ianto had no doubts, looking up at the stars and understanding them in a completely different way since his brief stay on an actual space cruiser, he had to wonder. "Do you miss it up there? I mean, if we could…."

"I know what you mean," Jack said. "But, no, I don't really miss it. I used to think I did. I used to want nothing more than to get back out there. But you know…. Wherever you are, there's always going to be an 'out there'. That used to be the allure for me. That there was always going to be someplace to escape to, because since I was a boy I've been desperate to escape. After that day on Boeshane, everything was always crumbling around me, no matter where I went or what I did. I know I'm stupid, I never learn, but… nothing 'out there' is ever gonna beat this."

Tears welling up had turned the night sky into an English rendition of Van Gogh as Ianto pulled Jack closer. "You're not stupid, Jack. You stopped the crumbling. I should know, because I never had anything to believe in before you."

"Yeah, you did," Jack whispered, stroking Ianto's cheek with his thumb. "And I should know because I never would have found the will to fight like that if I didn't have you to believe in. Yan… something I never told you. Since I came back from the Valiant, I've been trying to work it out. I know I won't, can't really, but I think I understand it enough now. I always wondered why I'm being kept here, 'cause I could always feel it, you know? But it's something that happens… so far out in time, and there's no other way for me to get there but in linear time. Whatever it is, whatever part I've got to play, you're the key to it. This… us. Without this, I don't think I could get to that point and still be whoever and whatever I'll have to be. Having this… it'll see me through. Forever, if it has to."

"What's all this about forever?" Ianto said, smiling through more tears. "We're meant to be having fun, yeah?"

Jack smiled through his own as he leaned in to kiss Ianto. "Yeah. You're right. Got a blanket in the boot if you wanna stretch out for a while."

"Yeah," Ianto agreed, "let's stuff all this talk and get down to action," not even remotely daunted by the prospect of making love with Jack in a field at night.

An hour later, Ianto was asleep, wrapped around Jack, the blanket wrapped around them both. Jack had no desire to shift or wake Ianto, but they did have a very comfortable bed back in the hotel and it would be much more pleasant waking up there, after all.

Jack carefully extricated himself and dressed, then put the top back up on the car before waking Ianto as gently as he could with a kiss. "Don't wake up too much," Jack whispered. "Just pull your jeans and shirt on and I'll get us back to a cosy bed, huh?"

Ianto took Jack at his word and didn't attempt to rouse himself much, just dressing and slipping back into the (re)heated car. He slept most of the way back to their hotel, his hand in Jack's the entire way. Jack's smile didn't fade the entire way, either.

Once they got back to their destination, Jack walked Ianto up to their room and got him undressed and tucked in before settling in himself.

"No, Ianto," Jack murmured to his sleeping partner, stroking his adorably just-been-fucked hair, "I'm not missing a single, solitary thing."