Title: 10 Things Ianto Jones Learnt After Meeting Rose Tyler

Disclaimer: None of it's mine. I do not own the amazingness that is Doctor Who or Torchwood sadly.

Pairings: Jack/Ianto, 10/Rose.

Set post Doomsday, pre Journey's End in Doctor Who, so this is my own version of how Rose came back.

It's set up to and including Fragments in Torchwood. So Owen and Tosh and everyone are all alive and happy. Or as happy as they can be considering it's Torchwood, a place that thrives on aliens and angst.

I. He Is Not Alone

She literally walks into his life.

It's raining hard that morning, neither of them are looking where they're going and the resulting collision knocks her styrofoam coffee cup into the gutter and scatters her folders across the rain slicked pavement. He's instantly apologetic, bending down to help her gather her belongings as her coffee runs down the drain and water runs down the inside of his collar.

She waves away the offer of money for another drink as she takes her folders back from him, hair plastered to her face because her umbrella broke two streets ago.

"Don't worry," she says. "Wasn't your fault."

She looks like she's used to saying that and Ianto worries that she's going to cry. But then again, Jack's only just come back and he's still unsure about how he fits into his Captain's life (after all he's just the tea boy) and maybe he's just projecting his own feelings onto her. Maybe it's just the rain making everything look sad and wet and lost.

He's brought back from his thoughts by her quiet London accent. "These things 'appen."

She hugs the folders to her as if they can offer some magical protection against the rain and her lost coffee. She ducks her head almost nervously and with a murmured goodbye she's off again down the street, her pumps splashing through the puddles.

xxx

The next time is chance.

A week later and he's at the supermarket checkout behind her. She's packing her things into plastic bags and he spots the flying saucer sweets tucked between a bottle of ketchup and a tub of coleslaw.

"They don't really look like that," he offers as an introduction. "Alien spacecraft, I mean."

Her mouth quirks into a funny sort of half smile. "I know."

Somehow, Ianto believes her."They probably also don't taste like fruit flavoured sherbet in a wafer shell, which is the real shame."

She laughs and tucks a stray piece of hair behind her ear, relaxing. "So. What's your name then?"

"Ianto."

She raises an eyebrow. "What, like Cher or Kylie?"

He finds himself blushing and offers his hand. "Jones. Ianto Jones."

"Well, Jones, Ianto Jones, it's nice to meet you again. I'm Rose Tyler."

He has a sudden painful flashback to how he met Jack.

She glances behind him. "You need to pay for your shoppin'."

"What?" He turns to find his goods have already been scanned. "Oh, sorry." The cashier just shoots him an amused smile. He hands his bank card over, but when he turns round Rose has pulled a disappearing act.

xxx

The third time is deliberate.

He's tracked her to one of his own local pubs, where she's sipping a vodka cranberry in a quiet corner. She looks up as he walks over and Ianto's momentarily taken back by her eyes. They're so very, very old. For a moment it is Jack looking back at him, but he blinks quickly and it's just Rose again.

"You know they 'ave laws against stalkin' people."

Ianto sits in the seat opposite. "I looked you up."

She tenses. "What did you find?"

"You're supposed to be dead."

Rose just looks at him. "I am."

And Ianto understands.

xxx

When she gets so plastered she forgets where she lives, he takes her home with him. By the time he's finished making them both tea, she's made herself comfortable on the sofa, a cushion pressed tightly to her chest like a child's cuddly toy.

"Ta." She takes the mug gratefully in shaky hands and sips at it. " 's a good cuppa."

He smiles. "So I've been told." The walk seems to have sobered her up a bit but her words are still slurry.

They sit in comfortable silence for a bit, and then Ianto decides to tentatively broach the subject again. "You were at Canary Wharf."

"I died that day."

He's not expecting much more from her by the look of pain that's now etched into her features, but she surprises him, as though she's been waiting to tell someone her story. As though she needs to get everything out.

And so she spins him a half garbled tale of two men and space and time travel, of war and peace and dying suns and battle; of a man with two faces who she loves and then loses again and again, but he always comes back and then she loses him for the last time, but this time she also loses her family. There is a white wall and bright light and pain, lots of pain, and she wants to die. Then there is golden light and the next thing she knows she finds herself spat out in Cardiff.

He doesn't understand half of what she's saying, partly because she's still drunk and partly because it doesn't make any logical sense, but he sits and listens as she spills out her life story to him. At the end she's finished half a box of Kleenex, and it's a testament to how moved he is that he doesn't even have the urge to tidy them all away. He might not understand everything she's said but he understands the pain.

"I lost them."

She looks at him, but he knows she's not really seeing him at all. It's another man, another place, another time.

"I lost him. He's so alone. Who's gonna hold his hand?"

He puts her to bed in the spare bedroom and she's asleep before her head even touches the pillow. Asleep, she looks innocent and less troubled, and as Ianto closes the door and begins cleaning up the flat he realises he doesn't need to understand everything about her story. He recognises the pain, the loss, the destruction of innocence. And for once she doesn't remind him of Jack.

Ianto Jones understands Rose Tyler.

Because she reminds him of himself.

II. He Gets Attached Very Easily

He takes her two Panadol and a cup of tea the next afternoon.

Fortunately, he's called in work earlier and asked for a day off. Jack, though curious to know why his lover is taking a day off when he never has done before, and for a reason that he hasn't been given, grants his request, because everyone knows Ianto never takes time off work. And besides, it's a slow day, there's very little rift activity and Jack's promised to cphone him if the world decides to end.

She calls him in when he knocks at the bedroom door and sits up against the mound of pillows she's surrounded herself with. Without any make-up on and her hair sticking up at odd angles she looks adorable.

"Sorry," she says. She's sleeping in one of his old hockey jumpers and he thinks she looks even more like a child, dwarfed as she is in it. She has to roll the sleeves up to finds her hands for the mug. "I don't normally spill my guts to strangers an' then crash at their houses."

Ianto smiles. "I'll take it as a compliment then."

Rose smiles too and rubs her temples, grateful that the Panadol are fast acting. She's got a major mining expedition in her head, who've decided to give up their pickaxes and just use explosives all the time. Fortunately Ianto's taking pity on her and he's whispering.

She knows she needs to repay him somehow. "Listen, I tell you what, let me buy you dinner to make up for it."

Ianto isn't sure. He knows it's not a date- after all Rose is an emotional mess and he's sort of kind of involved with an emotional mess- namely one Jack Harkness. He's not exactly sound himself. He internally debates the pros and cons.

Rose pouts. "Please?"

xxx

She knocks on his door at 7.00, in dark jeans and with her hair curled. She smiles reassuringly at his jacket and jeans combo.

"Not too underdressed am I?"

She shakes her head. "Come on."

xxx

He finds out Rose's idea of dinner is fish and chips from the local chippy.

"It's the best food in the city though!" she protests, and Ianto finds himself laughing as they walk along the river.

Ten minutes later and only an empty box he has to admit they are damn good chips. Rose is laughing at some joke he's cracked and her arm is linked through his. He feels lighter than he has done in weeks.

When they reach his flat she declines the offer to have a cuppa, telling him she has work in the morning. He registers disappointment but bluffs his way out of the situation to himself. After all, they're both broken inside and Ianto doesn't need to deal with an emotional mess of a woman. He certainly doesn't need a friend who can make him laugh like she does, who knows about the dark places. It's been nice and all, but it's come to an end now. He squashes the little voice that tells them they could have been a little less broken together.

His face has become a blank mask, but for some reason Rose's smiling, and as she kisses his cheek goodbye, he feels something slipped into his hand.

He waits until she's out of sight before he opens his clenched fingers. In his palm, on a little scrap of white paper is a telephone number. And underneath are two words.

'Thank you.'

One month later Rose is his new flatmate.

III. He Should Never Allow Owen To Gossip

Rose runs her own private investigative service.

Ianto always knows she's had a Bad Day when she comes in and won't talk. There's a look in her eyes he knows Jack has. One Ianto himself has after losing Lisa. After that day. One that says they've seen too much. Old eyes. Too old for the body.

On the Bad Days Ianto makes her a cappuccino with extra crème and chocolate sprinkles, tucks her up in a dressing gown and hot water bottle and they watch something soppy and romantic, or a comedy. And then Rose will cry and he'll rub her back, his hands making soothing circles like his Mam did for him whenever he was upset. She'll fall asleep against him on the sofa and he'll gently untangle himself from her, before fetching a blanket and a pillow and making sure she's comfortable. In the morning everything will be back to normal.

Or what passes for normality these days.

xxx

They always go for chips the day after a Bad Day.

Ianto has discovered Rose has the uncanny ability to find the best chip shops in the world. She always gives him her first chip, a little tradition they've developed, a mutual confirmation that everything between them is still okay.

Unfortunately Owen sees them one time whilst he's on his way to the pub. Ianto and Rose don't spot him, after all they're too engrossed in arguing the finer points of ketchup verses brown sauce, but Owen notices them and he keeps the information to himself.

Well, at least until the next day.

xxx

Ianto finds there's hell to pay for keeping the fact that he's been living with a flatmate quiet. His extremely attractive flatmate.

Ianto fumes as Owen begins to needle him as soon as the doctor enters the Hub.

"Well, if you'd asked I would have told you about her!" Ianto isn't too sure how true that statement is but he's keeping up his exasperated, irritated front with aplomb. "It's not my fault you never asked."

By this time Tosh and Gwen have gathered round, mugs in hand and dying to know all of the gossip. Owen's loving every minute of it.

"And all this time I thought you were shagging Jack, but it turns out you've got a bit on the side." Owen smirks. "Pretty as well. All blonde hair and curves. Don't know what she's doing with you."

"What's this?" Jack comes down the stairs, curious about the little group around Owen now, the giggles of the girls echoing in the Hub.

Ianto wishes he could die. Wishes the Rift would suddenly activate and aliens start pouring through. Wishes the earth was in imminent danger. Wishes there was some huge disaster they had to go and deal with immediately.

The rift stays smugly silent.

Ianto glares at the floor, trying to burn himself a hole if the ground isn't going to be so obliging as to swallow him.

Meanwhile Owen is taking great pleasure in telling Jack. Ianto dares to look at his lover from under his eyelashes, only to find that Jack has gone still, listening to every word Owen says. A quick glance at him and you wouldn't think anything was wrong. But Ianto can see even from his vantage point that Jack's gripping the handrail and his knuckles are white.

When Owen is finished, Jack smiles and jokes and asks them to get back to work. Everything seems okay.

It's not.

Jack is pissy all day, only giving short clipped answers or snarky comments. Gwen almost gets her head bitten off when she pops round his office door to ask about a recent case. Fortunately, it's a quiet day and the others leave quickly that evening giving Ianto sympathetic looks as they pass him, fiddling nervously with a pen.

Finding himself alone now, well, alone except for Jack, brooding in his office upstairs, Ianto dreads hearing him call his name. He hides down in the archives and engrosses himself in the dusty files until he's not sure how much time has passed. In fact, he's so absorbed by what he's doing he doesn't hear the footsteps behind him. Nor does he realise he's trapped until the arms close around him and he finds himself pushed up against the wall and lips pressed hard against his own.

Jack has found him.

Three hours later, with Jack curled round him exhausted but extremely satisfied, he falls asleep in his Captain's bed.

Ianto finds he likes possessive Jack.

IV. He Does Not Like Possessive Jack

It's been a week since the 'Rose Incident'.

Ianto likes to label it that in his head. He likes categorising things as it makes everything so much simpler. He deliberately tries to make his mind endless rooms of fantastically expensive, silver chrome cabinets. There's a drawer for everything, and Jack's got a whole two cabinets to himself. Rose is rapidly accruing a lot of space as well. He knows everyone thinks his tidiness is an OCD.

Rose watches him alphabetise his DVD collection once they're all correctly divided into genre. "You know what they say about tidy people."

"What?" he says warily.

"They're just too lazy to look for things." Rose grins and then ducks as Raiders Of The Lost Ark comes flying towards her. It misses and lands on the carpet. She pokes her tongue out between her teeth so he knows she's teasing. "You're gonna have to pick that up."

If they knew how his mind was ordered he'd never live it down.

xxx

In the Hub things seem to have settled down.

Owen only ribs him occasionally, usually when Jack's not around, because even the doctor knows mentioning Ianto's flatmate is a sore point for the Captain and will earn him a job he really won't want to do.

Like cleaning out the Pterodactyl.

It's not that Jack has anything to worry about and Ianto has tried to explain this, but his words seem to have fallen on deaf ears.

Lately, he's noticed little subtle things that are starting to niggle at him. Things that indicate that Jack isn't taking it as well as he'd hoped. Things like wanting to know her full name.

"Her name's Rose."

"Rose?"

For a second Jack looks like he's been transported to another place, another time, but then he shakes it off and goes back to subtly trying to wheedle her last name out of him.

It could be a perfectly innocent question but Ianto ducks it because he knows if he gives it to them, then Jack will be looking Rose up and trying to dig up any dirt he can find on her. It's how Ianto found her. And he knows if Jack finds the bit about it saying she's meant to be dead he'll go…well Ianto doesn't know and he tries not to think about it.

Ianto wonders if it has anything to do with Lisa. After all, the last time he'd kept someone a secret they'd tried to kill his friends.

But it could just be Jack.

xxx

When he finds the cameras fitted to his flat door, he knows things have gone a bit too far.

Ianto takes great pleasure in removing them and re-fixing them other places, like Owen's desk at crotch level, or Owen's flat door at crotch level, or Owen's…well anywhere Owen would be. At crotch level.

Ianto smiles quietly when he hears the scream of horror come from Jack's office the next day. The rest of the team watch in bemusement as Jack runs out of his office muttering about his eyes and scarring. Ianto grins into his cup of coffee and goes back to filling in Gwen's report.

Jack learns never to do it again.

V. He's Good At Reading Other People

Everyone at Torchwood One was given basic psychic training.

But they also underwent empathy tests and Ianto's score was through the roof. This means he's good at feeling other people's emotions, knowing their moods, sensing when Gwen's uncomfortable, or Jack's in pain, or Owen needs the loo. It also means he's good at comforting others. This doesn't necessarily mean he always knows what to say. He's found that sometimes the best comfort is a hug by someone who doesn't need to know the details.

Sometimes not saying anything is the best policy.

With Rose this seems to be the case. She's been getting better over the past couple of months and she seems to have really thrown herself into her work, helping out anyone she can. And he knows she doesn't always get paid for her work, because sometimes the cases she works are so horrific that she can't take payment because it feels like blood money.

One day Ianto comes home to find Rose just staring blankly at the living room wall. She jumps when he touches her shoulder, but grins at him when he raises his eyebrow in concern.

"Ianto Jones and Rose Tyler. Shop girl and Tea boy."

Ianto relaxes as he goes to make tea; it's not going to be a Bad Day. "We sound like a bad comic strip duo," he calls from the kitchen.

He can feel Rose's gentle smile as it wraps itself round his torso like a soft pink blanket.

"What savin' the world and everythin'?"

Ianto nods, though he knows she can't see from her position on the sofa. "Yeah, something like that."

"Don't think we can do it with those names then can we?" Rose laughs and then sobers up. "I had another nickname once. Bad Wolf."

Ianto can feel the soft blanket being withdrawn from him and he shivers suddenly, an image of gold and death and the vast coldness of space filling him. And then Rose's voice cuts through and the vision is gone.

"What about you? Any other names?"

There's the one Jack calls him in bed, but he doesn't think Rose needs to know about that. He must have said the last bit out loud because Rose has appeared in the kitchen to take one of the mugs and is giving him an odd look.

"I knew a Jack once."

"What happened?" Though Ianto doesn't really need to ask because he already knows from the empty feeling Rose is emanating.

"He died." She smiles but it's a lonely one. "Everyone goes away in the end."

xxx

Ianto knows Jack's getting worried and that's without his empathic abilities. Ianto asks him back to his flat a lot less than they did before and always when Rose is out. Jack starts to wonder if there's more to Owen's snarky comments than just ribbing.

So when Ianto does stay with him Jack puts his heart and soul into it to show him how much he does love him.

He hasn't said it yet but he hopes Ianto knows.

VI. He Should Never Go Into A Situation Unarmed

He's going to get takeaway for the group when there's a noise in the alleyway he's walking past.

Ianto knows it's a bad idea to go down there on his own, especially without telling anyone, and especially without a weapon. He does it anyway.

Big mistake.

Ten minutes later he's got the children out, (which handily explains all those child abduction reports they've been receiving for the past couple of weeks), but on the down-side he's trying to avoid being clawed to death by what can only be described as a thing with unusually elongated arms with razor sharp ends. He's already got a nasty wound running down from his collarbone to his hip and he's trying to ignore the thought that maybe this could be it.

And unlike Jack he's not going to be coming back from this one.

And then Rose appears.

He tries to warn her but it's too late.

VII. He Has Very Interesting Friends

The monster glows green.

Rose glows gold and suddenly it's so bright he has to shield his eyes. When he looks again the monster is gone, nothing but a small pile of ash on the floor and Rose isn't glowing anymore.

Back to normal.

But she's ripped her thin cotton jumper into strips and is tying them round his body, trying to keep the blood in. For some reason he's more concerned about that she's now in her bra than the fact she's just destroyed the big bad alien thing.

"I've called an ambulance." She strokes his face. He flinches away from her touch and she frowns.

"What are you?"

"The Bad Wolf," she says stiffly. "Your saviour." She gets up off her knees. "But if you don't want my help…"

Something about this is all wrong and Ianto knows it inside.

"Sorry," he says. "That was rude."

"You're bleedin'. I think I can forgive you." She smiles.

"Who are you?"

"Rose Tyler. Defender of the Earth." She leans in close and grins. "Shop girl to you an' me."

Ianto feels dizzy but he holds out his hand. "Ianto Jones. Tea boy. Pleased to meet you."

His vision is getting blurrier and Rose is frowning now.

"Ianto, the ambulance isn't goin' to come in time," she says and she's biting her lip which means it's really serious.

Ianto doesn't mind though, he's floating along and he feels like he's wrapped up in a soft cocoon. Is Rose getting further away? Something sharp hits his face.

Rose has slapped him. "Oi! Don't go to sleep. I need you awake."

They both know he's going to die. Strangely, Ianto doesn't mind but he does regret not telling Jack he loves him. And he'll kind of miss Torchwood. Even if all he seems to do is tidy up after everyone.

She seems to come to a decision. "Ianto," she says. "I can keep you alive. Trouble is the power's a bit difficult to control so I could keep you alive for a lot longer than just your normal life span. Like centuries. Not forever. But a couple of human life spans. But it's your choice."

Ianto tires to clear away the fog from his mind. Death or sort of immortality. The watered down, pre-watershed, suitable for kiddies version. He'd have to watch his family age and die whilst he lived on. But then there's Jack. His Captain. He wouldn't be so alone.

He looks at Rose who is watching him closely. "Do it."

"Are you sure? There's no going back, I can't reverse it." Her eyes are boring into his. "What's done is done."

Ianto nods. "I don't want him to be lonely."

Rose doesn't ask who, but they both know who he means, so she lays a hand on his side and looks into his eyes. And suddenly everything is gold and he sees Rose as a young girl falling from her bike and being bandaged up by her mother. Then she's a teenager and partying with her friends and putting on make up. And there's Mickey. He recognises him from the photos. And then there's a blue box and a man, and an overwhelming love, mixed with so much space and time.

Ianto feels very small.

But there is a golden woman and she kisses his hair softly and cradles him. And then he's awake and everything is a lot clearer. Rose is looking at him with concern. She looks tired and her hair is dishevelled but he's not bleeding as badly anymore.

"How'd you feel?"

"Good." And he does.

"I couldn't stop the bleedin' fully," she says. "Or rather, I could but it'd look a bit suspicious. The ambulance picks you up and you've got a twelve inch fresh gash that's now healed. And is startin' to scar whilst you lie in a pool of blood."

Ianto nods. He understands. There are voices from the mouth of the alleyway, and he recognises the voices of Owen and Gwen. He turns to Rose. She can't be retconned, and he knows she wouldn't let them anyway.

"Go."

Rose nods and there is a blinding flash of light. When he opens his eyes again the team are crowded round him and Gwen is frantically calling for Jack in her com. The man in question races into the alley and kneels next to Ianto, gripping his hand hard.

"What happened?"

"Alien," says Ianto and he explains about the children. He leaves Rose out but explains away the bandages and the alien. Ianto's impressed with how well he can lie. The team believe him but Ianto can see something in the way Jack looks at him, in the tightness of his mouth that he doesn't trust his story at all.

At that moment the ambulance comes and exhausted, Ianto conveniently falls unconscious.

VIII. He's Damn Good At Keeping A Secret

He spends the night in hospital under observation but is free to go the next morning. Jack keeps him on the sofa in the hub and doesn't let him do anything too strenuous. Which Jack seems to think involves Ianto being able to do nothing at all.

After a day of putting up with Owen's coffee though, he's unanimously reinstated as Chief Drinksmaker. Ianto is grateful for small mercies.

He spends the night with Jack who looks as pale as spilt milk. Ianto wonders whether the thought of him dying has only just set in. He desperately wants to tell him not to worry anymore but he can't. He's sure these things will work themselves out. When he doesn't age he's pretty sure Jack will start asking questions.

He lets Jack help him back to his flat and then he shoos him out because as lovely as an attentive Jack is he doesn't want him to meet Rose yet. Rose is his special thing and he wants to keep her safe for just a bit longer. And he's just the slightest bit worried Rose might hurt Jack if she ever met him. He can't see her easily agreeing to be tested by Torchwood.

Rose appears twenty minutes later carrying the shopping in one hand and a stack of books in another.

"Here." She hands him the texts. "I'll make tea, you read."

And so he does. They're all on space and time and things he's never even dreamt of. And then there is the mention of the rift and time travel and something clicks in Ianto's mind. He squints at Rose and if he moves his head to the side ever so slightly he can almost see a golden light shifting round her as she moves, cutting up the carrots for tea. In fact he's so busy watching the light that he doesn't realise immediately that Rose is talking.

"…and so I was investigatin' somethin' in the other universe and there was this sudden shift. Like someone had grabbed my insides and pulled. And I ended up here. Back in my world but with no-one, not even my family. And no way to contact the Doctor."

Something sparks in Ianto's mind but he quells it for the moment. He doesn't want to raise Rose's hopes and then squash them.

She's bought chocolate éclairs for dessert and then he makes hot chocolate and they watch TV and this time neither of them cry. They fall asleep on the sofa.

xxx

Six months later he and Rose are sharing a bed. It's all platonic; after all Rose is rather like a sister. But sometimes he has nightmares and she has bad dreams and so the arrangement works quite well. What they say out loud though is that it saves on heating because another body in the bed makes it toasty warm.

Almost unnoticed the bad dreams fade away.

IX. He Does Actually Like Possessive Jack After All

One day there's a banging at the door.

Neither of them can be bothered to move, but when it continues Ianto untangles himself from Rose, gets up sleepily and opens the door to Jack and a man (with what Ianto has to admit is fantastic hair) and a pin stripe suit.

"Yan," says Jack, in a voice that's half annoyed, half aroused at the sight of Ianto in just pyjama bottoms. "Why didn't you open the door earlier?"

"Because it's four am. I was trying to sleep. It's what normal people do," he protests.

Jack and the Doctor watch as Rose, clad only in one of Ianto's shirts and a pair of thick blue socks comes up behind him and drowsily wraps an arm round Ianto.

"Come back to bed. It's cold with the door open."

Neither the Doctor nor Jack know quite what to say as everybody suddenly gets the wrong idea. Ianto can't honestly be bothered to correct them because four am is no time to justify anything to anyone.

"Why are you wearing his shirt?"

Rose blinks and suddenly she's a lot more awake. "Doctor?" she frowns. "The first time I've seen you in over a year and that's all you've got to say? 'Why are you wearing his shirt'?" Rose glares at him, her perfectly planned reunion dying a fiery death in her mind. She grabs Ianto, who is slowly wilting under the death glares of the two men outside and clutches at his arm. "Come on."

She slams the door in their faces.

By the time the Doctor has used the sonic screwdriver to make his way through the door, (Rose having done something to it so it took a couple of extra tries before the Doctor can get in), Ianto and Rose are both curled back up in bed.

Not for long.

Jack hauls Ianto out of bed and into Rose's room, or what is now termed the spare bedroom. Ianto has just enough time to register the sound of a Tyler slap from the other room before he's thrown on the bed.

"Jack," Ianto begins, seeing the look in Jack's eyes.

"Are you sleeping with her?" he asks.

"Well of course we sleep together." Jack goes white, then red, and turns his back on him. "Helps us sleep at night. But I've never had sex with her if that's what you're asking."

Jack turns round and this time he's smirking.

Ianto begins to panic.

Jack pins him to the bed and proceeds to have his wicked way with him.

This time he does tell Ianto he loves him.

X. Everything Normally Works Out In The End. Especially If You Have Forever.

Two years later on one of their stop off visits, Rose and the Doctor park the TARDIS in the Hub. They've popped in to tell Ianto he's a godfather.

Jack pouts prettily and asks why he isn't a godfather too but Rose refuses to let him anywhere near the baby because Jack can't look after himself let alone a small child.

Rose looks at him pointedly. "And anyway Ianto's more responsible. He's already had practice looking after a hyperactive child with the attention span of a tube of blue smarties."

Jack gapes indignantly at this, but ends up smiling as he watches Ianto play with the baby who's gurgling.

"I thought you didn't do domestic," accuses Jack.

The Doctor raises an eyebrow. "Pot. Kettle."

Rose shoots her husband a look. "Play nice."

Jack sobers. "You two though. You've got the whole of time to be together, what with Bad Wolf and all." He glances back at Ianto who's currently totally engrossed in blowing raspberries on the baby's tummy. "I've got so little time to be with him. Human lives are so short."

The Doctor is confused. "But you've got centuries," he says.

"What?"

"Ah," says the Doctor, realising he's put his foot in it.

"Ianto Jones-Harkness," says Jack, and Ianto knows by his full name he's in trouble.

He goes for nonchalant. "Hmm?"

"Is there something you want to tell me?"

Rose smirks. "You haven't told him yet?"

"You know as well?" Jack's very unhappy at how everyone in his odd little family knows. "Does everyone except me know what's going on?"

Ianto rubs the back of his neck which means he isn't sure that Jack is going to like what he has to say and hands the baby over to Rose.

She bounces the child on her hip. "I think you'd better run."

So Ianto does.

The Doctor grins as Jack dashes after his husband. "That always was the fun part. The running."

Rose twines her fingers with his. "Definitely."

The baby pats her face with tiny chubby fingers and dribbles. Rose smiles indulgently at her tiny Time-Lord daughter and then back at her husband, who's looking at her with that familiar adoration in his eyes.

"Sometimes it's nice to be caught though too."

Well I hope you enjoyed it. If you did just pop me in a nice shiny review and I'll be as pleased as a jam covered Ten.

xxx