CHAPTER FOUR – Dinner At Jack's

Owen announced his arrival in much the same way that he did every time he entered a room, by flinging the door open so it smashes against the wall holding it and running inside yelling at the top of his lungs.

"Why haven't we been evicted yet?" groaned Jack, rubbing irritably at his temples.

After throwing his coat and bag off at the door, Owen raced into the living room, with both Ianto and Tosh walking behind at a distinctly slower pace.

The seen year old skidded to a stop in front of his father, and gazed up in interest, at the bruises adorning his face, before deciding he would have a better view at them if he was standing on the empty spot on the couch.

An amused smile spread itself over Jack's face as Owen climbed up beside him, and asked in a mock serious voice, "Are you my doctor Owen."

"Yep," he muttered, as he balanced on the cushion and began to gently prod the purpling skin. After several more prods, he asked seriously, "Is your head fuzzy?"

Frowning in confusion, Jack responded slowly, "No. Why?"

Owen grinned, and plopped down beside his father, before answering, "Because if it was, I would have to stop you from sleeping."

Both Ianto and Gwen laughed as Jack turned to them, a stunned expression on his face.

Still chuckling lightly Ianto picked up Tosh's backpack, and announced, "He'll make a good doctor someday. Unfortunately, I think it's time that Tosh and I get a move on, it's getting late and I gotta put dinner on."

Jack, who had been trying to ignore Gwen's less than subtle hints to ask Ianto out, almost groaned out loud when he found himself feeling oddly put out at the thought of Ianto leaving so soon.

'Oh...that is so inconvenient' a voice inside his head sighed.

Making his mind up, Jack quickly got to his feet as Ianto turned to leave, and said awkwardly, "Well, since I seem to owe you for this afternoon, maybe you could- stay for dinner here. You know, as a thank you."

"Aren't you hurt?" asked Ianto, the concerned expression that had been present for the passed hour spreading across the young Welshman's face again.

Shrugging, Jack replied, "I'm feeling better already. I get over these things pretty quickly. We could go down to the pizza shop across the road, so I don't scar you both with my awful cooking...what d'yah say?"

Jack, Gwen and Owen all watched as Ianto and Tosh glanced at each other. Tosh gave her dad an encouraging grin, which seemed to help him make up his mind. Grinning also, Ianto turned back to Jack and replied, "Alright then, that would be brilliant."

----- TW -----

"How did you do that?" gasped Owen, watching in awe as Tosh maneuvered their character around a group of seemingly bloodthirsty aliens, shooting down to before jumping down to the sewers to confront the rest.

"You said that you never played this game."

"I haven't" Tosh replied, returning Owen's impressed grin with a small embarrassed smile.

Shaking his head, Ianto pushed off of the wall he had been leaning against, and left the two children crowded around Tosh's laptop, in favor of searching out Jack, who was supposed to be calling for the pizza.

It didn't take him very long to track down both the captain and Gwen, who were standing in the kitchen, the latter stating in a forced reasonable voice, "But what if something happens to me."

"And when will that be ready?" asked Jack, before putting a hand over the mouthpiece of the phone and hissing, "Would you leave it for five minutes."

"What if I needed to call you for help?" pushed on Gwen, a mischievous glint flashing in her eyes as victory came into sight.

Holding up a hand for silence, Jack continued speaking to the person on the other end of the line, before thanking them and turning to Gwen, sighing, "Repeat that."

"What if I need to call you for help?" asked Gwen, looking the picture of sincerity.

Ianto had to admit that the teenager was making a very compelling argument, even though he didn't know exactly what it was that she was after.

Unfortunately for Gwen, it turned out that Jack was just as good at arguing a point.

"That's why I put my number on reverse charge, so you can call me even if you don't have any credit left," he replied, a smug grinning spreading over his face.

'Ah, phone credit. Thank goodness Tosh hasn't reached this stage'. Ianto watched in amusement as Gwen huffed, knowing that she wasn't going to win. She pressed on none the less, stating empathetically, "I. Need. It."

"Well if you 'Needed. It.' so much, you wouldn't use all of it withing a week of me buying you more," replied Jack, the smug grin still on his face. It was only then that he noticed Ianto standing in the doorway, watching the scene unfold.

Standing up a little straighter, Jack announced, "Pizza should be ready in about ten minutes, do you want to get going?"

"Sure," replied Ianto, figuring that Jack probably just wanted to get away from Gwen's badgering.

Gwen seemed to come to this conclusion also. "We're not finished here."

"Yes we are," argued Jack, with an edge to his voice that said quite clearly that the conversation had indeed ended.

Sighing in frustration, Gwen threw her arms in the air and announced dramatically, "Fine, but if something happens to me, I hope you can live with the guilt."

"It something happened to you," Jack called after her as she stalked into her bedroom, amusement clear in his voice, "I doubt Rhys or Andy would be any help to you."

He turned to Ianto as Gwen's door closed rather loudly, and smiled apologetically. "Don't mind us, this is a nightly ritual."

Chuckling lightly, Ianto replied, "I can imagine."

Jack chuckled as well, before gesturing towards the door and asking, "Shall we?"

"I see no reason why not."

As they made their way through the living room to the front door, they stopped in front of the couch Tosh and Owen were sitting on, the both of them still playing the video game that Owen had loaded onto Tosh's laptop.

"The both of you behave," instructed Jack, before adding, "And when I say both of you, I mean you Owen. No cooking, no wrestling, and if I can hear music from the shop than it's too loud."

"Spoil sport," moaned Owen, poking his tongue out.

"I have such respectful children," sighed Jack, rolling his eyes. "I mean it Owen, best behavior."

"Okay!" cried Owen, not taking his eyes off of the laptop, which was emitting very ominous sounding music.

"You too Tosh," added Ianto, as Jack went to go and get the coats off of the recliner.

He hadn't expected much more than the hum of approval that he got in return. Smiling indulgently at seeing Tosh with another kid for once, Ianto quickly pecked her on the cheek, before catching the coat Jack threw him and following the captain out of the door.

---- TW -----

An hour and a half later, Ianto found himself sitting in an oddly comfortable wooden chair at the end of Jack's dining table, watching the aforementioned party recite how he and his business partner John, got chased out of London by a mob.

"We had been running for ages, I thought we might have lost him. So I look over my shoulder," announced Jack, smiling slyly at how rapt his audience was. "And not only is the guy still chasing us, he's got friends. About 20 of them, and these were big guys and they were out for blood!"

Ianto grinned and the children who were all staring at Jack began to laugh louder than they had before. Ianto couldn't help but laugh also as he noticed how pleased with himself Jack looked.

Taking a sip of his coffee before someone knocked it over, Ianto leaned back in his chair again, and simply enjoy the experience of having dinner at someone else's house.

It had been quite a while since either he or Tosh had been able to enjoy such an event, mainly due to the both of them not having that many friends. Lisa had always been the social butterfly, inviting people over and dragging the both of them to go see someone else. It was nice to finally do it again, and Jack and his kids were brilliant hosts.

Owen had hardly left Tosh's side all evening, the two of them seemed to be forming quite a strong friendship. And both Jack and Gwen couldn't have been more welcoming if they tried. It hadn't been long before Ianto found himself having the most fun that he had had in a long time.

Unfortunately, it wasn't long before the young Welshman had to announce that it was getting late and he and Tosh had to get going home.

"I'll drive you," announced Jack, getting up from the table and grabbing the keys that had been resting on the television set where Ianto had left them that afternoon.

"I wouldn't want to be a bother," replied Ianto, attempting to ignore how his stomach felt like it was flipping.

"You wouldn't be," countered Jack, before adding, "Come on, just to be safe."

Ianto found himself experiencing a very odd feeling, it was a mixture of reluctance and elation. His stomach was still doing flips worthy of Olympic gymnasts, while his chest tightened with guilt of putting Jack out even further. After a couple of seconds of eternal debating, a grateful smile tugged at his lips and he replied, "I would appreciate that,thanks."

Jack grinned as well. Clapping his hands togeather, he said, "Right then, Gwen you're in charge, stop your brother from-"

"Burning down the house, yeah I know," finished Gwen, making her way over to the couch, mobile already in hand.

----- TW ------

The car ride back to Ianto's apartment was both uneventful and short. It turned out that he and Tosh didn't actually live that far away from Jack's apartment, although his end of the neighborhood was distinctly flashier than Jack's own.

Most of the trip had been spent answering Tosh's numerous questions about the various devices that he, John, Mickey and Martha had hooked up to the SUV.

"What about that?" she asked, as Jack pulled into a free spot out front the apartment building Ianto pointed out as their's.

Looking down at what the girl was pointing at as he unbuckled his seatbelt and got out the car, Jack answered with a small scoff, "That's some glorified GPS that John dug up."

"Oh...nice! How's it work?"

Luckily, Jack was saved the embarrassment of admitting that he didn't know how the piece of junk worked, by Ianto interrupting, "I think that's enough questions for tonight Tosh."

Despite agreeing full heartedly with the accountant, Jack couldn't help but feel guilty when he caught sight of the ten year old's disappointed face as she also climbed out. Crouching down so he was her height, he suggested, "How about we talk about it next time I see you eh?"

He grinned as Tosh brightened up immediately, before replying happily, "Alright, see you later Jack," and running into the building and the open lift inside.

'Right, now for the scary bit.'

Jack took a deep breath, before standing up and turning to Ianto. Ignoring the little voice that told him that 'this is your last chance to pull out', Jack asked, "That is... if you wanna see me again?"

A second passed before Jack burst out, "Alright that was awful. I was just thinking, maybe you and I- could go out one night. You know, dinner... movie?"

Looking incredibly surprised, Ianto asked, "Are you asking me out on a date?"

The thing about Jack, is he hardly ever gets embarrassed... about anything. So when it does occasionally happen, he tends to be really bad at hiding it. He almost physically kicked himself when he felt his face began to burn up.

"Interested?" he asked, determined to at least sound normal, even if he wasexpecting to get shot down at any second.

"Alright."

Jack's head snapped up in surprise, to find Ianto grinning in front of him. Before he could stop himself, he asked, "Yeah?"

Laughing lightly, Ianto nodded. "Yep. Looking forward to it."

Jack stood there for a second, too surprised to do much more, before pulling himself together and grinning back, "Great. Are you free Saturday?"

"Saturday's great with me," replied Ianto, laughing at how sheerly relieved Jack looked.

"Right, I'll see you Saturday then," nodded Jack, before spinning on his heel and practically bouncing back to the SUV.

----- TW -----