Title: Echoes

Rating: R (for dark themes)

Characters/Pairing: Jack/Ianto, Gwen, Owen, Toshiko, 10th Doctor, Master, John Hart

Spoilers: Everything from TW 1 to CoE, DW to S4, in particular for "Cyberwoman", "Sound of the Drums/Last of the Time Lords", "Turn Left" and CoE "Day Four" and "Day Five".

Disclaimer: If I owned Jack, Ianto and everything Torchwood, I would treat them all right. Since fics like this need to be written, then it's definitely not mine and making no money from this. This is a work of love and giving Jack and Ianto the respect they deserve.

Warning: AU, Dark themes, past character deaths, torture, slash, male/male

Notes: The first chapter is in the 5 Times format. I started to write this one immediately after CoE last summer because losing Ianto is UNACCEPTABLE. I'm not saying all events in chapter one is canon - it's just my take on how they happened.

Summary: Nothing lasts forever, everything changes, even when you don't realize it's happening.

Note: There's still hope, happy and fluff in this fic, if you stick with me through it.

Thanks to thrace_adams, cjharknessgirl and milady_dragon for letting me bounce ideas off them.

My most gorgeous and brilliant beta for this chapter: milady_dragon.

This is the last chapter of Echoes. Thanks for sticking with me even through some periods of posting fail. Thanks to those who reviewed. *HUGS* I do have some ideas of more stories in this verse. I also have a bingo card from the Long Live Ianto LJ comm that I plotted to use some of the prompts for more fics in this verse that either pick up from where this leaves off or taking place in the 20 years Jack and Ianto had lived off planet.

DECEMBER 25, 2011

Ianto stepped back to look at the table setting, his critical eye on each cloth napkin and assuring the folds were even. He double checked the placement of the flatware and glasses from each plate on the red, green and gold placemats.

He started when he felt hands suddenly on his shoulders. Knowing it was not Jack, he glanced back to find Rhiannon looking up at him. "Ianto, relax. It looks great."

A derisive snort came from Ianto.

"What?" Rhiannon asked.

"Just great? Not perfect?" He raised an eyebrow as he stared at his sister. Shaking his head and letting out a sigh, he glanced back at the table with a more critical eye. "Meaning it's not perfect."

Rhiannon grasped Ianto by his arm and attempted to tug him away. "Meaning it is perfect, as in perfect for a family dinner. Relax Ianto. We're not expecting royalty here or something. It's just the family and a few close friends that are like family. It doesn't have to be perfect by your standards."

Ianto let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah. I guess you're right. I'm just nervous, I suppose."

"Over what? No need to be nervous. Jack and I have a handle on the cooking, Johnny is looking after the kids who are having a time of it with their presents. Rhys and Brynn will be here soon with dessert."

"With a little bit of luck, the Doctor won't overshoot the time so he could join us, along with Amy and Rory," Jack's voice came from the doorway.

Ianto turned around to watch Jack enter the dining room. "Hi Jack."

"Was I right?" Jack asked Rhiannon as he hugged Ianto from behind and kissed his neck.

"I knew you would be," Rhiannon replied with a smile. "He thinks it has to be perfect. Perfect is for when Her Royal Highness is coming over for tea."

"It's also for schmoozing for more funds to finish redoing the Hub." Jack smiled. "Now that was perfection, even if you were convinced it wasn't enough." Jack indicated the dining table with a hand still around Ianto's waist. "However, this is just perfect for a family Christmas dinner. It's gorgeous." Jack turned Ianto around. "And so are you." He smiled lovingly at the younger immortal.

"You look pretty good in that apron," Ianto commented, smiling softly.

Jack chuckled and kissed Ianto gently. "I love you, Ianto Jones. I'll love you forever."

"That's good to know," Ianto remarked completely deadpan, "since we do seem to have just that."

Jack hugged Ianto laughing more. "It's going to be great, Ianto. Christmas with family and close friends. Even having John here doesn't scare me as much as that thought should."

Ianto finally laughed. "You do have a point there." He kissed Jack back. "Okay, so the table is good. What else do you need me to do?"

"Oh, just some taste testing in the kitchen until our other guests arrive," Jack said.

"I can do that." Ianto looked over to where he last saw his sister and noticed that she had already gone back to the kitchen. "Let me check in on Johnny and the kids and see if they need anything else to drink."

"You do know if we keep pumping Morgan with raspberry hot cocoa, we'll never get him to sleep tonight. I think Rhiannon might have the same problem with Mica and David," Jack said.

"It's his latest new discovery of living on Earth. We didn't have that before," Ianto said as they walked hand in hand out of the dining room and down the hallway into the lounge.

The two men paused as they watched Johnny sit on the couch with Ceri on his lap, snuggled up against her uncle, watching the big flat screen TV, while Morgan, Mica and David played with their presents. Mica and David had to leave the presents they woke up to behind but arrived to find more wrapped gifts waiting for them. Ianto could not help himself and went crazy with Christmas shopping for his sister's family, but he was glad to finally be reunited with them. With money not being a problem for them, Jack had no qualms about it and joined into helping Ianto with the shopping. There were also gifts waiting for the others yet to arrive.

"I'm glad we settled on a temporary flat until we found the perfect house," Ianto stated.

"It was a very nice flat, with beautiful views of the city, but I'm glad we were still looking. I think I've gotten used to big houses and room," Jack agreed.

They had finally found their perfect house in October and finally moved in at the end of November. It was just in time to introduce Morgan to Christmas traditions. The child had heard stories about it from his daddies, but it was his first year to celebrate it. Earlier in the week, they had their usual celebration for Winter Solstice.

Morgan seemed to settle into their new life well. He saw it all as an adventure, much like when they had taken trips with the Doctor, and like the stories he loved to listen to from his dads on their life before Morgan was born.

Ceri was too young for the change to affect her. By the time she would reach Morgan's age, the world she was born on would be the alien world to her.

Ianto was glad they had the full day to themselves. In November, Jack and Ianto had sat down with their team to discuss how to handle the holidays. With a team of 14, everyone was able to have something close to a normal life.

There had been many changes at Torchwood since Jack and Ianto returned to work. They had already gone through cases, and evaluated the team. Jack had reorganised the team, placing Ianto in charge of proper training. Ianto also had had a fit over seeing the new archives and the lower levels that had survived the explosion. When he wasn't overseeing the training, he spent long hours getting the archives back up to his standards. It meant some evenings Jack would pick up Morgan and Ceri from Rhiannon's while Ianto still worked. At least Ianto made it home before it was time to put the kids to bed. Thankfully the archives were completed in October. Jack had also rearranged ranking among the team. For almost 20 years, Ianto had been either his Second, his equal or his boss and Jack could not see it any other way. He also had taken into account all those years of travelling amongst the stars, transporting and finding other odd jobs, all dealing with alien races. Ianto's experience in that time would benefit Torchwood. He also knew Ianto would do anything to assure the team ran well and stayed safe.

Much to Gwen's chagrin, Jack named Ianto his Second, as well as Head of Training. He was also Chief Archivist, but he had been training Malcolm Taylor to act as his second for the Archives. Lois was placed as Administration, Public Relations and Community Outreach. She was under training as a field agent, but only as a back up or when she was on the weekend shift. Gwen was named Head of Personnel and was under Ianto in ranking, with Hart next in line. However, with Hart named as Head of Field Operations, that put him in charge of anything in the field under Jack and Ianto. Malcolm's official title within the organization was Head of Technology. Seren was obviously the Medical Officer. Andy Davidson was named Police Liaison. Gwen had stormed into Jack's office and confronted both men about their decision. She felt she was better suited for the position. However, Jack and Ianto had been watching both Gwen and Andy on how they handled and worked with the constabulary and felt Andy was doing the better job. She also confronted them on their decision to recruit more members for the team. The two returned leaders stood firm on their decision. They were parents now and a life outside of Torchwood. Seren also had a family. Jack and Ianto decided to bring hours down to as close to normal working hours as possible.

Rift activity seemed to come in spurts with periods of nothing between. With a team of fourteen, everyone was able to work a five day week of 7 – 10 hours a day, depending on what was going on. They had a rota for an on call team after hours. There were still times when the team would find themselves working almost non-stop for days, but that only had happened three times.

Gwen also had fits when she found out that Jack and Ianto had obtained funding for updates to the Hub. Somehow they had money to redesign the Hub. It started to look as it did before the explosion that had destroyed it. Gwen had loved the new design and was upset to see it being redone as it once was.

Another thing Gwen had not been happy about was learning about Jack and Ianto's friendship with Rhys. She started to resent that they got to see her daughter every day when she saw the child four times since Jack and Ianto's return. Her pride was bruised when the last time she had a chance to visit with Brynn was at the immortal couple's flat while they babysat Brynn, with Rhys's permission, of course.

She finally could not take any more when Jack and Ianto informed her that they were taking Rhys on as a member of the team. It did not matter to Gwen when they explained to her that he would only be at the Hub when there was a mission he was involved in, because they wanted him to still have ties to help with haulage. She put in her resignation on the spot.

She had been expecting to be Retconned, which was fine with her. She had wanted it so she could forget everything, including her child and husband that she no longer had a life with. Much to her dismay, she discovered that with the changes since the 456 incident and the general attitude the population was taking concerning life on other worlds, the two leaders had revised some of the manual. That included allowing Torchwood operatives to leave with their memories intact. Gwen left in a storm of curses.

Both Jack and Ianto missed Gwen, and were sorry that she did not want anything to do with them at all, but they had twenty years to figure out what would be best for Torchwood in the new age after the 456 incident. They had to make decisions on what would be best for Torchwood and for the population in general.

They also had their family to consider.

As they continued to watch Morgan, Mica and David play, while Ceri bounced on Johnny's lap, babbling happily toward her daddies, waving the red stuffed dragon that was amongst the gifts she found that morning, the doorbell rang.

"I'll get that," Jack said. "It's most likely Rhys and Brynn or John. And then back into the kitchen for me."

"I'll most likely join you after I get the drink order, and then I'll join everyone out here and take Ceri from Johnny for a while," Ianto said.

Jack opened the door to find Rhys with Brynn. "Hi Rhys. C'mon on it. Here, let me take Brynn while you get your coat off." He smiled at the other man, who handed his daughter to Jack.

"Uncle Jack!" Brynn exclaimed, wrapping her little arms around Jack's neck and gave him a sloppy kiss on his cheek. "Where Uncle Ianto?"

"He's inside, Brynn." Jack watched as Rhys hung up his coat, and then helped Rhys with getting Brynn out of her snow coat. Jack took Brynn again while Rhys grabbed the large bag he had struggled with while carrying his daughter to the front door.

As they entered the lounge, Brynn saw Ianto and stretched her arms out. "Uncle Ianto!" she greeted.

"Brynn!" Ceri exclaimed, noticing her friend. "Brynn Brynn Brynn. Dada, Tada, Brynn's here!" She started to squirm from Johnny's hold, wanting to climb off his lap.

After Ianto took Brynn and allowed her to hug and kiss him, he set her down. Johnny had already set Ceri on the floor, and the child was edging along the couch toward Brynn, who toddled to meet Ceri.

The proud fathers all smiled as their daughters hugged each other. Mica and Morgan came over to say hello to Brynn, while David waved to the little girl.

"I have gifts for everyone. This is only one bag," Rhys indicated. "I have more in the car."

"We have our gifts for you, Brynn and the others under the tree, so why don't you sort yours there too," Ianto said with a smile.

As Rhys started to put the gifts from the bag under the tree, Ianto started to take orders for drinks, and Jack headed for the kitchen. Once Rhys had emptied his bag, he went back outside for the other gifts, and returned with John Hart, who was volunteered into helping him, even if John had his own bag of gifts.

Ianto returned with drinks and the TV was turned off. Mica and Morgan started to sing Christmas carols that Mica had taught Morgan and Ceri made attempts to join in at parts, making everyone laugh. Both her and Brynn did a little dance as only two toddlers, one who had only recently started to walk with help could. Mica then begged Ianto to sing for them.

Being done with dinner, and setting it so it would stay warm, Jack and Rhiannon entered the lounge to join in until the Doctor, Amy and Rory arrived, and joined everyone else in singing.

It was a new tradition for the Harkness-Jones family, and the two men were enjoying spending Christmas Day with friends and family.

Jack sat next to Ianto on the piano stool and smiled lovingly at him. Ianto returned the smile as he started to play, "I'll Be Home For Christmas." He gazed over to his sister, who held Ceri, and Johnny. David and Mica were leaning on the piano, with Morgan next to them. The little boy was also standing close to the piano stool on Jack's side. Rhys had a hold of Brynn. To their surprise, even John had joined in on the singing.

Ianto had picked that song because he knew without a doubt that they were finally home.

OoOoOoO

Across the street from the Harkness-Jones home, Gwen sat in her car. She arrived just in time to watch Rhys and John, both laden down with packages, enter the house. She remained in her car, watching the lights and decorations on the house. Through the large bay windows, she could make out everyone standing around and singing. Her eyes settled on Rhys. He looked happy. He was having a wonderful time. It was his first Christmas without her, and he was happy. Jack and Ianto were obviously happy. She was surprised to discover John was there, but he was apparently getting into the seasonal mood.

She wondered how did it all go so wrong that everyone she loved was inside that house, while she was locked out, uninvited and unwanted. John had stopped coming around after she had left Torchwood.

Once again she cursed Jack and Ianto for not Retconning her.

She decided it was time to leave and find a pub to spend the evening in when she heard a familiar grinding sound, and seconds later she saw a blue police box appear in the side garden.

As Gwen started the car, watching the Doctor and his Companions bound from the TARDIS, loaded with brightly wrapped gifts, she could not help but think of just how unfair life was. She pulled away, wishing she could hate everyone in the house, but she could not. Tears ran down her face as she drove away from the house for the last time, deciding she needed to leave Cardiff and start life over again somewhere new.