Rhys was out when Gwen returned. He had pinned a note to the fridge. 'Gone to shop, need wine, lasagne in oven. I cleaned, so don't mess up bathroom with all your hair.' He'd drawn a smiley face with mad hair around it and added about thirty kisses to the bottom. Gwen smiled, she thought about taking a shower but realised she had one more thing to do. Carefully she put the file down on the coffee table.

In five minutes she'd be ready.

Rhys returned in ten. As he wandered into the room he smiled at Gwen sat on the sofa. She was holding a mug of steaming liquid.

"Hiya, I've got something better than that," he said. "Two actually, they were doing an offer, I don't know what it's going to taste like, I got a red and a white. Which do you want? I know red goes with Italian, I think…" Rhys rambled on as he wandered into the kitchen to find the corkscrew. Gwen spread out the items on the coffee table, tilting her head as she looked at them.

As Rhys carried on talking she thought back to what Ianto had said, and to the paperwork he had so neatly typed and printed for her, and the feeling of him as a little boy, sat in her lap and giggling with Rhys, who seemed so capable of coping with it. Elation was getting that last final push, determined to win the conflict.

"Oi, red or white?" Rhys asked, getting her attention. She didn't look round.

"Nothing for me, I'm fine," Gwen said calmly. Rhys didn't look up he was busy trying to get to the cork on the bottle of red.

"Not like you to turn down wine."

Gwen took a breath; her voice was almost casual in her response. "Not like me to be pregnant."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Ianto rested against the door frame of Jack's office and looked at Jack, who was studying the piece of paper that Ianto had scrawled on yesterday. He didn't turn around but Ianto noticed the screen Jack had been watching was feeding from the camera in the tourist office.

"Nice speech," Jack said in a low tone. Ianto looked down at his shoes and then back up again.

"Am I wrong?" he asked. There was a pause. Jack turned in his chair and held out his hand. Ianto reached out to meet him and was pulled down onto Jack's lap. They twined their arms around each other. He felt Jack bury his face into his chest and Ianto knew.

He wasn't wrong at all.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

"I think we ought to consider re-carpeting your office," Ianto said. He lay sprawled on his back, on said office floor, tucked into Jack's coat, which had been the nearest warm thing for Jack to wrap him up in. Jack lay next to him, on his side, his head propped in one hand and the other hand traced lazy patterns across Ianto's chest.

"What something thick and comfortable?"

"Since we never seem to make it anywhere close to your bed it might be an idea," Ianto commented, wriggling closer to him.

"If that's your theory then we'd better carpet the entire hub, and you're cleaning up the pterodactyl mess."

"I clean it anyway," Ianto pointed out.

"Off nice smooth sterile floors, not thick shag pile carpets. Very aptly named though." Jack allowed Ianto's wriggling so Ianto could tuck himself tighter to him. Jack's gentle stroking carried on, he moved lower over Ianto's torso, down his navel and almost to his groin.

"True," Ianto said. "We need to think of something though." He raised one of his hands and flexed it slightly. "I always seem to get bad friction burns when we're here."

Jack's hand moved lower, sliding between Ianto's legs. Ianto shuddered.

"Are you sure that's not from when you were pushed off the play area by that horrible bully?"

Ianto smiled and rolled his eyes. "Yes, Jack I'm sure. It's bad enough Owen's getting mileage out of this, never mind you as well."

Jack laughed. A sound that made Ianto shiver. He knew it well enough. The stroking between his legs intensified slightly and Jack leant down to nuzzle into his neck finding the sensitive points, to make Ianto shudder again.

"I missed you," Jack said as Ianto moaned and jerked violently under his touch.

"I didn't go anywhere."

"Yeah, but you weren't you. Well, you were, but I like you complicated, and not in nappies."

Ianto laughed. He stirred a little against Jack's touch and then forced himself to concentrate.

"Speaking of complicated…"

"Uh-huh," Jack murmured as he traced his tongue around Ianto's left nipple. Ianto blinked and ran his fingers into Jack's hair.

"Your fairy tale last night…"

Jack stopped licking and raised his head slightly. His eyes looked focussed on Ianto's torso, but in actual fact he was seeing nothing. His eyes, mind and senses suddenly went blank. Until Ianto tugged on his hair and rose up slightly, propping himself up as he realised Jack had reacted badly.

"Jack?"

He snapped out of it swiftly, looking into Ianto's concerned blue eyes.

"Sorry."

"I didn't imagine it, did I? I remember it as clearly as everything else. The Doctor, the TARDIS, The Master, it was when you went missing. That was what you were telling me about, wasn't it?"

Jack's eyes had gone horribly dull. Ianto ran his fingers gently over Jack's face. The touch spurred Jack on, slowly and miserably he nodded. It seemed fine as a fairy tale; he could play it down, make the horrors less real.

"Oh Jack," Ianto said sadly. Jack turned away, looking down at the well worn carpet. Ianto was right, he thought to himself, he really did need a new carpet. He flinched as he realised Ianto had moved, sitting up slightly and flipping Jack's coat so it could cover both of them.

"You made it sound like it was longer than it was."

"It was, for me, for all of us there. It was a year, but The Doctor reset it," Jack said, and then he paused and frowned. "No, actually, I reset it, I destroyed the paradox. I set everything right."

"The paradox?" Ianto for a moment sounded confused. Then he slowly nodded. "The magical box that stopped time."

"You remember that part?"

"I don't remember much after that, I think I feel asleep around that point," Ianto said.

"Yes, I carried on for a while after that. I was so busy telling the story I didn't realise I'd bored my audience."

"You hadn't bored me, Jack. You made me understand it, you waited for The Doctor for so long, it made sense that you ran away from us."

"I didn't run away from you! That was never part of my plan!" Jack said, his voice rising slightly. Ianto ran a hand around Jack's waist, pulling him close again. Jack didn't resist as Ianto pulled him nearer drawing the coat around them both at the same time.

"It was just when he finally came, I knew it would be a long time I'd have to wait, I couldn't let the opportunity pass by. He tried to run away from me."

"All the way to the end of the universe?"

Jack nodded. He cuddled closer to Ianto and Ianto curled his arms around Jack. Ianto ran his fingers through Jack's hair and kissed him gently. For a moment it was quiet between them and then Ianto said the words that Jack knew were coming in one form or another.

"Tell me the rest."

"All the gory details," Jack said with a slight catch to his voice.

"Tell me the fairy story," Ianto said, his fingers twining tighter into Jack's hair. Jack blinked and settled himself closer to Ianto. There was one moment that Ianto thought Jack was going to refuse him. He tensed, and then very slowly, almost as if he was concentrating on it intently, Jack relaxed.

"From when The Master took the Valiant. That's the last part I remember," Ianto prompted.

Jack felt Ianto kiss him lightly on the cheek. Jack felt the lithe, warm body against his, the hard floor underneath him and the material of his coat tucked gently around both of them. His mind ran back over the last two days. Of little Ianto, clinging desperately to him as the only stable thing in his life, and the fact that Ianto knew so well that Torchwood and the people in it was the most stable thing in Jack's life.

Then his mind turned again and he took a deep breath.

"The Evil Master had taken The Doctor's precious magical machine and using his…"

Jack started talking, and Ianto listened, saying nothing, just listening as Jack told a story, an unreal story, one that didn't exist. But still, somehow, in the hearts of a few it lingered.

At the end as Jack lay tearful and exhausted in Ianto's arms, Ianto gently kissed him and told him everything was going to be all right.

And for the first time in his life, Jack actually believed that.