So here we go, first chapter of the next part of the Unseen verse. Continues mix of canon and AU but does contain spoilers for Small Worlds. I still only own my imagination. As always, would love to know what you think.

Jack stared at the invitation. He could go alone but if he was honest with himself he didn't want to do that. It wasn't a case of needing the companionship; in fact it was the chance to see her again that was making him go. He could keep telling himself that it had nothing to do with the petals and the weather but he would be lying. Taking a deep breath, he made his decision. Now, the only thing left was the choice of who to take with him.

Owen was a definite no.

Tosh would be bored to tears.

Gwen would ask too many questions and want to discuss 'feelings'.

That left...

"Ianto!"

"You bellowed, sir?" Ianto appeared by his elbow, smirking when Jack yelped and jumped.

"I'm going to put a bell on you before you give me a heart attack! Get your coat, I'm taking you to a lecture."

"I'm going to get little or no more information than that, am I?" Ianto rolled his eyes when Jack grinned. "I'll get our coats, than." He headed for Jack's office, wondering what he was in for.

"Jack, shouldn't I be going with you?" Gwen got up from her desk and came to stand beside him. "As your second. I..."

"As my what?" Jack looked at her as if she had grown another head. "Gwen, you are not my second. You're the newest member of the team, why would you have the seniority and the knowledge to have that rank?"

"Well I was hired to replace Suzie, so..."

"Suzie was a weapons expert, which you are not. Suzie had been working with me the longest, which you have not." Jack paused and allowed Ianto to help him into his coat. "You were hired to fill the vacancy on the team which was left when Suzie died. You were not hired to do her job for the simple fact you are not capable of doing her job. At this point I have not made the decision on who will be second."

"Well try not to decide on me," Owen called from the autopsy bay.

"Technically Tosh would have the seniority..."

"Seniority for what?" Tosh, as usual deeply involved in whatever she was doing, looked at him over her glasses.

"Second in command."

Tosh snorted and when back to her computers. "Not me. I can think of no circumstance in which I would want to be in control of Owen." Suddenly she grinned and blushed. "Actually, there might be one or two," she mumbled.

"Not the time to discuss this now, we have a lecture to get to." Jack caught hold of Ianto's sleeve and dragged him toward the garage entrance. "Let's go, Mister Jones, time to go learn about fairies!"

"Biggest one is going with him," Owen muttered.

"I heard that!" Jack called back, the door closing on Owen and Tosh's laughter.

-TW-

Ianto thought Estelle Cole was wonderful. The beauty of her youth shone through in each smile she bestowed upon Jack and even when Jack was a bit brusque in reference to the fairies she simply laughed and waved her hand. "They were beautiful!" she exclaimed, "the lights were shining and they were so shy at first but they allowed me to view them in their play." She watched as Jack looked at each photo. "It's been forever since I've seen you, Jack. How are you keeping yourself?"

"Busy," he sighed, giving her a soft smile. "Are there any more pictures? I need to see them all, Estelle."

"You can help me pack up my things and take me home. If you don't mind helping us, Ianto?"

"No, not at all." He began carefully stacking the various papers. "I have an interest in the y Tylwyth Teg. I should know more than I do, but I know the two different classes are y Tylwyth Teg yn y Coed, the fair family in the wood, or Tylwyth Teg y Mwn, the fair folk of the mine. I also know that no matter how benevolent they can appear if you speak or move against them they are fierce and deadly." He smiled at her. "My sister used to tease me and tell me they would come take me away, she even offered to pay them to do it when she was particularly angry with me." He didn't fail to miss Jack's flinch at his words. He also didn't fail to notice how Jack avoided meeting his eyes and he made a mental note to ask him about it later. He finished stacking the various papers and older photos, including copies of the infamous Cottingley Fairies. "I'll just take this to the car and wait for you there." He set the stack of photos and papers on top of the box containing the photo projector before lifting them into his arms and carefully making his way toward the door.

"He's lovely." Estelle waited until Jack gathered the portable screen and tucked it under his arm, only then taking hold of the other and letting him lead her toward the building exit. "I am very surprised to see you, Jack. Usually you want nothing to do with my talks about the fairies."

"I didn't come to hear about the fairies, I came to see you. I did promise my father that I would look after you and things have been so busy I've been neglectful in taking care of that promise."

Estelle laughed and glanced up at him. "I'm sure you have much more interesting things on your mind. If you're anything like your father that is."

Jack sometimes wished he could just tell her the truth. Tell her how she was never far from his thoughts and that he wanted nothing more than to spend as much time as he could spare as she ventured into the twilight of her life. He knew he would lose her forever soon enough, and these few and far between moments were far less than he wished. The problem was simple though - if he spent more time with her he wanted to tell her, to explain, to make her understand that while he had left it had not been how he wanted things to go. While he had never been one to adhere to the traditions and the norms of the centuries he had lived through on Earth, his love for Estelle had been - in fact still was - genuine. If he had been able to grow old with her he would have.

They stepped out into the fading light of the day to find that Ianto had thoughtfully brought the car closer to the door. He was waiting to take the closed screen from Jack placed it in the open boot, closing the hatch and moving round to open the door to the rear seat and climbing in to sit behind the front passenger seat he had left for Estelle. She turned to smile at him, silently thanking him for the courtesy as Jack closed her door and hurried round to get in, starting the SUV and pulling off with far more care than he normally demonstrated. The whole way back to Estelle's she and Ianto chatted about the Welsh legends of the fairies, his knowledge impressing her and her delight making him far more open than he would normally be. Jack observed them, staying quiet, struck by just how wise a decision it had been to bring Ianto instead of anyone else. Estelle had taken to him immediately which didn't surprise Jack, but what did was how quickly Ianto responded. While he had been far more open since he had been found and began the long road to a full recovery from what he had been through physically and mentally, there was still a part of him that seemed unsure that at some point it all wouldn't fall apart. Seeing him like this, leaning forward in his seat and gesturing as he spoke, made Jack's chest ache. Seeing him like this, laughing and smiling and just being alive, made other parts of Jack ache. Having someone who had been so important to him connecting with someone he hoped would be every bit as important to him gave him hope that occasionally he really did do something right. Arriving at Estelle's he shooed them inside and unloaded the SUV himself, giving them the time to continue their talk. When he made it inside it was to find Ianto and Estelle in the kitchen making tea, still chattering away, and Jack resigned himself to being the gooseberry for the day. Luckily his ego could stand it.

Jack wandered round the lounge while he waited for them to join him. He had just dropped into a chair when they emerged, Estelle pointing to a low table where Ianto deposited the tray containing a teapot, cups, sugar, milk, lemon and a plate of biscuits. "Jack, you can pour while I get the rest of the photos for you." Caught with his hand reaching for the closest biscuit, Jack grinned and nodded, instead picking up the teapot to pour. Ianto went to look at the photographs lined up along the mantle, picking up one and turning to look at Jack.

"Your father?" he asked quietly, showing Jack a portrait of a man in uniform.

"No choice," he answered quietly with a glance toward the door. "I couldn't tell her the truth."

"I know. I can't imagine how hard that much be for you. She's beautiful even now, and such a genuineness to her."

Jack nodded and swallowed hard to rid his throat of the lump threatening to choke him. "I had hoped she would..." He cut himself off as they heard her returning, Ianto quickly shifting his place to avoid bringing her attention to the photo he had been holding. He handed Ianto a cup of tea, indicating with his hand for him to fix it however he preferred as he poured a second, adding a single spoon of sugar and a touch of milk to that one. As soon as Estelle came into the room he held it out. "Trade you?" he said with a grin.

She gave him a fond smile. "Always the jokester." She did though, giving him the additional photos and taking the tea before sitting on the settee and patting the space beside her for Ianto to join her. The cushion on the other side was quickly taken by a large black cat with a white face and feet who curled up and began to purr. "Moses apparently had decided to join us for tea."

"He's huge!" Ianto, after sitting down, peered round her. "Looks like he doesn't miss many teas." As if he knew he was being discussed, the cat got up and walked across Estelle's lap and deposited himself in Ianto's with a boneless flop. Ianto barely got his cup out of the way of he would have been wearing his tea as well as the cat.

Jack snorted. "He won't have a thing to do with me. I'm not sure if you're lucky or cursed."

Ianto smoothed the fur between the cat's ears. "As long as he doesn't decide to shred my trousers I don't mind."

"He's a good boy," Estelle said, smiling at the contented and quite loud purr rumbling from the cat. "Now, you were saying about the Cottingley photos?"

"I know they were supposed to be exposed as fakes according to the girls, but I've always wondered what brought the whole thing about in the first place. Why did they decide to fake photographs of something as unbelievable as fairies? I know Conan Doyle believed them, but so many discounted them outright. And then there were the camera and film companies that..."

Listening Jack had to keep his jaw from hitting his chest. He was astounded by the amount of information that Ianto knew about the photographs, and while he appeared to have a small amount of cultural belief in the creatures he was far more interested in the reasoning behind the girls decision to originally fake the photos. Estelle was beyond pleased to have someone to discuss this with, and while Jack knew she had no idea of just what the supposed fairies were - nor how dangerous they could be - he was entranced by the intense conversation and the absolute joy on her face. When she leaned closer and put her hand on Ianto's arm he was surprised by a small flash of jealousy, and even more surprised to wonder if he was jealous of her touching him, or him being touched by her. Lost in thinking that over, something Estelle was saying caught his ear and brought his mind back to the topic at hand.

"...know Jack doesn't agree with me but I simply cannot see how they are so dangerous! When I saw them the other night they were happy and dancing, the fairy lights were shining and I felt so blessed to be a part of it all!"

"Estelle, they are dangerous. When they don't get what they want they are vindictive and violent, and they have no qualm about harming whoever stands in their path!"

Ianto frowned; the vehemence in Jack's voice was rather surprising. Estelle on the other hand seemed to dismiss it easily.

"Always the same argument," she mock whispered to Ianto, "but whereas I have my time with them to prove my point he never seems to have more than feelings to prove his." There was a mischievous twinkle in her eye but when Ianto looked back at Jack his showed nothing but hurt.

"Perhaps you both have a point," Ianto said softly. "There may well be both types, and each of you have only experienced one. Or all the legends say that the fairies are well capable of doing harm if they feel it warranted so you've seen one side and Jack the other of a two headed coin." He was relieved to see a slight relaxing of the tension in Jack's jaw. "I only know what I've read or been told but I do believe that Jack has his reasons for how he feels even if he doesn't want to say why."

"I do indeed. We need to get back to work." Jack stood, his abrupt desire to leave had Ianto scrambling to put his cup back on the tray and gently nudge Moses off his lap.

"It's been lovely to meet you, Estelle. Thank you so much for inviting me into your home."

"I expect you to come again, Ianto. With or without Jack." She smiled and tilted her head for Ianto to kiss her cheek. "I can't say how wonderful it is to have gorgeous young men come to call!"

"And I can never say no to a beautiful woman," Ianto flirted back, making Jack grin.

"He says it easily enough to gorgeous men though," He said, giving Estelle a wink and snickering when Ianto's blush deepened.

"Having that knowledge would indicate you've been round when a gorgeous man has asked," Ianto countered.

"Ouch!" Jack staggered back and placed a hand over his heart. "You wound me, Mister Jones!"

"He's got you pegged, Jack." Estelle leant into his embrace, tipping her head back to look up at him. "You should come by more often as well."

Jack bent his head and pressed a lingering kiss to her cheek. "I'll try, I promise." Reluctantly he released her, and after another round of farewells and promises for future visits Ianto and Jack took their leave, pulling away in the SUV to the vision of Estelle standing in the doorway with Moses clutched in one arm and waving with the other, a serene smile on her face.