Title: When Jack Returns…

Author: SmilingKitsune

Summary: Just an AU take of Jack's return at the beginning of season 2. For some reason I'm not giving the man an easy time of anything and I don't understand it because personally I love him but it seems almost hard to believe by reading my last couple of stories.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters; if I did I'd have taken better care of them then RTD.

When Jack returns it's with a dark and haunted look in his eyes.

He smiles and pretends that everything is okay and Ianto would have believed it if it weren't for his eyes. The smile is just as bright as ever but it doesn't reach his eyes. They continue to stay dark, shadowed by whatever it was he went through while he was away. The usually bright and expressive blue eyes are dull and dim. They appear older and more tired than the last time Ianto saw them and he has the feeling that the older man was gone for a longer period of time there then had passed for them.

His resolve to keep his distance this time from the immortal man crumble every time their gaze meet and eventually he succumbs to the dark allure that is the man whose name really isn't Jack but all they know him as.

They fumble in the office weeks later after his return and the others have gone home for the night. It's just as Ianto remembers it and at the same time not.

"Turn around," Jack commands and he does so automatically while at the same time the voice in his head asks 'why?'

This is a first for them, he had noticed long ago that the man liked to give pleasure as much as he liked to receive but he complies because he knows the man is carrying ghosts and if it helps what does it hurt? A hand runs through his hair lightly before it moves to grasp his hip.

The feel of Jack inside him, so much like before and again not. He feels the hot breath on his shoulder, the fingers tightening on his hips as Jack takes him at a fast pace and from the sound of the man's breath Ianto knows he's not going to last long and he doesn't.

As he comes he gasps out a name that isn't his that makes Ianto freeze and his blood go cold as Jack slumps across his back breathing raggedly. Any desire he felt lost in the coldness that takes him.

What does it hurt? Indeed.

The moment his mind stops reeling and settles in the moment he moves underneath the immortal to hint that he needs to get off and as soon as he does he quickly cleans himself off using the tissues on hand and pulls his clothes on, straightening them to the best of his ability.

He feels the man's eyes on him, can feel the confusion and he doesn't know whether to feel angry or sad that the man doesn't even realize what he'd done. He settles for mild pity.

"Leaving already?" the whisper comes from out of the darkness as he smoothes down the jacket.

He glances over his shoulder at the man still undressed, lounging against the desk. "It's not me you want to be with and I refuse to be a stand in. Good-bye Jack."

He walks out of the room that single word ringing through his head. "Doctor!" Somehow it doesn't surprise him and he can't find it in himself to feel hurt. It was a good thing he'd walked into this expecting nothing.