There's Always a Way Back Home

Summary: Several years Post Miracle Day. Ianto closed the Rift & trapped himself inside the void. But is it really forever? Spoilers! For possibly EVERYTHING. Also, speculations of my own on MD.

A/N: Ok, I wrote a sappy/happy "House of the Dead" fic (as a big ol' fix-it) and an angry "House of the Dead" fic (thanks to reading an interview with RTD & JB that succeeded in pissing me off). Now I'm writing something more hopeful.

O_O_O_O_O

Captain Jack Harkness sat at his desk working on a report. A cup of cold coffee sat on the corner. His lunch, a sandwich and salad, was in the trash. Half eaten.

It was quiet in the base. He looked up. Not that it was much of a base. All it consisted of was a couple of rooms in a basement. The room he was in, his office, was just a battered desk and chair with several computers and bits of equipment. The other room was more or less the same except it had no desk. Just chairs. It was a temporary base. Like all the others had been.

Twenty-two years had passed since the so-called "Miracle Day". Jack had nearly lost what little he'd had left before they had been able to put a stop to it all. And then everything had gone back to normal. He couldn't stay dead and everyone else could die. And so many had. When the end of it had come, so many people died. Men, women and children. So many. Humanity had proven resilient though. They had buried their dead, picked up the pieces and began to relearn how to live.

Gwen and Rhys had been a big help in it all. Gwen had then told him that Torchwood needed to return in full force. They needed to stop being afraid, she said.

But that wasn't why he didn't want Torchwood back.

The Rift was gone. And with it, Ianto.

"Ianto Jones, I love you!"

Even then, that night so long ago, he hadn't been able to say it the way he'd wanted. With Ianto alive.

He could still hear the sound of the Rift as it consumed the old pub. He could still see Ianto's face as he let the Rift consume him too.

Not only had he lost Ianto forever but his heart was consumed by the Rift.

He had tried to move on. Sex had remained a mainstay of his life but no matter how satisfying it all was, he would gladly give it up to just be able to hold Ianto one more time.

"I loved him Gwen. That's why I had to leave. If he was still here, even just in spirit, I would have stayed. To have that hope. But I watched him die again. And there's nothing I can do. He's gone forever. Trapped in oblivion."

Gwen had cried when he told her that. He had cried too. Even now, thinking about it, he wanted to cry.

Why couldn't Ianto have walked through the damned door with him? There had been no need for him to stay behind. The explosion would have happened on its own. Instead Ianto had sacrificed himself and left Jack alone. It didn't help that he knew deep inside that Ianto had become alive and real again at the end. Ianto was still alive, not just a ghost, and he was forever lost inside the Rift. Alone.

His wrist-strap beeped and he sighed. Time to forget the pain for a bit and get to work.

Torchwood consisted of several people scattered across the world now. Each small team (two to three people) moved around constantly looking for aliens that had found their way to Earth. Without the Rift it was difficult to detect aliens but not impossible.

Jack touched a button on his wrist-strap A message.

"Hello Jack. How've you been? Hope your eating."

It was Gwen.

Gwen had stayed a part of Torchwood for a while before succumbing to Rhys' wishes. He felt that she was missing out on their daughter's life and she agreed. She returned to Cardiff and to the police. Domestic life suited her.

"Anyway, I won't waste time but I had to tell you this. You know how you told me that the Rift is closed for good? Well, I've been hearing rumors of the air opening up and closing again. In Cardiff. Near the... near the HUB. Might be worth checking out, yeah?"

He closed his eyes. The HUB. So many memories there.

But he knew he would go.

O_O

Two days later and Jack was back in Cardiff. He stood looking at the ruins of the HUB. After the 456 had been defeated the Crown had stepped in and declared the HUB off-limits forever. Only Torchwood could go there. Jack had stayed away while Gwen had braved the memories. Only once though. After that, when Jack left, she never went back there.

Now she stood next to him looking over what had changed their lives.

She looked good. A little more round n some areas. Gray streaked her hair and she had a few more lines on her face. But she was happy. That was what mattered.

"Okay, I'm not picking up anything," he said as he fiddled with his wrist-strap "You sure there's something here?"

"Nope. Just going by the rumors."

He was about to say something about that when the air split open.

Energy beams streaked out and a voice called out.

That voice. Oh God that voice...

"Jack! Help me! Please help me!"

Gwen pressed a hand to her mouth and choked.

Jack stared at the rip. His chest hurt.

"Hel-"

The air closed up again.

"Jack, that was..."

"I know."

Ianto. From inside the Rift. Trapped.

Trapped... But not for long. Not anymore.

Jack spent hours, days going over the readings he'd managed to get when the Rift tried to open itself. Four times it happened with Jack there. He called in a few favors and got some top of the line equipment. He ran hundreds of calculations until he was certain that he'd figured it out.

Now he stood at the ruins again. This time he was alone. This time he was going to keep that Rift open.

The air split and he heard that voice again. Calling out to him.

He activated the device he'd brought with him and moved forward. He reached his hand towards the opening. Another hand, so familiar even now, reached out from it. Jack grasped at the fingers (so solid, so real) and pulled. An arm followed the hand, then a shoulder.

Jack pulled harder and then... then he fell back, onto the ground. A heavy weight landed on him and he rolled away from the opening, lest it try to take back what he had stolen from it.

"Jack..."

He looked up and smiled. "It's you."

"Oh Jack!" Ianto pressed his face against Jack's shoulder, tears pouring out. "You came back for me."

"I'll always come back for you. I love you." He wrapped his arms tight around Ianto. He was never going to let him go.

O_O

No less than ten doctors examined Ianto and they all insisted that he stay in the hospital for a few days. Ianto refused. Jack had to retcon them so that he could take Ianto with him.

The two of them lay on the bed in Gwen's guestroom. Their hosts had gone to visit their daughter (quite suddenly too. Sneaky.) so they were alone.

"The Rift became a part of me," said Ianto. "Even now I can feel it inside me."

"You won't hear me complain."

The doctors (and THE Doctor, who had come when Jack called) had been shocked and a little frightened when they had discovered that Ianto was no longer mortal. The Doctor had gone so far as to say, "It's different than how you are Jack. I really don't think that anything can kill him. Whereas you die then come back to life. Take this as it should be. A blessing, a gift for you."

"Jack, if I can never die, what happens if I get hurt?" Ianto asked. He let Jack wrap his arms around him and nuzzle at his neck.

"We'll have to wait and see, I suppose."

"You don't think it'll be like that... miracle you told me about?"

"No. I don't think so. I think it just means that you can't die. Though I really don't want to test that theory."

"Well, we know that my body has stopped aging. At least I don't have to worry about gray hair."

"Hey now!"

"Oh look, I see a whole patch of them! You're getting old Jack."

Jack rolled over and began to tickle Ianto. As Ianto laughed he leaned down and kissed him.

"Does it bother you that I aged?" asked Jack as he pulled back from the kiss.

"No. It suits you." Ianto ran a hand through Jack's hair, tinged with a bit of gray at the temples, along the nape. One of the after affects of the "miracle" had been that Jack's body had aged a few years. He still looked like him but he looked 45 instead of younger than 40. But that had not been all. Jack had scars on his arms and legs from wounds he'd received before reverting back to a Fixed Point. The scars would not heal, even when Jack died. Those wounds had come before the end so they were now a part of him. But Ianto didn't care. It had never been about looks for him.

"So what now?" Ianto asked.

"Everything."

"Oh?"

"I always wanted to show you the universe. Now I can."

"Alright. But first..."

Ianto expertly rolled them over and pinned Jack to the bed.

"Work to do, sir."

O_O_O_O_O_O

END

A/N: Like it? See, I refuse to watch Miracle Day as CoE was not my TW and MD is a continuation of it so IT'S not my TW either. But I decided that since Ianto proved himself a Big Damn Hero that I would set this after MD ends so that Jack could have time to think.