Jack looked at the man standing in his doorway, and all but ran up to the Time Lord, pulling him into a hug. “Doctor. It’s been too long.”

“How long has it been for you?”

Jack stepped back from the hug. “A few years. I gather it’s been about a day for you.”

“Yeah. So you remember why I’m here then?”

“Yeah, that’s why I needed to speak to you.”

“Couldn’t you have come and found me yourself?” Asked The Doctor. “Do you get your team to do everything for you?”

Jack shook his head. “There’s another version of me in this time. I can’t risk running into myself.”

“So you hide away down here?”

“No, not all the time. Just most of the time,” replied Jack.

“You look older around the eyes, Jack. Still, you don’t seem to have physically aged. Three thousand years? I’d have thought you’d at least have some grey hairs by now.”

Jack leaned in conspiratorially and made a gesture to tell the Doctor to keep this information between the two of them. “I have three grey hairs, but hair dye is a wonderful thing.”

“Ah. I see,” grinned the Doctor. “So what did you want to tell me?”

The Captain sighed. “My 2008 self wants Ianto and Owen back straight away, but you can’t, you have to wait one month before you can take them back.”

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Ianto and Owen spend a month here in 5091 with my younger self. By the time they get back to 2008, they know so much that they tell me in order for me to know what I know now. You have to leave them here for one month so that they can find out what they need to. Owen’s life as we know it, sort of depends on it.”

“Have you seen them?”

“I can’t. They never met a future me whilst they were here. But I was watching them in the park earlier,” said Jack with a sad smile and tears in his eyes. “They looked so lost, but they have each other. I miss them so much. I just want to be able to talk to them, to hug them and kiss them and tell them everything will be alright. But I can’t. Time lines and everything.”

“I’m sorry, Jack.”

The Captain nodded.

“So what do they learn here that is so important?” Asked the Doctor.

“You’ll find out soon enough.”

“You can’t even tell me?”

“Nope. But don’t act like you’re the last to know, technically, I was the last to know.”

The Doctor laughed. “Ah, wibbley wobbly, timey wimey stuff?”

“Exactly. So, you should go forward in your TARDIS one month, and then find Ianto and Owen at the Neptune building. Apartment twenty. Everything will unfold from there,” explained Jack. “Oh, and I’m sorry, Doctor. But right now my 2008 self is busy insulting your navigational skills.”

The Doctor looked shocked and said, “You telling me that, I might have turned up late deliberately.”

“Are you saying it’s all my own fault you took a week to get Ianto and Owen back to me? Because I told you this?”

The Doctor waved his hand. “Wibbly wobbley…”

“Timey wimey stuff. Yeah. Confusing even for the greatest of time travellers.”

“Indeed.” The Doctor stood up and headed for the door, “Well then, I guess I’ll be back in one month from now. Or… five minutes for me.”

“Before you go, my personal assistant makes the best banana daiquiris. Want one?”

The Doctor turned around and grinned. “Why not? A good source of potassium.”

Owen was beginning to go stir crazy cooped up in James apartment. James had told Ianto and Owen it was important they stayed hidden until he figured out a way to help them. He’d provided them with food, showed them how to use the television and came to visit them as often as he could.

There was another reason for James coming to visit Ianto and Owen as often as he could, and that was the simple fact that he’d grown very fond of Ianto Jones, in particular.

Ianto and Owen had been living in James apartment for seven days now. Ianto was struggling with his feelings for James. He liked him, but of course he liked him, because he was Jack… just younger. But then again, he wasn’t Jack. Not the Jack he knew. The Jack he knew was… different. The young Welshman was extremely confused. Part of him wanted to pounce on James the minute he walked in the door, and the other wanted to stay faithful to the Jack he knew. A very tricky situation to be in.

It was ten PM. James and Owen were sitting at the table playing a card game Ianto had never heard of and Owen was doing his best to keep up with James. Ianto was sitting on the sofa watching his two friends interact.

“No, no way, you’re cheating,” said Owen.

“I’m not cheating, I’d never cheat!” Stated James.

Ianto laughed to himself, Jack always cheats at games. Especially when the stakes are clothes.

“In the last round you told me I couldn’t do that, and now you’ve just done the same thing,” argued Owen.

“Ah, did I?”

“Yes.”

James didn’t look too bothered about being caught out.

“You owe me eight jellies,” huffed Owen, eyeing up the pile of sugary treats.

The two fully grown men were playing for jelly sweets. They couldn’t exactly play for money since Owen didn’t have any. Ianto shook his head.

“Here we are stuck in the future and you two are gambling for candy.”

“There’s not a lot else to do,” said Owen. “I want to go out. I miss the out doors.”

“We can’t risk it,” said James.

“I know, but I still want to go outside. We’ll have to go out at some point.”

“He has a point,” said Ianto.

“Look, I know, it’s just, my girlfriend, Paula, she’s a Time Agent too. If she finds out about you two, I’m not sure I could trust her to keep it to herself.”

“Oh, that’s a shame,” said Owen, “I was hoping we were going to get to meet the famous Paula.”

“There’s another reason why meeting her won’t happen,” said James.

“Why?” Asked Ianto.

“Because,” the American turned to face Ianto and smiled, “I’m going to end things with her. She’s not the one I want to be with. You are.”

Ianto gasped a little, unsure what to say in reply. Owen watched in amazement. He couldn’t believe Ianto could waltz into younger Jack’s life and within a week have him willing to give up everything for Ianto.

“You… you can’t do that,” said Ianto.

“Why not? I never wanted to be in an exclusive relationship anyway, I don’t really agree with them.”

“Well then we can’t be together, because I believe in exclusive relationships,” said Ianto standing up.

“Well then maybe I could learn to be faithful if I was with you. I think if I was with the right person I’d want it to be exclusive.”

“Well, I’m sorry, but you can’t test out your theory on me.”

“Why not?” Asked James, taking a step closer to Ianto.

Ianto took a step back but James persisted on closing the distance.

“I like you, Ianto Jones. I think you like me too.”

“I… I err…”

“Owen,” said James, “Do you think Ianto likes me?”

Owen snorted. “You have no idea, mate.”

“Ianto, please, just give me a chance. I’ll leave the time agency?”

“You can’t do that, we need you to help us get home,” replied Ianto.

“I’ll come with you to the twenty first century.”

“No,” said Ianto a bit too quickly and rather harsh.

“Why not?”

“Because, you wouldn’t like it there.”

“I would. It sounds exciting. The twenty first century was when everything changed for the human race. I’d love to be a part of that.”

Ianto looked at Owen for help.

“I don’t think they twenty first century is a good idea, mate,” said Owen, “I mean, for a start… two men being together isn’t exactly accepted across the board.”

“You don’t want me? Do you?”

Ianto could see the hurt look in James eyes and he had put that look there. It pained him to see Jack like that. Usually when Jack was feeling low, Ianto would scoop him up in his arms and make everything better again. He wanted so badly to do that with James.

Ianto hesitated, this was probably a really bad idea but he couldn’t resist the urge to touch, to feel, to kiss Jack any longer. The young Welshman took a step forward and cupped James face in his hands. “I want you more than you could possibly know,” he said as he leaned in and kissed Jack so tender and with so much love that if it was a scene in a movie, people would have tears in their eyes. Owen claimed he had dust in his eyes.

The kiss deepened and became more passionate. James responded to Ianto’s advance eagerly. The two men were beginning to lose themselves in each other, when a beeping sound brought them back to reality.

It sounded like the same beeping that had brought Ianto and Owen here in the first place. Ianto checked Jack’s wrist strap that he was still wearing but didn’t have a clue how to use it.

James looked at his own and said, “It’s mine, I’ve got to go to work.” He looked apologetically at Ianto. “I’d rather stay here with you.”

“No,” Ianto shook his head and smiled at James, “You should go to work. Don’t want to draw attention to us.”

“Right,” James nodded and gave Ianto another kiss, “I’m going to go and see what the mission is, then I’m going to call things off with Paula. I’ll be back later. I’ll be thinking of you the whole time.”

Ianto nodded and kissed James again before he left. Sighing, the young Welshman flopped back down on the sofa. Owen stood up and wandered over to take a seat next to him.

“So,” he said, “things just got ten times more complicated?”

“Yep,” replied the younger man.

“It will make things difficult for when we have to leave.”

“I know.”

“Are you okay?” Asked Owen.

Ianto shook his head, “I haven’t got a clue what I’m doing.”

The older man put his arm around Ianto’s shoulder and held him tight. “You know when we leave here, you won’t be leaving Jack, you’ll be going back to him. You won’t be leaving James behind.”

“I know, it’s just, James is a bit different, it’s like, I know they are the same person… but they can be so different too. I feel like I’ve cheated on Jack.”

“You haven’t,” comforted Owen, “When we get back to our time, if you tell Jack that you snogged his younger self senseless, he’d probably love that.”

“Maybe.”

“He would. You know what Jack’s like. Stop beating yourself up, you haven’t cheated on him, you’ve just… started without him,” Laughed Owen.

Ianto gave a small chuckle, “Yeah, I guess so. I kind of ruined things with him and his girlfriend though.”

“Sod his girlfriend, Jack’s meant to be with you not her. You’ve done nothing wrong.”

“Thanks, Owen.”

“Not a problem, mate. Now then, you can take James place at the card game, I’m three jellies up and I want more.” 





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