Jacks home.

Jacks home and he expects everything to be the same. He walks into the hub, assuming he would hear the tapping of Tosh's computer keys. He waits for the bite of Owen's sarcasm. He's even waiting for the sharp pain of the Londoner's fist against his face, which is comforting in the way that he cares enough to go through the trouble. He's waiting for Gwen's high-horse speech, the one that makes him feel like he's been partying for the past three months instead of dying for a year. And he's desperately hoping to smell Ianto's wonderful freshly brewed dark roast,and maybe even a date. (That could be him getting his hopes up, but the young Welshman was too great to pass up.)

He doesn't see any of them. Which means they're out. Out saving someone's life, he hopes, and not taking the night off. (He wants them to relax, but he doesn't want some poor, innocent soul to die because they wanted a night to be normal.)

He traces their comms, and after finding them only ten minutes away, he thinks its an easy trip. And it is, there's no traffic at midnight. On the way there, he thinks. He wonders if they will forgive him for leaving them, for abandoning them after everything they'd been through. But they have to, they're family, all of them. And you always forgive family, do you?

When he gets to the home of a family of three, he sees Tosh with her gadget and gun, pointed at the blowfish, Gwen holding the daughter, and Owen trying to stop the bleeding of the father.

But, he doesn't see Ianto. Three months ago he wouldn't have thought anything of it, but now they needed a team of four out in the field. He also didn't see Ianto in the hub. If the he had seen him, the Welshman sure had a way of making that known.

The blowfish was taunting his team, his team. “Look at you, trying to be all grown up.” So, he did what he does best. He shoots the fish, straight through the head. His team -minus Ianto- turns to him in surprise.

“Hey kids, did ya miss me?”


The ride back is more uncomfortable than anyone imagined. Jack didn't know what he expected when he was on the Valiant, but it was something like, “oh, Jack, we've missed you so much! We forgive you for leaving us.” Instead, nobody looks at him. Actually, nobody looks at anybody.

Tosh presses buttons on her gadgets, squinting her eyes to see better. Gwen stares at her hands, picking at her dark nail polish that hides her dirty fingernails. Owen drives the car with amazing focus, more attention than he's ever given driving before. It scares Jack that this is what his team has become. Naturally, he has to ask, “where's Ianto?”

What he wasn't expecting to happen when he asks this question is for Tosh to let out a choked sob. She tries to hide it with a fist, turning her head to face the window. Gwen sniffles, struggling to keep a straight face. Owen's hands twitch and shake on the wheel.

Jack can only think of one reason why they all respond like this.

One reason.

And he knows his team is certainly not the same.