parked | IC CONTACT POST

[And what about the rest of them? Why did Jack get to leave when everyone else had to stay where they were?

...Because they have people they can't let down. Even if he already had -]

...Come stay with me. [Because he'd failed Ianto but this is something he can do, it's the only thing he can do now. It isn't like there was going to be shoreleave, any more. He covers his eyes with a hand.]

[Jack doesn't laugh at that suggestion because it isn't funny and he doesn't have enough of anything in him to fake it either. But if he feels guilty around Gwen, he can only imagine what he'd feel like if he stuck around Sulu. At least Gwen had 3, 4 years spent with Ianto. Sulu hadn't even gotten one.

He takes in another deep breath, not as quietly as he did before, trying to ease the tightness in his chest a little.] I'm not sure that that's a very good idea...

[Sulu closes his eyes and just. Listens. He can hear a group of ensigns outside his door, passing by on their way to engineering, and he knows that the bridge is full and he should be up there, but he can't be, not now. And none of them even know why. He'd told Kirk someone close to him had died, that was it. They had no idea. Except McCoy, but he. He couldn't. He couldn't even consider talking to him.]

Please, Jack. [He feels ashamed to be begging but Ianto had been glad when he'd asked for help before, and Sulu didn't want to let him down, not now.] Just. Just for a little while. I can't do this.

[Jack wants to scream at Sulu over the phone. He killed Ianto. Didn't he realize that? Ianto was dead and it was all Jack's fault and just looking at Sulu he knows he'd feel so goddamn guilty about all of that. But.

He owes it to Ianto. He can tell how badly this has effected the other, and he knows that he's one of the only other people who understands exactly what it is that they lost the day before. He doesn't know how he can help, or even if he can, but. He'd already failed Ianto one too many times.

He sighs, shakily.] Alright. If... If that's what you want... If that's what you want, then I'll come. I just. I can't promise you that I'll be the best of company.

[Sulu almost retracts the offer, the plea, but he doesn't. He's doing this for Ianto. He laughs, bitter and short, stopping in his tracks because he can just imagine the look on Ianto's face if he ever heard that sound come from him - except he won't.]

Yeah, well. I don't think I care about good company.

[Jack shuts his eyes, letting his head hang. The man on the phone isn't the same man that he met in the archives all those months ago, and he did this to him. God knows why Sulu wanted him there, but if he did, then Jack would go.]

I... I'll be a while, though. There are some things... Some things I need to arrange here, first. [He won't go into what. He doesn't want to and frankly, Sulu probably doesn't care. Flat Holm, for one. Making sure that things were arranged for there. Making sure Gwen's salary was arranged for as well. Selling off his various properties around the city. Then... Ianto. His body is now property of Torchwood. He has to see to it that it's properly stored in their cryovaults (obviously the ones in the storage facility since the Hub was off limits). God help him, he would leave whatever else of the procedure for Gwen to handle, but Ianto he has to take care of himself]

[Sulu doesn't want to know. He has ideas, he has theories, but it's like water in the back of his head, draining away and leaving nothing but bits of minerals.]

All right. Okay. Just come whenever, however. [He doesn't care about decorum or procedure any more, not now.]

Yeah. I... [He has to stop himself from apologizing right then and there. He owes the other man at least the courtesy of an apology face to face. Owes him the option of getting properly angry and punching him out or however Sulu deals with this kind of thing, Jack doesn't really know. He doesn't really know Sulu all that well. He only knows that Ianto and Sulu had had something great together, and now that was gone, and he was so very, very sorry for it.]

I'll be there in a couple hours or so. Don't worry about meeting me. I'll find you. [And then Jack hangs up, ending their call, tucking his cell phone back into his pocket and putting his face in his hands, just in time for Alice to come out of the doors down the corridor and look at him in disgust]

Your boyfriend is a cagey bastard. [Jack is upset, to put it mildly. Jack and Ianto's talk obviously didn't go very well...]

[Oh. His boyfriend means that Ianto's in trouble.] What happened?

He threw me out. I tried to talk to him, I tried to be patient, and he threw me to the damn curb.

...Wait, what? [Sulu is completely confused.] He threw you out? ...Why?

Hell if I know!? I just tried to talk to him. He told me that I was full of shit, and then he threw me out!

...Where are you now?

...[insert address here].

...I went for a walk after. Thought I would clear my head. [Obviously, it didn't work]

...Ugh, Jack. I'm really sorry. You... want to come up here for a bit? A change in scenery from Cardiff might help.

[a pause, as Jack weighs his options] ...you don't have better things to do with your time, now that you're off shift? [Which translates to yes, please, Sulu. Take him away. He's just going to go off and brood himself into an even worse mood otherwise]

If I did, I wouldn't offer. Let me get you set up with a hop, okay?

[After Sulu's hopped Jack up to the ship and the pair of them have made it to Sulu's botany lab:]

...thanks. For, y'know. Having me over. Going back to the Hub didn't seem very appealing, all things considered.

[Sulu shrugs, locking the door behind them so that nobody could wander in unannounced.] It's... kind of my fault, anyway. I was being a little overzealous, earlier.

Yeah, well. I listened to your advice knowing that it probably wouldn't work, so. [Jack runs a hand through his hair, shrugging his jacket off and tossing it across the closest chair] He's just so goddamned stubborn. I should've realized...

He's also tired, too. I didn't really think about it. ...What happened, exactly, anyway?

[Jack shrugs] I tried to talk to him. He said he didn't want to. I... Might have pressed a little, but. Then he seemed to think that you'd put me up to it, and that was the end of that.

[Sulu doesn't want to say that, well, he sort of did put him up to it. That's probably not what Jack wants to hear. Instead, he goes to check on a few plants that he's been caring for since the shoreleave.] He should know you don't get put up to doing things. You're a little too stubborn for that.

[Jack flops down in the chair he'd hung his coat over, sitting back and pinching the bridge of his nose, slightly] Yeah, well. Apparently the fact that I never talk to him means that when I do try to talk to him, it's obviously not my idea and therefore it's not worth his time, so...

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