Title: Watching The Ships Roll In
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Rating: Mild PG
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: Not mine; they belong to RTD and to the BBC
Summary: Written as a result of the prompt for Day Four on horizonssing:


He can't believe that the Doctor has abandoned him on this alien world. He won't believe that the Doctor has abandoned him, because if he lets that thought take hold he's not sure he'll be able to keep functioning. Ianto stares out through the huge panoramic window of the main arrival lounge to where the starships are landing and taking off, their sculpted hulls gleaming in the light radiating out from the system's twin suns. The larger one is setting, adding a deep ruby glow to the landscape.

Normally he'd be trying to look everywhere at once, taking in the alien architecture, the many different races crowding past him and that strange indefinable ambience that tells a person that they are on another world and not just in some exotic corner of the Earth. Unlike the last three worlds the Doctor took Ianto to, human-like beings are a bit thin on the ground and Ianto can't help feeling a little self-conscious at the stares he is collecting. He's had four propositions since he found himself abandoned and only one of them was physically impossible. Jack would have loved it.

Ianto feels another layer of depression settle over him. He really should have left a note or something for Jack when the Doctor's path had crossed his own and Ianto had taken up the carelessly offered invitation to travel with him for a while. There might even have been a deeply buried impulse towards revenge somewhere at the heart of that acceptance, but it hadn't taken him long to feel guilty. The Doctor had realised that something was wrong but he hadn't said anything and now he had vanished and Ianto has a feeling that he is in a lot of trouble. He doesn't even know where Earth is or what year this is going to be in Earth history!

"-can't believe you didn't tell him where you were going!"

Ianto blinks and spins around, certain that he couldn't be mistaking that voice. Sure enough, Jack Harkness is ploughing through the crowd with a scant regard for other beings' limbs, feet or tentacles. The Doctor is trailing after him but having to dodge a lot more. Ianto feels a huge bubble of relief rising up inside him as he watches them approach.

"Well he was miserable without you so I thought I'd come and get you," the Doctor is protesting. "Although why he would be missing you-"

Ianto doesn't bother listening any more. He's too busy launching himself at a laughing, relieved-looking Jack, who's quick enough to envelop him in a bone-crushing hug. They kiss with total abandon, there in the middle of a bustling alien spaceport, and Ianto has to suppress the urge to laugh out loud from sheer joy.

"Oh, that's why," the Doctor says when they both finally come up for air.