Falling Into Place (3/32)

[riftintime]

Title: Falling Into Place
Author: riftintime
Summary: Jack Harkness accepts a job at an IT company in Cardiff, hoping to begin a new life. When he's teamed up with a brilliant but broken Welshman, their lives may change in ways they never could have imagined. Jack/Ianto AU.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto. Also Jack/Gwen (sorry – trust me!), past Ianto/Lisa, past Jack/John, Owen/Katie, Tosh/Tommy, Gwen/Rhys.
Rating: Adult / NC-17 (overall story)
Warnings: Adult themes and situations, some course language, romance, angst.
Disclaimer: This story is based on characters created and owned by the BBC. No profit is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
Author's Notes: Special thanks to my beta prothrombintime

Chapter List: http://riftintime.dreamwidth.org/4513.html

Chapter 3

"So, you're going to be working with Jack?" Tosh asked as she studied her friend curiously.

They were both sitting in one of the test labs off the main office floor. Ianto stared intently at the screen in front of him as they worked through the results of the optimisations that Tosh had been working on.

"Yep," Ianto confirmed, not looking away from the screen.

Toshiko had seen Ianto in Jack's office the previous day. Everyone knew about the tablet project and that Jack had been promoted to project manager. Jack had told her about it the day he'd met with Alex. She smiled to herself as she remembered how excited Jack had been. This was what he'd been waiting for, and she was happy for him.

The news had travelled swiftly around the office as it always did, and the reactions she'd heard had been mixed to say the least. But it was no surprise to anyone that Ianto would be the first one picked for the team.

"How do you feel about that?" she pressed, exasperated by Ianto's typical one word response.

"It's fine, Tosh," Ianto replied neutrally.

"Really?"

Ianto finally turned to look at her. "We're both professionals. I'm sure we can work together without wanting to kill each other."

Tosh didn't believe a word of that. Ianto could be unapproachable and difficult, and Jack was lovely, but he was also ostentatious and unrepentant. Putting the two of them together seemed like a seriously bad idea.

Ianto wasn't the same man he had once been, and he seemed to be highly distrustful of anyone new. And Jack Harkness was hardly just anyone. As far as she could tell, Ianto had been standoffish with Jack from the outset. She wasn't sure if they'd even spoken to each other in passing since the day Jack had arrived and been introduced around the office. She also wondered if the fact that she liked Jack and was friendly towards him had aggravated the situation. Ianto wasn't petty like that, but perhaps at a subconscious level, he resented her easy acceptance of Jack.

The problem was that they were both her friends, and she didn't want to be caught in the crossfire or have to choose a side. She decided that she needed to take a more proactive approach.

"I know he seems a bit, well…" she started and then paused as she desperately tried to find an adjective to describe Jack. "Flamboyant," she finally settled with. "But once you get to know him a little, he's a nice guy. He's smart too."

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like someone has a crush."

Tosh laughed. "I suppose I did at first. He's kind of overwhelming when you first meet him. But once you get past all of that…" She trailed off, lost in thought. "Actually, he reminds me a bit of you."

"What?" Ianto exclaimed, looking horrified.

"There's more to him than meets the eye," she explained. "He cares about people. He has hidden depths. That's like you."

Ianto scowled at her.

"That was a compliment, Ianto," Tosh added as she rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I think you'll get to like him," she continued determinedly.

"He is rather dashing," Ianto allowed as his expression cleared. "I'll give him that."

Tosh laughed. "He obviously takes care of himself. He's like a walking advertisement for metrosexualism," she said. "That's like you too," she added as she valiantly attempted to keep a straight face.

"I'm not a metrosexual!" Ianto hissed, looking outraged.

"Um… have you looked in the mirror lately?" Tosh asked, disbelief clouding her expression.

Ianto huffed. "All right, maybe I am just a bit. I like to look my best, what's wrong with that?" he demanded.

"Nothing," Tosh assured him. "It's good. Actually, I wish Tommy was more like you and Jack. He's old fashioned and he can be a bit… well, scruffy at times. Not that it matters to me. But if I suggest he try any hair or skincare products, he thinks I'm emasculating him." She sighed. "Sometimes I think he was born in the wrong century."

"Tommy's a good bloke. You're lucky to have each other," Ianto said and Tosh couldn't help but hear the sadness in his voice, although she knew he'd have done his best to hide it. She reached across and gently squeezed his hand.

"Yeah, I know," she said softly as she let go of his hand.

"So what are you saying, Tosh?" Ianto asked her. "You think I'm not going to give Jack a fair chance?"

Tosh shook her head. "I think people misjudge him. Well some people. I was talking to Suzie the other day, and she called him a superficial poster boy. She seems to think he gets whatever he wants because he's charming and good-looking and he flirts with everyone. She doesn't think he deserves to be in charge of the project… she doesn't seem to like him at all."

Tosh continued, "Anyway I told her to shut up and keep her uninformed opinions to herself, and I stormed off. She can be such a bitch sometimes."

"Toshiko Sato. Defender of the downtrodden metrosexual," Ianto quipped and chuckled slightly.

"Absolutely," Tosh said indignantly. "No one talks about my friends that way."

Ianto just stared at her, and then she burst out laughing.

"I visited Jack's apartment a while back," she began, changing the subject. "I stopped by to borrow his set of Star Wars DVD's."

"Er, don't you…" Ianto began, looking confused.

"Yes, I know, I've got my own set..." she said as Ianto looked incredulously at her. Then she added resignedly, "All right, yes… several sets."

She fixed Ianto with an impervious glare, daring him to say anything. He wisely remained silent. "I told him I'd worn mine out." Tosh blushed and ducked her head.

"You're a terrible liar." Ianto gave her a smug grin.

"I know," Tosh groaned, waving her hands dramatically. "I can never come up with a good cover story. You'd think after all this time I'd have picked up some tips from you."

If Ianto was offended by that, he chose to ignore it. "So, Jack believed your excuse?" he asked.

"Probably not. But I still received the grand tour of his apartment, had a nice glass of wine, and left with an armful of DVD's," she grinned. "And his girlfriend gave me some beauty tips."

Her eyes went wide. "The apartment is spectacular. It must cost a fortune to rent. It's only a few minutes walk from here."

"Very nice," Ianto replied vaguely.

"Ianto, just try to give him a chance, okay?" she said, hoping her plea was reaching her stubborn colleague. "Alex obviously has confidence in Jack, or he wouldn't have put him in charge of the project."

Ianto nodded slowly. Tosh knew that Ianto respected Alex, so she hoped that if nothing else, this entreaty would be enough to persuade him.

"Okay," Ianto promised, reaching over and lightly patting her arm.

Later that day, Ianto was sitting in Jack's office reading the project brief that Jack had put together. He intermittently nibbled at a donut on the plate by his side, while Jack was enjoying his third donut with his usual exuberance. He'd gone out earlier and bought them in the hope that some food and coffee might help to make this second meeting with Ianto go more smoothly.

"What do you think?" Jack asked around a mouthful of food as he reached for his coffee mug.

Ianto finished reading and looked up at Jack thoughtfully. "Looks good."

"But…?" Jack hedged.

Ianto shook his head. "Nothing. From what I can see, you've got everything covered. Some of the technical details need to be worked out, but we'll do that in the functional spec."

"Okay," Jack agreed easily. "Now, about the rest of the team... Alex is allowing the project to have five people for the first stage."

"So, you need to select four more?" Ianto asked.

"Three. The five includes me," Jack stated, looking apologetic.

"Oh."

"Yeah," Jack said and sighed. "It's going to be tight isn't it? Especially if we want to meet the target date for the demonstration."

"Yep, we're spread a bit thin here at the moment," Ianto acknowledged. "So who do you have in mind?"

"I wanted to get your opinion on that." Jack began to reach for another donut, but at Ianto's disapproving glare, he quickly grabbed his pen instead and started twirling it idly between his fingers.

"Well first is Tosh," Ianto began. "As you know, she's brilliant. She'll be a huge asset for the user interface design. But she's also in demand, and she'll likely be called on to help with other projects. So you probably won't be able to have her on the project a hundred percent of the time."

Jack nodded and indicated for Ianto to continue.

"Next, I'd recommend Adam. He knows the database and back-end inside out. He'll be a good person to work on the middleware services."

"To finish off the team, you'll need someone who's a good all-rounder. I'd suggest Andy. He's solid and a hard worker," Ianto concluded. "Me and Tosh can help to bring him up to speed on anything when necessary."

"Actually, I wanted to run something past you on that," Jack said. "I'd like you to lead some informal training sessions after-hours for the team, including me, to get us all up to speed on the tech. Does that sound okay?"

"I suppose so. But after hours?" Ianto asked with confusion.

Jack nodded and started to explain. "I insisted to Alex that I be given an allocation of overtime for the team, along with a budget for anything we might need. I just thought that this way it will be quieter, and no chance of interruptions. We'll get some food in and keep it casual. And I'll make sure that everyone gets overtime for the extra hours."

"Fair enough," Ianto responded.

Jack was surprised to see Ianto give him a small but seemingly genuine smile.

"I agree with your selections too," Jack continued. "I wanted Tosh, and I had Adam in mind, but I wasn't sure about the final person. I don't know much about Andy but he sounds like a good choice."

"He is," Ianto affirmed.

"So, do you think this is workable?" Jack asked, failing to keep the concern out of his voice. He once again thought about how much trust he was putting in Ianto.

"I think so," Ianto said carefully. "Well, it has to be. And there are advantages in having a smaller team. But it's a challenging project, and we have a lot to learn and not much time to do it."

Ianto paused, and there was determination in his eyes. "We'll do our best, Jack."

Jack smiled. "Thanks, Ianto. I don't doubt that."

Chapter 4

Comments

[missthingsplace]

Doing my best to ignore the fact that Gwen is Jack's girlfriend ... still loving this :)