Title: Fallout, Part TwentyTwo

Author: Emma

Characters: A whole bunch of folk.

Rating: Starts PG, but hey, it’s got Jack in it!

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?
Author's Note: This fic is CoE compliant

Part One is here; Part Two is here; Part Three is here; Part Four is here; Part Five is here; Part Six is here; Part Seven is here; Part Eight is here; Part Nine is here; Part Ten is here; Part Eleven is here; Part Twelve is here; Part Thirteen is here; Part Fourteen is here; Part Fifteen is here; Part Sixteen is here; Part Seventeen is here; Part Eighteen is here; Part Nineteen is here; Part Twenty is here; Part TwentyOne is here

            “How does it feel?”

            “Like nothing I can describe. It’s… I could get lost in there,” Ifan tapped the side of his head, “for the rest of my life.”

            “Not such a good idea.”

            “No, maybe not.” He glanced at Jack then lowered his eyes. “I saw the tape. You were right. There’s more to me than just a three-card monte con.  But I’ll be damned if I know what it is.”

            “Donna tells me her last employer was a Mrs. Meester, from Holland. Tulip fancier.”

            “So everything is proceeding according to Mrs. Saxon’s plans?”

            “It would seem so. She had to know we wouldn’t let Donna die.”

            “So what next?”

            “We need to find out why she wanted to data-dump the Doctor into your head before you and Ianto could join.”

            “So I need to go through all the data and figure out how to remove whatever blocks she put in? There is so much, Jack. I don’t even know where to start.”

            “You’ve got a doctor and a librarian on call. There’s damn little Martha and Tish can’t figure out if they put their minds to it. And if worst comes to worst I’ve just hired someone who can turn any filing system inside out, even if it’s inside your head.” Jack sipped at his water bottle. “We’ll be ahead of the bitch for once.”

            This time Ifan looked directly at Jack. “And is that the only reason?”

            “I don’t know what…”

            “Don’t you, Jack? I watched that tape. I saw you with Ianto. Are you sure that you’re not hoping that Ianto will… become the dominant personality? It would be the perfect solution. Give you back everything you lost.”

            Jack stood up, ramrod straight. “Do you really believe that of me?”

            “I don’t know! I don’t know what’s going on anymore. I thought… you and me… but the way you looked at Ianto…”

            “I loved Ianto and I’m not going to apologize for it. But I don’t want you replaced, Yan. Sometimes you remind me of Ianto, yes, but you are your own person. A person I like more and more each day. If you merge with Ianto… I guess you’ll be yet a third person. A mixture of both. Someone I’ll have to get to know all over again.”

            “And if I don’t go through with it, Jack? If I refuse giving up being Yan?”

            “Then we do whatever we can to stop the Master anyway. It’s not an order, Yan. I won’t stop being your friend if you say no.”

            “But you’ll pull away in every other way. Slowly. Once you realize that I’m not Ianto, that I’ll never be Ianto, you’ll pull away. He’s the one you want.”

            Jack’s head drooped. “Maybe this was all wrong from the beginning. What’s that Faulkner quote? The past isn’t dead; it isn’t even past. Maybe Ianto will always be standing between us.” He turned away. “I don’t know how to go about proving to you how I feel, Yan, so I won’t even try. It’s up to you to decide if you can let the past go.”