There's always Hope

There's always Hope
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By Terrenis-chan

Chapter I – Unexpected Reunions

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8 months later.

Torchwood London.


A brown-haired young man in a black suit, carrying a brief case of the same colour, entered the building through one of the revolving doors and walked into the foyer. Greeting various people, he made his way to the lifts. He paused for a moment to take a small card out of his breast pocket and held it in front of a small scanner.

It beeped barely audible and one second later the lift doors opened and the young man stepped into the lift, pushing the button for his floor and setting the lift into motion.

Moments later, it stopped and the doors opened. The man stepped out, but stopped when he heard someone calling his name.

"Hey Ianto, wait a minute!"

Ianto turned his head and saw one of his friends, who worked in another department on of the upper floors, hurrying towards him and smiled.

"Hello Matt! When did you get back? I thought you'd be gone much longer than two months!" he asked, shaking his friend's hand.

"Well, I've been here since midnight. We got lucky and managed to finish our work much earlier. But I'm glad I did catch you here! There's something I have to tell you." Matt said in a serious voice.

The Welshman raised an eyebrow at his friend's unusual behaviour, but didn’t comment it.

"Okay, let's go to my office. We can talk there without interruption." He finally said and gestured for Matt to follow him.

Both men walked through a large storage area, where Ianto noticed several crates, which hadn’t been there the day before. The area itself was still empty, since most of Ianto's fellow colleagues would only arrive in an hour. His office was located on the other side of the area and Ianto and Matt walked in, sitting down on a couch near the desk and making themselves comfortable.

"So, what's bothering you? Has something happened while you were away? I've never seen you like this before."
"I know and I'm sorry. I'm just tired. First of all, Yvonne wants you to unpack and categorise all items from the crates we passed. Surely you've noticed them." Matt explained.

"Of course I have. But somehow I have the feeling there's more to it."

Matt chuckled, but became serious again.

"You're right as usual. I wanted to tell you what I did in the last two months. I know it's still a sensitive topic but…Ianto, those crates contain everything from the archives of Torchwood 3. I and some other guys from my department have spent the last months in what is left of Cardiff, scouring the underground base for any artefacts."

Ianto had paled visibly, when Matt had mentioned Cardiff and Torchwood 3. The other man had been right when he said that this topic was sensitive, at least for Ianto.

"Ianto, are you alright?"

Matt's voice jerked the Welshman out of his train of thoughts and he looked at his friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Sorry! Did you…I mean…?" Ianto stammered, not wanting to ask if they had found Lisa's body, already in an advanced stage of decay.

"No, we didn’t find any bodies, just piles of ashes within their clothes. It seems that they were burned alive at the moment of the outbreak. I know the thought isn’t comforting but I personally think that it was over quickly at least and they didn’t suffer." Matt replied.

Ianto just nodded numbly, although the thought of Lisa burning to death sent shivers down his spine. No one should have to die like that.

"But why did you go back there now?" he finally asked.

Matt sighed.

"I don’t know the further details but it has to do with that infertility virus which is raging all over the planet. Yvonne seems to think that there might have been anything in Torchwood 3's archives that could be used against it. By the way, that was the reason why she called Lisa that day. But then the Rift opened and you know the rest of the story."

Suddenly it started to beep and Matt glanced at his watch.

"Oh, I have to go now. We can talk later. How about tonight in our usual place?" he asked and got up from the couch, squeezing slightly Ianto's shoulder when this one showed no reaction.

"Okay?" Matt asked again.

This time Ianto just nodded and the other man smiled slightly.

"Everything's going to be alright. See you later!"

"See you!" Ianto finally said and also got up, shaking his friend's hand.

Matt then turned and prepared to leave the office. But he abruptly stopped and fetched an envelope from within his breast pocket and gave it to Ianto.

"I almost forgot to give you this! I found it in her office." He said.

The Welshman looked with a curious expression first at him, then at the envelope and opened it. His eyes began to sparkle at the sight in front of him. It was a photo of him and Lisa, taken shortly before their break-up. It was slightly burned at the edges, but otherwise undamaged.

"I knew you'd like it."

"Thank you! I'll see you tonight." Ianto said, giving his friend a short, thankful hug.

"My pleasure. See you!" Matt said, while the other man laid the photo on his desk.

He waved Ianto goodbye and walked out of the office, leaving Ianto alone with his thoughts.

°oOo°

Matt left the Torchwood Building and got into a waiting taxi, which quickly drove off after the brown-haired man gave the taxi driver an address. Leaning back in the back seat, he waited until the Torchwood Building was no longer in sight, then took out his mobile and dialled a number well-known to him, waiting for someone to pick up.

Finally, after a few seconds, he heard a click and a well-known voice answering.

"Yeah, it's me. I just wanted to let you know that I'm back since midnight and I have some very important news for you…"

°oOo°

As soon as his friend had left, Ianto's calm demeanour slowly started to crumble. Breathing heavily, he sat down and leaned against the back of his comfy office chair, staring once more at the photo in front of him. Had it really been 8 months since his final visit in Cardiff?

It just seemed like yesterday when the Welshman had been there for the last time.

When the Rift had opened on that fateful day, he had already been on his way to London. But apparently he hadn’t been away far enough because he was still near enough to feel the effects of the accompanying earth quake. It had been a real trouble to stay on the road and not to crash somewhere into the crash barrier. But Ianto had even managed to stop the car without any damage.

Through the rear-view mirror he had seen the white light of the outbreak and instinctively reached for his mobile, dialling a well-known number. But there had been nothing, no dialling tone or even an engaged tone. Absolutely nothing. Ianto knew it was a lost cause to continue, because the underground base of Torchwood 3 would the first to be destroyed, should the Rift ever open as it currently had.

The next thing the Welshman knew that he had been standing next to his car, watching the city burn from various fires which the eruption had caused. He even didn’t know how he had gotten back to London into his apartment. It had taken him more than five months to get over this shock. A two months vacation with his cousin Owen had helped greatly and left him able to cope with what had happened.

But now he wasn’t sure if he really had gotten over it. The memories still hurt a lot and there was no way that he could go back in time and change what had happened.

Hearing the voices of his colleagues, Ianto hastily put the photo in one of his drawers and locked it before he stood up and left his office, taking a clipboard with him.

"Morning, Ianto!" it came from different directions.

"Morning! Please follow me!" he greeted back and walked into an empty part of the area, the others following him.

There the Welshman stopped and waited for the others to form a circle around him.

"Alright, guys, time for the daily ritual! Most of you may have noticed the new crates at the entrance. It's a new shipment, which just arrived from Cardiff and what was left of Torchwood 3."

Ianto paused here for a moment and waited for his words to sink in. He noticed that several of his colleagues exchanged meaningful glances and did not wonder about that. After all, he wasn’t the only one who had lost someone close that day.

"Yvonne wants the artefacts categorized and analyzed as soon as possible. I hope I have made myself clear. If you have any questions, just ask. If not, then let's set to work."

Since no one had questions, Ianto went back to his office where he put off his jacket and put on a white lab coat. Leaving his office once more, he fetched a crowbar and walked with two of his colleagues to the first crate. Although the thought of the crates being from his now least favourite city still bothered him slightly, his curiosity as head archivist predominated.

After all, he didn’t get everyday the chance to find out what had been in Torchwood 3's archives, which, by the way, had been more than thrice as big as the London Archive. And maybe he'd find out if one of these artefacts had something to do with the Rift eruption.

°oOo°

Later that evening.

The pub was already full, when Ianto entered it, looking more relaxed than he was hours ago. Looking around for his friend, he found him sitting at the counter, where he seemed to be busy with his mobile, a large glass of beer standing in front of him.

The Welshman took the empty seat next to him and ordered one for himself. Noticing, that his friend hadn’t noticed his arrival, he snatched the mobile out of his friend's hand to get his attention.

"Hey Matt, I had no idea that your mobile is that fascinating." He said rather loudly, throwing a glance at the display, where he could see various unread text messages.

Matt, who really hadn't paid attention to his surroundings, suddenly became aware of the sudden lack of weight in his hand, where only moments ago his mobile had been. Only then he saw the newcomer sitting next to him… holding his mobile phone.

"Hey, that's mine!" Matt protested and snatched it back, letting it vanish into his pocket.

Ianto chuckled and sipped from his pint.

Matt did the same and then faced Ianto.

"So, how is work going? Did you already find something interesting?" he finally asked.

The Welshman shrugged.

"No! At least not the things Yvonne is looking for. Surprisingly, most of the artefacts turned out to be the alien equivalents of ordinary household objects like toasters and vacuum cleaners. But there are no medical objects at all! I don’t know what Yvonne was looking for but they were certainly not in the Cardiff Archives."

"I see. So I worked two months for nothing. Well, Yvonne knows how to keep someone busy." Matt sighed with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

He took his glass and emptied in one large gulp, much to Ianto's worry.

"Are you alright? You look a bit pale!" he asked.

"It's nothing. I'm just a little bit tired." Matt replied.

Ianto didn’t believe him a word, but didn’t pressure him further.

Suddenly Matt's phone beeped and he took it out of his pocket to read the text message which he had just received. In the meantime, Ianto looked at the TV above the counter, where one of the public stations was broadcasting the news report.

All of a sudden, the pub became very quiet, when the newsreader announced some breaking news.

"…Mickey Smith is dead. Apparently, he was killed during a car crash on his way to Scotland where he was supposed to visit some relatives. He was dead on the spot. Mickey Smith became famous as the youngest man on Earth. His place is now taken by seventeen-year-old Rose Tyler from London…"

At this point, the innkeeper turned off the TV and the silence in the background grew to a deafening murmuring and crying.

Ianto ignored it and turned his attention back to his beer.

"Bad news, don’t you think?" Matt asked.

"Yeah. It's just that I have this feeling that all what is going on at the moment is the beginning of the end of days." The Welshman answered, his finger absently playing with the brim of his glass.

"I didn’t take you for a religious man, Ianto Jones!" his friend replied.

"Nah, I'm just a man who lost all hope."

"I see."

Both men grew silent again and ordered another round of alcoholic beverages.

A few hours later, two figures stumbled out of the now closed pub. Ianto, who luckily had stopped after their second round, supported Matt, who hadn’t been as wise as Ianto and drunk twice as much as Ianto.

"Okay, we better call a taxi to get you home in one piece. Maybe you shouldn’t have drunk so much!" Ianto said, while waving at a taxicab nearby.

"S'okay! Sanks for your 'elp, Yan!" Matt replied drunkenly, trying not to stumble over his own feet.

Ianto shook his head and strengthened his grip to prevent his friend from falling over.

The black car started his engine, headlights on, and drove slowly over to the two men. Arriving there, the driver got out.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"Yes, thanks." The Welshman said.

The taxi driver opened the back door and took Matt from Ianto, settling him into one of the backseats. Then Ianto also got in before the driver closed the door and went back to sit down into his own seat.

"So, where do you want to go to, son?" the older man asked.

Ianto gave Matt's address to the man and leaned back. Just then he noticed that he and Matt weren’t the only ones in the taxi.

Right next to him sat a black-clothed, hooded figure. It was a woman as far as he could see by the stature.

"Excuse me, madam, but this is our taxi. What are you doing in here?" he demanded.

The woman chuckled.

"I know. But I'm sure you won't mind. Besides, I've been waiting for you!" she said.

Ianto sucked in a deep breath and his eyes became impossibly wide. He knew that voice. But it was impossible.

The woman chuckled again and removed the hood from her head. Ianto looked in shock at her, his eyes taking in her features. She had a large scar on her right cheek, but otherwise nothing had changed. It was still the face of Lisa Hallett that was smiling back at him.

"Hello Ianto! It's been a while!"

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I'm sorry for the delay, but I haven’t been feeling well the last few weeks and therefore I wasn’t able to update. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I hope the next update won't take too long.

Do you like it? Do you hate it? Want more? Just write me. Reviews are much appreciated.

^^ Terrenis