Title: Unusual Family Dynamics
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: FRMT
Chapter: 6/6
Pairing: Owen/Diane, Owen/Ianto
Summary: Eight year old Owen Harper meets an unusual man who immediately changes his life...
Spoiler's: Out of Time (1x10), Captain Jack Harkness (1x12), End of Days (1x13) and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (slightly) (2x01).
Author's Note: Thank you to all the wonderful people who have read and reviewed this. Hope every one likes this last chapter.

x

Through the large window he could see the stars and streetlights glistening in the water of Cardiff Bay. The streets outside were silent, it was after midnight and the area he lived in wasn’t big for clubbing, so there were no drunken people shouting loudly as they made their way down the street.

The warm body next to him shifted and he could hear a soft murmur, but the words were too faint to make out. Glancing at the long hair spread over his pillows, he knew something felt wrong. The person next to him wasn’t the one he wanted. Diane wanted him, she had made that blatantly obvious over the past few days but as Owen lay there, he couldn’t help frown as he wondered what was wrong with him.

His head felt like someone was tearing it in two and all he wanted was to close his eyes and block out the pain. But whenever he tried all he kept seeing were gorgeous blue eyes and dark hair, reminding him of how fucked he was.

It had been almost six months since Jack had arrived beaten and broken, escorted by Ianto Jones. Jack had soon been mended and everything was back to the way it had been before. Except Ianto hadn’t left.

Torchwood London had been destroyed in the battle and the handful of survivors had either been Retconned or posted to the Torchwood Glasgow or Cardiff bases. The fact that Ianto was the only one to arrive in Cardiff was proof how many lives had been lost that day.

Ever since the first time his and Ianto’s hands had touched, Owen had dutifully been avoiding any kind of physical contact with the Welshman. The tingling sensation he had felt in his hand all day, lingered at the back of his mind, reminding him of how it felt to be touched by someone so good looking; someone so definitely male.

Owen wasn’t stupid, he knew that Jack had no qualms about his own sexuality. The older man never seemed more at ease than when he was flirting; be it with a man, woman, plant or mineral. They had never discussed it together and Owen had never thought of Jack being with a man as a problem. It only became a problem when Owen started picturing himself with a man.

He rolled onto his side, sliding his hand around Diane’s waist, feeling her silky soft skin under his fingertips, trying desperately to ignore the fact that he was appreciating how soft and tanned she was and not focusing on her naked body pressing against his.

x

The plane was prepped, ready for take-off and Diane was climbing into the cockpit, wearing a determined look on her face. Owen knew he had one last chance to stop her leaving; he needed her to stay with him, help him get over the wrong things he was feeling for Ianto.

“Please…” he pleaded, leaning his hands against the door, stopping her from closing up the plane. “Don’t go… Stay… I… I love you,” his voice broke a little and he wasn’t sure who he was trying to convince that the words were true.

Diane offered him a sad smile and looped her white scarf around his neck. “No you don’t,” she whispered, lighting running her fingers down his cheek. “It’s okay,” he murmured, leaning over and pressing her lips against Owen.

Owen tried to deepen the kiss, but she pulled away, sliding her thumb over his cheekbone. “Please…” he begged, closing his eyes at the thought of losing her. “I need you.”

“Go to him, Owen,” she instructed. “He’s the one you need. Not me.” Owen’s eyes flew open instantly and she smiled. “You talk in your sleep,” she informed him, kissing him one more time before pushing him back a step to allow her to close the door.

Knowing he was defeated he took several steps back as she started the engine and prepared to set off. Her whispered words of love were almost inaudible over the roar of the engine and the blood rushing in his ears as the plane tore down the runway, into the sky and the Rift.

x

Jack trapped in 1941, was the only thing Owen could think at that moment. It was the only thing he was allowing himself to think. If he stopped and allowed his mind to wander, it would inevitably go to the memory of rolling around on the floor with Ianto.

Admittedly, they had been fighting with each other at the time, but the memory of how Ianto had felt pressed against his back was doing things to him and Owen refused to think of him that way.

He was wrong, he knew it and was going to find as many girls as he could and shag them all when this was over. Just to get those feelings out of his system.

“The Rift took Diane and my Captain,” he spat, looking over his shoulder at Ianto. “If I die trying to bring either back, then at least I’ll die doing my duty.”

The gun Ianto held in front of him was a surprise and his instincts kicked in, prompting him to taunt Ianto about not being anything other than a Tea-Boy. The bullet to his shoulder hurt like hell as he slotted the key into place, but not as much as the feeling of betrayal in his heart when he realised Ianto had shot him.

x

“I’m relieving you of your duty!” Jack snapped, stepping up and getting into Owen’s face. “The first thing you learned when you joined Torchwood was, don’t mess with the Rift. It’s too dangerous and unpredictable.”

Owen stood up to his full height, not backing down or breaking eye contact with the older man. “Would you have rather I left you in 1941? How do we even know what will happen if the Rift opens? We’ve known you for a long time and you don’t even trust us with the truth about who you are. I’ve known you for nearly twenty years and you don’t even trust me. Why should I believe you now?”

Jack’s anger had boiled down from pure rage into calm, mild mannered irritation. “Leave your weapon and get out,” he ordered, taking a step back and folding his arms across his chest.

Owen sighed and glanced around at the rest of the team, purposely overlooking Ianto’s concerned face. “Fine,” he whispered, pulling the gun from his belt and placing it on a nearby table. “If that’s the way you want to be… Jack.”

The other man’s eyes flickered briefly at the sound of his name instead of the word he had been called by Owen for so long, before the hardened gaze reappeared.

“I guess this is goodbye,” he added, looking around again. This time he purposely held Ianto’s expression, choosing not to ignore the feeling in the pit of his stomach as he realised he could very easily fall into those blue pools.

He knew he wouldn’t remember Tosh, Ianto, Gwen or even Jack pretty soon. He would be Retconned like he should have been twenty years ago. There was no point in denying his feelings now, even if they were horrible and wrong.

“I would say thanks for the memories, but…” He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, not bothering to finish his sentence. They all knew what would happen to him.

He didn’t even look back as he made his way down the stairs and through the large cog door.

x

The shot stung the back of his throat as he tossed the clear liquid back, but he didn’t care, he just ordered himself another one. The life he had known since he was a kid would come to an end in less than twenty-four hours so he figured he had every right to get as hammered as humanly possible: Even if he killed himself in the process.

“Owen,” a scared and very familiar voice whispered from behind him.

His breath caught in his throat as he turned and saw Diane standing behind him, wearing the flight outfit she had been wearing the last time he had seen her. “Diane,” he choked, fighting back the tears that were threatening to spill.

“I’m so lost, Owen. I don’t know where I am.” The terror in Diane’s voice was heartbreaking to hear and Owen almost blocked his ears so he wouldn’t have to listen to the pain. “Open the Rift. It’s the only way to save me. Please… I’ll die if you don’t. Open the Rift and you’ll be all right again. The feelings that you have will be gone and we can be together. Please Owen…”

Her voice trailed off as she disappeared into thin air. No one around him made any indication that they had seen her, and he shook his head, wondering if he had drank so much alcohol that he was beginning to hallucinate.

Then her words sank in, ‘The feelings you have will be gone’, and he knew what he had to do. He had to return to Torchwood and open that Rift once and for all.

x

Rhys was dead, Gwen was hysterical and it was all Jack’s fault, Owen’s brain told him as he stepped out of the autopsy bay. He had arrived back at the Hub in time to see Gwen attack Jack, ordering for him to make things better again. That opening the Rift would fix everything.

Everyone knew what they had to do, everyone except Jack apparently. He heard Jack tell someone to make sure Owen was stopped and his heart leapt when he heard Ianto’s voice tell him that he was going to help.

Gwen punching Jack, knocking him to the ground shocked everyone, most of all Jack and herself. Tosh had already hacked into the main override system and was ready to enter the codes when Jack looked up and found himself staring down the barrel of his own gun.

Owen had no real intention in shooting his father, he was only holding him back whilst the rest of the team did what they had to in order to open the Rift. “We’re relieving you of your command, Captain. We’re opening the Rift and taking back what we lost!”

Jack made a comment which under normal circumstances would have been extremely funny, just because of how bitchy it was, but given their present situation it only served to push Owen over the edge and he had pulled the trigger on Jack’s Webley before he even realised it.

x

His head hurt, his throat was sore from shouting and his eyes were stinging from crying so much. When Jack told him the truth about Torchwood, the older man had neglected to mention that while he aged slower than most people did, he also couldn’t die like most people. Not even by a bullet to the brain, as he had proven when he grabbed Gwen’s ankle after Owen had shot him.

Only going up against Abaddon seemed to have been too much for even Captain Jack Harkness’ immortality. Two days and twelve hours after defeating the god and closing the Rift, Jack was still lying on a cold slab in the morgue with Gwen who refused to leave his side. Even though the Captain was showing no sign of waking up and the others were beginning to lose hope.

Ianto sat down on the old couch next to Owen and handed him a beer. The doctor was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn’t realise who was giving him the beverage until their fingers brushed and sparks flew through his finger tips and up his arm.

He couldn’t keep in the small gasp of surprise that accompanied the feeling. Their skin hadn’t touched for so long that it felt like a thousand bolts of electricity had just been passed through his body, just from that single touch.

“Are you okay?” Ianto whispered, taking a drink of his own beer and leaning back with a sigh.

Owen let out a dry humour-less laugh. “Am I okay?” He rolled his eyes. “I shot Jack, he came back to life and now he’s dead again. Of course, I’m okay. Just another day in the life of a Torchwood employee.”

Ianto placed his hand on Owen’s shoulder, squeezing it in what was supposed to be a friendly and comforting gesture. But the only thing he managed to do was spread fire from Owen’s shoulder, down his chest to his groin.

Owen coughed nervously and shifted, trying to will himself to think un-sexy thoughts and ignore how much he liked Ianto touching him.

He turned his head and brown eyes met concerned blue ones. How long they looked at each other, neither of them knew but suddenly Owen found Ianto’s face closer than it had been previously and he felt a wonderfully soft pair of lips on his own.

Inside him, his stomach and other parts of his lower anatomy were rejoicing at how delicious Ianto tasted: while his mind was crying with relief as he realised if kissing Ianto felt this good, why had he assumed feeling something for another man was a bad thing?

When they broke apart for air, Ianto’s cheeks were flushed and his lips looked deliciously swollen and Owen couldn’t resist running his tongue over Ianto’s lower lip.

At that moment they heard Tosh running across the Hub and both watched in disbelief as she threw her arms around a drained but still alive Jack.

Jack’s blue eyes moved across the Hub and spotted Owen sat with Ianto. It took all of three seconds for Owen to release Ianto and run over to where his father was standing, leaning against the wall.

Once he was stood in front of Jack Owen hesitated. He wasn’t sure how he would received after he had killed the other man, even if it had been an accident and he was sorry he did it.

“I forgive you,” Jack whispered, not loud enough for anyone but Owen to hear him.

That was all Owen needed to burst into tears and fall against Jack’s body, opening sobbing against his chest, not caring who saw him or what they thought.

x

Leaning back in his chair Jack sighed and ran his hand through his hair. It had been a long day… Hell, it had been a long year.

Rubbing his wrists subconsciously, he felt memories of the Master surface in his mind. He hadn’t been free for long and he could feel the cold metal of his chains against his skin. It had taken him five showers before he managed to clean himself properly, but he still felt dirty. He still smell the stench of oil and sweat on his skin and he wondered how long it would be before those memories faded into the back of his mind, with all the others he remembered about things he never should have seen.

His office had been rearranged while he had been away. He could no longer look out of his door at the rest of his team working in the Hub and he didn’t like how isolated that made him feel.

Pressing several keys on the keyboard, he brought up the CCTV for the main work area and sat back, doing nothing but watching his staff go about their jobs.

Owen was sitting at his desk frowning over some kind of puzzle in front of him. Tosh’s glasses were balance precariously on the end of her nose as she analysed the paper’s Gwen had just handed her. Ianto was moving amongst them, carefully handing a pink cup to Gwen and placing a light-green cup next to Tosh’s computer screen.

Ianto stopped when he reached Owen’s desk and held out a black and green cup to the doctor. It was Owen’s favourite cup and had some kind of outlandish writing on, but the Captain couldn’t remember what it said.

Jack leant forward as he saw their fingers brush and eyes meet. The small smile Ianto offered Owen was enough to tell the older man that something had happened between the two of them whilst he had been gone. As if there was any doubt about the way they felt for each other, the hand Ianto placed on Owen’s shoulder helped prove the theory. Along with the teasing brush of fingertips just above Owen’s shirt collar.

His coffee was always the last to be delivered and Jack was grateful it was always a little colder than everyone else’s: He had never been able to drink the beverage when it was steaming hot.

He smiled at Ianto in thanks and blew slowly on the liquid before testing the temperature by taking a small sip. He waited until Ianto was near the door before asking, “How long have you and Owen been together?”

Ianto stopped and turned on his heel to face Jack. “I think that’s a question you should be asking Owen, Sir.”

Jack nodded his head in agreement, making a mental note to corner Owen as soon as possible. He grinned widely before a serious look came over his face.

“Ianto?”

“Yes, Sir?”

“I don’t know how serious this thing with you and Owen is, but don’t let him hurt you. He can be a bastard if he wants to be.”

Ianto let out a somewhat nervous chuckle and slid his hands behind his back. “I’ll try to remember that, Sir.”

Jack nodded his head and when Ianto was halfway out of the office he added, “Oh and if you hurt my son, I’ll kill you.”

The End