Interpersonal Skills

[czarina_kitty]

Title: Interpersonal Skills
Author: czarina_kitty
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairing: Jack, Ianto, Toshiko, Owen, Gwen
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: swearing, innuendo
Prompt: Ianto messes up at work or has a professional disagreement with Jack, and they have to deal with the separation between their professional and personal relationships.
Summary: see prompt
Disclaimer: I do not own, or make any money from the use of, these characters.
Notes: Written for dark_fest.  Thanks to lefaym for the last minute Beta.
I had a problem with this prompt (problem may not be the correct word, just the first one that comes to mind).  I ended up writing two different stories (okay three, if you want to be precise, but the first one was written before I claimed the prompt so it doesn’t exactly count).  The other two stories are here and here.
Spoilers:  None.  Set late series 2.

 

 

“Gwen, help Owen with Toshiko.  Ianto.  My office.  Now,” Jack barked as he stormed into the Hub.  He started up the steps to his office without looking to see if his orders were followed. 

Owen shot a sympathetic glance at Ianto before he returned his focus to the injured Tosh.

Ianto took a deep breath as he followed Jack into his office.

“Jack…”

As soon as the door was closed Jack turned towards Ianto and crowded into his personal space.  “Right now, you might want to think about calling me ‘Captain’ or ‘sir’,” Jack growled.

“Yes, sir,” Ianto replied, reflexively lowering his eyes.

“What the hell happened out there?” Jack roared.

“I messed up, sir.”

“You could say that.  You ignored a direct order, you made a decision without having all the facts, and you got Toshiko hurt as a result.  She could have died out there.  You put yourself and ever member of this team at risk by disobeying orders and I will not tolerate that.  When you are told to do something, you do it.  You don’t ask questions, you don’t argue, and you sure as hell don’t decide on your own to do something else.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” Ianto mumbled.  “It won’t happen again.”

“You’re damn right it won’t happen again.  You will learn to follow orders in the field even if I have to beat that lesson into you.”

 

************************************************************************

 

            “Anybody seen Ianto?” Jack called from the doorway of his office.

            “He left almost an hour ago,” Tosh called back.

            “He left?  Where did he go?”

            “Home, I assume,” Owen answered.  “He was pretty upset.”

            “He couldn’t have gone home,” Jack mumbled.

            “Why not?” Gwen asked.

            “Because this is home.  He moved in months ago.” Jack missed the look on Gwen’s face and turned back to face Owen and Tosh.  “What was he upset about?”

“You don’t know?” Tosh asked, incredulous.

“Hey, if he’s sulking just because I reprimanded him he needs to get over it because…”

“Jack,” Gwen interrupted in a level tone, “I know you try not to give Ianto any special preference because of your relationship with him and you know we would call you on it if you did.”

“At least I’d call you on it,” mumbled Owen.

“Right,” Gwen said.  “But that goes both ways.”

“What do you mean?  You think he treats me preferentially because that’s…”

“No, that’s not what she means,” said Tosh, hesitantly.  “You’ve gone to such trouble to make sure you don’t favor him that you’ve gone too far the other way.  We all heard you in there berating him over what happened.”

“Despite what you think,” said Owen, “The walls of your office are not soundproof and your voice really carries when you yell.”

“As long as I’ve been here,” Tosh continued, becoming more confident, “I can honestly say that was the most severe ‘reprimand’ you’ve ever given.  I’ve made mistakes that bad, worse even, we all have, and you have never dressed down any one of us like that.  You’ve never yelled at any of us like that, and we’ve all done some pretty stupid and really awful things.”

 “Jack, it wouldn’t be fair to us to let him off easier because you’re together, but it isn’t fair to him to hold him to a higher standard,” Gwen said quietly.

“Toshiko, you wouldn’t have got hurt if he had just done what he was told,” Jack said, trying to deny the message he was receiving.

“You think he doesn’t know that?” Tosh asked.  “This is Ianto we’re talking about.  Guilt is a way of life for him.  Trust me, he’ll beat himself up over this without you doing it for him.  And he’s saved me, saved all of us, out there more times than I can count.  But you’ve never once made a big deal out of that, you just expect it from him.”

 “I…Oh.”

“And the worst part,” Tosh continued, “is that he didn’t argue, didn’t even try to defend himself.  He just took everything you threw at him, just like he always does.”

 “He may insist that you treat him like the rest of us,” said Gwen, “but that means you treat him the same as the rest of us, not worse.”

 

************************************************************************

 

 “You left without saying goodbye,” Jack said as he took the seat next to Ianto.  He had tracked Ianto down at a local pub and would never admit that he had had to watch the CCTV to do so, as he’d had no idea where Ianto would go when upset. 

“It’s after five.  And I didn’t think you’d notice,” Ianto said before taking a small sip of his beer.  “Is Tosh going to be okay?”

 “She’s fine,” Jack said.  He let out a long breath before adding, “But we need to talk.”

 Ianto closed his eyes tightly for a moment and took a deep breath before giving a single nod.  “Of course, sir, I’ll start making other arrangements.”

“Arrangements? For what?” Jack asked.  “And it’s Jack”

“You can hardly expect me to keep living with you, sir,” replied Ianto, emphasizing the honorific.  “I’ll need to find a flat, get my furniture out of storage…”

“Whoa, Ianto, slow down.  You want to move out?  Is it because of what happened earlier?” Jack asked, not sure where the conversation had gone off the rails.

“I don’t want to move out,” Ianto said slowly, “but if we aren’t together anymore…”

“Wait.  What?  When did that happen?”

“You said ‘we need to talk’,” Ianto stated.

“And?”

“That’s universal code for ‘I’m breaking up with you’.  I’m not surprised and I can’t really blame you after today, but we were good…”

“No. No, no, no,” Jack interrupted before Ianto could finish the thought, “That’s a work thing, Ianto, it has nothing to do with our living arrangements or our relationship.  I just meant that we needed to talk.  About us.”

Jack leaned over to catch Ianto’s mouth in a soft kiss, then pulled back so they were forehead to forehead.  “I’m not leaving you.  I just think we need to talk about what happened today.”

“I think you covered that topic rather extensively,” Ianto said with a small snort, pulling quickly back from Jack.  “Look, I’m sorry.  I fucked up and it won’t happen again.  Suspend me, dock my salary, hell, beat me if you think it will help, but I don’t think there is anything more to discuss.”

“Do you think I treat you differently at work?” Jack asked.  “That I hold you to a different standard than the others?”

“Of course not,” Ianto said dismissively.  “And you know I wouldn’t put up with it if you did.  You send me on dangerous missions right along with everybody else; you hold me accountable for my actions just like you do everyone else.  No favouritism.”

“Gwen, Toshiko, and Owen don’t see it that way,” Jack said softly.

Ianto frowned for a moment before asking, “They said that?  I mean, I can see Owen thinking you favour me, maybe Gwen too, but Tosh?”

“It was brought to my attention, rather forcefully I might add, that I hold you to a different standard regarding your work performance and that it isn’t fair,” Jack said keeping his voice level.

“What different standard?” Ianto asked, voice raised slightly and full of indignation.  “I work as hard as any of them.  I still do all of my old job, plus going into the field.  Okay, a few things may have slipped through the cracks here and there, but I’m doing my best.”

“They all believe that I’m harder with you than I am with everyone else,” Jack replied. “That I hold you to a higher standard and that I’m harsher with you when you make mistakes.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I don’t think so,” Jack sighed, “You just pointed out that I’ve got you doing the work of two people.   And they were right when they pointed out that I wouldn’t have lit into anyone else the way I did you this afternoon.”

“I can handle the workload,” Ianto says quietly.  “And just because you wouldn’t have talked to anyone else like that doesn’t mean you were wrong to do it.”

“Yes, it does,” Jack answered.  “If it had been any one else I would have had better control of my emotions and you deserve the same respect.”

“Jack, sometimes I need you come down hard like that,” Ianto said, looking down at his now empty drink.  “Sometimes we all need that.  I mean, let’s be honest about this, consistency isn’t really your strong suit.  Unconditional love you do well, but you tend to be pretty lax when it comes to employee discipline.  But sometimes I need you to yell at me, call me out on my mistakes, not forgive and forget so easily.  Sometimes I need you to be the boss and to remind me of my role.  It makes it easier to move on and let go of some of the guilt from days like today.  And no one can fault you for holding me to my own standard.   Besides, I understand why you were harsh.”

“Because we’ve tried so hard to keep favoritism out of our working relationship that we’ve gone to far the other way?” Jack asked.

“No.  You were scared,” said Ianto, turning to look at Jack.  “You always get scared when one of us gets hurt.  It reminds you that we won’t live forever.  Sometimes I think you’re, I don’t know, angry, maybe?  I think you’re mad at me because someday I’ll die, and you see my mortality as a betrayal.”

“I don’t want to lose you, any of you, over a stupid mistake,” Jack said, looking back at Ianto.  “I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”

“And if preventing that means you need to scream at me from time to time, I’m okay with that.  I can take it.  As long as it means you still care, I can live with it.”

“I do care, you know that.  Right?” Jack asked and Ianto nodded.   “Maybe that’s why I came down on you like that today. You’re closer to me than anyone else, so you scare me more than anyone else.  Every time you get hurt, every time you’re in danger, it just breaks me.  I want to hold on to you, but I can’t.  I have to watch you go into dangerous situations everyday, knowing that I won’t always be able to save you.  But it still isn’t fair for me to take out my insecurities on you.”

“Maybe it isn’t fair,” Ianto said.  “But you need some way to let that all out.  And if you’re going to explode from time to time it makes the most sense for the target of that to be me.”

“How’s that?”

“Tosh would wither, Owen would yell back, Gwen would probably also yell back and then blow you off.”

“And you thought I was going to leave you over this,” Jack responded.  “Doesn’t seem like a better reaction from where I’m sitting.”

“Look, I could have easily got Tosh, myself, or any one of us killed out there today.  I don’t think your reaction was out of line.  I deserved it and as my boss you are well within your rights to discipline me for a work matter,” Ianto said seriously.  Dropping his voice to a conspiratorial whisper he continued,  “Just so long as later, when you’re not my boss, when you’re my lover, you hold me while I tell you how bad my day was and you take my side when I complain about my horrible boss.”

“I can do that,” Jack said, shifting out of his work persona and into his bedroom voice.  “Now then, young man, you are in big trouble.  I do believe you ran away from home this afternoon.  Left without any explanation, leaving me to worry.  And drinking at this hour?  Tsk, tsk.  I’m sorry, but I think I need to take you home right now so that we can deal with this misbehavior.  ”

            “What are you going to do, old man?  Give me another tongue lashing?” Ianto asked, following Jack out of the pub.

“Oh, I’ll show you a tongue lashing,” Jack leered, grabbing Ianto by the upper arm and marching him towards the SUV.

“Yes, sir.”  Ianto could not stop grinning the entire way back to the Hub.

Comments

[51stcenturyfox.livejournal.com]

Nice! You're right; Jack is NOT CONSISTENT. At all. :D

complain about my horrible boss... Heh.

I feel ya on the differing takes to the prompt; I've got three endings (mine isn't up yet). ;)

[czarina-kitty.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this problem. I look forward to reading yours.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Excellent! I see you had the same problem I had - I wrote my story three times before I was Ok with it. Same basic story but three different approaches (tried POV - didn't work, tried using no references to character names - so confusing I couldn't follow it).

And the last version was edited over and over again. (Going to read your other two now - can't wait to see what they are).

And I hope 51stcenturyfox posts her three endings as well.

These were really challenging, weren't they?

[czarina-kitty.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It's good to know it's not just me.

[missdeanna.livejournal.com]

I liked this! Jack definitely isn't a consistent boss. I enjoyed reading your other two fics, too. I can relate in terms of writing -- with my fic, I had an ending planned and ended up totally scrapping it and doing something very different.

This was my prompt. I was glad to see it picked up, and I'd been keeping an eye out for the fic. It's great to be able to read it.

[czarina-kitty.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

This is the second one of your prompts I've picked up. That must mean something, I just don't know what.

[nancybrown.livejournal.com]

I really liked this. :)

[alba17.livejournal.com]

Oh, boys. Glad they made up at the end. LOL at the "tongue-lashing". I completely changed the ending of my dark_fest fic (not posted yet), so I know what you mean. And, btw, I also did the Ianto shoplifting prompt. :) I can't read yours until after I post mine.

[jooles34.livejournal.com]

Oh this was really good. Fantastic reponse to the prompt. It captured Jack so well and explored the themes or the work/home relationship. And of course, great ending ;o)

The line "“Right now, you might want to think about calling me ‘Captain’ or ‘sir’,” Jack growled." Terrifying; shivers down my spine - no really...

[czarina-kitty.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

I assume the shivers passed?

well written!

[black59.livejournal.com]

Jack is not go someone consistent, especially we know he does not like the "boxes" in which we often classify people

Ianto has analyzed the reason for the strong anger of Jack: fear of losing Ianto