Disclaimer - I do not own the rights to Doctor Who or Torchwood, I just attempt to bring Ianto back even if it's only in my imagination!

AN - This is an AU story that begins just after the Doctor Who episode "The Last of the Time Lords," and after the Torchwood episode "To The Last Man." It does not include the Titanic crashing into the TARDIS. I love reading your reviews, so please tell me what you think!

Text indicates the TARDIS' telepathic communication.

Prologue

Aboard the TARDIS on route to the Medusa Cascade

The Doctor wandered around the control room of the TARDIS lost in thought. He was alone for this first time since he lost Rose, leaving him an inordinate amount of time to reflect over the last few years. Rose, Jack, Martha . . . he had failed each of them.

Martha, her life and the that of her family had been forever changed by the "year that never was." He couldn't blame her for staying, they all needed time to heal from their experiences. He felt slightly embarrassed by Martha's declaration. He honestly had no idea that she felt that way about him. How could he, when every thought of the kind was focused on the one he lost, his Rose.

Oh, he was happy for her. She was alive, living in an alternate dimension with her mother, Mickey and other Pete. It was far better than what had almost happened that day at Canary Wharf. He had come so close to losing her to the void. He had to keep telling his hearts that their separation was for the best, she was alive and that's all that matters.

If only the Master had not been driven mad by the vortex. Together they could have brought Rose back, they could have been together. He shook his head. It was no use dwelling on those things that were time-locked, not even he could change them.

And Jack. If he were honest, it was his dealings with Jack which most consumed him with shame. When he first left him on Gamestation 5 he did so on pure instinct, not to mention the fact that he was dying at the time. He simply ran from the abomination of a fixed point in time and space.

His words to Jack haunted him, "you're just wrong." He couldn't get the look of hurt on Jack's face out of his head. And then that horrible year, he had maintained a stoic façade because he thought that it was for the best, that the Master would only be spurred on by any reaction from him. But as he watched Jack tortured and killed day after day, seeing the hope fade from his eyes with every death, he wondered if maybe he should have done something, anything to help his friend.

Though things had ended as well as they could, those onboard the Valiant would carry the scars with them the rest of their lives, and in Jack's case, forever. If there was anything good to come of that horrid experience, it seemed to help Jack to settle his heart. All Jack talked about after it was all over was getting back to his team, and to Ianto. He would have to stop in sometime to meet this Ianto, anyone that could capture the heart of the flirtatious former time agent was someone worth meeting. Maybe he could convince them to come travel with him for a while, maybe that would begin to help to make up for all that Jack had suffered since they began their travels together.

All of a sudden a loud beeping sounded from the TARDIS' console and she shifted violently, changing course mid-flight. Picking himself off the deck the Doctor stumbled to the controls to find out what had caused the TARDIS to react to the alert.

"Bedlam Outlands? NO! Absolutely not!" He yelled to the TARDIS. "What could ever induce you to go to the Bedlam Outlands? They are absolute cretins!"

The TARDIS hummed in return.

"What do you mean it's what I want? Are you sure you're alright, no burnt out wires?"

No my Doctor. This is what you wanted though, a chance to make things up to Jack. What we will find here will be the greatest gift you could ever give him, his wife.

"Wife! Not his bondmate surely, she's been dead for years!"

Not all things are as they appear, you of all people should know that Doctor. She has been held captive for almost fifty years in her timeline, by the same monsters that attacked Jack's home and abducted his brother. She has waited all this time-

"His brother as well! Well! Why didn't you say so straight off?" The Doctor grinned and stroked the console. "Allons-y!"

Bedlam Outlands, 5089

Pain . . . always pain. Never-ending, ebbing and flowing.

The physical torture she could take, had been for well over fifty years. It became increasingly easy to retreat into her mind during their sadistic "play time" as they liked to call it.

No, it was the psychological torture that threatened her tenuous hold on sanity.

It was a miracle really that she hadn't completely gone round the twist yet. Over fifty years of continuous torture and they hadn't managed to break her yet. Oh they had come close, very close over the years. The worst had been when she was forced to watch her mate, the one she had pledged her eternity to, with her own brother. Now that just about finished her.

She didn't know how they had managed it, but somehow her Marwolaethian captors had discovered how to manipulate the psychic bondmate link. Under normal circumstances bondmates shared a connection that would allow for the sharing of thoughts, feelings and even actions, nothing could separate them. No link could ever be severed, except through death, and even then it was only temporarily suspended until the mates reunited on the same plane. At least that's how it used to be. They had managed to make their link one-sided. She could see, feel and hear him; and yet he thought she was dead, thought that he was condemned to spend his endless life separated from her.

During those increasingly rare moments of rational thought she couldn't blame him for seeking out comfort and distractions; he was hurting, living his own personal hell. Whatever happened to him that made him unable to die, had also happened to her. Oh the joys of the bond! Most mates died shortly after the departure of their mate, unable to endure the separation. Not him though, not Jack. Jack . . . that's the name he was using now, Captain Jack Harkness. Somewhat pretentious in her opinion, so it fit.

I'll have to think of a new name again. I'll need it once I get out of here. I have to find him, to end his suffering. I love him too much to allow him to continue to endure this . . . even though he seems to have tried to replace me . . .

Some days she hated him. Hated him for not finding her, for not realizing that she was still alive, hated him for all the times she had to watch as he unknowingly betrayed her time and again with someone new. Recently though, she hated him for the way he was treating him. How could he not see, not know who he is . . . the one they had waited for for so long.

He was the reason, the one thing that kept her going. Not Jack, he was a jumble of pain and longing in her mind. No, it was him; her beautiful second mate, who loves so completely, with such devotion. He gave her hope. She could feel him, and she thought at times that he might be able to feel her just a little. They weren't bonded yet so the link was just developing, but it was enough to see the beauty of the soul made for them. Oh how she longed for him, to hold him and help him chase away the nightmares.

She had felt him for a few years now. Felt his devotion to Lisa, his heartbreak and guilt at her demise, his hatred toward Jack, and recently his growing affection for her immortal mate. She rejoiced to see the love and tenderness he gave to Jack, he truly has the purest of hearts. But Jack, oh how that man angered her. He refused to see it, to accept what he knew to be true. Ianto was theirs. He was the one they had waited for since discovering at their bonding that they were incomplete, there was a third.

Ian-to, such a glorious name. Gift of God indeed. I can't wait to meet him, to see the look on his face when he realizes! Hah, that should be epic! Oh and then there is that coffee that Jack is absolutely fixated on, I have to try some!

Even now, chained in the bowels of a Marwolaethian ship, she was determined to reach them. She wasn't exactly sure how she would do it, maybe try to take out the guards again during her weekly hose-down that was meant to substitute for a shower. She would succeed though, and then she and her vortex manipulator would be on their way to Earth in the 21st century. First she was going to deck that husband of hers, and then she was going to give her Ianto the snogging of his life. He thought Jack Harkness was good, hah . . . he had to learn it somewhere!

Just hold on love, I'm coming-

Suddenly the air around her started to whip and whirl and the strangest sound seemed to come from the midst of the whirlwind. And then as suddenly as it started, the winds stopped and a blue box appeared before her.

"Police Box," what the hell? Didn't think the Judoon traveled like this. Although I have been out of commission for a while, maybe things have changed.

The door, or what she assumed was the door, of the box opened and out stepped a wirery man in a brown pin-striped suit and great hair, really great hair.

Okay, not Judoon. Not quite human either though, if my senses are correct. Hmm, odd fashion sense.

"Hello Mrs. Harkness, can I call you Mrs. Harkness, that is who you are after all?"

"Who-" she rasped. She wasn't used to using her voice, except to scream. "Who are you?"

"Well then, I'm the Doctor and I'm here to rescue you." He grinned maniacally while bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Always wanted to say that . . . very dashing don't you think?"

AN 2 - Marwolaethian is a term I made up for the captors in this story using the Welsh word for death, Marwolaeth.