Title: Crystal Ball
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG
Table: 20_est_relships
Prompt: 19, Future
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own Ianto Jones or the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

***

Ianto drummed his fingers on his desk, propping his chin in one hand. He'd been doing some thinking over the past few days, and one subject kept coming up in his mind again and again, one that was causing him considerable worry.

What was he going to do if the Doctor decided that he needed to leave Earth for a extended amount of time? There was no problem with Ianto coming along with him when he wasn't away for too long -- but he couldn't just leave Torchwood hanging.

He didn't think that Jack would appreciate him leaving for an indefinite time period. The immortal could understand that he needed to be with the Doctor, but would he be able to accept Ianto's being gone for longer than a few days?

At this point, it hadn't been a problem yet. But Ianto, even though he couldn't see into the future, was sure that it would come up sooner or later.

And as for the future .... he couldn't help wondering if he and the Doctor had one. After all, the Time Lord had a much longer life span than he did as a human. He could spend the rest of his life with the Doctor -- but the Doctor couldn't spend the rest of his life with Ianto.

Would that knowledge make the Time Lord shy away from having their relationship be anything more than what it was now? Not that it wasn't absolutely incredible now, Ianto told himself with a sigh, a frown creasing his brow.

He didn't want what they had to change. He didn't want the Doctor to decide that because Ianto wouldn't always be there, that he couldn't go through the pain of having to let go. And really, he didn't want to put the Doctor through that kind of pain.

Ianto knew all too well what it was like to lose someone he loved. He'd lost Lisa, and even though it had been quite a while now since those events had occurred, he could still remember how he'd felt in the days and even weeks afterwards.

He didn't want that for the Doctor. Of course, the Time Lord had probably felt like that many more times than he himself had -- after all, he'd lived a lot longer, and lost a lot of people in his life who he'd cared for. Ianto didn't want to be the cause of it happening again.

But that was inevitable, wasn't it? And the Doctor had accepted the knowledge of that future loss when he had become involved with a human.

Their future wasn't clear at all -- and Ianto didn't like that. He didn't really want to know exactly what would happen to them, but he didn't want to have to wonder what could be just around the corner, waiting to jump out at them unexpectedly.

He even had to wonder about his future with Torchwood. Jack probably wouldn't want him to stay with the team if he wasn't going to be around all the time; his sojourns in space with the Doctor meant that he wasn't available more and more lately.

Was Torchwood that important a part of his life that he couldn't leave it behind him? Of course not, Ianto told himself, frowning again. If it came down to making a choice, that choice would be the Doctor. It had to be. There was no question about it.

That might not be easy for Jack to accept, but he'd have to. He might be the sort of person to turn his back on his personal life for the good of Torchwood, but Ianto couldn't do that. He wouldn't walk away from the man he loved, no matter what the reason might be.

Besides, he couldn't do that to the Doctor. How many people had walked out on him before? All right, so maybe some of them hadn't wanted to do it -- but the fact remained that they had. He wasn't going to hurt the Time Lord like that.

If only this wasn't all so .... undecided. Ianto knew what he wanted, and he was fairly sure of what the Doctor would want. But as for others -- he hadn't a clue.

At one time, he'd thought that he was fairly good at reading people -- but that was until he'd met Jack. Even when they'd been involved, Ianto had never known just what he would do or say; the man was as unreadable as the Sphinx.

Not that he'd ever been able to predict what Jack would say about anything -- the immortal was the least predictable person Ianto had ever known. There was no way of telling how he would feel about Ianto's being gone more than usual.

What would he do if Jack told him that he shouldn't be with the Torchwood team any longer now that he was in a relationship with the Doctor? What would he do if Jack forced him to make that kind of a choice?

He'd already made that choice. He would stay with the Doctor, even though it would hurt to leave Torchwood. But Jack wouldn't ask him to make that choice; he'd made it himself, so he must know how it would feel.

And Jack would know that Ianto wouldn't leave the Doctor. He knew how they felt about each other; he knew that Ianto was committed to the Time Lord. Jack wasn't the sort of man to force that kind of a decision on anyone.

Ianto sighed again, his thoughts no more sorted out than they'd been when he'd first sat down and faced what was on his mind. In fact, everything seemed to be even more jumbled in his mind than it had been at first.

What did the future hold? The Doctor might know, or be able to see -- but he wouldn't tell. Ianto had his doubts that the Time Lord would even want to look that far ahead.

Jack was from the future, but even he didn't know what would happen. He didn't know Ianto's personal future. He'd often teased Ianto about that when they were together, that he was from the future but couldn't predict it for the people that he knew in the present.

He sat back in his chair, sighing and glancing up at the clock. What was he doing here, when he should be at home with the Doctor? He was spending far too much time away from the Time Lord -- even if it was in the line of doing his job.

Maybe this was an indication that it was time for him to leave Torchwood of his own free will. He couldn't keep dividing his time -- and his loyalties -- between his work and the man he loved. One of them had to win out, sooner or later.

Ianto knew who would win. It would always be the Doctor, no matter what. He loved his job, and he cared about his teammates. But the Time Lord would always be his first priority. He'd made that choice when they'd become lovers, and he wasn't going to change his mind.

Taking a deep breath, he looked down at the papers on his desk, knowing that he had to sort them into some kind of order before the end of the day. That should be enough to keep his mind off these troubling thoughts, at least for a while.

Why was he worried about the future, anyway? He should try to adopt the Doctor's attitude -- that they would find out about it when it happened.

The future wasn't immutable, by any stretch of the imagination. Ianto well knew that what he did today could affect the course of his future, and the Doctor had assured him that was true too many times for him to not believe it.

Whatever happened, he knew where his heart would be. With the Doctor, the man he loved. He might end up leaving Torchwood, saying goodbye to the life that he knew now, but as long as he was with the Time Lord, he'd be happy.

There was no crystal ball, no sure knowledge of what was going to happen to any of them. They would just have to take life as it came, and make the best of it as they went along. It was all that anyone could do.

He glanced up at the clock again, a small smile creeping over his features. It was close to time for him to leave, and when he got home, he could discuss this with the Doctor. Together they would be able to come to some kind of conclusion, and he'd know better what he should do.

With that thought in his mind, Ianto settled down to work, hoping that the rest of the day would go by quickly and he could get back home, where he belonged. He could hardly wait to talk to the Doctor about the possibilities that their future could hold.

***