Title: You Can Leave Your Hat On
By: Gerodie Phoenix
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: 12/15
Warning: WiP
Summary: It starts with a book, and once more it's all Jack's fault.
Notes: This is inspired by the line from season 1 "Twin acrobats. Man, I gotta write that book. Maybe even illustrate it. I can talk for a long time, a very long time..." and yes the title is inspired by another Welsh Mr Jones lol, I apologise.
Notes 2: The Torchwood bit will kick in properly in part 2, I think there'll probably be about 4 chapters. and the telephone number is utterly made up, didnt want something that was real lol

***

She scanned the shelves, her eyes focused on hunting out a specific book, and she ran her fingers across the top of the books as she did so. A small voice told her that she shouldn't be looking for such a thing, that reading such material was almost a sin, but her interest remained strong and she carried on searching the shelves. It had been mentioned to her in passing and regardless of the fact she had never even heard of the author her friends had insisted she buy it and see what all the excitement was about.

"You really should read it Sian. It's, it's one hell of a book."

"Can I help you there love?" The assistant asked, smiling as her face went flush and she averted her gaze from the bookshelf, trying not to laugh as he realised the cause of her embarrassment. "We got lots of older women reading these kind of books, nothing new to me."

"No, no I don't read this kind of thing! It's for a friend, she, she's just far too embarrassed to come and find the book herself, I swear." She cursed lowly, well aware she was digging herself in deeper. At 56 she knew she was beyond getting embarrassed about such things but something in the assistant's eye made it far worse, a glint that seemed to indicate he was delighting in her embarrassment far more than he was letting on. "Could you just help me find it? It's called You Can Leave Your Hat On or something."

"I think we just sold the last copy, I can see if any of the other stores have it in though." He offered, walking back over to the front desk as she followed, clearly more interested in the book than her futile protests would indicate.

She said nothing as he typed away at the keyboard, grinning now and then as he looked at her shifting nervously from foot to foot. He'd seen so many people recently come into store appearing like naughty children who had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar just because they were interested in a book that was of the slightly more adult nature, something that amused him to no end.

"You Can Leave Your Hat On By Jack Harkness. There's one copy left in our other store in Scotland, I can order it for you if you'd like."

She debated whether to forget about the whole thing or to just go for it, the latter winning no matter how naughty she felt about reading a book she had heard such furor about.

"It's illustrated. Worth reading I would say." It took one look from the woman before he winked at her, a small smile gracing her face as she realised the assistant knew what he was talking about. "You need to read this book, some of the things this guy has written about...whoa."

"Go on then put my name down. Do I need to pick it up here?"

"Yes, if you just give me your name telephone number and your email address in case we can't contact you by phone and we'll contact you as soon as it's in." He stated as he picked up a pen, grabbing the note paper by the computer ready to take down the woman's details.

"Sian Jones, 0650595656 but I don't have an email address...oh I think my son does though! I'm sure he wouldn't mind me using it. IantoJones27@TW.org." She wasn't certain if he would be okay with it, she knew that he didn't even know she'd managed to sneak a glimpse of his email address last time he'd been over for lunch, but she was sure she could argue her way out of it if the problem was to arise.

***