The Intel Revival

Chapter Twenty Two

10110

Somehow thinking about going to see Ianto once again felt completely different now that I'd been through my part of the mission. For me, more or less, it seemed like the Intel Initiative was over. Since it was over, everything that came along with it felt like it should be over as well - it felt like the situation with Ianto should be over.

Even though I knew that he wasn't suddenly going to be okay, I couldn't help but feel myself hoping for some sort of bizarre miracle that could manage to fix everything in an instant. If Ianto could do that to himself at the age of thirteen, then there had to be some sort of force that could reverse it out there. I didn't have the faintest idea what it could be, but hope swelled within me.

But of course, I couldn't get my hopes too far up. If anything, I was going to end up only managing to get more upset about everything.

That was precisely why I sat in front of Ronnie and prepared myself to speak to her. I needed to get someone else to go with me in order to support me, and I needed to make sure that I wouldn't end up shattering into a million pieces as time went by. I knew things could go terribly wrong if I allowed them to...I needed someone else to keep me in check.

"Truitt," I said. I had to pause before continuing in order to allow myself to inhale an enormous breath - this was far more difficult than I had been making it out to be in my mind. If anything, it should've been the easier part of everything - but of course, I ended up making it harder for myself.

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Will you come along with me? I can't...I can't go through all of this with Ianto by myself, and I don't know who else I could possibly ask, and I trust you enough to support me from time to time..." I blubbered out.

"I've been your best friend for...well, it doesn't matter exactly how long. All that matters is that the answer is yes, and I assume that we're going to be leaving soon?"

My jaw just about dropped open. I'd been expecting her to deny me flat out - she might have things to do in order to celebrate, or she just wanted to relax after our part of the mission and no longer have to bother with any sort of stress, or anything. I was so used to clashing against Ronnie that I just expected it to happen no matter what.

Ronnie furrowed her brows as she looked over towards me, perplexed by this reaction to her accepting my invitation. I managed to bring myself back together, but I still couldn't help but feel extremely strange over the entire situation. A flush started to stretch across my cheeks as she continued to stare at me.

I couldn't possibly decipher what was going through her head at the moment - I'd been too shocked simply by the fact she'd said yes to me to begin with. It seemed almost mad to think that everything was working out for me after I'd had so much trouble. Certainly there had to be something going behind it all.

"What...what is it?" I murmured. "Why are you staring me like that?"

"Why am I staring at you?" she repeated after me.

"Yes, why?" I asked, biting my lip.

"Oh, come on, Parr! I was going to come whether you asked me to come or not," she scoffed. "Do you really think I was just about to let you scamper off again after I found out what all of this does to you? Of course not."

"Oh," I mumbled. For a few moments I let this sink in - Ronnie really did care about me, if she were willing to give up a time of celebration just to sneak off and make sure I was okay. More than that, really - she would be risking getting in trouble in order to monitor me. But, then again, Ronnie never was bothered whenever she got in trouble.