Chapter Text
Ianto sat with a feeling he could not describe. Empty didn't quite fit… maybe.. bereft. No. Nothing seemed to equal the hole in his torso as he sat looking across at the man who was causing more heartache that Ianto could stand.
This on top of everything else.
Ianto wondered if he should just give up.
.
.
.
.
"Hello, is this Ianto Icarus Jones? Brother of Rhiannon Jones-Harkness?"
"Yes" Ianto struggled his books down onto the counter as he smiled weakly at the shop assistant who was trying to ring them all up. "Who… who is this?"
The voice was so far away and he strained to hear the man telling him he was a New York Detective calling to tell him his sister was dead. Just like that. Boom. Gone. She and her husband had died in a robbery …blah…blah…blah.
Ianto was then aware of voices, hands as he found himself on the ground wondering how the hell that had happened as he was helped to a chair. He brushed at his face and found tears flowing freely, something else that was confusing.
"Professor Jones? Are you OK sir?" asked one of his lovely students from the university, most of them not much younger than himself but still respectful of this enigma who had more letters after his name than the last Nobel Prize for Medicine winner.
"Ah… I… I think so" he said shakily, then it all hit. Rhiannon. Shit. He rang his lawyer immediately, life telling him things needed doing and he needed to be there yesterday. Then he headed to the Dean's office to explain what was going on.
The fat pompous prick was in a meeting with two of the upper faculty members who all disliked the man now entering the office at speed with his disheveled hair and unusually disarrayed clothing. "Dean Whitman, I need… I need to take a couple of weeks off."
"No! Don't be bloody ridiculous man. We are half way through the middle of the year, are you mad?" he puffed straight back, several others chiming in with their own added thoughts on the matter.
Ianto blinked as he fumbled with his phone, the lawyer calling to tell him flights were booked "Hang on … I have only one class for the next two weeks due to the exams in other areas. I can easily remote them. This is…"
"Look. Either you get your head out of your arse and do the job we pay you for or you can pack your things and get the fuck out, effective immediately!" the Dean's assistant said as she pushed her way out of her chair to stand beside the man she was currently bonking "Well?"
"Who is that?" the phone squawked as Ianto had inadvertently also hit speaker when answering.
"Yes!" The Dean said with his jowls wobbling, "Get the hele to of here and either get back to class of pack your office and fuck off."
"OK. I record all phone calls and we have this in record" the lawyer yelled over the phone "Ianto, leave the office right now. Walk away."
Ianto turned in a daze, walking stiffly for the room and down the stairs to his office in the lower levels, his heart pounding in his chest as he tried to focus on one thing at a time. Walk. Just walk.
He entered the office and said "I am in my office, locking the door. Malcolm… what do I do now?"
"Now you pack your shit and leave" Malcolm advised "They just effectively fired you without cause. I will start the ball rolling here for a wrongful dismissal suit, you get yourself on the plane. I am emailing you the tickets, print them out before you leave the room, OK? Get your arse over there to those kids and I will take care of what I can, my sister offices over there will be waiting for you."
Ianto removed his diplomas and certificates from the walls, artworks, little knickknacks and personal items, quickly filling two large boxes as he tried not to look at the photos of his sister's family, then he placed them on the dolly used for pushing around things for his classes. He added his personal laptop and several other things that he could prove was his, finally draping the coat from behind the door over the lot. He then pushed them out through the staff outside talking in the corridors.
"Finally having a clean out are ya Jonesy?" someone asked.
"Just got fired" he replied blandly and all talk stopped, someone stepping in front of the trolley.
"What the hell?" Owen Harper snapped, their resident doctor who taught medicine and liked to terrorize the students.
"He said, either get back to classes or pack your things and leave. Fired, effective immediately. Since there is no way I am going to miss my sister's funeral and sorting the care of her children left behind… I am fired. Right?" Ianto sighed "Come on Owen. I have a plane to catch."
Owen stood there as Ianto pushed his things past and then said softly "this is bullshit."
Ianto really didn't care, everything was pretty shit right now.