Hitting the Ground Running: Chapter Forty-Three
Title: Hitting the Ground Running
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: Adult
Pairing: Primarily Jack/Ianto, with other secondary pairings mentioned
Chapter: 43/47(?)
Word Count: 2686
Summary: AU. Majorly AU. Ianto Jones first encountered Torchwood as a teenager trying to leave his old life behind. However, when Torchwood Three gets rather violently restructured at the start of the millennium, he’s got a new assignment in Cardiff. The only thing he wasn’t prepared for was his new boss.
Disclaimer: …You really think it’s mine? Much as I might wish it was, it isn’t. I will go on the record and say that, unlike the show’s creative team, I firmly believe in happy endings.
Notes: Blah. The family has moved, and although we were SUPPOSED to get hooked up the day we did, our cable company lost our reservation and so we are currently access-less. I’m missing my television horribly, and I have to go back to our old place and sit in the empty house to use the Internet at the moment. In short, if it takes me a while to reply, I’m sorry ;.;
Chapter Forty-Three
In Which The Team Hatches a Plan, Mounts a Rescue, and Recruits a New Member
He was aware of a hand grasping his own before anything else, and his only thought was that he hoped it was a friend before it hauled him out of the rubble. He managed to claw himself out, amazed that he didn’t seem too badly hurt, and was relieved beyond words to see Owen and Andy standing there.
“How…”
“Big explosion rocked the bay, remember?” Andy pulled him to his feet. “First thing I thought of was the lot of you, so I came over here as fast as I could.”
“I haven’t seen Gwen or Tosh,” Owen told him quickly, and Ianto nodded.
“I’m sure they’re fine. You made it out long before the…the Hub went up,” Ianto swallowed, blinking back tears that he blamed on the dust from the rubble, and Owen reached out to take his chin and turn his head. “What?”
“You’ve got a nasty gash on your cheek, that’s ‘what,’ so sit still and let me clean it,” Owen pulled a tube of antiseptic from his pocket.
“You always carry that?”
“Oi, it’s better than Jack always carrying lube,” the medic muttered. “Now be quiet, this is gonna sting.”
Ianto grit his teeth as the liquid met his skin, but he figured it was a good thing Owen had it along; no telling what kind of infection could happen with the mess he’d been laying in.
“Lads, hate to break this up, but…” Andy pointed at the building across the way, and they could all see the gunman sitting on the roof.
“Oh, bugger,” Owen groaned, sticking the tube back in his pocket as the three of them took off running.
000
“She’s not picking up.”
“I know that, Owen!” Ianto hissed at him right before the phone was answered. “Gwen?”
“Nah, it’s Rhys, mate,” Rhys answered, and Ianto sighed.
“Is Gwen there?”
“Yup, hang on.”
“Ianto?”
“Gwen?”
“Oh, thank God,” Gwen replied, sounding frantic. “The others?”
“Owen’s here. What about…”
“Yeah, Tosh is with us. She’s okay,” Gwen said quickly. “Jack?”
“He’s…” Ianto concentrated for a minute. “He’s still there, in my mind, so it’s safe to say that he’ll be coming back, but I have no idea how or when.”
“Okay. Okay, that’s good, at least,” Gwen had calmed down a bit by now.
“Do we have any idea what happened?” Ianto asked, tucking the phone between his ear and his shoulder.
“Tosh and I ran into one of the guys sent to pick us up; he said he was working for the government,” Gwen relayed.
“The…that doesn’t make sense…”
“How did they get close enough to plant the bomb, Ianto?” Gwen continued.
“It was him, that Dr. Rupesh guy. He was shot and killed at the hospital earlier tonight; must have been then,” Ianto replied.
“Where should we meet you, Ianto?” Gwen sounded like she was zipping a bag up as she asked the question.
“Too dangerous right now; your phone could be bugged. Just stick together and we’ll figure out a way somehow,” Ianto promised.
“I already have a way,” it was Tosh’s voice this time. “Alien technology I picked up a little while ago, makes a phone completely invisible, even to the government. I’ll put it on ours so if you need to get in contact with us you can, although that leaves us no way of getting in touch with you.”
“Better than nothing. I should have known you’d have something, Tosh,” Ianto smiled for a second. “So. We’ll look for Jack, you three get to safety and we’ll give you a call if we figure anything out.”
“Sounds good. Say hello to Owen for me,” Tosh instructed.
“Will do,” Ianto nodded and hung up the phone, glancing behind him. “They’re all okay.”
“So, what do we do?” Owen wondered aloud, looking between Ianto and Andy.
“Right now? We figure out what’s happened to Jack.”
000
“Oh, God,” Andy slapped a hand over his mouth and turned away from the rooftop as Ianto, watching the action down in the ruined Hub. Owen and Ianto had told him about Jack’s secret earlier, but it was obvious the other man still hadn’t processed all of the information.
“Mate, you really don’t have to…”
“No, I…” Ianto swallowed down bile, coughing a little. He’d seen the medical workers carting half-filled body bags about, and he knew exactly what was going on. “I need the license plate of that van; we have to track it.”
“But…Jesus!” Owen shuddered. “How can he…”
“I’ve no idea, Owen, but he’s going to come back, one way or another…even if right now he’s…”
“In pieces,” Owen supplied.
“Right. Hang on,” Ianto pulled a pen from his pocket and scrawled the license plate number on his hand. “Good. Now all we need is a laptop.”
“And where are we getting that from, then?” Andy asked cautiously. “I mean, I should have been at work hours ago, and it’s no secret that I hang out with you lot. I’m probably just as wanted as the two of you.”
“I’ve got an idea, much as I don’t want to bring her into this,” Ianto turned around, looking down at the now deserted ruins. “My sister. If I can get her a message to meet me somewhere, she can bring the laptop and her car. It’s the best we’ve got.”
“How exactly are we gonna get her a message?” Owen scrubbed a hand through his hair.
“Andy, you came here in a police cruiser last night, right?”
“Yeah, it’s parked a few streets back,” Andy nodded.
“We all go to Rhi’s house but you…you’ve got a uniform?”
“In the back,” Andy replied.
“Great. We all go to Rhi’s house, you go up to the door in uniform and hand off the letter. We drive to the arranged meeting place and ditch the car; they’ll know it’s yours and if they’re tracking you we can’t be using it,” Ianto added. “She meets us, hands over the computer and the car keys, and we’re good to go.”
“Sounds simple,” Owen admitted. “Now, what’s going to go wrong?”
“Everything, if you’re already convinced it will,” Ianto shook his head reprovingly. “I know you’re normally utterly pessimistic, but can you have some hope, for once?”
“Why would I…”
An ear-splitting shriek split the air and the sound of a large amount of air being displaced with a ‘whumph’ made them all turn in surprise before Ianto’s eyes widened. Myfanwy cocked her head to the side before shuffling over, butting him in the chest with her crest, and he scrabbled in his pocket for a half-eaten, rather melted bar of chocolate that she scarfed down happily, letting out a noise that was almost a purr.
He scratched along her beak as Andy stuttered, “Wh…what…”
“She’s a Pteranodon,” Ianto replied. “Jack and I found her a few years back. She was in the Hub last night, so I thought…I’m glad you’re okay, girl.”
“Of course. Bloody bird shows up just when you tell me to have hope,” Owen crossed his arms and glared at the creature, who squawked at him before butting his chest as well. “I know, I know, I’m being unfair,” Owen patted her lightly and she shuffled away, satisfied.
“But what can we do with her? She can’t come with us,” Andy pointed out. “That’d be hard for anybody to miss.”
“I’ve got an idea,” Ianto bent down to show them the tiny band around Myfanwy’s leg. “This came through the Rift a while ago and we modified it for her. That’s how we get her to come back at sunrise every day,” he smiled up at them. “It’s tuned to my mobile; the phone sends a signal to it tuned to a frequency we’ve discovered only she responds to, and it works like a homing beacon; she follows the sound until it leads her to the source.”
“So…” Owen looked like he wasn’t getting it.
“For now I’ll take her to the warehouse where Jack and I first found her. There’s a high access window she should be able to get out of, and plenty of room to fly around inside. Once we find a new base, I’ll send out the signal, and she can come find us,” he went back to petting Myfanwy again as Andy and Owen stared at him in amusement. “Well, come on, gents. Let’s get moving.”
000
They got to the park to find Rhiannon already waiting, and Ianto walked up quickly. “Hey.”
“Oh, my God!” Rhiannon stood up and quickly hugged him. “What happened to you?”
“I’m…not sure, yet,” Ianto admitted, taking a step back. “Rhi, I’d like you to meet Owen Harper…”
“Doctor Owen Harper,” Owen corrected, holding his hand out for Rhiannon to shake. “I work with Ianto.”
“And…”
“You’re the policeman who gave us the letter!” Rhiannon realized, looking at Andy.
“PC Andrew Davidson, ma’am,” Andy nodded. “Although probably not anymore; helping your brother out here has probably cost me my job.”
“Nice to meet you both. And I wasn’t followed,” Rhiannon added, causing Ianto to breathe a sigh of relief.
“You worked out my little code, then?”
“Dad didn’t break your leg on purpose, you know,” Rhiannon felt compelled to point out, and Ianto stared at the swings thoughtfully.
“He pushed me too hard. He always did,” he sighed, a double meaning evident in his words.
“Well, you should have held on tighter,” Rhiannon snapped, causing Owen to let out a rather undignified snort of laughter. “But seriously, how did you get in that state?”
“That bomb,” Ianto cleared his throat. “It was meant for me and…the people I work with.”
“My God! Why?”
“Dunno yet,” Owen shrugged.
“What kind of civil servants are you?”
“Underappreciated ones,” Ianto gave her a grim smile.
“Well, are they okay? The others?”
“Gwen and Tosh are,” Ianto relayed. “And…”
“Jack?”
“We haven’t heard from him yet, but he’ll be fine,” Ianto promised, taking Rhiannon’s hand. “They won’t get rid of him that easy.”
“But…” Rhiannon stopped, looking at the kids on the playground, and Ianto noticed they had all frozen again.
“Oh, no.”
“We are coming tomorrow. We are coming tomorrow.”
“Ianto,” Owen shook Ianto’s shoulder. “This has gotta be it. This is what we were working on when they targeted us. They’ve gotta be connected.”
“You’re right,” Ianto realized as Rhiannon’s phone rang, and she answered it only to hang up a couple of seconds later.
“It happened to David and Mica again, Ianto. What is it?”
“I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. This is what we do, Rhiannon; we deal with things like this,” Ianto finally admitted, and Rhiannon swatted his shoulder.
“You daft sod. ‘Civil servant’, my arse! I should have known, what with Jack being your boss and all. That man looks like he lives to break the rules,” she gave him a fond smile.
“That he does,” Owen said softly. “That he does.”
“Which is why we need to find him. And why I asked for the laptop; I’ve got the license plate number of the van they put him in so we can track it,” he explained quickly.
“And let me guess, you can’t use your own vehicles because they’ll…whoever’s targeting you…will recognize them,” she sighed.
“You’ve been watching too many spy thrillers, but yet,” Ianto pursed his lips and nodded. “I promise we’ll bring the car back, but right now, I need to get to Jack.”
“God, you love him, don’t you?” Rhiannon teased, and Ianto blushed and looked away. “Nah, I think it’s cute. And I adore him, so you have my blessing.”
“Thanks,” Ianto cleared his throat as Rhiannon handed him the keys.
“Now, be careful. Come home safe, all of you, and then we’ll all have dinner, okay?” she pulled Ianto to his feet and hugged him tightly, and he whispered his assurance into her ear before letting go and leading the others to the car.
000
Ianto didn’t think about Jack’s screams as they located the facility they were keeping him in, and he really didn’t think about how he was effectively killing him by dropping that concrete block over the quarry.
The six of them had reunited on the cliff after he’d finished, and he pulled the helmet and construction worker’s vest off before leaning back against the machine and sighing.
“Okay, where’d you learn to drive that?” Gwen looked amazed, a radiant smile on her face, and Ianto couldn’t help but smile back.
“I know everything, remember?”
“Oh, c’mere you,” she hugged him and turned to kiss his cheek. “Bloody brilliant, you are. The lot of you,” she indicated Owen and Andy as well. “And you, Mr. Davidson, bloody brave as well.”
“Aye, well, time for a change and all that,” Andy shrugged. “Guess ending up on the streets is inevitable, now, but…”
“Don’t be a fool, Andy, if you want a job, just ask,” Tosh cut him off, looking content as she stood with Owen’s arms wrapped around her.
“Y-you mean it?”
“You’re an honorary member of the team already,” Owen pointed out. “Jack likes you, besides.”
“And Jack generally listens to me, and I can assure you, I give very good references,” Ianto noted, and Andy broke into a grin.
“Yeah…I mean, that’d be brilliant, Ianto!”
“Then consider it done. But speaking of, he should have woken up by now, so we should go to him,” he turned around and headed for the car. “Gwen? You three have a car? I don’t think we’ll all fit in Rhiannon’s.”
“We’ve got one,” Tosh assured them. “I don’t know what poor employee we swiped it from, but it was remarkably easy to hotwire.”
“Nah, you’re jus’ a genius, Tosh,” Owen kissed her quickly.
“Right. Well, let’s go.”
000
Ianto had to admit, it was really good to see Jack again, even though the other man was…well, he didn’t think it was unfortunate, but by the way Gwen and Tosh were averting their eyes he was guessing they were a little uncomfortable.
“Told you I’d be back!” Jack called to them.
“With a little help from us,” Ianto corrected, and Jack sent him a mental touch of thanks.
“Okay, so what the Hell is going on?” Jack walked over awkwardly, hands still bound together, and Tosh passed a small device over to Ianto.
“You do it. Please.”
“Aw, you’re acting like you’ve never seen a naked man before,” Jack raised an eyebrow as Ianto pointed the machine at the handcuffs and clicked the button, not at all surprised when they sprang open and dropped to the dusty quarry floor.
“Not you,” she said quietly.
“And as for what’s going on, the latest from the kids is that it’s happening tomorrow,” Gwen, still looking away, told him.
“I’m just in time, then,” Jack strode by her, plucking the clothes she was holding out from her grasp and immediately sticking his nose up at them. “What…”
“They’re Rhys’,” Gwen replied testily. “Now, put them on.”
“Fine,” he pulled on the tracksuit pants and overlarge t-shirt before hopping into the backseat, grinning as Ianto sat down beside him while Gwen and Rhys took the front. “Hey, you.”
“Hey, yourself,” Ianto pushed himself close to Jack’s body. “You’re a mess.”
“Well, you’re not exactly the epitome of cleanliness yourself, there,” Jack gestured to his ruined suit.
“Being caught in an explosion will do that to you, sir.”
“I missed you,” Jack pressed his forehead against Ianto’s.
“Missed you too, sir. It’s a little pitiful, seeing as how it’s only been a day,” he had to add.
“Feels like a lifetime,” Jack whispered before finally, finally kissing him, and Ianto pulled him as close as he could, completely forgetting about Gwen and Rhys until Gwen called to them.
“Oi, no shagging in the car. Now, where’re we headed?”
“London. There’s some warehouses that used to be used by Torchwood One as holding facilities; we can hole up there for the time being,” Ianto gave her the coordinates and went back to snogging Jack intensely as the car rumbled down the freeway toward London.
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