Fic: What Lies Beyond
Title: What Lies Beyond
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: CoE, but it’s a world where Ianto came back to life.
Summary: Despite all the times Jack has died, he’s never seen anything other than a lightless, sensationless no place, but Ianto assures him there’s more.
Word Count: 1196
Written For: Prompt 107 - Afterlife at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
As far as Jack was concerned, anyone who thought being immortal was easy, especially given his particular brand of immortality, needed to have their head examined to check whether they’d been short-changed when it came to brains and common sense.
Truthfully, he wouldn’t have wished what he was forced to endure on his worst enemy, because while he could confidently expect to live until the end of time, and quite possibly beyond that, he still died, frequently and painfully. He just didn’t stay that way, and the coming back to life part was usually even worse than the dying part, because most of the time death came quickly, while the revival part could take quite a while, depending on how much damage needed to be repaired. Returning to the land of the living before he was fully healed was no picnic. He had to suffer through parts regrowing, wounds closing, broken bones knitting back together, and nerves regenerating, which was without doubt the most agonising part of all.
“For a while there I thought I was never going to get back to you,” he gasped, still clinging to Ianto’s arm as though it were a life raft in a stormy sea, using the physical contact to anchor himself as the vortex energy flowing through continued to rebuild his battered body.
“You did though. It’s okay. You’ll be fine in a little while.” Ianto did his best to reassure his lover.
This had been a particularly bad death; half of Jack had been vaporised by an alien weapon the likes of which he’d never seen before and hoped he’d never see again. Re-growing the missing parts seemed to take forever, and the process wasn’t complete yet. He didn’t have to look to know that he still wasn’t all there.
“Thought I’d be lost in the dark and nothingness for all eternity.” Jack shuddered; the place he went to when he died was far from pleasant. He’d told Ianto often enough that whenever he died he was always conscious of something stalking him through the endless dark. Even though he couldn’t hear, see, or feel anything, there was always that disturbing sense of not being alone, and if that was all there was to look forward to after death, he wanted no part of it.
“You wouldn’t have been, Jack. Even if you hadn’t come back, there’s so much more to the afterlife than you ever get to see.”
Jack shook his head, refusing to accept his lover’s reassurances. “You’re wrong. You die, that’s it. There’s just a lot of nothing, and something moving in the dark. I should know; I’ve been there often enough. Suzie saw the same as I did, when she died and we brought her back.” It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but at least talking about it took his mind off the agonising, crawling sensations of muscles and skin growing over bones.
“Right, because you’re the sole authority on life after death, and Suzie agreed with you. You’d rather take the word of a seriously unstable serial killer than that of your lover.”
Turning his head as far as he could manage, Jack tried to look up at Ianto. “What are you talking about?”
“When it comes to dying, you’re not the only one who gets to wear the t-shirt. Been there, done that. Remember Thames House, where I died from whatever the 456 released into the atmosphere? I remember being completely dead. Not just temporarily dead like you are when you’re killed, but one hundred percent dead, no return ticket, until the Bad Wolf stepped in and brought me back. I’ve been a lot further into death than you ever get to go, and I can promise you, the dark isn’t it. That’s just a waystation, because you’re not staying, you’re just visiting. I suppose it’s easier to just store you there as a sort of temporary computer file before downloading you back into your body.”
“Temporary computer file?” Jack knew he sounded indignant, but he couldn’t help it.
Ianto shrugged. “A convenient analogy. Point is, you only get partway before you’re sent back. In future when I die, because now that I’m like you the dying and coming back part is practically inevitable, I expect I’ll only see what you see, the dark no-place you go to. But the first time I died I saw what’s beyond that. I was in heaven, I think, and it was beautiful. Everyone was there, all our friends, our families, everyone we’ve ever known or cared for, and countless people we’ve never met. When we finally reach the end or our lives, which we will, sometime millions, maybe even billions, of years in the future, we’ll go there too.”
Jack sighed, wincing at a fresh surge of pain as nerves regenerated. “I wish I could believe that.”
“You can, because it’s real. You have to know I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Not even to make me feel better?”
“No. Some things are far too important to lie about, and that has to be top of the list. Just trust me, Jack. Our immortality isn’t forever, and when the time comes, we’ll be reunited with everyone who’s ever mattered to us. Tosh and Owen, Estelle and Steven, our parents, all the people you’ve lost over your long life… They’ll all be there to welcome us, but until that day we’ve got a lot to do, and the first thing on the agenda should probably be to deal with the mess here. It’s generally not a good idea to leave dead aliens lying around where someone might fall over them.”
“It’s dead?”
Ianto snorted. “Of course it’s dead! Did you really think I’d just leave it running around loose? I shot it through the head right after it… whatever it did to you.”
“Vaporised me from the chest down?”
“Yes, that.” Ianto helped Jack sit up, his lower half bare, brand new and pink, because clothes didn’t regenerate. “D’you feel up to helping me load our visitor into the boot?”
Jack nodded. “I think so.”
“Good. After that you can sit in the SUV while I finish the clean-up; I’ll find a blanket for you to cover up with. There should be wet wipes and some biscuits in the glove compartment. You can wipe the dirt off your hands and have a snack.” Food always helped Jack recover after a death. Regenerating took a lot of energy.
“You think of everything. Thank you.”
“All part of the service.” Ianto helped Jack to his feet.
“You said everyone’s there in the afterlife?” Jack asked, looking down at the alien’s corpse.
“I only saw humans when I was there, the aliens must have their own regions. Our idea of paradise is probably nothing like theirs.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want to run into this one again.” Jack gazed around the dimly lit alley. “At least I didn’t bleed everywhere this time.”
“And I’m very grateful for that; it’ll cut down on clean-up, I’ll only have alien brains to deal with.” Ianto gave Jack a peck on the lips. “Let’s get done and go home, okay?”
Jack smiled. “You read my mind.”
The End
Author: badly_knitted
Characters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Spoilers: CoE, but it’s a world where Ianto came back to life.
Summary: Despite all the times Jack has died, he’s never seen anything other than a lightless, sensationless no place, but Ianto assures him there’s more.
Word Count: 1196
Written For: Prompt 107 - Afterlife at fandomweekly.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.
As far as Jack was concerned, anyone who thought being immortal was easy, especially given his particular brand of immortality, needed to have their head examined to check whether they’d been short-changed when it came to brains and common sense.
Truthfully, he wouldn’t have wished what he was forced to endure on his worst enemy, because while he could confidently expect to live until the end of time, and quite possibly beyond that, he still died, frequently and painfully. He just didn’t stay that way, and the coming back to life part was usually even worse than the dying part, because most of the time death came quickly, while the revival part could take quite a while, depending on how much damage needed to be repaired. Returning to the land of the living before he was fully healed was no picnic. He had to suffer through parts regrowing, wounds closing, broken bones knitting back together, and nerves regenerating, which was without doubt the most agonising part of all.
“For a while there I thought I was never going to get back to you,” he gasped, still clinging to Ianto’s arm as though it were a life raft in a stormy sea, using the physical contact to anchor himself as the vortex energy flowing through continued to rebuild his battered body.
“You did though. It’s okay. You’ll be fine in a little while.” Ianto did his best to reassure his lover.
This had been a particularly bad death; half of Jack had been vaporised by an alien weapon the likes of which he’d never seen before and hoped he’d never see again. Re-growing the missing parts seemed to take forever, and the process wasn’t complete yet. He didn’t have to look to know that he still wasn’t all there.
“Thought I’d be lost in the dark and nothingness for all eternity.” Jack shuddered; the place he went to when he died was far from pleasant. He’d told Ianto often enough that whenever he died he was always conscious of something stalking him through the endless dark. Even though he couldn’t hear, see, or feel anything, there was always that disturbing sense of not being alone, and if that was all there was to look forward to after death, he wanted no part of it.
“You wouldn’t have been, Jack. Even if you hadn’t come back, there’s so much more to the afterlife than you ever get to see.”
Jack shook his head, refusing to accept his lover’s reassurances. “You’re wrong. You die, that’s it. There’s just a lot of nothing, and something moving in the dark. I should know; I’ve been there often enough. Suzie saw the same as I did, when she died and we brought her back.” It wasn’t a pleasant thought, but at least talking about it took his mind off the agonising, crawling sensations of muscles and skin growing over bones.
“Right, because you’re the sole authority on life after death, and Suzie agreed with you. You’d rather take the word of a seriously unstable serial killer than that of your lover.”
Turning his head as far as he could manage, Jack tried to look up at Ianto. “What are you talking about?”
“When it comes to dying, you’re not the only one who gets to wear the t-shirt. Been there, done that. Remember Thames House, where I died from whatever the 456 released into the atmosphere? I remember being completely dead. Not just temporarily dead like you are when you’re killed, but one hundred percent dead, no return ticket, until the Bad Wolf stepped in and brought me back. I’ve been a lot further into death than you ever get to go, and I can promise you, the dark isn’t it. That’s just a waystation, because you’re not staying, you’re just visiting. I suppose it’s easier to just store you there as a sort of temporary computer file before downloading you back into your body.”
“Temporary computer file?” Jack knew he sounded indignant, but he couldn’t help it.
Ianto shrugged. “A convenient analogy. Point is, you only get partway before you’re sent back. In future when I die, because now that I’m like you the dying and coming back part is practically inevitable, I expect I’ll only see what you see, the dark no-place you go to. But the first time I died I saw what’s beyond that. I was in heaven, I think, and it was beautiful. Everyone was there, all our friends, our families, everyone we’ve ever known or cared for, and countless people we’ve never met. When we finally reach the end or our lives, which we will, sometime millions, maybe even billions, of years in the future, we’ll go there too.”
Jack sighed, wincing at a fresh surge of pain as nerves regenerated. “I wish I could believe that.”
“You can, because it’s real. You have to know I wouldn’t lie to you.”
“Not even to make me feel better?”
“No. Some things are far too important to lie about, and that has to be top of the list. Just trust me, Jack. Our immortality isn’t forever, and when the time comes, we’ll be reunited with everyone who’s ever mattered to us. Tosh and Owen, Estelle and Steven, our parents, all the people you’ve lost over your long life… They’ll all be there to welcome us, but until that day we’ve got a lot to do, and the first thing on the agenda should probably be to deal with the mess here. It’s generally not a good idea to leave dead aliens lying around where someone might fall over them.”
“It’s dead?”
Ianto snorted. “Of course it’s dead! Did you really think I’d just leave it running around loose? I shot it through the head right after it… whatever it did to you.”
“Vaporised me from the chest down?”
“Yes, that.” Ianto helped Jack sit up, his lower half bare, brand new and pink, because clothes didn’t regenerate. “D’you feel up to helping me load our visitor into the boot?”
Jack nodded. “I think so.”
“Good. After that you can sit in the SUV while I finish the clean-up; I’ll find a blanket for you to cover up with. There should be wet wipes and some biscuits in the glove compartment. You can wipe the dirt off your hands and have a snack.” Food always helped Jack recover after a death. Regenerating took a lot of energy.
“You think of everything. Thank you.”
“All part of the service.” Ianto helped Jack to his feet.
“You said everyone’s there in the afterlife?” Jack asked, looking down at the alien’s corpse.
“I only saw humans when I was there, the aliens must have their own regions. Our idea of paradise is probably nothing like theirs.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want to run into this one again.” Jack gazed around the dimly lit alley. “At least I didn’t bleed everywhere this time.”
“And I’m very grateful for that; it’ll cut down on clean-up, I’ll only have alien brains to deal with.” Ianto gave Jack a peck on the lips. “Let’s get done and go home, okay?”
Jack smiled. “You read my mind.”
The End