Guilt: Redux - 4/17+Epilogue
Title: Guilt: Redux
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, references to Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: Ianto knows he should be happy. He has his work and he has Lisa. Again. Finally. He knows he should be happy.
Author's Note: Alternate ending to Guilt - events of Guilt up to around ch50 take place. This picks up many months later... (There's a short recap of 'what you NEED to know from Guilt' before chapter one, if you haven't read it)
Thanks to: My lovely beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens in this...
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Four
Jack appeared next to Ianto just as Owen was pulling out the syringe to take the blood samples.
“Hey, everything okay down here?” The question was directed at Owen. Owen simply nodded and carried on preparing the sample tubes.
Jack nudged Ianto’s shoulder. “You planning on hanging around here doing nothing all morning, as usual, or is there any hope of a new pot of coffee?” he teased.
“I’m here for Lisa,” Ianto replied absently. “And besides…” He looked at his watch and grinned. “I only made a pot ninety minutes ago. Surely your caffeine addiction isn’t so bad that you can’t last until lunch.”
Jack pouted and clasped his hands in front of him. “Please?”
Ianto shook his head. “Lisa needs me here.”
Lisa had only been half-paying attention up to this point, but this statement caught her ear. “I’ll be okay, Ianto. Really.”
He looked ready to protest, but she cut him off. “Owen’s been poking and prodding at me with various things for eighteen months so far, and I’ve made it through it all. I can handle a few little tests and blood draws without you metaphorically holding my hand.” She fixed him with a look. “Go make coffee before Jack whines us to death.”
She could almost physically see Ianto swallowing an argument before turning to climb the steps back up to the Hub, closely followed by Jack.
She sighed in relief. Owen looked up at her from where he was rubbing her arm to find the vein. “You and Ianto okay?”
She shrugged with the shoulder not attached to the arm Owen was poking a needle into. “Yeah. Well… mostly.”
She blew out a breath. “He’s just…”
“Overprotective?” Owen connected up the final vacuum sample tube.
She nodded. “Yes, overprotective. And... I… it’s not that I don’t appreciate everything he does for me. I do. But I’m getting better now. I can do some of these things for myself, but he doesn’t let me.”
“Have you said anything to him about it?”
Lisa shook her head. “Not… exactly. I don’t want to upset him.”
“If it’s bothering you this much, you need to say something,” Owen said bluntly. “Remind him how little he liked being coddled himself when he got injured. Didn’t stop whinging about it the whole time.”
Lisa dipped her head in acknowledgement as Owen pressed a gauze pad to her arm and slid the needle out.
“Right,” Owen slapped on a plaster and held out a cup.
Lisa sighed. “Do I have to?”
“Just double checking that kidney function.” Owen reminded her.
“I know, I know,” she grumbled, grabbing the cup and slipping off the bed.
Owen left some of the blood tests running through the machines when lunch came in. They ate around the conference table; Lisa decided to forgo her usual spot squeezed between Jack and Ianto and take one across the table instead. She told herself that she would say something to Ianto… eventually. She hoped, however, that he would take her seating decision as a small display of independence and that it might be enough to give him a hint.
As ever, lunch with the team was a raucous affair. Friendly jabs were exchanged across the table, and wild stories were told. A good number of the stories were told as a collaborative affair, with Jack doing the bulk of the storytelling, as they filled the newest team member, Gwen, in on the creatures they had encountered, the apocalypses they had prevented, the tech they had found.
Some of them were from times since Lisa had first arrived in Cardiff, and she noticed a great deal of exaggeration was going on when it came to size of creatures or imminence of world-endage.
She didn’t bother to correct any of it, however; Gwen would find out for herself soon enough. She liked just observing the team together, watching Ianto tease and joke with them.
As happy as she was to see it, she couldn’t help but lament the loss of that aspect of her own relationship with him. He was trying too hard to please her, was too quick to agree with her in any argument. She didn’t know how much more of it she could take.
Chapter Five
Comments and concrit (yes, really) are adored. Comments = <3
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, references to Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: Ianto knows he should be happy. He has his work and he has Lisa. Again. Finally. He knows he should be happy.
Author's Note: Alternate ending to Guilt - events of Guilt up to around ch50 take place. This picks up many months later... (There's a short recap of 'what you NEED to know from Guilt' before chapter one, if you haven't read it)
Thanks to: My lovely beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens in this...
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Four
Jack appeared next to Ianto just as Owen was pulling out the syringe to take the blood samples.
“Hey, everything okay down here?” The question was directed at Owen. Owen simply nodded and carried on preparing the sample tubes.
Jack nudged Ianto’s shoulder. “You planning on hanging around here doing nothing all morning, as usual, or is there any hope of a new pot of coffee?” he teased.
“I’m here for Lisa,” Ianto replied absently. “And besides…” He looked at his watch and grinned. “I only made a pot ninety minutes ago. Surely your caffeine addiction isn’t so bad that you can’t last until lunch.”
Jack pouted and clasped his hands in front of him. “Please?”
Ianto shook his head. “Lisa needs me here.”
Lisa had only been half-paying attention up to this point, but this statement caught her ear. “I’ll be okay, Ianto. Really.”
He looked ready to protest, but she cut him off. “Owen’s been poking and prodding at me with various things for eighteen months so far, and I’ve made it through it all. I can handle a few little tests and blood draws without you metaphorically holding my hand.” She fixed him with a look. “Go make coffee before Jack whines us to death.”
She could almost physically see Ianto swallowing an argument before turning to climb the steps back up to the Hub, closely followed by Jack.
She sighed in relief. Owen looked up at her from where he was rubbing her arm to find the vein. “You and Ianto okay?”
She shrugged with the shoulder not attached to the arm Owen was poking a needle into. “Yeah. Well… mostly.”
She blew out a breath. “He’s just…”
“Overprotective?” Owen connected up the final vacuum sample tube.
She nodded. “Yes, overprotective. And... I… it’s not that I don’t appreciate everything he does for me. I do. But I’m getting better now. I can do some of these things for myself, but he doesn’t let me.”
“Have you said anything to him about it?”
Lisa shook her head. “Not… exactly. I don’t want to upset him.”
“If it’s bothering you this much, you need to say something,” Owen said bluntly. “Remind him how little he liked being coddled himself when he got injured. Didn’t stop whinging about it the whole time.”
Lisa dipped her head in acknowledgement as Owen pressed a gauze pad to her arm and slid the needle out.
“Right,” Owen slapped on a plaster and held out a cup.
Lisa sighed. “Do I have to?”
“Just double checking that kidney function.” Owen reminded her.
“I know, I know,” she grumbled, grabbing the cup and slipping off the bed.
Owen left some of the blood tests running through the machines when lunch came in. They ate around the conference table; Lisa decided to forgo her usual spot squeezed between Jack and Ianto and take one across the table instead. She told herself that she would say something to Ianto… eventually. She hoped, however, that he would take her seating decision as a small display of independence and that it might be enough to give him a hint.
As ever, lunch with the team was a raucous affair. Friendly jabs were exchanged across the table, and wild stories were told. A good number of the stories were told as a collaborative affair, with Jack doing the bulk of the storytelling, as they filled the newest team member, Gwen, in on the creatures they had encountered, the apocalypses they had prevented, the tech they had found.
Some of them were from times since Lisa had first arrived in Cardiff, and she noticed a great deal of exaggeration was going on when it came to size of creatures or imminence of world-endage.
She didn’t bother to correct any of it, however; Gwen would find out for herself soon enough. She liked just observing the team together, watching Ianto tease and joke with them.
As happy as she was to see it, she couldn’t help but lament the loss of that aspect of her own relationship with him. He was trying too hard to please her, was too quick to agree with her in any argument. She didn’t know how much more of it she could take.
Chapter Five
Comments and concrit (yes, really) are adored. Comments = <3