Moving On - 04/18
Title: Moving On
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: R
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: Lisa is gone, and Ianto is starting to move on with his life, but it isn't always as easy as it sounds.
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt and Turning Point.
Thanks to: My sister angelzbabe1989 for stepping in as beta, morbid_sparks for all of her support and idea bouncing through the writing of this, and pinkfairy727 for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens.
For previous chapters see Master list for this fic
Chapter Four
Tosh slept very little that night. And even when she did sleep, her head was still full of this mysterious, enticing artefact, her dreams spinning around it as her subconscious tried to puzzle it out.
She woke suddenly early in the morning, the late summer sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. She picked up the stone from where she’d left it the night before, on her bedside table, close to her head; she hadn’t been able to force her own body to put it any further away from her than that.
It seemed so obvious, now, what it wanted her to do; seemed so clear. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t worked it out before.
It was an amulet - a piece of jewellery, in all but a few aspects. The obvious thing to do with it was to wear it.
As far as bad ideas went, Tosh knew logically that this one ranked right up there - far, far above bringing the thing home with her in the first place - but she reached for the clasp in the chain anyway. She couldn’t not.
It stuck a little, probably from disuse - as far as Toshiko knew, it hadn’t been handled at all between the time the Torchwood team in the 30s had originally transferred it to the archives and when Ianto had come across it in his organisational drive and brought it up to her.
A few minutes of picking at it with nimble fingers, however, loosened it off and she drew the chain around her neck, twisting it around so she could just see the clasp below her chin to fasten it again.
She righted it again, letting the glistening stone rest against her collarbone, and waited expectantly. After all of the build-up, something had to happen, right?
A minute passed, and another. Still nothing.
The overwhelming mental influence of the gem had weakened with the action, so Tosh was fairly sure she had interpreted its desires correctly. It was still there, lurking in the back of her mind and poking gently at her thoughts, but she could concentrate again.
When nothing continued to happen, she eventually allowed herself to relax a little.
It was a pretty stone - as she tilted her head, she could still just catch its green sparkle in the edge of her gaze when it caught the light. Could it be that it was simply a piece of futuristic jewellery that used psychic energy to entice people into wearing it? It would certainly be a unique sales technique, Tosh mused.
And if it was tuned to concentrate on female brain energy - it was definitely a feminine accessory - it might explain why it hadn’t seemed to have any effect on Ianto when he had come across it in the archives.
Soothed by the explanation, even when she had no proof one way or the other if she was right, Tosh let out a breath and sat back.
By the time she had dressed and eaten breakfast - with no further activity from the necklace, other than the low-level ‘background noise’ in her head - she was almost entirely convinced that her theory was correct.
It was still early when she left the house to walk to the Hub - not an unusual occurrence, she had been known to get there before dawn on occasion - but the streets were already starting to get quite busy as commuters made their way to the train station. The sun was already shining brightly, giving credence to the forecasts of a warm, sunny day.
At first, still on quieter and relatively deserted residential streets, she shrugged it off as nothing but her own imagination, or an overheard shout blown in on the breeze that lightly rustled through the trees.
It wasn’t unheard of for there still to be drunken students making their way home at this hour of the morning, inevitably a bit rowdy and noisy, so Tosh didn’t give it any further thought.
Until she hit a busier street, and it became too loud to ignore.
It was clear now that the noise wasn’t coming from anywhere in her surroundings; it was coming from inside her head. But at the same time, not.
Full sentences were appearing in her head from nowhere - she wasn’t thinking them herself, she didn’t even know what they were about, and they were in voices completely dissimilar to her own normal internal voice, but they were there, in her head.
Almost like someone else was thinking them for her.
It wasn’t until she walked past a smiling young man and a voice in her head said something clearly about her that she realised that that was exactly what was happening. She was picking up on the thoughts of the people around her, without even conscious volition.
It had to be the necklace, she thought, screwing up her forehead. It was the only thing that had changed in the last day.
But when she tried to make her hands reach up to take it off, she couldn’t do it. It was the previous evening all over again; her body wasn’t quite her own. The necklace was once again exerting its power over her.
The voices kept assaulting her as she walked towards the bay, the streets around her getting busier and busier as the minutes ticked past, as the morning got underway.
Voices occasionally started talking over each other, making it more difficult to distinguish what was actually being said. Tosh was almost relieved - she didn’t want to know these things. Thoughts were private; no one should be able to listen in on them uninvited like she was doing now.
She sped up a little; if she could just make it to the Hub soon, maybe one of the others would be able to help. She couldn’t go on like this.
“She’ll never even see it coming…”
Tosh half-turned to glance at the owner of that thought as she overtook him. Despite the warmth of the morning, he was wearing a large coat, zipped right up to his chest.
As the only person she knew who regularly wore a thick coat on a warm day was Jack - and Jack was very definitely one of a kind - it aroused her suspicions.
She slowed her pace slightly again - not enough to be obvious, but enough that she could keep pace with the guy. Just close enough that his thoughts were distinguishable from everyone else around them if she concentrated a little. She knew this was still an invasion of privacy, but she had to put her mind at rest.
“Shot to the head, that should do it. One shot, and she’ll be sorry.”
Tosh dropped back further, until she was several paces behind him, waiting to see where he was going. If he was serious, if he actually planned to carry out what he was thinking… someone needed to stop him. Tosh didn’t stop to think about the fact she had already somehow decided that that someone should be her.
“Should have known she couldn’t cheat on me without me finding out, stupid bitch. She won’t have time to regret it.”
The more Tosh heard, the more worried she became. This man - whoever he was - actually sounded like he truly intended on seeing his thoughts through.
They turned off the main road and onto more residential streets. As they were, even now the morning commute was well underway, rather quieter, Tosh walked more slowly again, trying not to attract his attention.
Not that he seemed to be paying attention to much of his surroundings anyway, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
He clearly knew exactly where he was going; he didn’t falter or have to think about which turn to take even once as they make their way through the streets.
Eventually, he came to a stop outside a small terraced house; Tosh ducked behind a car parked at the side of the road. For a long moment he just stood there; either his thoughts were silent or Tosh was just too far away from him to hear them.
He unzipped his coat and started up the short path to the front door.
Tosh crept around the car behind him, realising in a moment of slight panic that she had no plan. How was she going to stop him if he truly planned to hurt someone - a possibility that was looking more and more likely as every moment passed? Her weapon was at the Hub; like alien tech, they weren’t supposed to take the firepower out of the base unless they were on a case, or otherwise with Jack’s express permission.
That rule was enforced rather better than the other.
There was the sound of shattering glass, and Tosh craned her neck to see that the man had broken a pane in the front door with… yes, that was definitely a gun. He was serious.
She didn’t stop to think about what she would do next; someone was clearly in danger and Tosh was the only one around to help.
At that point, conscious thinking stopped and instinct took over. The next thing Tosh was truly aware of was standing on the doorstep, a shoe in her hand, and an unconscious man with a gun in his hand at her feet.
She dropped the shoe and dug around in her handbag, looking for her mobile phone. She needed to get the authorities - not Torchwood - out here before he regained consciousness.
She was crouched down, easing the weapon from the man’s hand when there was a noise from the house.
There door rattled before it opened, a slight young woman in a dressing gown a little too large for her appearing from inside. She looked more than half still asleep, but fully terrified. She was shaking from head to toe, and stared at Tosh with wide eyes. Her thoughts were wild and jumped and Tosh couldn’t make head nor tails of them.
Tosh dialled 999 and waited as she was put through to the police. “It’s okay,” she said calmingly to the poor young woman as the operator passed her across. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Police, state your emergency,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.
“I… there’s a man with a gun,” Tosh said, trying to work out how to describe what had happened. “He was breaking into a house, but I… knocked him out, somehow.” She still didn’t quite remember how she’d gone from standing at the bottom of the path to the doorstep.
“Can you give me an address, miss?” Tosh looked around, looking for a road sign to tell her what street she was on.
“Twenty-six Hailey Court,” the woman at the door whispered shakily, and Tosh passed on the information to the operator at the other end of the line.
After assurances that a car was on its way, Tosh hung up and refocused on the scared woman.
“I know him,” she thought, and then said aloud. “What was he going to do this time? Why won’t he leave me alone?”
“You do?” Tosh asked gently, taking a step closer, around the head of the man on the ground.
“I… I took out a restraining order against him a month ago,” she choked out, clearly struggling to retain any semblance of calm. “He’s been stalking me for months. He’s deranged.”
“Why me? Why?” She took a shuddery breath. “I thought… I was safe now.”
“You are, you will be,” Tosh said, tentatively putting a hand on the woman’s arm. “If you have a restraining order, then he’s violated it… and besides that he was trying to break into your house with a weapon. They won’t be letting him anywhere near you for quite some time.”
“Really?” She thought it before she said it, both the thought and the spoken tone indicating someone who didn’t want to get her hopes up. Not again.
“Really,” Tosh assured her. She shuffled closer again. “I’ve…” She paused, unsure again how much to reveal, how to explain herself. “I know someone who’s had a similar issue in the past,” she finally settled on. “They’ll look after you.”
The woman nodded. “Thank you, by the way.” She gave Tosh a tremulous smile. “If you hadn’t happened to be there, I’d…” She trailed off. “I’d be dead,” her thoughts continued.
“Don’t think of it,” Tosh told her. “Really.”
“I mean it, though,” she replied. “Thank you.”
Tosh fought the urge to look away and blush. She wasn’t used to receiving praise and gratitude from strangers. It was harder to brush off than it was coming from Jack - or more frequently, Ianto.
They heard the sirens before they saw the police car as it roared down the street, screeching to a stop in front of the house. Another pulled up moments later.
The man at their feet was thankfully still unconscious as he was cuffed and dragged rather bodily towards one of the cars by two uniformed men. Another officer dug a tissue from his pocket to pick up the gun and put it into a bag.
“Right, ladies,” a fourth officer said, trying to look kindly and sympathetic. “I’m afraid you’re both going to have to come with me.”
Of course.
tbc...
Chapter Five
As always, comments and concrit are loved!
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: R
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: Lisa is gone, and Ianto is starting to move on with his life, but it isn't always as easy as it sounds.
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt and Turning Point.
Thanks to: My sister angelzbabe1989 for stepping in as beta, morbid_sparks for all of her support and idea bouncing through the writing of this, and pinkfairy727 for cheerleading even when she doesn't know what happens.
For previous chapters see Master list for this fic
Chapter Four
Tosh slept very little that night. And even when she did sleep, her head was still full of this mysterious, enticing artefact, her dreams spinning around it as her subconscious tried to puzzle it out.
She woke suddenly early in the morning, the late summer sun just beginning to peek over the horizon. She picked up the stone from where she’d left it the night before, on her bedside table, close to her head; she hadn’t been able to force her own body to put it any further away from her than that.
It seemed so obvious, now, what it wanted her to do; seemed so clear. She couldn’t believe she hadn’t worked it out before.
It was an amulet - a piece of jewellery, in all but a few aspects. The obvious thing to do with it was to wear it.
As far as bad ideas went, Tosh knew logically that this one ranked right up there - far, far above bringing the thing home with her in the first place - but she reached for the clasp in the chain anyway. She couldn’t not.
It stuck a little, probably from disuse - as far as Toshiko knew, it hadn’t been handled at all between the time the Torchwood team in the 30s had originally transferred it to the archives and when Ianto had come across it in his organisational drive and brought it up to her.
A few minutes of picking at it with nimble fingers, however, loosened it off and she drew the chain around her neck, twisting it around so she could just see the clasp below her chin to fasten it again.
She righted it again, letting the glistening stone rest against her collarbone, and waited expectantly. After all of the build-up, something had to happen, right?
A minute passed, and another. Still nothing.
The overwhelming mental influence of the gem had weakened with the action, so Tosh was fairly sure she had interpreted its desires correctly. It was still there, lurking in the back of her mind and poking gently at her thoughts, but she could concentrate again.
When nothing continued to happen, she eventually allowed herself to relax a little.
It was a pretty stone - as she tilted her head, she could still just catch its green sparkle in the edge of her gaze when it caught the light. Could it be that it was simply a piece of futuristic jewellery that used psychic energy to entice people into wearing it? It would certainly be a unique sales technique, Tosh mused.
And if it was tuned to concentrate on female brain energy - it was definitely a feminine accessory - it might explain why it hadn’t seemed to have any effect on Ianto when he had come across it in the archives.
Soothed by the explanation, even when she had no proof one way or the other if she was right, Tosh let out a breath and sat back.
By the time she had dressed and eaten breakfast - with no further activity from the necklace, other than the low-level ‘background noise’ in her head - she was almost entirely convinced that her theory was correct.
It was still early when she left the house to walk to the Hub - not an unusual occurrence, she had been known to get there before dawn on occasion - but the streets were already starting to get quite busy as commuters made their way to the train station. The sun was already shining brightly, giving credence to the forecasts of a warm, sunny day.
At first, still on quieter and relatively deserted residential streets, she shrugged it off as nothing but her own imagination, or an overheard shout blown in on the breeze that lightly rustled through the trees.
It wasn’t unheard of for there still to be drunken students making their way home at this hour of the morning, inevitably a bit rowdy and noisy, so Tosh didn’t give it any further thought.
Until she hit a busier street, and it became too loud to ignore.
It was clear now that the noise wasn’t coming from anywhere in her surroundings; it was coming from inside her head. But at the same time, not.
Full sentences were appearing in her head from nowhere - she wasn’t thinking them herself, she didn’t even know what they were about, and they were in voices completely dissimilar to her own normal internal voice, but they were there, in her head.
Almost like someone else was thinking them for her.
It wasn’t until she walked past a smiling young man and a voice in her head said something clearly about her that she realised that that was exactly what was happening. She was picking up on the thoughts of the people around her, without even conscious volition.
It had to be the necklace, she thought, screwing up her forehead. It was the only thing that had changed in the last day.
But when she tried to make her hands reach up to take it off, she couldn’t do it. It was the previous evening all over again; her body wasn’t quite her own. The necklace was once again exerting its power over her.
The voices kept assaulting her as she walked towards the bay, the streets around her getting busier and busier as the minutes ticked past, as the morning got underway.
Voices occasionally started talking over each other, making it more difficult to distinguish what was actually being said. Tosh was almost relieved - she didn’t want to know these things. Thoughts were private; no one should be able to listen in on them uninvited like she was doing now.
She sped up a little; if she could just make it to the Hub soon, maybe one of the others would be able to help. She couldn’t go on like this.
“She’ll never even see it coming…”
Tosh half-turned to glance at the owner of that thought as she overtook him. Despite the warmth of the morning, he was wearing a large coat, zipped right up to his chest.
As the only person she knew who regularly wore a thick coat on a warm day was Jack - and Jack was very definitely one of a kind - it aroused her suspicions.
She slowed her pace slightly again - not enough to be obvious, but enough that she could keep pace with the guy. Just close enough that his thoughts were distinguishable from everyone else around them if she concentrated a little. She knew this was still an invasion of privacy, but she had to put her mind at rest.
“Shot to the head, that should do it. One shot, and she’ll be sorry.”
Tosh dropped back further, until she was several paces behind him, waiting to see where he was going. If he was serious, if he actually planned to carry out what he was thinking… someone needed to stop him. Tosh didn’t stop to think about the fact she had already somehow decided that that someone should be her.
“Should have known she couldn’t cheat on me without me finding out, stupid bitch. She won’t have time to regret it.”
The more Tosh heard, the more worried she became. This man - whoever he was - actually sounded like he truly intended on seeing his thoughts through.
They turned off the main road and onto more residential streets. As they were, even now the morning commute was well underway, rather quieter, Tosh walked more slowly again, trying not to attract his attention.
Not that he seemed to be paying attention to much of his surroundings anyway, but she wasn’t taking any chances.
He clearly knew exactly where he was going; he didn’t falter or have to think about which turn to take even once as they make their way through the streets.
Eventually, he came to a stop outside a small terraced house; Tosh ducked behind a car parked at the side of the road. For a long moment he just stood there; either his thoughts were silent or Tosh was just too far away from him to hear them.
He unzipped his coat and started up the short path to the front door.
Tosh crept around the car behind him, realising in a moment of slight panic that she had no plan. How was she going to stop him if he truly planned to hurt someone - a possibility that was looking more and more likely as every moment passed? Her weapon was at the Hub; like alien tech, they weren’t supposed to take the firepower out of the base unless they were on a case, or otherwise with Jack’s express permission.
That rule was enforced rather better than the other.
There was the sound of shattering glass, and Tosh craned her neck to see that the man had broken a pane in the front door with… yes, that was definitely a gun. He was serious.
She didn’t stop to think about what she would do next; someone was clearly in danger and Tosh was the only one around to help.
At that point, conscious thinking stopped and instinct took over. The next thing Tosh was truly aware of was standing on the doorstep, a shoe in her hand, and an unconscious man with a gun in his hand at her feet.
She dropped the shoe and dug around in her handbag, looking for her mobile phone. She needed to get the authorities - not Torchwood - out here before he regained consciousness.
She was crouched down, easing the weapon from the man’s hand when there was a noise from the house.
There door rattled before it opened, a slight young woman in a dressing gown a little too large for her appearing from inside. She looked more than half still asleep, but fully terrified. She was shaking from head to toe, and stared at Tosh with wide eyes. Her thoughts were wild and jumped and Tosh couldn’t make head nor tails of them.
Tosh dialled 999 and waited as she was put through to the police. “It’s okay,” she said calmingly to the poor young woman as the operator passed her across. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Police, state your emergency,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.
“I… there’s a man with a gun,” Tosh said, trying to work out how to describe what had happened. “He was breaking into a house, but I… knocked him out, somehow.” She still didn’t quite remember how she’d gone from standing at the bottom of the path to the doorstep.
“Can you give me an address, miss?” Tosh looked around, looking for a road sign to tell her what street she was on.
“Twenty-six Hailey Court,” the woman at the door whispered shakily, and Tosh passed on the information to the operator at the other end of the line.
After assurances that a car was on its way, Tosh hung up and refocused on the scared woman.
“I know him,” she thought, and then said aloud. “What was he going to do this time? Why won’t he leave me alone?”
“You do?” Tosh asked gently, taking a step closer, around the head of the man on the ground.
“I… I took out a restraining order against him a month ago,” she choked out, clearly struggling to retain any semblance of calm. “He’s been stalking me for months. He’s deranged.”
“Why me? Why?” She took a shuddery breath. “I thought… I was safe now.”
“You are, you will be,” Tosh said, tentatively putting a hand on the woman’s arm. “If you have a restraining order, then he’s violated it… and besides that he was trying to break into your house with a weapon. They won’t be letting him anywhere near you for quite some time.”
“Really?” She thought it before she said it, both the thought and the spoken tone indicating someone who didn’t want to get her hopes up. Not again.
“Really,” Tosh assured her. She shuffled closer again. “I’ve…” She paused, unsure again how much to reveal, how to explain herself. “I know someone who’s had a similar issue in the past,” she finally settled on. “They’ll look after you.”
The woman nodded. “Thank you, by the way.” She gave Tosh a tremulous smile. “If you hadn’t happened to be there, I’d…” She trailed off. “I’d be dead,” her thoughts continued.
“Don’t think of it,” Tosh told her. “Really.”
“I mean it, though,” she replied. “Thank you.”
Tosh fought the urge to look away and blush. She wasn’t used to receiving praise and gratitude from strangers. It was harder to brush off than it was coming from Jack - or more frequently, Ianto.
They heard the sirens before they saw the police car as it roared down the street, screeching to a stop in front of the house. Another pulled up moments later.
The man at their feet was thankfully still unconscious as he was cuffed and dragged rather bodily towards one of the cars by two uniformed men. Another officer dug a tissue from his pocket to pick up the gun and put it into a bag.
“Right, ladies,” a fourth officer said, trying to look kindly and sympathetic. “I’m afraid you’re both going to have to come with me.”
Of course.
tbc...
Chapter Five
As always, comments and concrit are loved!