New Torchwood Fic: Judas Kiss, PG
Title: Judas Kiss
Author: hull1984
Rating: PG
Spoliers: Up to and including Dead Man Walking
Disclaimer: I own nothing but a vague sense of unease and a wistful longing for Cheetos.
Summary: How things might had gone in Dead Man Walking if Tosh was having a particularly trying day...
Author's Notes: I started this directly after watching Reset and the trailer for Dead Man Walking but got interrupted by life. By the time I was able to resume it DMW had aired and well it all seemed a bit moot after that. But then I thought 'bugger it! I'll post it anyway.' Rather angsty, not at all like me, that Ianto chap has a lot to answer for.
Beta: Thank you allyndra for offering to help out a newbie to this fandom - hope the experience wasn't too painful! (seriously, my abuse of the comma is like a sickness, someone should form a help group).
Judas Kiss
He’d said yes.
We were going to go on a date. He’d said yes.
This isn’t fair.
Mary.
Tommy.
And now Owen.
It’s not fair.
~~~
Ianto looked helplessly over to where Tosh was sitting at her desk and mumbling quietly to herself. She’d been like that ever since they’d brought Owen…Owen’s body back to the hub.
He didn’t know how to help her.
Which was all kinds of wrong.
He should know. Of them all he should know.
After Lisa. After Jack. Surely he should know.
But he didn’t.
~~~
Jack stood next to Martha and looked down at Owen’s cold, pale body where it lay on the slab in the autopsy bay.
He should be use to this. Death was inevitable. Well, except for his own, of course. But seeing death, living with it, he should be used to that after…how many decades? And yet once again it had blindsided him.
Of all the team…
He never thought Owen would be the next after Suzie. Of course he hadn’t been. But Ianto had come back. He’d brought him back. But Owen? Selfish, crass, angry Owen?
He shook his head.
And then laughed. He couldn’t help it; it was just too ridiculous. Owen finally does something selfless and it gets him killed. Poor bastard.
~~~
Martha was shocked by a sudden snort of laughter from Jack.
She reached out and touched his arm.
"Jack?" It was a quiet question.
He looked up and into her eyes, still laughing.
Without another word she reached out and pulled him into her arms.
~~~
Martha sighed as she picked up the white lab coat. She tried to avoid looking at any of the other occupants of the room as she put it on. Secretly she thought it more than a little macabre that the rest of the team were even present for the autopsy of someone who had to have been a close friend to them all. But Jack had insisted that they be allowed to be there if that’s what any of them chose.
Taking a deep breath she switched on the recorder and reached for the scalpel.
~~~
"No!"
All eyes turned to Tosh.
"No, stop!" She turned desperate eyes to Jack. "You can bring him back."
Jack started to shake his head slowly. "No…"
Tosh rushed towards him. "Yes! Yes, you can!" She spun around to look at Ianto, who was leaning on the wall as if that was all that was keeping him up. He straightened at her words, lowering his head to look at her with hopeless, tear-filled eyes.
"You brought Ianto back."
Jack’s breath hitched at her words and he found himself looking sadly across the room at the young man whose face was filled with sudden confusion as he looked from Tosh to Jack, clearly not understanding what the distraught woman was talking about.
But before Jack could speak Tosh was rushing towards him and shaking him roughly by the shoulders.
"Yes, Jack!" She was smiling now, eyes desperate with hope. "You can do it. Remember Ianto? You can do that for Owen."
Jack reached out gently and caressed her face. "I’m sorry, Tosh. It’s too late, the injury was too traumatic and death too swift."
She began to shake her head, a low moan breaking from her mouth. Jack tried to pull her to him, to comfort her. "Tosh, Toshiko look at me." But she pulled her face from his hands and started to push him away.
"No! No!" She turned accusing eyes towards him. "It’s because you don’t like him, isn't it? It’s because you don’t like Owen."
Jack reached for her again, shaking his head sadly. "No, Tosh, that’s not the reason…"
"Yes!" She interrupted him. Tears were streaming down her face now and her body was visibly shaking. "Yes, that’s it."
Suddenly she looked up and glared at Jack.
"You don’t love Owen." She turned and looked at Ianto, contempt curling her lip. "Not like you love him!"
And then before anyone could do anything she had a gun in her hand and was pointing it at Ianto.
~~~
Ianto’s mind was reeling.
What was Tosh talking about?
Jack had brought him back? How? When?
Then for a moment he felt as she did, despite all the confusion - explanations could wait - and filled with sudden hope, he looked anxiously to where Jack was shaking his head sadly now. Was it true? Could he bring Owen back?
But then it was all swept away by the loathing in Tosh’s eyes as she turned on him and raised a gun to point it at his head.
~~~
Martha had dropped the scalpel and was reaching slowly back to where her own gun lay on the tray next to the table; out the corner of her eye she noticed Gwen reaching into her jacket.
"Stop!" Tosh’s cry halted all movement.
The frantic woman looked between Martha and Gwen, all the time keeping her gun trained on Ianto.
"Both of you come up here and stand next to Jack." She demanded. As she spoke she moved closer to Ianto until she was a mere foot away, with no chance of missing.
Martha looked to Jack who nodded quickly. She immediately moved slowly up the stairs stopping once she reached his side. She noticed Gwen had done the same on his other side.
God, this was crazy. They’d already lost one friend and now Tosh was threatening another. Tosh for heaven’s sake. Martha found herself choking on a surge of laughter and suddenly missing her travels with the Doctor. What was it about Jack that he seemed to surround himself with madness?
But any urge to laugh was swiftly forgotten as Tosh took the final couple of steps up to Ianto and put the gun to his head.
Martha found herself overcome with a wave of anger at what the grief-stricken woman was doing. Couldn’t she see the effect it was having on Ianto? He wasn’t afraid, at least no fear showed on his face. A gun resting on his forehead and he wasn’t afraid. She’d think him mad except she understood; understood all too well the shattered look on his face. He wasn’t afraid of Tosh but he was being torn to pieces by her betrayal.
Martha looked despairingly to Jack.
The next move was his.
~~~
"Toshiko, please put down the gun."
Jack spoke softly, hands stretched out, palms down. He tried to swallow the fear that threatened to overwhelm him; tried not to see the weapon resting against the pale temple. He wanted to believe that Toshiko wouldn’t harm Ianto, that she wasn’t capable of hurting a friend, but sadly he knew all to well what grief made people do; remembered only too well what it had made Ianto do…
He closed his eyes for a second and willed those memories away.
Opening his eyes, he licked his dry lips and tried again.
"Tosh, this won’t help. It won’t bring Owen back, It won’t make you feel any less pain."
"Shut up Jack!" Tosh took hold of Ianto’s jacket, gripping the material in her shaking hand, pressing the gun harder to the side of his head.
Jack risked a quick look at the younger man, silently praying that what he’d see wouldn’t cripple any ability he still had to save the situation. Ianto looked numb. There was no fear on his face, no panic; it was like he had simply shut down. And then Jack noticed his eyes, saw the tears threatening to spill, knew that they weren't for Owen this time. And suddenly he wanted to close his hands around Toshiko’s throat and choke the life out of her.
He took a step forward.
~~~
Ianto felt the metal of the gun scrape against his forehead. It was strangely familiar. He was overcome with the need to sit down and close his eyes. Or just rest his head against something, someone. Frankly he couldn’t believe he was here, again. And so soon.
He wasn’t sure what it was about him that made people want to press guns to his head, but it was definitely starting to grate on his nerves. It was only a couple of weeks since that idiot, the one who had decided to literally harvest his own personal cash cow, had put a gun to his head and accused him of lying to him. Fucking retard.
Hands pinched his skin as they took hold of his jacket and pulled him forward, the gun banging painfully against his temple.
There’d been cannibals once. Hitting and tenderising. He thought there may have been guns then, too, but he wasn’t sure. Knives, maybe? It would be more appropriate, he supposed.
Tosh had been there then. So it was probably right that she was here now.
Only he’d thought, he’d thought…
Something, but he couldn’t remember now.
~~~
Shit.
Martha took one look at Jack and was terrified. This could get very messy, very quickly.
It was madness. Good God, they were friends. Jack had told her, not all, but enough of what he’d gone through with these people. What he’d done for them, what they’d done for him and in spite of him. Anybody else died here tonight and it would just as surely destroy those that were left.
And yet she had no idea what to do.
She turned imploring eyes to Gwen.
~~~
"Tosh."
It was spoken quietly, in soft round Welsh vowels, though not Ianto’s.
Jack was startled to find his way blocked. Gwen’s body didn’t obscure his view of Tosh but it did distract him for a moment. He looked down at the woman in front of him and wondered what she was trying to do. If he had to go through her as well as Toshiko to get to Ianto then make no mistake, he would.
He reached out a hand to push her back behind him but was stopped by a hand around his own wrist. Turning, he found himself looking into Martha’s eyes. Before he could speak or move, his friend had pulled him back and into her side, wrapping her arm around him and holding him tightly in place.
And all at once he understood. He’d always trusted to women more than men, and now would be no exception. She was right, he was too close this time. He couldn’t trust himself.
~~~
Gwen wasn’t really sure what she was doing. Hell, who was she kidding - she didn’t have a fucking clue.
She knew that as a police officer she had been expected to know what to do in a hostage situation but when it came to stark reality it was something else entirely.
Fuck, it had been bad enough the other week when those bastards had held Rhys and Ianto, but this was Tosh. And Owen was still lying down there on the table.
Jack was behind her looking like he was quite prepared to take them all out in order to make sure Ianto was safe, and fuck knew that alone was going to result in quite a few sleepless nights in her future. Yes, she knew she was a greedy cow, but she really did want to have her cake and eat it. And she couldn’t quite believe she was jealous of the man with the gun pointed at his head.
She resisted the urge to slap her forehead and took a deep breath.
Gwen started to move forward but was halted when Tosh pointed the gun momentarily at her.
Bugger.
Then, before anybody had a chance to react, the gun was back against Ianto’s head again and Tosh was pushing her hostage towards the stairs.
~~~
Tosh had reached the bottom of the steps and had manoeuvred Ianto next to the table that held Owen. She looked back up to Jack.
"Jack get down here."
Jack didn’t hesitate, jumping from the top step to the bottom before stopping on the other side of the table and glaring intently at Toshiko.
"This stops now!" he growled, his whole body vibrating with anger.
But Tosh just tightened her grip on Ianto, shaking her head and threatening to spill the tears that had pooled in her eyes.
"No." She spoke softly. "No Jack. It’s past time for that. You could have stopped this." She glanced down at Owen. "You should have stopped this." She looked up again, eyes accusing now. "But you chose not to."
Jack shook his head. "There was nothing I could have done. I’ve told you. Why don’t you believe me?" He sounded bewildered now.
To his surprise and fear, Tosh shook Ianto and pressed the gun viciously into the side of his head.
"This! This is the reason I don’t believe you Jack!"
Jack looked to Ianto in concern but the other man didn’t react, blank expression still in place. And that scared Jack more than anything else that had happened that day.
"Tell me then."
At Tosh’s words Jack dragged his gaze from Ianto and looked back to the woman with the gun in her hand.
"Tell me why you chose to save Ianto but not Owen. Make me believe you weren’t just playing God again, Jack. Give me a reason not to pull this trigger and bring you into my hell."
If someone had ever told Jack that there would come a day when he would be willing to point his gun at Toshiko Sato and empty the clip into her body, he would have thought them insane. Not today though. Today it seemed his psyche was open to a variety of new experiences.
When he failed to answer her, Tosh nodded at Owen’s body where it lay on the metal table.
"Kiss him"
Tosh’s words seemed to snap Ianto out of his trance. He gasped and took a step away from her, despite the gun.
No one else reacted to the bizarre request, much to Jack’s disappointment. He watched in growing discomfort as Ianto looked from Martha to Gwen, frown deepening as the Welshman realised that he alone seemed shocked by the woman’s grisly demand. Finally his eyes came to rest upon Jack, the question in them clear.
Jack sighed and ran his hands through his hair. There was more than a good chance that a very uncomfortable conversation awaited him in his near future. But first he needed to resolve their current situation, hopefully with as little damage as possible.
With a mental shake of his head, he turned his attention back to Tosh, who didn’t appear to have noticed Ianto’s startled response.
"No." Jack shook his head as he spoke, staring determinedly at her.
Panic filled Toshiko’s eyes.
Jack took a deep breath and forced himself to stay where he was. He knew this was the moment; the moment when she’d have to decide what the true cost of Owen’s death would be. He’d never felt more sick in his life.
"Tosh."
It was the first time Ianto had spoken since this had begun. At the sound of his voice Toshiko looked up into his face, her tears finally falling.
"I’m so sorry, Ianto."
For one terrible moment Jack thought she was going to fire the gun, but then, like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut, her whole body slumped, the gun falling to the ground as her arms dropped to her sides.
Ianto immediately stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly against his chest as she sobbed. He looked helplessly over at Jack who just nodded sadly in response.
Toshiko was a very lucky woman. Not only would Ianto forgive her, but he’d also be the one to help her through this. After all there was no one better placed than the quiet Welshman to understand the desperation born from grief and the dark depths it could lead you into.
But more; she was lucky Ianto had survived this. Jack knew his own depths, too.
Sighing, Jack looked from Owen’s cold body to the heartbroken woman in Ianto’s arms and reached a decision.
Walking over to Ianto he placed a hand on the man’s lower back. "Take care of her, Ianto."
He knew it was an unnecessary order, Ianto would look after her regardless of Jack’s feelings on the subject. But Jack needed to say it; needed them both to know.
Reaching out his other hand he touched Toshiko gently on the cheek. The crying woman raised her head at his touch and looked at him, hopelessness and grief radiating from her.
"Toshiko, I’m sorry. You’re right. I failed Owen, I failed you both." He wiped fresh tears away with his thumb. "But I’m not ready to give up on him. Thank you for reminding me of that." He leant forward and kissed her softly on the head.
Then, turning to Ianto once again, he reached up to wrap his hand around the younger man’s neck pulling him forward into a gentle kiss. Drawing back reluctantly he paused to rest his forehead on Ianto’s, promising quietly. "We’ll talk."
Stepping back from the pair he looked up to where Martha and Gwen had been forced to watch the drama unfold in helpless fascination.
"Martha, don’t touch the body until I get back."
And with that he climbed up the steps and left the room.
End
Author: hull1984
Rating: PG
Spoliers: Up to and including Dead Man Walking
Disclaimer: I own nothing but a vague sense of unease and a wistful longing for Cheetos.
Summary: How things might had gone in Dead Man Walking if Tosh was having a particularly trying day...
Author's Notes: I started this directly after watching Reset and the trailer for Dead Man Walking but got interrupted by life. By the time I was able to resume it DMW had aired and well it all seemed a bit moot after that. But then I thought 'bugger it! I'll post it anyway.' Rather angsty, not at all like me, that Ianto chap has a lot to answer for.
Beta: Thank you allyndra for offering to help out a newbie to this fandom - hope the experience wasn't too painful! (seriously, my abuse of the comma is like a sickness, someone should form a help group).
Judas Kiss
He’d said yes.
We were going to go on a date. He’d said yes.
This isn’t fair.
Mary.
Tommy.
And now Owen.
It’s not fair.
~~~
Ianto looked helplessly over to where Tosh was sitting at her desk and mumbling quietly to herself. She’d been like that ever since they’d brought Owen…Owen’s body back to the hub.
He didn’t know how to help her.
Which was all kinds of wrong.
He should know. Of them all he should know.
After Lisa. After Jack. Surely he should know.
But he didn’t.
~~~
Jack stood next to Martha and looked down at Owen’s cold, pale body where it lay on the slab in the autopsy bay.
He should be use to this. Death was inevitable. Well, except for his own, of course. But seeing death, living with it, he should be used to that after…how many decades? And yet once again it had blindsided him.
Of all the team…
He never thought Owen would be the next after Suzie. Of course he hadn’t been. But Ianto had come back. He’d brought him back. But Owen? Selfish, crass, angry Owen?
He shook his head.
And then laughed. He couldn’t help it; it was just too ridiculous. Owen finally does something selfless and it gets him killed. Poor bastard.
~~~
Martha was shocked by a sudden snort of laughter from Jack.
She reached out and touched his arm.
"Jack?" It was a quiet question.
He looked up and into her eyes, still laughing.
Without another word she reached out and pulled him into her arms.
~~~
Martha sighed as she picked up the white lab coat. She tried to avoid looking at any of the other occupants of the room as she put it on. Secretly she thought it more than a little macabre that the rest of the team were even present for the autopsy of someone who had to have been a close friend to them all. But Jack had insisted that they be allowed to be there if that’s what any of them chose.
Taking a deep breath she switched on the recorder and reached for the scalpel.
~~~
"No!"
All eyes turned to Tosh.
"No, stop!" She turned desperate eyes to Jack. "You can bring him back."
Jack started to shake his head slowly. "No…"
Tosh rushed towards him. "Yes! Yes, you can!" She spun around to look at Ianto, who was leaning on the wall as if that was all that was keeping him up. He straightened at her words, lowering his head to look at her with hopeless, tear-filled eyes.
"You brought Ianto back."
Jack’s breath hitched at her words and he found himself looking sadly across the room at the young man whose face was filled with sudden confusion as he looked from Tosh to Jack, clearly not understanding what the distraught woman was talking about.
But before Jack could speak Tosh was rushing towards him and shaking him roughly by the shoulders.
"Yes, Jack!" She was smiling now, eyes desperate with hope. "You can do it. Remember Ianto? You can do that for Owen."
Jack reached out gently and caressed her face. "I’m sorry, Tosh. It’s too late, the injury was too traumatic and death too swift."
She began to shake her head, a low moan breaking from her mouth. Jack tried to pull her to him, to comfort her. "Tosh, Toshiko look at me." But she pulled her face from his hands and started to push him away.
"No! No!" She turned accusing eyes towards him. "It’s because you don’t like him, isn't it? It’s because you don’t like Owen."
Jack reached for her again, shaking his head sadly. "No, Tosh, that’s not the reason…"
"Yes!" She interrupted him. Tears were streaming down her face now and her body was visibly shaking. "Yes, that’s it."
Suddenly she looked up and glared at Jack.
"You don’t love Owen." She turned and looked at Ianto, contempt curling her lip. "Not like you love him!"
And then before anyone could do anything she had a gun in her hand and was pointing it at Ianto.
~~~
Ianto’s mind was reeling.
What was Tosh talking about?
Jack had brought him back? How? When?
Then for a moment he felt as she did, despite all the confusion - explanations could wait - and filled with sudden hope, he looked anxiously to where Jack was shaking his head sadly now. Was it true? Could he bring Owen back?
But then it was all swept away by the loathing in Tosh’s eyes as she turned on him and raised a gun to point it at his head.
~~~
Martha had dropped the scalpel and was reaching slowly back to where her own gun lay on the tray next to the table; out the corner of her eye she noticed Gwen reaching into her jacket.
"Stop!" Tosh’s cry halted all movement.
The frantic woman looked between Martha and Gwen, all the time keeping her gun trained on Ianto.
"Both of you come up here and stand next to Jack." She demanded. As she spoke she moved closer to Ianto until she was a mere foot away, with no chance of missing.
Martha looked to Jack who nodded quickly. She immediately moved slowly up the stairs stopping once she reached his side. She noticed Gwen had done the same on his other side.
God, this was crazy. They’d already lost one friend and now Tosh was threatening another. Tosh for heaven’s sake. Martha found herself choking on a surge of laughter and suddenly missing her travels with the Doctor. What was it about Jack that he seemed to surround himself with madness?
But any urge to laugh was swiftly forgotten as Tosh took the final couple of steps up to Ianto and put the gun to his head.
Martha found herself overcome with a wave of anger at what the grief-stricken woman was doing. Couldn’t she see the effect it was having on Ianto? He wasn’t afraid, at least no fear showed on his face. A gun resting on his forehead and he wasn’t afraid. She’d think him mad except she understood; understood all too well the shattered look on his face. He wasn’t afraid of Tosh but he was being torn to pieces by her betrayal.
Martha looked despairingly to Jack.
The next move was his.
~~~
"Toshiko, please put down the gun."
Jack spoke softly, hands stretched out, palms down. He tried to swallow the fear that threatened to overwhelm him; tried not to see the weapon resting against the pale temple. He wanted to believe that Toshiko wouldn’t harm Ianto, that she wasn’t capable of hurting a friend, but sadly he knew all to well what grief made people do; remembered only too well what it had made Ianto do…
He closed his eyes for a second and willed those memories away.
Opening his eyes, he licked his dry lips and tried again.
"Tosh, this won’t help. It won’t bring Owen back, It won’t make you feel any less pain."
"Shut up Jack!" Tosh took hold of Ianto’s jacket, gripping the material in her shaking hand, pressing the gun harder to the side of his head.
Jack risked a quick look at the younger man, silently praying that what he’d see wouldn’t cripple any ability he still had to save the situation. Ianto looked numb. There was no fear on his face, no panic; it was like he had simply shut down. And then Jack noticed his eyes, saw the tears threatening to spill, knew that they weren't for Owen this time. And suddenly he wanted to close his hands around Toshiko’s throat and choke the life out of her.
He took a step forward.
~~~
Ianto felt the metal of the gun scrape against his forehead. It was strangely familiar. He was overcome with the need to sit down and close his eyes. Or just rest his head against something, someone. Frankly he couldn’t believe he was here, again. And so soon.
He wasn’t sure what it was about him that made people want to press guns to his head, but it was definitely starting to grate on his nerves. It was only a couple of weeks since that idiot, the one who had decided to literally harvest his own personal cash cow, had put a gun to his head and accused him of lying to him. Fucking retard.
Hands pinched his skin as they took hold of his jacket and pulled him forward, the gun banging painfully against his temple.
There’d been cannibals once. Hitting and tenderising. He thought there may have been guns then, too, but he wasn’t sure. Knives, maybe? It would be more appropriate, he supposed.
Tosh had been there then. So it was probably right that she was here now.
Only he’d thought, he’d thought…
Something, but he couldn’t remember now.
~~~
Shit.
Martha took one look at Jack and was terrified. This could get very messy, very quickly.
It was madness. Good God, they were friends. Jack had told her, not all, but enough of what he’d gone through with these people. What he’d done for them, what they’d done for him and in spite of him. Anybody else died here tonight and it would just as surely destroy those that were left.
And yet she had no idea what to do.
She turned imploring eyes to Gwen.
~~~
"Tosh."
It was spoken quietly, in soft round Welsh vowels, though not Ianto’s.
Jack was startled to find his way blocked. Gwen’s body didn’t obscure his view of Tosh but it did distract him for a moment. He looked down at the woman in front of him and wondered what she was trying to do. If he had to go through her as well as Toshiko to get to Ianto then make no mistake, he would.
He reached out a hand to push her back behind him but was stopped by a hand around his own wrist. Turning, he found himself looking into Martha’s eyes. Before he could speak or move, his friend had pulled him back and into her side, wrapping her arm around him and holding him tightly in place.
And all at once he understood. He’d always trusted to women more than men, and now would be no exception. She was right, he was too close this time. He couldn’t trust himself.
~~~
Gwen wasn’t really sure what she was doing. Hell, who was she kidding - she didn’t have a fucking clue.
She knew that as a police officer she had been expected to know what to do in a hostage situation but when it came to stark reality it was something else entirely.
Fuck, it had been bad enough the other week when those bastards had held Rhys and Ianto, but this was Tosh. And Owen was still lying down there on the table.
Jack was behind her looking like he was quite prepared to take them all out in order to make sure Ianto was safe, and fuck knew that alone was going to result in quite a few sleepless nights in her future. Yes, she knew she was a greedy cow, but she really did want to have her cake and eat it. And she couldn’t quite believe she was jealous of the man with the gun pointed at his head.
She resisted the urge to slap her forehead and took a deep breath.
Gwen started to move forward but was halted when Tosh pointed the gun momentarily at her.
Bugger.
Then, before anybody had a chance to react, the gun was back against Ianto’s head again and Tosh was pushing her hostage towards the stairs.
~~~
Tosh had reached the bottom of the steps and had manoeuvred Ianto next to the table that held Owen. She looked back up to Jack.
"Jack get down here."
Jack didn’t hesitate, jumping from the top step to the bottom before stopping on the other side of the table and glaring intently at Toshiko.
"This stops now!" he growled, his whole body vibrating with anger.
But Tosh just tightened her grip on Ianto, shaking her head and threatening to spill the tears that had pooled in her eyes.
"No." She spoke softly. "No Jack. It’s past time for that. You could have stopped this." She glanced down at Owen. "You should have stopped this." She looked up again, eyes accusing now. "But you chose not to."
Jack shook his head. "There was nothing I could have done. I’ve told you. Why don’t you believe me?" He sounded bewildered now.
To his surprise and fear, Tosh shook Ianto and pressed the gun viciously into the side of his head.
"This! This is the reason I don’t believe you Jack!"
Jack looked to Ianto in concern but the other man didn’t react, blank expression still in place. And that scared Jack more than anything else that had happened that day.
"Tell me then."
At Tosh’s words Jack dragged his gaze from Ianto and looked back to the woman with the gun in her hand.
"Tell me why you chose to save Ianto but not Owen. Make me believe you weren’t just playing God again, Jack. Give me a reason not to pull this trigger and bring you into my hell."
If someone had ever told Jack that there would come a day when he would be willing to point his gun at Toshiko Sato and empty the clip into her body, he would have thought them insane. Not today though. Today it seemed his psyche was open to a variety of new experiences.
When he failed to answer her, Tosh nodded at Owen’s body where it lay on the metal table.
"Kiss him"
Tosh’s words seemed to snap Ianto out of his trance. He gasped and took a step away from her, despite the gun.
No one else reacted to the bizarre request, much to Jack’s disappointment. He watched in growing discomfort as Ianto looked from Martha to Gwen, frown deepening as the Welshman realised that he alone seemed shocked by the woman’s grisly demand. Finally his eyes came to rest upon Jack, the question in them clear.
Jack sighed and ran his hands through his hair. There was more than a good chance that a very uncomfortable conversation awaited him in his near future. But first he needed to resolve their current situation, hopefully with as little damage as possible.
With a mental shake of his head, he turned his attention back to Tosh, who didn’t appear to have noticed Ianto’s startled response.
"No." Jack shook his head as he spoke, staring determinedly at her.
Panic filled Toshiko’s eyes.
Jack took a deep breath and forced himself to stay where he was. He knew this was the moment; the moment when she’d have to decide what the true cost of Owen’s death would be. He’d never felt more sick in his life.
"Tosh."
It was the first time Ianto had spoken since this had begun. At the sound of his voice Toshiko looked up into his face, her tears finally falling.
"I’m so sorry, Ianto."
For one terrible moment Jack thought she was going to fire the gun, but then, like a puppet whose strings had suddenly been cut, her whole body slumped, the gun falling to the ground as her arms dropped to her sides.
Ianto immediately stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her tightly against his chest as she sobbed. He looked helplessly over at Jack who just nodded sadly in response.
Toshiko was a very lucky woman. Not only would Ianto forgive her, but he’d also be the one to help her through this. After all there was no one better placed than the quiet Welshman to understand the desperation born from grief and the dark depths it could lead you into.
But more; she was lucky Ianto had survived this. Jack knew his own depths, too.
Sighing, Jack looked from Owen’s cold body to the heartbroken woman in Ianto’s arms and reached a decision.
Walking over to Ianto he placed a hand on the man’s lower back. "Take care of her, Ianto."
He knew it was an unnecessary order, Ianto would look after her regardless of Jack’s feelings on the subject. But Jack needed to say it; needed them both to know.
Reaching out his other hand he touched Toshiko gently on the cheek. The crying woman raised her head at his touch and looked at him, hopelessness and grief radiating from her.
"Toshiko, I’m sorry. You’re right. I failed Owen, I failed you both." He wiped fresh tears away with his thumb. "But I’m not ready to give up on him. Thank you for reminding me of that." He leant forward and kissed her softly on the head.
Then, turning to Ianto once again, he reached up to wrap his hand around the younger man’s neck pulling him forward into a gentle kiss. Drawing back reluctantly he paused to rest his forehead on Ianto’s, promising quietly. "We’ll talk."
Stepping back from the pair he looked up to where Martha and Gwen had been forced to watch the drama unfold in helpless fascination.
"Martha, don’t touch the body until I get back."
And with that he climbed up the steps and left the room.
End