Fic - Lazarus 29/30
Title: Lazarus (Chapter 28)
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG-13 (mostly swearing)
Pairing/Characters: Ianto; Jack; Gwen; Martha; Mickey; Rhys; Alonso; Sarah Jane Smith; Luke Smith; Rani Chandra; Clyde Langer; OCs (Jack/Ianto and there probably will be mentions of Gwen/Rhys)
Genre: General so far, but maybe romance eventually? It is after all a Janto fic
Summary: Nine months later and Ianto wakes up from death.
Warning: None
Spoiler: Mentions of Children of Earth, but nothing especific, except Ianto's death, but I don't consider it a fix it fic; at least not yet.
Disclaimer: Sadly, they are not mine. I'd never kill Ianto and ruin the best cannon shipper ever!
Notes: Huge thanks to specialj67 for being my beta. Jackie, you rock!
Chapter 28
Luke felt the twinges of cramps in his legs from being in the same seated position for too long, but nothing in the world would be able to get him to stand up, not when the building where his two best friends were was about to explode, according to Clyde’s frantic message.
“Mr. Smith, can’t you override this protocol?”
“I am working on it now, but all the doors have been already sealed shut.” the computer replied. Luke watched as the security camera feeds popped up on the screen, and indeed, crowds of people were desperately trying to force doors and windows open with no such luck. He had to talk to his mum, she was right outside!
“Mum!” he shouted into the mobile as soon as Sarah Jane answered. “We have a problem. All the exits to the building have been sealed.”
“Yes, I saw that.” Sarah Jane replied, worried, as she watched two UNIT soldiers trying to open the doors by force.
“But did you know that the building is set to explode in…” he checked the counter on Mr. Smith's screen, “8 minutes and 43 seconds?”
“Oh God!” she exclaimed, now starting to panic. “All those people inside…”
“I know. Mr. Smith is doing all he can to get the doors open.”
“Get K-9 to help too.”
“Order received mistress.” The robot dog announced, powering up from his stand-by state at the mention of his name, and started interfacing with Mr. Smith.
“Mum…” Luke began hesitantly.
“What is it, honey?” Sarah Jane asked in real worry. Her son wouldn’t sound so apprehensive for nothing.
“Clyde and Rani are inside.” Sarah Jane nearly dropped the phone.
“What are they doing in there--they should be with you!”
“They said they wanted to help. I couldn’t convince them to stay,” Luke started in apologetically.
“We'll get them out, I promise. You stay there and monitor through Mr. Smith--keep working on the codes.”
“Alright.” Luke replied and pulled up the CCTV footage of Ianto, Gwen, Mackenzie and Mickey heading to the main entrance. He hadn’t warned the group of the new situation development yet. With a few keystrokes, the young boy genius patched through to the main internal comms, that way he could talk directly to Ianto. He grabbed a headset and put it on. “Mr. Jones?” he called out and watched as a grainy black-and-white Ianto automatically lift a hand to his right ear. “This is Luke Smith. I've got some bad news.”
---
Ianto let out a heavy sigh and let his hand drop from the comm in his ear, eyes moving to his companions who were waiting anxiously.
“They've started something called protocol 18. Every entrance, exit, and access point is sealed shut, and in less than 8 minutes, the whole complex will self-destruct.”
“Oh my God!” Mackenzie exclaimed, eyes widened in terror. “What we’re going to do!?”
“We need to find Martha!” Mickey answered, starting to move to the emergency stairs. They weren't dying in this rat maze if he could help it.
Ianto's gaze fell over the group before he tilted his head down. Hands on his hips. Gwen watched him, watched his posture, saw the second he finished whatever he was deliberating with himself about before making a decision and returning his gaze to meet everyone else's. Years of working with Ianto provided her with intimate knowledge of his little body language quirks. Every time he had an internal debate with himself, she could see him withdraw, inward, until he reached whatever conclusion he reached, and then she'd see a spark in his eyes, his head would tilt in a certain way. If he'd been wearing a suit this day, she knew she'd have seen him tug at the bottom of his waistcoat and tweak his cuffs. As it was, she saw his finger flinch, just for a second, reaching for a waistcoat that wasn't there. She saw the steely reserve in his eyes; a look of serenity washed over his face.
“Luke said she and Jack are already heading to the main entrance. You’ll meet them there, and get those doors open. Use the sonic lipstick if you need to.” Mickey and Mackenzie nodded, already heading down the corridor.
“Wait!” Gwen called out making them stop. She stood her ground facing Ianto. “You said 'you', not 'we'. What about you, Ianto?”
“I’m going back to the cells to get Waters and those two soldiers out.” He explained simply and turned back to the stairs.
“Are you crazy? This place is going to explode in a couple of tics!” Gwen yelled, and that told Ianto just how exasperated and scared she was.
“That’s exactly why I’m going back. Waters is the General’s right hand man, right? She may know how to make this whole thing stop.”
Gwen met Ianto’s eyes again, saw all the determination in them, and knew it was a lost fight. He was a stubborn man, no doubt; how else he would have managed to survive Torchwood, Jack--hell, death!--for this long? She stepped up to him, held his face between her hands, staring straight into his eyes.
“If you die again, I swear I’ll kill you, Ianto Jones,” she said in a weak voice, tears running down her cheeks. Ianto smiled and pressed a sweet kiss on her forehead.
“I promise,” he said, before running to the emergency stairs. Gwen quickly dried her eyes and turned to Mickey and Mackenzie.
“Let’s go.”
Gwen led the way to the lobby, following the cacophony of desperate screams and cries. She looked at all those people trying to push and break the reinforced and sealed glass doors (flashes of just what horrors had been at Thames House on That Day) and wondered what kind of person would set a building to explode with so many innocent people inside, condemning all of them to death? Well, not on her watch.
Along with Mickey and Mackenzie, Gwen forced her way to the front of the door, where they would have a better chance to do something. Once they were there, Mackenzie handed Mickey the sonic lipstick to open the doors with, but no matter how many different frequencies he tried, it wouldn’t work.
“What now?” he asked, turning to the two women.
“I guess it’s now up to Luke and Ianto.”
---
Jack, Martha and Alonso ran down the emergency stairs as fast as they could, heading to the main entrance of the building. Dr. Sanders was coming along of his own volition, desperate to get out and get away from the General. Sam, however, wasn’t that keen. Jack had to almost drag her along with them; letting her perish in an explosion was a kindness he wasn't willing to extend. They entered the lobby and were immediately greeted by the sounds of people screaming and begging to the UNIT officers outside to open the doors. Jack could feel the despair, the panic, felt memory of the acrid taste of poisonous gas on his lips and in his lungs. He opened his Vortex Manipulator’s cover and started working on the controls, trying to get into the building system, but something was blocking his attempts.
“It’s not going to work,” Sam commented smugly. “I made sure to block all, and I mean ALL, outside frequencies, because I knew you’d be making an appearance.” Jack turned to her, with a glare, before turning his focus to Martha.
“Find Mickey and the others,” he instructed. Martha pushed her way between the masses of people in front of them. “Sanders,” he turned to the doctor, “how much do you know about this protocol 18?”
“Just the basics. A select few were informed of it so if the protocol was ever initiated we’d gather the crucial equipment, and they'd lead each floor to the exits as quickly as possible, but that’s it.”
Jack turned back to Sam with a deadly glare, and the woman glared back just as hard, just as deadly. She wasn’t about to give up the information, and he didn’t have the time to use his old methods to get it out of her. He was out of alternatives. Martha came back to them, followed by Gwen, Mickey, Mackenzie, Clyde and Rani. They looked as anxious and worried and defeated as Jack felt, and he was tired of feeling helpless.
“Luke," Jack spoke into his Vortex Manipulator, "how long do we have?”
“About 5 minutes,” came the tinny reply. Jack may not be able to hack into the edifice’s system, but he could still communicate with Sarah Jane’s brilliant son.
“Mr. Smith and K-9 are doing the best they can, but there are just too many layers to work through, too much security protocol. They need an entrance code to work faster.”
Jack turned to Sam, but his ex-partner just clamped her mouth shut. He tilted toward Sanders.
“Who else would have this entrance code--Luke needs it.”
“Besides the General...the Head of Security and Miss Waters.”
“Okay, assuming that the Head of Security was the one who initiated the process, he’s long gone by now, so all we have left is Waters. Where the hell is she?”
“Back in the cells,” Mickey provided helpfully. “Ianto went back to get her.”
Jack tried as hard as he could not to react at those words. He couldn't afford to let himself think about Ianto in That Way right now, he couldn't. There was too much to do, there were people to save and corporations to take down, and the Universe wouldn't take Ianto away before Jack had a chance to see him, right?
“He’s already down the cells,” Luke provided helpfully.
“How did he manage to take all those stairs so quickly?” Mackenzie asked with a frown of confusion.
“He didn’t,” the boy clarified slowly. “He jumped.”
“What!?” It was the collective reaction of everyone.
“He’s fine,” Luke quickly added, “just fine. In fact, he just logged into the system. I guess he convinced Waters to help; she’s overwriting all the security protocols for Mr. Smith.”
There was a long pause in the conversation as they listened to the clacking of Luke typing in a fast pace, probably working on the codes along with Ianto and Mr. Smith. Jack glanced at his watch: less than 4 minutes, but there was a little hope yet.
“Yes!” Luke exclaimed happily. “Doors are open!” he informed just as the glass doors slid open allowing people passage and a collective cheer shook the building.
There was pushing and shoving, everyone wanted to get out at the same time, Jack felt himself having to move along so not the get trampled. He looked around, to check on the others, make sure they were okay; at the same time he tried to go back, he needed to make sure Ianto was getting out too, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again.
Before Jack knew it, he was outside, being dragged by one of the UNIT soldiers to safety. He struggled against the grip, identifying himself as Torchwood 3 Director and telling to him to get his hands off him. The younger man immediately complied.
He looked around, saw Sarah Jane clutching both Rani and Clyde in a bear hug, and let out a sigh of relief. The two teenagers were safe. He caught sign of Gwen, Martha and Mickey helping UNIT to coordinate at the exits, getting people out of the danger zone. Alonso was helpfully shoving both Sam and a very willing Dr. Sanders to a waiting van ready to take them both to UNIT HQ for interrogation. Everyone seemed to be safe, and the flow of people was starting to finally become manageable. Still no sign of Ianto, though.
Without a second of hesitation, Jack headed back towards the building. Somewhere along the way, he heard Gwen yelling, asking him what he was doing, but he ignored her. He was getting Ianto, and nothing would stop him. He entered the lobby, skillfully dodging people; he could almost see the bright red door that would take him to the emergency stairs when another flash of red caught his eye, making him pause. It was a much lighter red, the color of human hair. A ginger head, a very familiar one: Mackenzie.
Jack rushed towards where the girl was curled up in a ball. He could see bruises starting to form on her pale skin. She much have fallen and been kicked and trampled over, but managed to get out of the way, probably the only reason she was still alive. He reached towards her, gently touching her shoulder and watched as she flinched frightened.
“It’s alright, Mac. It’s Jack,” he spoke in a soothing voice, and watched as she slowly lifted her head, wincing slightly at the movement. He glanced at his watch: 1 minute and 22 seconds left. “Come on,” he gathered her up in his arms, “I’m getting you out of here.” He could feel the seconds ticking by as he ran, rather awkwardly but still semi-heroically, out of the building.
He managed to push through the line of stands made by the UNIT soldiers when the McLeod Enterprise’s building exploded behind him, making the ground shake and the air heat up. The first time he witnessed an explosion up close all he could think about was how he didn't notice the sound so much as the heat--a great and sweeping blast of heat so forceful and dense, it felt like a wall....or a wave washing over him and pushing him down. And then came the roar of sound, the flames and the echoes of explosives and building derbis and crumbling walls. Smoke billowed from the charred skeleton of what remained standing, thick, black, and oily. It almost made him choke before he felt someone hoist him up and shove him up and over the rise of a hill to safety.
Every time after that, whenever he was in a similar situation, he always flashed back to that first experience. Each time was different, but the wall of heat was always relentless.
He nearly pitched forward with the force of the blast, but Alonso and Mickey both grabbed for him and extracted Mackenzie out of Jack’s grip. Slowly, Jack turned around to watch the edifice burn. He was completely numb and deaf to the blaring car alarms and the screams of panic filling the air.
Jack fell to his knees.
xxx
Chapter 29
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: PG-13 (mostly swearing)
Pairing/Characters: Ianto; Jack; Gwen; Martha; Mickey; Rhys; Alonso; Sarah Jane Smith; Luke Smith; Rani Chandra; Clyde Langer; OCs (Jack/Ianto and there probably will be mentions of Gwen/Rhys)
Genre: General so far, but maybe romance eventually? It is after all a Janto fic
Summary: Nine months later and Ianto wakes up from death.
Warning: None
Spoiler: Mentions of Children of Earth, but nothing especific, except Ianto's death, but I don't consider it a fix it fic; at least not yet.
Disclaimer: Sadly, they are not mine. I'd never kill Ianto and ruin the best cannon shipper ever!
Notes: Huge thanks to specialj67 for being my beta. Jackie, you rock!
Chapter 28
Luke felt the twinges of cramps in his legs from being in the same seated position for too long, but nothing in the world would be able to get him to stand up, not when the building where his two best friends were was about to explode, according to Clyde’s frantic message.
“Mr. Smith, can’t you override this protocol?”
“I am working on it now, but all the doors have been already sealed shut.” the computer replied. Luke watched as the security camera feeds popped up on the screen, and indeed, crowds of people were desperately trying to force doors and windows open with no such luck. He had to talk to his mum, she was right outside!
“Mum!” he shouted into the mobile as soon as Sarah Jane answered. “We have a problem. All the exits to the building have been sealed.”
“Yes, I saw that.” Sarah Jane replied, worried, as she watched two UNIT soldiers trying to open the doors by force.
“But did you know that the building is set to explode in…” he checked the counter on Mr. Smith's screen, “8 minutes and 43 seconds?”
“Oh God!” she exclaimed, now starting to panic. “All those people inside…”
“I know. Mr. Smith is doing all he can to get the doors open.”
“Get K-9 to help too.”
“Order received mistress.” The robot dog announced, powering up from his stand-by state at the mention of his name, and started interfacing with Mr. Smith.
“Mum…” Luke began hesitantly.
“What is it, honey?” Sarah Jane asked in real worry. Her son wouldn’t sound so apprehensive for nothing.
“Clyde and Rani are inside.” Sarah Jane nearly dropped the phone.
“What are they doing in there--they should be with you!”
“They said they wanted to help. I couldn’t convince them to stay,” Luke started in apologetically.
“We'll get them out, I promise. You stay there and monitor through Mr. Smith--keep working on the codes.”
“Alright.” Luke replied and pulled up the CCTV footage of Ianto, Gwen, Mackenzie and Mickey heading to the main entrance. He hadn’t warned the group of the new situation development yet. With a few keystrokes, the young boy genius patched through to the main internal comms, that way he could talk directly to Ianto. He grabbed a headset and put it on. “Mr. Jones?” he called out and watched as a grainy black-and-white Ianto automatically lift a hand to his right ear. “This is Luke Smith. I've got some bad news.”
---
Ianto let out a heavy sigh and let his hand drop from the comm in his ear, eyes moving to his companions who were waiting anxiously.
“They've started something called protocol 18. Every entrance, exit, and access point is sealed shut, and in less than 8 minutes, the whole complex will self-destruct.”
“Oh my God!” Mackenzie exclaimed, eyes widened in terror. “What we’re going to do!?”
“We need to find Martha!” Mickey answered, starting to move to the emergency stairs. They weren't dying in this rat maze if he could help it.
Ianto's gaze fell over the group before he tilted his head down. Hands on his hips. Gwen watched him, watched his posture, saw the second he finished whatever he was deliberating with himself about before making a decision and returning his gaze to meet everyone else's. Years of working with Ianto provided her with intimate knowledge of his little body language quirks. Every time he had an internal debate with himself, she could see him withdraw, inward, until he reached whatever conclusion he reached, and then she'd see a spark in his eyes, his head would tilt in a certain way. If he'd been wearing a suit this day, she knew she'd have seen him tug at the bottom of his waistcoat and tweak his cuffs. As it was, she saw his finger flinch, just for a second, reaching for a waistcoat that wasn't there. She saw the steely reserve in his eyes; a look of serenity washed over his face.
“Luke said she and Jack are already heading to the main entrance. You’ll meet them there, and get those doors open. Use the sonic lipstick if you need to.” Mickey and Mackenzie nodded, already heading down the corridor.
“Wait!” Gwen called out making them stop. She stood her ground facing Ianto. “You said 'you', not 'we'. What about you, Ianto?”
“I’m going back to the cells to get Waters and those two soldiers out.” He explained simply and turned back to the stairs.
“Are you crazy? This place is going to explode in a couple of tics!” Gwen yelled, and that told Ianto just how exasperated and scared she was.
“That’s exactly why I’m going back. Waters is the General’s right hand man, right? She may know how to make this whole thing stop.”
Gwen met Ianto’s eyes again, saw all the determination in them, and knew it was a lost fight. He was a stubborn man, no doubt; how else he would have managed to survive Torchwood, Jack--hell, death!--for this long? She stepped up to him, held his face between her hands, staring straight into his eyes.
“If you die again, I swear I’ll kill you, Ianto Jones,” she said in a weak voice, tears running down her cheeks. Ianto smiled and pressed a sweet kiss on her forehead.
“I promise,” he said, before running to the emergency stairs. Gwen quickly dried her eyes and turned to Mickey and Mackenzie.
“Let’s go.”
Gwen led the way to the lobby, following the cacophony of desperate screams and cries. She looked at all those people trying to push and break the reinforced and sealed glass doors (flashes of just what horrors had been at Thames House on That Day) and wondered what kind of person would set a building to explode with so many innocent people inside, condemning all of them to death? Well, not on her watch.
Along with Mickey and Mackenzie, Gwen forced her way to the front of the door, where they would have a better chance to do something. Once they were there, Mackenzie handed Mickey the sonic lipstick to open the doors with, but no matter how many different frequencies he tried, it wouldn’t work.
“What now?” he asked, turning to the two women.
“I guess it’s now up to Luke and Ianto.”
---
Jack, Martha and Alonso ran down the emergency stairs as fast as they could, heading to the main entrance of the building. Dr. Sanders was coming along of his own volition, desperate to get out and get away from the General. Sam, however, wasn’t that keen. Jack had to almost drag her along with them; letting her perish in an explosion was a kindness he wasn't willing to extend. They entered the lobby and were immediately greeted by the sounds of people screaming and begging to the UNIT officers outside to open the doors. Jack could feel the despair, the panic, felt memory of the acrid taste of poisonous gas on his lips and in his lungs. He opened his Vortex Manipulator’s cover and started working on the controls, trying to get into the building system, but something was blocking his attempts.
“It’s not going to work,” Sam commented smugly. “I made sure to block all, and I mean ALL, outside frequencies, because I knew you’d be making an appearance.” Jack turned to her, with a glare, before turning his focus to Martha.
“Find Mickey and the others,” he instructed. Martha pushed her way between the masses of people in front of them. “Sanders,” he turned to the doctor, “how much do you know about this protocol 18?”
“Just the basics. A select few were informed of it so if the protocol was ever initiated we’d gather the crucial equipment, and they'd lead each floor to the exits as quickly as possible, but that’s it.”
Jack turned back to Sam with a deadly glare, and the woman glared back just as hard, just as deadly. She wasn’t about to give up the information, and he didn’t have the time to use his old methods to get it out of her. He was out of alternatives. Martha came back to them, followed by Gwen, Mickey, Mackenzie, Clyde and Rani. They looked as anxious and worried and defeated as Jack felt, and he was tired of feeling helpless.
“Luke," Jack spoke into his Vortex Manipulator, "how long do we have?”
“About 5 minutes,” came the tinny reply. Jack may not be able to hack into the edifice’s system, but he could still communicate with Sarah Jane’s brilliant son.
“Mr. Smith and K-9 are doing the best they can, but there are just too many layers to work through, too much security protocol. They need an entrance code to work faster.”
Jack turned to Sam, but his ex-partner just clamped her mouth shut. He tilted toward Sanders.
“Who else would have this entrance code--Luke needs it.”
“Besides the General...the Head of Security and Miss Waters.”
“Okay, assuming that the Head of Security was the one who initiated the process, he’s long gone by now, so all we have left is Waters. Where the hell is she?”
“Back in the cells,” Mickey provided helpfully. “Ianto went back to get her.”
Jack tried as hard as he could not to react at those words. He couldn't afford to let himself think about Ianto in That Way right now, he couldn't. There was too much to do, there were people to save and corporations to take down, and the Universe wouldn't take Ianto away before Jack had a chance to see him, right?
“He’s already down the cells,” Luke provided helpfully.
“How did he manage to take all those stairs so quickly?” Mackenzie asked with a frown of confusion.
“He didn’t,” the boy clarified slowly. “He jumped.”
“What!?” It was the collective reaction of everyone.
“He’s fine,” Luke quickly added, “just fine. In fact, he just logged into the system. I guess he convinced Waters to help; she’s overwriting all the security protocols for Mr. Smith.”
There was a long pause in the conversation as they listened to the clacking of Luke typing in a fast pace, probably working on the codes along with Ianto and Mr. Smith. Jack glanced at his watch: less than 4 minutes, but there was a little hope yet.
“Yes!” Luke exclaimed happily. “Doors are open!” he informed just as the glass doors slid open allowing people passage and a collective cheer shook the building.
There was pushing and shoving, everyone wanted to get out at the same time, Jack felt himself having to move along so not the get trampled. He looked around, to check on the others, make sure they were okay; at the same time he tried to go back, he needed to make sure Ianto was getting out too, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing him again.
Before Jack knew it, he was outside, being dragged by one of the UNIT soldiers to safety. He struggled against the grip, identifying himself as Torchwood 3 Director and telling to him to get his hands off him. The younger man immediately complied.
He looked around, saw Sarah Jane clutching both Rani and Clyde in a bear hug, and let out a sigh of relief. The two teenagers were safe. He caught sign of Gwen, Martha and Mickey helping UNIT to coordinate at the exits, getting people out of the danger zone. Alonso was helpfully shoving both Sam and a very willing Dr. Sanders to a waiting van ready to take them both to UNIT HQ for interrogation. Everyone seemed to be safe, and the flow of people was starting to finally become manageable. Still no sign of Ianto, though.
Without a second of hesitation, Jack headed back towards the building. Somewhere along the way, he heard Gwen yelling, asking him what he was doing, but he ignored her. He was getting Ianto, and nothing would stop him. He entered the lobby, skillfully dodging people; he could almost see the bright red door that would take him to the emergency stairs when another flash of red caught his eye, making him pause. It was a much lighter red, the color of human hair. A ginger head, a very familiar one: Mackenzie.
Jack rushed towards where the girl was curled up in a ball. He could see bruises starting to form on her pale skin. She much have fallen and been kicked and trampled over, but managed to get out of the way, probably the only reason she was still alive. He reached towards her, gently touching her shoulder and watched as she flinched frightened.
“It’s alright, Mac. It’s Jack,” he spoke in a soothing voice, and watched as she slowly lifted her head, wincing slightly at the movement. He glanced at his watch: 1 minute and 22 seconds left. “Come on,” he gathered her up in his arms, “I’m getting you out of here.” He could feel the seconds ticking by as he ran, rather awkwardly but still semi-heroically, out of the building.
He managed to push through the line of stands made by the UNIT soldiers when the McLeod Enterprise’s building exploded behind him, making the ground shake and the air heat up. The first time he witnessed an explosion up close all he could think about was how he didn't notice the sound so much as the heat--a great and sweeping blast of heat so forceful and dense, it felt like a wall....or a wave washing over him and pushing him down. And then came the roar of sound, the flames and the echoes of explosives and building derbis and crumbling walls. Smoke billowed from the charred skeleton of what remained standing, thick, black, and oily. It almost made him choke before he felt someone hoist him up and shove him up and over the rise of a hill to safety.
Every time after that, whenever he was in a similar situation, he always flashed back to that first experience. Each time was different, but the wall of heat was always relentless.
He nearly pitched forward with the force of the blast, but Alonso and Mickey both grabbed for him and extracted Mackenzie out of Jack’s grip. Slowly, Jack turned around to watch the edifice burn. He was completely numb and deaf to the blaring car alarms and the screams of panic filling the air.
Jack fell to his knees.
xxx
Chapter 29