Born This Way - Chapter 4
Title: Born This Way 4
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, John, Gray, Owen, Toshiko/Tommy, Suzie, OCs
Rating: NC-17
Warnings/Contains: Supernatural themes, character death, drug references, dub-con.
Summary: Sequel to Choices - Ianto Jones was born and raised in Hell, but he isn’t feeling as demonic as usual lately-thanks to Jack Harkness. But you can’t desert Hell without consequences and suddenly Ianto’s and Jack’s happily ever after may not be so happy.
4
*~*
The Devil Inside
*~*
Jack
That demon at Giovanni’s yesterday scared the crap out of me. Nightmares about the ground opening up and swallowing Ianto in some gruesome demonic earthquake kept waking me. I kept getting up and going to the window to be sure the Shelby was still there. When he pulled out this morning, I felt sick. I thought about telling Gray to go with him.
I always expected Hell would keep coming after me, but I never thought about Ianto-that they’d want him back too.
Bile churns in my tight stomach as I drive, too fast, to get to him. Maybe John should come back. I think we both need a guardian angel.
“I’ve been thinking.” Gray slouches in my passenger seat with his eyes closed. The wind from the open convertible causes his hair to dance and shimmer around his face, making him seem even more angelic.
“What about?”
When he opens his eyes to look at me, they’re bright with hope. “Maybe I should try being visible.”
“You mean at the house? Could you, like, meet Mum and Dad?” My heart nearly leaps out of my chest as I shoot him a glance.
He shakes his head slowly as a forlorn smile settles over his face. “It’s forbidden. I’m not allowed to show myself to any of my family-or anyone who would know me, really.”
“But could you have a life, sort of? I mean, like…I don’t know…make friends and stuff?” I notice my white knuckles as I clutch the steering wheel and try to relax.
I glance over again as he shifts uncomfortably in his seat. He looks about to say no, but then he turns back to me, a storm in his eyes. The hope is still there, but clouded with doubt-and sadness. “I don’t know.”
“So, why do you want to be visible?”
“I just think it would be easier for me to protect you. I don’t like that there’s this crazy demon tailing your boyfriend.”
An icy finger races up my spine as the image from my nightmare creeps back into my consciousness. I breathe a heavy sigh and shake it off. “Well, it’d be easier on me if I knew when you were around.”
I catch myself fidgeting in my seat and make myself stop. He doesn’t need to know how uneasy it makes me to always be watched. He’s just doing his job, and I’m so glad to have him back. I don’t want him to feel bad about the circumstances.
He shrugs. “I also think I should get to know some of the people in Ianto’s building.” He gestures to it with a tip of his head as we round the corner into the parking lot.
“Like…Elle,” I say, pointing to where she’s just appeared at the door, carrying a large trash bag.
Gray’s head spins, as if spring loaded, in the direction of Ianto’s building. “Um…,” he says, just before he vanishes.
I’m still laughing as I pull into a spot near the door and turn off the engine.
“Hey, Jack.” Elle walks past my car and flings the rubbish bag into the big dumpster.
“Hey.”
She steps up to the driver’s door. “I saw Ianto pull out a while ago.”
“Oh.” I glance around the lot. “Wonder where he went.” She shrugs. “Didn’t ask. But come in,” she says with a wave of his hand toward the building. “You can wait for him in my apartment.”
“I’m really on my way to work,” I say, tugging at my Giovanni’s T-shirt.
Her long, dark hair spills across her face as she lowers her head. “Oh…okay.”
I instantly feel bad, realising that this poor person knows nobody. She’s probably lonely. “But I can wait for a little while, I guess,” I say as I climb out of the car.
Elle’s eyes light up as she pushes strands of hair off her face with the heel of her hand. She reaches up and touches the crucifix that’s come out from under my shirt.
“That’s a cool piece. Kinda Goth. Where’d you get it?” I pull it up by the chain so she can get a better look.
“Ianto.”
She cracks a smile. “I was thinking your grandmother or something. That’s…um…romantic?”
I laugh. “Not so much. It’s kinda a thing for us.”
We head up to her apartment together, and I swear it looks like a bomb went off-a combination of being only half-unpacked and the lack of places to put anything. There’s a beat-up green couch in the corner with papers and clothing-mostly sweatshirts and warm-up pants in various shades of gray-strewn across it. The only other piece of furniture is a barstool next to the short kitchen counter. No bed. She must sleep on the couch.
“Want something to drink?” she says, opening the ancient white refrigerator in the tiny kitchen. “I’ve got…uh…” She closes the fridge and points to the sink, looking a little embarrassed. “Water.”
I shake my head as I take a seat on the empty end of the couch. “No thanks. I’m good.”
She shuffles over and joins me, shifting the papers to the peeling linoleum floor. She curls up, lifting her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. “Sorry the place is such a dump. I’m kinda living out of boxes.”
I look around. It really is a mess. “Do you want some help organising?”
“Nah…thanks. I really don’t have that much stuff.” She looks more embarrassed, pulling her knees closer and studying her peeling green nail polish. “The truth is, I just don’t have anywhere to put it except back in the boxes.”
“My mum has an old dresser in the garage, if you want it.”
She answers too quickly. “No…”
“Really. You should take it. It’s just sitting there, collecting dust and taking up space. Mum will be happy to be rid of it.”
She tears her eyes away from her fingernails and looks at me. “Well…if you’re sure you don’t need it…”
“I’m sure. We can load it in your wagon and bring it over.” I give her my best reassuring smile.
She gives a small smile back. “Thanks.”
“And since you’ll have somewhere to put some clothes…,” I say, fingering the gray pullover on the arm of the couch next to me, “maybe you can expand your wardrobe a little?”
“What’s wrong with my wardrobe?” she says, and I realise from the pinch of her face and her defensive tone that I’ve offended her.
“Sorry. Nothing, really. But aren’t you gonna want something more… you know for school?”
She looks self-conscious, her eyes dropping to the floor, and I suddenly realise that money is the issue. “I’m good.”
“There’re some really good sales going on right now.” I’d offer for her to come shopping in my sisters’ closets, but I’m sure that would offend her even more and most likely my sisters, too, and unfortunately, she’s not really their size. She’s much taller than them, and I can’t figure out whether she’s a little heavy or totally stacked. Hard to tell through the baggy clothes.
“I pretty much don’t give a crap what I wear,” she says, tugging at her pullover.
“Just a few T-shirts…maybe a pair of jeans?”
“Maybe…” She looks back up at me. “Well…yeah… okay…” A full smile blooms on her face. “Great. When?”
I tick off my work schedule in my head. “Next Thursday afternoon. I’ll see if my friends Owen and Tosh want to come.”
Her smile falters. “Oh…if you want to go with your friends-”
“You’ll love them, don’t worry. And it will be good for you to meet some other people. They’re both going to university here, too.”
She still looks uncertain, picking at his nail polish. “All right, I guess.”
“It’ll be great. We can get that dresser then too.”
The purr of the Shelby through the open window draws my attention, and I smile.
“Sounds like Ianto’s back,” she says, rising from the couch. I’m surprised she’d recognise the sound of the Shelby so easily.
I pull myself off of the couch and follow her to the window. “You’re good.” I watch Ianto slide out of the car, grabbing a couple of grocery bags off his passenger seat, and make his way to the building.
Her smile is suddenly big and genuine. “No. You are. I knew it was him because of your reaction.”
“Oh.” I ignore the warmth creeping into my cheeks.
“If you want to go…,” she starts.
“Why don’t you come over to Ianto’s? We can hang out.”
Her smile is still there. “Yeah, just what you guys need. A spectator.”
My cheeks get warmer. “Well…” I trail off, wondering why I care what this stranger thinks about what Ianto and I do.
“Go,” she says, tipping her head toward the door. “It’s okay.”
“Alright. But I’ll come by at noon on Thursday, and we’ll go get that dresser.”
Her hair falls across her face as she walks with me to the door. “Okay.”
*~*
Gray
Jack steps out into the hall just as Ianto reaches his door, and I realise I’m still hovering next to Elle, where she stands in her doorway.
“Hey, Ianto,” she says with a wave. As she steps back to close the door, I’m desperate for her not to. When the door closes, she’ll be gone.
Before I realise I’ve even done it, I’m down the hall, kicking the bottom out of one of the grocery bags dangling from Ianto’s hand. An instant later, groceries are strewn across the hall, tomatoes and oranges rolling in every direction.
Elle steps back into the hall and scoops an orange and two tomatoes up on her way to where Ianto is glaring at nothing in particular.
“Jesus,” Jack says in surprise, stooping to pick up an onion. “Um…,” he adds as he lifts a dripping carton of eggs by one corner.
Elle hands Ianto the produce she’s collected. “Weird. It’s like there was a bomb in that bag.”
“Thanks.” Ianto’s eyes shift around the hall as he takes it from her.
Elle picks up a bag of lettuce and hands it to Jack. “Thanks, Elle. We got it.”
“No problem,” Elle says, turning back toward her door. I can’t help following her up the hall, and when she closes it, something inside me squeezes into a tight knot. I lift my hands and lay them flat on the door, fighting to keep from pushing through. Finally, when I’m mostly under control, I turn back to Ianto’s and find the hall empty.
I slide through the wall into the demon’s apartment, where Jack is putting groceries away as Ianto tosses the oozing egg carton into the trash.
He sees me and fixes a glare on me. “What was that?”
I shrug, hoping I don’t look as guilty as I feel. “What?”
“The exploding grocery bag trick.”
I hold up my hands in feigned innocence because I can’t open my mouth to deny it.
He shakes his head, his mouth pulling into a tight smile as he sorts through the remaining groceries.
“Gray was telling me on the way over that he wants to try being visible when he’s here,” Jack says, closing the fridge.
The demon’s eyes lift to mine. “Why?”
I ease over to the table and settle into a chair. “I want to get a feel for the people in your building.”
“I don’t even have a feel for the people in my building,” the demon says.
“What about that girl? Elle?” Lightning crackles under my skin, and I hope it doesn’t show on my face.
“What about her?” There’s a sharp edge to his voice. I look closer, trying to read his eyes. Finally, I shrug.
“Nothing, really.”
Jack leans his hip into the table next to me and looks hopefully at Ianto.
“I don’t know…,” he starts, but then he catches Jack’s expression and his face softens. “I suppose it might be easier if you were visible. At least then we’d know for sure when you were around,” he says, echoing Jack.
I smile, relieved, and swing my feet up onto the table. I tip the chair onto its back legs. “I think-”
Jack’s on me in a flash, shoving my feet off the table and sending my chair crashing back on all four legs. “For Christ’s sake, Gray! You might not have to eat, but we do. Feet off the table.”
“Sorry,” I say, straightening in my chair. “So, I think we should start with people here. I can meet them and we’ll see how it goes.”
The demon’s head snaps up, and something flares in his eyes. “Elle?”
“I guess. And anyone else you know,” I say, knowing there’s no one else.
Jack sits in the chair across from me and glances at him. “What do you think?”
His eyes narrow. “I suppose.”
“Great. So next time Elle’s here, we’ll just pretend that I’m hanging out. You know…to see how it goes.”
Jack beams at me as he pushes off the table. “This is gonna be great!”
I catch myself praying he’s right as he gives the demon a kiss on the lips and heads to the door.
“Gotta get to work. You’ll pick me up for gig at the Williams’ tonight’?” he says.
Ianto smiles as he walks with him. “Like to see you try to stop me.”