Fic: Sitting On The Edge
Title: Sitting On The Edge
Characters: Jack/Ianto. Mentions of Owen, Tosh, Gwen and PC Andy
Spoilers: Exit Wounds
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Torchwood isn’t mine unfortunately. It belongs to RTD and the lovely people at the BBC.
Note: For horizonssing's Day Seven Prompt - Till I'm wheezing like a bus stop, Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop
Date Written: 07.07.2008
~*~
Ianto ran up the stairs as fast as he could, panting heavily. He’d been all over the city looking for Jack after the older man had just disappeared in the early afternoon. Ianto didn’t like leaving Jack on his own, not since Tosh and Owen. Jack would become quite and withdrawn. He would just stare into space, nothing like his usual animated self.
Ianto took a deep breath and used the handrail to pull him up the last few flights. He wasn’t normally this unfit but he had had to run round town to Jacks’ favourite haunts since Gwen had the SUV, his car was in for a service and what with the sudden heat wave Ianto was just about ready to collapse. A few minutes ago Ianto had received a call from a slightly anxious PC Andy. Apparently the police had received a call about a possible jumper on a building that had been affected by the blasts that had shocked the city. Andy had then phoned Ianto after realising it was the Captain of Torchwood.
If Jack hasn’t jumped, I’ll bloody push him off for scaring me so much, Ianto thought as he pushed open the door. It flew back and hit the wall in the wind. Ianto swallowed, he really wasn’t one for heights. He looked around for Jack and spotted him sitting at the edge of the roof, feet dangling over the side. Ianto made his way across the roof slowly, he could just make out the hairline cracks in the concrete, and it had been the same story in the stairwell.
“Jack,” Ianto called hesitantly. Jack made no move to show he had heard him. Ianto could see the tension in the older mans shoulders. Jack’s coat was on the ground next to him, the heat was too much for the Captain to wear a thick woolen coat. Ianto was soon standing next to Jack who had still not looked at him. Ianto took a deep breath before sitting down beside Jack carefully
Once Ianto was sure that he wasn’t going to topple off the building anytime soon he turned and studied Jacks’ face. His eyes were dark and staring off into the distance. Ianto laid a hand on Jack’s thigh and waited.
“I couldn’t stay in the Hub,” Jack said quietly, “Everywhere I looked I could see Tosh and Owen.”
“I know,” Ianto replied, “But did you have to leave without telling me? Or Gwen even? We were worried sick.”
“Why?” Jack asked genuinely confused. He finally turned and looked at Ianto.
“Why?! Because we care about you and with it just being the three of us, we’ve got to stick together,” Ianto closed his eyes, “And we thought you’d left to be with your Doctor again.”
Ianto opened his eyes when he felt Jack take his hand in his. “I wouldn’t do that to you, to both of you. I came back and I’m not going to leave here for a long time.”
He looked at Jack who was smiling for the first time in weeks, not the mega watt Harkness grin but a small genuine smile. “I needed to go before, to get answers. But now I’m needed here.” Jack wrapped an arm around Ianto’s shoulders, pulling him closer. Ianto leaned against him, breathing in the scent of Jack’s sweat and the smell that was uniquely Jack.
Together they looked out at the city that they both swore to protect. Under the summer sun they watched as people got on with their lives, pulling together and working together to rebuild their broken city. That was when Ianto knew that they would be all right; Jack and him, Torchwood Three, Cardiff. They would all be fine. Eventually.