Torchwood-fic: Collateral (6/11)
Title: Collateral
Author: Silver (silver@glasscases.net)
Website: http://silver.glasscases.net
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/OMC
Rating: FRAO (adult only) for graphic descriptions of sex
Word count: ~ 70,000
Disclaimer: The characters were created by Russell T. Davies. No profits are being made from this story.
Summary: After returning from his travels with the Doctor, Jack discovers that not all things are the way he left them. Used to having no problems with change, he finds that this time it's not so easy to change things back in his favor.
Notes: See Part 1 for detailed notes. Thanks to fairyd123 for her lightning speed beta and to my best bud kribban for simply everything.
Protip: You can subscribe to the tag "Collateral" to get notified when I update.
Crossposted to torch_wood ( here), torchwoodslash ( here), torchwood_fic ( here) and jackxianto ( here).
Previous parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Another note: As I'm not completely content with the next chapter, I'm going to take an extra day to edit. To make up for it, this chapter is extra long.
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Jack felt murderous when he stomped back into his office. He plopped into his chair, the handkerchief still pressed against the cut. "Out!" he hollered when Gwen appeared at the door. Much to his chagrin, she ignored him and came in anyhow.
"Let me guess: Jay Telford?" she said calmly as she stood in front of his desk, arms crossed above her chest.
"Gee, with skills of deduction such as yours you should consider a career in law enforcement, or something," Jack snapped back sarcastically. When she continued to look at him expectantly, he ground out an annoyed, "Yes!"
"I trust he's at least as bruised."
"Theoretically, I started it," Jack admitted reluctantly.
"And practically?"
"Practically, I was provoked. I think he was only waiting for me to do something so he could sock me in the face."
"Like anyone needs an excuse for that," Owen chimed in, having appeared at the door as well. He held up a piece of paper. "And that would be my preliminary autopsy report. And by preliminary I mean I took a quick glance at the body to exclude anything urgent and then did an half-arsed job so I can go home." He tossed the paper on Jack's desk. "I know now why your Weevil was so ragingly mad. Looks like the other two we captured were her children. Guess they were separated when they came through the Rift."
Jack looked at the report and felt a twinge of guilt. "Will the two children be able to survive without their mother?"
Owen shrugged. "Guess we'll find that out soon enough." He looked curiously at Jack's blood-stained handkerchief. "I thought I'd told you that beating up Ianto's boyfriend was a bad idea."
"Jack beat up Jay?" Tosh asked as she pushed past her other two team mates.
"What is this, a surprise party?" Jack exclaimed testily. "Can't a man be miserable and get drunk in the privacy of his own office?" To accentuate his complaint, he grabbed the bottle of bourbon and put it down on the desktop with a reverberating clunk.
Looking just the slightest bit thrown off, Tosh held up a stack of print-outs. "I have the current weather reports here. I thought you might want to take a look at them to make sure we can call off the alert."
"Oh fine, give them to me," Jack sighed and held out his hand. He leafed through the stack listlessly, looking at the relevant columns. "Looks like the storm's center passed us by just a hair's breadth. It made landfall further up north in Shropshire. That's good then. Means we don't have to worry about any more disturbances to the Rift tonight." He turned the page. "The windstorm caused significant damage, too. Most affected was…" He hesitated.
"Jack?" Gwen asked when he didn't continue.
"Telford," he muttered, lowering the pages to the desk.
Owen groaned. "Can't you continue your personal vendetta once we're all safe and sound at home in the cozy comfort of our own beds?"
Jack looked at the doctor, a deep frown furrowing his brows. "No, that's where it wreaked the most havoc. In the city of Telford."
"Huh, that's an odd coincidence…" Gwen mumbled, frowning as well. "But the name isn't that unusual, Jack."
"If this job has taught me one thing, it's that there are no coincidences," Jack said grimly. "Tosh, find out the meteorological classification of this windstorm. Do it now!" He watched her zoom out of the room, his fingers tapping the surface of his desk impatiently. When she returned, she was pale. And?" he barked.
"It's J."
"Bastard!" Jack shouted and jumped to his feet, knocking the heavy chair back against the wall. "I fucking knew it!"
"Knew what? It could still be a coincidence!" Gwen insisted. "This is hardly enough to warrant any brash decisions."
"Brash?" Jack pulled out the results of his investigation and threw them on top of the reports. "Everything about this guy is fake! Right up to his name!"
"But how could he know a storm with that classification would be hitting Telford today?"
Jack threw her an unrelenting look. "For the same reason we know the invasion of Normandy was on the 6th of June."
Gwen's eyes widened. "So, are you saying that…"
"Exactly," Jack ground out. He started for the door, but Gwen intercepted him.
"What are you doing, Jack?"
"I'm not sure yet, but breaking every bone in that fucker's body sounds like a good idea right now."
"You can't do that." Her face was stern.
Jack stared at her in disbelief. "I can't? Well, watch me." He tried to push past her but she wouldn't budge.
"Jack, listen to me. If you just barge in like a raging bull and drag Jay out of there merely based on the fact that he happens to be named after a city that was hit by a storm tonight, you think Ianto is going to accept that?" When Jack hesitated, she continued. "I trust your instincts. I really do. But please let us find out more first before doing this, because after that, things won't be the same again for Ianto."
Grudgingly, Jack had to admit she was right. "Fine. Then find me more information! Go!" He knew he was shouting, but he found it impossible to stay calm now. He felt a warm trickle down his chin and rubbed the blood away impatiently with the back of his hand. "Oh Goddammit, someone get me something for this cut already!" he yelled as he stomped back to his chair.
"That would be my cue then," Owen said with a dutiful sigh. He left the office and returned a moment later, carrying a tray of medical supplies. "You know… it's a rare occurrence, having to dress your wounds," he said as he dabbed the blood away from Jack's mouth.
"What do you mean? Ouch!" Jack shrank away from the cotton swab the doctor had pressed against the cut. "What the hell is this?"
"Believe me, you don't want to know." He dropped the bloody gauze on the tray. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that so far you were always the last one to require medical attention."
Jack scowled at him. "If it makes your job easier I could put a bullet through my brain. Then my wounds would regenerate in no time."
"Actually, it would! But I don't think Ianto would appreciate having to mop your gunk off the floor. And that's not what I mean. Even without the wounds being mortal they should heal up faster than with most people, shouldn't they?"
Jack frowned. "What are you getting at?"
Owen shrugged. "Just wondering if you're really still immortal and all."
Chuckling softly, Jack sought the other man's eyes. "Why Owen! I didn't think you cared!" The chuckle turned into a laugh at the other man's glare. "Don't worry, everything's still the same."
"If you say so. I just don't want you to find out you're wrong when you're lying on my autopsy table." Owen put the tray on Jack's desk. "By the way, where were you hiding the rest of that booze?"
Jack leaned over in his chair to look past the other man. "What do you mean? That bourbon?"
"Yeah. It was pretty good. It's not so often that one gets the pleasure of drinking a 23 year old bourbon. I had hoped to find more of that somewhere in your stash after I'd finished the first one, but no such luck. So I assume you hid it well."
Jack frowned. "That was the only bottle I had…" His fingers clawed into the armrest when realization struck him. "Owen, was Telford ever down here in the Hub?" he asked quietly.
"Not that I know of." Owen scrunched up his face, considering the question. "Hold on, that one time, two or three weeks ago when we all hit the pub together and Gwen sprained her ankle. He insisted on taking her to the examination room…"
"Tosh! Gwen!" Jack hollered, causing the other man to flinch in surprise.
A moment later, both women appeared at the door.
"What is it?" Gwen asked, looking startled.
"When you sprained your ankle three weeks ago, did you notice anything unusual?"
Gwen blinked at him. "Uh, I don't know. It wasn't that big of a deal! The heel of my shoe broke and I tripped on the stairs. I probably would have hurt myself a lot more if Jay hadn't been right there to catch me from falling all the way down."
"How awfully opportune of him to be there," Jack said sarcastically. "What happened to them?"
""What?"
"The shoes. Did you throw them away?"
She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "No, of course not! I was going to take them to the cobbler to have the heel fixed. That was one of my favorite pairs!"
"So where are they?
"At my desk!"
"Go get them then!"
Jack waited impatiently for Gwen's return. As soon as she brought the shoes to his desk, he snatched them from her hands and inspected them. The heel of the left shoe was in a deplorable state, splintered and twisted to the side. Jack bent it back into place and frowned. It looked like a whole chunk was missing from the base. He squinted to look at it more closely. Something metallic shone inside of the damaged material.
Grabbing the pincers off Owen's tray, Jack pulled the tiny metal spike out of the splintered heel. He inspected it under the magnifying glass and swore under his breath. "A matter consumption device."
At his team's stumped expression, he explained, "It's like a miniature detonator, only it doesn't cause an explosion but instead consumes the matter around it. It's soundless and odorless. Perfect for picking locks without anybody noticing. We used those in the Time Agency all the time."
"And what would that be doing in my heel?" Gwen asked.
"I'm willing to bet that Telford put it there to destabilize your heel just enough for you to trip," Jack growled. He turned to Tosh. "Get me the CCTV footage for that day and time."
"I'm on it!" She scurried off to her workstation to fulfill the request. When Jack switched on his monitor, the first thumbnails had already appeared on it. He scrolled through them while the rest of his team positioned themselves behind him to watch.
"Here," Owen said, pointing at one of the thumbnails. "That's right after we entered the Hub. Jay's putting Gwen down on the examination table. After that he stood around with Ianto until we were all ready to leave again."
"And he was never alone?" Jack asked skeptically as he fast-forwarded through the footage that showed everyone hanging around the examination room while Owen treated Gwen's ankle.
"Actually…" Owen replied reluctantly. "I sent him and Ianto to grab ice from the fridge in the tea-kitchen once. But they were both together, not gone for long and had the requested ice, so I didn't think much about it."
"Well, let's check it out then." Jack brought up the recording of the section in question. It showed Ianto and Jay walking past the workstations towards the stairs. Jay's shoulder bag brushed past a stack of paper seemingly accidentally, causing it to slide down and the paper to scatter all over the floors.
Both men argued about it for a short moment until Jay pushed Ianto gently towards the stairs while he bent to pick up the mess he'd made. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Ianto to disappear from sight before Telford dropped what he'd be holding and hurried towards Jack's office.
"I knew it," Jack growled as he changed over to the CCTV footage of the office.
Telford didn't waste a lot of time. He went straight for the bottom drawer of the desk and pulled it open. Then he produced a bottle from his shoulder bag and dropped it into the drawer. His head jerked up, apparently alerted by Ianto's return, so he slammed the drawer shut again and rushed towards the door. As he whirled around, his sleeve got caught in the lamp and it slipped off the desk, but he caught it neatly before it even touched the ground.
"Cripes! Did you see that?" Gwen gasped. "I could hardly see his hands, so fast were they!"
On the video, Jay managed to slip out of the office and grab the stack of papers he'd abandoned just in time for Ianto to come around the corner, holding a tray of ice cubes. They exchanged a few words and kissed before disappearing out of the picture.
"The bastard dosed you!" Owen exclaimed, picking up the bottle. "I'm going to run a test on the content right away to find out what it was." He turned to leave but Jack held him back with a hand on his elbow.
"Leave it."
"But Jack!" Owen protested. "We need to find out what it was he put in there to make sure it's nothing dangerous."
"So what," Jack said with a careless shrug. "What if it's poison? Are you afraid I could die from it? There are more pressing matters at hand." He got up with a determined expression. "Gwen, would you agree that we now have enough evidence to warrant an arrest?" He cast her a cool glance.
She nodded. "Yes, Jack. I would say so." It pleased him to see that she looked just as determined as him. "What shall we do?"
Jack hesitated as guilty memories of the Lisa situation assaulted him. For a moment he wondered if Ianto was ever going to forgive him after this. To his dismay, he suddenly felt paralyzed.
Gwen must have sensed his distress. Her features softened and she put a gentle hand on his arm. "First of all we need to get Ianto out of there. Who knows what Jay will do when he realizes we're onto him."
Shooting her a grateful look, Jack turned to Tosh. "Gwen is right. Trace Ianto's earpiece to find out where he is. I've got good reason to believe he's with Telford right now." To Gwen and Owen he said, "Once we've got Ianto somewhere safe, we'll just go in and grab Telford. By force, if need be."
He grabbed his coat and pulled it on. Then he took out his gun and checked it. When he noticed Gwen's worried look, he said with a grim smile, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to make sure he'll answer all my questions before I even consider granting him that mercy."
Jack left the office and went to Tosh's workstation where she was just about to complete the trace.
"Ianto's definitely not at his apartment," she said, tapping the monitor where a small green dot was pulsating on a map.
"Does anyone have any idea where Telford lives?" Jack asked, crossing his arms over his chest to keep himself from fidgeting nervously. He couldn't help but going through his conversation with Telford word for word, wondering if he had said anything that would have prompted the other man to make a desperate move. Fear balled up in the pit of his stomach.
"I do," Gwen said as she stepped next to him, wearing her jacket and ready to go. She leaned in to look at the map. "Yup, I think they're at his place."
"Then let's roll."
In the car, Jack realized that their plan was missing yet another component. "Okay, so how do we get Ianto out of there?" he asked as he raced the car down the glistening street. The sky was dipped in a dirty gray as the rising sun started poking through the slowly dispersing layer of clouds.
"Let me handle that," Owen said with an air of lofty confidence. "I know the very thing that'll shoo him out of his hole in no time." When they turned into the street where Telford lived, he pulled out his mobile and pressed the speed dial for Ianto, lifting one finger to command everyone's attention as if he was about to give a remarkable performance.
"Ianto? Yes, yes… I know you barely got home. Sorry about that, mate. Listen, there's been a bit of an emergency. Looks like the storm caused the sewers to back up and now the water of the Bay was pushed into the basement. Yeah, I'm afraid the archive is affected, too… What? Uh, I don't know. I just sorta piled it all in one corner. It's just one big soggy ball of mush anyway. What do you mean I should have minded the categories? … Oh, okay. I guess you need to come in and do it yourself then because I really can't be bothered to deal with this. Okay. Bye."
Owen snapped the phone shut and gave them a triumphant look. "I expect him to come out any moment now. Unless they were in the middle of having sex, or something, in which case I expect him to take little longer."
They waited in the car for about five minutes before a light was switched on and shone through the small window at the front door. "There he is," Jack said when he saw Ianto open the door. He was alone. Jack shot Owen a quick look. "You know what to do."
The other man nodded as he got out of the car as well.
"What's going to happen?" Gwen whispered behind Jack, but he didn't reply. He signaled for her to stay behind as he grimly strode towards Ianto who was searching for something in his messenger bag. He looked up, startled, when he felt someone approach.
"Jack!" Ianto gasped when he saw him. "What are you doing here?" He frowned. "Is something wrong? I just got off the phone with Owen…"
Without answering, Jack stepped closer to the other man and put both hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Ianto," he said softly.
Before Ianto even had a chance to reply, Owen appeared behind him and injected him right in the neck. The look of stunned disbelief Ianto gave him before he slumped forward broke Jack's heart. He gently cradled the unconscious man against his chest.
"What did you do?" Gwen hissed as she rushed towards them.
"Torchwood protocol 49-10," Jack replied curtly, lifting Ianto into his arms. As he carried him over to the SUV, he heard Owen recite behind him, "When the unconditional cooperation of a team member cannot be guaranteed due to emotional involvement, the person in question must be removed from the operation as soon as possible."
Gently, Jack placed Ianto on the backseat, arranging him to make sure that he was sitting comfortably. "He'll be out just long enough for us to arrest Telford and take him to the Hub," he explained, sensing Gwen's presence behind him. "It's easier this way, for all of us."
"I understand, Jack," she said softly behind him and somehow it helped ease the heavy weight of guilt on his heart. He straightened himself out, casting one last look at the sleeping man before turning around.
"Right then," he said after a strengthening breath. "In we go."
They entered the building and took the two flights of stairs until they stood in front of Telford's apartment. Jack pulled his gun and the other two followed suit. After another nod to his team, Jack opened the door with the key he had retrieved from Ianto's bag and pushed it open.
The living room was empty. It was dark with the exception of the floor lamp casting a dim light on the tasteful modern couch and low glass table in front of a flatscreen television. Jack gestured Owen and Gwen to follow him. He slowly walked across the paneled floor, intent on avoiding any sound.
The kitchenette bordering the living room was dark, just the clock of the microwave blinking green. A small corridor led away from the main area. It had two opposing doors on each side and one at the end of it. Just as Jack had started struggling with the decision which door to go for, one of them opened and Telford stepped out.
He saw them immediately and tensed for a moment before relaxing and turning towards them with a sly grin. "Oh my, you should have told me you were coming. I would have made a cake."
Jack raised his weapon and said, "Hands in the air and don't make a move, Telford. I know that's not your real name but I have to call you something."
The smile on the other man's face didn't falter as he raised his hands. "Guess that rules out a nice cup of coffee then."
"Step out into the living room!" Jack said, making sure to keep at a safe distance when Telford came closer. "Slowly. Now on your knees with your hands behind your head." To Gwen he said, "Be careful. You've seen how fast he can move."
Telford laughed softly as he kneeled down. "Don't worry, Harkness. I have no intention of letting you shoot me here in the middle of my living room. Blood stains are so difficult to get out. You should know."
Jack hesitated for a moment. He cast Gwen and Owen a quick look to make sure they had a good aim should Telford try anything. When he was sure that they had their guns trained on Telford, he put away his own and reached for the handcuffs. "I'm arresting you," Jack growled as he yanked the other man's hands down roughly. The cuffs closed around the wrists with a satisfying click.
"Now isn't that what you've always been longing to say?" Telford drawled mockingly.
It hadn't really been Jack's intention to play along with the taunts, but now he just couldn't stop himself. "Granted, the thought of that didn't keep me awake at night, but it does feel pretty good." He walked around the kneeling man to see his face.
"I was wondering when you'd show up," Telford said. "Didn't think it'd take you so long." His intense stare was only interrupted briefly when his eyes flitted to the side to look at Gwen and Owen. "Where's Ianto? Did you execute him for consorting with the enemy?"
Feeling the heat rise in his cheeks, Jack had to clench his teeth for a moment. "You're thinking a bit too much of yourself, Telford. You're not an enemy. For all I know you're nothing but a petty little troublemaker who got busted."
It gave Jack a tremendous feeling of satisfaction to see anger flare up in the other man's eyes.
"Guess you're not done with him yet then. Isn't that how you work, Harkness? First you fuck them and then they're fucked. It's just a matter of time," Telford replied, his usually so smooth voice having gained a certain edge.
For a moment, the rage that surged up inside of Jack seemed to overwhelm him. His hand shot forward and took Telford's throat in a viselike grip, lifting him off the ground a few inches. "Watch what you're saying, Telford," he growled softly. "I don't need a lot of reason to snap your neck right here and now."
A look of triumph lit up the other man's steely eyes as he drew a raspy breath and croaked, "Oh, but what would your team say if they saw the ruthless killer that you really are?"
"You know nothing about me," Jack ground out angrily, very close to Telford's face.
His reply was hardly a whisper. "I know more than you think, Agent 1712-K7."
Jack let go of the other man as if he'd been burned, taking a stunned step backwards. Telford collapsed on the floor and drew in a wheezing breath. When his shoulders started to shake, it took Jack a moment to realize that he was laughing.
"Is everything okay?" Gwen asked, staring at Telford with the same look of disgusted bewilderment that Jack felt. Nothing in her manner gave away whether or not she'd heard Telford's last line.
"Yeah," Jack replied, still feeling a little shaken. "Let's take him back to the Hub." He grabbed Telford roughly around the arm and dragged him to his feet. "Do a quick search of the place and take anything that might be suspicious."
"If you're looking for my gun, it's hidden under the floorboards at the bottom of my wardrobe," Telford called after Gwen who had moved to follow Jack's order. "But be careful not to set off any of the booby traps. The next-door neighbors have just finished redecorating."
Gwen stopped on her way to the bedroom and gave Jack an insecure look.
Jack cursed. "Just grab his jacket, mobile and wallet for now. We'll return later with the proper detection gear. No need to take stupid risks now. Let's move." With that he dragged Telford out of the apartment.
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When Jack entered the prison level, he immediately caught sight of Telford standing in his cell, a bored expression on his face and arms calmly crossed over his chest as if he was waiting for the bus. This air of indifference only served to increase Jack's dislike for the other man.
As soon as they had returned to the Hub, Jack had handed Telford over to Owen to take him to the vaults. Ianto had still been out cold, so Jack had taken it upon himself to carry him inside and lay him down on the sofa once it had been cleared of empty pizza boxes and magazines.
It had taken him a bit of effort to get Tosh off his case for drugging Ianto and have her agree to watch over him instead. Jack had trailed his hand once across Ianto's cheek, silently dreading the moment he'd wake up and demand answers. The urge to be able to provide them had prompted him to go see Telford as soon as he could instead of letting him stew for a while first.
Jack stepped up to the cell and looked at the other man coolly, taking the moment to size him up carefully. Telford returned his glance without any emotion. Jack wondered whether he should recognize him, whether their paths had crossed at some point, prompting him to do whatever his plans were. But as much as he tried he kept drawing up a blank.
"Did they send you?" he asked before he could stop himself.
Predictably, Telford reacted with a non-committal smile. "Now who would they be?"
"Stop playing around. You know exactly who I'm talking about!"
The smile stayed in place. "Maybe I do and I just want to hear you say it."
Jack stared at the other man, trying to find the slightest hint of what game he was playing. "Who are you?" he said instead.
Telford yawned ostentatiously. "Oh, I find it so tedious, standing here, answering all your questions. It's so one-sided."
"That's how it usually goes when you're the one inside the cell. Besides, I get the feeling our acquaintance started out somewhat one-sided to begin with. You seem to know a lot more about me than I know about you."
An expression of pride hushed across the other man's face. "I probably do."
"Then why not let me in on it? Where's the fun if you don't play along."
Telford raised his eyebrows at him mockingly. "Does anyone you try to interrogate ever fall for that, Harkness?"
"I know Telford isn't your real name."
"And Jack isn't yours."
"It's who I am now," Jack replied without a moment's hesitation. "Are you seriously telling me that 'Jay Telford' is who you are now? A well-adjusted insurance salesman with a designer couch who hangs around in coffee bars to get a date and who has to bother his boyfriend at work to coax a blowjob out of him?"
For a brief moment, anger distorted the other man's handsome features as he dropped his arms to his sides and stepped closer to the glass door. "The name is Varot. Jeroen Varot, and the fact that telling you this is useless because the name means nothing to you is a far greater source of frustration to me than your silly little taunts."
Jack's mind latched onto this new piece of information, but it really didn't ring a bell. He watched Telford, or Varot rather, as he had to remind himself, struggle to regain his cool exterior and turn his back to him. "Why did you come here?" Jack asked.
Varot didn't reply.
"What did you want from Ianto?"
The other man laughed softly and shook his head. "Ianto is not important at all."
"That's where you're wrong," Jack said softly, causing the other man to turn around again. "Should I find that anything you've done has caused him any kind of harm, you're not going to make it out of here alive."
The smile that appeared on Varot's face sent a chill down Jack's spine. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."
The beep on his earpiece saved Jack from needing to come up with a reply. He touched it. "Yes?"
"Jack," Tosh said. "Ianto's awake."
"I'll be right there." He cast Varot one last look. "Don't get too comfortable in your cell. I'll be back shortly and then I'm going to beat the answers out of you." Then he spun around on his heel and rushed back to the main area of the Hub.
He already heard Ianto's voice at the stairs. He sounded just as agitated as Jack had expected him to be. When he came around the corner, he saw Ianto standing in the center of the Hub, shaky on his legs and holding onto the handrail, while Tosh stood a little away from him, talking calmly. Owen and Gwen had wisely chosen not to be around.
"Ianto, at least sit down for a moment," Tosh pleaded softly.
"No! I want to know what's going on right now! Don't you think I know why you've drugged me?" Ianto turned around and spotted Jack. "You!" he exclaimed, taking an unsteady step forward, immediately faltering and sagging against the banister.
Jack was at his side in no time, reaching for his arm to hold him up, but Ianto yanked himself free from the grasp.
"Don't touch me!" he spat, looking at Jack with accusing eyes. "Where's Jay? You arrested him, right? You pulled a 49-10 on me, didn't you? Or maybe a 49-13. Either way, I want to know why."
"Yes," Jack replied calmly. "You're right. And you deserve the answers. But please be reasonable and sit down here for a moment and wait for the effects of the drug to wear off completely. I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself."
For a moment, Ianto looked as if he was going to resist Jack's gentle nudging towards the nearest seat, which happened to be Owen's workstation, but then he grudgingly complied and sank down on the chair heavily.
"Tosh, could you get Ianto a glass of water and an aspirin?" Jack asked her, not taking his eyes off the other man. He heard her mumble a quick reply and hurry off. "How are you feeling?" Jack asked gently.
"Like you care," Ianto replied angrily.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic! You know the protocols, I had no choice."
Ianto pressed his lips together, looking like a defiant boy for a moment. Then he said, "I know the protocols, but I don't know why you chose to evoke them." He took the glass from Tosh, thanking her softly. Then he downed the pill with a large sip of water. "So, tell me."
To buy himself some time, Jack walked around to the desk to lean against it casually. He knew that he had to tread carefully now. "We have pretty much confirmed that Jay isn't who he claims to be. He's operating under a fake name, something which he has in fact confirmed to me already. His real name is Jeroen Varot."
A small gasp from Tosh made Jack take his eyes off Ianto briefly. He gave her a nod of confirmation to run a search on that name. Then he continued, "We actually realized this when we looked through the weather reports and saw that his name was basically a composition of the meteorological classification of today's storm and where it hit."
Jack gave Ianto a moment to digest this. "This alone leads me to believe that he has at least some knowledge of the future. Why he put that sort of time limit on his own cover I don't know. My best guess is that he wanted us to discover him, strange as it sounds." Jack watched Ianto's face closely, but his expression remained impenetrable.
"You can't have based the arrest solely on that though," Ianto said, his voice blank. "This could be a coincidence… anything."
Jack nodded seriously. "Yes, we know that. Gwen pointed out the same thing. But there's more to it. As it turns out, he's been dosing me with something."
Ianto looked up, his eyes wide and confused. "Dosed you…" he whispered. "How…"
"He planned it carefully. He even fixed Gwen's heel with a small detonator to cause her to fall, just to get into the Hub. Look at this." Jack reached around to the computer and played the scene from the CCTV which Tosh had already sent to the workstation. Ianto watched it quietly, his expression turning more and more withdrawn as the images of Varot's deception flickered across the screen. When it was over, Jack gave him a moment to compose himself.
Owen appeared at the door to the autopsy room with perfect timing, holding up a computer printout whose jagged edge showed that it had been hastily torn from the printer. "I've got preliminary results from the analysis of the bourbon."
"Yes?" Jack looked at the doctor expectantly.
"Curb your enthusiasm. The results are crap because the computer couldn't match the substance with the database. I'll need to dig deeper. At any rate, it's of alien origin, but it's non-toxic. I'm guessing it's some kind of enzyme. We'll know more later."
Jack frowned. "Why would he want me to take that?"
Owen shrugged in response. "No idea. But he didn't want to poison you, that's for sure."
The frown on Jack's face deepened. "That doesn't make sense. Somehow nothing he does makes sense!" He groaned in frustration and turned around. The look on Ianto's face made his irritation dissipate immediately.
"Including dating me…" Ianto said in an empty voice, still looking at the monitor that was freeze-framed on Varot pulling the prepared bottle out of his bag. Slowly, he moved his eyes away from the sight and looked at Jack instead.
"I suppose I always knew," Ianto said softly. "You all knew. There was something strange about someone so handsome and sexy going for me…" The pain in his voice made Jack's throat tighten for a moment. "Why would anyone want me?"
"I wanted you," Jack said hoarsely, oblivious of the other people in the room. For a moment suspended in time, they were looking at each other. For just that moment, the expression of hurt on Ianto's face gave way to something else. Jack couldn't quite place it, so he focused all his attention on the other man who was about to speak.
But that never happened. Before Ianto got to formulate an answer, they were interrupted by Gwen bursting through the main door, holding a cardboard tray containing five cups of coffee. "What's going on? Why is Ianto up already?" she asked as she rushed towards them. Her eyes darted to the monitor and they widened when she saw what was featured on it. She threw Jack an accusing glance which he met defiantly.
"Ianto woke up and demanded answers," he said, fighting down an inexplicable feeling of disappointment.
"And you just gave them to him?" Gwen was clearly upset.
"He had a right to know," Jack ground out.
Gwen wasn't impressed by his scowl. "Knowing you, you probably didn't tread very carefully! You probably crushed poor Ianto!"
"I'm sitting right here, you know," Ianto pointed out. He sounded tired, his voice devoid of the playful tone that he usually would have adopted in a situation like this.
Gwen looked at him guiltily. "I know. I'm sorry, Ianto." She handed him one of the cups from the tray. "I thought maybe you could use a nice cup of coffee."
Reluctantly, Ianto took it from her, looking grief-stricken all of a sudden. Gwen noticed it and cast Jack a confused look as Ianto held the cup in his trembling hand without making any attempt to drink from it.
It took Jack a moment to catch on. "That's the same place Telford, I mean, Varot got his coffee from," he explained, gently plucking the cup from Ianto's numb fingers.
Gwen's face fell. "Oh shit… I'm really sorry, Ianto!" She quickly put the tray out of his sight. "I wasn't thinking," she said, bending towards Ianto and putting a compassionate hand on his shoulder, but he ignored her, just staring ahead.
"I want to talk to him," Ianto finally said after a seemingly endless stretch of silence.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Jack said carefully, inwardly screaming his refusal.
The look that Ianto gave him was full of determination and made Jack realize that he was fighting a losing battle. "I must see him," Ianto insisted.
"All right," Jack conceded reluctantly. "I'll take you downstairs then and…"
"No. I want to talk to him alone." Ianto met his glance firmly.
"There's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone with that guy," Jack exploded. He tried to stare down the other man angrily, but it seemed as if no matter what he threw at him, it was absorbed by Ianto's cool resolve.
"I must know," the other man said calmly.
Jack sighed in defeat. "Fine. But I'll be watching on the CCTV."
"Fair enough." Ianto got up, swaying softly on his feet as he did so.
Automatically, Jack reached out to support the other man. "Christ, at least wait until you're fully functional again."
"I'm fine!" Ianto insisted, brushing off his hands.
Jack threw Owen a look, pleading for assistance. The doctor reacted at once and approached Ianto, whipping out his penlight. "You're pupils are still dilated," he noted after flashing Ianto's eyes a couple of times. "Your body has taken quite a beating in the past 24 hours, Ianto. You really should give it a rest and come back tomorrow…"
"No," Ianto interrupted him firmly. "It was your choice to drug me, not mine. I'm not going to sit around just to ease your bad conscience. I want to see Jay now."
Owen shrugged at Jack with a grimace of 'I tried' and stepped aside to let Ianto pass.
"Take a gun with you," Jack insisted.
Ianto stopped and looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "I don't need a gun."
"Take it or you're not going. This one's not up for discussion. That man is dangerous." Jack thrust the shoulder holster at Ianto that he'd picked up from the desk.
"Fine!" Ianto agreed testily and snatched it out of Jack's hand, putting it on clumsily. Then he pushed past him.
Jack hurried to catch up with him. "His name isn't Jay. It's Jeroen Varot. Remember that. He's not the guy he made you believe he was over the past six months. You mustn't believe anything he tells you."
Ianto ignored him as he pressed forward. Before he got to open the door to the vault however, Jack managed to slip in front of him and block his entry. "Say you'll be careful." When Ianto persistently kept silent, avoiding his look, Jack put a gentle hand under the other man's chin and lifted it until their eyes met. "Don't let him break you," he said softly. "You're stronger than that. I know this hurts right now, but you'll pull through this like you always have. And I'll always be there for you."
"Is that a promise?" Ianto asked softly, his eyes glistening suspiciously.
Jack nodded slowly. Every fiber in his body was aching to lean down and brush a kiss against the other man's lips and make that look of heartbreak go away, but he held himself in check once more. He released Ianto quickly before the urge got too strong. "I'll be watching," he announced as he stepped aside. "Wait a minute or so until I'm at the monitors before you go inside."
Once Ianto nodded his consent, Jack patted his shoulder one more time before leaving him behind. As he climbed the stairs towards the Hub he couldn't help but feel an odd sense of foreboding. Every instinct he had told him that this was a bad idea and yet he knew that he owed Ianto this. He only wished his other debts were as easily settled.
Back at the Hub, Jack went straight for his office. His team filed in behind him as he punched the monitor on and reached for the alien sound device, tuning it in on the vault. Tosh appeared next to him, her eyes wide.
"Is that one of those bugs we scavenged from the cruiser that crashed near Barry a while back?"
"Yup." He fiddled with the setting a bit. On the monitor, Ianto could be seen, reluctantly waiting at the door to the cells. Judging by his behavior he wasn't still keeping his promise to Jack, but instead struggling to pluck up the courage to go inside. Finally, Ianto took a deep breath and walked through the door. Jack switched the camera angle.
"Didn't think I'd see you here," Varot said.
"Since when do we have sound in the vaults?" Owen asked.
"Since recently. Quiet now."
"Does Ianto know?" Gwen asked, sounding just as surprised as Owen.
"No," was Jack's curt reply. He wasn't about to waste time explaining his motives to his team. With an impatient flick of his wrist he cut off Gwen's moral outburst before it began. Fortunately, Ianto hadn't answered yet. He continued to lean against the heavy iron door, staring at Varot in his cell.
"I had to see you." Ianto said after a while.
"With a gun?" Varot replied, nodding in his direction.
Ianto looked down on himself. Then he pulled the gun out of the holster and put it on the table. Jack swore under his breath.
"I need answers."
Varot approached the glass door and put his palms against it. "I don't think you're going to like them." Jack noted how different his voice sounded now that he was talking to Ianto. The vicious twist was completely gone and he almost sounded like his former self again. In a way Jack was glad that Varot spared Ianto that pain, but it also made him wonder about ulterior motives. It was clear that deception was his strong point.
Reluctantly, Ianto drew closer. "Was everything a lie?" The tremble in Ianto's voice was barely noticeable, but Jack could tell how emotional the other man was right now.
Varot shrugged. "I'm afraid so."
For a moment, Ianto lost his carefully maintained control and dropped his face into his hands, letting out a strangled sob. Jack watched Varot's face closely, but the other man showed no reaction while Ianto's face was buried in his hands. Just as he was about to lift it again, a faint impression of compassion appeared on Varot's face, right in time for Ianto to see.
"But why?" Ianto asked softly. "Why the pretense? Why me?"
"It wasn't personal," Varot replied.
"You call spending nearly every day for the past six months with me not personal?"
Varot shrugged. "It was part of the job."
"What job?"
A placid expression washed across the other man's features. "You wouldn't understand if I told you." He turned his back to Ianto. "Besides, it doesn't matter anymore, does it. I'm not going to make it out of here alive. As soon as Harkness returns he'll eliminate me."
Ianto looked shocked. "What are you talking about? Jack would never do such a thing!"
In his office, Jack tensed, suddenly feeling guilty.
Ianto continued. "If it's true what they're saying, that you're from the future, they're going to try to figure out where you're from exactly and then contact UNIT to take you back there to face the proper authorities."
Varot turned back at him. "Is that so." He regarded Ianto thoughtfully for a long moment. "Well, guess I'm in for a long wait then," he said, the easy-going smile that seemed like such an integral part of him once more playing around his lips. "I only wish they had left me my smokes before they stuck me into this cell though." His eyes flickered over to the table next to Ianto. "I understand if you refuse, but I don't suppose you could hand me my cigarettes, could you?"
Following Varot's eyes, Ianto looked at the table where all of the other man's personal effects were spread out. "I don't think I should," he said reluctantly.
Jack turned in his seat and cast Owen a stern look. "Okay, why is his stuff there and not up here?"
"Uh, guess I forgot…" Owen replied meekly.
"Good thing you didn't forget to lock the cell door too then!"
Down in the cell, Ianto was still considering the pack of cigarettes indecisively.
"It's okay," Varot said, once again leaning against the glass door. "I know you've always hated me smoking. Guess you won't have that problem anymore."
That comment must have hit home as Ianto immediately looked guilty. He looked at the pack of cigarettes again, then picked it up. "I suppose one cigarette won't hurt."
Jack tightened his jaw at how effortlessly Varot had gotten Ianto to comply as he watched him open the package, take one cigarette out and push it through the hole in the door.
Varot accepted it with a brilliant smile and stuck it between his lips. "Thanks, baby. Got fire, too?"
Ianto had stiffened at the sound of the familiar endearment. He blindly reached for Varot's silver lighter on the table and handed it through the hole to the other man who, seemingly unfazed by Ianto's sudden coldness, lit his cigarette and blew circles into the air.
"Aaah… feeling so much better already." Varot closed his eyes and leaned against the wall of his cell. "Stupid habit, I know. There's a reason why it was banned in the 23rd century. But it's so good! Definitely one of the perks of this time."
Ianto eyed him curiously. "So it's true? That you're from the future?"
Varot didn't reply right away. Instead he finished smoking his cigarette slowly before flicking the butt to the floor and grinding into in the tiles with his shoe. "Of course it's true," he then said, letting the silver lighter dangle from his long fingers as he approached the door. "I arrived about two weeks before Harkness disappeared. I had barely finished my preliminary investigation and setting up a new identity by the time he was gone."
He tossed the lighter into the air and caught it. "In a way I was grateful for the extra time it afforded me. When I realized that I couldn't follow through with my original plan, I had to amend it based on the new information I had gathered."
"What was your original plan then," Ianto asked, sounding timid as if he didn't really want to know.
Varot bared his teeth in a chilly smile. "To kill him, of course." He laughed softly when Ianto gasped. "I still have a minor score to settle with him, you know. Too bad that his departure messed up my schedule just the tiniest bit. Good thing time can be so relative when you stop thinking of it in linear terms."
Casually, Varot stuck his hands in his pockets, his eyes lost in the distance. "But that's all right. I knew Harkness would be back eventually. That's the good thing about being from the future. The unfortunate drawback to my plans turned into quite a blessing when I realized that finally I had Harkness where I wanted him. After all these years of pursuit, of trying to catch up with his restless roaming around he'd finally settled down."
"So you really planned all this? Meeting me, getting close to me…" Ianto's voice sounded strained.
Varot cast him a pitying glance. "I told you it was nothing personal. If Harkness had shown serious interest in someone else I would have gone after that person."
Ianto made a strangled sound and turned his back to Varot. The CCTV caught the battle on Ianto's face, torn between heartbreak, disappointment and anger. Upstairs in the office, everyone watched in silent sympathy.
"Don't cry, Ianto," Varot said smoothly to the other man's back, his voice void of compassion. "It was all for a good cause, believe me." He watched the man in front of him with a dispassionate expression. His hand wandered from his pocket and pulled out the lighter once more.
"You know…" he said casually as he twirled it between his fingers. "That's the other good thing about being from the future." The lighter stilled in his hand. "You can use technology no one knows how to check for."
He made a rapid movement with his hand. Suddenly, the front of the lighter slid to the side, revealing a control panel. He pressed something on it and the cell door opened with a soft hiss. Varot slipped out of the cell and moved towards the table, grabbing Ianto's gun that lay there between the rest of his things. It all happened so fast that by the time Ianto turned around, alerted by the sound of the cell door opening, he already found the gun trained on his chest.
"Shit!" Jack yelled as he jumped to his feet, nearly knocking over Gwen who had leaned forward to see better. He dashed to the door. "Tosh! Put the sound stream of the CCTV on my earpiece!" he shouted as he ran towards the stairs. "Gwen, Owen, get your guns and guard the exit. Don't let him leave, no matter what!"
Jack ran so fast that the air was burning in his lungs. All the while his heart was thudding in his chest and there was no denying that it was with fear for Ianto. "I guess we'll be getting company soon," he heard Varot's smooth voice on his earpiece. He reached the steel door in record time, but just before he could throw his weight into it to push it open, the heavy bolts of the door slammed into place and locked it.
"No!" Jack yelled as he smashed his fists against the solid steel. Through the thick porthole he could see Varot holding up the silver lighter with a mock apologetic shrug. "Tosh, override the lockdown on the door to the cells in level 3!" he shouted into his headset.
"Sorry, but three's a crowd," Varot said into the earpiece. "I'd like some alone time with Ianto."
While he had been distracted with that, Ianto had taken the opportunity to make a move towards the door, but Varot had him around the wrist before he even got close to it and pulled him back hard.
"Ianto, your rejection wounds me," he said silkily as he drew Ianto's back against his chest, nudging his chin up with the barrel of the gun.
"Jay, please stop…"
"Oh, stop calling me that, for fuck's sake!" Varot exploded, causing Ianto to jerk at the sudden eruption. "I'm so sick and tired of this guy! Stupid, doting Jay who's always so spineless and insipid and fulfills his angsty boyfriend's every wish. How sick I am of him!"
He laughed at Ianto's futile struggling. "Oh yes, keep rubbing up against me like that. You know what I like." Ianto stopped immediately. "What? Where's the subservient, docile Ianto that I've enjoyed so profusely for the past few months? You're not going to deprive me now of the only thing that made spending time with you sufferable, are you?" He ran his lips along the other man's throat.
The noise Ianto made sounded like a mix between a sob and an angry growl as he strained to get away.
Varot chuckled. "What? Are you going to pretend now that we didn't have great sex? I will admit it was all part of the plan, but the fact that you were such a good fuck was an added bonus. Don't worry, I made sure that Jack knows that I used your body every night. You think he cares?"
"No, I don't," Ianto ground out. His eyes moved over to the porthole.
Jack met them with his own, wondering if Ianto really thought so. He did in fact care. So much that he felt ready to break the steel door with his bare hands any moment now.
"Oh, I think he does," Varot said smoothly. "Look at him. Maybe he's imagining me fucking you night after night right now and it's making him crazy."
"Don't listen to him!" Jack shouted, knowing how useless it was through the thick iron door.
Sure enough, Varot reacted with a wicked grin. "Aw look, he's trying to talk to you," he drawled, twisting Ianto's head around to face Jack. "Too bad we can't hear him. I wonder what he's saying… maybe he's saying, 'Go ahead and shoot him, I've grown tired of him anyway.' Hm, no, I don't think that's it. Maybe he's asking us to put on a show for him. What do you think?"
"Fucking bastard!" Jack yelled at Varot angrily.
"See, I know he likes to watch," he murmured as he moved his other hand up Ianto's throat, rubbing one finger casually across the other man's lips. "He watched us yesterday when I fucked your pretty mouth, did you know that? I'm sure it turned him on… you're such a sexy sight when you're down on your knees."
Varot chuckled at Ianto's outraged cry. "Oh yes, he's such a voyeur and he's listening in on us this very moment. Can't you see it on his face?"
"Tosh, what's going on?" Jack yelled angrily, holding Ianto's stare.
"I'm working on it, Jack! It's not that easy!"
"Hurry, dammit!"
"He seems rather upset to me though, don't you think?" Varot said mockingly as he looked at Jack as well. "Why don't you wave and say hello?" He loosened his grip around the other man.
As soon as Ianto's arms were free, he used them to elbow Varot in the pit of his stomach and make a dash for the door, but Varot recovered sooner than expected and fired a shot into the ground, right in front of Ianto. "Stop," he said coldly, raising the gun to point at Ianto's chest once more.
"Jack won't care that much if you shoot me," Ianto said defiantly as he stared back at the man threatening him.
"You think so? He's so annoyingly 51st century, isn't he, with his carefree approach to love and relationships. It would take a real tragedy to make him realize just how much he cares." Varot raised the gun to Ianto's head. "I think I can make him care."
"God, Tosh, do something, anything!" Jack stared at the gun pointing at Ianto, as if by sheer force of mind he could will it to not go off.
"I… I've got an idea!"
"Do it now!"
A second later the vaults, hallway and everything around Jack was plunged into total darkness. Beyond the heavy door there was a shout and the sound of a body slamming into another. Hands connected with skin and someone yelped. Then a shot cracked through the darkness, reverberating off the walls.
For one terrible moment, Jack didn't dare to breathe. He strained to hear anything on his earpiece but it seemed as if the gunshot had swallowed any other sound. He forced himself back into action and barked into the earpiece, "Turn the lights back on!"
"One moment, Jack!" The worry in Tosh's voice was obvious. "Got it!"
The lights flickered back on, blinding Jack for a moment. At the same time, the bolts of the door slid back. Jack lost no time, pushed against it and stormed into the room.
He found Ianto kneeling on the floor, the gun hanging from his loose fingers. In front of him, Varot lay face down, the puddle of blood underneath his body slowly spreading outwards. Jack took only a moment to assess the situation. Ignoring the body, he sank to his knees next to Ianto, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I shot him," Ianto whispered blankly, not looking at Jack.
"It was self-defense," Jack said, squeezing the other man's shoulders.
Slowly, Ianto turned to look at him. As soon as he connected with Jack, tears welled up in his eyes. He dropped the gun, a metallic clatter on the tiled floor, as his hand shot up to his mouth, clasping over it. "Oh God, I shot him," he sobbed.
"There was nothing you could do," Jack said gently. "He would have shot you."
"But I don't understand!"
"Sssh, it's okay." Without thinking twice, Jack pulled Ianto into his arms, rubbing his hands carefully across the other man's back. "Are you injured?" he said close to Ianto's ear.
Ianto shook his head wordlessly, his tears wetting Jack's cheek.
"Are you sure you're not hurt? Maybe the shock…"
"Jack!" Ianto pulled back, his teary eyes now sparking with anger. "I hurt all over! But no, he hasn't caused me any physical injury." As he looked at Jack, a lonely tear ran down his cheek.
Gently, Jack caught it and rubbed it away with his thumb. He could tell that the thin shell of Ianto's control was about to crack. "All right. Let's get you out of here then." He got up and then offered Ianto his hand to help him up as well, but it was ignored.
Slowly, Ianto pulled himself up, carefully avoiding looking at the bloody corpse at his feet.
"Gwen, Owen, you can come down now," Jack said into his earpiece. He cast Ianto a quick glance, making sure he was at a safe distance before bending down and turning Varot onto his back.
There was a gaping hole right in the center of his chest and the entire front of his shirt was soaked with blood. Jack put two fingers against the other man's throat anyhow. When he couldn't detect a pulse, he felt satisfaction as well as regret at the fact that he hadn't been the one to put the bullet through him.
Jack was just getting up again when Owen and Gwen came into the room. Gwen immediately went over to Ianto who was standing in one corner, face buried in his hands. He let her hug him as he continued to cry silently.
"Is he dead?" Owen asked grimly as he stepped up next to Jack.
"Yeah."
"Too bad."
Jack flashed him a tired grin. "I know that feeling. Just get him to the morgue and we'll deal with him later."
Owen nodded. After a moment's hesitation he said, "Jack… all the things he said…"
"I know," Jack interrupted him curtly. Then he added, "I can honestly say that I have no idea what he was talking about." It wasn't even a lie. Ever since Varot had revealed himself, Jack's mind had been racing to try and figure out who he could be, but he kept drawing up blanks. "Guess we won't get those answers out of him anymore."
"Not bloody likely," Owen agreed.
"Jack, I think Ianto should go home soon. He's dead on his feet," Gwen called from the other side of the room as she lead Ianto towards the door.
Feeling a bit guilty about not having thought of removing the other man from the room sooner, Jack quickly joined them. "Yes, of course, but I want Owen to give him a quick physical. Just in case."
"Jack…" Ianto protested weakly, but he shut him up with one raised finger.
"No discussion. This is a direct order. Once I know everything is okay with you I'm personally going to see you home."
Ianto just shrugged in reply and followed Gwen upstairs.
When Jack could be sure that Ianto was submitting to Owen's physical as ordered, he retreated to his office. He was immediately greeted with the sight of the now static image of the cell, Varot's body lying in the center of it. Quickly, Jack switched off the monitor.
He sat down heavily on his chair for a moment. His mind was racing to process everything that had just happened, but he felt unable to. It all seemed too much. Yet there was one thing he needed to know before anything else.
Jack got up and went over to the safe, opening it with practiced speed. He removed a couple of boxes until he got to his private compartment. He opened the additional lock on it with his fingerprint and pulled out the steel strongbox.
A feeling of nostalgia swept through him when he looked at all the small bits and pieces he had accumulated over the years. Not many of them were from his actual past, before he had become the man he was now. He used to have holographic pictures of his parents, a long time ago, but at some point the batteries had run out and rendered them a useless piece of junk. That was when he had stopped keeping pictures.
When he had been forced to leave the Time Agency, he hadn't brought a lot of things. There hadn't been time. But one thing he had thought to bring. He had always considered it some kind of life insurance, should the Time Agency ever decide to come after him. After all, it was good to know your enemy.
It had been a long time since he'd last seen it. The small device the size of a cigarette box lay in his hand with surprising weight. The shiny white surface gave no indication of its valuable content.
When Jack pressed a button invisible on the smooth shell the device came to life, a round dial appearing in the center of it. 'Authorization,' the display above it prompted in bright red. Reluctantly, Jack lay his index finger on the dial. A red light went around it until the entire circle turned green and the display showed, "Authorization complete. Time Agent recognized." The database interface opened up.
Jack's finger hovered against the dial, considering what to search for now. Many agents such as himself weren't even listed with their full names. Would Varot be different? Shrugging, Jack entered the name. Much to his surprise, the display filled with row after row of information almost instantly. Slowly, he scrolled through it.
"Jeroen Varot,
"Born October 26th 5023 (37),
"Dependents: wife Liana Varot,
"Age of Recruitment: 22,
"Security level 7."
Jack skipped through the section of known associates as those would hardly be relevant now. He scanned the list of missions, but none of them really rang a bell either. The more he read about Varot the less likely it seemed they had ever crossed paths.
According to this, Varot was some kind of a genius. The list of his specialties and degrees seemed to go on forever and most of them involved some kind of scientific subject that Jack could only take a rough guess at what they meant.
Even without those two years missing from his memory, Jack just couldn't see himself associating with a lab rat like Varot must have been. So how had he earned himself such antagonism from the other man and such grim determination to pursue it?
Not feeling any more the wiser, Jack put the file on the desk and leaned back in his chair, mulling things over once more. He soon reached the conclusion that he'd never receive the answers that he was so desperate to hear.
Sighing softly, Jack abandoned his attempt to find out more about Varot and got up. When he entered the examination room, he saw Ianto just about to put his jacket back on. Owen had his back turned to the door and was writing something down on his clipboard. When he turned back at Ianto, he was holding a small container of pills in his hands.
"What's this?" Ianto asked, eyeing the bottle warily.
"A mild sedative. It'll help you get some rest."
Ianto's face hardened as he straightened out his tie. "I don't want it. My judgment is impaired enough already as it is, don't you think?" He cast Jack a stern look, clearly expecting support.
Owen shrugged. "Suit yourself. It's your funeral, mate. Just make sure you get some rest to get that pulse of yours down. Don't want to give yourself a heart attack from all the stress."
Upon hearing this, Jack stepped forward, alarmed. "Is there a risk?"
It appeared as if Owen only realized now that Jack was standing there. "Well, he's young and healthy, so I'd say no. But that still doesn't mean he shouldn't take it easy for a while now. A body can only take so much before it breaks down."
"Then I will personally see to it that he slows down," Jack promised with determination as he stepped next to Ianto and put a hand on his shoulder.
Ianto gave him a mildly amused look. "And how are you going to do that?"
"Tie you to the bed, if I have to. But for the time being I think a hot bath is just the thing you need right now."
"You know," Ianto said, looking at him thoughtfully. "In the old days you would have thrown in a nice, slow fuck for good measure."
Surprisingly, Jack felt an embarrassed heat crawl up his cheeks. "Well, it didn't seem appropriate at this particular moment," he explained after a stunned pause.
"But maybe that is exactly what I need." The look that Ianto directed at him was unwavering and penetrating. For a moment, Jack didn't know what to say.
"Uh right. This will be my cue to call it a night. Or day, rather," Owen cut into the tension as he walked over to the chair and grabbed his jacket from it. "I've been up way too long to listen to this. And get some bloody rest, Ianto." They both watched him make his exit before looking at each other again.
"Come on, I'll take you home," Jack said thickly. To his endless relief, Ianto just nodded obligingly and let himself be led out of the room.
~ to be continued ~
Author: Silver (silver@glasscases.net)
Website: http://silver.glasscases.net
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/OMC
Rating: FRAO (adult only) for graphic descriptions of sex
Word count: ~ 70,000
Disclaimer: The characters were created by Russell T. Davies. No profits are being made from this story.
Summary: After returning from his travels with the Doctor, Jack discovers that not all things are the way he left them. Used to having no problems with change, he finds that this time it's not so easy to change things back in his favor.
Notes: See Part 1 for detailed notes. Thanks to fairyd123 for her lightning speed beta and to my best bud kribban for simply everything.
Protip: You can subscribe to the tag "Collateral" to get notified when I update.
Crossposted to torch_wood ( here), torchwoodslash ( here), torchwood_fic ( here) and jackxianto ( here).
Previous parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
Another note: As I'm not completely content with the next chapter, I'm going to take an extra day to edit. To make up for it, this chapter is extra long.
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Jack felt murderous when he stomped back into his office. He plopped into his chair, the handkerchief still pressed against the cut. "Out!" he hollered when Gwen appeared at the door. Much to his chagrin, she ignored him and came in anyhow.
"Let me guess: Jay Telford?" she said calmly as she stood in front of his desk, arms crossed above her chest.
"Gee, with skills of deduction such as yours you should consider a career in law enforcement, or something," Jack snapped back sarcastically. When she continued to look at him expectantly, he ground out an annoyed, "Yes!"
"I trust he's at least as bruised."
"Theoretically, I started it," Jack admitted reluctantly.
"And practically?"
"Practically, I was provoked. I think he was only waiting for me to do something so he could sock me in the face."
"Like anyone needs an excuse for that," Owen chimed in, having appeared at the door as well. He held up a piece of paper. "And that would be my preliminary autopsy report. And by preliminary I mean I took a quick glance at the body to exclude anything urgent and then did an half-arsed job so I can go home." He tossed the paper on Jack's desk. "I know now why your Weevil was so ragingly mad. Looks like the other two we captured were her children. Guess they were separated when they came through the Rift."
Jack looked at the report and felt a twinge of guilt. "Will the two children be able to survive without their mother?"
Owen shrugged. "Guess we'll find that out soon enough." He looked curiously at Jack's blood-stained handkerchief. "I thought I'd told you that beating up Ianto's boyfriend was a bad idea."
"Jack beat up Jay?" Tosh asked as she pushed past her other two team mates.
"What is this, a surprise party?" Jack exclaimed testily. "Can't a man be miserable and get drunk in the privacy of his own office?" To accentuate his complaint, he grabbed the bottle of bourbon and put it down on the desktop with a reverberating clunk.
Looking just the slightest bit thrown off, Tosh held up a stack of print-outs. "I have the current weather reports here. I thought you might want to take a look at them to make sure we can call off the alert."
"Oh fine, give them to me," Jack sighed and held out his hand. He leafed through the stack listlessly, looking at the relevant columns. "Looks like the storm's center passed us by just a hair's breadth. It made landfall further up north in Shropshire. That's good then. Means we don't have to worry about any more disturbances to the Rift tonight." He turned the page. "The windstorm caused significant damage, too. Most affected was…" He hesitated.
"Jack?" Gwen asked when he didn't continue.
"Telford," he muttered, lowering the pages to the desk.
Owen groaned. "Can't you continue your personal vendetta once we're all safe and sound at home in the cozy comfort of our own beds?"
Jack looked at the doctor, a deep frown furrowing his brows. "No, that's where it wreaked the most havoc. In the city of Telford."
"Huh, that's an odd coincidence…" Gwen mumbled, frowning as well. "But the name isn't that unusual, Jack."
"If this job has taught me one thing, it's that there are no coincidences," Jack said grimly. "Tosh, find out the meteorological classification of this windstorm. Do it now!" He watched her zoom out of the room, his fingers tapping the surface of his desk impatiently. When she returned, she was pale. And?" he barked.
"It's J."
"Bastard!" Jack shouted and jumped to his feet, knocking the heavy chair back against the wall. "I fucking knew it!"
"Knew what? It could still be a coincidence!" Gwen insisted. "This is hardly enough to warrant any brash decisions."
"Brash?" Jack pulled out the results of his investigation and threw them on top of the reports. "Everything about this guy is fake! Right up to his name!"
"But how could he know a storm with that classification would be hitting Telford today?"
Jack threw her an unrelenting look. "For the same reason we know the invasion of Normandy was on the 6th of June."
Gwen's eyes widened. "So, are you saying that…"
"Exactly," Jack ground out. He started for the door, but Gwen intercepted him.
"What are you doing, Jack?"
"I'm not sure yet, but breaking every bone in that fucker's body sounds like a good idea right now."
"You can't do that." Her face was stern.
Jack stared at her in disbelief. "I can't? Well, watch me." He tried to push past her but she wouldn't budge.
"Jack, listen to me. If you just barge in like a raging bull and drag Jay out of there merely based on the fact that he happens to be named after a city that was hit by a storm tonight, you think Ianto is going to accept that?" When Jack hesitated, she continued. "I trust your instincts. I really do. But please let us find out more first before doing this, because after that, things won't be the same again for Ianto."
Grudgingly, Jack had to admit she was right. "Fine. Then find me more information! Go!" He knew he was shouting, but he found it impossible to stay calm now. He felt a warm trickle down his chin and rubbed the blood away impatiently with the back of his hand. "Oh Goddammit, someone get me something for this cut already!" he yelled as he stomped back to his chair.
"That would be my cue then," Owen said with a dutiful sigh. He left the office and returned a moment later, carrying a tray of medical supplies. "You know… it's a rare occurrence, having to dress your wounds," he said as he dabbed the blood away from Jack's mouth.
"What do you mean? Ouch!" Jack shrank away from the cotton swab the doctor had pressed against the cut. "What the hell is this?"
"Believe me, you don't want to know." He dropped the bloody gauze on the tray. "Anyway, what I'm saying is that so far you were always the last one to require medical attention."
Jack scowled at him. "If it makes your job easier I could put a bullet through my brain. Then my wounds would regenerate in no time."
"Actually, it would! But I don't think Ianto would appreciate having to mop your gunk off the floor. And that's not what I mean. Even without the wounds being mortal they should heal up faster than with most people, shouldn't they?"
Jack frowned. "What are you getting at?"
Owen shrugged. "Just wondering if you're really still immortal and all."
Chuckling softly, Jack sought the other man's eyes. "Why Owen! I didn't think you cared!" The chuckle turned into a laugh at the other man's glare. "Don't worry, everything's still the same."
"If you say so. I just don't want you to find out you're wrong when you're lying on my autopsy table." Owen put the tray on Jack's desk. "By the way, where were you hiding the rest of that booze?"
Jack leaned over in his chair to look past the other man. "What do you mean? That bourbon?"
"Yeah. It was pretty good. It's not so often that one gets the pleasure of drinking a 23 year old bourbon. I had hoped to find more of that somewhere in your stash after I'd finished the first one, but no such luck. So I assume you hid it well."
Jack frowned. "That was the only bottle I had…" His fingers clawed into the armrest when realization struck him. "Owen, was Telford ever down here in the Hub?" he asked quietly.
"Not that I know of." Owen scrunched up his face, considering the question. "Hold on, that one time, two or three weeks ago when we all hit the pub together and Gwen sprained her ankle. He insisted on taking her to the examination room…"
"Tosh! Gwen!" Jack hollered, causing the other man to flinch in surprise.
A moment later, both women appeared at the door.
"What is it?" Gwen asked, looking startled.
"When you sprained your ankle three weeks ago, did you notice anything unusual?"
Gwen blinked at him. "Uh, I don't know. It wasn't that big of a deal! The heel of my shoe broke and I tripped on the stairs. I probably would have hurt myself a lot more if Jay hadn't been right there to catch me from falling all the way down."
"How awfully opportune of him to be there," Jack said sarcastically. "What happened to them?"
""What?"
"The shoes. Did you throw them away?"
She looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "No, of course not! I was going to take them to the cobbler to have the heel fixed. That was one of my favorite pairs!"
"So where are they?
"At my desk!"
"Go get them then!"
Jack waited impatiently for Gwen's return. As soon as she brought the shoes to his desk, he snatched them from her hands and inspected them. The heel of the left shoe was in a deplorable state, splintered and twisted to the side. Jack bent it back into place and frowned. It looked like a whole chunk was missing from the base. He squinted to look at it more closely. Something metallic shone inside of the damaged material.
Grabbing the pincers off Owen's tray, Jack pulled the tiny metal spike out of the splintered heel. He inspected it under the magnifying glass and swore under his breath. "A matter consumption device."
At his team's stumped expression, he explained, "It's like a miniature detonator, only it doesn't cause an explosion but instead consumes the matter around it. It's soundless and odorless. Perfect for picking locks without anybody noticing. We used those in the Time Agency all the time."
"And what would that be doing in my heel?" Gwen asked.
"I'm willing to bet that Telford put it there to destabilize your heel just enough for you to trip," Jack growled. He turned to Tosh. "Get me the CCTV footage for that day and time."
"I'm on it!" She scurried off to her workstation to fulfill the request. When Jack switched on his monitor, the first thumbnails had already appeared on it. He scrolled through them while the rest of his team positioned themselves behind him to watch.
"Here," Owen said, pointing at one of the thumbnails. "That's right after we entered the Hub. Jay's putting Gwen down on the examination table. After that he stood around with Ianto until we were all ready to leave again."
"And he was never alone?" Jack asked skeptically as he fast-forwarded through the footage that showed everyone hanging around the examination room while Owen treated Gwen's ankle.
"Actually…" Owen replied reluctantly. "I sent him and Ianto to grab ice from the fridge in the tea-kitchen once. But they were both together, not gone for long and had the requested ice, so I didn't think much about it."
"Well, let's check it out then." Jack brought up the recording of the section in question. It showed Ianto and Jay walking past the workstations towards the stairs. Jay's shoulder bag brushed past a stack of paper seemingly accidentally, causing it to slide down and the paper to scatter all over the floors.
Both men argued about it for a short moment until Jay pushed Ianto gently towards the stairs while he bent to pick up the mess he'd made. It didn't take more than a few seconds for Ianto to disappear from sight before Telford dropped what he'd be holding and hurried towards Jack's office.
"I knew it," Jack growled as he changed over to the CCTV footage of the office.
Telford didn't waste a lot of time. He went straight for the bottom drawer of the desk and pulled it open. Then he produced a bottle from his shoulder bag and dropped it into the drawer. His head jerked up, apparently alerted by Ianto's return, so he slammed the drawer shut again and rushed towards the door. As he whirled around, his sleeve got caught in the lamp and it slipped off the desk, but he caught it neatly before it even touched the ground.
"Cripes! Did you see that?" Gwen gasped. "I could hardly see his hands, so fast were they!"
On the video, Jay managed to slip out of the office and grab the stack of papers he'd abandoned just in time for Ianto to come around the corner, holding a tray of ice cubes. They exchanged a few words and kissed before disappearing out of the picture.
"The bastard dosed you!" Owen exclaimed, picking up the bottle. "I'm going to run a test on the content right away to find out what it was." He turned to leave but Jack held him back with a hand on his elbow.
"Leave it."
"But Jack!" Owen protested. "We need to find out what it was he put in there to make sure it's nothing dangerous."
"So what," Jack said with a careless shrug. "What if it's poison? Are you afraid I could die from it? There are more pressing matters at hand." He got up with a determined expression. "Gwen, would you agree that we now have enough evidence to warrant an arrest?" He cast her a cool glance.
She nodded. "Yes, Jack. I would say so." It pleased him to see that she looked just as determined as him. "What shall we do?"
Jack hesitated as guilty memories of the Lisa situation assaulted him. For a moment he wondered if Ianto was ever going to forgive him after this. To his dismay, he suddenly felt paralyzed.
Gwen must have sensed his distress. Her features softened and she put a gentle hand on his arm. "First of all we need to get Ianto out of there. Who knows what Jay will do when he realizes we're onto him."
Shooting her a grateful look, Jack turned to Tosh. "Gwen is right. Trace Ianto's earpiece to find out where he is. I've got good reason to believe he's with Telford right now." To Gwen and Owen he said, "Once we've got Ianto somewhere safe, we'll just go in and grab Telford. By force, if need be."
He grabbed his coat and pulled it on. Then he took out his gun and checked it. When he noticed Gwen's worried look, he said with a grim smile, "Don't worry, I'm not going to kill him. I'm going to make sure he'll answer all my questions before I even consider granting him that mercy."
Jack left the office and went to Tosh's workstation where she was just about to complete the trace.
"Ianto's definitely not at his apartment," she said, tapping the monitor where a small green dot was pulsating on a map.
"Does anyone have any idea where Telford lives?" Jack asked, crossing his arms over his chest to keep himself from fidgeting nervously. He couldn't help but going through his conversation with Telford word for word, wondering if he had said anything that would have prompted the other man to make a desperate move. Fear balled up in the pit of his stomach.
"I do," Gwen said as she stepped next to him, wearing her jacket and ready to go. She leaned in to look at the map. "Yup, I think they're at his place."
"Then let's roll."
In the car, Jack realized that their plan was missing yet another component. "Okay, so how do we get Ianto out of there?" he asked as he raced the car down the glistening street. The sky was dipped in a dirty gray as the rising sun started poking through the slowly dispersing layer of clouds.
"Let me handle that," Owen said with an air of lofty confidence. "I know the very thing that'll shoo him out of his hole in no time." When they turned into the street where Telford lived, he pulled out his mobile and pressed the speed dial for Ianto, lifting one finger to command everyone's attention as if he was about to give a remarkable performance.
"Ianto? Yes, yes… I know you barely got home. Sorry about that, mate. Listen, there's been a bit of an emergency. Looks like the storm caused the sewers to back up and now the water of the Bay was pushed into the basement. Yeah, I'm afraid the archive is affected, too… What? Uh, I don't know. I just sorta piled it all in one corner. It's just one big soggy ball of mush anyway. What do you mean I should have minded the categories? … Oh, okay. I guess you need to come in and do it yourself then because I really can't be bothered to deal with this. Okay. Bye."
Owen snapped the phone shut and gave them a triumphant look. "I expect him to come out any moment now. Unless they were in the middle of having sex, or something, in which case I expect him to take little longer."
They waited in the car for about five minutes before a light was switched on and shone through the small window at the front door. "There he is," Jack said when he saw Ianto open the door. He was alone. Jack shot Owen a quick look. "You know what to do."
The other man nodded as he got out of the car as well.
"What's going to happen?" Gwen whispered behind Jack, but he didn't reply. He signaled for her to stay behind as he grimly strode towards Ianto who was searching for something in his messenger bag. He looked up, startled, when he felt someone approach.
"Jack!" Ianto gasped when he saw him. "What are you doing here?" He frowned. "Is something wrong? I just got off the phone with Owen…"
Without answering, Jack stepped closer to the other man and put both hands on his shoulders. "I'm sorry, Ianto," he said softly.
Before Ianto even had a chance to reply, Owen appeared behind him and injected him right in the neck. The look of stunned disbelief Ianto gave him before he slumped forward broke Jack's heart. He gently cradled the unconscious man against his chest.
"What did you do?" Gwen hissed as she rushed towards them.
"Torchwood protocol 49-10," Jack replied curtly, lifting Ianto into his arms. As he carried him over to the SUV, he heard Owen recite behind him, "When the unconditional cooperation of a team member cannot be guaranteed due to emotional involvement, the person in question must be removed from the operation as soon as possible."
Gently, Jack placed Ianto on the backseat, arranging him to make sure that he was sitting comfortably. "He'll be out just long enough for us to arrest Telford and take him to the Hub," he explained, sensing Gwen's presence behind him. "It's easier this way, for all of us."
"I understand, Jack," she said softly behind him and somehow it helped ease the heavy weight of guilt on his heart. He straightened himself out, casting one last look at the sleeping man before turning around.
"Right then," he said after a strengthening breath. "In we go."
They entered the building and took the two flights of stairs until they stood in front of Telford's apartment. Jack pulled his gun and the other two followed suit. After another nod to his team, Jack opened the door with the key he had retrieved from Ianto's bag and pushed it open.
The living room was empty. It was dark with the exception of the floor lamp casting a dim light on the tasteful modern couch and low glass table in front of a flatscreen television. Jack gestured Owen and Gwen to follow him. He slowly walked across the paneled floor, intent on avoiding any sound.
The kitchenette bordering the living room was dark, just the clock of the microwave blinking green. A small corridor led away from the main area. It had two opposing doors on each side and one at the end of it. Just as Jack had started struggling with the decision which door to go for, one of them opened and Telford stepped out.
He saw them immediately and tensed for a moment before relaxing and turning towards them with a sly grin. "Oh my, you should have told me you were coming. I would have made a cake."
Jack raised his weapon and said, "Hands in the air and don't make a move, Telford. I know that's not your real name but I have to call you something."
The smile on the other man's face didn't falter as he raised his hands. "Guess that rules out a nice cup of coffee then."
"Step out into the living room!" Jack said, making sure to keep at a safe distance when Telford came closer. "Slowly. Now on your knees with your hands behind your head." To Gwen he said, "Be careful. You've seen how fast he can move."
Telford laughed softly as he kneeled down. "Don't worry, Harkness. I have no intention of letting you shoot me here in the middle of my living room. Blood stains are so difficult to get out. You should know."
Jack hesitated for a moment. He cast Gwen and Owen a quick look to make sure they had a good aim should Telford try anything. When he was sure that they had their guns trained on Telford, he put away his own and reached for the handcuffs. "I'm arresting you," Jack growled as he yanked the other man's hands down roughly. The cuffs closed around the wrists with a satisfying click.
"Now isn't that what you've always been longing to say?" Telford drawled mockingly.
It hadn't really been Jack's intention to play along with the taunts, but now he just couldn't stop himself. "Granted, the thought of that didn't keep me awake at night, but it does feel pretty good." He walked around the kneeling man to see his face.
"I was wondering when you'd show up," Telford said. "Didn't think it'd take you so long." His intense stare was only interrupted briefly when his eyes flitted to the side to look at Gwen and Owen. "Where's Ianto? Did you execute him for consorting with the enemy?"
Feeling the heat rise in his cheeks, Jack had to clench his teeth for a moment. "You're thinking a bit too much of yourself, Telford. You're not an enemy. For all I know you're nothing but a petty little troublemaker who got busted."
It gave Jack a tremendous feeling of satisfaction to see anger flare up in the other man's eyes.
"Guess you're not done with him yet then. Isn't that how you work, Harkness? First you fuck them and then they're fucked. It's just a matter of time," Telford replied, his usually so smooth voice having gained a certain edge.
For a moment, the rage that surged up inside of Jack seemed to overwhelm him. His hand shot forward and took Telford's throat in a viselike grip, lifting him off the ground a few inches. "Watch what you're saying, Telford," he growled softly. "I don't need a lot of reason to snap your neck right here and now."
A look of triumph lit up the other man's steely eyes as he drew a raspy breath and croaked, "Oh, but what would your team say if they saw the ruthless killer that you really are?"
"You know nothing about me," Jack ground out angrily, very close to Telford's face.
His reply was hardly a whisper. "I know more than you think, Agent 1712-K7."
Jack let go of the other man as if he'd been burned, taking a stunned step backwards. Telford collapsed on the floor and drew in a wheezing breath. When his shoulders started to shake, it took Jack a moment to realize that he was laughing.
"Is everything okay?" Gwen asked, staring at Telford with the same look of disgusted bewilderment that Jack felt. Nothing in her manner gave away whether or not she'd heard Telford's last line.
"Yeah," Jack replied, still feeling a little shaken. "Let's take him back to the Hub." He grabbed Telford roughly around the arm and dragged him to his feet. "Do a quick search of the place and take anything that might be suspicious."
"If you're looking for my gun, it's hidden under the floorboards at the bottom of my wardrobe," Telford called after Gwen who had moved to follow Jack's order. "But be careful not to set off any of the booby traps. The next-door neighbors have just finished redecorating."
Gwen stopped on her way to the bedroom and gave Jack an insecure look.
Jack cursed. "Just grab his jacket, mobile and wallet for now. We'll return later with the proper detection gear. No need to take stupid risks now. Let's move." With that he dragged Telford out of the apartment.
*******************************
When Jack entered the prison level, he immediately caught sight of Telford standing in his cell, a bored expression on his face and arms calmly crossed over his chest as if he was waiting for the bus. This air of indifference only served to increase Jack's dislike for the other man.
As soon as they had returned to the Hub, Jack had handed Telford over to Owen to take him to the vaults. Ianto had still been out cold, so Jack had taken it upon himself to carry him inside and lay him down on the sofa once it had been cleared of empty pizza boxes and magazines.
It had taken him a bit of effort to get Tosh off his case for drugging Ianto and have her agree to watch over him instead. Jack had trailed his hand once across Ianto's cheek, silently dreading the moment he'd wake up and demand answers. The urge to be able to provide them had prompted him to go see Telford as soon as he could instead of letting him stew for a while first.
Jack stepped up to the cell and looked at the other man coolly, taking the moment to size him up carefully. Telford returned his glance without any emotion. Jack wondered whether he should recognize him, whether their paths had crossed at some point, prompting him to do whatever his plans were. But as much as he tried he kept drawing up a blank.
"Did they send you?" he asked before he could stop himself.
Predictably, Telford reacted with a non-committal smile. "Now who would they be?"
"Stop playing around. You know exactly who I'm talking about!"
The smile stayed in place. "Maybe I do and I just want to hear you say it."
Jack stared at the other man, trying to find the slightest hint of what game he was playing. "Who are you?" he said instead.
Telford yawned ostentatiously. "Oh, I find it so tedious, standing here, answering all your questions. It's so one-sided."
"That's how it usually goes when you're the one inside the cell. Besides, I get the feeling our acquaintance started out somewhat one-sided to begin with. You seem to know a lot more about me than I know about you."
An expression of pride hushed across the other man's face. "I probably do."
"Then why not let me in on it? Where's the fun if you don't play along."
Telford raised his eyebrows at him mockingly. "Does anyone you try to interrogate ever fall for that, Harkness?"
"I know Telford isn't your real name."
"And Jack isn't yours."
"It's who I am now," Jack replied without a moment's hesitation. "Are you seriously telling me that 'Jay Telford' is who you are now? A well-adjusted insurance salesman with a designer couch who hangs around in coffee bars to get a date and who has to bother his boyfriend at work to coax a blowjob out of him?"
For a brief moment, anger distorted the other man's handsome features as he dropped his arms to his sides and stepped closer to the glass door. "The name is Varot. Jeroen Varot, and the fact that telling you this is useless because the name means nothing to you is a far greater source of frustration to me than your silly little taunts."
Jack's mind latched onto this new piece of information, but it really didn't ring a bell. He watched Telford, or Varot rather, as he had to remind himself, struggle to regain his cool exterior and turn his back to him. "Why did you come here?" Jack asked.
Varot didn't reply.
"What did you want from Ianto?"
The other man laughed softly and shook his head. "Ianto is not important at all."
"That's where you're wrong," Jack said softly, causing the other man to turn around again. "Should I find that anything you've done has caused him any kind of harm, you're not going to make it out of here alive."
The smile that appeared on Varot's face sent a chill down Jack's spine. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."
The beep on his earpiece saved Jack from needing to come up with a reply. He touched it. "Yes?"
"Jack," Tosh said. "Ianto's awake."
"I'll be right there." He cast Varot one last look. "Don't get too comfortable in your cell. I'll be back shortly and then I'm going to beat the answers out of you." Then he spun around on his heel and rushed back to the main area of the Hub.
He already heard Ianto's voice at the stairs. He sounded just as agitated as Jack had expected him to be. When he came around the corner, he saw Ianto standing in the center of the Hub, shaky on his legs and holding onto the handrail, while Tosh stood a little away from him, talking calmly. Owen and Gwen had wisely chosen not to be around.
"Ianto, at least sit down for a moment," Tosh pleaded softly.
"No! I want to know what's going on right now! Don't you think I know why you've drugged me?" Ianto turned around and spotted Jack. "You!" he exclaimed, taking an unsteady step forward, immediately faltering and sagging against the banister.
Jack was at his side in no time, reaching for his arm to hold him up, but Ianto yanked himself free from the grasp.
"Don't touch me!" he spat, looking at Jack with accusing eyes. "Where's Jay? You arrested him, right? You pulled a 49-10 on me, didn't you? Or maybe a 49-13. Either way, I want to know why."
"Yes," Jack replied calmly. "You're right. And you deserve the answers. But please be reasonable and sit down here for a moment and wait for the effects of the drug to wear off completely. I don't want you to fall and hurt yourself."
For a moment, Ianto looked as if he was going to resist Jack's gentle nudging towards the nearest seat, which happened to be Owen's workstation, but then he grudgingly complied and sank down on the chair heavily.
"Tosh, could you get Ianto a glass of water and an aspirin?" Jack asked her, not taking his eyes off the other man. He heard her mumble a quick reply and hurry off. "How are you feeling?" Jack asked gently.
"Like you care," Ianto replied angrily.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic! You know the protocols, I had no choice."
Ianto pressed his lips together, looking like a defiant boy for a moment. Then he said, "I know the protocols, but I don't know why you chose to evoke them." He took the glass from Tosh, thanking her softly. Then he downed the pill with a large sip of water. "So, tell me."
To buy himself some time, Jack walked around to the desk to lean against it casually. He knew that he had to tread carefully now. "We have pretty much confirmed that Jay isn't who he claims to be. He's operating under a fake name, something which he has in fact confirmed to me already. His real name is Jeroen Varot."
A small gasp from Tosh made Jack take his eyes off Ianto briefly. He gave her a nod of confirmation to run a search on that name. Then he continued, "We actually realized this when we looked through the weather reports and saw that his name was basically a composition of the meteorological classification of today's storm and where it hit."
Jack gave Ianto a moment to digest this. "This alone leads me to believe that he has at least some knowledge of the future. Why he put that sort of time limit on his own cover I don't know. My best guess is that he wanted us to discover him, strange as it sounds." Jack watched Ianto's face closely, but his expression remained impenetrable.
"You can't have based the arrest solely on that though," Ianto said, his voice blank. "This could be a coincidence… anything."
Jack nodded seriously. "Yes, we know that. Gwen pointed out the same thing. But there's more to it. As it turns out, he's been dosing me with something."
Ianto looked up, his eyes wide and confused. "Dosed you…" he whispered. "How…"
"He planned it carefully. He even fixed Gwen's heel with a small detonator to cause her to fall, just to get into the Hub. Look at this." Jack reached around to the computer and played the scene from the CCTV which Tosh had already sent to the workstation. Ianto watched it quietly, his expression turning more and more withdrawn as the images of Varot's deception flickered across the screen. When it was over, Jack gave him a moment to compose himself.
Owen appeared at the door to the autopsy room with perfect timing, holding up a computer printout whose jagged edge showed that it had been hastily torn from the printer. "I've got preliminary results from the analysis of the bourbon."
"Yes?" Jack looked at the doctor expectantly.
"Curb your enthusiasm. The results are crap because the computer couldn't match the substance with the database. I'll need to dig deeper. At any rate, it's of alien origin, but it's non-toxic. I'm guessing it's some kind of enzyme. We'll know more later."
Jack frowned. "Why would he want me to take that?"
Owen shrugged in response. "No idea. But he didn't want to poison you, that's for sure."
The frown on Jack's face deepened. "That doesn't make sense. Somehow nothing he does makes sense!" He groaned in frustration and turned around. The look on Ianto's face made his irritation dissipate immediately.
"Including dating me…" Ianto said in an empty voice, still looking at the monitor that was freeze-framed on Varot pulling the prepared bottle out of his bag. Slowly, he moved his eyes away from the sight and looked at Jack instead.
"I suppose I always knew," Ianto said softly. "You all knew. There was something strange about someone so handsome and sexy going for me…" The pain in his voice made Jack's throat tighten for a moment. "Why would anyone want me?"
"I wanted you," Jack said hoarsely, oblivious of the other people in the room. For a moment suspended in time, they were looking at each other. For just that moment, the expression of hurt on Ianto's face gave way to something else. Jack couldn't quite place it, so he focused all his attention on the other man who was about to speak.
But that never happened. Before Ianto got to formulate an answer, they were interrupted by Gwen bursting through the main door, holding a cardboard tray containing five cups of coffee. "What's going on? Why is Ianto up already?" she asked as she rushed towards them. Her eyes darted to the monitor and they widened when she saw what was featured on it. She threw Jack an accusing glance which he met defiantly.
"Ianto woke up and demanded answers," he said, fighting down an inexplicable feeling of disappointment.
"And you just gave them to him?" Gwen was clearly upset.
"He had a right to know," Jack ground out.
Gwen wasn't impressed by his scowl. "Knowing you, you probably didn't tread very carefully! You probably crushed poor Ianto!"
"I'm sitting right here, you know," Ianto pointed out. He sounded tired, his voice devoid of the playful tone that he usually would have adopted in a situation like this.
Gwen looked at him guiltily. "I know. I'm sorry, Ianto." She handed him one of the cups from the tray. "I thought maybe you could use a nice cup of coffee."
Reluctantly, Ianto took it from her, looking grief-stricken all of a sudden. Gwen noticed it and cast Jack a confused look as Ianto held the cup in his trembling hand without making any attempt to drink from it.
It took Jack a moment to catch on. "That's the same place Telford, I mean, Varot got his coffee from," he explained, gently plucking the cup from Ianto's numb fingers.
Gwen's face fell. "Oh shit… I'm really sorry, Ianto!" She quickly put the tray out of his sight. "I wasn't thinking," she said, bending towards Ianto and putting a compassionate hand on his shoulder, but he ignored her, just staring ahead.
"I want to talk to him," Ianto finally said after a seemingly endless stretch of silence.
"I don't think that's such a good idea," Jack said carefully, inwardly screaming his refusal.
The look that Ianto gave him was full of determination and made Jack realize that he was fighting a losing battle. "I must see him," Ianto insisted.
"All right," Jack conceded reluctantly. "I'll take you downstairs then and…"
"No. I want to talk to him alone." Ianto met his glance firmly.
"There's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone with that guy," Jack exploded. He tried to stare down the other man angrily, but it seemed as if no matter what he threw at him, it was absorbed by Ianto's cool resolve.
"I must know," the other man said calmly.
Jack sighed in defeat. "Fine. But I'll be watching on the CCTV."
"Fair enough." Ianto got up, swaying softly on his feet as he did so.
Automatically, Jack reached out to support the other man. "Christ, at least wait until you're fully functional again."
"I'm fine!" Ianto insisted, brushing off his hands.
Jack threw Owen a look, pleading for assistance. The doctor reacted at once and approached Ianto, whipping out his penlight. "You're pupils are still dilated," he noted after flashing Ianto's eyes a couple of times. "Your body has taken quite a beating in the past 24 hours, Ianto. You really should give it a rest and come back tomorrow…"
"No," Ianto interrupted him firmly. "It was your choice to drug me, not mine. I'm not going to sit around just to ease your bad conscience. I want to see Jay now."
Owen shrugged at Jack with a grimace of 'I tried' and stepped aside to let Ianto pass.
"Take a gun with you," Jack insisted.
Ianto stopped and looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "I don't need a gun."
"Take it or you're not going. This one's not up for discussion. That man is dangerous." Jack thrust the shoulder holster at Ianto that he'd picked up from the desk.
"Fine!" Ianto agreed testily and snatched it out of Jack's hand, putting it on clumsily. Then he pushed past him.
Jack hurried to catch up with him. "His name isn't Jay. It's Jeroen Varot. Remember that. He's not the guy he made you believe he was over the past six months. You mustn't believe anything he tells you."
Ianto ignored him as he pressed forward. Before he got to open the door to the vault however, Jack managed to slip in front of him and block his entry. "Say you'll be careful." When Ianto persistently kept silent, avoiding his look, Jack put a gentle hand under the other man's chin and lifted it until their eyes met. "Don't let him break you," he said softly. "You're stronger than that. I know this hurts right now, but you'll pull through this like you always have. And I'll always be there for you."
"Is that a promise?" Ianto asked softly, his eyes glistening suspiciously.
Jack nodded slowly. Every fiber in his body was aching to lean down and brush a kiss against the other man's lips and make that look of heartbreak go away, but he held himself in check once more. He released Ianto quickly before the urge got too strong. "I'll be watching," he announced as he stepped aside. "Wait a minute or so until I'm at the monitors before you go inside."
Once Ianto nodded his consent, Jack patted his shoulder one more time before leaving him behind. As he climbed the stairs towards the Hub he couldn't help but feel an odd sense of foreboding. Every instinct he had told him that this was a bad idea and yet he knew that he owed Ianto this. He only wished his other debts were as easily settled.
Back at the Hub, Jack went straight for his office. His team filed in behind him as he punched the monitor on and reached for the alien sound device, tuning it in on the vault. Tosh appeared next to him, her eyes wide.
"Is that one of those bugs we scavenged from the cruiser that crashed near Barry a while back?"
"Yup." He fiddled with the setting a bit. On the monitor, Ianto could be seen, reluctantly waiting at the door to the cells. Judging by his behavior he wasn't still keeping his promise to Jack, but instead struggling to pluck up the courage to go inside. Finally, Ianto took a deep breath and walked through the door. Jack switched the camera angle.
"Didn't think I'd see you here," Varot said.
"Since when do we have sound in the vaults?" Owen asked.
"Since recently. Quiet now."
"Does Ianto know?" Gwen asked, sounding just as surprised as Owen.
"No," was Jack's curt reply. He wasn't about to waste time explaining his motives to his team. With an impatient flick of his wrist he cut off Gwen's moral outburst before it began. Fortunately, Ianto hadn't answered yet. He continued to lean against the heavy iron door, staring at Varot in his cell.
"I had to see you." Ianto said after a while.
"With a gun?" Varot replied, nodding in his direction.
Ianto looked down on himself. Then he pulled the gun out of the holster and put it on the table. Jack swore under his breath.
"I need answers."
Varot approached the glass door and put his palms against it. "I don't think you're going to like them." Jack noted how different his voice sounded now that he was talking to Ianto. The vicious twist was completely gone and he almost sounded like his former self again. In a way Jack was glad that Varot spared Ianto that pain, but it also made him wonder about ulterior motives. It was clear that deception was his strong point.
Reluctantly, Ianto drew closer. "Was everything a lie?" The tremble in Ianto's voice was barely noticeable, but Jack could tell how emotional the other man was right now.
Varot shrugged. "I'm afraid so."
For a moment, Ianto lost his carefully maintained control and dropped his face into his hands, letting out a strangled sob. Jack watched Varot's face closely, but the other man showed no reaction while Ianto's face was buried in his hands. Just as he was about to lift it again, a faint impression of compassion appeared on Varot's face, right in time for Ianto to see.
"But why?" Ianto asked softly. "Why the pretense? Why me?"
"It wasn't personal," Varot replied.
"You call spending nearly every day for the past six months with me not personal?"
Varot shrugged. "It was part of the job."
"What job?"
A placid expression washed across the other man's features. "You wouldn't understand if I told you." He turned his back to Ianto. "Besides, it doesn't matter anymore, does it. I'm not going to make it out of here alive. As soon as Harkness returns he'll eliminate me."
Ianto looked shocked. "What are you talking about? Jack would never do such a thing!"
In his office, Jack tensed, suddenly feeling guilty.
Ianto continued. "If it's true what they're saying, that you're from the future, they're going to try to figure out where you're from exactly and then contact UNIT to take you back there to face the proper authorities."
Varot turned back at him. "Is that so." He regarded Ianto thoughtfully for a long moment. "Well, guess I'm in for a long wait then," he said, the easy-going smile that seemed like such an integral part of him once more playing around his lips. "I only wish they had left me my smokes before they stuck me into this cell though." His eyes flickered over to the table next to Ianto. "I understand if you refuse, but I don't suppose you could hand me my cigarettes, could you?"
Following Varot's eyes, Ianto looked at the table where all of the other man's personal effects were spread out. "I don't think I should," he said reluctantly.
Jack turned in his seat and cast Owen a stern look. "Okay, why is his stuff there and not up here?"
"Uh, guess I forgot…" Owen replied meekly.
"Good thing you didn't forget to lock the cell door too then!"
Down in the cell, Ianto was still considering the pack of cigarettes indecisively.
"It's okay," Varot said, once again leaning against the glass door. "I know you've always hated me smoking. Guess you won't have that problem anymore."
That comment must have hit home as Ianto immediately looked guilty. He looked at the pack of cigarettes again, then picked it up. "I suppose one cigarette won't hurt."
Jack tightened his jaw at how effortlessly Varot had gotten Ianto to comply as he watched him open the package, take one cigarette out and push it through the hole in the door.
Varot accepted it with a brilliant smile and stuck it between his lips. "Thanks, baby. Got fire, too?"
Ianto had stiffened at the sound of the familiar endearment. He blindly reached for Varot's silver lighter on the table and handed it through the hole to the other man who, seemingly unfazed by Ianto's sudden coldness, lit his cigarette and blew circles into the air.
"Aaah… feeling so much better already." Varot closed his eyes and leaned against the wall of his cell. "Stupid habit, I know. There's a reason why it was banned in the 23rd century. But it's so good! Definitely one of the perks of this time."
Ianto eyed him curiously. "So it's true? That you're from the future?"
Varot didn't reply right away. Instead he finished smoking his cigarette slowly before flicking the butt to the floor and grinding into in the tiles with his shoe. "Of course it's true," he then said, letting the silver lighter dangle from his long fingers as he approached the door. "I arrived about two weeks before Harkness disappeared. I had barely finished my preliminary investigation and setting up a new identity by the time he was gone."
He tossed the lighter into the air and caught it. "In a way I was grateful for the extra time it afforded me. When I realized that I couldn't follow through with my original plan, I had to amend it based on the new information I had gathered."
"What was your original plan then," Ianto asked, sounding timid as if he didn't really want to know.
Varot bared his teeth in a chilly smile. "To kill him, of course." He laughed softly when Ianto gasped. "I still have a minor score to settle with him, you know. Too bad that his departure messed up my schedule just the tiniest bit. Good thing time can be so relative when you stop thinking of it in linear terms."
Casually, Varot stuck his hands in his pockets, his eyes lost in the distance. "But that's all right. I knew Harkness would be back eventually. That's the good thing about being from the future. The unfortunate drawback to my plans turned into quite a blessing when I realized that finally I had Harkness where I wanted him. After all these years of pursuit, of trying to catch up with his restless roaming around he'd finally settled down."
"So you really planned all this? Meeting me, getting close to me…" Ianto's voice sounded strained.
Varot cast him a pitying glance. "I told you it was nothing personal. If Harkness had shown serious interest in someone else I would have gone after that person."
Ianto made a strangled sound and turned his back to Varot. The CCTV caught the battle on Ianto's face, torn between heartbreak, disappointment and anger. Upstairs in the office, everyone watched in silent sympathy.
"Don't cry, Ianto," Varot said smoothly to the other man's back, his voice void of compassion. "It was all for a good cause, believe me." He watched the man in front of him with a dispassionate expression. His hand wandered from his pocket and pulled out the lighter once more.
"You know…" he said casually as he twirled it between his fingers. "That's the other good thing about being from the future." The lighter stilled in his hand. "You can use technology no one knows how to check for."
He made a rapid movement with his hand. Suddenly, the front of the lighter slid to the side, revealing a control panel. He pressed something on it and the cell door opened with a soft hiss. Varot slipped out of the cell and moved towards the table, grabbing Ianto's gun that lay there between the rest of his things. It all happened so fast that by the time Ianto turned around, alerted by the sound of the cell door opening, he already found the gun trained on his chest.
"Shit!" Jack yelled as he jumped to his feet, nearly knocking over Gwen who had leaned forward to see better. He dashed to the door. "Tosh! Put the sound stream of the CCTV on my earpiece!" he shouted as he ran towards the stairs. "Gwen, Owen, get your guns and guard the exit. Don't let him leave, no matter what!"
Jack ran so fast that the air was burning in his lungs. All the while his heart was thudding in his chest and there was no denying that it was with fear for Ianto. "I guess we'll be getting company soon," he heard Varot's smooth voice on his earpiece. He reached the steel door in record time, but just before he could throw his weight into it to push it open, the heavy bolts of the door slammed into place and locked it.
"No!" Jack yelled as he smashed his fists against the solid steel. Through the thick porthole he could see Varot holding up the silver lighter with a mock apologetic shrug. "Tosh, override the lockdown on the door to the cells in level 3!" he shouted into his headset.
"Sorry, but three's a crowd," Varot said into the earpiece. "I'd like some alone time with Ianto."
While he had been distracted with that, Ianto had taken the opportunity to make a move towards the door, but Varot had him around the wrist before he even got close to it and pulled him back hard.
"Ianto, your rejection wounds me," he said silkily as he drew Ianto's back against his chest, nudging his chin up with the barrel of the gun.
"Jay, please stop…"
"Oh, stop calling me that, for fuck's sake!" Varot exploded, causing Ianto to jerk at the sudden eruption. "I'm so sick and tired of this guy! Stupid, doting Jay who's always so spineless and insipid and fulfills his angsty boyfriend's every wish. How sick I am of him!"
He laughed at Ianto's futile struggling. "Oh yes, keep rubbing up against me like that. You know what I like." Ianto stopped immediately. "What? Where's the subservient, docile Ianto that I've enjoyed so profusely for the past few months? You're not going to deprive me now of the only thing that made spending time with you sufferable, are you?" He ran his lips along the other man's throat.
The noise Ianto made sounded like a mix between a sob and an angry growl as he strained to get away.
Varot chuckled. "What? Are you going to pretend now that we didn't have great sex? I will admit it was all part of the plan, but the fact that you were such a good fuck was an added bonus. Don't worry, I made sure that Jack knows that I used your body every night. You think he cares?"
"No, I don't," Ianto ground out. His eyes moved over to the porthole.
Jack met them with his own, wondering if Ianto really thought so. He did in fact care. So much that he felt ready to break the steel door with his bare hands any moment now.
"Oh, I think he does," Varot said smoothly. "Look at him. Maybe he's imagining me fucking you night after night right now and it's making him crazy."
"Don't listen to him!" Jack shouted, knowing how useless it was through the thick iron door.
Sure enough, Varot reacted with a wicked grin. "Aw look, he's trying to talk to you," he drawled, twisting Ianto's head around to face Jack. "Too bad we can't hear him. I wonder what he's saying… maybe he's saying, 'Go ahead and shoot him, I've grown tired of him anyway.' Hm, no, I don't think that's it. Maybe he's asking us to put on a show for him. What do you think?"
"Fucking bastard!" Jack yelled at Varot angrily.
"See, I know he likes to watch," he murmured as he moved his other hand up Ianto's throat, rubbing one finger casually across the other man's lips. "He watched us yesterday when I fucked your pretty mouth, did you know that? I'm sure it turned him on… you're such a sexy sight when you're down on your knees."
Varot chuckled at Ianto's outraged cry. "Oh yes, he's such a voyeur and he's listening in on us this very moment. Can't you see it on his face?"
"Tosh, what's going on?" Jack yelled angrily, holding Ianto's stare.
"I'm working on it, Jack! It's not that easy!"
"Hurry, dammit!"
"He seems rather upset to me though, don't you think?" Varot said mockingly as he looked at Jack as well. "Why don't you wave and say hello?" He loosened his grip around the other man.
As soon as Ianto's arms were free, he used them to elbow Varot in the pit of his stomach and make a dash for the door, but Varot recovered sooner than expected and fired a shot into the ground, right in front of Ianto. "Stop," he said coldly, raising the gun to point at Ianto's chest once more.
"Jack won't care that much if you shoot me," Ianto said defiantly as he stared back at the man threatening him.
"You think so? He's so annoyingly 51st century, isn't he, with his carefree approach to love and relationships. It would take a real tragedy to make him realize just how much he cares." Varot raised the gun to Ianto's head. "I think I can make him care."
"God, Tosh, do something, anything!" Jack stared at the gun pointing at Ianto, as if by sheer force of mind he could will it to not go off.
"I… I've got an idea!"
"Do it now!"
A second later the vaults, hallway and everything around Jack was plunged into total darkness. Beyond the heavy door there was a shout and the sound of a body slamming into another. Hands connected with skin and someone yelped. Then a shot cracked through the darkness, reverberating off the walls.
For one terrible moment, Jack didn't dare to breathe. He strained to hear anything on his earpiece but it seemed as if the gunshot had swallowed any other sound. He forced himself back into action and barked into the earpiece, "Turn the lights back on!"
"One moment, Jack!" The worry in Tosh's voice was obvious. "Got it!"
The lights flickered back on, blinding Jack for a moment. At the same time, the bolts of the door slid back. Jack lost no time, pushed against it and stormed into the room.
He found Ianto kneeling on the floor, the gun hanging from his loose fingers. In front of him, Varot lay face down, the puddle of blood underneath his body slowly spreading outwards. Jack took only a moment to assess the situation. Ignoring the body, he sank to his knees next to Ianto, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"I shot him," Ianto whispered blankly, not looking at Jack.
"It was self-defense," Jack said, squeezing the other man's shoulders.
Slowly, Ianto turned to look at him. As soon as he connected with Jack, tears welled up in his eyes. He dropped the gun, a metallic clatter on the tiled floor, as his hand shot up to his mouth, clasping over it. "Oh God, I shot him," he sobbed.
"There was nothing you could do," Jack said gently. "He would have shot you."
"But I don't understand!"
"Sssh, it's okay." Without thinking twice, Jack pulled Ianto into his arms, rubbing his hands carefully across the other man's back. "Are you injured?" he said close to Ianto's ear.
Ianto shook his head wordlessly, his tears wetting Jack's cheek.
"Are you sure you're not hurt? Maybe the shock…"
"Jack!" Ianto pulled back, his teary eyes now sparking with anger. "I hurt all over! But no, he hasn't caused me any physical injury." As he looked at Jack, a lonely tear ran down his cheek.
Gently, Jack caught it and rubbed it away with his thumb. He could tell that the thin shell of Ianto's control was about to crack. "All right. Let's get you out of here then." He got up and then offered Ianto his hand to help him up as well, but it was ignored.
Slowly, Ianto pulled himself up, carefully avoiding looking at the bloody corpse at his feet.
"Gwen, Owen, you can come down now," Jack said into his earpiece. He cast Ianto a quick glance, making sure he was at a safe distance before bending down and turning Varot onto his back.
There was a gaping hole right in the center of his chest and the entire front of his shirt was soaked with blood. Jack put two fingers against the other man's throat anyhow. When he couldn't detect a pulse, he felt satisfaction as well as regret at the fact that he hadn't been the one to put the bullet through him.
Jack was just getting up again when Owen and Gwen came into the room. Gwen immediately went over to Ianto who was standing in one corner, face buried in his hands. He let her hug him as he continued to cry silently.
"Is he dead?" Owen asked grimly as he stepped up next to Jack.
"Yeah."
"Too bad."
Jack flashed him a tired grin. "I know that feeling. Just get him to the morgue and we'll deal with him later."
Owen nodded. After a moment's hesitation he said, "Jack… all the things he said…"
"I know," Jack interrupted him curtly. Then he added, "I can honestly say that I have no idea what he was talking about." It wasn't even a lie. Ever since Varot had revealed himself, Jack's mind had been racing to try and figure out who he could be, but he kept drawing up blanks. "Guess we won't get those answers out of him anymore."
"Not bloody likely," Owen agreed.
"Jack, I think Ianto should go home soon. He's dead on his feet," Gwen called from the other side of the room as she lead Ianto towards the door.
Feeling a bit guilty about not having thought of removing the other man from the room sooner, Jack quickly joined them. "Yes, of course, but I want Owen to give him a quick physical. Just in case."
"Jack…" Ianto protested weakly, but he shut him up with one raised finger.
"No discussion. This is a direct order. Once I know everything is okay with you I'm personally going to see you home."
Ianto just shrugged in reply and followed Gwen upstairs.
When Jack could be sure that Ianto was submitting to Owen's physical as ordered, he retreated to his office. He was immediately greeted with the sight of the now static image of the cell, Varot's body lying in the center of it. Quickly, Jack switched off the monitor.
He sat down heavily on his chair for a moment. His mind was racing to process everything that had just happened, but he felt unable to. It all seemed too much. Yet there was one thing he needed to know before anything else.
Jack got up and went over to the safe, opening it with practiced speed. He removed a couple of boxes until he got to his private compartment. He opened the additional lock on it with his fingerprint and pulled out the steel strongbox.
A feeling of nostalgia swept through him when he looked at all the small bits and pieces he had accumulated over the years. Not many of them were from his actual past, before he had become the man he was now. He used to have holographic pictures of his parents, a long time ago, but at some point the batteries had run out and rendered them a useless piece of junk. That was when he had stopped keeping pictures.
When he had been forced to leave the Time Agency, he hadn't brought a lot of things. There hadn't been time. But one thing he had thought to bring. He had always considered it some kind of life insurance, should the Time Agency ever decide to come after him. After all, it was good to know your enemy.
It had been a long time since he'd last seen it. The small device the size of a cigarette box lay in his hand with surprising weight. The shiny white surface gave no indication of its valuable content.
When Jack pressed a button invisible on the smooth shell the device came to life, a round dial appearing in the center of it. 'Authorization,' the display above it prompted in bright red. Reluctantly, Jack lay his index finger on the dial. A red light went around it until the entire circle turned green and the display showed, "Authorization complete. Time Agent recognized." The database interface opened up.
Jack's finger hovered against the dial, considering what to search for now. Many agents such as himself weren't even listed with their full names. Would Varot be different? Shrugging, Jack entered the name. Much to his surprise, the display filled with row after row of information almost instantly. Slowly, he scrolled through it.
"Jeroen Varot,
"Born October 26th 5023 (37),
"Dependents: wife Liana Varot,
"Age of Recruitment: 22,
"Security level 7."
Jack skipped through the section of known associates as those would hardly be relevant now. He scanned the list of missions, but none of them really rang a bell either. The more he read about Varot the less likely it seemed they had ever crossed paths.
According to this, Varot was some kind of a genius. The list of his specialties and degrees seemed to go on forever and most of them involved some kind of scientific subject that Jack could only take a rough guess at what they meant.
Even without those two years missing from his memory, Jack just couldn't see himself associating with a lab rat like Varot must have been. So how had he earned himself such antagonism from the other man and such grim determination to pursue it?
Not feeling any more the wiser, Jack put the file on the desk and leaned back in his chair, mulling things over once more. He soon reached the conclusion that he'd never receive the answers that he was so desperate to hear.
Sighing softly, Jack abandoned his attempt to find out more about Varot and got up. When he entered the examination room, he saw Ianto just about to put his jacket back on. Owen had his back turned to the door and was writing something down on his clipboard. When he turned back at Ianto, he was holding a small container of pills in his hands.
"What's this?" Ianto asked, eyeing the bottle warily.
"A mild sedative. It'll help you get some rest."
Ianto's face hardened as he straightened out his tie. "I don't want it. My judgment is impaired enough already as it is, don't you think?" He cast Jack a stern look, clearly expecting support.
Owen shrugged. "Suit yourself. It's your funeral, mate. Just make sure you get some rest to get that pulse of yours down. Don't want to give yourself a heart attack from all the stress."
Upon hearing this, Jack stepped forward, alarmed. "Is there a risk?"
It appeared as if Owen only realized now that Jack was standing there. "Well, he's young and healthy, so I'd say no. But that still doesn't mean he shouldn't take it easy for a while now. A body can only take so much before it breaks down."
"Then I will personally see to it that he slows down," Jack promised with determination as he stepped next to Ianto and put a hand on his shoulder.
Ianto gave him a mildly amused look. "And how are you going to do that?"
"Tie you to the bed, if I have to. But for the time being I think a hot bath is just the thing you need right now."
"You know," Ianto said, looking at him thoughtfully. "In the old days you would have thrown in a nice, slow fuck for good measure."
Surprisingly, Jack felt an embarrassed heat crawl up his cheeks. "Well, it didn't seem appropriate at this particular moment," he explained after a stunned pause.
"But maybe that is exactly what I need." The look that Ianto directed at him was unwavering and penetrating. For a moment, Jack didn't know what to say.
"Uh right. This will be my cue to call it a night. Or day, rather," Owen cut into the tension as he walked over to the chair and grabbed his jacket from it. "I've been up way too long to listen to this. And get some bloody rest, Ianto." They both watched him make his exit before looking at each other again.
"Come on, I'll take you home," Jack said thickly. To his endless relief, Ianto just nodded obligingly and let himself be led out of the room.
~ to be continued ~