"Set An Extra Place For Dinner!"

[notsoperfect10]

"Set An Extra Place For Dinner!"
Who: Doctor (me), Theta (handoften ), Alt Ianto (stopwatchlover ...also me)
Why:  The Doctor brings home a stray.  The Valeyard was NOT kind.

Comments

[handoften]

"I need him."

Something had happened tonight, something that had upset Theta greatly and driven him back into being the cold beast that he was back when he had first arrived. The Storm was alive and spinning behind his eyes, not really seeing either of the Time Lords but instead the bundle of person.

"I'll take him. You two go and get cleaned up. Go to bed. I will be there soon enough."

His flat and monotone voice didn't seem to be inviting discussion on this matter.

[notsoperfect10]

The Doctor didn't feel much like talking either. He needed a bath. A real one. He needed to wash off the blood, get a milkshake he could enjoy, and sleep. If he could sleep. The Valeyard kept away the Box, but the Master could do that too. And if Theta joined them...

That actually rewarded the monotoned man a smile, even if he didn't appreciate it. Handing over the moaning Welshman, he placed a hand on Theta's shoulder and kissed his ear.

"Right smell, very good," he whispered. "I missed the strawberries."

And then he left Theta alone with the Welshman. If he had been thinking clearly, the Doctor would have just let him outside. It would have been kinder.

[handoften]

"Thank you," Theta whispered. He had to be in the right frame of mind for this, to do what was needed to someone like Ianto Jones. Right now, he couldn't afford to be broken out of that.

"I'll see you in a bit."

Once the pair were gone, Theta dropped into his chair by the console. Hands that were deceptively gentle reached down to take Ianto's in his own. A low clink could be heard as he drew something from his pocket. A snap-hiss followed. The space of a few seconds followed before what would have felt like a white-hot darning needle was shoved into the sensitive skin between Ianto's forefinger and thumb. It was an old trick to bring someone back to consciousness.

Theta's other hand held tight to what he helped were Ianto's broken fingers.

"Time to wake up!" he cheerfully announced.

[stopwatchlover]

Time to wake up indeed! The cry was not quite as soft as one might expect from a person in this condition. Ianto's throat was much too raw. The Doctor was well beyond hearing any of this, and even if he wasn't, the TARDIS was forever on Theta's side, knowing instinctively how to help and hinder whomever Theta wished.

The flutter of blue eyes was incomplete at first but by the time fresh blood flowed, he was wriggling about, good and awake. Throat dry, he glanced around his surroundings and if he had any tears left to cry, he might have taken up bawling like a baby.

The Red TARDIS was not his friend.

[handoften]

Drawing the heated needle out, he dropped it to the console and squeezed hard with his other hand. His intention was to make bone grit on bone, bruise those muscles worse.

"If I haven't introduced myself, let me now. My name is Theta Sigma. You're Ianto Jones. You see, I don't particularly like you as most people could have told you. In my world, I slaughtered most of your Torchwood team. Tosh, Owen, and about thirty others have met their end by me. You were the only one I didn't get to kill. Might be time to make up for that now."

A savage grin came to Theta's lips, his empty eyes focusing on Ianto. There was no soul in them.

His trainer shoved against Ianto's chest, meaning to strain those broken fingers and the arm they were attached to.

"What's my name, Ianto?"

[stopwatchlover]

He'd already started talking well before Theta asked him a direct question. "You were in the cement!" he cried out, gritting his teeth. He'd held out remarkably for the Valeyard -- and though he and Theta were wearing different clothes, who would not make the connection between one man hurting him and another? -- but now he was tired, already twelve or so hours into his torture from when he'd been picked up on the way to the grocery store in the morning

[handoften]

"I was, yes. Didn't ever think to look down there, did you

[notsoperfect10]

No! No, Ianto would have known that! His eyes filled with more than pain. There was genuine confusion there, and he shook his head because the agony in his limbs were literally pulling the words right into his stomach to be digested.

He hadn't been with Torchwood for five years. How could he have-- It dawned on him that Theta was speaking about someone else. The other him. The one Jack lost, the one he -- and ten other Iantos evidently -- replaced.

Tears coated his dusty eyelashes as the half-human's fingers pressed against snapped limbs. What was suppose to be an: 'Oh God, I'm sorry!' ended up more like a shrill "Aaaaaannngh!!"

[handoften]

One-two-three-four.

Theta watched the changes on the Welshman's face, that small and humourless smile on his lips. He studied the changes that the pain brought across the other's with the interest of a true sadist that couldn't wait to see how the blood flowed from the newest wound.

One-two-three-four, tapped tapped tapped out on Ianto's broken ribs.

"If you pass out, I'll bring you back. See this?" he asked lifting up the needle-like device again. He clicked it, and the flame came back to life to heat up the point. "It goes right through the eyelid like a needle through butter and into the eyeball. The heat of it causes the fluid in there to boil, finally bursting out in a shower. So, unless you want those pretty blues to be resting on your cheeks next, I suggest you stay with me."

He drummed out another four-beat, watching with that savage interest.

[stopwatchlover]

The promise of danger was not as terrifying as where Ianto's mind went. Torture was done for two reasons and two reasons only. One, to gather information. Two, to release some into pressure in the tormentor. Ianto's mind swirled. He could not have any information that Theta did not already have. Codes for the Hub? Theta had them. Access to Jack? Theta had that too.

Imagining that device exploding his eye jerked him from the deaths of unconsciousness again and again even when the pain had broken him. Ianto was not strong. He had no training to restrain himself, to block out his own suffering, to visit a compartment in himself where the anguish was just a background noise in a haze of other sensations.

There was only so much screaming he could do, only so much twitching, but he fought admirably to stay conscious the entire time. It was singularly impressive.

[handoften]

"Your little mind is working right now, trying to find the 'why'. I've done this quite a bit needless to say."

The flame went out as Theta sat back up. Ianto's hand was taken back in his own. What looked like a black handle was drawn out of his pocket, the button thumbed. As he did, the blade popped out. To the casual viewer, it seemed to flutter slightly as if moved by an unfelt breeze.

"The problem is that there isn't a reason. Even with me telling you this, your primitive mind will keep scrabbling for one. Why? Because you're human, and if you can force a circumstance to make sense, then you can bear it."

He gripped Ianto's hand with surprising gentleness and steel at the same time. The tip of the sonic switchblade began to descend towards his unprotected palm.

"Such horrible things happen to a human's mind when it keeps flailing for something and finding nothing. It's a lot like falling and never seeing the ground come up to meet you."

[stopwatchlover]

Somewhere between the circle and the second diagonal line in theta Ianto's eyes rolled to the side and he gazed across the floor he had spent a lot of time on recently towards familiar brown boots.

'Jack...'

'I'm not really here, kid. Sorry.'

Ianto half shrugged, lips moving like he had turned into a fish forced out of water. 'That's all right. I've grown use to you not being here.'

'You're doing really well, Yan. Look at you. You'll make it out. He doesn't want to kill you. Just hold on a little more.'

Fat tears -- amazing considering how dehydrated he was from spending the better part of the day half naked and in the sun -- rolled down his cheeks. 'Will you come back?'

'I don't think so. Not this time.'

Jack was cruel even in Ianto's mind. But it did distract him enough not to flinch or close his fingers.

[handoften]

With a flourish, he finished the last curve of his name. Another click, and the blade was gone, back into its handle. He twisted Ianto's hand down so that it was forced in front of the Welshman's eyes. Whether he saw it or not was another matter. The wounds didn't bleed profusely, as thin as paper-cuts but deeper than they looked. They would scar into perfect lines, giving at least a twinge or two for a time to come unless Torchwood healed them deeply enough. Tendons were so difficult to repair.

"See? Now you won't forget me, Ianto. You won't be stupid and forget me again. Would you have left Jack buried in the ground for five years? Would you have left him to drown that time when the pipes burst and my cell filled up with the Bay's water? I doubt it. Now, you'll always have a reminder of me. Of Theta Sigma."

Theta leaned back in his chair.

"Now you may pass out if you like. When you wake up, you'll be back at Torchwood. Good night, Ianto."

[notsoperfect10]

Ianto's eyes slid closed, perfectly fine to be acting on cue. He did not dream that Jack's fingers stroked his hair or soothed him because Jack Harkness was not a source of comfort, but a signal for disaster and a harbinger of doom.

Sleep did not come, just a trembling, twilight glow until the world edged away and blackness came. Ianto would learn to love the blackness in the days and weeks to come, to cherish it when the nightmares took a holiday in Paris.