Quelled or Quenched (7/7)
Title: Quelled or Quenched
Author: rev02a
Beta: comestodecember
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, language
Cast: Team, all canon parings, past Ianto/OC, Rhiannon & Co.
A/N: The title comes from the poem “Binsey Poplars” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. This is AU.
Summary: Torchwood One’s mantra of “if it’s alien, it’s ours” may suit the dreams of rebuilding an empire, but does little for ethical concerns. In 1998, Captain Jack Harkness becomes aware of the imprisonment and experimentation on the Ambassador of the Forest of Cheem.
Back to Part Six
Part 7
10 January 2008
Ianto’s hair was blossoming in little leaves, Jack noted. He glanced over his shoulder as they ran. Suzie and Owen were giving chase.
That meant that Gwen and Tosh were around somewhere. He looked up ahead of them and wasn’t surprised to see a black SUV pulling onto the side street. He grabbed Ianto’s hand and tugged him into a covered market.
The smell of butchered meat assaulted his nose. Memories of torture rose to mind with the scent. Jack’s stomach turned. Ianto tugged him forward and they dodged between people. The market itself wasn’t exceeding large. Instead of stalls, little shops with large glass windows were set up inside. Some florists let their wares spread into the walkway, but by in large, it was easy to pass through the market unhindered.
The other entrance led them onto a busy street, and Jack was momentarily turned around. Ianto grinned and ran again, leading Jack by the hand. He ducked into an ancient church. Jack looked behind them, but Ianto didn’t let him pause in the doorway long. He marched into the church’s gift shop-a growing phenomenon recently-and bought two entrance fees to the crypt. He and Jack hurried down the stone steps.
The crypt was quiet and cool. No one was visiting the church, so there was nothing there but stone alcoves. Pausing, Jack pulled out his mobile and punched into the team’s phones’ locations.
Ianto leaned close and looked over his shoulder. “Will that give us away?”
Jack smiled and closed the phone program. “Have no idea. This was clever.”
“Maybe, or maybe they’ll narrow down where we are by process of elimination,” Ianto offered with a shrug.
Jack sighed and took Ianto’s hand. A glint of silver made him raise Ianto’s arm up to look at his wrist. Ianto had very pretty wrists, Jack noted, with a smile.
The hair and vine bracelet was gone. The Heert designed bracelet he’d given Ianto for Christmas was in its place. Jack’s heart fluttered. Ianto smiled softly.
“I love you, you know,” he commented, offhandedly.
Jack looked up in surprise. Ianto laughed.
“Don’t be daft. You’ve known for a while. You love me too.”
Jack prepared to deny Ianto’s claims and then grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
There was a commotion above them. It sounded like raised voices from the gift shop. Still holding Ianto’s hand, Jack pulled Ianto to the far side of the room and moved behind a pillar.
Jack wondered if he should draw his gun. His team would be carrying, without a doubt, and would shoot Ianto without question. This knowledge settled heavily in his stomach. He pushed Ianto against the pillar. Ianto rolled his eyes.
It was no secret when the team snuck down the stone steps. Even being quiet, their footsteps echoed in the stone crypt. In his mind, Jack imagined the room and then ran through possible maneuvers he would suggest to his team for that set up.
It came down to how they would split up. Would Suzie take the lead alone or with Owen? Would she break pattern and take Gwen instead? Would Tosh stay back and monitor with her PDA?
“Jack! Come out!” Gwen yelled, her voice echoed off the walls.
Jack wondered at the level of Suzie’s glare at that moment. Ianto stiffened against the pillar. Jack squeezed his hand.
They were essentially cornered. He could come out first, but would his team shoot him? They knew he would revive, after all. Finally, Jack decided their best bet was for Ianto to use him as a shield and to come out willingly.
They stepped around the pillar as one, hands clearly raised.
Suzie and Owen were closest, guns drawn. Gwen was only a step behind, ready to defend Tosh since her hands were full.
“Turn yourself in, Jack,” Suzie suggested. “We know that they have done something to your mind, but we can help.”
Jack laughed loudly. “My mind, huh?”
Gwen nodded, her gun dropping a few inches. “We know all about you protecting them, Jack. It’s all right now, we’ll stop the aliens and get your mind back.”
Jack sighed. “You’re all idiots.”
Gwen visibly started and raised her gun again. Ianto tensed.
“Step away from Jack!” Gwen shouted, as she hurried forward.
Immediately, Jack and Ianto retreated. Jack remained between the gun and his lover.
“Gwen!” Suzie snapped, “Stand down!”
With a safer distance between them, Jack began to attempt to persuade his team to trust them.
“We’re leaving the planet,” he began.
Owen’s eyes widened and Suzie looked skeptical. Tosh didn’t appear to react, but she didn’t seem happy.
“What?” Gwen exclaimed. “You can’t leave! You are here to protect the planet!”
Suzie moved forward and grabbed Gwen by the arm. She tried to pull the other woman back into formation.
“You left us Jack! We had no idea what happened to you! And now you’re leaving with an alien!” Gwen continued, even as she was pulled backward.
“I found my Doctor-another alien-and now I’m leaving with Ianto. We deserve the rest,” Jack explained. “You should let us go.”
Tosh lowered her PDA. Owen’s gun wavered.
“No, we’re not going to let you go,” Suzie explained, her voice hardening. “You’re on a contract with Torchwood. You have been for since the 1800s. You’re not getting out of-“
“This is ridiculous,” Ianto noted, dismissively. “We’ve done nothing wrong. You broke into my flat and kidnapped my family and me. You threatened us. Now you’re hunting us in a church. We were at the bank!”
“Alien threats should be contained,” Suzie snapped.
At this, Owen holstered his gun. “Jack, you went willingly?”
Jack nodded.
“And you didn’t go with the trees?” Tosh continued.
“Nope,” Jack replied.
Tosh inched toward the stairs again. “Suzie, this isn’t something we should be involved in.”
Owen glanced back at Jack and nodded. He followed Tosh.
“This is insubordination!” Suzie shouted, her voice ringing off the old stone walls.
“So is holding your boss hostage,” Jack sneered.
“You deserted your post,” Suzie snapped. Her finger stroked the trigger of her gun.
“I had to go.”
Gwen safetied her gun, but didn’t put it away.
“Let us go,” Jack persuaded.
Gwen’s hands shook.
“It’s that or shoot,” he concluded.
A gunshot rang out and Jack’s world slowed. His Webley was out of its holster without any conscious though. He fired two shots before he raced to Ianto’s side.
Blood puddle on the floor and for a moment, Jack was back on the Valiant and Ianto was dying at his feet again.
“Ianto! Ianto!” he begged gathering the man into his arms.
Ianto looked at him in confusion and then glanced down at the bullet wound on his arm.
“It’s just a scrape,” he commented, seemingly surprised himself.
“Oh my God,” Tosh yelled, as she and Owen descended the stairs at a run. She dropped to Suzie’s side and took her pulse.
Jack knew there was no reason to do so. The headshots had been precise. In all his years, he hadn’t missed a target yet.
He didn’t wait to see what his former employees would do upon learning that two of their own were dead. He ripped Ianto’s shirt into rags and tied them around the wound. Then he drug Ianto to his feet and they hurried up the stairs and out into the daylight.
The SUV was parked illegally next to the door. Jack shoved Ianto into the passenger seat and used the emergency ignition to start the engine. He flipped on the lights and ignored most of the traffic laws as he drove to the hotel where his family was staying.
“Look behind you,” he ordered, “there should be medical supplies. Make sure there’s a suture kit.”
Ianto groaned as he turned. Jack chanced a glance at him. Already the blood loss was making him pale.
Jack drug Ianto into their hotel room and set him on the hotel bed. He wasted no time. He grabbed a syringe that was sure to have some sort of pain relief and jabbed it into Ianto’s bicep. Then, with war-honed skill, he began to stitch the wound closed.
In truth, the wound was too small to have required kill shots to people he had considered friends. Ianto would live without question. Even so, Jack attached an IV drip.
He bandaged the wound, and then knocked on the door that separated the hotel rooms. Rhia shrieked when she saw the blood on both men. She immediately set to nursing her brother and demanded that Jack shower.
It was risky, but Jack knew they didn’t have time to waste since the SUV’s tracker would bring Owen and Tosh directly to them. It wouldn’t take much detecting work to find the room that the bleeding man was taken to.
As soon as it their belongings were gathered and some saline was in Ianto, Jack drew his family close.
He handed over half of the trinkets to David and the other half to his sister, “Keep these safe.”
The children looked at him solemnly and nodded. Then the diamonds went to Rhia. Finally, the other items were divided into knapsacks that were worn by everyone but Ianto.
“Everyone put your hand on my wrist strap here. You must be touching the strap, ok? And when I say so, take a deep breath. It’s going to make you feel funny,” he explained.
Tosh registered a Rift alert at the same hotel the SUV’s tracker was located. She archived the alert and went to inform Owen.
6 April 2008
“Where did he go?” Martha asked, worried. “He wouldn’t go closer to the date, would he?”
The Doctor looked solemn. “Come on, then.”
He led his companion to the door of the TARDIS.
“Doc! Wait for us!” Jack yelled, and the Doctor turned in surprise.
Jack was holding Ianto up, but the others looked well enough.
“You did it then?” the Doctor asked, annoyed. “The fear of tearing a hole in Space and Time isn’t warning enough?”
Jack looked back at the Doctor without a touch of jocularity. “I would tear apart the universe itself for him.”
The Doctor took a step back and examined the younger man. He was drawn and pale.
“I’d like to get him into the TARDIS’ medical suite, if you don’t mind?” Jack suggested, only half joking.
“Oh, of course!” the Doctor threw the door open and his new band of tree people entered.
“I’m a doctor,” Martha offered, following Jack and his lover down a hall.
The children and their mother, however, were stopped in the doorway, surveying the space.
“It’s…” Rhia commented, her words floating away.
“How would you measure it, Mum?” David asked, looking around the surface.
“It’s rectangles on the outside,” Mica commented, “but a cylinder inside.”
“I think we’d need a lot of paper,” Rhia noted, turning a slow circle to take all the area in.
“And maybe some integrals,” David added, smugly.
“Wait, we can’t!” Mica argued, “Uncle Ianto hasn’t explained those to me yet!”
The Doctor smiled wider and wider. Oh yes, they would fit in just fine.
The Void
With a live patient to care for, Martha was slower to demand to return to her family. It was apparently on her mind with the Davies there, but she refused to part with the responsibility of Ianto’s health.
The children and their mother had gone to bed hours ago. Mica had insisted that the Doctor explain emotive energy at his earliest convenience. For this reason, the Doctor was consulting two tomes in the library. Jack knocked when he saw how invested the Doctor was to his study.
“It’s not a hard theory-well, to me anyway-but to apes, well half apes, half vegetation-not to say the Forest of Cheem is lacking in the mental ability department, far from it, but these didn’t get the basics of Cheem training-so to water that whole understanding down for humans to understand and then again for children-“ he waved at the books before him, “I’m just making sure I don’t confuse them.”
Jack laughed, just a little and without letting down his guard. The Doctor studied him.
“What can I do for you, Captain?” he asked, mentally preparing to lecture Jack about the stupidity of his rescue mission.
“I would like you to drop us off in the Nitcharure District in the 23rd Century. At a space port or ship sales point, if possible,” he requested, his fingers intertwined in his lap.
The Doctor pursed his lips. “Those ships are family vehicles, known for their speed, longevity, and security-but no ability to travel in time and it’s sort of like a minivan.”
Jack smiled indulgently. “I’ve got a family now, haven’t I?”
The Doctor lowered his glasses to look at Jack. “I suppose you have.”
Jack nodded, but was clearly waiting on the response. The Doctor slid his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and returned his gaze to his books.
“You do know that in 2368, the 24th Century, technically, unless you’re looking at a Yarm calendar then it’s the Year Six, the Nitcharure begin that sort of travel for potential buyers. Sort of a space cruise and sales pitch in one-it might be a nice introduction to space travel. For, well, them-your family.”
Jack smiled brightly, not the grin of a Time Agent or of a conman, but a grateful friend.
“Before you go, Captain,” the Doctor interrupted, “I thought you’d said your Torchwood was different. But they tortured those people-your own family.”
Suddenly, darkness hung around Jack and his eyes glinted with sadness. “I thought they were different… I really thought so, Doc.”
The Doctor shifted in his chair. “Did you punish them for that?”
Jack looked uneasy. “I did. More than I would have cared to.”
189 Starsdate, Year 2374
The years were good to Jack. Ianto would agree, but with a trace of sarcastic humor.
He stood now with his bare feet in a six by six box of dirt with the space equivalent of a cigarette hanging from his fingers. Jack watched him from the doorway, with waves of affection and lust in turns.
Rhia was napping and the children finishing their studies for the day. The smooth purr of the ship told Jack that the autopilot was plenty happy to be in charge of the cruiser for the moment.
“Captain,” Ianto said, warmly. His eyes drank in Jack’s long form.
“Jones,” Jack returned, intently watching Ianto’s lips sealed around his cigarette.
Ianto chuckled as he exhaled smoke. “We in for smooth sailing?”
Jack nodded his affirmative and stepped closer. The automatic door slid shut with a hiss behind him.
“Is it all you imagined?” Ianto asked, dropping the cigarette into a nearby ashtray.
“It doesn’t matter; I’m happy,” Jack returned, stroking Ianto’s cheek.
“That surprises you?” he asked in reply, leaning into the touch.
“Does it surprise you?” Jack turned the question.
“Yes, every moment. I am just an experiment gone rogue. I never expected to make my own decisions-let alone be free.”
Jack studied his partner before pulling him into a kiss. “I know exactly how you feel.”
Sometimes, when the others were sleeping, Jack wondered about Tosh and Owen, about Torchwood, about the small, unknown planet of SOL THREE. He felt guilty that his other families never knew him this way, that he has killed so effortlessly, that he has fled his responsibilities without a second thought.
Then sometimes, he daydreamed about the infinite days ahead of him. How lonely and long they will be without this current happiness. How, he wondered, will he live without Rhia’s mothering, Mica’s developing spirituality, David’s scientific inquiry?
Mostly, he wondered how he would live without Ianto.
It amazed him that once; the boy was nothing but an experiment whose tight arse caught his eye. Once, Ianto was a depressed, heartbroken widower. Once, Ianto was the thing that Jack ran from.
Jack let his eye drift from Ianto’s gaze to the swirling wood pattern of his skin. He reached out and grabbed Ianto’s wrist, the cool metal of the Heert bracelet rested on his hand.
“I love you, you know,” he offered, the way he and Ianto always had.
Ianto smiled, before he leaned forward for another kiss. Yvonne Hartman didn’t develop a solider, nor did she help rebuild the British Empire, but she certainly saved Jack Harkness from himself.
“Ever had sex in a box of soil?” he teased.
Ianto rolled his eyes. “You know the answer to that.”
“Let’s remedy that problem, shall we?”
And they did.
Author: rev02a
Beta: comestodecember
Rating: R
Warnings: Violence, language
Cast: Team, all canon parings, past Ianto/OC, Rhiannon & Co.
A/N: The title comes from the poem “Binsey Poplars” by Gerard Manley Hopkins. This is AU.
Summary: Torchwood One’s mantra of “if it’s alien, it’s ours” may suit the dreams of rebuilding an empire, but does little for ethical concerns. In 1998, Captain Jack Harkness becomes aware of the imprisonment and experimentation on the Ambassador of the Forest of Cheem.
Back to Part Six
Part 7
10 January 2008
Ianto’s hair was blossoming in little leaves, Jack noted. He glanced over his shoulder as they ran. Suzie and Owen were giving chase.
That meant that Gwen and Tosh were around somewhere. He looked up ahead of them and wasn’t surprised to see a black SUV pulling onto the side street. He grabbed Ianto’s hand and tugged him into a covered market.
The smell of butchered meat assaulted his nose. Memories of torture rose to mind with the scent. Jack’s stomach turned. Ianto tugged him forward and they dodged between people. The market itself wasn’t exceeding large. Instead of stalls, little shops with large glass windows were set up inside. Some florists let their wares spread into the walkway, but by in large, it was easy to pass through the market unhindered.
The other entrance led them onto a busy street, and Jack was momentarily turned around. Ianto grinned and ran again, leading Jack by the hand. He ducked into an ancient church. Jack looked behind them, but Ianto didn’t let him pause in the doorway long. He marched into the church’s gift shop-a growing phenomenon recently-and bought two entrance fees to the crypt. He and Jack hurried down the stone steps.
The crypt was quiet and cool. No one was visiting the church, so there was nothing there but stone alcoves. Pausing, Jack pulled out his mobile and punched into the team’s phones’ locations.
Ianto leaned close and looked over his shoulder. “Will that give us away?”
Jack smiled and closed the phone program. “Have no idea. This was clever.”
“Maybe, or maybe they’ll narrow down where we are by process of elimination,” Ianto offered with a shrug.
Jack sighed and took Ianto’s hand. A glint of silver made him raise Ianto’s arm up to look at his wrist. Ianto had very pretty wrists, Jack noted, with a smile.
The hair and vine bracelet was gone. The Heert designed bracelet he’d given Ianto for Christmas was in its place. Jack’s heart fluttered. Ianto smiled softly.
“I love you, you know,” he commented, offhandedly.
Jack looked up in surprise. Ianto laughed.
“Don’t be daft. You’ve known for a while. You love me too.”
Jack prepared to deny Ianto’s claims and then grinned. “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”
There was a commotion above them. It sounded like raised voices from the gift shop. Still holding Ianto’s hand, Jack pulled Ianto to the far side of the room and moved behind a pillar.
Jack wondered if he should draw his gun. His team would be carrying, without a doubt, and would shoot Ianto without question. This knowledge settled heavily in his stomach. He pushed Ianto against the pillar. Ianto rolled his eyes.
It was no secret when the team snuck down the stone steps. Even being quiet, their footsteps echoed in the stone crypt. In his mind, Jack imagined the room and then ran through possible maneuvers he would suggest to his team for that set up.
It came down to how they would split up. Would Suzie take the lead alone or with Owen? Would she break pattern and take Gwen instead? Would Tosh stay back and monitor with her PDA?
“Jack! Come out!” Gwen yelled, her voice echoed off the walls.
Jack wondered at the level of Suzie’s glare at that moment. Ianto stiffened against the pillar. Jack squeezed his hand.
They were essentially cornered. He could come out first, but would his team shoot him? They knew he would revive, after all. Finally, Jack decided their best bet was for Ianto to use him as a shield and to come out willingly.
They stepped around the pillar as one, hands clearly raised.
Suzie and Owen were closest, guns drawn. Gwen was only a step behind, ready to defend Tosh since her hands were full.
“Turn yourself in, Jack,” Suzie suggested. “We know that they have done something to your mind, but we can help.”
Jack laughed loudly. “My mind, huh?”
Gwen nodded, her gun dropping a few inches. “We know all about you protecting them, Jack. It’s all right now, we’ll stop the aliens and get your mind back.”
Jack sighed. “You’re all idiots.”
Gwen visibly started and raised her gun again. Ianto tensed.
“Step away from Jack!” Gwen shouted, as she hurried forward.
Immediately, Jack and Ianto retreated. Jack remained between the gun and his lover.
“Gwen!” Suzie snapped, “Stand down!”
With a safer distance between them, Jack began to attempt to persuade his team to trust them.
“We’re leaving the planet,” he began.
Owen’s eyes widened and Suzie looked skeptical. Tosh didn’t appear to react, but she didn’t seem happy.
“What?” Gwen exclaimed. “You can’t leave! You are here to protect the planet!”
Suzie moved forward and grabbed Gwen by the arm. She tried to pull the other woman back into formation.
“You left us Jack! We had no idea what happened to you! And now you’re leaving with an alien!” Gwen continued, even as she was pulled backward.
“I found my Doctor-another alien-and now I’m leaving with Ianto. We deserve the rest,” Jack explained. “You should let us go.”
Tosh lowered her PDA. Owen’s gun wavered.
“No, we’re not going to let you go,” Suzie explained, her voice hardening. “You’re on a contract with Torchwood. You have been for since the 1800s. You’re not getting out of-“
“This is ridiculous,” Ianto noted, dismissively. “We’ve done nothing wrong. You broke into my flat and kidnapped my family and me. You threatened us. Now you’re hunting us in a church. We were at the bank!”
“Alien threats should be contained,” Suzie snapped.
At this, Owen holstered his gun. “Jack, you went willingly?”
Jack nodded.
“And you didn’t go with the trees?” Tosh continued.
“Nope,” Jack replied.
Tosh inched toward the stairs again. “Suzie, this isn’t something we should be involved in.”
Owen glanced back at Jack and nodded. He followed Tosh.
“This is insubordination!” Suzie shouted, her voice ringing off the old stone walls.
“So is holding your boss hostage,” Jack sneered.
“You deserted your post,” Suzie snapped. Her finger stroked the trigger of her gun.
“I had to go.”
Gwen safetied her gun, but didn’t put it away.
“Let us go,” Jack persuaded.
Gwen’s hands shook.
“It’s that or shoot,” he concluded.
A gunshot rang out and Jack’s world slowed. His Webley was out of its holster without any conscious though. He fired two shots before he raced to Ianto’s side.
Blood puddle on the floor and for a moment, Jack was back on the Valiant and Ianto was dying at his feet again.
“Ianto! Ianto!” he begged gathering the man into his arms.
Ianto looked at him in confusion and then glanced down at the bullet wound on his arm.
“It’s just a scrape,” he commented, seemingly surprised himself.
“Oh my God,” Tosh yelled, as she and Owen descended the stairs at a run. She dropped to Suzie’s side and took her pulse.
Jack knew there was no reason to do so. The headshots had been precise. In all his years, he hadn’t missed a target yet.
He didn’t wait to see what his former employees would do upon learning that two of their own were dead. He ripped Ianto’s shirt into rags and tied them around the wound. Then he drug Ianto to his feet and they hurried up the stairs and out into the daylight.
The SUV was parked illegally next to the door. Jack shoved Ianto into the passenger seat and used the emergency ignition to start the engine. He flipped on the lights and ignored most of the traffic laws as he drove to the hotel where his family was staying.
“Look behind you,” he ordered, “there should be medical supplies. Make sure there’s a suture kit.”
Ianto groaned as he turned. Jack chanced a glance at him. Already the blood loss was making him pale.
Jack drug Ianto into their hotel room and set him on the hotel bed. He wasted no time. He grabbed a syringe that was sure to have some sort of pain relief and jabbed it into Ianto’s bicep. Then, with war-honed skill, he began to stitch the wound closed.
In truth, the wound was too small to have required kill shots to people he had considered friends. Ianto would live without question. Even so, Jack attached an IV drip.
He bandaged the wound, and then knocked on the door that separated the hotel rooms. Rhia shrieked when she saw the blood on both men. She immediately set to nursing her brother and demanded that Jack shower.
It was risky, but Jack knew they didn’t have time to waste since the SUV’s tracker would bring Owen and Tosh directly to them. It wouldn’t take much detecting work to find the room that the bleeding man was taken to.
As soon as it their belongings were gathered and some saline was in Ianto, Jack drew his family close.
He handed over half of the trinkets to David and the other half to his sister, “Keep these safe.”
The children looked at him solemnly and nodded. Then the diamonds went to Rhia. Finally, the other items were divided into knapsacks that were worn by everyone but Ianto.
“Everyone put your hand on my wrist strap here. You must be touching the strap, ok? And when I say so, take a deep breath. It’s going to make you feel funny,” he explained.
Tosh registered a Rift alert at the same hotel the SUV’s tracker was located. She archived the alert and went to inform Owen.
6 April 2008
“Where did he go?” Martha asked, worried. “He wouldn’t go closer to the date, would he?”
The Doctor looked solemn. “Come on, then.”
He led his companion to the door of the TARDIS.
“Doc! Wait for us!” Jack yelled, and the Doctor turned in surprise.
Jack was holding Ianto up, but the others looked well enough.
“You did it then?” the Doctor asked, annoyed. “The fear of tearing a hole in Space and Time isn’t warning enough?”
Jack looked back at the Doctor without a touch of jocularity. “I would tear apart the universe itself for him.”
The Doctor took a step back and examined the younger man. He was drawn and pale.
“I’d like to get him into the TARDIS’ medical suite, if you don’t mind?” Jack suggested, only half joking.
“Oh, of course!” the Doctor threw the door open and his new band of tree people entered.
“I’m a doctor,” Martha offered, following Jack and his lover down a hall.
The children and their mother, however, were stopped in the doorway, surveying the space.
“It’s…” Rhia commented, her words floating away.
“How would you measure it, Mum?” David asked, looking around the surface.
“It’s rectangles on the outside,” Mica commented, “but a cylinder inside.”
“I think we’d need a lot of paper,” Rhia noted, turning a slow circle to take all the area in.
“And maybe some integrals,” David added, smugly.
“Wait, we can’t!” Mica argued, “Uncle Ianto hasn’t explained those to me yet!”
The Doctor smiled wider and wider. Oh yes, they would fit in just fine.
The Void
With a live patient to care for, Martha was slower to demand to return to her family. It was apparently on her mind with the Davies there, but she refused to part with the responsibility of Ianto’s health.
The children and their mother had gone to bed hours ago. Mica had insisted that the Doctor explain emotive energy at his earliest convenience. For this reason, the Doctor was consulting two tomes in the library. Jack knocked when he saw how invested the Doctor was to his study.
“It’s not a hard theory-well, to me anyway-but to apes, well half apes, half vegetation-not to say the Forest of Cheem is lacking in the mental ability department, far from it, but these didn’t get the basics of Cheem training-so to water that whole understanding down for humans to understand and then again for children-“ he waved at the books before him, “I’m just making sure I don’t confuse them.”
Jack laughed, just a little and without letting down his guard. The Doctor studied him.
“What can I do for you, Captain?” he asked, mentally preparing to lecture Jack about the stupidity of his rescue mission.
“I would like you to drop us off in the Nitcharure District in the 23rd Century. At a space port or ship sales point, if possible,” he requested, his fingers intertwined in his lap.
The Doctor pursed his lips. “Those ships are family vehicles, known for their speed, longevity, and security-but no ability to travel in time and it’s sort of like a minivan.”
Jack smiled indulgently. “I’ve got a family now, haven’t I?”
The Doctor lowered his glasses to look at Jack. “I suppose you have.”
Jack nodded, but was clearly waiting on the response. The Doctor slid his glasses back up the bridge of his nose and returned his gaze to his books.
“You do know that in 2368, the 24th Century, technically, unless you’re looking at a Yarm calendar then it’s the Year Six, the Nitcharure begin that sort of travel for potential buyers. Sort of a space cruise and sales pitch in one-it might be a nice introduction to space travel. For, well, them-your family.”
Jack smiled brightly, not the grin of a Time Agent or of a conman, but a grateful friend.
“Before you go, Captain,” the Doctor interrupted, “I thought you’d said your Torchwood was different. But they tortured those people-your own family.”
Suddenly, darkness hung around Jack and his eyes glinted with sadness. “I thought they were different… I really thought so, Doc.”
The Doctor shifted in his chair. “Did you punish them for that?”
Jack looked uneasy. “I did. More than I would have cared to.”
189 Starsdate, Year 2374
The years were good to Jack. Ianto would agree, but with a trace of sarcastic humor.
He stood now with his bare feet in a six by six box of dirt with the space equivalent of a cigarette hanging from his fingers. Jack watched him from the doorway, with waves of affection and lust in turns.
Rhia was napping and the children finishing their studies for the day. The smooth purr of the ship told Jack that the autopilot was plenty happy to be in charge of the cruiser for the moment.
“Captain,” Ianto said, warmly. His eyes drank in Jack’s long form.
“Jones,” Jack returned, intently watching Ianto’s lips sealed around his cigarette.
Ianto chuckled as he exhaled smoke. “We in for smooth sailing?”
Jack nodded his affirmative and stepped closer. The automatic door slid shut with a hiss behind him.
“Is it all you imagined?” Ianto asked, dropping the cigarette into a nearby ashtray.
“It doesn’t matter; I’m happy,” Jack returned, stroking Ianto’s cheek.
“That surprises you?” he asked in reply, leaning into the touch.
“Does it surprise you?” Jack turned the question.
“Yes, every moment. I am just an experiment gone rogue. I never expected to make my own decisions-let alone be free.”
Jack studied his partner before pulling him into a kiss. “I know exactly how you feel.”
Sometimes, when the others were sleeping, Jack wondered about Tosh and Owen, about Torchwood, about the small, unknown planet of SOL THREE. He felt guilty that his other families never knew him this way, that he has killed so effortlessly, that he has fled his responsibilities without a second thought.
Then sometimes, he daydreamed about the infinite days ahead of him. How lonely and long they will be without this current happiness. How, he wondered, will he live without Rhia’s mothering, Mica’s developing spirituality, David’s scientific inquiry?
Mostly, he wondered how he would live without Ianto.
It amazed him that once; the boy was nothing but an experiment whose tight arse caught his eye. Once, Ianto was a depressed, heartbroken widower. Once, Ianto was the thing that Jack ran from.
Jack let his eye drift from Ianto’s gaze to the swirling wood pattern of his skin. He reached out and grabbed Ianto’s wrist, the cool metal of the Heert bracelet rested on his hand.
“I love you, you know,” he offered, the way he and Ianto always had.
Ianto smiled, before he leaned forward for another kiss. Yvonne Hartman didn’t develop a solider, nor did she help rebuild the British Empire, but she certainly saved Jack Harkness from himself.
“Ever had sex in a box of soil?” he teased.
Ianto rolled his eyes. “You know the answer to that.”
“Let’s remedy that problem, shall we?”
And they did.