Fic: The Spaces In Between - Part four
Part three.
Part four.
Warm morning sunlight floods through the window, and Jack wakes.
Some time during in the night, Ianto has curled against him, an arm draped loosely about his waist, breath warm against the back of Jack's neck.
Jack lies there, warm, content, and still half asleep, his mind filled with the memories of the few lazy mornings that he and Ianto had managed to spend together when the Rift had been quiet, until the roar of a ship's engine high above the motel jars him fully awake.
Reality hurts, and he swallows hard, a lump in his throat, the sudden rush of loss and grief threatening to overwhelm him.
Carefully lifting Ianto's arm so as not to disturb him, Jack gets off the bed, and heads to the bathroom. Locking the door behind him, Jack runs the taps, splashing cold water over his face, until he's satisfied that he is properly awake and back in control of his emotions.
Ianto is still asleep when Jack leaves the bathroom. Not wanting to start working on the power cells without him, and realising that Ianto is likely to be hungry as well when he wakes, Jack lets himself out of the room as quietly as he can, and heads to the nearest café he can find.
The motel is close to the spaceport and it doesn't take long for him to find one that serves food that's suitable for humans.
Ianto wakes up as Jack comes back in, the door closing loudly behind him.
“How you feeling?” Jack asks, putting the bag and drinks holder down on the table.
Ianto looks at Jack, bleary eyed. “Worse than I did after Owen's stag do, and that's saying something.”
“Owen got married?” Jack asks, surprised.
“Yes, Tosh asked him.” Ianto gets out of bed, biting back a groan as he accidentally leans on his injured hand. “I don't think I'd have been too bad after the stag night, it was only because of the frogs.”
“Frogs?” Jack hangs up his coat.
“Hallucinogenic alien frogs that somebody was trying to sell in the club as a natural high,” Ianto explains, putting on his shirt and trousers. “It took us weeks to catch all of them. Well, those that didn't explode anyway.”
“I miss fun aliens like that.”
“Yes.” Ianto smiles. “Although somehow I doubt the dry cleaner saw it that way when I dropped off my suit. The slime was disconcertingly sticky.”
Jack laughs, finding that for the first time in months he's actually looking forward to the day ahead. Not just because Ianto is there, but because he's working on something that that has meaning, something that isn't con designed to get him enough money to keep travelling, trying to outrun the heaviness in his heart, or when that fails as it always does, to pay for drinks so that just for a night be can pretend that it has.
“Wasn't sure what you'd want to eat, so I got what seemed popular,” Jack says, opening the bag, and handing Ianto a couple of flat breads filled with an egg and cheese mixture.
“Thank you,” Ianto says gratefully, sitting down to eat.
“Enjoying that?” Jack asks, when Ianto has eaten most of his breakfast in the space of a few minutes.
“'s good,” Ianto replies around a mouth full of food. “I mean, it's fresh food, bread.” He points to one of the flat breads. “You have no idea how much I've missed food that doesn't come out of a can.”
Jack just smiles. Although not really the same thing, he remembers growing up on the Boeshane Peninsula, colony world, where for half the year all the food needed to be imported; freeze dried food still reminds him of his childhood home.
Ianto looks at the mug of the local tea-like drink that Jack has bought him, and then asks, “This is maybe too much to hope, but people do drink coffee on Earth, don't they?”
“There's coffee.” Jack laughs, the memories of Ianto handing him his morning coffee, of him trying to teach Owen how to use the coffee machine without causing it to blow up, are so bittersweet that he knows it's either that or cry.
The mood turns serious again as Jack asks,“You're planning on going to Earth then?”
“Back to Cardiff, yes.” Ianto says slowly, trying to gauge what Jack's response to that is likely to be. “Is that going to be a problem?”
“What will you do about your family?”
“I, I mean he, had a family?” Ianto asks, surprised, sounding like he's never even considered the possibility.
“A sister, her husband, their kids.” Jack hasn't seen them since the funeral, unable to deal with their grief as well as his own, and the presence of Ianto's nephew, who'd been similar enough in age to Stephen, being too hard to bear. “Don't know how they'd take you turning up. Would you try to see them?”
“I don't know.” Ianto pushes the remaining food away from him. “I hadn't really though...” He sighs. “I'd lost my family before everything with the Earth being moved happened.”
“Ianto-”
“No, Jack. I can't deal with this, not right now.” Ianto gets up from the table. “After I get Owen and Tosh here safely, then I'll think about it.”
Seeing that Ianto doesn't want to continue with the conversation, Jack lets the matter drop.
* * *
“Let's see what we've got,” Jack says, looking at the power cells laid out on the table. He knows it's going to be a slow job stripping down the power cells, checking them for damage and then reassembling them, before the can begin recharging them. He also knows that if even a single one is faulty and they try to use it the consequences could be devastating, as it could set off a chain reaction in the rest of the cells, causing an explosion that would destroy half the city.
One of the cells are from a cyberconversion unit. It's proof of how desperate the situation must be for Ianto to consider using it. Jack gives Ianto a questioning look.
“We had to use whatever was available, and this still worked,” Ianto says sounding unhappy about it. Taking it from Jack he asks, “Torchwood London being wiped out by Cybermen happened in your world too, didn't it?”
“Yeah,” Jack replies, deciding not to elaborate on what happened, especially about Lisa, unless Ianto asks.
He doesn't.
Ianto looks at the power cell for a few moments as if trying to come to a decision, then says, “Last night, I told you I met Jack when I fell in Cardiff Bay, it was because was trying to stow aboard one of the steamers. I hadn't considered that he would be on board having an rather intimate meeting with one of the crew.”
“Steamers?” Jack asks confused. “I thought they stopped running those out of Cardiff in the '60's.”
“No.” Ianto begins to take the outer casing off the power cell, a task made harder by the fact that he's trying not to put any strain on his injured hand. “I mean, what else would there be? Sailing ships?”
“Diesel, mostly.” Jack frowns, wondering just how different life had been in Ianto's world, and how easily he will be able to adjust to this one.
“I'd have thought that would be too expensive,” Ianto says mostly to himself.
After a few minutes Ianto asks, “You're not going to ask why I was trying to stow away on a ship?”
“I thought I knew,” Jack says, realising that he's making an assumption based on what happened in this world. “You were trying to help Lisa, taking her to somewhere to try and get the cyber conversion removed, right?”
“No. Lisa died in London, she was part of the team who blew up the generator cutting off the power and stopping the ghost shift. She helped save us all.” Ianto looks at him, a haunted expression in his eyes, as he puts the cell down. “But I saw what happened to those that had been converted, what the security teams did, that's why I was running. They didn't want people left around who knew.”
“They tried to kill all the survivors of the attack?” Jack asks, horrified. He knows that Torchwood One had been ruthless, but this is on completely different level.
“They were scared. Scared of what had happened, of what they'd done, scared that they'd be found out, and of what would happen to them.” Ianto shakes his head looking wearily and resigned. “People who are scared do stupid things.”
“It doesn't excuse it though,” Jack says, knowing that his own actions in Thames House could be seen in just such a way.
“I never said it did.” Ianto looks steadily at him. “But it makes it more understandable. After all, if we don't have understanding, what do we have?”
Jack doesn't have an answer. He sighs, wishing that he had Ianto's optimism.
Stopping only when necessary to eat and drink, they work late into the evening. Talking helps the time to pass quickly, despite progress on the power cells being frustratingly slow. The technological differences between their worlds form most of the conversation. The main difference is, as far as Jack tell, that Ianto's world had far less in the way of natural oil and gas reserves, and the technology had developed reflecting that.
Jack can see that Ianto is starting to struggle to keep working, both in terms of having enough energy and from the pain in his injured hand which he is forcing himself to use.
He is about to suggest that they take a break when the screwdriver Ianto is using to pry open one of the power cell casings slips, scoring a groove in the tabletop.
“I'll finish up,” Jack says, picking up the screwdriver before Ianto can make another attempt. He's impressed that Ianto has managed to work so hard for as long as he has. “It shouldn't take me too long. You get some rest if you want.”
Ianto looks like he's going to protest for moment, then nods wearily. “Alright, but wake me as soon as you're done.”
“Sure,” Jack lies easily. He's got no intention of waking Ianto so soon, not when Ianto will need all the rest he can get if he's not going to completely exhaust himself rescuing Tosh and Owen.
Not bothering to get undressed, Ianto falls asleep almost as soon as he lays down on the bed.
With Ianto asleep again, Jack turns his attention back to the two remaining power cells.
A couple of hours later, once the last of the power cells is checked and recharging, Jack walks over to the window, and looks at the city.
He knows that once Ianto has brought Owen and Tosh through to this world he'll to have to make the decision whether to stay here on his own or return to Earth with them.
He's never thought of himself as a coward, but the idea of going back to Cardiff, of having to face all the people he's let down, scares him.
Gwen who he's left to shoulder the burden of running Torchwood on her own. Alice whose trust he's betrayed so badly that he knows that there is nothing that he can do to ever repair hurt he's caused her. Even the people of Cardiff who he's left undefended against everything that the Rift throws at them.
Standing with one hand against the grimy pane, Jack looks up at the stars. Their light blurring, lost in a haze of tears, as he silently weeps for all that he's lost and all that he knows that he still has to lose.
* * *
Reconnecting all the recharged power cells and the circuit breakers in the right order takes the most of the morning. As soon as it is done Ianto connects his vortex manipulator to them.
“You're leaving?” Jack asks, surprised and a little disappointed that Ianto would go without even saying goodbye.
“Not right now.” Ianto smiles reassuringly at him. “I need to check that it's working correctly. I am going to have to leave soon though. You do understand, don't you?”
“Yeah.” Jack hates the idea of being left alone again, the last day reminding him of all that he's lost.
Switching it on, Ianto accesses the teleport controls. As he does, the display on the vortex manipulator lights up for a moment before flickering and then going out. He taps the screen, but nothing happens.
“Problem?” Jack asks.
“I think you're stuck with me for a bit longer,” Ianto says, disconnecting it.
Although it's said fairly lightly heartedly Jack can hear the barely disguised worry in Ianto's voice. “We'll fix it,” Jack reassures him. Then adds, knowing that now Ianto has the coordinates for this world they don't need his vortex manipulator home in on. “And if we can't you can use mine.”
“You'd do that for me?”
“I'm not going to let you down.”
Switching off the vortex manipulator, Jack waits for a moment, then tries turning it back on. It powers up with no problem, but as soon as he tries to access the teleport controls the screen goes dead the same as it had for Ianto.
“What do you think?” Ianto asks, as he watches Jack open vortex manipulator control panel.
“I think part of the teleport control circuit is malfunctioning.”
“I wish Tosh was here,” Ianto says dejectedly. “She'd know how to fix this.”
“I know what I'm doing,” Jack says. He's lost count of the number of times over the years that he's repaired, or tried to repair his vortex manipulator.
“I just feel so useless.” Ianto sighs, getting up and pacing.
“Don't. You've done all you can.”
“It doesn't feel like it's enough.”
“It never does,” Jack says sadly.
“Is Torchwood part of the military in this world?” Ianto asks, looking at the insignia on the greatcoat.
“No.” Jack looks round to see Ianto running his fingers over the eagle motif on the buttons. “I was in the RAF, well sort of.”
“RAF?” Ianto says sounding a little puzzled. “I'm not sure what that is, it's a beautiful coat though.” Looking at the stains on it with distaste, Ianto adds, “Well, it would be if you got it cleaned once in a while.”
“Yeah, I should.” Jack knows just how annoyed Ianto would be if he could see the state the coat was now in. “It was given to me after -” He stops. “You wouldn't be interested.”
“I don't think now is the time anyway,” Ianto says, leaving the coat, and walking back over to Jack. He sits on the edge of the table. “After all this is done though, maybe you could tell me about it. About him.”
“Maybe,” Jack says non-committally. He's not sure if he's ready to talk about what happened with the 456 or his relationship with Ianto, both memories hurt too much, although in completely different ways.
Opening Ianto's vortex manipulator, Jack can see that the internal layout is of a more basic design than his own, with all the chip sets and circuits working independently of each other. Hoping that he'll be able to find a way around the differences, Jack starts working on trying to find out which part controls the teleport and why it has stopped working.
It's slow, tedious work finding out exactly which part has gone wrong, but eventually he locates it. Unfortunately it's the spatial regulator; a vital part that allows the person teleporting to materialise safely. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, he could just swap it with his own. However the one in Ianto's vortex manipulator works separately from the other controls, and it's this separation that has allowed it to work as a dimension teleport. It's something that his own can't do.
Still hoping that he can somehow find a way to make his own vortex manipulator work like this, perhaps by switching off some of the functions or removing part of the circuit-board from his, Jack keeps working.
Eventually though, he has to admit defeat.
“I'm sorry,” Jack says, knowing that he's done all he can with what they've got available, having exhausted all the combination of parts he can think of to get either one of the vortex manipulators to work.
"No." Ianto looks bleakly at the pieces of the two vortex manipulators scattered on the table top. "There's no way of fixing it?"
"I didn't say that." Jack picks up the burnt out spatial regulator chip, running through the possible options of where they can get another quickly. Legal routes aren't really an option; he doesn't have that sort of money readily, but there are a couple of other possibilities. "If we'd been here a century or so later we could have picked one up from just about any trader we could find.”
“I can use it without,” Ianto says, not really listening to what Jack is saying, and trying to stop any objections before they're made. He gets up and starts pacing. “I've got the coordinates for the Hub on my world, and we can fine tune the ones for here.”
“No way,” Jack says quickly. “You try re-materialising without the regulator and you could end up appearing halfway through a wall or the floor.”
“I know it's a risk, but I’m not waiting any longer, Jack,” Ianto says defiantly. “And they can’t wait any longer. There's not much power left in the system, they might not have days for us work out how to repair this.”
“All right, there is one place, but if we going to go we need to go now,” Jack says, picking up his coat. He knows that without the time to plan properly the only thing they'll have in their favour while trying to get in is the cover of darkness.
“Then what are we waiting for?”
“It's going to be dangerous.” Jack's not entirely sure if he's trying to warn Ianto off coming with him, or if he's trying to remind himself not take any stupid risks with any lives other than his own.
“Nothing new there then,” Ianto says with a wry smile, as he follows Jack out of the motel, and into the night.
Part five.