Fic: A Song as Old as Time. (14/15)
Title: A Song as Old as Time (14 of 15)
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto (eventually), alien OCs.
Word count: this part 2450 of total 34,000.
Rating: PG13
Summary: A chance visit to a bar and the unexpected arrival of an old acquaintance raises a lot questions for Jack and creates a dangerous situation for Ianto.
Notes: This is set during the first series after 1x06 Countrycide, but before 1x08 They Keep Killing Suzie. Yes, it has got one part longer, but the next part should be the last.
part one part two part three part four part five
part six part seven part eight part nine part ten part eleven part twelve part thirteen
Once outside it doesn't take Jack long to find them. Sitting on a bench just to the side of the auditorium, Ianto has is hands braced against his knees, as he takes deep, shuddering breaths. While beside him, the Shipmother rubs his back, trying to calm him.
“You did not tell me he is a sensitive,” the Shipmother says as Jack approaches. “I would have found somewhere outside for him to wait if I had know. You should not have placed him in such a position, not when he is untrained.”
“He said he'd be alright.”
“I am. I will be, really. I just need a few more minutes,” Ianto says, sounding disorientated as he stares glassy eyed at the blood on Jack's hands. A moment later he dives off the bench. Staggering a few steps away, he doubles over, and retches into the gutter.
“Go and wash your hands. You're upsetting him,” the Shipmother says, sounding annoyed for the first time since they've met her. “We'll be here when you get back.”
Cursing his thoughtlessness, Jack looks around. There's a fountain not too far away, and after a quick glance about to make sure nobody is about to tell him that he can't, Jack washes his hands in it.
The blood hasn't dried yet and washes off relatively easily, but Jack waits until he sees the Shipmother help Ianto back to the seat before walking back over to them.
Stopping before he gets too close, he asks, “Do you need me to keep away for a while longer?”
Shivering, arms wrapped about himself, Ianto shakes his head, looking wretched.
“Come, he needs quiet,” the Shipmother says, guiding them back through the crowds still gathered around the auditorium. She puts a hand on Ianto's shoulder. “I will find somewhere you can clean yourself up.”
The walk through the streets is much shorter than the one through the corridors, a fact for which Jack is grateful. As although Ianto looks marginally better once they are away from the crowds, he is still pale and shivering, when they eventually stop outside a small building at the edge of a series of sports pitches.
“You will not be disturbed here,” the Shipmother says, unlocking the door for them. “I must leave you both for a short time, there are things that I need to attend to, but I will return as soon as I am able.”
“Sure, take as long as you need.” Jack suspects it's in connection with Grell. He's not sure if she'd seen Grell's near collapse in the auditorium, but he has no doubt that she knows his time is short.
Once they are inside it's obvious that the building is dressing rooms and showers for the sports pitches.
Walking over to a row of sinks, Ianto looks in the mirror at his ruined shirt, the rips and stains caused by his scuffle with Vron now joined with flecks of vomit.
“Told you you should have let me have the shirt,” Jack says, keeping his tone light, hoping that it will help Ianto feel more at ease.
“You might be right,” Ianto replies quietly, as he unfastens the remaining buttons with shaking fingers.
Turning away, Jack gives him a few minutes to clean himself up. It's not warm enough to sit or walk around topless, and once he's decided he's given him long enough he turns back.
Bruises sustained tackling Vron to the ground are visible on Ianto's arms and chest. Taking off his greatcoat, Jack holds it out to him. “You need this more than me.”
“Thank you,” Ianto says, teeth chattering slightly, as he accepts it.
Ianto bare chested beneath the greatcoat is, Jack thinks, a really rather appealing image. If Ianto were feeling better, he's sure that he'd be tempted to slip his arms about his waist and to hold him close. It would be even better if he were bare chested too, and able to feel the short curling hairs on Ianto's chest again own.
Ianto is looking at him with a faintly amused smile. “You never switch off, do you?”
“I see a gorgeous guy, my minds only going one place,” Jack says, relieved that not only does Ianto sound a little less shocky than he'd done before, but that that he apparently doesn't mine the sort of thoughts he's having about him. Appearances with Ianto though are often deceiving, and he asks, “How are doing?”
“I'm not sure yet,” Ianto says, sitting down on the row of benches and pulling the coat tighter about himself. “I keep thinking I'm going to be fine, and then suddenly it all seems too much again, and I…” He stops looking unwilling to say more.
Although he's not keen on pushing him when he's like this, Jack thinks that letting Ianto keep it all inside is probably going to be worse in the long run than trying to get him to talk about it. “Look, I know you probably don't want to talk, but I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong.”
Hands clasped tightly in his lap, Ianto sighs. “I just want to to go home. I want clothes that don't have blood on them. I want put on some music and hide in my bed and block the world until I know which feelings are mine and which aren't. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
It isn't, because Jack had been hoping there would be something that he could do there and then. “I'll just have to make sure we get home fast then, won't I?”
“I'll manage until then. I always do.” There's an undercurrent of bitterness in his voice that he can't quite hide, and he sighs again. “What will happen now? Here I mean.”
“Once Grell dies state mourning for a week or so I guess, and then who knows. Grell hoped this would head off any reprisals. I only hope he was right.”
“Would it have been any different if I'd told them what I saw?”
“No.” Jack puts a hand on his shoulder. “Vron killed Grell, and their law says he had to die for that. I know it’s hard to understand, you’ve never lived anywhere with the death penalty, but some places…”
Ianto gives him a withering look. “Don’t patronise me. I’m not a child who doesn’t understand what the world is like.”
“Okay.”
“No, it’s not okay,” Ianto says angrily. Standing up again, he turn away, wiping a hand across his eyes. “I just helped send somebody to their death.”
It would be too easy to retaliate and point out he'd actually had to do the killing. It doesn't make Ianto's point any less valid though. It's a bad situation for all concerned. Sighing, Jack says, “Vron knew what the penalty would be if he were caught when he decided to kill Grell, and he did it anyway. None of this is your fault.”
“I know.” Ianto hangs his head, looking exhausted. “But I hate it. I hate feeling all this. I just want to be able to shut it out.”
“We're going to need to work on your shielding when we get back,” Jack says, wanting to turn the subject back towards something positive.
“You know how?”
“Not really,” Jack admits. Leaning back against the wall he sighs. “I did some basic telepath training once. I could manage the blocking part, but not much else. I could try to teach you what I remember of it, and maybe something will work.”
“And that raises so many more questions that it answers.”
“Would it help if I said it was long ago and...”
“And in a galaxy far far away?” Ianto rolls his eyes. “Great, I'm considering sleeping with Obi-Wan Kenobi randy younger cousin.”
Jack laughs, then realises Ianto is staring at him.
“I said that out loud, didn't I?” Ianto says, covering his face with a hand. “You should probably ignore that. I mean I'm not really thinking that well at the moment.”
“You're thinking just fine.” Jack puts his arms around him. Relieved to find that he doesn't tense up or pull away, he adds, “And you know how I feel about you. You must do.”
“You feel lots of different things about me, and they may all be true at the time you feel them.” Ianto smiles sadly. “But that doesn't tell me what you really think about me.”
“What am I feeling right now?” Taking hold of Ianto's hand, Jack places it over his heart. He knows that it won't improve Ianto's ability to sense what he's feeling, but he hope it will help him understand that what he feels is more than a passing lustful infatuation.
“You're worried and upset, and trying not to let it show, You care about me.” Ianto opens his eyes, surprised and pleased “You really care a lot about me.”
“And don't you every doubt that, not for a minute.”
There's a knock at the door and Jack reluctantly lets go of Ianto.
Opening the door, he find the Shipmother outside. “Is something wrong?”
“No, but it is time for you to go.” She looks over at Ianto who is buttoning up the greatcoat. “Although if you need a little longer, I can wait.”
Ianto blushes slightly, and says, “No, we're ready.”
One day, Jack thinks, we're going to find time for an uninterrupted conversation, even if it means putting the Hub into lockdown with us both inside when we get back.
“Is there a reason you want to get rid us so quickly?” Jack asks, as they walk back through the ship to the room they’d teleported into when they first arrived.
“A number of the elders, mostly those in opposition to what Grell was trying to do, objected to the fact that you'd been brought on board at all,” she says, handing Jack one of the teleportation bracelets that they'd used to come aboard the Devor ship. “They think you should have been left on the planet.”
“Are we in danger if we remain here?” Ianto asks, looking around, seeming to expect armed guards lurking in every shadow.
“No, but it would be better for you and for us if you were to go. There are many things to arrange now that Grell has passed, and I will not have the time to spend with you to explain what is going on.”
“He's dead then?” Jack knows that Grell knew he didn't have long, but this is faster than he'd thought, and he finds that he wishes he'd had a chance to say goodbye.
“Yes, and I shall miss him greatly. But he takes his place in history, and our lives go on. Your lives need to go on too.” She points to the stone in the centre of the bracelet. “Press it once and it will return you to the gardens where the debt was settled. I've already set the coordinates.”
“You're giving this to us?” It's unusual for Devorians to give anything of any value, in Jack's experience. Trade, or a least owing a favour for it, are much more their style.
“It's only got enough power for one more short trip after this,” she says, placing it around Jack's wrist. “Then the energy will be spent. It will nothing more than jewellery.”
“Thank you,” Ianto says smiling at her. “You've been very kind to us.”
“It is no more than you deserve. You have helped us in what is a trying time, and asked for nothing of my house in return.”
“Your house?” Jack asks, curious that she should refer to it as such, when she hasn't done so until now.
“It was what Grell asked of me when I spoke to him. That I take over as the head of this house,” she says sadly. “If I had known then that would be the last time would be able to speak with him I should have said more, told him so many things.”
“It sounds like you already know what you're going to do,” Jack says, knowing all too well the look of weary resignation in her eyes.
“You are right. It is a choice, yet it is no choice at all. I think he knew that anybody standing in opposition to my appointment would struggle to find favour in any quarter. All the same it is not an office I sort, nor would have wanted under such circumstances.” She looks down as one of the gems in the bracelet she wears flashes briefly. “The elders wish to see me, and I cannot keep them waiting.”
The Shipmother dips her head, and takes a step back to give them room to teleport. “Now go, and may good luck go with you.”
Jack raises a hand in salute. “You too.”
Lowering his arm, he puts it around Ianto. “Hold on tight.”
Jack presses the largest of the gems. For a moment nothing seems to be happening then it starts to glow faintly, before bursting into a bright flash of light.
Closing his eyes, Jack's aware of the same dizzying sensation as before, and when he reopens them they're back in the gardens by the Customs House on Aphelion.
Dawn is little more than an hour away, if the first few streaks of light already appearing on the horizon are anything to go by. The gardens are deserted, the city around it only just starting to wake up again.
Stumbling slightly, Ianto makes his way to one of the benches and sits down. Hunching forwards, looking cold and miserable, he says, “Were stuck here, aren't we? Jubel's gone.”
Jack would like to be able to tell him otherwise, but everything he knows about Jubel tells him that he would have taken Sibel and run. They’re stranded on an alien world with little money, no contacts and no way home.
Part fifteen: http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/180811.html#cutid1
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto (eventually), alien OCs.
Word count: this part 2450 of total 34,000.
Rating: PG13
Summary: A chance visit to a bar and the unexpected arrival of an old acquaintance raises a lot questions for Jack and creates a dangerous situation for Ianto.
Notes: This is set during the first series after 1x06 Countrycide, but before 1x08 They Keep Killing Suzie. Yes, it has got one part longer, but the next part should be the last.
part one part two part three part four part five
part six part seven part eight part nine part ten part eleven part twelve part thirteen
Once outside it doesn't take Jack long to find them. Sitting on a bench just to the side of the auditorium, Ianto has is hands braced against his knees, as he takes deep, shuddering breaths. While beside him, the Shipmother rubs his back, trying to calm him.
“You did not tell me he is a sensitive,” the Shipmother says as Jack approaches. “I would have found somewhere outside for him to wait if I had know. You should not have placed him in such a position, not when he is untrained.”
“He said he'd be alright.”
“I am. I will be, really. I just need a few more minutes,” Ianto says, sounding disorientated as he stares glassy eyed at the blood on Jack's hands. A moment later he dives off the bench. Staggering a few steps away, he doubles over, and retches into the gutter.
“Go and wash your hands. You're upsetting him,” the Shipmother says, sounding annoyed for the first time since they've met her. “We'll be here when you get back.”
Cursing his thoughtlessness, Jack looks around. There's a fountain not too far away, and after a quick glance about to make sure nobody is about to tell him that he can't, Jack washes his hands in it.
The blood hasn't dried yet and washes off relatively easily, but Jack waits until he sees the Shipmother help Ianto back to the seat before walking back over to them.
Stopping before he gets too close, he asks, “Do you need me to keep away for a while longer?”
Shivering, arms wrapped about himself, Ianto shakes his head, looking wretched.
“Come, he needs quiet,” the Shipmother says, guiding them back through the crowds still gathered around the auditorium. She puts a hand on Ianto's shoulder. “I will find somewhere you can clean yourself up.”
The walk through the streets is much shorter than the one through the corridors, a fact for which Jack is grateful. As although Ianto looks marginally better once they are away from the crowds, he is still pale and shivering, when they eventually stop outside a small building at the edge of a series of sports pitches.
“You will not be disturbed here,” the Shipmother says, unlocking the door for them. “I must leave you both for a short time, there are things that I need to attend to, but I will return as soon as I am able.”
“Sure, take as long as you need.” Jack suspects it's in connection with Grell. He's not sure if she'd seen Grell's near collapse in the auditorium, but he has no doubt that she knows his time is short.
Once they are inside it's obvious that the building is dressing rooms and showers for the sports pitches.
Walking over to a row of sinks, Ianto looks in the mirror at his ruined shirt, the rips and stains caused by his scuffle with Vron now joined with flecks of vomit.
“Told you you should have let me have the shirt,” Jack says, keeping his tone light, hoping that it will help Ianto feel more at ease.
“You might be right,” Ianto replies quietly, as he unfastens the remaining buttons with shaking fingers.
Turning away, Jack gives him a few minutes to clean himself up. It's not warm enough to sit or walk around topless, and once he's decided he's given him long enough he turns back.
Bruises sustained tackling Vron to the ground are visible on Ianto's arms and chest. Taking off his greatcoat, Jack holds it out to him. “You need this more than me.”
“Thank you,” Ianto says, teeth chattering slightly, as he accepts it.
Ianto bare chested beneath the greatcoat is, Jack thinks, a really rather appealing image. If Ianto were feeling better, he's sure that he'd be tempted to slip his arms about his waist and to hold him close. It would be even better if he were bare chested too, and able to feel the short curling hairs on Ianto's chest again own.
Ianto is looking at him with a faintly amused smile. “You never switch off, do you?”
“I see a gorgeous guy, my minds only going one place,” Jack says, relieved that not only does Ianto sound a little less shocky than he'd done before, but that that he apparently doesn't mine the sort of thoughts he's having about him. Appearances with Ianto though are often deceiving, and he asks, “How are doing?”
“I'm not sure yet,” Ianto says, sitting down on the row of benches and pulling the coat tighter about himself. “I keep thinking I'm going to be fine, and then suddenly it all seems too much again, and I…” He stops looking unwilling to say more.
Although he's not keen on pushing him when he's like this, Jack thinks that letting Ianto keep it all inside is probably going to be worse in the long run than trying to get him to talk about it. “Look, I know you probably don't want to talk, but I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong.”
Hands clasped tightly in his lap, Ianto sighs. “I just want to to go home. I want clothes that don't have blood on them. I want put on some music and hide in my bed and block the world until I know which feelings are mine and which aren't. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
It isn't, because Jack had been hoping there would be something that he could do there and then. “I'll just have to make sure we get home fast then, won't I?”
“I'll manage until then. I always do.” There's an undercurrent of bitterness in his voice that he can't quite hide, and he sighs again. “What will happen now? Here I mean.”
“Once Grell dies state mourning for a week or so I guess, and then who knows. Grell hoped this would head off any reprisals. I only hope he was right.”
“Would it have been any different if I'd told them what I saw?”
“No.” Jack puts a hand on his shoulder. “Vron killed Grell, and their law says he had to die for that. I know it’s hard to understand, you’ve never lived anywhere with the death penalty, but some places…”
Ianto gives him a withering look. “Don’t patronise me. I’m not a child who doesn’t understand what the world is like.”
“Okay.”
“No, it’s not okay,” Ianto says angrily. Standing up again, he turn away, wiping a hand across his eyes. “I just helped send somebody to their death.”
It would be too easy to retaliate and point out he'd actually had to do the killing. It doesn't make Ianto's point any less valid though. It's a bad situation for all concerned. Sighing, Jack says, “Vron knew what the penalty would be if he were caught when he decided to kill Grell, and he did it anyway. None of this is your fault.”
“I know.” Ianto hangs his head, looking exhausted. “But I hate it. I hate feeling all this. I just want to be able to shut it out.”
“We're going to need to work on your shielding when we get back,” Jack says, wanting to turn the subject back towards something positive.
“You know how?”
“Not really,” Jack admits. Leaning back against the wall he sighs. “I did some basic telepath training once. I could manage the blocking part, but not much else. I could try to teach you what I remember of it, and maybe something will work.”
“And that raises so many more questions that it answers.”
“Would it help if I said it was long ago and...”
“And in a galaxy far far away?” Ianto rolls his eyes. “Great, I'm considering sleeping with Obi-Wan Kenobi randy younger cousin.”
Jack laughs, then realises Ianto is staring at him.
“I said that out loud, didn't I?” Ianto says, covering his face with a hand. “You should probably ignore that. I mean I'm not really thinking that well at the moment.”
“You're thinking just fine.” Jack puts his arms around him. Relieved to find that he doesn't tense up or pull away, he adds, “And you know how I feel about you. You must do.”
“You feel lots of different things about me, and they may all be true at the time you feel them.” Ianto smiles sadly. “But that doesn't tell me what you really think about me.”
“What am I feeling right now?” Taking hold of Ianto's hand, Jack places it over his heart. He knows that it won't improve Ianto's ability to sense what he's feeling, but he hope it will help him understand that what he feels is more than a passing lustful infatuation.
“You're worried and upset, and trying not to let it show, You care about me.” Ianto opens his eyes, surprised and pleased “You really care a lot about me.”
“And don't you every doubt that, not for a minute.”
There's a knock at the door and Jack reluctantly lets go of Ianto.
Opening the door, he find the Shipmother outside. “Is something wrong?”
“No, but it is time for you to go.” She looks over at Ianto who is buttoning up the greatcoat. “Although if you need a little longer, I can wait.”
Ianto blushes slightly, and says, “No, we're ready.”
One day, Jack thinks, we're going to find time for an uninterrupted conversation, even if it means putting the Hub into lockdown with us both inside when we get back.
“Is there a reason you want to get rid us so quickly?” Jack asks, as they walk back through the ship to the room they’d teleported into when they first arrived.
“A number of the elders, mostly those in opposition to what Grell was trying to do, objected to the fact that you'd been brought on board at all,” she says, handing Jack one of the teleportation bracelets that they'd used to come aboard the Devor ship. “They think you should have been left on the planet.”
“Are we in danger if we remain here?” Ianto asks, looking around, seeming to expect armed guards lurking in every shadow.
“No, but it would be better for you and for us if you were to go. There are many things to arrange now that Grell has passed, and I will not have the time to spend with you to explain what is going on.”
“He's dead then?” Jack knows that Grell knew he didn't have long, but this is faster than he'd thought, and he finds that he wishes he'd had a chance to say goodbye.
“Yes, and I shall miss him greatly. But he takes his place in history, and our lives go on. Your lives need to go on too.” She points to the stone in the centre of the bracelet. “Press it once and it will return you to the gardens where the debt was settled. I've already set the coordinates.”
“You're giving this to us?” It's unusual for Devorians to give anything of any value, in Jack's experience. Trade, or a least owing a favour for it, are much more their style.
“It's only got enough power for one more short trip after this,” she says, placing it around Jack's wrist. “Then the energy will be spent. It will nothing more than jewellery.”
“Thank you,” Ianto says smiling at her. “You've been very kind to us.”
“It is no more than you deserve. You have helped us in what is a trying time, and asked for nothing of my house in return.”
“Your house?” Jack asks, curious that she should refer to it as such, when she hasn't done so until now.
“It was what Grell asked of me when I spoke to him. That I take over as the head of this house,” she says sadly. “If I had known then that would be the last time would be able to speak with him I should have said more, told him so many things.”
“It sounds like you already know what you're going to do,” Jack says, knowing all too well the look of weary resignation in her eyes.
“You are right. It is a choice, yet it is no choice at all. I think he knew that anybody standing in opposition to my appointment would struggle to find favour in any quarter. All the same it is not an office I sort, nor would have wanted under such circumstances.” She looks down as one of the gems in the bracelet she wears flashes briefly. “The elders wish to see me, and I cannot keep them waiting.”
The Shipmother dips her head, and takes a step back to give them room to teleport. “Now go, and may good luck go with you.”
Jack raises a hand in salute. “You too.”
Lowering his arm, he puts it around Ianto. “Hold on tight.”
Jack presses the largest of the gems. For a moment nothing seems to be happening then it starts to glow faintly, before bursting into a bright flash of light.
Closing his eyes, Jack's aware of the same dizzying sensation as before, and when he reopens them they're back in the gardens by the Customs House on Aphelion.
Dawn is little more than an hour away, if the first few streaks of light already appearing on the horizon are anything to go by. The gardens are deserted, the city around it only just starting to wake up again.
Stumbling slightly, Ianto makes his way to one of the benches and sits down. Hunching forwards, looking cold and miserable, he says, “Were stuck here, aren't we? Jubel's gone.”
Jack would like to be able to tell him otherwise, but everything he knows about Jubel tells him that he would have taken Sibel and run. They’re stranded on an alien world with little money, no contacts and no way home.
Part fifteen: http://the-silver-sun.livejournal.com/180811.html#cutid1