Fic: Just Another Torchwood Evening.
Title Just Another Torchwood Evening.
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys
Word Count 3550
Rating PG13
Contains Temporary Jack death. Blood and injury, not graphically described.
Warnings None.
Summary Just once Rhys would like to take Gwen out to dinner without something strange and Torchwood intruding. Tonight, however, isn't going to be it as he finds himself caught up in a case and dealing with an injured Jack.
Beta Firefly124
A/N Written for torchwood_fest. AU in the sense that Rhys finds out about Jack's immortality now - post Meat and pre-Something Borrowed - rather than in Fragments. Also a big thank you to Firefly124 for betaing this for me at such short notice.
It's been a good evening, Rhys thinks as he relaxes back in his chair. A normal evening. And after everything that has happened in the last few weeks it's something they both need.
He looks at Gwen, smiling and happy as she finishes her glass of wine. In just a few weeks time they'll be married, and he can't help but think he's the luckiest bloke in Wales.
He's about to suggest that maybe they get an extra bottle to take home with them, when there's the sound of shouting outside. It's too far away for him to catch the actual words, and Rhys is about to write it off as some people having an argument when it's drowned out by the shrill and insistent noise of several car alarms going off at once.
Gwen listens for a moment, then gets up, heading towards the window to see if she can see what's happening.
Rhys sighs. He knows she loves her job, but he wishes that she could switch off from Torchwood the way she'd been able to when she'd still been in the police.
Turning back towards him, she drops into a crouch, shouting, “Get down! Everybody get down!”
Rhys' response is automatic and he ducks as a bench, concrete still clinging in clumps to the bolts where it had once been secured to the pavement, is hurled in through the window shattering the glass. It comes to rest across two vacant tables, its weight shattering them into matchwood.
There are yells of surprise from the other customers and staff, then they scatter, running out through the back of the restaurant. Rhys would quite like to do the same, but Gwen's mobile is ringing and he has the sinking feeling that it's going to be Torchwood on the other end. Jack 'larger than life, flirt with anyone' Harkness, who'll get her to run off who knows where and face who knows what.
“No, that's alright. It's found me and Rhys anyway,” Gwen says. “Where? We're at the Fushia Bistro. Do you want me to...” Gwen stops as the door to the restaurant opens and Jack hurries in, carrying what to Rhys looks like a shiny silver steam-cleaner crossed with a trumpet, but which is almost certainly a weapon of some kind. Ianto follows him inside just a few moments later.
Jack greets her with a beaming smile. “Can't keep you away, can I?”
“Like you even try,” Gwen says with a laugh, walking over to him. “So what's out there?”
“A Terabax, a big one,” Jack says enthusiastically. “Nasty too.”
“Anything else I should know about big and nasty?”
Both Gwen and Jack seem far to excited about the idea of whatever that thing out there is, and Rhys isn't sure he could ever enjoy the danger. Even if he knew he'd be alright he'd still be too worried about his friends to have any enthusiasm about running about guns blazing. He's just not that sort of guy.
It's Ianto who answers Gwen's question, saying, “It's a bus-sized metal crane fly, that likes to...”
Whatever else Ianto was going to say is cut of by a scream from the other side of the restaurant. They all turn to see a waitress, who'd not run when the rest of the staff had, half hidden under a table as two thin, pointed legs come in through the broken window.
They've got just seconds to act, and Jack hands Ianto the strange weapon. He takes it without a word, while Gwen takes a gun from her handbag. With a quick nod to them, Jack starts to run over to the waitress.
Even as Ianto raises the weapon to fire and Gwen aims her gun, Rhys can see Jack isn't going to have time to get the woman to safety. It's horrifying, but he can't seem to look away.
What happens next though shocks him more. With a yell of “duck” Jack steps between the creature and the woman, his hands raised, making himself the target.
The pointed leg that had been poised to hit the waitress strikes Jack in the stomach, going right through him and out the other side to embed itself in the floor.
There's a ripple in the air in front of Ianto's gun that moves towards the creature almost faster than Rhys can see. Gwen's gun goes off a fraction of a second later, and Rhys flinches. It's not so long since he was on the receiving end of a bullet, and the memory is still too fresh.
The creature's leg breaks off above the joint, and it gives a mechanical sounding shriek, before retreating, leaving Jack impaled like a bug on a pin.
Ianto runs to his side and Gwen hurries over to the waitress who's scrambled back as far as she can under the small table and is sobbing.
Placing the gun down on the floor, Ianto says, “Do you want me to try to pull it out, or to free the point of it first and then try?”
There are more screams from outside and Jack shakes his head. “Go, stop it,” he says from between gritted teeth. “I can manage.”
Ianto looks torn about, but picks the big gun back up, saying, “I'll try not to take too long.”
“It's okay, you can come out now,” Gwen says crouching down next to the woman.
The waitress stares wild-eyed at her. Then, seeing Jack still alive an conscious despite his injuries scrambles to her feet and runs for the door. None of them are near enough to stop her, and she disappears out into the night.
“I'll try and find her,” Gwen says, getting to her feet and going to stand next to Ianto.
“Alright, but stay in contact,” Ianto says, then with a last look back at Jack, he leaves.
“What should I do?” Rhys asks, feeling lost. “What about Jack?”
“Stay with him, I'll be back as soon as I can,” Gwen says, pausing at the door for just a moment, before running out into night after Ianto and the waitress. “And if that thing comes back hide.”
“You be careful too,” Rhys calls after her, but he suspects that she was already too far away to hear.
There's a groan behind him and he turns back to see Jack weakly pulling at the spike that's still pinning him to the floor.
Gwen had told him after what happened in the alien creature in the warehouse that Jack couldn't die. Even so, he's fairly sure that pulling out something you've got stuck through you is a bad idea. So carefully taking Jack's hands off the alien limb, Rhys says, “You'll make it worse pulling it out.”
“Not for me,” Jack says, trying again, fingers slipping on the slick metal. “I can't heal until it's gone.”
Rhys lifts Jack's hands away from it again.“You should wait for an ambulance.” Realising that neither Gwen or Ianto are likely to have time to call for one, Rhys takes his mobile out of his pocket.
“Don't, too many questions.” Jack closes his eyes for a moment, breathing shallow and ragged. “You do it.”
“But it could kill you,” Rhys says, wishing now that he'd thought to ask Gwen a bit more about how Jack can't die. At the time though his shoulder had been hurting and he'd not wanted to hear how special Jack was. Surely there has to be a point, he thinks, where the injuries are too great and Jack would die?
There's a ghost of a bitter grin on his face.“It won't, believe me I've had worse than this.”
“It'll hurt,” Rhys says, not sure he can actually get up the nerve to do it, even if it didn't look like the worst course of action possible.
“It hurts now,” Jack replies, voice rough with barely suppressed pain. “Could be worse though.”
Rhys tries and fails to see how things could actually be worse than have a giant metal crab leg stuck through your insides. To him it rates as about one of the most horrible things that he's ever seen. Only what he'd seen happening to enormous alien creature in the warehouse had been worse. He doesn't think anything could be worse than that.
“Spine,” Jack says after a moment. “Got it on the way through, can't feel anything below that.”
It's not better in any shape or form, not in Rhys' opinion. Nor does it make him want to pull the thing out. What if he makes a mess of it? Even if it doesn't kill him, he could end up paralysed, and he really doesn't want that on his conscience.
“Either you do it or let me do it,” Jack says, an hint of anger creeping into his voice. “Because I'm not spending the night like this.”
Realising that Jack isn't going to take no for an answer, and that he must know how his own not dying thing works, Rhys says, “Alright, do you want me to do it now?”
“Wouldn't be asking otherwise.”
“So you're ready?” Rhys asks, suspecting that Jack is actually more ready for this than he is.
“I'm always ready.”
The metal is smooth, the cool surface feeling like glass beneath his hands. There's nothing much to grip and for a moment Rhys thinks his hold on it is going to slip before he can remove it. A second later though it suddenly pulls free and Rhys stumbles back, still holding it.
Jack screams as it comes loose, fresh blood staining his clothes.
Throwing the leg to one side, Rhys grabs the up tablecloth and presses it to the wound, although he suspects that it's not going to be all that effective since he's not able to do anything about the corresponding wound on his back. Jack's gasping, eyes squeezed shut, and Rhys wonders if it wouldn't be better for him if passed out or something. At least he wouldn't be in so much pain.
While this has been going on the smell of smoke has been growing stronger, and Rhys wonders how much of Cardiff is on fire.
A quick look out of the window reveals nothing, much of the bay is dark, the street lights presumably having been switched off at the same time as the CCTV.
Thin wisps of smoke are escaping from under the door that leads to the restaurants kitchen, and Rhys realises with growing horror that in their haste to leave the staff must have left something cooking. Something that has now set the building they're in on fire.
It's too risky to open the door to the kitchen and see if he can put it out, even if he knew where the fire extinguishers are. He's seen enough TV shows and films where people have done that and they nearly always got caught in a giant fireball.
Hurrying back to the window, Rhys looks out. There's no sign of any people or the alien creature, and he turns his attention back to Jack.
There's no way he can walk, even with assistance, and Rhys knows that carrying him going to be the only option. He’s not super fit, but lifting pallets on and off the lorries everyday means he’s not quite as out of shape as first appearances would suggest. The fact that he’s scared, he decides, probably helps as well.
Carrying him over his shoulder would probably be easier for him, but Rhys knows he won't be able to keep the tablecloth pressed over the wound like that. So he opts for lifting him in his arms.
Jack cries out as he's picked up, and Rhys tries not to think about how much it must hurt.
Knowing that he's not going to be able to hold Jack like this for long, his arms are already starting to hurt after just getting him outside, Rhys looks around. Another shop front just across the street has been ripped open, but it's not burning and it offers some protection should the alien return.
Jack's skin feels cold and clammy, breathing shallow and pained, as Rhys lays him down on the floor of what had once been a jewellery shop before the front had been smashed in.
The shoulder he'd been shot in weeks before hurting from the strain of carrying Jack, Rhys sits down on the floor next to him.
Fragments of conversation come over the bluetooth earpiece Jack is wearing, Tosh saying that she's shut down the CCTV to the area around the bay. Owen replying saying at least they won't need lorryload of retcon now. Ianto telling them both that there is a second creature and it's currently facing off against the first outside Assembly building. Gwen informing them she's got the other big gun and has told the police to keep their distance on this. Then Owen and Gwen calling in that the first creature is down.
“You should go,” Jack says suddenly, voice weak and scratchy.
“Gwen told me to stay,” Rhys says stubbornly. “So I'm staying.”
“You always do as you're told?” There's amusement beneath the pain.
“When it's the right thing to do, and when it's things like this, Gwen's usually right.
“She's lucky to have you.” Jack's eyes close again, breathing becoming slower and shallower. “I tell her not to let it drift.”
“You do?” Rhys asks surprised. Somehow he'd never expected Jack to tell anybody anything like that.
“Having someone, it's important. Ianto is...” Jack's voice trails off weakly, the last few words to faint and slurred for Rhys to understand.
“Jack? Hey, come on, open your eyes, you keep talking,” Rhys says, scared that Jack is slipping away.
“I'm so tired,” Jack mumbles, not opening his eyes.
“You've got to hold on,” Rhys say, taking hold of Jack's hand. “Please, you can't die, you said you can't.”
There's a noise outside and a shadow falls across the door, and Rhys lets go of Jack's hand. Gwen had told him to hide, but he can't just leave Jack where the thing can see him, and he's worried that moving him again might be more than Jack can take.
Picking up a broken chair leg, he stands between Jack and the door. It's not going to do any good against one those things, but it feels like it's better to have something than nothing.
His hand tightens in the chair leg as the door opens, the fact that if it were the alien it wouldn't be opening the door not really registering.
A moment later Ianto walks in, and Rhys breathes a sigh of relief. One of the sleeves of Ianto suit is ripped and his face is smudged with soot, but he looks otherwise unhurt.
“How did you know where we are?” Rhys asks, hoping that they haven't been searching for them too long, frantic after finding the burning restaurant. “And where's Gwen?”
“GPS in Jack’s comm. unit. Gwen's fine, she should be here soon,” Ianto says distractedly, looking past him to Jack. “Is he...”
At the sound of Ianto's voice, Jack opens his eyes, and tries to sit up. It's unsuccessful and he collapses back with a groan.
Ducking past Rhys, Ianto runs the last few steps to Jack's side. Kneeling down he says, “It's over. We're all safe. Cardiff is safe.”
Jack reaches weakly for Ianto's hand, and he takes it, holding it tight.
Ianto's voice is calm, although Rhys can see the glassiness of unshed tears in his eyes, as he says, “You can let go, I'll be here when you wake up.”
There's something that could almost a smile amongst the pain on Jack's face, then he goes limp, eyes staring up vacantly.
Leaning over, Ianto closes them, then presses a kiss to his cheek. Straightening, he wipes a hand across his eyes, before takes a shaky breath and taking a mobile phone out of his pocket. “Tosh, could you collect the retcon for me? I'm going to wait with Jack, I'm not sure how long he's going to be.”
Rhys can't hear the reply, but Ianto looks thoughtful and then says, “If you could, thank you. He'll be sore when he wakes up, no matter what he says.”
Gwen had said he couldn't die, he'd said he couldn't die, but there he is dead. Legs feeling decidedly rubbery, Rhys sits down. He's never seen anybody die, never had to deal with death like this. It's awful to see somebody who was so full of life now devoid of it.
He leans forward, head in his hands. Gwen is going to be devastated, and he going to have to be the one to tell her. Ianto obviously isn't in a state to do so. Rhys is certain the bloke must be shock if he thinks Jack is only sleeping and is going to wake up in a minute.
“Ianto? Jack? Rhys? Are you in there?”
Rhys looks up to see Gwen come in.
Gwen's eyes widen as she sees the blood on Rhys' shirt from where he'd carried Jack. “Oh god.”
“It's not mine.” Rhys gets up and walks over to her. Wrapping his arms around her her says, “I'm sorry, I stayed with him, but he's...”
There's a ragged gasp for air from behind them, and Rhys looks over Gwen's shoulder as Ianto says, “You're safe. We're all okay.”
Jack is staring wide eyed, his hands gripping Ianto's shoulders, as he trembles violently. His voice is hoarse when he asks, “Where?”
“Cardiff.” Taking one of Jack's hands from his shoulder, Ianto holds it to his chest. “Not there. Never there.”
Eyed squeezed tight shut, Jack nods, the shaking slowly starting to subside.
“You're staring,” Gwen says, tugging on his arm, trying to get him to look away and give them a little privacy.
“He just came back to life. He was dead. So too right I'm staring,” Rhys says, unable to take his eyes off of Jack, who still looks shaken, and Ianto talking quietly to him, reassurances mixed in with facts about what has happened.
“I did tell you he couldn't die,” Gwen says sounding more worried about him than Jack coming back from the dead. “You're sure you're okay?”
Rhys nods. Can't die and dies in a gruesome way and then comes back to life really aren't the same thing, but it's not anyone's fault he didn't know that. He's just too glad right now that nobody is dead for it really to be an issue. “So you've seem him die before then? Is always this bad when he comes back?”
“I saw him die right before I started working for Torchwood. And no I don't think it was always this bad. Something happened to him when he was away,” Gwen says sadly, watching as Ianto helps Jack stand and walk unsteadily to a seat. “Something bad, and when he dies like that, slowly, he really needs somebody there with him when he wakes up. It's been worse since the creature in the warehouse.”
The creature in the warehouse and what had happened to it had shaken him, and Rhys really doesn't want to think about what sort of things Jack might have been through if that had brought back memories.
Looking at Ianto smile warmly then shake his head at something Jack has said, he's glad that Jack got someone. Part of him, the slightly selfish part that he'd rather not admit to having, knows that it's because Jack has made his choice and it's Ianto rather than Gwen. The other is that nobody who has to put up with as much as Jack does should be alone.
“I'm going to have to go again in a minute,” Gwen says apologetically, changing the subject. “It's going to be a pretty big clean up. Probably not going to get home tonight. I've still got to find that waitress to retcon.”
“I know.” Rhys wishes that he could just ask her to stay, but knows that it isn't an option. She has her job and right now it needs to come first. “I'll pick you up outside the Millennium Centre whenever you're done. ”
Gwen's mobile rings, and she sighs. “I'd better take this.”
Letting Gwen take the call, Rhys sits back down. It's not the kind of end to the evening that he'd hoped for when they'd left home for the restaurant earlier that evening. But it has helped him understand a bit more about what she does and about the people she works with. And he supposes that when you're mixed up with Torchwood the fact that the evening has ended with everybody alive and nobody seriously hurt that it's probably about as good as it gets.
Next time though, Rhys thinks, he's going to suggest they go out to dinner somewhere that's not in Cardiff and doesn't have any phone reception.
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys
Word Count 3550
Rating PG13
Contains Temporary Jack death. Blood and injury, not graphically described.
Warnings None.
Summary Just once Rhys would like to take Gwen out to dinner without something strange and Torchwood intruding. Tonight, however, isn't going to be it as he finds himself caught up in a case and dealing with an injured Jack.
Beta Firefly124
A/N Written for torchwood_fest. AU in the sense that Rhys finds out about Jack's immortality now - post Meat and pre-Something Borrowed - rather than in Fragments. Also a big thank you to Firefly124 for betaing this for me at such short notice.
It's been a good evening, Rhys thinks as he relaxes back in his chair. A normal evening. And after everything that has happened in the last few weeks it's something they both need.
He looks at Gwen, smiling and happy as she finishes her glass of wine. In just a few weeks time they'll be married, and he can't help but think he's the luckiest bloke in Wales.
He's about to suggest that maybe they get an extra bottle to take home with them, when there's the sound of shouting outside. It's too far away for him to catch the actual words, and Rhys is about to write it off as some people having an argument when it's drowned out by the shrill and insistent noise of several car alarms going off at once.
Gwen listens for a moment, then gets up, heading towards the window to see if she can see what's happening.
Rhys sighs. He knows she loves her job, but he wishes that she could switch off from Torchwood the way she'd been able to when she'd still been in the police.
Turning back towards him, she drops into a crouch, shouting, “Get down! Everybody get down!”
Rhys' response is automatic and he ducks as a bench, concrete still clinging in clumps to the bolts where it had once been secured to the pavement, is hurled in through the window shattering the glass. It comes to rest across two vacant tables, its weight shattering them into matchwood.
There are yells of surprise from the other customers and staff, then they scatter, running out through the back of the restaurant. Rhys would quite like to do the same, but Gwen's mobile is ringing and he has the sinking feeling that it's going to be Torchwood on the other end. Jack 'larger than life, flirt with anyone' Harkness, who'll get her to run off who knows where and face who knows what.
“No, that's alright. It's found me and Rhys anyway,” Gwen says. “Where? We're at the Fushia Bistro. Do you want me to...” Gwen stops as the door to the restaurant opens and Jack hurries in, carrying what to Rhys looks like a shiny silver steam-cleaner crossed with a trumpet, but which is almost certainly a weapon of some kind. Ianto follows him inside just a few moments later.
Jack greets her with a beaming smile. “Can't keep you away, can I?”
“Like you even try,” Gwen says with a laugh, walking over to him. “So what's out there?”
“A Terabax, a big one,” Jack says enthusiastically. “Nasty too.”
“Anything else I should know about big and nasty?”
Both Gwen and Jack seem far to excited about the idea of whatever that thing out there is, and Rhys isn't sure he could ever enjoy the danger. Even if he knew he'd be alright he'd still be too worried about his friends to have any enthusiasm about running about guns blazing. He's just not that sort of guy.
It's Ianto who answers Gwen's question, saying, “It's a bus-sized metal crane fly, that likes to...”
Whatever else Ianto was going to say is cut of by a scream from the other side of the restaurant. They all turn to see a waitress, who'd not run when the rest of the staff had, half hidden under a table as two thin, pointed legs come in through the broken window.
They've got just seconds to act, and Jack hands Ianto the strange weapon. He takes it without a word, while Gwen takes a gun from her handbag. With a quick nod to them, Jack starts to run over to the waitress.
Even as Ianto raises the weapon to fire and Gwen aims her gun, Rhys can see Jack isn't going to have time to get the woman to safety. It's horrifying, but he can't seem to look away.
What happens next though shocks him more. With a yell of “duck” Jack steps between the creature and the woman, his hands raised, making himself the target.
The pointed leg that had been poised to hit the waitress strikes Jack in the stomach, going right through him and out the other side to embed itself in the floor.
There's a ripple in the air in front of Ianto's gun that moves towards the creature almost faster than Rhys can see. Gwen's gun goes off a fraction of a second later, and Rhys flinches. It's not so long since he was on the receiving end of a bullet, and the memory is still too fresh.
The creature's leg breaks off above the joint, and it gives a mechanical sounding shriek, before retreating, leaving Jack impaled like a bug on a pin.
Ianto runs to his side and Gwen hurries over to the waitress who's scrambled back as far as she can under the small table and is sobbing.
Placing the gun down on the floor, Ianto says, “Do you want me to try to pull it out, or to free the point of it first and then try?”
There are more screams from outside and Jack shakes his head. “Go, stop it,” he says from between gritted teeth. “I can manage.”
Ianto looks torn about, but picks the big gun back up, saying, “I'll try not to take too long.”
“It's okay, you can come out now,” Gwen says crouching down next to the woman.
The waitress stares wild-eyed at her. Then, seeing Jack still alive an conscious despite his injuries scrambles to her feet and runs for the door. None of them are near enough to stop her, and she disappears out into the night.
“I'll try and find her,” Gwen says, getting to her feet and going to stand next to Ianto.
“Alright, but stay in contact,” Ianto says, then with a last look back at Jack, he leaves.
“What should I do?” Rhys asks, feeling lost. “What about Jack?”
“Stay with him, I'll be back as soon as I can,” Gwen says, pausing at the door for just a moment, before running out into night after Ianto and the waitress. “And if that thing comes back hide.”
“You be careful too,” Rhys calls after her, but he suspects that she was already too far away to hear.
There's a groan behind him and he turns back to see Jack weakly pulling at the spike that's still pinning him to the floor.
Gwen had told him after what happened in the alien creature in the warehouse that Jack couldn't die. Even so, he's fairly sure that pulling out something you've got stuck through you is a bad idea. So carefully taking Jack's hands off the alien limb, Rhys says, “You'll make it worse pulling it out.”
“Not for me,” Jack says, trying again, fingers slipping on the slick metal. “I can't heal until it's gone.”
Rhys lifts Jack's hands away from it again.“You should wait for an ambulance.” Realising that neither Gwen or Ianto are likely to have time to call for one, Rhys takes his mobile out of his pocket.
“Don't, too many questions.” Jack closes his eyes for a moment, breathing shallow and ragged. “You do it.”
“But it could kill you,” Rhys says, wishing now that he'd thought to ask Gwen a bit more about how Jack can't die. At the time though his shoulder had been hurting and he'd not wanted to hear how special Jack was. Surely there has to be a point, he thinks, where the injuries are too great and Jack would die?
There's a ghost of a bitter grin on his face.“It won't, believe me I've had worse than this.”
“It'll hurt,” Rhys says, not sure he can actually get up the nerve to do it, even if it didn't look like the worst course of action possible.
“It hurts now,” Jack replies, voice rough with barely suppressed pain. “Could be worse though.”
Rhys tries and fails to see how things could actually be worse than have a giant metal crab leg stuck through your insides. To him it rates as about one of the most horrible things that he's ever seen. Only what he'd seen happening to enormous alien creature in the warehouse had been worse. He doesn't think anything could be worse than that.
“Spine,” Jack says after a moment. “Got it on the way through, can't feel anything below that.”
It's not better in any shape or form, not in Rhys' opinion. Nor does it make him want to pull the thing out. What if he makes a mess of it? Even if it doesn't kill him, he could end up paralysed, and he really doesn't want that on his conscience.
“Either you do it or let me do it,” Jack says, an hint of anger creeping into his voice. “Because I'm not spending the night like this.”
Realising that Jack isn't going to take no for an answer, and that he must know how his own not dying thing works, Rhys says, “Alright, do you want me to do it now?”
“Wouldn't be asking otherwise.”
“So you're ready?” Rhys asks, suspecting that Jack is actually more ready for this than he is.
“I'm always ready.”
The metal is smooth, the cool surface feeling like glass beneath his hands. There's nothing much to grip and for a moment Rhys thinks his hold on it is going to slip before he can remove it. A second later though it suddenly pulls free and Rhys stumbles back, still holding it.
Jack screams as it comes loose, fresh blood staining his clothes.
Throwing the leg to one side, Rhys grabs the up tablecloth and presses it to the wound, although he suspects that it's not going to be all that effective since he's not able to do anything about the corresponding wound on his back. Jack's gasping, eyes squeezed shut, and Rhys wonders if it wouldn't be better for him if passed out or something. At least he wouldn't be in so much pain.
While this has been going on the smell of smoke has been growing stronger, and Rhys wonders how much of Cardiff is on fire.
A quick look out of the window reveals nothing, much of the bay is dark, the street lights presumably having been switched off at the same time as the CCTV.
Thin wisps of smoke are escaping from under the door that leads to the restaurants kitchen, and Rhys realises with growing horror that in their haste to leave the staff must have left something cooking. Something that has now set the building they're in on fire.
It's too risky to open the door to the kitchen and see if he can put it out, even if he knew where the fire extinguishers are. He's seen enough TV shows and films where people have done that and they nearly always got caught in a giant fireball.
Hurrying back to the window, Rhys looks out. There's no sign of any people or the alien creature, and he turns his attention back to Jack.
There's no way he can walk, even with assistance, and Rhys knows that carrying him going to be the only option. He’s not super fit, but lifting pallets on and off the lorries everyday means he’s not quite as out of shape as first appearances would suggest. The fact that he’s scared, he decides, probably helps as well.
Carrying him over his shoulder would probably be easier for him, but Rhys knows he won't be able to keep the tablecloth pressed over the wound like that. So he opts for lifting him in his arms.
Jack cries out as he's picked up, and Rhys tries not to think about how much it must hurt.
Knowing that he's not going to be able to hold Jack like this for long, his arms are already starting to hurt after just getting him outside, Rhys looks around. Another shop front just across the street has been ripped open, but it's not burning and it offers some protection should the alien return.
Jack's skin feels cold and clammy, breathing shallow and pained, as Rhys lays him down on the floor of what had once been a jewellery shop before the front had been smashed in.
The shoulder he'd been shot in weeks before hurting from the strain of carrying Jack, Rhys sits down on the floor next to him.
Fragments of conversation come over the bluetooth earpiece Jack is wearing, Tosh saying that she's shut down the CCTV to the area around the bay. Owen replying saying at least they won't need lorryload of retcon now. Ianto telling them both that there is a second creature and it's currently facing off against the first outside Assembly building. Gwen informing them she's got the other big gun and has told the police to keep their distance on this. Then Owen and Gwen calling in that the first creature is down.
“You should go,” Jack says suddenly, voice weak and scratchy.
“Gwen told me to stay,” Rhys says stubbornly. “So I'm staying.”
“You always do as you're told?” There's amusement beneath the pain.
“When it's the right thing to do, and when it's things like this, Gwen's usually right.
“She's lucky to have you.” Jack's eyes close again, breathing becoming slower and shallower. “I tell her not to let it drift.”
“You do?” Rhys asks surprised. Somehow he'd never expected Jack to tell anybody anything like that.
“Having someone, it's important. Ianto is...” Jack's voice trails off weakly, the last few words to faint and slurred for Rhys to understand.
“Jack? Hey, come on, open your eyes, you keep talking,” Rhys says, scared that Jack is slipping away.
“I'm so tired,” Jack mumbles, not opening his eyes.
“You've got to hold on,” Rhys say, taking hold of Jack's hand. “Please, you can't die, you said you can't.”
There's a noise outside and a shadow falls across the door, and Rhys lets go of Jack's hand. Gwen had told him to hide, but he can't just leave Jack where the thing can see him, and he's worried that moving him again might be more than Jack can take.
Picking up a broken chair leg, he stands between Jack and the door. It's not going to do any good against one those things, but it feels like it's better to have something than nothing.
His hand tightens in the chair leg as the door opens, the fact that if it were the alien it wouldn't be opening the door not really registering.
A moment later Ianto walks in, and Rhys breathes a sigh of relief. One of the sleeves of Ianto suit is ripped and his face is smudged with soot, but he looks otherwise unhurt.
“How did you know where we are?” Rhys asks, hoping that they haven't been searching for them too long, frantic after finding the burning restaurant. “And where's Gwen?”
“GPS in Jack’s comm. unit. Gwen's fine, she should be here soon,” Ianto says distractedly, looking past him to Jack. “Is he...”
At the sound of Ianto's voice, Jack opens his eyes, and tries to sit up. It's unsuccessful and he collapses back with a groan.
Ducking past Rhys, Ianto runs the last few steps to Jack's side. Kneeling down he says, “It's over. We're all safe. Cardiff is safe.”
Jack reaches weakly for Ianto's hand, and he takes it, holding it tight.
Ianto's voice is calm, although Rhys can see the glassiness of unshed tears in his eyes, as he says, “You can let go, I'll be here when you wake up.”
There's something that could almost a smile amongst the pain on Jack's face, then he goes limp, eyes staring up vacantly.
Leaning over, Ianto closes them, then presses a kiss to his cheek. Straightening, he wipes a hand across his eyes, before takes a shaky breath and taking a mobile phone out of his pocket. “Tosh, could you collect the retcon for me? I'm going to wait with Jack, I'm not sure how long he's going to be.”
Rhys can't hear the reply, but Ianto looks thoughtful and then says, “If you could, thank you. He'll be sore when he wakes up, no matter what he says.”
Gwen had said he couldn't die, he'd said he couldn't die, but there he is dead. Legs feeling decidedly rubbery, Rhys sits down. He's never seen anybody die, never had to deal with death like this. It's awful to see somebody who was so full of life now devoid of it.
He leans forward, head in his hands. Gwen is going to be devastated, and he going to have to be the one to tell her. Ianto obviously isn't in a state to do so. Rhys is certain the bloke must be shock if he thinks Jack is only sleeping and is going to wake up in a minute.
“Ianto? Jack? Rhys? Are you in there?”
Rhys looks up to see Gwen come in.
Gwen's eyes widen as she sees the blood on Rhys' shirt from where he'd carried Jack. “Oh god.”
“It's not mine.” Rhys gets up and walks over to her. Wrapping his arms around her her says, “I'm sorry, I stayed with him, but he's...”
There's a ragged gasp for air from behind them, and Rhys looks over Gwen's shoulder as Ianto says, “You're safe. We're all okay.”
Jack is staring wide eyed, his hands gripping Ianto's shoulders, as he trembles violently. His voice is hoarse when he asks, “Where?”
“Cardiff.” Taking one of Jack's hands from his shoulder, Ianto holds it to his chest. “Not there. Never there.”
Eyed squeezed tight shut, Jack nods, the shaking slowly starting to subside.
“You're staring,” Gwen says, tugging on his arm, trying to get him to look away and give them a little privacy.
“He just came back to life. He was dead. So too right I'm staring,” Rhys says, unable to take his eyes off of Jack, who still looks shaken, and Ianto talking quietly to him, reassurances mixed in with facts about what has happened.
“I did tell you he couldn't die,” Gwen says sounding more worried about him than Jack coming back from the dead. “You're sure you're okay?”
Rhys nods. Can't die and dies in a gruesome way and then comes back to life really aren't the same thing, but it's not anyone's fault he didn't know that. He's just too glad right now that nobody is dead for it really to be an issue. “So you've seem him die before then? Is always this bad when he comes back?”
“I saw him die right before I started working for Torchwood. And no I don't think it was always this bad. Something happened to him when he was away,” Gwen says sadly, watching as Ianto helps Jack stand and walk unsteadily to a seat. “Something bad, and when he dies like that, slowly, he really needs somebody there with him when he wakes up. It's been worse since the creature in the warehouse.”
The creature in the warehouse and what had happened to it had shaken him, and Rhys really doesn't want to think about what sort of things Jack might have been through if that had brought back memories.
Looking at Ianto smile warmly then shake his head at something Jack has said, he's glad that Jack got someone. Part of him, the slightly selfish part that he'd rather not admit to having, knows that it's because Jack has made his choice and it's Ianto rather than Gwen. The other is that nobody who has to put up with as much as Jack does should be alone.
“I'm going to have to go again in a minute,” Gwen says apologetically, changing the subject. “It's going to be a pretty big clean up. Probably not going to get home tonight. I've still got to find that waitress to retcon.”
“I know.” Rhys wishes that he could just ask her to stay, but knows that it isn't an option. She has her job and right now it needs to come first. “I'll pick you up outside the Millennium Centre whenever you're done. ”
Gwen's mobile rings, and she sighs. “I'd better take this.”
Letting Gwen take the call, Rhys sits back down. It's not the kind of end to the evening that he'd hoped for when they'd left home for the restaurant earlier that evening. But it has helped him understand a bit more about what she does and about the people she works with. And he supposes that when you're mixed up with Torchwood the fact that the evening has ended with everybody alive and nobody seriously hurt that it's probably about as good as it gets.
Next time though, Rhys thinks, he's going to suggest they go out to dinner somewhere that's not in Cardiff and doesn't have any phone reception.