Fic: Blood and Ianto Jones
Title: Blood and Ianto Jones: Four times the two mingled in Captain Jack Harkness's memories
Author: louie x
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R/NC-17
Spoilers: 1x04, 1x06, Doctor Who Season 3 finale, TW 2x01 hinted spoilers
Note: This was written for torchwoodadvent for Jack day, happy Jack day!! Another thing, this fic has character death (in one part)!! So angst and then some more angst! So reader be warned~
Disclaimer: I own not a bit of this (wish I did, one day maybe?), all hail RTD and the mighty BBC!
Summary: Jack recalls three distinct memories in his life thus far when blood and Ianto went hand in hand, then adds a fourth.
When he tasted blood in his mouth, upon standing up after that rather firm hook of a punch, Jack deemed love a state of insanity that he found himself glad to never be in such grips of. At least, to the extent that the panicked man before him was.
Standing on the plass with his entire team, all eyes were on Ianto as, despite the blood and water staining his clothes he still sided with what was obviously a lost cause. His convictions were that she was innocent, that she wasn't in control and that they as Torchwood should help her, not just murder her. But Jack knew all too well that she'd moved beyond a helpless woman into an 'it'; a killing machine intent on spreading outward until there was no human life left on this planet. Jack thought as he listened to the death threat -even with those charming vowels- that for someone as bright and clever as Ianto to not realize that, he must honestly have gone mad.
But that is what love does to people.
When the team stood just beyond the door, guns at their sides and two dead bodies in what was previously thought to be an empty basement room while Ianto finally snapped and sobbed. Jack let out a sigh that perhaps now the bright archivist would spring back to his senses now that this night was over. He had the ladies drag Ianto upstairs -initially prescribing force to do so but saw how his body sagged between them with no argument- while he and Owen scanned, documented, and then used several questionably legal weapons (usually locked up tight) to vaporize everything into a fine powder. Said powder was bottled up and stored in Jack's safe under an innocuous but off-limits name that wouldn't have anyone suspect it was the last (hopefully) of the Cybertech on Earth.
The others are certain Ianto is a goner. If not by a bullet between the eyes then with a dose of retcon so strong that surely he'd be an empty mind within a handsome body on some hospital's doorstep by dawn.
Jack merely takes him home, gets him into the shower and bags his ruined suit with possibly contaminated blood to be burned back at the Hub. Ianto is quiet, far too docile after all the fire Jack witnessed that night for the captain to be entirely comfortable, but he sits them down and makes Ianto explain every last detail of what happened. At first the young man refuses to speak, eyes filled with tears that won't fall until his throat cracks and words spill out like a flood.
With his usual unconscious efficiency, Ianto dots every 'i' and crosses every 't' of his experiences at Canary Wharf and how the woman known prior as Lisa Hallett was transported then survived for a year beneath his feet without his knowledge. Jack has to admit, he's impressed, but it wasn't the time for a pat on the back even though Ianto deserved one.
Instead Jack goes to a more natural response and sleeps with him. Takes that towel that is Ianto's last preserve to complete nudity, while remaining mostly clothed himself, and fucks a dent into the unused bed of Ianto's flat with the welshman beneath him. He thrusts in with a harshness that Ianto begs for despite the exhaustion that grips them both. Jack drags him closer as those long limbs hold onto him tight, tears sliding into dark curly hair and Jack hopes that he can literally shag the night out of Ianto's body.
That he can replace that year of cold touches of metal and blood with his mouth on every inch of damaged skin while his cock presses at places within Ianto, granting him a release he's probably denied himself for over a year. He passed out once they were done or at least was content to lay there, naturally catching his breath while Jack cleaned them up and carefully applied plasters to his superficial wounds.
Jack held him until long after sunrise, letting Ianto's breath wash over his neck as fingers curled lightly around him in a desperately needy grasp even in sleep.
Ianto took the month of unpaid suspension well enough, even made Jack coffee before he left with a quiet murmur that he might unpack the obscene amount of boxes that filled his flat. He held Jack's gaze when the captain faltered before he left, saying that Ianto could call if he needed anything during this time away from his job.
When he heard nothing from the young man, Jack honestly thought Ianto may have killed himself but refused to just storm into the other man's flat to investigate. Rather, he let out a soft sigh at the round door rolling back exactly on time a month later to reveal a crisp suit but haunted blue eyes. Gwen stood beside him on the second level, she was pulling an all-nighter with him earlier to hunt down a nest of weevils. Incredibly feisty weevils that put up quite a fight and got in a few hits on Jack before Gwen could spray the alpha male to get him calmed down.
She pressed him for questions, as if she'd not thought of that night until seeing the young man again and Jack answered them honestly but not with his full attention. After the quiet nod of an apology from Ianto -and his own returned nod of vague forgiveness- Jack couldn't quiet get over that he could taste his blood in his mouth and hoped this wouldn't be a trend with the younger man.
His wide but hurt eyes and the tangy taste of iron on his tongue.
-----
The air reeked of blood by the time he got all the crazed villagers down and away from their weapons. Jack felt half mad himself after unloading nearly every bullet he had on his person just to regain some sense of control back into this purely human situation.
Gwen stopped him from murdering the man who was about to (he found out after) filet open one of this team. It baffled him why she needed to understand as the answer she got was pure insanity based upon an inbred society's tradition. There was no rhyme or reason to it; the cannibalism was done merely for the sake of the ability to do so.
Jack didn't often long for the days of psychotic aliens who thought human meat held magical purposes or were a delicacy so rare they needed to be hunted down for the pleasure of the kill as well as the taste of it. But the thought crossed his mind as he watched the vehicles pull up holding both medics and the police to clean up this terrible mess of a situation.
Owen was all over Gwen, something that bothered Jack in the sense that he didn't need that sort of turmoil in his team. He didn't need Gwen's foundation rocked by cheating on her -rather adorable, in his opinion- boyfriend by shagging Owen who couldn't do right by himself by listening to the big head more than not. But as the police rounded everyone up, throwing them into the back of vans to be dragged off to jail, Jack just watched as Owen's hands inspected the added damage that had been done to her gunshot wound.
Lovely, brave little Toshiko just about threw herself into his arms the first chance she got. He listened to her cry for just a few moments before locking herself back away under that hard exterior but let her burrow against him beneath his coat in the meanwhile. That was when he was finally told of what happened after he split his team up. Of how she and Ianto were captured, beaten and groped, then how the young man risked his life so that she could try to escape even though all it did was just drag the rest of his team back into the heart of the fray.
He put his coat around her shoulders and helped her into the back seat of the land rover where she sniffled quietly before tugging the on-board computers around her. Protecting herself with their closeness and busying her mind by documenting what she could in the case files also while ensuring that there was no chance any of the villagers would be released for quiet some time.
Jack walked to the boot then, spotting Ianto quietly sitting half within with his legs dangling out and there was that near blinding glimmer of just how young this man was in Jack's eyes. Certainly, mid twenties was nothing to shake a stick at but Jack was concerned none the less especially considering it'd been barely five weeks since the cyberman incident. Taking Ianto out of the hub to try to bond him deeper into the group, to remind him he wasn't furniture but indeed a member of his specialized team had not worked exactly as the captain initially planned.
Butterfly bandages held together a wound on his brow that caused a concussion, his breathing was somewhat shallow to avoid pressing on injured ribs, and there was a bandage at his throat where a cleaver sat ready to bleed him out to make his body a more flavorful dish. Ianto barely seemed to notice Jack sitting down beside him but his entire form jumped when his boss touched his hand, a soft hiss of pain as his free hand lightly touched his chest to sympathetically hold the pain there.
They sat in silence until Ianto's fingers curled tight around Jack's own. His gaze wasn't as sharp as it ought to be and Jack noted that the medics had dosed him up on some painkillers judging by the clouded shine over that blue gaze.
"Nobody died," he said quietly.
Jack just stroked scraped fingers lightly with his thumb in a reassuring touch as he said nothing to disagree with that. Ianto seemed relieved, sighing softly and closing those pained looking eyes.
"Tosh said you saved her life or at the very least from something just as worse as death at their hands. You did good today, Ianto, I'm very proud of you," the captain replied and felt his own sense of relief at the slight upward curl at the edges of Ianto's mouth.
He let Ianto ride in the front seat to keep an eye on him as he slept the entire ride back into the city. The others were dropped off at their homes with strict orders to stay home on two days recovery leave, Ianto slept through their soft goodbyes and Tosh's soft kiss to his cheek through the window Jack opened for her as she was the last to go. The man did wake when they returned to the Hub, hearing Myfanwy's cry for attention even from the garage and mumbled slightly that she needed to be fed while Jack walked his drowsy body to the couch in the main room.
She buzzed overhead, concerned for the two men she'd grown attached to like any somewhat domesticated animal would as Jack laid Ianto down and checked his palm where he'd written down the medication Owen said the medics gave his archivist. "They're mighty strong," he said while helping Gwen into her seat before leaving the countryside. "He'll probably sleep for a while and when he wakes up, make sure he feels everything and check his eye sight then give him another dose more to keep him down."
Ianto's eyes were barely open but there none the less as Jack settled him onto the couch with pillows and blankets. He tipped his head lightly into the affectionate touch the captain brushed over his unbruised cheek and murmured a quiet sound of Jack's name as his eyes closed once more. Jack looked up to where the pterodactyl roosted and fluttered before pacing back and forth slightly as was her usual gesture when she was upset about something.
A bone weary sigh fell past Jack's lips as he bent his head down, resting his brow lightly against Ianto's own then kissed a soft unmarked spot as his hand laid over Ianto's chest lightly to feel the heart slowly beneath beating away. Those messed locks still smelled of the gore while his skin held the soft scent of antiseptic that was probably used to clean up his dirt covered face by the medics. Jack's stomach twisted at the scent, knowing that if Ianto were aware enough he would have asked for a shower to wash the experience free from his skin.
He left Ianto only to feed the dinosaur above their heads, climbing up the ladder with a bucket doused in her special sauce that was filled with chickens Ianto bought earlier that week. She ate quickly while he sat at the edge of her 'nest' peering down at the Hub from her usual nearly sky-high view. He smiled lightly as she prodded at his arm until he peeled the sloughing skin from her throat and Myfanwy cooed lightly at the tender hands on her rough skin.
Jack watched Ianto sleep from this high up and saw what would be the first of many nightmares that would grip the welshman from that point on.
----
It was three weeks into his standing imprisonment upon the Valiant when the Master pulled out one of his more dastardly tricks as apparently merely killing Jack over and over had lost its luster. Jack let his head fall back and sighed gently, eyes taking in the grating above him that he'd long ago named and would often talk to or tell dirty limericks to just to keep his mind active in the long hours between whichever death of the day Saxon was insisting upon.
An unexpected troupe of armed loyalists strode into the room, rifles in hand and they stood at attention half the room's length away from him. "Oh do I get a show or a parade?" Jack grinned. "What's the occasion today Saxon?" His sarcastic tone didn't go unanswered as the grinning Timelord walked out, hands behind his back as he stood between Jack and the armed men in his crisp suit. The wide evil grin unsettled him, usually there was the generic banter then either a quick and painful or a slow and torturous death.
It was the pause, the calm before the storm, and Jack found himself feeling very uneasy.
"So, Jack," the Master said with a grin as he walked in closer and leaned just out of range of the bound man. "That team of yours, before all of this, I sent off to the Himalayas and just got a report that they were killed by my dear Toclafane. But there was a tiny, itty, bitty problem as there were only three of them stationed at that particular site."
His heart nearly stopped at the simple delivery that his team was dead. Jack trembled with both sorrow and rage, gulping back the ache that the Master was probably aiming to see. He looked down instead, shutting his eyes as he listened to the Master identify the bodies so cheerfully as that of Gwen, Owen, and Tosh who were now buried in the snow by a 'tidy avalanche' after the camping site had been exterminated.
"Course, that left one little mouse unaccounted for and we can't have them playing about with their filthy little selves while the big cat is in town ready to pick my teeth with their bones." He snapped his fingers and one of the men behind him motioned to people out of Jack's line of sight. "So, I took a gander around and found your little base a week ago. Found it and found a rather stubborn young man who held his own that whole time, not only arranging a sort of underground rebellion but was attempting to scan and figure out a way to kill my beloved friends!" His voice had raised in pitch, face flushed with anger as a smartly dressed Ianto Jones was dragged forward with his hands locked behind his back in impressive looking cuffs.
Jack felt proud that one of his team survived, thinking it clever for them to leave someone behind before fleeing the country to leave the base unguarded and for Ianto being able to work on his feet so quickly. He smiled despite the glare of the Master so close at seeing Ianto alive and unharmed, meeting those bright eyes that looked just as surprised to see him.
"Captain..!" Ianto said almost breathlessly before he smiled himself and received a gun butt to the stomach for it. The Master edged away from Jack, twisting his body in that near theatrical way while he grabbed Ianto by the scruff of his neck and dug his nails in. Ianto winced slightly but barely made a sound as he was dragged forward along with their captor.
The Master licked his lips as he looked back and forth between the two of them, still out of Jack's reach even as taut as the chains about his arms were then. "Now isn't this a precious reunion. How I do love these sort of get togethers, Jack," he said with what sounded like a touch of glee to his voice. "Now it won't last that long as I don't often get the chance for a dual execution like this often but I figured I would be a gentleman and offer you two the chance to catch up." He looked to Ianto but found the younger man gazing forward stoically , not revealing anymore than he had already upon first seeing his missing leader.
"Say 'thank you' Mr. Jones."
Ianto turned then, letting his eyes track lightly over the Master's face before spitting at him.
Jack couldn't help the bark of laughter that bubbled up from him. It trailed off as Ianto was shoved hard into his chest and the two men both had to use the tension holding Jack's arms to remain upright. He smiled none the less at Ianto, sighing softly as their cheeks brushed in an almost feral greeting.
"Oh its good to see you, Ianto. I missed you," he whispered lightly while his eyes shut and he pulled at his bonds to try to hug the man who now leaned against him. He felt Ianto's shaken exhale and knew from that breath that he was scared but relieved as well. Shaking his head, Ianto began to reply, "I tried... I tried to do as much as I could on my own, sir-"
"You did amazingly well, don't you doubt that for a moment."
The captain smiled softly again as he looked at the young face scant inches before his own. It was uncharacteristically generous for the Master to give them any time at all but then again, a band-aid hurt worse the slower you removed it. He shut his eyes and buried his face against Ianto's shoulder, breathing him in deep as his hands bunched into fists with an anger that only now began to bubble up into him.
An execution. Why the words were delayed and only struck him now, Jack would never know but at least now he knew what the line of armed men were for. He gazed over Ianto's shoulder at the Master who just waved and grinned after wiping his face off with a handkerchief. The man was a true sadist and Jack would get him for this, he swore it then and there.
"I won't let this happen, I won't let you die like this."
Ianto laughed softly now, nosing at Jack's jaw before kissing him softly there. "Unless you've got some really good plan now I don't think you have much of a say, Jack. But I'm not afraid to die, working this job as we do, you wake up every morning with the likelihood of it being your last."
Jack shook his head almost childishly, pressing light kisses against the younger man's face as he spoke in a hushed whisper. "No, no I won't let it stick. I won't let you die like this, I won't let the others die as they did. He can't win, not like that."
Another soft smile, "This isn't the Superman movies, Jack. You can't just push the Earth backwards with your sheer will and undo the effects of things that have already happened."
"Watch me."
A low hum sounded and Ianto shifted, his hands free and the thick cuffs banging on the grated floor beneath their feet. Both men looked up to the Master who held the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and pocketed the device quickly.
"You have to the count of ten, gentlemen. Better make the most of it," he said while the firing squad behind him armed and aimed their weapons.
Ianto looked back to Jack, arms sliding around his captain as he put his back to the group behind him. He watched Jack's face as the Timelord began to count loudly behind them.
"Tell me you believe me, that you believe I won't let this happen."
Jack leaned into the hand that brushed over his cheek and through his hair as Ianto just smiled gently, nodding his head regardless even through the tears on his face. "I believe you," he whispered before they kissed. An embrace that struck Jack's heart because it felt like the one he gave to his namesake; a kiss that spoke of love and faith and a firm ache that they'd never see one another again.
"It will be quick," Jack said as he felt tears on his own face. "I can at least promise you that."
"Fire!"
The bullets rang out but to Jack the scene was almost eerily silent save for the last breath Ianto took rushing past his ear. His body was in shock, the arms locked tight around him as the squad fired again and again. Jack would have put himself first but there was no stopping the bullets that now riddled through both of their bodies, had Ianto stood behind him it would have been no better.
He was still alive enough to watch Ianto's dead body fall to the floor, eyes shut as his blood pooled along the harsh metal beneath him. Past the wheezing and blood laden breaths, Jack tried to swear again to fix things to the man at his feet. He sunk as far to his knees as he could, the shoulder pain minimal by comparison to the bullets still lodged into him or the holes the others left within him.
A gun barrel was pressed against his forehead and Jack looked up, vision starting to darken at the edges but the Master stood before him with gun in hand. He smiled a crooked grin and pulled the trigger, splattering the captain's brains onto the wall behind him and ending his life.
Jack awoke an unknown time later, his body feeling on fire as existence was forced back into his lungs with every harsh breath. He shook and coughed, spitting up blood lodged in his lungs and looked around to find himself still bound and tied as usual.
Now though there was a large smear of blood on the floor where Ianto's body had fallen as well as across the front his clothes. A gift from the Master, he supposed, and Jack shut his eyes while doing his best to try to think of a plan he could somehow get to the Doctor to fix everything. To bring his team back, his responsibility, because they weren't meant to die on his watch or before his eyes.
The heat from the engines below permeated the scent of the stale blood in the air and for the first time, Jack noted the smell was different than that of his own.
---
Somehow, it would not have been the usual arc of his life for him to return to his duty and his team then get a chance to relax. No, no of course a whole fat load of trouble in tight pants and killer cheekbones had to sass his way back into Jack's life to mess everything up. He grumbled lightly and rubbed his face, only to be interrupted by a soft clearing of a throat as a lovely young man stood beside an empty chair across from him.
"Is this seat taken?"
Jack blinked and smiled, getting up as he kissed the man's cheek then pulled the chair out for him. "I was worried for a moment there that you weren't going to show up," he said as Ianto settled himself down with a bit of a smile and reached for the menu before him. "Well, some of us can actually be places when they've agreed to go somewhere."
The older man just laughed softly, "Alright, I deserved that. But ouch anyway, Ianto."
He sat back down and looked up to see the young archivist watching him, those eyes that he last saw so vividly in his mind -prior to this hectic business with Hart- was just before he died in a hail of bullets. But these eyes, these living ones narrowed slightly as Ianto smiled behind his menu and ducked his head ever so slightly.
The meal went off without a hitch. Conversations held for so long that their first hot dishes went cool to the touch and needed to be sent back to be reheated. Much to Ianto's embarrassment of course, who admitted that he has never once sent a meal back to the cook especially at a place like this one Jack picked out for their 'date'.
Once the food returned, Ianto put his napkin back across his lap and reached to move his chair forward slightly further before he dug in. However he hissed a bit and drew his hand quickly to his face to draw the tip of his index finger into his mouth.
Across the table Jack frowned slightly, a bite of food in his mouth as he peered at the younger man while raising his brows in question.
"Oh its nothing," Ianto replied as he peered at his finger. "A splinter I think, stupid chair." He flexed the finger slightly but reached for his silverware nonetheless, as he'd been long ready to eat. When Jack slid over in his own chair and caught the hand up, Ianto could only sigh and begin to protest that he was actually rather hungry and the splinter wasn't going to end his life any time soon.
That was of course before Jack's mouth covered his fingertip then slid it down to the base of his finger. The heat and wetness suddenly constricting around his skin had Ianto blushing and his jaw working but no sounds of protest really coming out. Jack just smiled around the long finger in his mouth, tongue prodding at the tip for several long strokes until he finally pulled back with a soft sigh. He reached for one of the more blunt knives from the table and used it to catch the edge of the splinter now so he could extract the sliver caught between the metal and his own nail.
The offending piece of plank was thrown over his shoulder carelessly when Jack pulled it out fully. Ianto couldn't help the slight sound as the last of the barbs made it out of his skin, watching a small bead of blood swell where it once was. Again went his captain's mouth, tongue sliding over to work the small bit of blood from the swirls of his fingertip in an agonizing and utterly not-innocent gesture.
Ianto was breathing a bit harder by that point. Food long forgotten as he watched Jack sit up tall and smiled. He watched as the welshman paused before laughing softly, drawing his hand back to rest on his chest as his shoulders shook with the mirth he attempted to keep quiet.
"I missed you," Jack said once their eyes met again. A smirk of his own was back on his face when Ianto placed his hands upon his cheeks, smoothing over the lines of his sideburns and down the defining lines of his jaw.
Their kiss was sweet, long but slow, and in no rush despite being by a window inside an expensive -no he would not list this as a business write off later- restaurant. Even though it began with the hint of iron at the very tip of his tongue, Ianto insinuated himself closer and Jack lost the flavor quickly as it was replaced by something that was solely the man in his arms. He pulled away after a moment, resting their brows together and sighed lightly as he listened to Ianto hum softly a happy little note.
"We ought to get this bagged to take back to the Hub. The rate we're going now, we'll never get to eat it here warm," Ianto smiled as he opened his eyes and leaned back. His fingers toyed with Jack's fringe, seemingly happy just to get to touch him again and the captain couldn't of been more glad of it himself.
While the suggestion was logical, Jack broke himself of his almost dazed state and flashed a grin as he replaced his seat across from Ianto. He slid his hand across the narrow table and caught up one hand, lacing their fingers together with a gentle squeeze. "I promised you that I'd set things right and it starts here with a proper night out on the town. No more meals out of take-out boxes or shags on the desks, I'm going to attempt to woo you like a proper gentleman ought to be wooed by his lecherous employer."
Ianto just laughed again, nodding his head as if he hadn't considered such an option and smiled at his meal as he lifted up his fork.
"If you insist..."
The evening progressed on much the same and Jack sighed at the overall normal sensation that came over him. Hell, he even drove Ianto back to his flat to walk him to his front door as if they were from some camp 'young love' film from the days of old. Jack thought it was all sweet and lovely until the very last bit:
"Night, Ianto..."
"Mm.. it has been lovely thank you. Good night Jack."
That moment there would be when usually a couple would kiss or be invited inside. For Jack, that was the moment when the door closed in his face and all he saw were the brass numbers barely an inch from his nose.
His mouth opened then closed, torn between confusion and insult when the door was pulled open again and a hand darted out to grab him by his coat lapels to drag him inside. Ianto shoved him up against the closed door, pressing tight from knee to chest as he kissed Jack with an intensity that surprised the captain.
"Oh that was so worth the look on your face," the young man laughed in between kisses as he tugged off his suit coat and put it over the doorknob as he locked up. "Mm... take me to bed, please Jack?"
Jack paused, watching the battle of humor and arousal in those bright blue eyes before he just laughed himself and shrugged his jacket from his shoulders to throw over a sofa as they hurried past it in haste to get to the large bed that felt miles away suddenly. Getting naked seemed so easy, as did the simple pattern of sex as the wound around each other in pleasure over and over again.
It wasn't until afterwards, until after Ianto had fallen asleep pressed to Jack's side with his arms around him that the older man remembered a promise he made in a year that he didn't exist. He pressed his lips to clean smelling hair and felt Ianto squirm slightly in his sleep at the touch. The younger man's body flexed in a happy sigh, shifting the blanket that hung around their hips an inch or so lower and baring the tantalizing line of Ianto's hipbone.
His fingers brushed over it, almost dislodging his thoughts from where they were trying to crawl before Ianto distracted him even while completely unconscious. "We made everything right again," he whispered into Ianto's hair. "Fixed it so you would never know that pain, never know that death or know an evil like that.
"Just like I promised."
Author: louie x
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R/NC-17
Spoilers: 1x04, 1x06, Doctor Who Season 3 finale, TW 2x01 hinted spoilers
Note: This was written for torchwoodadvent for Jack day, happy Jack day!! Another thing, this fic has character death (in one part)!! So angst and then some more angst! So reader be warned~
Disclaimer: I own not a bit of this (wish I did, one day maybe?), all hail RTD and the mighty BBC!
Summary: Jack recalls three distinct memories in his life thus far when blood and Ianto went hand in hand, then adds a fourth.
When he tasted blood in his mouth, upon standing up after that rather firm hook of a punch, Jack deemed love a state of insanity that he found himself glad to never be in such grips of. At least, to the extent that the panicked man before him was.
Standing on the plass with his entire team, all eyes were on Ianto as, despite the blood and water staining his clothes he still sided with what was obviously a lost cause. His convictions were that she was innocent, that she wasn't in control and that they as Torchwood should help her, not just murder her. But Jack knew all too well that she'd moved beyond a helpless woman into an 'it'; a killing machine intent on spreading outward until there was no human life left on this planet. Jack thought as he listened to the death threat -even with those charming vowels- that for someone as bright and clever as Ianto to not realize that, he must honestly have gone mad.
But that is what love does to people.
When the team stood just beyond the door, guns at their sides and two dead bodies in what was previously thought to be an empty basement room while Ianto finally snapped and sobbed. Jack let out a sigh that perhaps now the bright archivist would spring back to his senses now that this night was over. He had the ladies drag Ianto upstairs -initially prescribing force to do so but saw how his body sagged between them with no argument- while he and Owen scanned, documented, and then used several questionably legal weapons (usually locked up tight) to vaporize everything into a fine powder. Said powder was bottled up and stored in Jack's safe under an innocuous but off-limits name that wouldn't have anyone suspect it was the last (hopefully) of the Cybertech on Earth.
The others are certain Ianto is a goner. If not by a bullet between the eyes then with a dose of retcon so strong that surely he'd be an empty mind within a handsome body on some hospital's doorstep by dawn.
Jack merely takes him home, gets him into the shower and bags his ruined suit with possibly contaminated blood to be burned back at the Hub. Ianto is quiet, far too docile after all the fire Jack witnessed that night for the captain to be entirely comfortable, but he sits them down and makes Ianto explain every last detail of what happened. At first the young man refuses to speak, eyes filled with tears that won't fall until his throat cracks and words spill out like a flood.
With his usual unconscious efficiency, Ianto dots every 'i' and crosses every 't' of his experiences at Canary Wharf and how the woman known prior as Lisa Hallett was transported then survived for a year beneath his feet without his knowledge. Jack has to admit, he's impressed, but it wasn't the time for a pat on the back even though Ianto deserved one.
Instead Jack goes to a more natural response and sleeps with him. Takes that towel that is Ianto's last preserve to complete nudity, while remaining mostly clothed himself, and fucks a dent into the unused bed of Ianto's flat with the welshman beneath him. He thrusts in with a harshness that Ianto begs for despite the exhaustion that grips them both. Jack drags him closer as those long limbs hold onto him tight, tears sliding into dark curly hair and Jack hopes that he can literally shag the night out of Ianto's body.
That he can replace that year of cold touches of metal and blood with his mouth on every inch of damaged skin while his cock presses at places within Ianto, granting him a release he's probably denied himself for over a year. He passed out once they were done or at least was content to lay there, naturally catching his breath while Jack cleaned them up and carefully applied plasters to his superficial wounds.
Jack held him until long after sunrise, letting Ianto's breath wash over his neck as fingers curled lightly around him in a desperately needy grasp even in sleep.
Ianto took the month of unpaid suspension well enough, even made Jack coffee before he left with a quiet murmur that he might unpack the obscene amount of boxes that filled his flat. He held Jack's gaze when the captain faltered before he left, saying that Ianto could call if he needed anything during this time away from his job.
When he heard nothing from the young man, Jack honestly thought Ianto may have killed himself but refused to just storm into the other man's flat to investigate. Rather, he let out a soft sigh at the round door rolling back exactly on time a month later to reveal a crisp suit but haunted blue eyes. Gwen stood beside him on the second level, she was pulling an all-nighter with him earlier to hunt down a nest of weevils. Incredibly feisty weevils that put up quite a fight and got in a few hits on Jack before Gwen could spray the alpha male to get him calmed down.
She pressed him for questions, as if she'd not thought of that night until seeing the young man again and Jack answered them honestly but not with his full attention. After the quiet nod of an apology from Ianto -and his own returned nod of vague forgiveness- Jack couldn't quiet get over that he could taste his blood in his mouth and hoped this wouldn't be a trend with the younger man.
His wide but hurt eyes and the tangy taste of iron on his tongue.
-----
The air reeked of blood by the time he got all the crazed villagers down and away from their weapons. Jack felt half mad himself after unloading nearly every bullet he had on his person just to regain some sense of control back into this purely human situation.
Gwen stopped him from murdering the man who was about to (he found out after) filet open one of this team. It baffled him why she needed to understand as the answer she got was pure insanity based upon an inbred society's tradition. There was no rhyme or reason to it; the cannibalism was done merely for the sake of the ability to do so.
Jack didn't often long for the days of psychotic aliens who thought human meat held magical purposes or were a delicacy so rare they needed to be hunted down for the pleasure of the kill as well as the taste of it. But the thought crossed his mind as he watched the vehicles pull up holding both medics and the police to clean up this terrible mess of a situation.
Owen was all over Gwen, something that bothered Jack in the sense that he didn't need that sort of turmoil in his team. He didn't need Gwen's foundation rocked by cheating on her -rather adorable, in his opinion- boyfriend by shagging Owen who couldn't do right by himself by listening to the big head more than not. But as the police rounded everyone up, throwing them into the back of vans to be dragged off to jail, Jack just watched as Owen's hands inspected the added damage that had been done to her gunshot wound.
Lovely, brave little Toshiko just about threw herself into his arms the first chance she got. He listened to her cry for just a few moments before locking herself back away under that hard exterior but let her burrow against him beneath his coat in the meanwhile. That was when he was finally told of what happened after he split his team up. Of how she and Ianto were captured, beaten and groped, then how the young man risked his life so that she could try to escape even though all it did was just drag the rest of his team back into the heart of the fray.
He put his coat around her shoulders and helped her into the back seat of the land rover where she sniffled quietly before tugging the on-board computers around her. Protecting herself with their closeness and busying her mind by documenting what she could in the case files also while ensuring that there was no chance any of the villagers would be released for quiet some time.
Jack walked to the boot then, spotting Ianto quietly sitting half within with his legs dangling out and there was that near blinding glimmer of just how young this man was in Jack's eyes. Certainly, mid twenties was nothing to shake a stick at but Jack was concerned none the less especially considering it'd been barely five weeks since the cyberman incident. Taking Ianto out of the hub to try to bond him deeper into the group, to remind him he wasn't furniture but indeed a member of his specialized team had not worked exactly as the captain initially planned.
Butterfly bandages held together a wound on his brow that caused a concussion, his breathing was somewhat shallow to avoid pressing on injured ribs, and there was a bandage at his throat where a cleaver sat ready to bleed him out to make his body a more flavorful dish. Ianto barely seemed to notice Jack sitting down beside him but his entire form jumped when his boss touched his hand, a soft hiss of pain as his free hand lightly touched his chest to sympathetically hold the pain there.
They sat in silence until Ianto's fingers curled tight around Jack's own. His gaze wasn't as sharp as it ought to be and Jack noted that the medics had dosed him up on some painkillers judging by the clouded shine over that blue gaze.
"Nobody died," he said quietly.
Jack just stroked scraped fingers lightly with his thumb in a reassuring touch as he said nothing to disagree with that. Ianto seemed relieved, sighing softly and closing those pained looking eyes.
"Tosh said you saved her life or at the very least from something just as worse as death at their hands. You did good today, Ianto, I'm very proud of you," the captain replied and felt his own sense of relief at the slight upward curl at the edges of Ianto's mouth.
He let Ianto ride in the front seat to keep an eye on him as he slept the entire ride back into the city. The others were dropped off at their homes with strict orders to stay home on two days recovery leave, Ianto slept through their soft goodbyes and Tosh's soft kiss to his cheek through the window Jack opened for her as she was the last to go. The man did wake when they returned to the Hub, hearing Myfanwy's cry for attention even from the garage and mumbled slightly that she needed to be fed while Jack walked his drowsy body to the couch in the main room.
She buzzed overhead, concerned for the two men she'd grown attached to like any somewhat domesticated animal would as Jack laid Ianto down and checked his palm where he'd written down the medication Owen said the medics gave his archivist. "They're mighty strong," he said while helping Gwen into her seat before leaving the countryside. "He'll probably sleep for a while and when he wakes up, make sure he feels everything and check his eye sight then give him another dose more to keep him down."
Ianto's eyes were barely open but there none the less as Jack settled him onto the couch with pillows and blankets. He tipped his head lightly into the affectionate touch the captain brushed over his unbruised cheek and murmured a quiet sound of Jack's name as his eyes closed once more. Jack looked up to where the pterodactyl roosted and fluttered before pacing back and forth slightly as was her usual gesture when she was upset about something.
A bone weary sigh fell past Jack's lips as he bent his head down, resting his brow lightly against Ianto's own then kissed a soft unmarked spot as his hand laid over Ianto's chest lightly to feel the heart slowly beneath beating away. Those messed locks still smelled of the gore while his skin held the soft scent of antiseptic that was probably used to clean up his dirt covered face by the medics. Jack's stomach twisted at the scent, knowing that if Ianto were aware enough he would have asked for a shower to wash the experience free from his skin.
He left Ianto only to feed the dinosaur above their heads, climbing up the ladder with a bucket doused in her special sauce that was filled with chickens Ianto bought earlier that week. She ate quickly while he sat at the edge of her 'nest' peering down at the Hub from her usual nearly sky-high view. He smiled lightly as she prodded at his arm until he peeled the sloughing skin from her throat and Myfanwy cooed lightly at the tender hands on her rough skin.
Jack watched Ianto sleep from this high up and saw what would be the first of many nightmares that would grip the welshman from that point on.
----
It was three weeks into his standing imprisonment upon the Valiant when the Master pulled out one of his more dastardly tricks as apparently merely killing Jack over and over had lost its luster. Jack let his head fall back and sighed gently, eyes taking in the grating above him that he'd long ago named and would often talk to or tell dirty limericks to just to keep his mind active in the long hours between whichever death of the day Saxon was insisting upon.
An unexpected troupe of armed loyalists strode into the room, rifles in hand and they stood at attention half the room's length away from him. "Oh do I get a show or a parade?" Jack grinned. "What's the occasion today Saxon?" His sarcastic tone didn't go unanswered as the grinning Timelord walked out, hands behind his back as he stood between Jack and the armed men in his crisp suit. The wide evil grin unsettled him, usually there was the generic banter then either a quick and painful or a slow and torturous death.
It was the pause, the calm before the storm, and Jack found himself feeling very uneasy.
"So, Jack," the Master said with a grin as he walked in closer and leaned just out of range of the bound man. "That team of yours, before all of this, I sent off to the Himalayas and just got a report that they were killed by my dear Toclafane. But there was a tiny, itty, bitty problem as there were only three of them stationed at that particular site."
His heart nearly stopped at the simple delivery that his team was dead. Jack trembled with both sorrow and rage, gulping back the ache that the Master was probably aiming to see. He looked down instead, shutting his eyes as he listened to the Master identify the bodies so cheerfully as that of Gwen, Owen, and Tosh who were now buried in the snow by a 'tidy avalanche' after the camping site had been exterminated.
"Course, that left one little mouse unaccounted for and we can't have them playing about with their filthy little selves while the big cat is in town ready to pick my teeth with their bones." He snapped his fingers and one of the men behind him motioned to people out of Jack's line of sight. "So, I took a gander around and found your little base a week ago. Found it and found a rather stubborn young man who held his own that whole time, not only arranging a sort of underground rebellion but was attempting to scan and figure out a way to kill my beloved friends!" His voice had raised in pitch, face flushed with anger as a smartly dressed Ianto Jones was dragged forward with his hands locked behind his back in impressive looking cuffs.
Jack felt proud that one of his team survived, thinking it clever for them to leave someone behind before fleeing the country to leave the base unguarded and for Ianto being able to work on his feet so quickly. He smiled despite the glare of the Master so close at seeing Ianto alive and unharmed, meeting those bright eyes that looked just as surprised to see him.
"Captain..!" Ianto said almost breathlessly before he smiled himself and received a gun butt to the stomach for it. The Master edged away from Jack, twisting his body in that near theatrical way while he grabbed Ianto by the scruff of his neck and dug his nails in. Ianto winced slightly but barely made a sound as he was dragged forward along with their captor.
The Master licked his lips as he looked back and forth between the two of them, still out of Jack's reach even as taut as the chains about his arms were then. "Now isn't this a precious reunion. How I do love these sort of get togethers, Jack," he said with what sounded like a touch of glee to his voice. "Now it won't last that long as I don't often get the chance for a dual execution like this often but I figured I would be a gentleman and offer you two the chance to catch up." He looked to Ianto but found the younger man gazing forward stoically , not revealing anymore than he had already upon first seeing his missing leader.
"Say 'thank you' Mr. Jones."
Ianto turned then, letting his eyes track lightly over the Master's face before spitting at him.
Jack couldn't help the bark of laughter that bubbled up from him. It trailed off as Ianto was shoved hard into his chest and the two men both had to use the tension holding Jack's arms to remain upright. He smiled none the less at Ianto, sighing softly as their cheeks brushed in an almost feral greeting.
"Oh its good to see you, Ianto. I missed you," he whispered lightly while his eyes shut and he pulled at his bonds to try to hug the man who now leaned against him. He felt Ianto's shaken exhale and knew from that breath that he was scared but relieved as well. Shaking his head, Ianto began to reply, "I tried... I tried to do as much as I could on my own, sir-"
"You did amazingly well, don't you doubt that for a moment."
The captain smiled softly again as he looked at the young face scant inches before his own. It was uncharacteristically generous for the Master to give them any time at all but then again, a band-aid hurt worse the slower you removed it. He shut his eyes and buried his face against Ianto's shoulder, breathing him in deep as his hands bunched into fists with an anger that only now began to bubble up into him.
An execution. Why the words were delayed and only struck him now, Jack would never know but at least now he knew what the line of armed men were for. He gazed over Ianto's shoulder at the Master who just waved and grinned after wiping his face off with a handkerchief. The man was a true sadist and Jack would get him for this, he swore it then and there.
"I won't let this happen, I won't let you die like this."
Ianto laughed softly now, nosing at Jack's jaw before kissing him softly there. "Unless you've got some really good plan now I don't think you have much of a say, Jack. But I'm not afraid to die, working this job as we do, you wake up every morning with the likelihood of it being your last."
Jack shook his head almost childishly, pressing light kisses against the younger man's face as he spoke in a hushed whisper. "No, no I won't let it stick. I won't let you die like this, I won't let the others die as they did. He can't win, not like that."
Another soft smile, "This isn't the Superman movies, Jack. You can't just push the Earth backwards with your sheer will and undo the effects of things that have already happened."
"Watch me."
A low hum sounded and Ianto shifted, his hands free and the thick cuffs banging on the grated floor beneath their feet. Both men looked up to the Master who held the Doctor's sonic screwdriver and pocketed the device quickly.
"You have to the count of ten, gentlemen. Better make the most of it," he said while the firing squad behind him armed and aimed their weapons.
Ianto looked back to Jack, arms sliding around his captain as he put his back to the group behind him. He watched Jack's face as the Timelord began to count loudly behind them.
"Tell me you believe me, that you believe I won't let this happen."
Jack leaned into the hand that brushed over his cheek and through his hair as Ianto just smiled gently, nodding his head regardless even through the tears on his face. "I believe you," he whispered before they kissed. An embrace that struck Jack's heart because it felt like the one he gave to his namesake; a kiss that spoke of love and faith and a firm ache that they'd never see one another again.
"It will be quick," Jack said as he felt tears on his own face. "I can at least promise you that."
"Fire!"
The bullets rang out but to Jack the scene was almost eerily silent save for the last breath Ianto took rushing past his ear. His body was in shock, the arms locked tight around him as the squad fired again and again. Jack would have put himself first but there was no stopping the bullets that now riddled through both of their bodies, had Ianto stood behind him it would have been no better.
He was still alive enough to watch Ianto's dead body fall to the floor, eyes shut as his blood pooled along the harsh metal beneath him. Past the wheezing and blood laden breaths, Jack tried to swear again to fix things to the man at his feet. He sunk as far to his knees as he could, the shoulder pain minimal by comparison to the bullets still lodged into him or the holes the others left within him.
A gun barrel was pressed against his forehead and Jack looked up, vision starting to darken at the edges but the Master stood before him with gun in hand. He smiled a crooked grin and pulled the trigger, splattering the captain's brains onto the wall behind him and ending his life.
Jack awoke an unknown time later, his body feeling on fire as existence was forced back into his lungs with every harsh breath. He shook and coughed, spitting up blood lodged in his lungs and looked around to find himself still bound and tied as usual.
Now though there was a large smear of blood on the floor where Ianto's body had fallen as well as across the front his clothes. A gift from the Master, he supposed, and Jack shut his eyes while doing his best to try to think of a plan he could somehow get to the Doctor to fix everything. To bring his team back, his responsibility, because they weren't meant to die on his watch or before his eyes.
The heat from the engines below permeated the scent of the stale blood in the air and for the first time, Jack noted the smell was different than that of his own.
---
Somehow, it would not have been the usual arc of his life for him to return to his duty and his team then get a chance to relax. No, no of course a whole fat load of trouble in tight pants and killer cheekbones had to sass his way back into Jack's life to mess everything up. He grumbled lightly and rubbed his face, only to be interrupted by a soft clearing of a throat as a lovely young man stood beside an empty chair across from him.
"Is this seat taken?"
Jack blinked and smiled, getting up as he kissed the man's cheek then pulled the chair out for him. "I was worried for a moment there that you weren't going to show up," he said as Ianto settled himself down with a bit of a smile and reached for the menu before him. "Well, some of us can actually be places when they've agreed to go somewhere."
The older man just laughed softly, "Alright, I deserved that. But ouch anyway, Ianto."
He sat back down and looked up to see the young archivist watching him, those eyes that he last saw so vividly in his mind -prior to this hectic business with Hart- was just before he died in a hail of bullets. But these eyes, these living ones narrowed slightly as Ianto smiled behind his menu and ducked his head ever so slightly.
The meal went off without a hitch. Conversations held for so long that their first hot dishes went cool to the touch and needed to be sent back to be reheated. Much to Ianto's embarrassment of course, who admitted that he has never once sent a meal back to the cook especially at a place like this one Jack picked out for their 'date'.
Once the food returned, Ianto put his napkin back across his lap and reached to move his chair forward slightly further before he dug in. However he hissed a bit and drew his hand quickly to his face to draw the tip of his index finger into his mouth.
Across the table Jack frowned slightly, a bite of food in his mouth as he peered at the younger man while raising his brows in question.
"Oh its nothing," Ianto replied as he peered at his finger. "A splinter I think, stupid chair." He flexed the finger slightly but reached for his silverware nonetheless, as he'd been long ready to eat. When Jack slid over in his own chair and caught the hand up, Ianto could only sigh and begin to protest that he was actually rather hungry and the splinter wasn't going to end his life any time soon.
That was of course before Jack's mouth covered his fingertip then slid it down to the base of his finger. The heat and wetness suddenly constricting around his skin had Ianto blushing and his jaw working but no sounds of protest really coming out. Jack just smiled around the long finger in his mouth, tongue prodding at the tip for several long strokes until he finally pulled back with a soft sigh. He reached for one of the more blunt knives from the table and used it to catch the edge of the splinter now so he could extract the sliver caught between the metal and his own nail.
The offending piece of plank was thrown over his shoulder carelessly when Jack pulled it out fully. Ianto couldn't help the slight sound as the last of the barbs made it out of his skin, watching a small bead of blood swell where it once was. Again went his captain's mouth, tongue sliding over to work the small bit of blood from the swirls of his fingertip in an agonizing and utterly not-innocent gesture.
Ianto was breathing a bit harder by that point. Food long forgotten as he watched Jack sit up tall and smiled. He watched as the welshman paused before laughing softly, drawing his hand back to rest on his chest as his shoulders shook with the mirth he attempted to keep quiet.
"I missed you," Jack said once their eyes met again. A smirk of his own was back on his face when Ianto placed his hands upon his cheeks, smoothing over the lines of his sideburns and down the defining lines of his jaw.
Their kiss was sweet, long but slow, and in no rush despite being by a window inside an expensive -no he would not list this as a business write off later- restaurant. Even though it began with the hint of iron at the very tip of his tongue, Ianto insinuated himself closer and Jack lost the flavor quickly as it was replaced by something that was solely the man in his arms. He pulled away after a moment, resting their brows together and sighed lightly as he listened to Ianto hum softly a happy little note.
"We ought to get this bagged to take back to the Hub. The rate we're going now, we'll never get to eat it here warm," Ianto smiled as he opened his eyes and leaned back. His fingers toyed with Jack's fringe, seemingly happy just to get to touch him again and the captain couldn't of been more glad of it himself.
While the suggestion was logical, Jack broke himself of his almost dazed state and flashed a grin as he replaced his seat across from Ianto. He slid his hand across the narrow table and caught up one hand, lacing their fingers together with a gentle squeeze. "I promised you that I'd set things right and it starts here with a proper night out on the town. No more meals out of take-out boxes or shags on the desks, I'm going to attempt to woo you like a proper gentleman ought to be wooed by his lecherous employer."
Ianto just laughed again, nodding his head as if he hadn't considered such an option and smiled at his meal as he lifted up his fork.
"If you insist..."
The evening progressed on much the same and Jack sighed at the overall normal sensation that came over him. Hell, he even drove Ianto back to his flat to walk him to his front door as if they were from some camp 'young love' film from the days of old. Jack thought it was all sweet and lovely until the very last bit:
"Night, Ianto..."
"Mm.. it has been lovely thank you. Good night Jack."
That moment there would be when usually a couple would kiss or be invited inside. For Jack, that was the moment when the door closed in his face and all he saw were the brass numbers barely an inch from his nose.
His mouth opened then closed, torn between confusion and insult when the door was pulled open again and a hand darted out to grab him by his coat lapels to drag him inside. Ianto shoved him up against the closed door, pressing tight from knee to chest as he kissed Jack with an intensity that surprised the captain.
"Oh that was so worth the look on your face," the young man laughed in between kisses as he tugged off his suit coat and put it over the doorknob as he locked up. "Mm... take me to bed, please Jack?"
Jack paused, watching the battle of humor and arousal in those bright blue eyes before he just laughed himself and shrugged his jacket from his shoulders to throw over a sofa as they hurried past it in haste to get to the large bed that felt miles away suddenly. Getting naked seemed so easy, as did the simple pattern of sex as the wound around each other in pleasure over and over again.
It wasn't until afterwards, until after Ianto had fallen asleep pressed to Jack's side with his arms around him that the older man remembered a promise he made in a year that he didn't exist. He pressed his lips to clean smelling hair and felt Ianto squirm slightly in his sleep at the touch. The younger man's body flexed in a happy sigh, shifting the blanket that hung around their hips an inch or so lower and baring the tantalizing line of Ianto's hipbone.
His fingers brushed over it, almost dislodging his thoughts from where they were trying to crawl before Ianto distracted him even while completely unconscious. "We made everything right again," he whispered into Ianto's hair. "Fixed it so you would never know that pain, never know that death or know an evil like that.
"Just like I promised."