And So It Begins... Again: Part 2 (1/10)
Title: Part 2 - As The Sun Rises
Rating: 15
Characters/Pairings: Team; Jack/Ianto
Spoilers: S1, 2x01
Warnings: Mild violence; M/M relations; Angst
Summary: The 'day after' begins and Ianto has to face what happened...
[ The 'And So It Begins... Again' Saga ]
Disclaimer: Torchwood belongs to Russel T. Davies ftw - I'm just having a play
Author's Note: Thus begins the second part of the fic.. it's much less action and much more emotion based =] Dealing with the aftermath of Part 1 and returning to look at Jack's state of mind after his trip with the Doctor. Hope you like it!
The pancakes bit is a bit gratuitous, as I was craving those pancakes from a place called the Bongo Room in Chicago (they're amazing, visit if you get the chance!)
---
CHAPTER 1
Jack had returned from seeing off John late in the evening. By the time he’d assured everyone else they could go home, it was almost midnight. Yawning loudly and stretching his arms in front of him, he’d climbed down into his bunker and stripped down to his under shirt and boxers.
Sitting just below the opening, he watched Ianto sleeping.
He was lying on his front, arms out on either side, hands on the pillow. His head was lying on its left side, facing Jack. His eyes were closed and his eyebrows were raised in a sort of surprise. His lips were parted in the most delicious shape which made Jack want to lose himself in them.
He had to use a surprising amount of self restraint to stop himself from waking the sleeping man up. Jack sighed heavily and leaned his head on the wall behind him, not wanting to go and lie down in case he disturbed Ianto.
It took him a while to realise that the slow, steady rate of Ianto’s breathing had changed and, when he looked down, he saw the now comfortingly familiar blue eyes gazing up at him, a small smile on his lips. Jack returned it and stepped over to him, kissing him gently on the cheek.
The urge was too great for him to stop as his lips tasted Ianto’s skin, making him kiss Ianto hard on the lips. He felt the young man’s hand on the side of his face and pulled away a little. There was a glint of amusement in his eyes and he rolled over onto his back, making room for Jack next to him.
When Jack had settled himself down, Ianto slipped his arm around Jack’s waist and leant his forehead on his chest, breathing deeply. Jack moved one of his hands through Ianto’s hair, stroking the back of his neck gently. He smiled again as the young man hummed contentedly and wriggled closer to him.
They lay like that for a long time and Ianto eventually drifted off into a peaceful sleep. To Jack’s surprise, he found himself following soon after.
*
Ianto opened his eyes warily, knowing that he was in Jack’s arms, in the safety of Jack’s bunker. The clock he’d insisted Jack mount on the wall was flashing 10:30 am in bright red lights. He yawned and buried his head further into Jack’s chest, not wanting to go upstairs and return to work.
He felt a movement, yelped in surprise and jerked back as he realised that Jack had been asleep, and that he’d just made the mistake of waking him up.
“Christ… Jack! I’m so sorry…” Ianto had his hands up in front of him, palms towards Jack in a futile attempt to stop the waking process. Jack screwed one eye up and opened the other, directing it at Ianto.
“You know, that’s not really going to do anything but make you strain your wrists.” Jack said sleepily. Ianto glanced down and saw the bandages.
He blushed as he remembered telling Jack and Owen the evening before about why he’d done it, all those months ago, silently cursing the way pain killers always loosened his tongue up. He quickly dropped his hands to his sides and propped himself up against the wall in a sitting position, staring up at the ceiling.
He suddenly felt very awake.
As if to remind him, he felt two painful throbs from each of his wrists and an ache in the middle of his stomach. He groaned as he looked down at the gauze patches on his mid abdomen, pressing one of them experimentally around the edges, slowly moving further and further towards the middle. He gasped sharply and Jack started to laugh at him.
“Was that ever a dumb thing to do…” He reached out and took Ianto’s hand gently in his, moving it away from his stomach and making Ianto’s eyes follow. He was lying on his side, propped up on one elbow, smiling. Ianto nodded and smiled briefly back at him before looking back up at the ceiling.
Memories were starting to trickle into his head, things he’d tried so hard to forget were flooding back into him, and he felt another sharp stab of pain in his stomach and wrists again. The sudden feeling made him cough as his diaphragm spasmed sharply, forcing the air out of his lungs.
“Ianto-” Ianto looked up and forced a smile, cutting Jack’s question short.
“I’m fine, don’t worry.” he leant forwards and kissed Jack briefly before climbing over him and heading across to the bathroom.
He smiled in earnest as he saw that Jack had got him a clean suit, shirt and underwear and hung them on the back of his office door. He closed the door and picked up the hangers.
He was about to strip his pyjamas off and have a shower when he remembered that he couldn’t do so for another ten days. Sighing, he left the room and quietly headed up to Jack’s office, seeing as his lover was facing away from him and breathing slowly, probably half asleep again.
Once upstairs, he dropped heavily onto the sofa and buried his head in his hands before taking another sharp breath in as his wrists gave another two twinges.
He felt a sudden, irrational anger rise up in him, forcing tears to form in his eyes. He stared at his hands angrily and started to unwind the bandages. He traced a finger lightly over the gashes, not looking up as Jack hoisted himself out of the hatch and made his way over to the sofa, sitting down next to Ianto.
For the second time, he took Ianto’s hand and moved it away from its probing of the wounds. Ianto looked away moodily but Jack used his other hand to turn his face towards him. He saw the tears in his eyes and silently brushed them away with his thumb.
He wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t angry and he wasn’t annoyed. His face was neutral for the first time Ianto could remember. He looked at him closely, deep into his eyes and saw a wealth of emotions buried away - hidden away from the world.
“What’re you thinking? Right now, Jack, what’re you thinking?” Ianto asked, his voice quiet, soft and inquisitive. He looked earnestly into Jack’s eyes once more, willing him to open up. Jack returned the gaze, his brow furrowed a little as he compiled his answer.
“I’m thinking that you have a chance to heal everything all over again. You have a chance to do things differently, to take a different route.” He moved his second hand down to hold Ianto’s free one and carried on looking directly at him. “I’m thinking that I want to know when things get too much for you, when you need to talk to someone. I’m thinking that we can do this together.”
It was then that he smiled, the cheeky grin lighting up his eyes. “I’m also thinking that we should order in some pancakes for breakfast! Lets have some fun before the others come in this afternoon.”
Ianto laughed gentlyat that and nodded, leaning forwards and kissing Jack slowly. They watched each other for a moment before Jack stood up and dragged Ianto out into the hub and round to Tosh’s work station.
They stopped briefly for him to pick up the phone and dial the number the café around the corner that delivered. He ordered six large American style pancakes with bananas and strawberries, thanked the waitress on the other end of the phone then hung up, smiling at Ianto again.
“Ever had pancakes like that before?” There was a twinkle of adventure in his eyes again that made Ianto stay silent. He just shook his head and narrowed his eyes slightly at Jack, making him laugh as they moved to the kitchen area.
The young man was trying his best to suppress the anger and shame that had been brought on by the sight of his wrists in such a mess - and Jack was trying desperately to distract him from it.
Ianto took his cue and turned the coffee machine on, working a little clumsily as when he applied too much force, his wrists throbbed painfully again and he had to repeat the process. Eventually, he turned around and handed Jack his coffee. For himself, he opened the fridge and poured himself a large glass of orange juice with pulp - which Jack grimaced at - and drank most of it in one go. He looked up to see Jack looking at him incredulously.
“What? Never seen me drinking orange juice before?” He smiled mysteriously and finished it off, pouring himself another glass and dumping the carton back in the fridge door.
Jack just shook his head, pulling him back through the hub to the board room, where the team had adopted as their unofficial dining room. He put his coffee down on the table, pushed Ianto into one of the seats and then ran up to the Tourist Office to greet the waiting delivery girl with a wink, a grin and her payment.
She left to go back feeling extremely dazed.
He went back down to the board room and dropped into the seat by his coffee, grinning like a school boy at Ianto as he handed him a polystyrene tray. He opened his own and let out an extremely contented sigh before grabbing a plastic fork from the bag and shovelling half a pancake covered in strawberry cream and bananas into his mouth in one go.
His eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he sighed dramatically again and sunk down in his seat. Ianto snorted and started to laugh at him, having watched the whole display with interest. Jack grinned at him, cheeks bulging.
Feeling a little in the spotlight, Ianto opened his own tray and took a significantly smaller pile of fruit and pancake and speared it on his fork, putting it all in his mouth and pulling the fork slowly from between his lips.
To Jack’s immense pleasure, he made a similar sound of approval and closed his eyes, nodding. Jack swallowed his mouthful, with some effort, and grinned broadly again. “Didn’t I tell you?”
Ianto just nodded and enjoyed the mouthful a little more. Jack took a sip of coffee and started to cut up the remaining pancakes into more manageable chunks, eating them at a steadier pace.
They spent the morning laughing and joking, kissing and touching and just being together. Eventually, Ianto admitted that he needed help washing himself and Jack had helped him wash himself, not once teasing him about it.
Despite his best efforts over breakfast and throughout the morning, Ianto was still brooding about what had happened, still fighting off the self loathing that had been in his eyes when he’d first woken up.
By the time the others came in, Ianto was forcing another smile, laughing along with everyone and allowing Jack to follow him around for most of the time. Whilst he found it a little annoying, he was well aware that it was as much for Jack’s mental health as for his own. He didn’t begrudge him that.
When Owen had questioned him about it whilst changing his dressings and re-bandaging his wrists mid afternoon, he just smiled knowingly at him. That had pissed Owen off and led to him poking and prodding Ianto for an answer for the rest of the day.
“All I’m asking is what you did to get Harkness to act like your personal butler.” Owen said moodily, dropping the bandage and gauze wrappers into the bin and snapping his gloves off.
“Are you really sure you want to know the answer to that?” Ianto said wryly as he tucked his shirt back into his trousers and buttoned up his waistcoat. Then he walked off, hands in pockets, to make more coffee.
Owen winced at the implication and shuddered. He let out an exasperated sigh as he climbed the stairs, throwing himself into his desk chair. It rolled violently and jerked him onto the floor with a thud.
The two women turned to look at him with amused expressions and Jack leaned back on his chair and looked out of his office, grinning, opening his mouth as if he was about to comment.
“Don’t even say it.” Owen growled in annoyance, standing up and rubbing his elbow.
Scowling at Ianto’s back in the kitchen area, he headed back down into the autopsy bay to brood like a teenager.
---
TBC - what do you think then?
Chapter 2
Rating: 15
Characters/Pairings: Team; Jack/Ianto
Spoilers: S1, 2x01
Warnings: Mild violence; M/M relations; Angst
Summary: The 'day after' begins and Ianto has to face what happened...
[ The 'And So It Begins... Again' Saga ]
Disclaimer: Torchwood belongs to Russel T. Davies ftw - I'm just having a play
Author's Note: Thus begins the second part of the fic.. it's much less action and much more emotion based =] Dealing with the aftermath of Part 1 and returning to look at Jack's state of mind after his trip with the Doctor. Hope you like it!
The pancakes bit is a bit gratuitous, as I was craving those pancakes from a place called the Bongo Room in Chicago (they're amazing, visit if you get the chance!)
---
CHAPTER 1
Jack had returned from seeing off John late in the evening. By the time he’d assured everyone else they could go home, it was almost midnight. Yawning loudly and stretching his arms in front of him, he’d climbed down into his bunker and stripped down to his under shirt and boxers.
Sitting just below the opening, he watched Ianto sleeping.
He was lying on his front, arms out on either side, hands on the pillow. His head was lying on its left side, facing Jack. His eyes were closed and his eyebrows were raised in a sort of surprise. His lips were parted in the most delicious shape which made Jack want to lose himself in them.
He had to use a surprising amount of self restraint to stop himself from waking the sleeping man up. Jack sighed heavily and leaned his head on the wall behind him, not wanting to go and lie down in case he disturbed Ianto.
It took him a while to realise that the slow, steady rate of Ianto’s breathing had changed and, when he looked down, he saw the now comfortingly familiar blue eyes gazing up at him, a small smile on his lips. Jack returned it and stepped over to him, kissing him gently on the cheek.
The urge was too great for him to stop as his lips tasted Ianto’s skin, making him kiss Ianto hard on the lips. He felt the young man’s hand on the side of his face and pulled away a little. There was a glint of amusement in his eyes and he rolled over onto his back, making room for Jack next to him.
When Jack had settled himself down, Ianto slipped his arm around Jack’s waist and leant his forehead on his chest, breathing deeply. Jack moved one of his hands through Ianto’s hair, stroking the back of his neck gently. He smiled again as the young man hummed contentedly and wriggled closer to him.
They lay like that for a long time and Ianto eventually drifted off into a peaceful sleep. To Jack’s surprise, he found himself following soon after.
*
Ianto opened his eyes warily, knowing that he was in Jack’s arms, in the safety of Jack’s bunker. The clock he’d insisted Jack mount on the wall was flashing 10:30 am in bright red lights. He yawned and buried his head further into Jack’s chest, not wanting to go upstairs and return to work.
He felt a movement, yelped in surprise and jerked back as he realised that Jack had been asleep, and that he’d just made the mistake of waking him up.
“Christ… Jack! I’m so sorry…” Ianto had his hands up in front of him, palms towards Jack in a futile attempt to stop the waking process. Jack screwed one eye up and opened the other, directing it at Ianto.
“You know, that’s not really going to do anything but make you strain your wrists.” Jack said sleepily. Ianto glanced down and saw the bandages.
He blushed as he remembered telling Jack and Owen the evening before about why he’d done it, all those months ago, silently cursing the way pain killers always loosened his tongue up. He quickly dropped his hands to his sides and propped himself up against the wall in a sitting position, staring up at the ceiling.
He suddenly felt very awake.
As if to remind him, he felt two painful throbs from each of his wrists and an ache in the middle of his stomach. He groaned as he looked down at the gauze patches on his mid abdomen, pressing one of them experimentally around the edges, slowly moving further and further towards the middle. He gasped sharply and Jack started to laugh at him.
“Was that ever a dumb thing to do…” He reached out and took Ianto’s hand gently in his, moving it away from his stomach and making Ianto’s eyes follow. He was lying on his side, propped up on one elbow, smiling. Ianto nodded and smiled briefly back at him before looking back up at the ceiling.
Memories were starting to trickle into his head, things he’d tried so hard to forget were flooding back into him, and he felt another sharp stab of pain in his stomach and wrists again. The sudden feeling made him cough as his diaphragm spasmed sharply, forcing the air out of his lungs.
“Ianto-” Ianto looked up and forced a smile, cutting Jack’s question short.
“I’m fine, don’t worry.” he leant forwards and kissed Jack briefly before climbing over him and heading across to the bathroom.
He smiled in earnest as he saw that Jack had got him a clean suit, shirt and underwear and hung them on the back of his office door. He closed the door and picked up the hangers.
He was about to strip his pyjamas off and have a shower when he remembered that he couldn’t do so for another ten days. Sighing, he left the room and quietly headed up to Jack’s office, seeing as his lover was facing away from him and breathing slowly, probably half asleep again.
Once upstairs, he dropped heavily onto the sofa and buried his head in his hands before taking another sharp breath in as his wrists gave another two twinges.
He felt a sudden, irrational anger rise up in him, forcing tears to form in his eyes. He stared at his hands angrily and started to unwind the bandages. He traced a finger lightly over the gashes, not looking up as Jack hoisted himself out of the hatch and made his way over to the sofa, sitting down next to Ianto.
For the second time, he took Ianto’s hand and moved it away from its probing of the wounds. Ianto looked away moodily but Jack used his other hand to turn his face towards him. He saw the tears in his eyes and silently brushed them away with his thumb.
He wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t angry and he wasn’t annoyed. His face was neutral for the first time Ianto could remember. He looked at him closely, deep into his eyes and saw a wealth of emotions buried away - hidden away from the world.
“What’re you thinking? Right now, Jack, what’re you thinking?” Ianto asked, his voice quiet, soft and inquisitive. He looked earnestly into Jack’s eyes once more, willing him to open up. Jack returned the gaze, his brow furrowed a little as he compiled his answer.
“I’m thinking that you have a chance to heal everything all over again. You have a chance to do things differently, to take a different route.” He moved his second hand down to hold Ianto’s free one and carried on looking directly at him. “I’m thinking that I want to know when things get too much for you, when you need to talk to someone. I’m thinking that we can do this together.”
It was then that he smiled, the cheeky grin lighting up his eyes. “I’m also thinking that we should order in some pancakes for breakfast! Lets have some fun before the others come in this afternoon.”
Ianto laughed gentlyat that and nodded, leaning forwards and kissing Jack slowly. They watched each other for a moment before Jack stood up and dragged Ianto out into the hub and round to Tosh’s work station.
They stopped briefly for him to pick up the phone and dial the number the café around the corner that delivered. He ordered six large American style pancakes with bananas and strawberries, thanked the waitress on the other end of the phone then hung up, smiling at Ianto again.
“Ever had pancakes like that before?” There was a twinkle of adventure in his eyes again that made Ianto stay silent. He just shook his head and narrowed his eyes slightly at Jack, making him laugh as they moved to the kitchen area.
The young man was trying his best to suppress the anger and shame that had been brought on by the sight of his wrists in such a mess - and Jack was trying desperately to distract him from it.
Ianto took his cue and turned the coffee machine on, working a little clumsily as when he applied too much force, his wrists throbbed painfully again and he had to repeat the process. Eventually, he turned around and handed Jack his coffee. For himself, he opened the fridge and poured himself a large glass of orange juice with pulp - which Jack grimaced at - and drank most of it in one go. He looked up to see Jack looking at him incredulously.
“What? Never seen me drinking orange juice before?” He smiled mysteriously and finished it off, pouring himself another glass and dumping the carton back in the fridge door.
Jack just shook his head, pulling him back through the hub to the board room, where the team had adopted as their unofficial dining room. He put his coffee down on the table, pushed Ianto into one of the seats and then ran up to the Tourist Office to greet the waiting delivery girl with a wink, a grin and her payment.
She left to go back feeling extremely dazed.
He went back down to the board room and dropped into the seat by his coffee, grinning like a school boy at Ianto as he handed him a polystyrene tray. He opened his own and let out an extremely contented sigh before grabbing a plastic fork from the bag and shovelling half a pancake covered in strawberry cream and bananas into his mouth in one go.
His eyes rolled up to the ceiling as he sighed dramatically again and sunk down in his seat. Ianto snorted and started to laugh at him, having watched the whole display with interest. Jack grinned at him, cheeks bulging.
Feeling a little in the spotlight, Ianto opened his own tray and took a significantly smaller pile of fruit and pancake and speared it on his fork, putting it all in his mouth and pulling the fork slowly from between his lips.
To Jack’s immense pleasure, he made a similar sound of approval and closed his eyes, nodding. Jack swallowed his mouthful, with some effort, and grinned broadly again. “Didn’t I tell you?”
Ianto just nodded and enjoyed the mouthful a little more. Jack took a sip of coffee and started to cut up the remaining pancakes into more manageable chunks, eating them at a steadier pace.
They spent the morning laughing and joking, kissing and touching and just being together. Eventually, Ianto admitted that he needed help washing himself and Jack had helped him wash himself, not once teasing him about it.
Despite his best efforts over breakfast and throughout the morning, Ianto was still brooding about what had happened, still fighting off the self loathing that had been in his eyes when he’d first woken up.
By the time the others came in, Ianto was forcing another smile, laughing along with everyone and allowing Jack to follow him around for most of the time. Whilst he found it a little annoying, he was well aware that it was as much for Jack’s mental health as for his own. He didn’t begrudge him that.
When Owen had questioned him about it whilst changing his dressings and re-bandaging his wrists mid afternoon, he just smiled knowingly at him. That had pissed Owen off and led to him poking and prodding Ianto for an answer for the rest of the day.
“All I’m asking is what you did to get Harkness to act like your personal butler.” Owen said moodily, dropping the bandage and gauze wrappers into the bin and snapping his gloves off.
“Are you really sure you want to know the answer to that?” Ianto said wryly as he tucked his shirt back into his trousers and buttoned up his waistcoat. Then he walked off, hands in pockets, to make more coffee.
Owen winced at the implication and shuddered. He let out an exasperated sigh as he climbed the stairs, throwing himself into his desk chair. It rolled violently and jerked him onto the floor with a thud.
The two women turned to look at him with amused expressions and Jack leaned back on his chair and looked out of his office, grinning, opening his mouth as if he was about to comment.
“Don’t even say it.” Owen growled in annoyance, standing up and rubbing his elbow.
Scowling at Ianto’s back in the kitchen area, he headed back down into the autopsy bay to brood like a teenager.
---
TBC - what do you think then?
Chapter 2