Turning Point - 36/64
Title: Turning Point
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: budding Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: In the aftermath of Lisa's death, Ianto is struggling to cope - and new surprises don't help matters much. Can his friends on the team at Torchwood help him carry on?
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt.
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn'tdidn't know what happens.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Thirty-Six
Gwen’s mind boggled at the tales being told around the lunch table. Even with everything she had seen in the last week, some of the stories seemed almost too crazy to be true.
Jack laughed, talking around half a mouthful of food. “And then she said if she’d known that’s what he was, she’d never have married him!”
Tosh scoffed. “She knew; she had to have known.”
Owen nodded, continuing Tosh’s line. “She just didn’t care.”
“Until he started leaving black gloop everywhere,” Ianto added, waving his chopstick as he waited to swallow before speaking. “Started off outside, and down by the docks, but then it’s in the bathroom, and the kitchen…”
“It’s always the gloop that catches them out,” Jack said, still speaking with his mouth full. “Some species just never learned any household manners.”
“Neither have some humans,” Ianto pointed out, wiping his chin with his napkin as he looked markedly at Jack. The napkin he’d fastidiously fastened into his collar, Gwen couldn’t help noticing. If anyone was going to pick on the boss’s table manners, she supposed that Ianto, who had been nothing but polite and courteous to her so far, was the right choice.
Looking to Jack to see his reaction, she noticed that he made the conscious effort to actually swallow his mouthful of chow mein before protesting.
A momentary silence came over the conference room as they all shovelled food into their mouths - Gwen knew that she hadn’t properly eaten anything since her dinner out with Rhys the night before, and as she hadn’t seen any of the others snacking during the night or morning, she suspected they were all just as starving as she was.
And it didn’t harm matters that the Chinese was delicious; she made a note to ask Ianto what takeaway they used, as it was a whole lot better than the one she and Rhys occasionally ordered from.
Through the quiet, an odd noise drifted to Gwen’s ears. She listened more closely.
She put down her prawn cracker and looked around at the others. “What’s that noise?”
Owen’s throat moved as he swallowed hard and reached for a remote control sitting in the centre of the table. Pointing it at the large screen at the end of the room, he flicked it on.
The monitor showed the CCTV from the cell where Carys was being held, and it was clear from the sound and picture that the girl was sobbing her eyes out.
Gwen stood up, incensed, walking towards the screen. “There’s a girl down there, crying her heart out and fighting for her life, and we’ve been sitting here eating Chinese! What are we doing? We should be down there helping her!”
There was a clatter as Ianto dropped his chopsticks to the table, pushing his chair back, dropping his napkin on the table and apologising before he walked quickly from the room.
“We do need to eat,” Jack said, drawing Gwen’s attention back to him. “And it’s not like we’ve been doing nothing. While we’ve been eating, the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys, checking what effect the alien is having on her body. We’ve also been monitoring the air in the cell to see if there are any changes in her environment. Whether we waited for it to do that while eating or while staring at the monitor watching it as it worked makes little difference.”
Gwen blinked at the torrent of words, reluctantly admitting to herself that he might have a point.
“Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go check on Ianto.”
Without another word or a glance, he stood up and hurried off in the direction Ianto had headed.
Gwen looked between Owen and Tosh, confused. “Okay, what just happened there? What did I say?”
Owen gestured towards the chair Gwen had occupied earlier. “Why don’t you have a seat and we’ll tell you what we can.”
Uneasy, Gwen shuffled back to her seat and sat down.
“About… exactly a month ago, actually,” Tosh started hesitantly, “Ianto lost his girlfriend.” She visibly swallowed. “Well, we all lost her, really.”
This hadn’t really helped Gwen clear up any of her confusion; if anything, she was more confused than ever. “What does this have to do with…?”
“Lisa worked at Torchwood One, with Ianto, before... before Canary Wharf.” Owen broke in. “And I know that everything in the media called it a ‘terrorist attack’, and we encouraged that but…” He stopped to take a deep breath. “Well, it was a terrorist attack, really, just not human terrorists.”
Gwen reeled, a little. She’d seen reports on the Canary Wharf attacks on television, and it had been awful, but it had still seemed so far away, almost abstract, even with… she half remembered them now, the strange metal things that had marched the streets, the things she had written off as some sort of hallucination.
And now, if she was interpreting correctly, Owen and Tosh were telling her that Ianto had actually been there; and so had his girlfriend.
“It was basically a battle between the Daleks and the Cybermen,” Tosh said flatly, clearly trying to take a step back from the events to be able to get through the explanation. “And you’ll find out more about each of those soon enough, but the humans, especially those in Torchwood Tower, were caught up in the crossfire. Lisa, Ianto’s girlfriend, was…”
Tosh broke off, breathing hard and shaking her head.
“She was in a bad way,” Owen summarised. “Ianto brought her here, for help, and we tried. She was on a life support system, living in a room just down there on the way to the archives, and fought to survive every day for five months while we looked for a way to cure her.”
Gwen’s heart jumped into her throat as she realised the parallels Ianto must have drawn from her words about Carys. A young woman. Fighting for her life. Fighting to survive in the Hub, while life must have gone on around her, even through their search for help. She covered her mouth with her fingers. “Oh no. And then I… he must be…”
She took a breath. “And it’s only been a month? I can’t even imagine what he’s going through.” She doubted she’d be carrying on so stoically, coping so strongly, a month on, if she’d lost Rhys. “I would never have even suspected.”
“We do what we can for him,” Tosh said softly. “But Jack’s the only one who really seems to be able to help. He and Lisa became good friends in the months she was here, closer than either of us did.” She waved between herself and Owen. “I think it helps.”
Gwen bit her lip, thinking back over the contact she’d had with the young Welshman over the last week and starting to see the signs she’d missed. They were small, but there.
“Jack will get him through this,” Owen said with surety, a level of confidence in his voice that set Gwen to wondering what demons he had faced in the past; what horrors had Jack pulled him through, pulled them all through?
Tosh nodded. “He will. Jack’s pretty determined.” She leant over the table conspiratorially. “Between you and me, I think Jack cares a lot more for Ianto than he lets on.”
Gwen shook her head a little, trying to clear her thoughts. “You mean they’re…?” She trailed off, not actually quite sure what she was trying to say.
“Oh no,” Tosh answered quickly. “No. But if the circumstances were different and Ianto… you know. I think that Jack would have liked them to be.”
Gwen blew out a breath. The influx of information was overwhelming, and it was clear neither Jack nor Ianto was quite who she had imagined them to be.
She didn’t have a chance to say anything further on the matter, as the two men in question reappeared at just that moment. Ianto definitely, when she looked hard, seemed a little shaken, but whatever Jack had said or done when he had found him had clearly helped.
“Right,” Jack said, taking charge again. “If we’re all done eating, why don’t we see what PC Cooper here has to teach us about dealing with alien possession?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Comments and concrit are loved!
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: budding Jack/Ianto, references to past Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: If I was the one who owned Torchwood, you think I'd admit it now?
Spoilers: Some information and events from s1,2. NONE for s3.
Summary: In the aftermath of Lisa's death, Ianto is struggling to cope - and new surprises don't help matters much. Can his friends on the team at Torchwood help him carry on?
Author's Note: Sequel to Guilt.
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy, angelzbabe1989 for idea bouncing, and morbid_sparks for cheerleading even when she doesn'tdidn't know what happens.
Previous chapters at master list
Chapter Thirty-Six
Gwen’s mind boggled at the tales being told around the lunch table. Even with everything she had seen in the last week, some of the stories seemed almost too crazy to be true.
Jack laughed, talking around half a mouthful of food. “And then she said if she’d known that’s what he was, she’d never have married him!”
Tosh scoffed. “She knew; she had to have known.”
Owen nodded, continuing Tosh’s line. “She just didn’t care.”
“Until he started leaving black gloop everywhere,” Ianto added, waving his chopstick as he waited to swallow before speaking. “Started off outside, and down by the docks, but then it’s in the bathroom, and the kitchen…”
“It’s always the gloop that catches them out,” Jack said, still speaking with his mouth full. “Some species just never learned any household manners.”
“Neither have some humans,” Ianto pointed out, wiping his chin with his napkin as he looked markedly at Jack. The napkin he’d fastidiously fastened into his collar, Gwen couldn’t help noticing. If anyone was going to pick on the boss’s table manners, she supposed that Ianto, who had been nothing but polite and courteous to her so far, was the right choice.
Looking to Jack to see his reaction, she noticed that he made the conscious effort to actually swallow his mouthful of chow mein before protesting.
A momentary silence came over the conference room as they all shovelled food into their mouths - Gwen knew that she hadn’t properly eaten anything since her dinner out with Rhys the night before, and as she hadn’t seen any of the others snacking during the night or morning, she suspected they were all just as starving as she was.
And it didn’t harm matters that the Chinese was delicious; she made a note to ask Ianto what takeaway they used, as it was a whole lot better than the one she and Rhys occasionally ordered from.
Through the quiet, an odd noise drifted to Gwen’s ears. She listened more closely.
She put down her prawn cracker and looked around at the others. “What’s that noise?”
Owen’s throat moved as he swallowed hard and reached for a remote control sitting in the centre of the table. Pointing it at the large screen at the end of the room, he flicked it on.
The monitor showed the CCTV from the cell where Carys was being held, and it was clear from the sound and picture that the girl was sobbing her eyes out.
Gwen stood up, incensed, walking towards the screen. “There’s a girl down there, crying her heart out and fighting for her life, and we’ve been sitting here eating Chinese! What are we doing? We should be down there helping her!”
There was a clatter as Ianto dropped his chopsticks to the table, pushing his chair back, dropping his napkin on the table and apologising before he walked quickly from the room.
“We do need to eat,” Jack said, drawing Gwen’s attention back to him. “And it’s not like we’ve been doing nothing. While we’ve been eating, the computers have been running a full bio-scan on Carys, checking what effect the alien is having on her body. We’ve also been monitoring the air in the cell to see if there are any changes in her environment. Whether we waited for it to do that while eating or while staring at the monitor watching it as it worked makes little difference.”
Gwen blinked at the torrent of words, reluctantly admitting to herself that he might have a point.
“Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go check on Ianto.”
Without another word or a glance, he stood up and hurried off in the direction Ianto had headed.
Gwen looked between Owen and Tosh, confused. “Okay, what just happened there? What did I say?”
Owen gestured towards the chair Gwen had occupied earlier. “Why don’t you have a seat and we’ll tell you what we can.”
Uneasy, Gwen shuffled back to her seat and sat down.
“About… exactly a month ago, actually,” Tosh started hesitantly, “Ianto lost his girlfriend.” She visibly swallowed. “Well, we all lost her, really.”
This hadn’t really helped Gwen clear up any of her confusion; if anything, she was more confused than ever. “What does this have to do with…?”
“Lisa worked at Torchwood One, with Ianto, before... before Canary Wharf.” Owen broke in. “And I know that everything in the media called it a ‘terrorist attack’, and we encouraged that but…” He stopped to take a deep breath. “Well, it was a terrorist attack, really, just not human terrorists.”
Gwen reeled, a little. She’d seen reports on the Canary Wharf attacks on television, and it had been awful, but it had still seemed so far away, almost abstract, even with… she half remembered them now, the strange metal things that had marched the streets, the things she had written off as some sort of hallucination.
And now, if she was interpreting correctly, Owen and Tosh were telling her that Ianto had actually been there; and so had his girlfriend.
“It was basically a battle between the Daleks and the Cybermen,” Tosh said flatly, clearly trying to take a step back from the events to be able to get through the explanation. “And you’ll find out more about each of those soon enough, but the humans, especially those in Torchwood Tower, were caught up in the crossfire. Lisa, Ianto’s girlfriend, was…”
Tosh broke off, breathing hard and shaking her head.
“She was in a bad way,” Owen summarised. “Ianto brought her here, for help, and we tried. She was on a life support system, living in a room just down there on the way to the archives, and fought to survive every day for five months while we looked for a way to cure her.”
Gwen’s heart jumped into her throat as she realised the parallels Ianto must have drawn from her words about Carys. A young woman. Fighting for her life. Fighting to survive in the Hub, while life must have gone on around her, even through their search for help. She covered her mouth with her fingers. “Oh no. And then I… he must be…”
She took a breath. “And it’s only been a month? I can’t even imagine what he’s going through.” She doubted she’d be carrying on so stoically, coping so strongly, a month on, if she’d lost Rhys. “I would never have even suspected.”
“We do what we can for him,” Tosh said softly. “But Jack’s the only one who really seems to be able to help. He and Lisa became good friends in the months she was here, closer than either of us did.” She waved between herself and Owen. “I think it helps.”
Gwen bit her lip, thinking back over the contact she’d had with the young Welshman over the last week and starting to see the signs she’d missed. They were small, but there.
“Jack will get him through this,” Owen said with surety, a level of confidence in his voice that set Gwen to wondering what demons he had faced in the past; what horrors had Jack pulled him through, pulled them all through?
Tosh nodded. “He will. Jack’s pretty determined.” She leant over the table conspiratorially. “Between you and me, I think Jack cares a lot more for Ianto than he lets on.”
Gwen shook her head a little, trying to clear her thoughts. “You mean they’re…?” She trailed off, not actually quite sure what she was trying to say.
“Oh no,” Tosh answered quickly. “No. But if the circumstances were different and Ianto… you know. I think that Jack would have liked them to be.”
Gwen blew out a breath. The influx of information was overwhelming, and it was clear neither Jack nor Ianto was quite who she had imagined them to be.
She didn’t have a chance to say anything further on the matter, as the two men in question reappeared at just that moment. Ianto definitely, when she looked hard, seemed a little shaken, but whatever Jack had said or done when he had found him had clearly helped.
“Right,” Jack said, taking charge again. “If we’re all done eating, why don’t we see what PC Cooper here has to teach us about dealing with alien possession?”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Comments and concrit are loved!