Disambiguation: In These Stones (Part 7/7)
Title: Disambiguation: In These Stones (Part 7/7)
Rating: Series ranges from PG to light NC-17. This entry's in the PG range.
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto and Ianto/Owen. Occasional mention and hints of other pairings.
Notes/Summary: Disambiguation is an AU that follows the exploits of a parallel Torchwood where the events of "End of Days" didn't go as smoothly as they do in canon. Features Andy Davidson as a member of the team. Picks up where the original Disambiguation one-off story leaves off, so you'll probably want to give it a look. Betaed by riftugee, whose advice I took much more often than not, and who did not kill me when I e-mailed significant additions to this part in the 11th hour, and then asked "what's missing?"
Part Seven, in which the team is reunited, and some of the big questions remain stubbornly unanswered.
You know, Ianto, we‘ve got to stop meeting like this.
Meeting how, sir?
With one of us dead, and the other one left behind trying to sort it out. Sooner or later it’s going to get boring.
I doubt that.
Yeah, well, stop making it hard for me and jump back on the lifeboat, already. As much as I’d love to, I can’t do this all day.
# # #
Jack knelt on the vault floor and tried to catch his breath. The kiss had taken more energy than he had ever needed. How the hell had Ianto gone so far so fast? It was like he’d thrown himself as far as he could down into the Dark without any regard for his own safety. Ianto’s body had gone cold with unnatural rapidity, and for a terrifying moment Jack wasn’t certain the other man even could follow him back.
He watched and waited, urging Ianto to show some sign of life. Jack was rewarded a moment later when Ianto jerked upright, gulping for air. The Welshman gave a startled yelp as the psychic amplifier re-activated on his fist. Jack helped him tug it off, and flicked it away before easing Ianto down onto the concrete.
“You okay?” Jack asked, his relief evident in his voice.
“I think so. How’s Andy?” Ianto asked. He blinked, trying to clear his vision.
“Alive.” Jack indicated a snoring heap with a split lip.
“Oh. That’s good, then.” Ianto mumbled dazedly as he rested his head on the floor and closed his eyes.
Jack smiled and stroked Ianto’s face. “Those were some pretty thrilling heroics back there.”
“Mmm.” Ianto’s eyelids flickered, but didn’t open.
He let his fingers drift down to the knot of Ianto’s tie, and then on to the buttons of his shirt. “I might have to come up with some way of rewarding you for saving the planet.”
Ianto licked his lips and opened his eyes a little. “Is that so, sir?” He raised an eyebrow slightly and smirked weakly at Jack.
Jack growled and ran a thumb along the groove of Ianto’s hip. “You know how much I love it when you call me ‘sir.’”
“Oi,” Andy groaned, rolling onto his back to glare muzzily at them. “Get a bloody room. Some of us are trying to sleep over here.”
# # #
Owen shivered and pulled his arms into his t-shirt. He’d given up on walking around after Tosh rang off, and wound up huddled against the tourist office door. He supposed he could find a restaurant or a coffee house to wait in, but how the hell would he explain that?
Yeah, you got to prevent the end of the bloody world. Meanwhile, I had some really nice chips…
A series of bolts clacked behind his head, signaling the end of the lockdown. His arms were mostly back in his sleeves when his mobile buzzed in his pocket indicating that he’d received a text message. He punched awkwardly at the buttons with numb fingers until the words displayed on his screen:
ALL CLEAR
The tourist office lights flicked on as he entered. He locked the door behind him and secured the space, checking behind the beaded curtain of Ianto’s office. He saw no evidence of breach. Satisfied, Owen pushed the button behind the desk to pop open the secret door into the tunnels. He heard the lock disengage, but the door remained stubbornly closed.
Owen gave it a shove. A dark-haired body rolled aside and slumped limply to the floor. Her clouded eyes stared blindly at the ceiling, and her expression was completely slack. Her freckles stood out dark on her pale, grayish skin. She didn’t seem real at first. Owen’s breath caught in his throat.
Of course. They wouldn’t just crawl back off into their boxes. They’ll be all over. We’ll be finding them for days. Weeks.
He knelt down beside her and brushed the hair out of her face.
Owen remembered the night Gwen had asked if Torchwood would freeze her, too. They’d been investigating Suzie’s storage unit, and Jack had even joked about putting Rhys into storage if Gwen gave all of her things to him in her will. It had been funny at the time - Owen had never seriously expected to be the medic on duty who put her in a drawer - but the lump in his throat told him the second time wouldn’t be any easier than the first.
He closed Gwen’s eyes, then lifted her up into his arms and carried her down into the Hub.
# # #
Jack sent them home. They were wrecked, every last one of them, and Ianto and Andy in particular were in no condition to handle the clean-up operation. They needed rest, they needed food, and they needed to get away from the disaster while Jack found and identified the bodies.
Hector, Mervyn. Died 1966 from a gunshot wound to the chest. Field accident. Reynolds, Shae. Died 1972 of massive trauma. First confirmed Weevil fatality.
Jack knew them all. He knew their names, how they’d died, where their vaults were. He remembered their faces - not their death masks, but real, laughing faces - and voices and favorite colors. Some of them he’d loved, a handful of them he’d hated, but all of them had been his to command, if only for a little while.
Henri, Cameron. Died 1962 fighting a pack of kids infected with an alien parasite. June, Alan. Died 1986. Torchwood’s first on-the-job heart attack. Costello, Suzie. Died 2007. Death by Torchwood.
Rules and regulations.
He found his own vault in the early hours of the morning as he was finishing up. The majority of the paperwork was in Ianto’s handwriting.
Harkness, Jack (Alias, real name unknown.) Died 2008. Gave his life so that others might live.
Beneath it, in blue ink, Owen had scrawled two words that made Jack laugh so hard he wept:
"Magnificent Bastard."
# # #
Owen and Ianto stood side by side, looking up at the impressive expanse of morgue vaults above the platform. It had taken hours, and they were both exhausted, but each drawer now bore a heavy silver padlock.
Owen wiped a bit of sweat and sawdust away from his eyes as he sat down on the platform and laid his electric drill down on the work bench. “I think we’re done.”
“You said that two levels ago,” Ianto snapped, airing out his sweaty t-shirt. He checked the blueprint, then gazed back up at their handiwork.
“Yeah, well, this thing doesn’t go any further down. If there’s more, we missed them up top.”
Ianto folded up the papers and tossed them down next to his own drill. He picked up one of the few spare locks they had left and shook his head with amusement. “You know, when Suzie did that thing with the glove, I asked Jack if I should put one of these on her drawer just in case.”
“Well, congratulations. You got your wish. Several hundred times over,” Owen grumbled.
“I need a shower,” Ianto said, punching a set of numbers into the keypad. The platform shuddered and began to rise.
“Yeah, and I need a margarita and a deep tissue massage from a supermodel in a sparkly bikini.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Good luck putting that on your expense account.”
“It’s work-related rehabilitative therapy.” Owen smirked.
Ianto activated his earpiece. “Jack? Yes, Owen and I are just finishing up here. Is there anything else you’d like us to see to before we clean up?”
Owen stifled a laugh at the expression that crossed Ianto’s face.
“Jack, I hardly think -“ He paused and looked at Owen. “No, but I’m pretty sure that -“ Another pause as the color raised in his cheeks. “Listen, can we have this conversation when I’m not alone with Owen on a giant elevating platform?”
Ianto broke the connection and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
“What was that about?” Owen asked, feigning innocence.
Ianto shook his head, but couldn’t keep a smile from creeping into the corners of his mouth. “Work-related rehabilitative therapy.”
# # #
Jack Harkness and Andy Davidson stood side by side in the boardroom, watching over the Hub through newly replaced plate glass windows. It had been a bitch getting them down here, but between Ianto’s talent for finding things and Andy’s social network, they’d got the job done with a minimum of confusion, difficulty, and Retcon.
They’d even done something about the plumbing while they were at it.
“So that thing was in me the whole time,” Andy said, hands shoved deep into his trouser pockets.
“Pretty much,” Jack replied with a nod. “Not that you’d have known what it was or how to fight it. We’re lucky it took you, actually. Anyone else and we’d be knee-deep in those things.”
“Had it been you, you’d have known what to do about it.” Andy sighed.
“Had it been me, you’d all be dead,” Jack snapped back without hesitation.
Andy shifted his weight from foot to foot, and then looked over at Jack. “So is it gone? If you die again…”
“Am I going to bring another one back with me?” Jack raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. The Meirwon followed me because I was dead for a lot longer than I usually am. Latching on to me under normal circumstances would be kind of like grabbing on to a speeding train with your bare hands. So long as nobody leaves me in the freezer again, we should be just fine.”
“It’s just funny, you know? There I was all worried about the walking dead, and I ended up being Lord of the sodding Zombies.”
Jack laughed. “Well, congratulations. You not only proved me wrong on something, but managed to kick my ass pretty soundly, all in the course of about twenty-four hours.”
Andy snorted. “What’s that go down as in my file, anyway? Gross insubordination?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of ‘never going to happen again in your lifetime,’” Jack chuckled.
Jack turned back to the window. Toshiko and Owen were arguing - over what Jack wasn’t yet sure, but it didn’t look too serious - while Ianto looked on from the doorway to Jack’s office. He was just about to speak when Andy crossed his arms and cocked his head to the right.
“You’re not going to do that ‘what do you see’ bollocks at me again, are you?” Andy asked. He still looked a little battered, but under the grousing was an irrepressible spirit taking the piss out of a man who couldn’t die.
Jack grinned. “Well, I was until you said that. Got a better idea?”
“I might do, yeah. Want to give it a go?” Andy gave Jack a look that was at least part mischief, part nerves, and part payback for punching him hard enough he’d had to see a dentist off the NHS.
“Yeah, okay.” Jack was tentative, but curious enough to see what the younger man had in mind to give him a chance.
He followed Andy out of the boardroom and onto the catwalk. The younger man put two fingers to his lips and whistled. “Oi! You lot! Pub! Jack’s buying.”
Owen was on his feet and halfway to the door in a heartbeat. Toshiko and Ianto exchanged a glance, and then looked up at Jack, who laughed and clapped Andy on the back. He leaned down and whispered into the ex-constable’s ear.
“I’ll get you for this Andy.”
“Yeah, probably. But at least I’ll have a few pints in me when it happens.” Andy winked at him and gave him a friendly jab with his elbow.
Jack followed Andy down the steps and waited for the team to filter into the corridor before punching in the codes to set the Hub to efficiency mode.
His Hub. His team.
Jack gave only a passing glance to the hand that bubbled in its illuminated tank in the gloom, then let the cog door rumble into position behind him.
---
Previous Chapter
---
Rating: Series ranges from PG to light NC-17. This entry's in the PG range.
Pairing(s): Jack/Ianto and Ianto/Owen. Occasional mention and hints of other pairings.
Notes/Summary: Disambiguation is an AU that follows the exploits of a parallel Torchwood where the events of "End of Days" didn't go as smoothly as they do in canon. Features Andy Davidson as a member of the team. Picks up where the original Disambiguation one-off story leaves off, so you'll probably want to give it a look. Betaed by riftugee, whose advice I took much more often than not, and who did not kill me when I e-mailed significant additions to this part in the 11th hour, and then asked "what's missing?"
Part Seven, in which the team is reunited, and some of the big questions remain stubbornly unanswered.
You know, Ianto, we‘ve got to stop meeting like this.
Meeting how, sir?
With one of us dead, and the other one left behind trying to sort it out. Sooner or later it’s going to get boring.
I doubt that.
Yeah, well, stop making it hard for me and jump back on the lifeboat, already. As much as I’d love to, I can’t do this all day.
# # #
Jack knelt on the vault floor and tried to catch his breath. The kiss had taken more energy than he had ever needed. How the hell had Ianto gone so far so fast? It was like he’d thrown himself as far as he could down into the Dark without any regard for his own safety. Ianto’s body had gone cold with unnatural rapidity, and for a terrifying moment Jack wasn’t certain the other man even could follow him back.
He watched and waited, urging Ianto to show some sign of life. Jack was rewarded a moment later when Ianto jerked upright, gulping for air. The Welshman gave a startled yelp as the psychic amplifier re-activated on his fist. Jack helped him tug it off, and flicked it away before easing Ianto down onto the concrete.
“You okay?” Jack asked, his relief evident in his voice.
“I think so. How’s Andy?” Ianto asked. He blinked, trying to clear his vision.
“Alive.” Jack indicated a snoring heap with a split lip.
“Oh. That’s good, then.” Ianto mumbled dazedly as he rested his head on the floor and closed his eyes.
Jack smiled and stroked Ianto’s face. “Those were some pretty thrilling heroics back there.”
“Mmm.” Ianto’s eyelids flickered, but didn’t open.
He let his fingers drift down to the knot of Ianto’s tie, and then on to the buttons of his shirt. “I might have to come up with some way of rewarding you for saving the planet.”
Ianto licked his lips and opened his eyes a little. “Is that so, sir?” He raised an eyebrow slightly and smirked weakly at Jack.
Jack growled and ran a thumb along the groove of Ianto’s hip. “You know how much I love it when you call me ‘sir.’”
“Oi,” Andy groaned, rolling onto his back to glare muzzily at them. “Get a bloody room. Some of us are trying to sleep over here.”
# # #
Owen shivered and pulled his arms into his t-shirt. He’d given up on walking around after Tosh rang off, and wound up huddled against the tourist office door. He supposed he could find a restaurant or a coffee house to wait in, but how the hell would he explain that?
Yeah, you got to prevent the end of the bloody world. Meanwhile, I had some really nice chips…
A series of bolts clacked behind his head, signaling the end of the lockdown. His arms were mostly back in his sleeves when his mobile buzzed in his pocket indicating that he’d received a text message. He punched awkwardly at the buttons with numb fingers until the words displayed on his screen:
ALL CLEAR
The tourist office lights flicked on as he entered. He locked the door behind him and secured the space, checking behind the beaded curtain of Ianto’s office. He saw no evidence of breach. Satisfied, Owen pushed the button behind the desk to pop open the secret door into the tunnels. He heard the lock disengage, but the door remained stubbornly closed.
Owen gave it a shove. A dark-haired body rolled aside and slumped limply to the floor. Her clouded eyes stared blindly at the ceiling, and her expression was completely slack. Her freckles stood out dark on her pale, grayish skin. She didn’t seem real at first. Owen’s breath caught in his throat.
Of course. They wouldn’t just crawl back off into their boxes. They’ll be all over. We’ll be finding them for days. Weeks.
He knelt down beside her and brushed the hair out of her face.
Owen remembered the night Gwen had asked if Torchwood would freeze her, too. They’d been investigating Suzie’s storage unit, and Jack had even joked about putting Rhys into storage if Gwen gave all of her things to him in her will. It had been funny at the time - Owen had never seriously expected to be the medic on duty who put her in a drawer - but the lump in his throat told him the second time wouldn’t be any easier than the first.
He closed Gwen’s eyes, then lifted her up into his arms and carried her down into the Hub.
# # #
Jack sent them home. They were wrecked, every last one of them, and Ianto and Andy in particular were in no condition to handle the clean-up operation. They needed rest, they needed food, and they needed to get away from the disaster while Jack found and identified the bodies.
Hector, Mervyn. Died 1966 from a gunshot wound to the chest. Field accident. Reynolds, Shae. Died 1972 of massive trauma. First confirmed Weevil fatality.
Jack knew them all. He knew their names, how they’d died, where their vaults were. He remembered their faces - not their death masks, but real, laughing faces - and voices and favorite colors. Some of them he’d loved, a handful of them he’d hated, but all of them had been his to command, if only for a little while.
Henri, Cameron. Died 1962 fighting a pack of kids infected with an alien parasite. June, Alan. Died 1986. Torchwood’s first on-the-job heart attack. Costello, Suzie. Died 2007. Death by Torchwood.
Rules and regulations.
He found his own vault in the early hours of the morning as he was finishing up. The majority of the paperwork was in Ianto’s handwriting.
Harkness, Jack (Alias, real name unknown.) Died 2008. Gave his life so that others might live.
Beneath it, in blue ink, Owen had scrawled two words that made Jack laugh so hard he wept:
"Magnificent Bastard."
# # #
Owen and Ianto stood side by side, looking up at the impressive expanse of morgue vaults above the platform. It had taken hours, and they were both exhausted, but each drawer now bore a heavy silver padlock.
Owen wiped a bit of sweat and sawdust away from his eyes as he sat down on the platform and laid his electric drill down on the work bench. “I think we’re done.”
“You said that two levels ago,” Ianto snapped, airing out his sweaty t-shirt. He checked the blueprint, then gazed back up at their handiwork.
“Yeah, well, this thing doesn’t go any further down. If there’s more, we missed them up top.”
Ianto folded up the papers and tossed them down next to his own drill. He picked up one of the few spare locks they had left and shook his head with amusement. “You know, when Suzie did that thing with the glove, I asked Jack if I should put one of these on her drawer just in case.”
“Well, congratulations. You got your wish. Several hundred times over,” Owen grumbled.
“I need a shower,” Ianto said, punching a set of numbers into the keypad. The platform shuddered and began to rise.
“Yeah, and I need a margarita and a deep tissue massage from a supermodel in a sparkly bikini.”
Ianto rolled his eyes. “Good luck putting that on your expense account.”
“It’s work-related rehabilitative therapy.” Owen smirked.
Ianto activated his earpiece. “Jack? Yes, Owen and I are just finishing up here. Is there anything else you’d like us to see to before we clean up?”
Owen stifled a laugh at the expression that crossed Ianto’s face.
“Jack, I hardly think -“ He paused and looked at Owen. “No, but I’m pretty sure that -“ Another pause as the color raised in his cheeks. “Listen, can we have this conversation when I’m not alone with Owen on a giant elevating platform?”
Ianto broke the connection and pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.
“What was that about?” Owen asked, feigning innocence.
Ianto shook his head, but couldn’t keep a smile from creeping into the corners of his mouth. “Work-related rehabilitative therapy.”
# # #
Jack Harkness and Andy Davidson stood side by side in the boardroom, watching over the Hub through newly replaced plate glass windows. It had been a bitch getting them down here, but between Ianto’s talent for finding things and Andy’s social network, they’d got the job done with a minimum of confusion, difficulty, and Retcon.
They’d even done something about the plumbing while they were at it.
“So that thing was in me the whole time,” Andy said, hands shoved deep into his trouser pockets.
“Pretty much,” Jack replied with a nod. “Not that you’d have known what it was or how to fight it. We’re lucky it took you, actually. Anyone else and we’d be knee-deep in those things.”
“Had it been you, you’d have known what to do about it.” Andy sighed.
“Had it been me, you’d all be dead,” Jack snapped back without hesitation.
Andy shifted his weight from foot to foot, and then looked over at Jack. “So is it gone? If you die again…”
“Am I going to bring another one back with me?” Jack raised his eyebrows.
“Yeah.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think so. The Meirwon followed me because I was dead for a lot longer than I usually am. Latching on to me under normal circumstances would be kind of like grabbing on to a speeding train with your bare hands. So long as nobody leaves me in the freezer again, we should be just fine.”
“It’s just funny, you know? There I was all worried about the walking dead, and I ended up being Lord of the sodding Zombies.”
Jack laughed. “Well, congratulations. You not only proved me wrong on something, but managed to kick my ass pretty soundly, all in the course of about twenty-four hours.”
Andy snorted. “What’s that go down as in my file, anyway? Gross insubordination?”
“I was thinking more along the lines of ‘never going to happen again in your lifetime,’” Jack chuckled.
Jack turned back to the window. Toshiko and Owen were arguing - over what Jack wasn’t yet sure, but it didn’t look too serious - while Ianto looked on from the doorway to Jack’s office. He was just about to speak when Andy crossed his arms and cocked his head to the right.
“You’re not going to do that ‘what do you see’ bollocks at me again, are you?” Andy asked. He still looked a little battered, but under the grousing was an irrepressible spirit taking the piss out of a man who couldn’t die.
Jack grinned. “Well, I was until you said that. Got a better idea?”
“I might do, yeah. Want to give it a go?” Andy gave Jack a look that was at least part mischief, part nerves, and part payback for punching him hard enough he’d had to see a dentist off the NHS.
“Yeah, okay.” Jack was tentative, but curious enough to see what the younger man had in mind to give him a chance.
He followed Andy out of the boardroom and onto the catwalk. The younger man put two fingers to his lips and whistled. “Oi! You lot! Pub! Jack’s buying.”
Owen was on his feet and halfway to the door in a heartbeat. Toshiko and Ianto exchanged a glance, and then looked up at Jack, who laughed and clapped Andy on the back. He leaned down and whispered into the ex-constable’s ear.
“I’ll get you for this Andy.”
“Yeah, probably. But at least I’ll have a few pints in me when it happens.” Andy winked at him and gave him a friendly jab with his elbow.
Jack followed Andy down the steps and waited for the team to filter into the corridor before punching in the codes to set the Hub to efficiency mode.
His Hub. His team.
Jack gave only a passing glance to the hand that bubbled in its illuminated tank in the gloom, then let the cog door rumble into position behind him.
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Previous Chapter
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