Fic: In Bits and Pieces 3a
main index
part 2
- I don't think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go.
- Miss Lillian Carter
“Jack,” Ianto taps his earpiece, “do you see what I’m seeing?”
In the settling dusk, the shadows grow and morph, melting into everything. Near the mouth of the park by a stand of trees there is a pack of weevils gathered in a huddle and more coming to join them.
“Yes,” Jack answers, his voice tinny sounding in Ianto’s ear. “Gwen, fall back, now. Stay with Ianto. I’m going to see if I can lure them away back toward the sewer entrance here.”
She does as she’s told and drops back to Ianto’s position, just inside the fence near some bushes. She turns her head to whisper to him, “What’s brought them all out here? They don’t appear to be doing anything. Just… crowding around.”
“I think I have an idea.” Ianto holds up a sleek, black device in his hand. “It’s Tosh’s rift activity monitor,” he explains, “the portable one she’d been working on. Do you see?” He points into the center of the weevil conference. “There. You see that object there? They must have been attracted to that.”
“There was no rift activity. The alarm didn’t go off.”
“No,” Ianto mutters, “that’s odd.” He taps his ear again. “Jack, can you get close enough to see what they’re… guarding?” he says, for lack of a better word. He peers through the darkness, watching as Jack moves along the periphery of the weevil camp.
“Not sure what it is, but it looks like a long, metal… thing. It’s sort of twisted. Can’t tell if it’s just space junk or what.”
Gwen huffs next to him. “Why are the weevils so attracted to strange metal objects?”
“You’d have to ask Owen.” Ianto immediately realizes what he’s said. He ignores the look Gwen shoots him. “He’d be good to have around right about now. King of the weevils and all.”
- Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?
- Ed, Shaun of the Dead
“Hello! Need I remind you?” Owen waves his hand at himself. “Just a couple of weevils, I can handle. Piece of cake.”
Jack straps his holster on, refusing to look at Owen. “We don’t know that it’s weevils. Tosh, you got the location?”
“Yep. I can monitor the rift spikes from here and let you know if there are anymore,” she calls back, tapping away at her keyboard.
Turning back to Owen, Jack continues, “It could be anything and we’re not taking the risk.”
“Why the hell not?” Owen shouts, glancing between Jack and Ianto. “I can still run. Faster than both of you now that I don’t get winded.”
Grabbing his coat and heading for the door, Jack storms past. “Because nobody wants to look at you walking around with your eyeballs hanging out and your throat slashed open.”
“Superglue only fixes so much,” Ianto adds, ducking after Jack, but turning back to Owen, briefly. “We could try some paint and spackle, though.”
“Driving!” Owen chases after them. He follows them up into the garage. “I can drive while you two chase on foot.”
“You’ve only got one good hand,” Jack says, hopping into the SUV and starting the ignition.
“Bloody hell! Let me do something!” Owen jumps in the passenger seat when Ianto opens the door. Ianto rolls his eyes, slams the door and climbs into the back.
Jack glares at Owen, tight-lipped and gritting his teeth. “Fine. I guess you’re coming then. But I’m still driving.”
A few minutes later, Tosh tells them, “Jack, you’re there. It’s been clear for about ten minutes now. No more rift activity. Just the one big spike.”
Parking the SUV and peering out the window, Jack mutters, “Damn. There are weevils.” A growing number of weevils all heading in the same direction, to be exact.
“Why are they acting like that?” Owen asks. “It’s as if they’re running from something.”
“Yeah,” Jack agrees. “What could be scaring the weevils?”
“You mean besides him?” Ianto, leaning forward between the two seats, jerks a thumb in Owen’s direction and gets a sneer in return.
“Looks like it’s a good thing we brought you, Owen.” Jack twists in his seat. “Go. Do your thing. See if you can force them back into the sewers. If not, just hold their attention for a bit. Ianto, with me.”
They split up, Owen going right into the center of the weevils and Ianto following Jack. Owen’s reedy voice sails over their comms, “Uh, Jack. Whatever else is out here must be scarier than me, ‘cause they aren’t moving. They seem to be crowding around something.”
“Can you see what it is?” Jack asks, gesturing for Ianto to stay behind him.
“Yeah.” Owen’s voice sounds low and troubled. “You’d better come and take a look at this.”
Owen wades in and the weevils cower before him. He reaches out with his foot to roll the body over. The dead weevil has been ripped apart. “What did this, Jack?”
“I don’t know. But it wasn’t weevils.” Jack looks around, warily. “They don’t do this to their own.”
“Jack,” Ianto clears his throat and touches the sleeve of Jack’s coat. “I think whatever did this is over there.” They all look in the direction Ianto is pointing.
“Shit!” Owen leaps back as a bunch more weevils come running their way.
“OK.” Jack nods. He places one hand on Owen’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to split up. Owen, you’ll take care of the weevils. Ianto get this body into the SUV and back to the hub. I’ll go after the… other thing.”
“You can’t go off by yourself, Jack.”
“Tosh?”
“She’s right.” Ianto taps his ear. “Tosh, I think-”
“Gwen’s hen night will have to be delayed a bit. Right. Ringing her now.”
- I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me.
- Bob Dylan
It all happens so fast, Ianto can hardly recall it later. And that’s saying something. Gwen sits bleeding in the passenger seat. The metal object is loaded into the back of the SUV. The weevils had scattered, two injured, and hopefully gone back into the sewers. With only the three of them, they hadn’t been able to split up to make sure the weevils didn’t cause any more mayhem.
Jack lies dead in the back seat.
Ianto speeds around a corner causing Gwen to cry out as her seatbelt pulls tight across her stomach. Ianto curses and tells her, “You’ll be all right, Gwen. We’re almost to the hospital.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry ‘bout me.” She presses a hand to her middle, staunching the blood flow. “I’m fine.”
Flipping his mobile open, Ianto dials the emergency code Owen had set up. When they arrive at the hospital, there is already a team waiting to take the injured inside. Silently, Ianto thanks Owen for being damned good at his job.
One of the doctors opens the back door to check on Jack. Ianto practically leaps over the seat to stop her, but his own seatbelt holds him back. “No! He’s alright!”
“Let me just check him.” She forcefully shoves Ianto’s hands away to check for a pulse. She pulls out a stethoscope and checks again. Looking up, she meets Ianto’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but he’s-”
Jack gasps back to life, abruptly sitting up. He looks confused for a moment before turning to see the doctor behind him. “Hello there. Captain Jack Harkness.”
“Yes.” She replies, slowly, eyeing his outstretched hand and leaning away from him. “I know who you are.” Turning away, she moves to the group to take Gwen inside. “Just lie back, dear, we’ll get you put right.”
Exchanging a quick look with Jack, Ianto hurries to clamber out of the vehicle and follow into the hospital with Jack close behind. They reach the corridor just as the trolley carrying Gwen disappears through a set of doors. Jack buttons his coat closed to hide the blood and starts in that direction, but the doctor from outside steps in his way.
“Captain Harkness? Dr. Connelly.” She extends a hand, decisively, waiting for him to take it. She has an air of calm determination and detachment. “Don’t worry, your friend is in good hands and she’ll be just fine. I need some information, first.”
Jack shakes her hand and gives her his best placating smile. “We appreciate your promptness, but I really don’t have time to go through the specifics with you. Just fix her.”
“Yeah. That’s about what I expected from you. Owen on holiday or something?” She tucks a pen into her clipboard and gestures for them to follow.
Ianto glances briefly at Jack and catches up to the doctor. “You knew Owen?”
“He’s usually the one I deal with. He’s only slightly more helpful.” She looks back over her shoulder and stops.
“Then you haven’t heard,” Jack murmurs. He takes a step toward her. “Owen was… He was killed during the terrorist attacks on the city a few of weeks ago.”
The only visible reaction is in her eyes. The rest of her face and body remain expressionless. “I… No, I hadn’t heard. I’m very sorry.”
“Did you say Dr. Connelly?” Ianto asks. “Dr. Angela Connelly?”
“Yes.”
He nods to himself and extends his hand. “Ianto Jones.”
She smiles warmly at him, “Oh, yes, of course.”
Jack clears his throat. “We’d like to see Gwen as soon as possible.”
Dr. Connelly turns sharp eyes toward him. “I’ll let you know as soon as she’s comfortable.”
---
“How many times do I have to tell you?” Ianto smiles down at a sleepy Gwen. “Always use Jack as a human shield.”
“I’ll remember that next time.” She presses a hand to the bandage on her stomach.
“Next time,” Jack says, leaning forward to brush her hair out of her face, “just stick to my plan.”
Gwen struggles to sit up in the bed. “Jack, unless your plan was to lie there while the weevils ate you, it all went to shit about five seconds in.”
“Oh,” he waves a hand in the air, “weevils don’t really eat humans. Human parts, maybe, but not whole live ones.”
“Which you weren’t,” Ianto points out.
There are shouts out in the corridor and the sound of metal crashing into a wall. “Gwen!” Rhys appears in the doorway and rushes over. “What’s happened to you?” He shoves his way to the bed and reaches for her.
“It’s fine,” she says, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “I’m fine.” But the relief is evident in her voice and her eyes.
Ianto backs away from the bed, jerking his head at Jack to follow him out into the hall. “You called him?”
“No, I thought you did.”
“I did.” Dr. Connelly appears beside them. “He’s listed as her emergency contact. She’s free to go home now, but she needs rest and I’ve a prescription for antibiotics she’ll need to fight off any infections. She’s had all her jabs so, depending on what sort of ’wild animal’ it was, she should be alright.”
Jack nods. “Yeah, that’s good. You can go on in there and tell them, I think. We should let Rhys take her home. Could you tell her we had to get back to work? Thanks. Ianto?” He about turns and marches off.
Ianto rolls his eyes, but offers the doctor a smile. “Thank you for all your help.” He follows Jack out of the hospital.
---
“Yep, knew it.” Ianto taps the sheaf of papers on Jack’s desk. “She’s on the list.”
Jack runs a hand through his hair. It is still wet from his recent shower and drips onto his clean shirt. Taking the top sheet, he looks up the information in the system. He reads aloud, “Dr. Angela Connelly, thirty-eight. Husband, two kids. What the hell was Owen thinking?” He turns his chair to face Ianto.
“That she’s a good doctor and hardly blinked when you came back to life.” Leaning forward, over Jack’s shoulder, Ianto clicks the mouse and scrolls down the page. “Look at this. Owen detailed one occasion when she helped him out. No ret-con was administered.”
Frowning, Jack studies the computer screen. “Do you people not realize that we have protocols for a reason?”
“Jack. You’re always the first to break procedure, so shut up and just read this, will you?” Ianto rolls his eyes at Jack’s pout and forcibly turns his chair back to the desk. “We don’t need to train her as a field agent, Jack, but we need a doctor. And she’s good.”
“What does she know about aliens, huh? No experience, none. What do you think she’ll do if we get another freaky alien pregnancy?”
Ianto straightens up and tugs at his waistcoat. “That’s not going to happen again, because Gwen’s already had a go and I refuse.” He tries to hide his smile, but Jack must spot it; he pokes Ianto in the ribs. “Jack, what experience with aliens did Owen have before you brought him in? Pretty much none, right? He learned. She can learn.”
Jack turns his face away and Ianto senses it coming before he even says, “I brought him in and look what it got him.”
Folding his arms, Ianto stands next to the chair and stares down at the top of Jack’s head. “I’m not having this conversation with you again.”
“If this thing still worked properly,” Jack says, tapping his wrist strap. “I’d go back in time. Or forward. All the way to where it all started and stop it from happening. All of it.” Looking up, he loops one arm around Ianto, pulling him closer, onto his lap.
Ianto rolls his eyes and wriggles out of Jack's hold to perch at the edge of the desk facing him. Running his fingers through Jack’s hair, he says, “You can’t do that.”
“But I would.”
“No, I mean you couldn’t do it.” He cups Jack’s chin and tips his face up. “If you could, you’d have done it long ago when that thing did still work. Back before this, before me, before Torchwood and The… You’d have done it as soon as you got that. But you didn’t and you wouldn’t.”
“I want to.”
“I know, Jack.”
- Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.
- David Bowie, Changes
The rift alarm had gone off just after midnight. Ianto had still been in the hub at the time. He and Jack had got dressed in record time and hurried out to a library in Cathays Park. The woman they’d found looked to be in her late thirties, except for the fact that her hair had gone completely white.
They are still out at Flat Holm when the others arrive at the hub, calling Jack to find out where he is. He wanders off into a corner of the rec room to speak with Toshiko. “Nothing to worry about, Tosh. Yeah, Ianto and I are just taking care of a little… weevil situation. Yep, that was the rift spike this morning.” He waves Ianto over from across the room. “Nope, we got it covered, Tosh. I’m going to drop Ianto home on my way back so he can get cleaned up. Yeah, I’ll be there soon.” He cuts communication and turns his eyes to Ianto. “So, how are they doing with her?”
“She says her name is Alis and she wants to go home. That’s it, really.”
“Not much to go on. Nothing else? About where she was or what she saw?”
“No, not really.” Ianto clasps his hands behind his back. “She doesn’t like the dark.”
Jack gives him a humorless little smile. “I know the feeling.” He sighs, pats Ianto on the shoulder and heads for the door. “I’ll tell Helen to keep working with her, try to get something. Come on, I’ve got to get back to the hub and you need to go home and get some sleep.”
“Jack, I-”
“At least get cleaned up and change your clothes then?” Jack stops and turns to face him. “And you don’t have to come in until later today, alright?”
“Yes, sir.”
---
While the team is out on a call - a routine RTA, but the police had called them out anyway - Ianto takes advantage of the calm and the quiet. He scribbles this morning’s events down in his diary. His thoughts always appear disjointed, rambling when written down. He writes in a way that would confuse anyone reading it, to protect the secrets, but it makes sense to him and that’s all that matters. He looks up when the door rattles and opens.
“It was Eugene,” Jack says to Ianto as he approaches the desk in the tourist office.
It takes a moment for Ianto to dig through his mind and slot the information into place. “Gwen’s stalker?”
“He wasn’t a stalker.” Jack sighs, leaning against the desk. “He was just a kid who believed in the impossible when everyone around him was telling him he was crazy.” Jack turns sharply. “And what are you doing here? I told you not to come in until later. Later meant like sometime this afternoon, not later within the hour.”
“I showered and changed quickly, so I just came back.”
“You should have got some sleep.”
Ianto shrugs, averting his eyes. “I wasn’t tired.” He’d come straight back to the hub as soon as possible, got on the phone to Helen to see if she had any more information from their new arrival, then he’d looked up all missing persons reports for anyone named Alis in the last thirty years. He’d been just about to expand it when Jack had walked in. “I spoke with Helen again. The woman, Alis, doesn’t seem to say much at all and I haven’t found anything that would fit. Only two reports of women named Alis gone missing in the last thirty years. One was resolved…” he falters, but carries on, “there was a body and the other woman was much older than ours. I can keep looking, though. Go further back. I-”
“Jack.” Tosh pokes her head into the office. “Gwen is convinced that Eugene must have had something important. She wants us to go check it out.”
“Yeah, OK. Why don’t the two of you-”
“Gwen’s going to…” Tosh steps inside. She glances at Ianto and fidgets in her coat. “She’s going to speak with the mother and…”
Jack doesn’t make her finish. “Right. Of course. Go on down to the hub and see if Owen is done with the body. You had a program you were working on, yeah?”
“Yes. I’ll send Owen up.” She hurries toward the hidden door as Ianto pushes the button for her.
He looks back up at Jack. “Why don’t you go with him, Ianto.” It’s not a question. “I promised to get you out of the hub more. Go on. Keep them occupied. I’m just going to go back out to…”
Standing, Ianto hands Jack the file he’d started on Alis and the keys to his car.
---
Gwen finishes her first, and only, autopsy with Owen’s help. Ianto tries his best to ignore their flirting, though he notes that Gwen seems more annoyed with Owen than usual. She stomps up from the autopsy bay.
“Ianto. Do you know where Jack is? I need to talk to him.”
Minimizing the search window on the monitor, Ianto looks up and says, “He had to go out on a call.”
“Oh? Was it something important? He shouldn’t have gone alone.”
“He said it was nothing serious, just one of the local facilities that we deal with. He should be back soon.” Ianto has no idea when Jack will get back, just that he’ll be wrecked when he does. “Anything I can do?”
“No, thanks. I’m just going to go through this stuff we brought back.”
---
“Alis Gibbon. Twenty-three years old. Part-time student, works in the library.” Ianto sets down the printouts and leans over Jack’s shoulder to tap at the keyboard of his computer. “That’s her there.” He points to the CCTV footage playing out on the monitor.
“When was this taken?”
Standing back, Ianto folds his arms across his chest. “About an hour ago.”
“What?” Jack whips his head around to look up at Ianto.
“She’s still here, Jack. Alis Gibbon is still here. That… person that came back…” Ianto waves a hand in the air and walks away from the desk. He turns back. “Is it possible it’s not her?”
“No.” Jack stares at the images on the screen. He clicks to replay it. A young woman with long dark hair steps up on a ladder, shelving books. Such a simple, ordinary, everyday task. “We did the DNA match. It’s her.”
“Then… that means it hasn’t happened yet?” Ianto’s eyes light up, almost wild. “We could stop it.”
“No. We can’t.”
“But we could prevent it from happening.” Ianto approaches the desk, leans forward, both hands flat against the cool wood. “We could protect her. Move her out of the city. Something.”
“No,” Jack says, slowly, sadly. “We can’t. It’s already done.”
“But it’s not!” Pushing away from the desk, from Jack, Ianto paces the office again. “She’s still here. She hasn’t been taken yet!”
Standing and coming around the desk, Jack plants himself in front of Ianto and stops him in his tracks. “But she’s already been returned. We can’t change that, Ianto. We can’t.” Jack reaches up to touch his shoulder, but Ianto retreats. Jack drops his head, defeated. When he looks up, his eyes are wet and his voice shakes as he whispers, “There’s nothing I can do.”
---
Ianto raps his knuckles lightly on the doorframe of Jack’s office. Getting no response other than a quick glance, Ianto enters. Jack is tapping away at his keyboard, seemingly engrossed in his work. Before Ianto can speak, Jack turns to him and says, “You should have seen it, Ianto. He saved Gwen’s life and then just…” Jack’s hand glides up, slowly, toward the ceiling. “It was… there was this… brightness all around him and he just sort of…”
“Like the rift?” Ianto wishes he’d been there, wishes he could see the things the others see.
“No. Not like the rift. It was different. It felt safe and it was beautiful.” Jack smiles a soft, sad smile, no teeth. “There must be a reason, Ianto. Where did he get to go? I’ve saved lives before. Why am I still here? There must be a purpose. Something.”
Ianto wants to scream, ‘Us! You’re here for us!’ but he can’t. Not when he really means, ‘Me!’ Taking one step forward, then another, Ianto reaches out, wavers, and rests his hand on Jack’s shoulder for just a moment. It doesn’t seem like the right time to tell him about the negative rift spike that he recorded very late last night. Or that Alis Gibbon was reported missing this afternoon.
- Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.
- J.K. Rowling
It takes Jack and Ianto an inordinate amount of time to carry the artifact down into the hub from the SUV. Its strangely twisted shape and slippery metal surface prove difficult to handle without the aid of the escape-the-weevils-and-get-out-quickly adrenaline rush.
They drop it.
It hits the concrete floor with a loud clang and all the lights go out. Ianto, having leapt backward to save his toes from being smashed, waits for the emergency lights to come on. He jumps when he feels Jack’s hands on his waist from behind.
“We just knocked the power out,” Jack whispers at his neck.
“Yes, it would appear so. Shouldn’t the backup generator have kicked in by now?”
Jack nuzzles Ianto’s hair. “Hmm, you’d think so.”
“Have we gone into lockdown?”
“Mm, probably.”
“Why aren’t you more worried about this?”
“I am,” Jack whispers, kissing his neck. “I’m just taking a rare moment.”
“Oh.” He relaxes into Jack’s arms. “OK.”
Jack’s hands wander over and under his suit jacket and down over his stomach, lower. “That wouldn’t happen to be a torch in your pocket by any chance, would it?”
“Nope. Sorry.” Ianto turns his head to find Jack’s mouth in the dark and muffle his next retort. He trails his fingers up Jack’s arm to shoulder and up into his hair. Jack sucks Ianto’s bottom lip in, worrying it between his teeth. Ianto leans into him, head swimming. The whole world could stop when Jack is kissing him and he’d never even notice. Breathless, Ianto breaks away. “OK, we really should check that everything is still running properly. You don’t think the cells have been compromised, do you?” He feels Jack shake his head.
“Uh-uh. The locks revert to manual if the electricity fails. Although…”
“What?”
Jack takes Ianto’s hand. “No splitting up. If there’s anything loose in the hub, I don’t want… us to be separated. Come on, there should be a few torches just in here.” Jack moves through the dark, pulling Ianto along with him.
“Ow!”
“What?”
“I bashed my foot on the… thing. Stop dragging me; I’m with you.”
---
Ianto holds a torch over the artifact so that Jack can see. They’ve managed to get the backup power on, but the low emergency lighting is too dim to work by. They’d checked all the cells and the CCTV is up and running, as well. Temporary lockdown was cancelled and an all clear sent to Gwen’s mobile.
“So, you’re saying that thing fried our computers?”
Jack is on his knees in the hub examining the metal object. “Actually, I was trying very hard not to say that.” He looks up at Ianto, shielding his eyes against the torchlight. “Does it look different to you?”
“Different how?” Ianto crouches down, holding the light up to take a closer look. “It looks like a twisted, metal… thing. Same as before.”
“No, look.” Jack takes Ianto’s hand and moves it over the side of the object. “The end wasn’t smooth like this before, was it?”
Ianto maneuvers to Jack’s side, pointing the torch at their hands joined on the metal. “No. It was sort of pointed before. It changed shape? Is it alive?” With his toe, Ianto scoots the containment box they’d brought out a little closer to Jack.
“Not alive, really, but…” Jack carefully turns the object. His hand hovers over one side, searching for something. All of a sudden, its side splits apart, sort of peels apart to reveal its interior. “Organic technology.” Jack grins at him in the dim light and his eyes are sparkling, so alive. “Tosh would love this.”
It takes a second, just a split-second really, for the light in Jack’s eyes to go out. Ianto turns his face away to avoid having to see it. He sweeps the light over the object, distracting himself from thinking.
Jack clears his throat. “Looks like it’s mostly burnt out inside. Bit of a shame. This sort of technology is very adaptable. We could have rigged it up to our computers. Done all sorts with it…” he trails off and when Ianto looks over, Jack is facing away. “We must have jogged something when we dropped it, but I don’t think it will do much now. Best to just store it away.” He stands abruptly, dusting off his knees and his coat. “I need to go check something.”
Ianto lights a path for him until Jack grabs the other torch and disappears into the shadowed steps to the basement. To the morgue and the cryogenics section. Ianto does his best not to think about what… who Jack is going to check on.
Ianto’s hands shake as he cautiously lifts the object and places it into the box, shutting the lid and engaging the locking mechanism. Sliding it aside for now, he sets to work at Toshiko’s… the tech computer terminal. It is set up with all the computer override codes. He breathes a sigh of relief when it boots up and everything runs smoothly. He manages to reset the automatic lights and security alarms, bringing the hub back up to full power. While checking to see that no data had been lost another video message pops up.
“Owen, stop right now. Whatever you’re doing, just stop it. Go get me. If I’m… not there, get Jack. If he’s not there, get Ianto. But Do. Not. Try this yourself. I’ve left instructions and Ianto has the security codes. Don’t. Touch. Anything.”
Toshiko’s image fades away back into the system just like before. Ianto stares, fingers poised above the keyboard. A small, uneasy laugh escapes him. He clamps his mouth shut, biting his lip. He wipes at his eyes, but they are dry. Nodding, he gathers himself together. Right, security codes, he remembers. He logs into his own account and goes to work getting the system back online. He’s glad that neither Gwen nor Jack had been around to see that. It would have upset them. Yes, it’s much better that they hadn’t seen it.
He’s just attempting to recalibrate the rift alarm when he hears Jack’s heavy footsteps. Turning, Ianto watches him walk wearily into the room, throwing his coat over the back of the couch before falling heavily into a seat. Ianto wants to ask if everything is alright, but he doesn’t.
Instead, he says, “Rift alarm is on the blink and I’m not sure the predictor program is up, either. But everything else seems to be running fine.”
“Yeah,” Jack sighs, lifting a hand to his face and covering his eyes. “I noticed the lights. Good job, Ianto.”
He starts to turn back to the computer, saying, “I can probably get this fixed. It shouldn’t take too long; I helped Tosh a bit when she was working on it.”
“Ianto. It’s late. That can wait until tomorrow.”
He stops, but doesn’t look back at Jack. “Technically, it is tomorrow.” He tries for a light tone, but it falls flat and the awkwardness stretches out.
“Come here.”
When he looks, Jack is watching, reaching an arm out to him. Ianto stands and steps lightly over to the couch. He takes Jack’s hand, lets himself be pulled down and settles into Jack’s warmth. Sometimes Ianto wishes they could talk the way he’s sure other people must talk.
But Jack’s hands - inside his shirt, on his shoulders, pushing him back into the cushions, drawing him out, peeling him apart, seeking, comforting - speak louder than any words. Ianto tangles his fingers in Jack’s hair, in his shirt, prying the buttons open, clothing rustling, falling away until it’s just skin on skin and warm, pliant tongue and soft, yielding lips. Jack goes so slow, so gentle, taking his time, opening Ianto up.
Ragged breaths mix together with damp, salty skin and he can’t be sure if it’s sweat or tears. Jack’s hair brushes over Ianto’s lips as he hovers over him. Their eyes meet and there’s no one else and they don’t have to be quiet and quick. Jack’s hands caress Ianto’s sides and back up his arms; the bruises are mostly healed. Ianto runs his hands over Jack’s smooth skin. He is always healed up on the outside, but now Ianto can see all the damage on the inside, too, the storm behind those eyes that threatens to tear them all apart.
Wrapping his fingers around the back of Jack’s neck, Ianto pulls him down. Their lips meet and he feels Jack push inside and oh- Oh, God. He squeezes his eyes shut, arching his back into the hard body above him. Jack says his name, voice husky, a strangled, “Ianto,” over and over. And they are beyond words.
Jack falls asleep half on top of Ianto, an arm and a leg draped over him, holding him close on the narrow couch. He pulls Jack’s coat over them, senses dulled, too content to move.
The sound of the door rolling open and shut wakes Ianto; he isn’t sure how long he must have slept and he doesn’t open his eyes until he hears-
“Jack! Jack, I- Oh.”
Looking up from beneath Jack on the couch, Ianto smiles at Gwen. “Good morning.”
“Yeah, looks like it.” She laughs, turning her head as Jack moves, dislodging the coat. “Can’t you two ever do it in a bed?”
Face burning, despite his best attempts, Ianto grabs for the coat before it falls completely away.
Jack laughs, levering himself up into a sitting position. “A bed? Never get Ianto to agree to such a wild idea.” He reaches out, but Ianto slaps his hand away, not unkindly. Grinning, Jack looks up and says, “Didn’t expect you in today, Gwen. Shouldn’t you be home resting?”
“I feel fine,” she says, face still turned away. “Rhys had to go into work this morning, so I wanted to talk to you.”
Ianto pulls Jack’s coat on, holding it closed around his body. “Excuse me, I’m going to get washed and dressed.” He glares at Jack, but can’t keep the smile off his face, gathering up most of his own clothes as he heads up to Jack’s office and the hatch to his room.
“Hey!” Jack calls after him, “You took my coat, what am I supposed to do?”
“Like you’ve ever had a problem walking around naked.”
“It’s cold in here!”
As Ianto disappears down the ladder he catches a glimpse of Gwen tossing something at Jack and hears her cry, “Put some pants on!”
- If you’re never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.
- Julia Sorel
The duct tape catches and pulls the little hairs at the back of Ianto’s neck; Jack’s bound wrists resting there as his fingernails scratch through Ianto’s hair and into his scalp. Ianto thrusts his hips slowly and Jack’s thighs squeeze his sides tighter. With the very tip of his tongue, Ianto traces a trail up Jack’s chest to his throat, jaw, and the silky fabric of his tie tight against Jack’s cheek. Ianto pokes his tongue at the material in Jack’s mouth feeling an answering poke from within and a soft whimper escapes.
“You’re drooling all over my tie. The mirror is still-” Ianto gasps, thrusts in, “sticky. And your coat-” Another thrust. “Covered in blood. Will take- Oh… Take a lot to get it mended.” Biting the tie between his teeth, Jack digs his heels into Ianto’s arse, but Ianto refuses to be hurried. “You never think of the- Ahh… Consequences, do you?”
The desktop beneath Jack is slippery with his sweat and makes a slick, squeaky sound with each movement. Ianto rests his elbows on either side of Jack’s body, sucking at his lower lip, scraping teeth against silk and skin. Jack’s legs are wrapped around him, drawing him in, holding him there. Jack around him, always around him. Jack there and alive and they all could have died a few days ago and Jack had died and this is the only way he can cope. This is the only way to feel alive again, to make sure they’re still here. This is what he has.
Gwen is going off to Paris with Rhys; she gets a break for real life. And Tosh, she’s out there trying to have one of those lives everyone is always talking about. She’s told Ianto that she’s been to see more crappy films in the past month than in her entire life, but she’s out there. She’s getting on.
And Owen… Owen is the same as ever, as if the last few weeks or months hadn’t happened and everything in his world is back to where it started. Which is why Jack and Ianto are so surprised that he is still in the hub at well past midnight on a Saturday night.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“Ung?” Jack turns his head toward the voice, his legs gripping Ianto’s waist even more tightly to prevent him from moving away. Hastily, Ianto reaches up to pull the gag from Jack’s mouth to let him speak. “Owen, what are you still doing here?”
Ianto risks a glance at the door. Owen is standing there with his back to them, waving a file folder in his hand. “Just wanted to let you know I finished the autopsy on Bet- uh, the sleeper agent. I’m just going to leave this here.” He drops the file onto the floor by the door and stalks out. A few seconds later they hear the hub door roll open and shut.
“You said everyone had gone home,” Ianto growls into Jack’s neck.
“I saw Tosh leave; I assumed she was the last. She usually is.”
Ianto scrapes his teeth over Jack’s shoulder and realizes he’d started rocking his hips again almost immediately after he’d stopped. “You realize this means that Gwen is the only one who hasn’t walked in on us?”
“We could call her up now and get it out of the way.” Jack laughs, breathlessly, as Ianto bites down on his shoulder. “And, technically, Tosh didn’t walk in on us. She just happened to find the CCTV footage.”
“Which you said you’d taken care of.”
“Oops?”
“Exactly what I was talking about, Jack.” Ianto slips his head out of the circle of Jack’s bound arms and stands up, grabbing Jack by the hips and yanking him forward. “Consequences.”
part 3b
originally posted: 06/25/08
part 2
- I don't think about risks much. I just do what I want to do. If you gotta go, you gotta go.
- Miss Lillian Carter
“Jack,” Ianto taps his earpiece, “do you see what I’m seeing?”
In the settling dusk, the shadows grow and morph, melting into everything. Near the mouth of the park by a stand of trees there is a pack of weevils gathered in a huddle and more coming to join them.
“Yes,” Jack answers, his voice tinny sounding in Ianto’s ear. “Gwen, fall back, now. Stay with Ianto. I’m going to see if I can lure them away back toward the sewer entrance here.”
She does as she’s told and drops back to Ianto’s position, just inside the fence near some bushes. She turns her head to whisper to him, “What’s brought them all out here? They don’t appear to be doing anything. Just… crowding around.”
“I think I have an idea.” Ianto holds up a sleek, black device in his hand. “It’s Tosh’s rift activity monitor,” he explains, “the portable one she’d been working on. Do you see?” He points into the center of the weevil conference. “There. You see that object there? They must have been attracted to that.”
“There was no rift activity. The alarm didn’t go off.”
“No,” Ianto mutters, “that’s odd.” He taps his ear again. “Jack, can you get close enough to see what they’re… guarding?” he says, for lack of a better word. He peers through the darkness, watching as Jack moves along the periphery of the weevil camp.
“Not sure what it is, but it looks like a long, metal… thing. It’s sort of twisted. Can’t tell if it’s just space junk or what.”
Gwen huffs next to him. “Why are the weevils so attracted to strange metal objects?”
“You’d have to ask Owen.” Ianto immediately realizes what he’s said. He ignores the look Gwen shoots him. “He’d be good to have around right about now. King of the weevils and all.”
- Who died and made you fucking king of the zombies?
- Ed, Shaun of the Dead
“Hello! Need I remind you?” Owen waves his hand at himself. “Just a couple of weevils, I can handle. Piece of cake.”
Jack straps his holster on, refusing to look at Owen. “We don’t know that it’s weevils. Tosh, you got the location?”
“Yep. I can monitor the rift spikes from here and let you know if there are anymore,” she calls back, tapping away at her keyboard.
Turning back to Owen, Jack continues, “It could be anything and we’re not taking the risk.”
“Why the hell not?” Owen shouts, glancing between Jack and Ianto. “I can still run. Faster than both of you now that I don’t get winded.”
Grabbing his coat and heading for the door, Jack storms past. “Because nobody wants to look at you walking around with your eyeballs hanging out and your throat slashed open.”
“Superglue only fixes so much,” Ianto adds, ducking after Jack, but turning back to Owen, briefly. “We could try some paint and spackle, though.”
“Driving!” Owen chases after them. He follows them up into the garage. “I can drive while you two chase on foot.”
“You’ve only got one good hand,” Jack says, hopping into the SUV and starting the ignition.
“Bloody hell! Let me do something!” Owen jumps in the passenger seat when Ianto opens the door. Ianto rolls his eyes, slams the door and climbs into the back.
Jack glares at Owen, tight-lipped and gritting his teeth. “Fine. I guess you’re coming then. But I’m still driving.”
A few minutes later, Tosh tells them, “Jack, you’re there. It’s been clear for about ten minutes now. No more rift activity. Just the one big spike.”
Parking the SUV and peering out the window, Jack mutters, “Damn. There are weevils.” A growing number of weevils all heading in the same direction, to be exact.
“Why are they acting like that?” Owen asks. “It’s as if they’re running from something.”
“Yeah,” Jack agrees. “What could be scaring the weevils?”
“You mean besides him?” Ianto, leaning forward between the two seats, jerks a thumb in Owen’s direction and gets a sneer in return.
“Looks like it’s a good thing we brought you, Owen.” Jack twists in his seat. “Go. Do your thing. See if you can force them back into the sewers. If not, just hold their attention for a bit. Ianto, with me.”
They split up, Owen going right into the center of the weevils and Ianto following Jack. Owen’s reedy voice sails over their comms, “Uh, Jack. Whatever else is out here must be scarier than me, ‘cause they aren’t moving. They seem to be crowding around something.”
“Can you see what it is?” Jack asks, gesturing for Ianto to stay behind him.
“Yeah.” Owen’s voice sounds low and troubled. “You’d better come and take a look at this.”
Owen wades in and the weevils cower before him. He reaches out with his foot to roll the body over. The dead weevil has been ripped apart. “What did this, Jack?”
“I don’t know. But it wasn’t weevils.” Jack looks around, warily. “They don’t do this to their own.”
“Jack,” Ianto clears his throat and touches the sleeve of Jack’s coat. “I think whatever did this is over there.” They all look in the direction Ianto is pointing.
“Shit!” Owen leaps back as a bunch more weevils come running their way.
“OK.” Jack nods. He places one hand on Owen’s shoulder. “We’re going to have to split up. Owen, you’ll take care of the weevils. Ianto get this body into the SUV and back to the hub. I’ll go after the… other thing.”
“You can’t go off by yourself, Jack.”
“Tosh?”
“She’s right.” Ianto taps his ear. “Tosh, I think-”
“Gwen’s hen night will have to be delayed a bit. Right. Ringing her now.”
- I accept chaos. I am not sure whether it accepts me.
- Bob Dylan
It all happens so fast, Ianto can hardly recall it later. And that’s saying something. Gwen sits bleeding in the passenger seat. The metal object is loaded into the back of the SUV. The weevils had scattered, two injured, and hopefully gone back into the sewers. With only the three of them, they hadn’t been able to split up to make sure the weevils didn’t cause any more mayhem.
Jack lies dead in the back seat.
Ianto speeds around a corner causing Gwen to cry out as her seatbelt pulls tight across her stomach. Ianto curses and tells her, “You’ll be all right, Gwen. We’re almost to the hospital.”
“Yeah. Don’t worry ‘bout me.” She presses a hand to her middle, staunching the blood flow. “I’m fine.”
Flipping his mobile open, Ianto dials the emergency code Owen had set up. When they arrive at the hospital, there is already a team waiting to take the injured inside. Silently, Ianto thanks Owen for being damned good at his job.
One of the doctors opens the back door to check on Jack. Ianto practically leaps over the seat to stop her, but his own seatbelt holds him back. “No! He’s alright!”
“Let me just check him.” She forcefully shoves Ianto’s hands away to check for a pulse. She pulls out a stethoscope and checks again. Looking up, she meets Ianto’s eyes. “I’m sorry, but he’s-”
Jack gasps back to life, abruptly sitting up. He looks confused for a moment before turning to see the doctor behind him. “Hello there. Captain Jack Harkness.”
“Yes.” She replies, slowly, eyeing his outstretched hand and leaning away from him. “I know who you are.” Turning away, she moves to the group to take Gwen inside. “Just lie back, dear, we’ll get you put right.”
Exchanging a quick look with Jack, Ianto hurries to clamber out of the vehicle and follow into the hospital with Jack close behind. They reach the corridor just as the trolley carrying Gwen disappears through a set of doors. Jack buttons his coat closed to hide the blood and starts in that direction, but the doctor from outside steps in his way.
“Captain Harkness? Dr. Connelly.” She extends a hand, decisively, waiting for him to take it. She has an air of calm determination and detachment. “Don’t worry, your friend is in good hands and she’ll be just fine. I need some information, first.”
Jack shakes her hand and gives her his best placating smile. “We appreciate your promptness, but I really don’t have time to go through the specifics with you. Just fix her.”
“Yeah. That’s about what I expected from you. Owen on holiday or something?” She tucks a pen into her clipboard and gestures for them to follow.
Ianto glances briefly at Jack and catches up to the doctor. “You knew Owen?”
“He’s usually the one I deal with. He’s only slightly more helpful.” She looks back over her shoulder and stops.
“Then you haven’t heard,” Jack murmurs. He takes a step toward her. “Owen was… He was killed during the terrorist attacks on the city a few of weeks ago.”
The only visible reaction is in her eyes. The rest of her face and body remain expressionless. “I… No, I hadn’t heard. I’m very sorry.”
“Did you say Dr. Connelly?” Ianto asks. “Dr. Angela Connelly?”
“Yes.”
He nods to himself and extends his hand. “Ianto Jones.”
She smiles warmly at him, “Oh, yes, of course.”
Jack clears his throat. “We’d like to see Gwen as soon as possible.”
Dr. Connelly turns sharp eyes toward him. “I’ll let you know as soon as she’s comfortable.”
---
“How many times do I have to tell you?” Ianto smiles down at a sleepy Gwen. “Always use Jack as a human shield.”
“I’ll remember that next time.” She presses a hand to the bandage on her stomach.
“Next time,” Jack says, leaning forward to brush her hair out of her face, “just stick to my plan.”
Gwen struggles to sit up in the bed. “Jack, unless your plan was to lie there while the weevils ate you, it all went to shit about five seconds in.”
“Oh,” he waves a hand in the air, “weevils don’t really eat humans. Human parts, maybe, but not whole live ones.”
“Which you weren’t,” Ianto points out.
There are shouts out in the corridor and the sound of metal crashing into a wall. “Gwen!” Rhys appears in the doorway and rushes over. “What’s happened to you?” He shoves his way to the bed and reaches for her.
“It’s fine,” she says, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. “I’m fine.” But the relief is evident in her voice and her eyes.
Ianto backs away from the bed, jerking his head at Jack to follow him out into the hall. “You called him?”
“No, I thought you did.”
“I did.” Dr. Connelly appears beside them. “He’s listed as her emergency contact. She’s free to go home now, but she needs rest and I’ve a prescription for antibiotics she’ll need to fight off any infections. She’s had all her jabs so, depending on what sort of ’wild animal’ it was, she should be alright.”
Jack nods. “Yeah, that’s good. You can go on in there and tell them, I think. We should let Rhys take her home. Could you tell her we had to get back to work? Thanks. Ianto?” He about turns and marches off.
Ianto rolls his eyes, but offers the doctor a smile. “Thank you for all your help.” He follows Jack out of the hospital.
---
“Yep, knew it.” Ianto taps the sheaf of papers on Jack’s desk. “She’s on the list.”
Jack runs a hand through his hair. It is still wet from his recent shower and drips onto his clean shirt. Taking the top sheet, he looks up the information in the system. He reads aloud, “Dr. Angela Connelly, thirty-eight. Husband, two kids. What the hell was Owen thinking?” He turns his chair to face Ianto.
“That she’s a good doctor and hardly blinked when you came back to life.” Leaning forward, over Jack’s shoulder, Ianto clicks the mouse and scrolls down the page. “Look at this. Owen detailed one occasion when she helped him out. No ret-con was administered.”
Frowning, Jack studies the computer screen. “Do you people not realize that we have protocols for a reason?”
“Jack. You’re always the first to break procedure, so shut up and just read this, will you?” Ianto rolls his eyes at Jack’s pout and forcibly turns his chair back to the desk. “We don’t need to train her as a field agent, Jack, but we need a doctor. And she’s good.”
“What does she know about aliens, huh? No experience, none. What do you think she’ll do if we get another freaky alien pregnancy?”
Ianto straightens up and tugs at his waistcoat. “That’s not going to happen again, because Gwen’s already had a go and I refuse.” He tries to hide his smile, but Jack must spot it; he pokes Ianto in the ribs. “Jack, what experience with aliens did Owen have before you brought him in? Pretty much none, right? He learned. She can learn.”
Jack turns his face away and Ianto senses it coming before he even says, “I brought him in and look what it got him.”
Folding his arms, Ianto stands next to the chair and stares down at the top of Jack’s head. “I’m not having this conversation with you again.”
“If this thing still worked properly,” Jack says, tapping his wrist strap. “I’d go back in time. Or forward. All the way to where it all started and stop it from happening. All of it.” Looking up, he loops one arm around Ianto, pulling him closer, onto his lap.
Ianto rolls his eyes and wriggles out of Jack's hold to perch at the edge of the desk facing him. Running his fingers through Jack’s hair, he says, “You can’t do that.”
“But I would.”
“No, I mean you couldn’t do it.” He cups Jack’s chin and tips his face up. “If you could, you’d have done it long ago when that thing did still work. Back before this, before me, before Torchwood and The… You’d have done it as soon as you got that. But you didn’t and you wouldn’t.”
“I want to.”
“I know, Jack.”
- Time may change me, but I can’t trace time.
- David Bowie, Changes
The rift alarm had gone off just after midnight. Ianto had still been in the hub at the time. He and Jack had got dressed in record time and hurried out to a library in Cathays Park. The woman they’d found looked to be in her late thirties, except for the fact that her hair had gone completely white.
They are still out at Flat Holm when the others arrive at the hub, calling Jack to find out where he is. He wanders off into a corner of the rec room to speak with Toshiko. “Nothing to worry about, Tosh. Yeah, Ianto and I are just taking care of a little… weevil situation. Yep, that was the rift spike this morning.” He waves Ianto over from across the room. “Nope, we got it covered, Tosh. I’m going to drop Ianto home on my way back so he can get cleaned up. Yeah, I’ll be there soon.” He cuts communication and turns his eyes to Ianto. “So, how are they doing with her?”
“She says her name is Alis and she wants to go home. That’s it, really.”
“Not much to go on. Nothing else? About where she was or what she saw?”
“No, not really.” Ianto clasps his hands behind his back. “She doesn’t like the dark.”
Jack gives him a humorless little smile. “I know the feeling.” He sighs, pats Ianto on the shoulder and heads for the door. “I’ll tell Helen to keep working with her, try to get something. Come on, I’ve got to get back to the hub and you need to go home and get some sleep.”
“Jack, I-”
“At least get cleaned up and change your clothes then?” Jack stops and turns to face him. “And you don’t have to come in until later today, alright?”
“Yes, sir.”
---
While the team is out on a call - a routine RTA, but the police had called them out anyway - Ianto takes advantage of the calm and the quiet. He scribbles this morning’s events down in his diary. His thoughts always appear disjointed, rambling when written down. He writes in a way that would confuse anyone reading it, to protect the secrets, but it makes sense to him and that’s all that matters. He looks up when the door rattles and opens.
“It was Eugene,” Jack says to Ianto as he approaches the desk in the tourist office.
It takes a moment for Ianto to dig through his mind and slot the information into place. “Gwen’s stalker?”
“He wasn’t a stalker.” Jack sighs, leaning against the desk. “He was just a kid who believed in the impossible when everyone around him was telling him he was crazy.” Jack turns sharply. “And what are you doing here? I told you not to come in until later. Later meant like sometime this afternoon, not later within the hour.”
“I showered and changed quickly, so I just came back.”
“You should have got some sleep.”
Ianto shrugs, averting his eyes. “I wasn’t tired.” He’d come straight back to the hub as soon as possible, got on the phone to Helen to see if she had any more information from their new arrival, then he’d looked up all missing persons reports for anyone named Alis in the last thirty years. He’d been just about to expand it when Jack had walked in. “I spoke with Helen again. The woman, Alis, doesn’t seem to say much at all and I haven’t found anything that would fit. Only two reports of women named Alis gone missing in the last thirty years. One was resolved…” he falters, but carries on, “there was a body and the other woman was much older than ours. I can keep looking, though. Go further back. I-”
“Jack.” Tosh pokes her head into the office. “Gwen is convinced that Eugene must have had something important. She wants us to go check it out.”
“Yeah, OK. Why don’t the two of you-”
“Gwen’s going to…” Tosh steps inside. She glances at Ianto and fidgets in her coat. “She’s going to speak with the mother and…”
Jack doesn’t make her finish. “Right. Of course. Go on down to the hub and see if Owen is done with the body. You had a program you were working on, yeah?”
“Yes. I’ll send Owen up.” She hurries toward the hidden door as Ianto pushes the button for her.
He looks back up at Jack. “Why don’t you go with him, Ianto.” It’s not a question. “I promised to get you out of the hub more. Go on. Keep them occupied. I’m just going to go back out to…”
Standing, Ianto hands Jack the file he’d started on Alis and the keys to his car.
---
Gwen finishes her first, and only, autopsy with Owen’s help. Ianto tries his best to ignore their flirting, though he notes that Gwen seems more annoyed with Owen than usual. She stomps up from the autopsy bay.
“Ianto. Do you know where Jack is? I need to talk to him.”
Minimizing the search window on the monitor, Ianto looks up and says, “He had to go out on a call.”
“Oh? Was it something important? He shouldn’t have gone alone.”
“He said it was nothing serious, just one of the local facilities that we deal with. He should be back soon.” Ianto has no idea when Jack will get back, just that he’ll be wrecked when he does. “Anything I can do?”
“No, thanks. I’m just going to go through this stuff we brought back.”
---
“Alis Gibbon. Twenty-three years old. Part-time student, works in the library.” Ianto sets down the printouts and leans over Jack’s shoulder to tap at the keyboard of his computer. “That’s her there.” He points to the CCTV footage playing out on the monitor.
“When was this taken?”
Standing back, Ianto folds his arms across his chest. “About an hour ago.”
“What?” Jack whips his head around to look up at Ianto.
“She’s still here, Jack. Alis Gibbon is still here. That… person that came back…” Ianto waves a hand in the air and walks away from the desk. He turns back. “Is it possible it’s not her?”
“No.” Jack stares at the images on the screen. He clicks to replay it. A young woman with long dark hair steps up on a ladder, shelving books. Such a simple, ordinary, everyday task. “We did the DNA match. It’s her.”
“Then… that means it hasn’t happened yet?” Ianto’s eyes light up, almost wild. “We could stop it.”
“No. We can’t.”
“But we could prevent it from happening.” Ianto approaches the desk, leans forward, both hands flat against the cool wood. “We could protect her. Move her out of the city. Something.”
“No,” Jack says, slowly, sadly. “We can’t. It’s already done.”
“But it’s not!” Pushing away from the desk, from Jack, Ianto paces the office again. “She’s still here. She hasn’t been taken yet!”
Standing and coming around the desk, Jack plants himself in front of Ianto and stops him in his tracks. “But she’s already been returned. We can’t change that, Ianto. We can’t.” Jack reaches up to touch his shoulder, but Ianto retreats. Jack drops his head, defeated. When he looks up, his eyes are wet and his voice shakes as he whispers, “There’s nothing I can do.”
---
Ianto raps his knuckles lightly on the doorframe of Jack’s office. Getting no response other than a quick glance, Ianto enters. Jack is tapping away at his keyboard, seemingly engrossed in his work. Before Ianto can speak, Jack turns to him and says, “You should have seen it, Ianto. He saved Gwen’s life and then just…” Jack’s hand glides up, slowly, toward the ceiling. “It was… there was this… brightness all around him and he just sort of…”
“Like the rift?” Ianto wishes he’d been there, wishes he could see the things the others see.
“No. Not like the rift. It was different. It felt safe and it was beautiful.” Jack smiles a soft, sad smile, no teeth. “There must be a reason, Ianto. Where did he get to go? I’ve saved lives before. Why am I still here? There must be a purpose. Something.”
Ianto wants to scream, ‘Us! You’re here for us!’ but he can’t. Not when he really means, ‘Me!’ Taking one step forward, then another, Ianto reaches out, wavers, and rests his hand on Jack’s shoulder for just a moment. It doesn’t seem like the right time to tell him about the negative rift spike that he recorded very late last night. Or that Alis Gibbon was reported missing this afternoon.
- Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can't see where it keeps its brain.
- J.K. Rowling
It takes Jack and Ianto an inordinate amount of time to carry the artifact down into the hub from the SUV. Its strangely twisted shape and slippery metal surface prove difficult to handle without the aid of the escape-the-weevils-and-get-out-quickly adrenaline rush.
They drop it.
It hits the concrete floor with a loud clang and all the lights go out. Ianto, having leapt backward to save his toes from being smashed, waits for the emergency lights to come on. He jumps when he feels Jack’s hands on his waist from behind.
“We just knocked the power out,” Jack whispers at his neck.
“Yes, it would appear so. Shouldn’t the backup generator have kicked in by now?”
Jack nuzzles Ianto’s hair. “Hmm, you’d think so.”
“Have we gone into lockdown?”
“Mm, probably.”
“Why aren’t you more worried about this?”
“I am,” Jack whispers, kissing his neck. “I’m just taking a rare moment.”
“Oh.” He relaxes into Jack’s arms. “OK.”
Jack’s hands wander over and under his suit jacket and down over his stomach, lower. “That wouldn’t happen to be a torch in your pocket by any chance, would it?”
“Nope. Sorry.” Ianto turns his head to find Jack’s mouth in the dark and muffle his next retort. He trails his fingers up Jack’s arm to shoulder and up into his hair. Jack sucks Ianto’s bottom lip in, worrying it between his teeth. Ianto leans into him, head swimming. The whole world could stop when Jack is kissing him and he’d never even notice. Breathless, Ianto breaks away. “OK, we really should check that everything is still running properly. You don’t think the cells have been compromised, do you?” He feels Jack shake his head.
“Uh-uh. The locks revert to manual if the electricity fails. Although…”
“What?”
Jack takes Ianto’s hand. “No splitting up. If there’s anything loose in the hub, I don’t want… us to be separated. Come on, there should be a few torches just in here.” Jack moves through the dark, pulling Ianto along with him.
“Ow!”
“What?”
“I bashed my foot on the… thing. Stop dragging me; I’m with you.”
---
Ianto holds a torch over the artifact so that Jack can see. They’ve managed to get the backup power on, but the low emergency lighting is too dim to work by. They’d checked all the cells and the CCTV is up and running, as well. Temporary lockdown was cancelled and an all clear sent to Gwen’s mobile.
“So, you’re saying that thing fried our computers?”
Jack is on his knees in the hub examining the metal object. “Actually, I was trying very hard not to say that.” He looks up at Ianto, shielding his eyes against the torchlight. “Does it look different to you?”
“Different how?” Ianto crouches down, holding the light up to take a closer look. “It looks like a twisted, metal… thing. Same as before.”
“No, look.” Jack takes Ianto’s hand and moves it over the side of the object. “The end wasn’t smooth like this before, was it?”
Ianto maneuvers to Jack’s side, pointing the torch at their hands joined on the metal. “No. It was sort of pointed before. It changed shape? Is it alive?” With his toe, Ianto scoots the containment box they’d brought out a little closer to Jack.
“Not alive, really, but…” Jack carefully turns the object. His hand hovers over one side, searching for something. All of a sudden, its side splits apart, sort of peels apart to reveal its interior. “Organic technology.” Jack grins at him in the dim light and his eyes are sparkling, so alive. “Tosh would love this.”
It takes a second, just a split-second really, for the light in Jack’s eyes to go out. Ianto turns his face away to avoid having to see it. He sweeps the light over the object, distracting himself from thinking.
Jack clears his throat. “Looks like it’s mostly burnt out inside. Bit of a shame. This sort of technology is very adaptable. We could have rigged it up to our computers. Done all sorts with it…” he trails off and when Ianto looks over, Jack is facing away. “We must have jogged something when we dropped it, but I don’t think it will do much now. Best to just store it away.” He stands abruptly, dusting off his knees and his coat. “I need to go check something.”
Ianto lights a path for him until Jack grabs the other torch and disappears into the shadowed steps to the basement. To the morgue and the cryogenics section. Ianto does his best not to think about what… who Jack is going to check on.
Ianto’s hands shake as he cautiously lifts the object and places it into the box, shutting the lid and engaging the locking mechanism. Sliding it aside for now, he sets to work at Toshiko’s… the tech computer terminal. It is set up with all the computer override codes. He breathes a sigh of relief when it boots up and everything runs smoothly. He manages to reset the automatic lights and security alarms, bringing the hub back up to full power. While checking to see that no data had been lost another video message pops up.
“Owen, stop right now. Whatever you’re doing, just stop it. Go get me. If I’m… not there, get Jack. If he’s not there, get Ianto. But Do. Not. Try this yourself. I’ve left instructions and Ianto has the security codes. Don’t. Touch. Anything.”
Toshiko’s image fades away back into the system just like before. Ianto stares, fingers poised above the keyboard. A small, uneasy laugh escapes him. He clamps his mouth shut, biting his lip. He wipes at his eyes, but they are dry. Nodding, he gathers himself together. Right, security codes, he remembers. He logs into his own account and goes to work getting the system back online. He’s glad that neither Gwen nor Jack had been around to see that. It would have upset them. Yes, it’s much better that they hadn’t seen it.
He’s just attempting to recalibrate the rift alarm when he hears Jack’s heavy footsteps. Turning, Ianto watches him walk wearily into the room, throwing his coat over the back of the couch before falling heavily into a seat. Ianto wants to ask if everything is alright, but he doesn’t.
Instead, he says, “Rift alarm is on the blink and I’m not sure the predictor program is up, either. But everything else seems to be running fine.”
“Yeah,” Jack sighs, lifting a hand to his face and covering his eyes. “I noticed the lights. Good job, Ianto.”
He starts to turn back to the computer, saying, “I can probably get this fixed. It shouldn’t take too long; I helped Tosh a bit when she was working on it.”
“Ianto. It’s late. That can wait until tomorrow.”
He stops, but doesn’t look back at Jack. “Technically, it is tomorrow.” He tries for a light tone, but it falls flat and the awkwardness stretches out.
“Come here.”
When he looks, Jack is watching, reaching an arm out to him. Ianto stands and steps lightly over to the couch. He takes Jack’s hand, lets himself be pulled down and settles into Jack’s warmth. Sometimes Ianto wishes they could talk the way he’s sure other people must talk.
But Jack’s hands - inside his shirt, on his shoulders, pushing him back into the cushions, drawing him out, peeling him apart, seeking, comforting - speak louder than any words. Ianto tangles his fingers in Jack’s hair, in his shirt, prying the buttons open, clothing rustling, falling away until it’s just skin on skin and warm, pliant tongue and soft, yielding lips. Jack goes so slow, so gentle, taking his time, opening Ianto up.
Ragged breaths mix together with damp, salty skin and he can’t be sure if it’s sweat or tears. Jack’s hair brushes over Ianto’s lips as he hovers over him. Their eyes meet and there’s no one else and they don’t have to be quiet and quick. Jack’s hands caress Ianto’s sides and back up his arms; the bruises are mostly healed. Ianto runs his hands over Jack’s smooth skin. He is always healed up on the outside, but now Ianto can see all the damage on the inside, too, the storm behind those eyes that threatens to tear them all apart.
Wrapping his fingers around the back of Jack’s neck, Ianto pulls him down. Their lips meet and he feels Jack push inside and oh- Oh, God. He squeezes his eyes shut, arching his back into the hard body above him. Jack says his name, voice husky, a strangled, “Ianto,” over and over. And they are beyond words.
Jack falls asleep half on top of Ianto, an arm and a leg draped over him, holding him close on the narrow couch. He pulls Jack’s coat over them, senses dulled, too content to move.
The sound of the door rolling open and shut wakes Ianto; he isn’t sure how long he must have slept and he doesn’t open his eyes until he hears-
“Jack! Jack, I- Oh.”
Looking up from beneath Jack on the couch, Ianto smiles at Gwen. “Good morning.”
“Yeah, looks like it.” She laughs, turning her head as Jack moves, dislodging the coat. “Can’t you two ever do it in a bed?”
Face burning, despite his best attempts, Ianto grabs for the coat before it falls completely away.
Jack laughs, levering himself up into a sitting position. “A bed? Never get Ianto to agree to such a wild idea.” He reaches out, but Ianto slaps his hand away, not unkindly. Grinning, Jack looks up and says, “Didn’t expect you in today, Gwen. Shouldn’t you be home resting?”
“I feel fine,” she says, face still turned away. “Rhys had to go into work this morning, so I wanted to talk to you.”
Ianto pulls Jack’s coat on, holding it closed around his body. “Excuse me, I’m going to get washed and dressed.” He glares at Jack, but can’t keep the smile off his face, gathering up most of his own clothes as he heads up to Jack’s office and the hatch to his room.
“Hey!” Jack calls after him, “You took my coat, what am I supposed to do?”
“Like you’ve ever had a problem walking around naked.”
“It’s cold in here!”
As Ianto disappears down the ladder he catches a glimpse of Gwen tossing something at Jack and hears her cry, “Put some pants on!”
- If you’re never scared or embarrassed or hurt, it means you never take any chances.
- Julia Sorel
The duct tape catches and pulls the little hairs at the back of Ianto’s neck; Jack’s bound wrists resting there as his fingernails scratch through Ianto’s hair and into his scalp. Ianto thrusts his hips slowly and Jack’s thighs squeeze his sides tighter. With the very tip of his tongue, Ianto traces a trail up Jack’s chest to his throat, jaw, and the silky fabric of his tie tight against Jack’s cheek. Ianto pokes his tongue at the material in Jack’s mouth feeling an answering poke from within and a soft whimper escapes.
“You’re drooling all over my tie. The mirror is still-” Ianto gasps, thrusts in, “sticky. And your coat-” Another thrust. “Covered in blood. Will take- Oh… Take a lot to get it mended.” Biting the tie between his teeth, Jack digs his heels into Ianto’s arse, but Ianto refuses to be hurried. “You never think of the- Ahh… Consequences, do you?”
The desktop beneath Jack is slippery with his sweat and makes a slick, squeaky sound with each movement. Ianto rests his elbows on either side of Jack’s body, sucking at his lower lip, scraping teeth against silk and skin. Jack’s legs are wrapped around him, drawing him in, holding him there. Jack around him, always around him. Jack there and alive and they all could have died a few days ago and Jack had died and this is the only way he can cope. This is the only way to feel alive again, to make sure they’re still here. This is what he has.
Gwen is going off to Paris with Rhys; she gets a break for real life. And Tosh, she’s out there trying to have one of those lives everyone is always talking about. She’s told Ianto that she’s been to see more crappy films in the past month than in her entire life, but she’s out there. She’s getting on.
And Owen… Owen is the same as ever, as if the last few weeks or months hadn’t happened and everything in his world is back to where it started. Which is why Jack and Ianto are so surprised that he is still in the hub at well past midnight on a Saturday night.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”
“Ung?” Jack turns his head toward the voice, his legs gripping Ianto’s waist even more tightly to prevent him from moving away. Hastily, Ianto reaches up to pull the gag from Jack’s mouth to let him speak. “Owen, what are you still doing here?”
Ianto risks a glance at the door. Owen is standing there with his back to them, waving a file folder in his hand. “Just wanted to let you know I finished the autopsy on Bet- uh, the sleeper agent. I’m just going to leave this here.” He drops the file onto the floor by the door and stalks out. A few seconds later they hear the hub door roll open and shut.
“You said everyone had gone home,” Ianto growls into Jack’s neck.
“I saw Tosh leave; I assumed she was the last. She usually is.”
Ianto scrapes his teeth over Jack’s shoulder and realizes he’d started rocking his hips again almost immediately after he’d stopped. “You realize this means that Gwen is the only one who hasn’t walked in on us?”
“We could call her up now and get it out of the way.” Jack laughs, breathlessly, as Ianto bites down on his shoulder. “And, technically, Tosh didn’t walk in on us. She just happened to find the CCTV footage.”
“Which you said you’d taken care of.”
“Oops?”
“Exactly what I was talking about, Jack.” Ianto slips his head out of the circle of Jack’s bound arms and stands up, grabbing Jack by the hips and yanking him forward. “Consequences.”
part 3b
originally posted: 06/25/08