A New Dawn 8
Title: A New Dawn
Part: 8/? Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N:
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on watching the avi file. I have succeeded! Again, sorry for the long time between posts. But as a reward for all your patience this chapter is twice as long as usual.
I've been asked by a few people if what I say about the legal situation regarding duress and murder is true. The answer is yes, as near as I could ascertain by researching UK law on the internet, everything I said about duress, murder, treason, and pardons and the royal prerogative is true. I have often used direct quotes from legal websites.
I've edited and posted this at 1am, so I hope I haven't made too many mistakes with punctuation etc. But if I don't post now, it'll be another couple of days before I get a chance.
Previous chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/21969.html
Chapter 8
At lunch time, Joanne headed out and bought sandwiches and crisps at the local supermarket. She thought that, if she didn't, then Owen, Ianto, Tosh and Gwen would not stop to eat. As she did the rounds, handing them out, she could practically see the waves of sadness coming off the old team.
Owen and Ianto were in the boardroom, while Gwen and Tosh were working at their desks.
“You should take a break to eat lunch,” suggested Joanne to Tosh and Gwen. “Why don't you come and eat with me and Mark? We should get Owen and Ianto too.”
Seeing the sense in that, Tosh smiled and, picking up her food, headed for the lunch area. Gwen followed and a few minutes later Owen and Ianto joined them. It was a quiet lunch, no one was in the mood for chit chat. When they had all finished, Owen ordered everyone back to work. Before following Ianto to the boardroom, for more DVD watching, he went to his office to check on the rift predictor program. It showed only low levels of activity expected.
* * * *
Mark and Joanne were the last to leave the lunch area. They had had enough. In the space of a week, they had watched their teammates disintegrate into emotional wrecks, buried in a project that the new members were not trusted to help with. Practically all other Torchwood business, however, was being left to them.
Joanne nudged Mark hard, when Owen went to his office. “Go talk to him,” she hissed. “Tell him we can't go on like this.”
Nodding grimly, Mark got up from his workstation, and went to knock on the door of Owen's office. Getting no response, he stuck his head round the door. “Owen, I need a word.”
Owen looked up. “Is there a call out?” he asked.
“No, nothing like that, it's still quiet.” He hesitated, then plunged in. “Joanne and me, we're not happy about the way things have been run around here lately. The rest of you barely do any Torchwood work anymore. You're all so obsessed with whatever is on those DVDs, that you're not pulling your weight with the things that we are supposed to be doing.”
Owen sighed. He knew that Mark was right. “I'm sorry Mark. We have been neglecting our duty. But there is a really urgent situation that we need to deal with.”
“You're going to have to give us more information than that, if you want us to keep on covering for the rest of you. We need to know that you have a good reason.”
“It's related to our previous boss. You know that he left Torchwood suddenly, just before you and Joanne started?”
Mark nodded. That was all they knew, however, as the rest of the team never mentioned their ex-boss.
“His name is Jack Harkness, and, about three years ago, he was tried and convicted of multiple murders, torture and treason. He was put in a UNIT high security prison after that.”
“Jesus!” exclaimed Mark.
“Yeah,” agreed Owen, “and what's worse, is that these DVDs show that he was coerced, and committed the crimes to protect the rest of us.”
Mark was understandably shocked. “Then can't you give the relevant authorities the information, and get him out?”
“No, for one thing UNIT tried to suppress the evidence, and, unfortunately, it doesn't clear him.”
“But, you said he was coerced ...”
“Yes, but, apparently, acting under duress is no defense against murder. You can imagine how the girls feel, and Ianto. He and Jack were an item, and he took it very hard when we thought Jack had betrayed us. To find out that he did everything for us, and we let him be locked up by UNIT ...” he shook his head and trailed off.
“Well, I can see why you've been working on the case non-stop,” admitted Mark. “But you can't carry on like this. Joanne and I can't carry the load alone much longer.”
“We know what we need to do now,” Owen explained. “We have a load of DVDs to trawl through, looking for evidence to support the case to get Jack pardoned. Between the four of us, working double shifts, I guess that will take a week. After that, two of us can be back on regular Torchwood duty, while the other two carry on preparing the case.”
Owen knew that he'd be asking a lot with his next question. “Can you and Joanne carry on taking the major load for another week?”
Mark looked unhappy at that, so Owen ploughed on. “Obviously, if there was a serious incident we'd all be close at hand, ready to assist.”
“Why can't two of you do it, over a longer timescale?” Mark asked. “The guy has been in prison for years, what does a couple of weeks matter?”
It was hard for Owen to put into words the urgency that the whole team felt for getting Jack exonerated. “It's complicated,” he started, “we all owe him an immense debt, and we have totally failed him so far. Plus, he escaped about 18 months ago, so he's on the run.”
Mark could see how important this was to Owen, and presumably it was equally important to Ianto, Tosh and Gwen. “OK, Joanne and I will hold the fort for one more week. But after that, some of you will have to come off the Harkness case, and back on to regular Torchwood work.”
Owen smiled, and clapped Mark on the back. “It's a deal.”
* * * * *
Knowing that, in fairness to Joanne and Mark, they had a limited timescale within which all four of them could keep working on Jack's case, Owen called Ianto, Tosh and Gwen into the boardroom. He explained the situation.
“I guess we can't blame them,” admitted Gwen. “So, we'll just have to do things as fast as we can.”
Tosh and Ianto agreed.
“They've agreed to give us one week, before two of us stop working on Jack's case,” Owen explained. “I figure that, working double shifts, someone could cover about two weeks worth of DVDs per day. With two sets of people watching the DVDs, we can cover roughly a month per day, possibly more if we can fast-forward through most of it. In a week that will get us close to the end of the DVDs.”
“I don't think anyone should watch them alone,” he continued. “So, I suggest that Ianto and Tosh take one section, Gwen and I will take the other.” Owen's main motivation for pairing them up was that, although he thought he could cope, he feared what Ianto's reaction would be if he were left alone to watch. And it would be useful to have two people's perspective on what was most relevant to Jack's defence.
He looked at the girls apologetically. “I know that you didn't want to watch, but, if you think it's urgent, as I think you do, we need your help.”
Tosh looked determined, and glanced over at Gwen. “We owe Jack, and I think we both know that we need to do this as fast as we can, so of course we'll help.”
“There is something I should warn you about before we start,” Owen said seriously. “What Ianto and I never told you, is that the Master raped Jack, and it was brutal. You should be prepared for him to do that again.”
“Is that what upset Ianto so much the other day?” asked Tosh.
“Partly,” admitted Owen, glancing at Ianto.
“We knew he must have done that,” interjected Gwen. “When the Master offered Jack the deal, he said 'no more rape.'”
Owen had forgotten that detail.
“But it can't be any worse than some of the other things he did,” continued Gwen. “We'll cope. We need to do this for Jack.”
* * * *
Owen and Gwen took the DVDs covering the first two weeks after Jack's deal with the Master. Ianto and Tosh took the following two weeks. Tosh and Ianto went down into the archives, to use the spare DVD player down there. As they got set up, Tosh offered to make notes of anything that was relevant to Jack's defence.
Owen and Gwen used the boardroom. The first few of their DVDs showed nothing but an empty room, so were dealt with very quickly. They knew, from the date on the box, that these were the days leading up to Jack telling them that he was working for the Master. Finally, on the 4th DVD, the Master came back into the room. He was followed by Jack. They watched as the Master clapped, and congratulated Jack on a wonderful performance. Jack began to visibly shake and, within moments, Gwen's vain hope, that the Master would not follow through on his threat, was dashed. The Master offered him the chance to fight his way out of the room, and be left alone, or fail and be raped.
Jack got in a few good blows against the Master, leaving him bleeding from his nose, but it became obvious, all too soon, that the Master was just playing with him. As Jack made a desperate lunge past him, towards the door, the Master whirled, shot out a hand, and grabbed him by the ankle. He yanked Jack off his feet, to slam into the floor, his hands only inches from the doorway. The Master dragged him back in to the centre of the room. He then beat Jack with his fists, and judging by Jack's reaction to each blow, this was much worse than if a human had done the same. In minutes Jack was only semi-conscious. He lay, unresisting, on his back in the centre of the room, as the Master tore his shirt off. He gouged deep furrows down Jack's chest with his nails, and leaned in to lick the blood.
As the Master yanked at Jack's jeans, Gwen could watch no more. Switching the DVD off, she ran from the room. Owen followed her, and found her in the kitchen leaning against the counter, head down. “Gwen, are you OK?”
“What do you think?” she retorted. “I know you warned me, but still I couldn't cope with it. How do you take it so calmly?” she exclaimed, “knowing that Jack went through all this for us!”
“We have a job to do,” Owen replied, “and we owe it to Jack to do the best job we can, to get him exonerated. That means we have to watch these DVDs, and compile the evidence. We have to cope. And remember, what you are feeling is nothing compared to what Jack went through.”
Bowing her head in shame, Gwen acknowledged that Owen was right. “Let's get back to work,” she stated, and they went back to their grim task.
* * * * *
As Tosh and Ianto watched the DVDs, fast-forwarding through any periods of inactivity, it became clear that, after the deal with Jack, the Master's behaviour had changed. He still tortured Jack on a daily basis, but he also raped him frequently. He seemed to have got the taste for it. He also expected absolute subservience from Jack. Any hesitation, however slight, in obeying the Master's commands, was met with violent punishment and threats against the Torchwood team. The only respite Jack got, was after the Master killed him, to get him fit for public appearances, or when Tish was able to help him.
They could barely believe that the trembling, broken, man they saw in the Master's secret room, was the same as the outwardly calm person they had hated and taunted unmercifully.
How the hell did he do it !
* * * *
Jack woke suddenly, and panicking. He thrashed for a moment, trapped by the sheets, before freeing himself and leaping out of bed, heart beating rapidly. In his nightmare, he had relived one of the slow deaths the Master had put him through. It was not unusual. The longer the time since a fix, the more vivid the nightmares became. As his heartbeat slowly returned to normal, Jack looked at the clock. It was mid afternoon, he had had several hours of sleep. Time to get up.
Grimacing at the sweat that covered him, and at the stickiness that was left from his overnight client, Jack walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As he showered, he allowed himself some time for anticipation. Today was heroin day. Memories licked around the edge of his consciousness like flames, but he forced himself to ignore them. He was going to enjoy some time, knowing that he was about to get his fix. He showered slowly, then dressed in scruffy jeans and T-shirt. He made some toast, while stripping the bed and changing the sheets.
After he had eaten, he went over to the door and locked it. His client had left it unlocked when he left. Jack knew that Ray's men were on the ground floor, making sure no one caused any trouble. They knew it was his heroin day, and would not allow anyone up to his room, but he still preferred the door to be locked while he was stoned.
Finally ready, Jack went to his bedroom, and started to prepare the heroin. As always, he was very careful with the dose, resisting the urge to take just a little more than usual. As the moment got nearer, he began to tremble with excitement. He drew the liquid up into the syringe, and tied a ligature around his arm. Laying back on the bed, he injected the drug into his arm. In seconds was glassy eyed, floating in bliss.
* * * *
Finally, after watching hour after hour of grim footage of Jack and the Master, Gwen got the chance to go home to Rhys. She was in a state of shock. It had been traumatic enough watching before, but now she knew that everything Jack suffered was for her sake, and the rest of the team, it was orders of magnitude worse.
The only thing she wanted when she got home, was to fall in to bed. But sleep eluded her. As they lay next to each other she asked, “Would you die for me Rhys?”
“Of course I would, you know that,” he replied.
“Would you live in agony for me?“
Rhys was shocked. “What do you mean?”
“If someone gave you the choice between being unharmed, or volunteering to be tortured to keep me safe, what would you choose?”
“What kind of a question is that?” demanded Rhys “When would I ever end up with a choice like that?”
Realising that she should not be quizzing her husband in this way, Gwen backed away from the question. “Sorry Rhys, it's just a case that I've been working on. It's got me really over emotional.” She snuggled up close to him. “Just hold me.”
As Gwen lay there, trying to sleep, she considered the question the other way round. Would she have done that for Rhys, or indeed anyone? With total honesty she realised that she would not have been able to do it.
* * * *
Tosh had maintained a stoic facade, throughout watching the DVDs, by pure willpower. But when she got home, all the willpower drained away and she let go. Wracking sobs shook her, as she fumbled her way though a small meal, a bath, and got ready for bed. She cried for so long that, when she woke the next morning, she had all the symptoms of a cold, including an awful sinus headache. She dosed up on painkillers before she went back in to work.
* * * *
Returning to his flat, Ianto had a shower. Then, walking naked to stand in front of the mirror, he took up the razor blade and made a deep cut, from just under his left clavicle, across his chest, finishing above his right hip. He dropped the razor blade, and pressed the wound hard with his palm. The pain did it's job, and diverted his mind from the dark thoughts that would otherwise not leave him. Jack in agony, Jack dying, Jack brutally raped. And all to save them.
Laying a towel across his bed, to protect it from the blood, he lay down and hoped that sleep would release him from his thoughts. It did, in a way.
Ianto dreamed. He was in his cell on the Valiant. Owen was awake, but laying on his bunk. Ianto paced to and fro in agitation. There was something important he had to do, something he had to remember. And it was urgent. But it lay just out of reach, at the edges of his consciousness, and his mind would not grasp it. The scene shifted suddenly, and he was chained to the wall in the Master's secret room. Jack stood in front of him, wearing his black clothes. He spoke just three words, before fading away. “Remember, Ianto. Remember.”
* * * *
Owen manned the Hub that night, although he was extremely grateful that there were no rift alerts. Pulling double shifts, and then sleeping at the Hub, was a recipe for disaster. Joanne and Mark were right. It couldn't go on. Just a few more days, he told himself. But the thought of what those days would bring was horrific. How much more agony could the Master put Jack through? He could barely believe that Jack had refused the deal again, after a month of the Master's attentions.
* * * *
The following day, Tosh and Ianto, and Owen and Gwen, each took more DVDs to watch. Their guilt and horror had only increased, as they watched the endless cycle of torture, rape and death that Jack suffered for them. Their guilt was enhanced by knowing that, during every interval when Jack was sent out into the Valiant, and spared pain for a few hours, they had negated this respite by heaping emotional pain on him.
Thankfully, most of what happened could be watched on fast-forward, though they had to listen to anything the Master and Jack said to each other. They dutifully catalogued the events, as part of the evidence for Jack's case. They knew that the most important part of the case would be what led up to Jack torturing and killing the rebels. But they did not skip ahead to the time that happened, for fear of missing something important.
They had realised, very soon after the seeing the deal, that Tish had known everything that was going on, and about the arrangement Jack had come to with the Master. And, although they knew it was probably hopeless, it became even more important to contact her, just to check that she was indeed one of the people for whom the nine months had been erased.
* * * *
On the third day of solid DVD watching, things on screen changed from the usual routine. Owen and Gwen had come to a conversation between Jack and the Master, about making a home movie. They watched the Master order Jack to behave as a lover, and then garotte him to remove some bruises.
Owen shook his head in disbelief, as the Master gave Jack his orders. “Jack's a great actor, but I can't believe that anyone who'd been abused to this extent, would ever manage to 'get it up,' as the Master put it, for his abuser.
“But we know that he did,” argued Gwen. “We've seen the film. Maybe he is that good an actor.”
They continued to watch the empty room, straining to hear the sounds coming from the next room through the open door. It wasn't long before it became obvious that things were not going according to the Master's orders. They couldn't make out words, but they could hear the Master shouting with fury, followed by the sounds of blows. It went on for several minutes, and then there was silence. Several minutes after that, they heard other voices in the room. Eventually, Tish and Stevens carried Jack back into his room, and left him there. Tish came back briefly, before Jack was left totally alone, locked into the secret room once more. Owen and Gwen fast-forwarded through several more DVDs, before Jack finally died of his injuries.
* * * *
Ianto and Tosh's DVDs started with Jack being hauled over to the chains dangling from the ceiling. The Master waved a syringe at Jack, and then said “After your abysmal failure last time, I thought you might need a bit of help.”
They were both totally confused by that statement. It obviously referred to something from Owen and Gwen's DVDs. Understanding dawned, as the Master said he'd be waiting in his bedroom. Tosh blushed furiously as they saw Jack rise to the occasion, and writhe in distress. He was left there for hours. He practically threw himself at Modine when he was released from the chains and dragged out of the room.
“I guess this is when they make that film that we saw,” ventured Tosh as they zoomed through scenes of the empty room.
“I doubt it,” Ianto replied. “Jack didn't look drugged up in that, and anyway he thought he was with me.”
“He thought what!” asked Tosh in surprise.
Ianto suddenly realised that, with all the stress of everything that was going on, he had not told his colleagues what he had discovered about the film. “God, I'm sorry, I should have explained to everyone. I found the film on one of the DVDs. Home movie #3. It had sound, and it was clear that Jack though he was with me. I don't know how the Master did it, but somehow he convinced Jack to believe that he was me.”
“So he wasn't knowingly, or willingly, going to bed with the Master?” exclaimed Tosh. “Ianto, how could you not tell us? You know what seeing that film did to the rest of us. It didn't just affect you.”
Tosh didn't need to say it, Ianto was already feeling like a complete heel. Not telling the others was a dreadful thing to do.
After zooming through several hours, Jack was finally returned to the room and chained up again. The drug was clearly still acting, and they cringed as he screamed, desperate for release. Fast-forwarding several more hours, they watched aghast as the Master released Jack from his chains and smashed his hands.
The next several days on the DVDs were the more typical interactions between Jack and the Master, though they did find out why Jack wore black clothes. Then came the three month anniversary of the deal. Although they knew that Jack never accepted the Master's offer, Ianto and Tosh watched with bated breath, as the Master repeated the offer. Jack refused, to the Master's astonishment. But it was what came after that kicked them in the gut; Jack's declaration of love, followed by the Master's denunciation of the team, and his declaration, “They don't love you.” They watched Jack look the Master straight in the eye and admit quietly, “I know.”
Tosh's stoicism left her at this point, and she burst into floods of tears. Ianto stopped the playback, stunned and truly ashamed. Even after the team had betrayed him, and treated him horrendously, Jack still loved them. Even knowing that they did not love him, he had continued to pay for their safety with his blood and agony. And when it was all over, and everyone else was safe, he had been rewarded with rejection and imprisonment.
Ianto grabbed his arm and raked his nails across the wound. Even protected by his suit jacket, it hurt like hell. He did it again, and did the same to the wound on his chest. They started to bleed. Fortunately, Tosh was too caught up in her own misery, to notice what he was doing. Standing abruptly, Ianto announced “That's enough for today, I'm going home,” and fled.
AN: Only one more chapter of DVD watching after this, then the plot will move on.
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/23120.html
Part: 8/? Rating: 18+
Warnings: Mentions of previous torture and rape
Genre: Angst, AU
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Owen, Tosh, Gwen
Summary: AU. The Torchwood team discover the truth about what happened on the Valiant and search for Jack. A dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N:
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on watching the avi file. I have succeeded! Again, sorry for the long time between posts. But as a reward for all your patience this chapter is twice as long as usual.
I've been asked by a few people if what I say about the legal situation regarding duress and murder is true. The answer is yes, as near as I could ascertain by researching UK law on the internet, everything I said about duress, murder, treason, and pardons and the royal prerogative is true. I have often used direct quotes from legal websites.
I've edited and posted this at 1am, so I hope I haven't made too many mistakes with punctuation etc. But if I don't post now, it'll be another couple of days before I get a chance.
Previous chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/21969.html
Chapter 8
At lunch time, Joanne headed out and bought sandwiches and crisps at the local supermarket. She thought that, if she didn't, then Owen, Ianto, Tosh and Gwen would not stop to eat. As she did the rounds, handing them out, she could practically see the waves of sadness coming off the old team.
Owen and Ianto were in the boardroom, while Gwen and Tosh were working at their desks.
“You should take a break to eat lunch,” suggested Joanne to Tosh and Gwen. “Why don't you come and eat with me and Mark? We should get Owen and Ianto too.”
Seeing the sense in that, Tosh smiled and, picking up her food, headed for the lunch area. Gwen followed and a few minutes later Owen and Ianto joined them. It was a quiet lunch, no one was in the mood for chit chat. When they had all finished, Owen ordered everyone back to work. Before following Ianto to the boardroom, for more DVD watching, he went to his office to check on the rift predictor program. It showed only low levels of activity expected.
* * * *
Mark and Joanne were the last to leave the lunch area. They had had enough. In the space of a week, they had watched their teammates disintegrate into emotional wrecks, buried in a project that the new members were not trusted to help with. Practically all other Torchwood business, however, was being left to them.
Joanne nudged Mark hard, when Owen went to his office. “Go talk to him,” she hissed. “Tell him we can't go on like this.”
Nodding grimly, Mark got up from his workstation, and went to knock on the door of Owen's office. Getting no response, he stuck his head round the door. “Owen, I need a word.”
Owen looked up. “Is there a call out?” he asked.
“No, nothing like that, it's still quiet.” He hesitated, then plunged in. “Joanne and me, we're not happy about the way things have been run around here lately. The rest of you barely do any Torchwood work anymore. You're all so obsessed with whatever is on those DVDs, that you're not pulling your weight with the things that we are supposed to be doing.”
Owen sighed. He knew that Mark was right. “I'm sorry Mark. We have been neglecting our duty. But there is a really urgent situation that we need to deal with.”
“You're going to have to give us more information than that, if you want us to keep on covering for the rest of you. We need to know that you have a good reason.”
“It's related to our previous boss. You know that he left Torchwood suddenly, just before you and Joanne started?”
Mark nodded. That was all they knew, however, as the rest of the team never mentioned their ex-boss.
“His name is Jack Harkness, and, about three years ago, he was tried and convicted of multiple murders, torture and treason. He was put in a UNIT high security prison after that.”
“Jesus!” exclaimed Mark.
“Yeah,” agreed Owen, “and what's worse, is that these DVDs show that he was coerced, and committed the crimes to protect the rest of us.”
Mark was understandably shocked. “Then can't you give the relevant authorities the information, and get him out?”
“No, for one thing UNIT tried to suppress the evidence, and, unfortunately, it doesn't clear him.”
“But, you said he was coerced ...”
“Yes, but, apparently, acting under duress is no defense against murder. You can imagine how the girls feel, and Ianto. He and Jack were an item, and he took it very hard when we thought Jack had betrayed us. To find out that he did everything for us, and we let him be locked up by UNIT ...” he shook his head and trailed off.
“Well, I can see why you've been working on the case non-stop,” admitted Mark. “But you can't carry on like this. Joanne and I can't carry the load alone much longer.”
“We know what we need to do now,” Owen explained. “We have a load of DVDs to trawl through, looking for evidence to support the case to get Jack pardoned. Between the four of us, working double shifts, I guess that will take a week. After that, two of us can be back on regular Torchwood duty, while the other two carry on preparing the case.”
Owen knew that he'd be asking a lot with his next question. “Can you and Joanne carry on taking the major load for another week?”
Mark looked unhappy at that, so Owen ploughed on. “Obviously, if there was a serious incident we'd all be close at hand, ready to assist.”
“Why can't two of you do it, over a longer timescale?” Mark asked. “The guy has been in prison for years, what does a couple of weeks matter?”
It was hard for Owen to put into words the urgency that the whole team felt for getting Jack exonerated. “It's complicated,” he started, “we all owe him an immense debt, and we have totally failed him so far. Plus, he escaped about 18 months ago, so he's on the run.”
Mark could see how important this was to Owen, and presumably it was equally important to Ianto, Tosh and Gwen. “OK, Joanne and I will hold the fort for one more week. But after that, some of you will have to come off the Harkness case, and back on to regular Torchwood work.”
Owen smiled, and clapped Mark on the back. “It's a deal.”
* * * * *
Knowing that, in fairness to Joanne and Mark, they had a limited timescale within which all four of them could keep working on Jack's case, Owen called Ianto, Tosh and Gwen into the boardroom. He explained the situation.
“I guess we can't blame them,” admitted Gwen. “So, we'll just have to do things as fast as we can.”
Tosh and Ianto agreed.
“They've agreed to give us one week, before two of us stop working on Jack's case,” Owen explained. “I figure that, working double shifts, someone could cover about two weeks worth of DVDs per day. With two sets of people watching the DVDs, we can cover roughly a month per day, possibly more if we can fast-forward through most of it. In a week that will get us close to the end of the DVDs.”
“I don't think anyone should watch them alone,” he continued. “So, I suggest that Ianto and Tosh take one section, Gwen and I will take the other.” Owen's main motivation for pairing them up was that, although he thought he could cope, he feared what Ianto's reaction would be if he were left alone to watch. And it would be useful to have two people's perspective on what was most relevant to Jack's defence.
He looked at the girls apologetically. “I know that you didn't want to watch, but, if you think it's urgent, as I think you do, we need your help.”
Tosh looked determined, and glanced over at Gwen. “We owe Jack, and I think we both know that we need to do this as fast as we can, so of course we'll help.”
“There is something I should warn you about before we start,” Owen said seriously. “What Ianto and I never told you, is that the Master raped Jack, and it was brutal. You should be prepared for him to do that again.”
“Is that what upset Ianto so much the other day?” asked Tosh.
“Partly,” admitted Owen, glancing at Ianto.
“We knew he must have done that,” interjected Gwen. “When the Master offered Jack the deal, he said 'no more rape.'”
Owen had forgotten that detail.
“But it can't be any worse than some of the other things he did,” continued Gwen. “We'll cope. We need to do this for Jack.”
* * * *
Owen and Gwen took the DVDs covering the first two weeks after Jack's deal with the Master. Ianto and Tosh took the following two weeks. Tosh and Ianto went down into the archives, to use the spare DVD player down there. As they got set up, Tosh offered to make notes of anything that was relevant to Jack's defence.
Owen and Gwen used the boardroom. The first few of their DVDs showed nothing but an empty room, so were dealt with very quickly. They knew, from the date on the box, that these were the days leading up to Jack telling them that he was working for the Master. Finally, on the 4th DVD, the Master came back into the room. He was followed by Jack. They watched as the Master clapped, and congratulated Jack on a wonderful performance. Jack began to visibly shake and, within moments, Gwen's vain hope, that the Master would not follow through on his threat, was dashed. The Master offered him the chance to fight his way out of the room, and be left alone, or fail and be raped.
Jack got in a few good blows against the Master, leaving him bleeding from his nose, but it became obvious, all too soon, that the Master was just playing with him. As Jack made a desperate lunge past him, towards the door, the Master whirled, shot out a hand, and grabbed him by the ankle. He yanked Jack off his feet, to slam into the floor, his hands only inches from the doorway. The Master dragged him back in to the centre of the room. He then beat Jack with his fists, and judging by Jack's reaction to each blow, this was much worse than if a human had done the same. In minutes Jack was only semi-conscious. He lay, unresisting, on his back in the centre of the room, as the Master tore his shirt off. He gouged deep furrows down Jack's chest with his nails, and leaned in to lick the blood.
As the Master yanked at Jack's jeans, Gwen could watch no more. Switching the DVD off, she ran from the room. Owen followed her, and found her in the kitchen leaning against the counter, head down. “Gwen, are you OK?”
“What do you think?” she retorted. “I know you warned me, but still I couldn't cope with it. How do you take it so calmly?” she exclaimed, “knowing that Jack went through all this for us!”
“We have a job to do,” Owen replied, “and we owe it to Jack to do the best job we can, to get him exonerated. That means we have to watch these DVDs, and compile the evidence. We have to cope. And remember, what you are feeling is nothing compared to what Jack went through.”
Bowing her head in shame, Gwen acknowledged that Owen was right. “Let's get back to work,” she stated, and they went back to their grim task.
* * * * *
As Tosh and Ianto watched the DVDs, fast-forwarding through any periods of inactivity, it became clear that, after the deal with Jack, the Master's behaviour had changed. He still tortured Jack on a daily basis, but he also raped him frequently. He seemed to have got the taste for it. He also expected absolute subservience from Jack. Any hesitation, however slight, in obeying the Master's commands, was met with violent punishment and threats against the Torchwood team. The only respite Jack got, was after the Master killed him, to get him fit for public appearances, or when Tish was able to help him.
They could barely believe that the trembling, broken, man they saw in the Master's secret room, was the same as the outwardly calm person they had hated and taunted unmercifully.
How the hell did he do it !
* * * *
Jack woke suddenly, and panicking. He thrashed for a moment, trapped by the sheets, before freeing himself and leaping out of bed, heart beating rapidly. In his nightmare, he had relived one of the slow deaths the Master had put him through. It was not unusual. The longer the time since a fix, the more vivid the nightmares became. As his heartbeat slowly returned to normal, Jack looked at the clock. It was mid afternoon, he had had several hours of sleep. Time to get up.
Grimacing at the sweat that covered him, and at the stickiness that was left from his overnight client, Jack walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As he showered, he allowed himself some time for anticipation. Today was heroin day. Memories licked around the edge of his consciousness like flames, but he forced himself to ignore them. He was going to enjoy some time, knowing that he was about to get his fix. He showered slowly, then dressed in scruffy jeans and T-shirt. He made some toast, while stripping the bed and changing the sheets.
After he had eaten, he went over to the door and locked it. His client had left it unlocked when he left. Jack knew that Ray's men were on the ground floor, making sure no one caused any trouble. They knew it was his heroin day, and would not allow anyone up to his room, but he still preferred the door to be locked while he was stoned.
Finally ready, Jack went to his bedroom, and started to prepare the heroin. As always, he was very careful with the dose, resisting the urge to take just a little more than usual. As the moment got nearer, he began to tremble with excitement. He drew the liquid up into the syringe, and tied a ligature around his arm. Laying back on the bed, he injected the drug into his arm. In seconds was glassy eyed, floating in bliss.
* * * *
Finally, after watching hour after hour of grim footage of Jack and the Master, Gwen got the chance to go home to Rhys. She was in a state of shock. It had been traumatic enough watching before, but now she knew that everything Jack suffered was for her sake, and the rest of the team, it was orders of magnitude worse.
The only thing she wanted when she got home, was to fall in to bed. But sleep eluded her. As they lay next to each other she asked, “Would you die for me Rhys?”
“Of course I would, you know that,” he replied.
“Would you live in agony for me?“
Rhys was shocked. “What do you mean?”
“If someone gave you the choice between being unharmed, or volunteering to be tortured to keep me safe, what would you choose?”
“What kind of a question is that?” demanded Rhys “When would I ever end up with a choice like that?”
Realising that she should not be quizzing her husband in this way, Gwen backed away from the question. “Sorry Rhys, it's just a case that I've been working on. It's got me really over emotional.” She snuggled up close to him. “Just hold me.”
As Gwen lay there, trying to sleep, she considered the question the other way round. Would she have done that for Rhys, or indeed anyone? With total honesty she realised that she would not have been able to do it.
* * * *
Tosh had maintained a stoic facade, throughout watching the DVDs, by pure willpower. But when she got home, all the willpower drained away and she let go. Wracking sobs shook her, as she fumbled her way though a small meal, a bath, and got ready for bed. She cried for so long that, when she woke the next morning, she had all the symptoms of a cold, including an awful sinus headache. She dosed up on painkillers before she went back in to work.
* * * *
Returning to his flat, Ianto had a shower. Then, walking naked to stand in front of the mirror, he took up the razor blade and made a deep cut, from just under his left clavicle, across his chest, finishing above his right hip. He dropped the razor blade, and pressed the wound hard with his palm. The pain did it's job, and diverted his mind from the dark thoughts that would otherwise not leave him. Jack in agony, Jack dying, Jack brutally raped. And all to save them.
Laying a towel across his bed, to protect it from the blood, he lay down and hoped that sleep would release him from his thoughts. It did, in a way.
Ianto dreamed. He was in his cell on the Valiant. Owen was awake, but laying on his bunk. Ianto paced to and fro in agitation. There was something important he had to do, something he had to remember. And it was urgent. But it lay just out of reach, at the edges of his consciousness, and his mind would not grasp it. The scene shifted suddenly, and he was chained to the wall in the Master's secret room. Jack stood in front of him, wearing his black clothes. He spoke just three words, before fading away. “Remember, Ianto. Remember.”
* * * *
Owen manned the Hub that night, although he was extremely grateful that there were no rift alerts. Pulling double shifts, and then sleeping at the Hub, was a recipe for disaster. Joanne and Mark were right. It couldn't go on. Just a few more days, he told himself. But the thought of what those days would bring was horrific. How much more agony could the Master put Jack through? He could barely believe that Jack had refused the deal again, after a month of the Master's attentions.
* * * *
The following day, Tosh and Ianto, and Owen and Gwen, each took more DVDs to watch. Their guilt and horror had only increased, as they watched the endless cycle of torture, rape and death that Jack suffered for them. Their guilt was enhanced by knowing that, during every interval when Jack was sent out into the Valiant, and spared pain for a few hours, they had negated this respite by heaping emotional pain on him.
Thankfully, most of what happened could be watched on fast-forward, though they had to listen to anything the Master and Jack said to each other. They dutifully catalogued the events, as part of the evidence for Jack's case. They knew that the most important part of the case would be what led up to Jack torturing and killing the rebels. But they did not skip ahead to the time that happened, for fear of missing something important.
They had realised, very soon after the seeing the deal, that Tish had known everything that was going on, and about the arrangement Jack had come to with the Master. And, although they knew it was probably hopeless, it became even more important to contact her, just to check that she was indeed one of the people for whom the nine months had been erased.
* * * *
On the third day of solid DVD watching, things on screen changed from the usual routine. Owen and Gwen had come to a conversation between Jack and the Master, about making a home movie. They watched the Master order Jack to behave as a lover, and then garotte him to remove some bruises.
Owen shook his head in disbelief, as the Master gave Jack his orders. “Jack's a great actor, but I can't believe that anyone who'd been abused to this extent, would ever manage to 'get it up,' as the Master put it, for his abuser.
“But we know that he did,” argued Gwen. “We've seen the film. Maybe he is that good an actor.”
They continued to watch the empty room, straining to hear the sounds coming from the next room through the open door. It wasn't long before it became obvious that things were not going according to the Master's orders. They couldn't make out words, but they could hear the Master shouting with fury, followed by the sounds of blows. It went on for several minutes, and then there was silence. Several minutes after that, they heard other voices in the room. Eventually, Tish and Stevens carried Jack back into his room, and left him there. Tish came back briefly, before Jack was left totally alone, locked into the secret room once more. Owen and Gwen fast-forwarded through several more DVDs, before Jack finally died of his injuries.
* * * *
Ianto and Tosh's DVDs started with Jack being hauled over to the chains dangling from the ceiling. The Master waved a syringe at Jack, and then said “After your abysmal failure last time, I thought you might need a bit of help.”
They were both totally confused by that statement. It obviously referred to something from Owen and Gwen's DVDs. Understanding dawned, as the Master said he'd be waiting in his bedroom. Tosh blushed furiously as they saw Jack rise to the occasion, and writhe in distress. He was left there for hours. He practically threw himself at Modine when he was released from the chains and dragged out of the room.
“I guess this is when they make that film that we saw,” ventured Tosh as they zoomed through scenes of the empty room.
“I doubt it,” Ianto replied. “Jack didn't look drugged up in that, and anyway he thought he was with me.”
“He thought what!” asked Tosh in surprise.
Ianto suddenly realised that, with all the stress of everything that was going on, he had not told his colleagues what he had discovered about the film. “God, I'm sorry, I should have explained to everyone. I found the film on one of the DVDs. Home movie #3. It had sound, and it was clear that Jack though he was with me. I don't know how the Master did it, but somehow he convinced Jack to believe that he was me.”
“So he wasn't knowingly, or willingly, going to bed with the Master?” exclaimed Tosh. “Ianto, how could you not tell us? You know what seeing that film did to the rest of us. It didn't just affect you.”
Tosh didn't need to say it, Ianto was already feeling like a complete heel. Not telling the others was a dreadful thing to do.
After zooming through several hours, Jack was finally returned to the room and chained up again. The drug was clearly still acting, and they cringed as he screamed, desperate for release. Fast-forwarding several more hours, they watched aghast as the Master released Jack from his chains and smashed his hands.
The next several days on the DVDs were the more typical interactions between Jack and the Master, though they did find out why Jack wore black clothes. Then came the three month anniversary of the deal. Although they knew that Jack never accepted the Master's offer, Ianto and Tosh watched with bated breath, as the Master repeated the offer. Jack refused, to the Master's astonishment. But it was what came after that kicked them in the gut; Jack's declaration of love, followed by the Master's denunciation of the team, and his declaration, “They don't love you.” They watched Jack look the Master straight in the eye and admit quietly, “I know.”
Tosh's stoicism left her at this point, and she burst into floods of tears. Ianto stopped the playback, stunned and truly ashamed. Even after the team had betrayed him, and treated him horrendously, Jack still loved them. Even knowing that they did not love him, he had continued to pay for their safety with his blood and agony. And when it was all over, and everyone else was safe, he had been rewarded with rejection and imprisonment.
Ianto grabbed his arm and raked his nails across the wound. Even protected by his suit jacket, it hurt like hell. He did it again, and did the same to the wound on his chest. They started to bleed. Fortunately, Tosh was too caught up in her own misery, to notice what he was doing. Standing abruptly, Ianto announced “That's enough for today, I'm going home,” and fled.
AN: Only one more chapter of DVD watching after this, then the plot will move on.
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/23120.html