A New Dawn 13
Part: 13/?
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.
AN:
Previous chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/24337.html
Chapter 13
Jack ran wildly, unthinking, until he had to stop through exhaustion. Images from the Valiant flashed through his head. With her words Tosh had effectively pried open the fragile lid that he constantly fought to keep on the memories that haunted him. Never far from overwhelming him, they were now boiling up from the depths of his mind, along with the added trauma of knowing that what he had suffered had been witnessed by others. A sob burst from his throat. All those times, of utter humiliation and degradation, had been watched by people who had once been his closest friends, and by god knew how many others.
He had been drawing a few suspicious stares during his headlong flight, but the late hour meant that the streets were largely empty. When he stopped and slumped, chest heaving, on a pavement against a wall, he was alone. As he finally calmed enough to start thinking again, Jack looked around, to see where he was. He recognised a pub on the corner, as one that was a couple of miles from his flat.
Memories threatened to overwhelm him. He cringed. He knew what would happen. They would get more vivid, and frequent, until he found himself reliving entire episodes, complete with all the terror and pain of the original experience. This was what he had to stave off every few days. He wasn't due, but there was only one way to drive them back down. He would be able to think of nothing else until it was done.
Finally taking stock of his surroundings, Jack was incredibly thankful to find that there was no sign of Tosh, or Ianto, or UNIT. Pushing himself unsteadily to his feet, he started off in the direction of his flat. Though it was torture to delay, he took a circuitous route, doubling back through several alleys along the way. Finally, certain that he was not being followed, he headed home. He passed Ray's man, Danny, on the door.
"Not working tonight then, Jack?" Danny asked.
Jack shook his head, and practically ran up the stairs. Locking his door behind him, he threw his jacket down and went into the bedroom. Hands shaking, he prepared a fix as quickly as he could.
b_b_b_b_b
As Jack ran, Ianto started to chase him, but Tosh called him back. "Let him go, Ianto."
Ianto was astounded. "Are you crazy? We'll lose him!" He couldn't bear it if they lost Jack now.
"No we won't," Tosh reassured him. "I planted a tracer on him when I touched him. We'll give him some time to calm down, and then talk to him again."
"Not just talk," argued Ianto. "We can't leave him here, not living like this, even if he wants us to."
"We can try to persuade him to come back," argued Tosh, "but if he refuses, then it's his decision."
"You'd leave him here, working as a prostitute!" Ianto cried, shocked. "He needs us, you said it yourself back in Cardiff."
"Yes, he needs us. But that doesn't mean that he will want us. I want him to come with us, of course I do," Tosh exclaimed in distress. "I want the chance to make things up to him. He must be so traumatised, and we all owe him a debt that we can never repay. But what right do we have to force him to come? If we force him we'd be acting no better than UNIT."
Ianto was clearly unconvinced. "I won't leave him here, living this life, Tosh."
"We won't be. He no longer has to hide, and when we tell Jack that he has access to his assets again, he won't need to stay here. He can make his own choice about what to do."
b_b_b_b_b
Tosh and Ianto left it an hour before they followed Jack. The tracer showed that he had gone to a nearby flat, and appeared to be staying there. Presumably that was where he lived. When they got to the building, the front door was open, and no one was in sight. Checking the signal, Tosh led Ianto up the stairs to a first floor flat. They knocked, and waited, but there was no reply.
"He's definitely in there," Tosh said. "At least his jacket is. That's what I attached the tracer to." She tried the door, but it was locked. Checking that there was no one nearby, she opened her bag and took out the alien unlocking device. It took only seconds to unlock the door, and they entered the flat without being seen.
There was no sign of Jack, but what they could see, was that he had been living in poverty. It was clean, but very basic. There was some worn out furniture, a small TV, and a few pots and pans. A jacket lay on the couch. Tosh picked it up and removed the tracer, sliding it into her bag.
"I guess he may not be here after all," she said.
"There's another room," Ianto pointed out. "It must be the bedroom. If he's not there, we'll have to set up surveillance on the building, and wait for him." As he spoke, he pushed open the bedroom door, not really expecting Jack to be there. The Jack he knew would have noticed their presence in his flat instantly, and challenged them.
"Jesus Christ!" yelled Ianto in horror.
Tosh was at his side in an instant. She gasped at what she saw. Jack was there. He lay sprawled on his bed, dressed in the black leather trousers and T-shirt he had been wearing earlier. A ligature was tied around his arm, and an empty syringe lay on the bed next to him. On the bedside table were a burner, a spoon and a half empty packet of brown powder. The short sleeved T-shirt allowed them to see the prominent track marks on both of Jack's arms. His eyes were open, but he was oblivious to their presence.
"What's the powder?" Tosh asked Ianto.
He looked at it carefully, and finally answered. "I'm not sure, but I think it's heroin."
Tears welled up in her eyes. "Why would he do this? I can understand the prostitution, but not this."
"I guess if you have nothing in life worth living for, but you cant die, you have to do something to make it bearable," Ianto surmised with sadness. "And we made damn sure he had nothing to live for, didn't we," he added bitterly. "Especially me."
"This settles it Tosh," Ianto said, waving his hand towards Jack. "I don't care if he wants to come with us or not, I'm not leaving him here. He needs our help, and he's going to get it whether he wants it or not." His determination was obvious. He was not going to desert Jack again.
Seeing the depths to which Jack had sunk, was shocking. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Tosh capitulated. "You're right, we have to help him. He might hate us for it, but he's coming back with us now," Tosh declared. "We''ll take him back to Torchwood, and look after him properly. Get him away from this life."
"I'll call Owen, and get him to come up with the SUV," said Ianto. "It'll take 3 or 4 hours, but I don't think Jack will even wake up before then."
"If he does, I doubt that he'll agree to go with us," warned Tosh
"Well, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it," Ianto answered. "He must hate us already, this will just add to his reasons."
b_b_b_b_b
As they waited, Ianto sat by Jack's side, holding his hand. He doubted that he'd be allowed to do that once Jack woke. He gazed at the man that he loved. Jack was haggard, and thin to the point of emaciation. He looked incredibly fragile lying there on the bed, not unconscious, but oblivious to what was going on around him. This was Jack's reward for protecting them on the Valiant; a life of drug abuse and prostitution. Protective instincts, that Ianto didn't even know he possessed, rose up in him, and he clutched Jack's hand tighter. No longer, things would be better for Jack now.
Two hours into their wait for Owen, there was loud knocking on Jack's door. Tosh and Ianto ignored it, hoping that, if there was no answer, the person would go away.
But, instead, there was the sound of a key in the lock, and a man entered. He took one look, and yelled "Frank, Danny, get up here now." The two men pounded up the stairs, and into the flat, where they stopped on either side of the man who had called them.
"Problem, Ray?" one of them asked.
Ray indicated Tosh and Ianto. "Now," he said, "what the hell are you doing in my flat?"
"We're friends of Jack," Ianto replied carefully, hoping to avoid a full blown confrontation. "We thought it was his flat."
"He lives in my flat, because he is one of my employees," Ray answered coldly. He turned to Frank. "Go check on him," he ordered.
Frank walked into the bedroom, and looked Jack over. "He's stoned, but fine," he reported.
Ray relaxed minutely at that, but he was still angry. "He wasn't due for a hit yet, he's supposed to be working tonight. What did you do to set him off?"
Tosh and Ianto cringed. They knew that this man was right. They had pushed Jack into this.
Guilt, combined with the fact that this was obviously Jack's pimp, made Ianto hostile. He bristled, but held back from saying anything confrontational. "We brought him some news, but he didn't react well to seeing us."
Ray was still suspicious. "You said you're friends of his, but I know he doesn't have any friends round here."
"We're from Cardiff," put in Tosh.
That made sense. "Oh, so you are the ones he goes to see every now and then?"
Tosh nodded, though she had not realised that Jack had visited Cardiff more than once. He had obviously done a better job of staying out of sight on the other occasions.
Ray's expression hardened again. "Well, you've seen him, so you can get out now."
Ianto was about to argue, but Tosh pulled on his arm and steered him out of the flat. "Yes of course, we'll be going straight away. Sorry to have bothered you." And with that, she dragged Ianto out of the front door and down the street.
"I'm not leaving him here," Ianto started, when they were out of sight and earshot.
"No, of course we won't leave him," Tosh reassured him. "But we don't want to get into a fight. Owen will be here in another hour or so, and then we'll go back and get him."
b_b_b_b_b
When Owen arrived in Manchester, he contacted them on the comms. They arranged to meet him a couple of blocks from Jack's flat. As always, the SUV contained a variety of equipment for dealing with aliens and humans. Outlining the situation to Owen, they selected a few mild tranquiliser darts and drove back to the building. They parked just around the corner from Jack's front door.
"They will probably have someone guarding Jack," Ianto explained. "To make sure we don't come back while he's out of it."
They were right. One of the pimp's goons was standing guard at the front door, but it was the work of a moment to shoot him with a tranquiliser dart. He fell soundlessly. The three of them crept upstairs, and Tosh shot the other man, who was standing outside Jack's door. They used the alien device to unlock the door, and Tosh kept watch, as Owen and Ianto went into the flat. They loaded all Jack's clothes, and his few personal possessions, into a holdall, including his drug stash and equipment. Handing the bag to Tosh, they went back into the bedroom to fetch Jack, who was still oblivious. Carrying him between them, they staggered down the stairs, while Tosh stood guard with the tranquiliser gun. They made it to the SUV without being seen. Ianto took the backseat, with Jack laying across it, his head on Ianto's lap. Owen and Tosh went in the front. Moments later, they were heading out of Manchester and back to Cardiff.
Next chapter here: http://ohinyan.livejournal.com/25067.html