Waiting
Title: Waiting
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallet
Rating: PG-13
Words: 686
Spoilers: S1E4
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo prompt "Deadline / Time Bomb".
Author's Note: This fic is written for the 'deadline/time bomb' prompt. It is really the 'time bomb' half of that, but I am writing it right up against the deadline for this bingo! (Does that count as meeting the prompt?) This is fic number nineteen. I am (hopefully) going to be spamming you with quite a lot of fics today since there are six more to go (two I haven't even started) and the deadline is ten tomorrow morning UK time... I'm going to be busy! I will answer all of the lovely comments that you have been leaving on my fics when I have finished the bingo. Thank you for your patience.
Author's Note 2: iantojjackh gave me a great idea for this prompt - which i then didn't use. Sorry! I loved the idea, but it felt like to do it justice the fic would have to be far too long and complicated for this stage of the bingo! However... if you feel like doing another collaboration, it might be fun to tackle it together?
Ianto sat with his head on his folded arms, trying to catch a quick but very much needed nap. The ticking of his watch on his wrist was driving him crazy. There was a time when he found that noise soothing. The measured rhythmic beat would have soothed him and lulled him to sleep like counting sheep. Not any more though. Every tick of the watch represented another second passing, time moving inexorably onwards. Another second towards failure. Another second wasted. Another second waiting for the time bomb he was keeping hidden in the basement to explode.
Ianto groaned in frustration at his inability to get to sleep. He was so tired but he only had maybe twenty minutes before the others would wonder where he had got to. He lifted his head from the cold metal of the conversion unit he had been resting it on and sat back in his chair.
Lisa, what was left of her, was resting. Ianto looked down at her guiltily. He had upped her sedatives. Every second that went by, and that she was trapped in this place was a second closer to losing her forever. He desperately needed to find a way to get her off the ventilation afforded by the conversion unit. He didn’t trust it. He worried that it was somehow chipping away at her humanity, slowly and gradually converting her, little by little every time he turned his back.
Every day she seemed to get less like the Lisa he knew. Was the metal monster winning, or was it just the pain, loneliness and helplessness taking its toll on her?
He tried to be there for her as much as he could, sneaking down there to spend a few stolen minutes with her during work hours, slipping back into the Hub at nights to sleep in the chair beside her, but it wasn’t enough. Every day she got further away and the metal monster got one step closer.
Ianto knew the risks he was taking. He wasn’t stupid. If Lisa lost her battle with the cyber technology then the cyber race could start again from this very room and it would be his fault. He was sitting on a ticking time bomb. But he couldn’t give up on her. Not yet. She deserved a chance. She just had to hang on until he could find someone to help her. He was just waiting for Dr Tanazaki to answer his email. The doctor could be the answer to his prayers.
Lisa stirred in her sleep and Ianto ran a hand gently down her side over soft heated skin and cold hard metal. He refused to think about how Lisa had been able to instruct him to reassemble the unit from the scraps that he had been able to salvage from the wreckage of Torchwood One. He had made it to keep her alive, to buy him time to save her. But in the back of his mind he worried if the unit was giving the monster a foothold, a way in.
Lisa opened her eyes and saw him looking down at her, his brow creased in worry. She smiled softly and raised her hand, rubbing her thumb over the lines soothingly.
Ianto held her hand. “How’s the pain?”
“It’s ok. I’m ok.” She squeezed his hand. “Has Dr Tanizaki answered yet?”
“No, not yet,” he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.
“He will. And he will be able to fix me and then we can do all the things we ever dreamed of.”
“Yeah,” Ianto smiled, even though his eyes blurred with unshed tears.
“Do you remember that trip to Paris for Charlotte’s birthday last year?” she asked, “We got so drunk that first night we were too hung over to go on the sight-seeing trips with the others the next day. You said not to worry, you’d take me back in the summer and we’d go up the Eiffel Tower and take a cruise along the Seine.”
“Yeah. And we’ll go to the Louvre and walk along the Champs- Elysees at sunset.”
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallet
Rating: PG-13
Words: 686
Spoilers: S1E4
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo prompt "Deadline / Time Bomb".
Author's Note: This fic is written for the 'deadline/time bomb' prompt. It is really the 'time bomb' half of that, but I am writing it right up against the deadline for this bingo! (Does that count as meeting the prompt?) This is fic number nineteen. I am (hopefully) going to be spamming you with quite a lot of fics today since there are six more to go (two I haven't even started) and the deadline is ten tomorrow morning UK time... I'm going to be busy! I will answer all of the lovely comments that you have been leaving on my fics when I have finished the bingo. Thank you for your patience.
Author's Note 2: iantojjackh gave me a great idea for this prompt - which i then didn't use. Sorry! I loved the idea, but it felt like to do it justice the fic would have to be far too long and complicated for this stage of the bingo! However... if you feel like doing another collaboration, it might be fun to tackle it together?
Ianto sat with his head on his folded arms, trying to catch a quick but very much needed nap. The ticking of his watch on his wrist was driving him crazy. There was a time when he found that noise soothing. The measured rhythmic beat would have soothed him and lulled him to sleep like counting sheep. Not any more though. Every tick of the watch represented another second passing, time moving inexorably onwards. Another second towards failure. Another second wasted. Another second waiting for the time bomb he was keeping hidden in the basement to explode.
Ianto groaned in frustration at his inability to get to sleep. He was so tired but he only had maybe twenty minutes before the others would wonder where he had got to. He lifted his head from the cold metal of the conversion unit he had been resting it on and sat back in his chair.
Lisa, what was left of her, was resting. Ianto looked down at her guiltily. He had upped her sedatives. Every second that went by, and that she was trapped in this place was a second closer to losing her forever. He desperately needed to find a way to get her off the ventilation afforded by the conversion unit. He didn’t trust it. He worried that it was somehow chipping away at her humanity, slowly and gradually converting her, little by little every time he turned his back.
Every day she seemed to get less like the Lisa he knew. Was the metal monster winning, or was it just the pain, loneliness and helplessness taking its toll on her?
He tried to be there for her as much as he could, sneaking down there to spend a few stolen minutes with her during work hours, slipping back into the Hub at nights to sleep in the chair beside her, but it wasn’t enough. Every day she got further away and the metal monster got one step closer.
Ianto knew the risks he was taking. He wasn’t stupid. If Lisa lost her battle with the cyber technology then the cyber race could start again from this very room and it would be his fault. He was sitting on a ticking time bomb. But he couldn’t give up on her. Not yet. She deserved a chance. She just had to hang on until he could find someone to help her. He was just waiting for Dr Tanazaki to answer his email. The doctor could be the answer to his prayers.
Lisa stirred in her sleep and Ianto ran a hand gently down her side over soft heated skin and cold hard metal. He refused to think about how Lisa had been able to instruct him to reassemble the unit from the scraps that he had been able to salvage from the wreckage of Torchwood One. He had made it to keep her alive, to buy him time to save her. But in the back of his mind he worried if the unit was giving the monster a foothold, a way in.
Lisa opened her eyes and saw him looking down at her, his brow creased in worry. She smiled softly and raised her hand, rubbing her thumb over the lines soothingly.
Ianto held her hand. “How’s the pain?”
“It’s ok. I’m ok.” She squeezed his hand. “Has Dr Tanizaki answered yet?”
“No, not yet,” he rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand.
“He will. And he will be able to fix me and then we can do all the things we ever dreamed of.”
“Yeah,” Ianto smiled, even though his eyes blurred with unshed tears.
“Do you remember that trip to Paris for Charlotte’s birthday last year?” she asked, “We got so drunk that first night we were too hung over to go on the sight-seeing trips with the others the next day. You said not to worry, you’d take me back in the summer and we’d go up the Eiffel Tower and take a cruise along the Seine.”
“Yeah. And we’ll go to the Louvre and walk along the Champs- Elysees at sunset.”