Fic: The Sea After a Storm (61/?)
Title: The Sea After a Storm, Chapter 61
Rating: R
Warnings: Some bad words from Owen
Spoilers: Season Two thru Adam (2x05)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all its wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. All ©'s to Catherine Tregenna for situations and dialogue borrowed from Adam. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which Jack has a plan to get rid of Adam …
Notes: HELLO! Didja miss me? I sure missed y'all and writing and posting. It was so nice to get back to it - and it was SUPER fun to actually complete NaNo for the first time. So here we go again!! You can find all the previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm here. This is a sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend
thraceadams for all the help and support and beta work; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Sixty-One
Previously on The Sea After a Storm: Jack and Ianto reveal Adam's malice to the rest of the team…
"Owen, a moment?" Jack asks as the team turns to walk down to the boardroom.
Ianto hesitates for a second, but then follows Gwen and Tosh down the stairs after Jack gives him a reassuring nod. They make their way to the meeting room at the end of Hallway 4 with only a pause at the entrance to the vaults. Ianto is ready for Tosh to make a break for it, to attempt to release Adam, but other than a slight hitch in her stride as they pass the doorway, she shows no inclination to try anything.
They take their seats around the table, waiting in uncomfortable silence until Jack and Owen join them. Owen is carrying four glasses of water which he sets in front of them. Jack is also carrying something, a stack of what look like dose cups with a small amount of liquid in them.
"Before we start, I want you all to drink this," Jack says, handing them each one of the small plastic cups. "It's a kind of a quick acting benzodiazepine cocktail, it'll… open your mind to what I want to try."
Ianto sniffs the liquid in the cup and then shrugs and drinks it quickly. As he sets down the dose cup, he sees Gwen and Owen doing the same, but Tosh is still holding her cup, looking at it suspiciously.
"Tosh, please," Jack says quietly. "I swear, this won't hurt you."
"And what about Adam?" she asks. "Did you hurt him?"
Jack sighs and taps a button on the control panel in front of him, turning on the monitor at the end of the table. Ianto quickly looks away when Adam appears on the display, pacing restlessly in his cell. Tosh stares hungrily at the screen for a long moment until Jack clears his throat.
"I just locked him in the vaults, just like I promised."
She hesitates for another moment and then drinks from the cup.
"Thank you," Jack says. He collects the dose cups and tosses them into the bin. When he comes back to the table, he bows his head for a moment and then takes a deep breath. "I've seen this done before, but I've never done it myself so bear with me." He walks around the table, pausing at the screen on the wall, looking at Adam for a second. He crosses his arms over his chest. "Our memories define us. Adam changed those memories… changed who we are. Now I have to help you all go back, find a memory that defines you. Rediscover who you are." Jack walks back to the head of the table again and looks up at the screen. "If I'm wrong, he'll still be here when we've done this."
Jack taps the control panel again, changing the screen from the vault-feed to a blue, pulsing swirl that makes Ianto a little dizzy. Or maybe that's the cocktail, he thinks.
"Let me take you back to before we all met," Jack says quietly, dimming the lights. "Feel around for anything that makes you what you are… the hidden and the forgotten…"
Ianto lets his mind wander, images flashing before his eyes… his family, his mother - gone too soon… long uncomfortable silences with his father… no, not that, Ianto thinks, pushing away thoughts of his father, something else… something more…
"Tell me where you are." Jack's voice is a whisper, barely registering over the memories flooding Ianto's mind.
University, he thinks, a sudden rush of warmth flooding him, the flat with Jamie… on my own for the first time… meeting Lisa… "Falling in love." Never felt so alive… spending the night in Lisa's arms… so safe… so right… He feels a chill creep up his spine. Torchwood Tower… the Cybermen… blood and fire… losing Lisa… "Like the world had ended."
He swallows hard, fighting the bile rising in his throat. He's assailed by visions of metal and skin and blood and rubble… the tower - the world - crashing to pieces around me… struggling to save Lisa… to keep it together, not feeling whole again until… until… coming here… he thinks with sudden clarity. "Gave me meaning again," he says. He breaks free of the haze surrounding his thoughts and turns to look up at Jack. "You," he says with surprise, feeling as if he's seeing Jack clearly for the first time. I love you.
Jack looks at him with such understanding and tenderness that Ianto is sure he must've spoken the words aloud. Jack reaches down and runs his hand over Ianto's hair, leaning in to kiss him softly on the forehead. Ianto's eyes drift closed as he lets himself get lost in Jack's scent, familiar and comforting and yet exciting at the same time. He feels Jack touch him again, the caress feather-light against his skin, and then Jack moves away.
"You each have a short-term amnesia pill. It'll make you forget Adam."
Ianto opens his eyes and looks down to see a white tab of Retcon by his glass of water.
Jack continues. "We have to wipe out the last forty-eight hours from our memories, go back to who we were."
Without hesitation, Ianto reaches for the pill and the water, taking the Retcon eagerly. As the sleep agent in the pill mixes with the benzo already in his system, he feels his eyes drift shut once more. The last image that drifts through his mind as the drugs overpower him is the intense blue of Jack's eyes… and the last thing he hears is a whisper of words…
I love you…
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Ianto awoke slowly, consciousness creeping up on him in bits and pieces. He could hear someone snoring but it sounded far away, not like Jack's usual snuffles next to him in bed. The next thing he became aware of was a throbbing ache in his neck and shoulders. He groaned and tilted his head, the cracking of his neck waking him further. He reached up to rub his neck and realised that he was sitting upright in a chair. His eyes flew open in a panic, his hands reaching out blindly.
He grunted in pain when he banged his knuckles on the boardroom table. He let out a sigh of relief and held on to the edge of the table for a moment as he got his bearings.
He was sitting at the conference table in the War Room with Owen, Tosh and Gwen who were all still unconscious. Owen was next to him, a pair of glasses on the table between them. Tosh was turned away from them and Gwen was the one snoring like a grampus. She was also drooling. Ianto grimaced, making a mental note to wipe down the table as soon as they finished…
Ianto frowned again, looking around at his sleeping colleagues. Finish what? What are we all doing down here? he thought. He noticed a glass of water on the table near him and grabbed it, drinking gratefully. Something about the action tugged at his memory but the feeling was gone before he could place it. As he set the glass down, Owen stirred next to him.
"Jesus," Owen groaned as he sat up slowly. He rubbed his eyes and then looked down at the glasses on the table confusion.
"You wear glasses?" Ianto asked stupidly, his voice scratchy with sleep.
"Yeah, no, I mean - fuck." Owen rubbed his face again and squinted at Ianto. "I wear contacts. Uh… usually. What the fuck is going on?"
"As much as it pains me to say it, I have no idea," Ianto said. He pushed his chair back and stood up, stretching a little when his back complained.
Tosh and Gwen both started to wake up as he stepped out into the hallway, looking around for Jack. He pulled out his phone and tried Jack's mobile when he saw no signs of his Captain, but there was no answer. He was standing in the hallway, frowning and tapping his phone against his lips, when Tosh called for him.
"Ianto, what's the last thing you remember?" she asked.
"Remember about what?" he clarified, walking back into the boardroom.
"None of us know why we're all down here. Gwen doesn't even remember coming back from Paris."
"Okay," Ianto said, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, you went for a long weekend. But, wait, you aren't due back until Tuesday. Why did you come back early?"
Owen shook his head. "According to my watch it's Wednesday."
"Wednesday? But… what?" He fumbled with his phone, confirming that it was indeed Wednesday.
Gwen nodded sympathetically. "That's what we were saying."
Ianto thought hard for a long moment. He remembered the weekend clearly - he and Jack had stayed at his place, enjoying the cooler air as autumn finally settled in, lighting a fire for the first time since Christmas. He smiled absently as he remembered falling asleep in Jack's arms in front of the flames. He flinched as Owen snapped impatient fingers in front of his face.
"Stop that," he muttered, knocking Owen's hand away. "I remember the weekend clearly through Saturday night, Sunday is a little fuzzy. I can't remember coming to work at all."
"Same here," Tosh confirmed while Gwen and Owen nodded.
Gwen looked worried. "Where's Jack?" she asked, looking around the room like he might be hiding somewhere.
"I tried his mobile, no answer," Ianto said.
"Well, we've got to find him!"
"We've also got to find out what happened to the last few days," Owen said firmly.
Ianto was nodding slowly, working it through as he slid his phone back into his pocket. "Internal CCTV is probably the best place to start," he mused.
"On it," Tosh called, already on her way out the door.
Gwen followed close on her heels, asking about what they could do to find Jack. Owen rolled his eyes and then shoved his glasses back on and hurried after them. Ianto took a moment to gather up the dirty water glasses and close down the room. When he touched the display panel, the monitor at the end of the room lit up, waking from its sleep state much as they all had. The screen displayed Jack sprawled rather awkwardly against one of the clear, Plexiglas cells in the vault. Ianto gasped, about to drop the glasses and run for the vaults, when he saw Jack twitch and rub his nose. Ianto sighed in relief, watching for a few moments longer to make sure Jack was really just sleeping.
He must've gotten hit by whatever knocked us out too, Ianto thought as he closed down the display and turned off the lights. Whatever the hell that was…
TBC in Chapter Sixty-Two This entry was originally posted at http://buttononthetop.dreamwidth.org/106602.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Rating: R
Warnings: Some bad words from Owen
Spoilers: Season Two thru Adam (2x05)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all its wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. All ©'s to Catherine Tregenna for situations and dialogue borrowed from Adam. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which Jack has a plan to get rid of Adam …
Notes: HELLO! Didja miss me? I sure missed y'all and writing and posting. It was so nice to get back to it - and it was SUPER fun to actually complete NaNo for the first time. So here we go again!! You can find all the previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm here. This is a sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Thanks again and forever to my amazing beta and wonderful friend
thraceadams for all the help and support and beta work; any mistakes are mine!
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Sixty-One
Previously on The Sea After a Storm: Jack and Ianto reveal Adam's malice to the rest of the team…
"Owen, a moment?" Jack asks as the team turns to walk down to the boardroom.
Ianto hesitates for a second, but then follows Gwen and Tosh down the stairs after Jack gives him a reassuring nod. They make their way to the meeting room at the end of Hallway 4 with only a pause at the entrance to the vaults. Ianto is ready for Tosh to make a break for it, to attempt to release Adam, but other than a slight hitch in her stride as they pass the doorway, she shows no inclination to try anything.
They take their seats around the table, waiting in uncomfortable silence until Jack and Owen join them. Owen is carrying four glasses of water which he sets in front of them. Jack is also carrying something, a stack of what look like dose cups with a small amount of liquid in them.
"Before we start, I want you all to drink this," Jack says, handing them each one of the small plastic cups. "It's a kind of a quick acting benzodiazepine cocktail, it'll… open your mind to what I want to try."
Ianto sniffs the liquid in the cup and then shrugs and drinks it quickly. As he sets down the dose cup, he sees Gwen and Owen doing the same, but Tosh is still holding her cup, looking at it suspiciously.
"Tosh, please," Jack says quietly. "I swear, this won't hurt you."
"And what about Adam?" she asks. "Did you hurt him?"
Jack sighs and taps a button on the control panel in front of him, turning on the monitor at the end of the table. Ianto quickly looks away when Adam appears on the display, pacing restlessly in his cell. Tosh stares hungrily at the screen for a long moment until Jack clears his throat.
"I just locked him in the vaults, just like I promised."
She hesitates for another moment and then drinks from the cup.
"Thank you," Jack says. He collects the dose cups and tosses them into the bin. When he comes back to the table, he bows his head for a moment and then takes a deep breath. "I've seen this done before, but I've never done it myself so bear with me." He walks around the table, pausing at the screen on the wall, looking at Adam for a second. He crosses his arms over his chest. "Our memories define us. Adam changed those memories… changed who we are. Now I have to help you all go back, find a memory that defines you. Rediscover who you are." Jack walks back to the head of the table again and looks up at the screen. "If I'm wrong, he'll still be here when we've done this."
Jack taps the control panel again, changing the screen from the vault-feed to a blue, pulsing swirl that makes Ianto a little dizzy. Or maybe that's the cocktail, he thinks.
"Let me take you back to before we all met," Jack says quietly, dimming the lights. "Feel around for anything that makes you what you are… the hidden and the forgotten…"
Ianto lets his mind wander, images flashing before his eyes… his family, his mother - gone too soon… long uncomfortable silences with his father… no, not that, Ianto thinks, pushing away thoughts of his father, something else… something more…
"Tell me where you are." Jack's voice is a whisper, barely registering over the memories flooding Ianto's mind.
University, he thinks, a sudden rush of warmth flooding him, the flat with Jamie… on my own for the first time… meeting Lisa… "Falling in love." Never felt so alive… spending the night in Lisa's arms… so safe… so right… He feels a chill creep up his spine. Torchwood Tower… the Cybermen… blood and fire… losing Lisa… "Like the world had ended."
He swallows hard, fighting the bile rising in his throat. He's assailed by visions of metal and skin and blood and rubble… the tower - the world - crashing to pieces around me… struggling to save Lisa… to keep it together, not feeling whole again until… until… coming here… he thinks with sudden clarity. "Gave me meaning again," he says. He breaks free of the haze surrounding his thoughts and turns to look up at Jack. "You," he says with surprise, feeling as if he's seeing Jack clearly for the first time. I love you.
Jack looks at him with such understanding and tenderness that Ianto is sure he must've spoken the words aloud. Jack reaches down and runs his hand over Ianto's hair, leaning in to kiss him softly on the forehead. Ianto's eyes drift closed as he lets himself get lost in Jack's scent, familiar and comforting and yet exciting at the same time. He feels Jack touch him again, the caress feather-light against his skin, and then Jack moves away.
"You each have a short-term amnesia pill. It'll make you forget Adam."
Ianto opens his eyes and looks down to see a white tab of Retcon by his glass of water.
Jack continues. "We have to wipe out the last forty-eight hours from our memories, go back to who we were."
Without hesitation, Ianto reaches for the pill and the water, taking the Retcon eagerly. As the sleep agent in the pill mixes with the benzo already in his system, he feels his eyes drift shut once more. The last image that drifts through his mind as the drugs overpower him is the intense blue of Jack's eyes… and the last thing he hears is a whisper of words…
I love you…
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Ianto awoke slowly, consciousness creeping up on him in bits and pieces. He could hear someone snoring but it sounded far away, not like Jack's usual snuffles next to him in bed. The next thing he became aware of was a throbbing ache in his neck and shoulders. He groaned and tilted his head, the cracking of his neck waking him further. He reached up to rub his neck and realised that he was sitting upright in a chair. His eyes flew open in a panic, his hands reaching out blindly.
He grunted in pain when he banged his knuckles on the boardroom table. He let out a sigh of relief and held on to the edge of the table for a moment as he got his bearings.
He was sitting at the conference table in the War Room with Owen, Tosh and Gwen who were all still unconscious. Owen was next to him, a pair of glasses on the table between them. Tosh was turned away from them and Gwen was the one snoring like a grampus. She was also drooling. Ianto grimaced, making a mental note to wipe down the table as soon as they finished…
Ianto frowned again, looking around at his sleeping colleagues. Finish what? What are we all doing down here? he thought. He noticed a glass of water on the table near him and grabbed it, drinking gratefully. Something about the action tugged at his memory but the feeling was gone before he could place it. As he set the glass down, Owen stirred next to him.
"Jesus," Owen groaned as he sat up slowly. He rubbed his eyes and then looked down at the glasses on the table confusion.
"You wear glasses?" Ianto asked stupidly, his voice scratchy with sleep.
"Yeah, no, I mean - fuck." Owen rubbed his face again and squinted at Ianto. "I wear contacts. Uh… usually. What the fuck is going on?"
"As much as it pains me to say it, I have no idea," Ianto said. He pushed his chair back and stood up, stretching a little when his back complained.
Tosh and Gwen both started to wake up as he stepped out into the hallway, looking around for Jack. He pulled out his phone and tried Jack's mobile when he saw no signs of his Captain, but there was no answer. He was standing in the hallway, frowning and tapping his phone against his lips, when Tosh called for him.
"Ianto, what's the last thing you remember?" she asked.
"Remember about what?" he clarified, walking back into the boardroom.
"None of us know why we're all down here. Gwen doesn't even remember coming back from Paris."
"Okay," Ianto said, rubbing his forehead. "Yeah, you went for a long weekend. But, wait, you aren't due back until Tuesday. Why did you come back early?"
Owen shook his head. "According to my watch it's Wednesday."
"Wednesday? But… what?" He fumbled with his phone, confirming that it was indeed Wednesday.
Gwen nodded sympathetically. "That's what we were saying."
Ianto thought hard for a long moment. He remembered the weekend clearly - he and Jack had stayed at his place, enjoying the cooler air as autumn finally settled in, lighting a fire for the first time since Christmas. He smiled absently as he remembered falling asleep in Jack's arms in front of the flames. He flinched as Owen snapped impatient fingers in front of his face.
"Stop that," he muttered, knocking Owen's hand away. "I remember the weekend clearly through Saturday night, Sunday is a little fuzzy. I can't remember coming to work at all."
"Same here," Tosh confirmed while Gwen and Owen nodded.
Gwen looked worried. "Where's Jack?" she asked, looking around the room like he might be hiding somewhere.
"I tried his mobile, no answer," Ianto said.
"Well, we've got to find him!"
"We've also got to find out what happened to the last few days," Owen said firmly.
Ianto was nodding slowly, working it through as he slid his phone back into his pocket. "Internal CCTV is probably the best place to start," he mused.
"On it," Tosh called, already on her way out the door.
Gwen followed close on her heels, asking about what they could do to find Jack. Owen rolled his eyes and then shoved his glasses back on and hurried after them. Ianto took a moment to gather up the dirty water glasses and close down the room. When he touched the display panel, the monitor at the end of the room lit up, waking from its sleep state much as they all had. The screen displayed Jack sprawled rather awkwardly against one of the clear, Plexiglas cells in the vault. Ianto gasped, about to drop the glasses and run for the vaults, when he saw Jack twitch and rub his nose. Ianto sighed in relief, watching for a few moments longer to make sure Jack was really just sleeping.
He must've gotten hit by whatever knocked us out too, Ianto thought as he closed down the display and turned off the lights. Whatever the hell that was…
TBC in Chapter Sixty-Two This entry was originally posted at http://buttononthetop.dreamwidth.org/106602.html. Please comment there using OpenID.