Fic: The Sea After a Storm (28/?)
Title: The Sea After a Storm, Chapter 28
Rating: R
Warnings: Language
Spoilers: Season Two thru Sleeper (2x02)
Pairings: Jack/Ianto
Disclaimer: Torchwood and all its wonderfulness belong to the Mighty Beeb and He Who Must Not Be Named. All ©'s to James Moran for situations and dialogue borrowed from Sleeper. No infringement, only worship intended!
Summary: In which Jack gets in trouble with Ianto…
Notes: Thanks to everyone for all the lovely comments - I will get caught up on my replies soon! *hugs* Sequel to Vizzini’s Rule and To The Pain. Previous chapters of The Sea After a Storm found here. Thanks to my amazing beta and wonderful friend thrace_adams for all the help and support; any mistakes are mine!
Previously on The Sea After a Storm:
The team discovers that the military have been storing nuclear warheads in a secret base just outside of Cardiff. As our dashing hero (and Gwen) rush to save the day, Tosh, Owen and Ianto can only wait…
The Sea After a Storm: Chapter Twenty-Eight
It's the waiting that's hardest, Ianto thought bleakly. He stood uselessly behind Tosh, offering words of encouragement as she tried again and again to hack into the system that controlled the nukes while Owen paced back and forth between the workstations. Waiting for Jack to come back, waiting for things to get better and now, waiting… for the end.
"Dammit! There's just no way. The security system on the building with the nukes is all local, there's no way to access it remotely and I can't - " She broke off and shook her head. "They'll stop it," she said firmly.
Ianto gave her a quick smile. "'Course they will," he said reassuringly. And if they don't? Well, we'll never know.
"Fuck!" Owen hollered. He kicked his desk chair sending it spinning across the floor. "What the fuck is taking them so long?"
Neither Tosh nor Ianto bothered to reply.
It was another fifteen minutes before the CB on Tosh's desk crackled to life.
"Tosh? Owen? Ianto, you there?"
Owen had his hand on the radio in seconds. "We're here, Jack. Everyone all right there?"
"Yeah." Jack sounded tired. "Touch and go for a bit but we stopped it. The cell is dead, Beth is the only one left. The nukes are locked down again. We're headed back in now - watch it, Gwen!" he barked out.
They heard Gwen's soft "sorry!" and a squeal of tyres over the radio and Ianto narrowed his eyes.
"Owen, have you and Tosh figured out how to freeze Beth and make it stick?"
"Yeah, we think we've got it but - "
"No buts. It's the only solution. We'll be there soon," Jack said, his voice growing fainter.
"Jack?" Ianto said, grabbing the CB from Owen. "Jack, what's wrong? Is Gwen driving?"
Jack didn't reply but Ianto heard Gwen call Jack's name before the radio went dead.
"Jack? Jack!" Ianto yelled into the CB, but there was no reply.
Tosh reached up to squeeze his shoulder as Owen took the CB from his hand and set it back on the receiver.
"I'm sure he's okay," Owen said gruffly. "And even if he's not… he will be."
"Yeah," Ianto said. He cleared his throat and straightened his tie. "I'll just go down and tidy up the mess Beth left in the morgue. Get things set up again."
He avoided looking at either Tosh or Owen and hurried down the stairs. He told himself to stop being foolish with every step he took. Jack will be fine. We don't even know what's happening, the radio could have just lost the signal, I'm sure he's fine. As he picked up the detritus from Beth's escape and readied a new containment unit, the little voice in his head kept taunting him. What if this is it? What if the Doctor was wrong? What if it's not forever? Ianto shook his head, trying to clear it of the memories of Jack lying right there on a slab, inside a white body bag, his flesh pale and cold to the touch. He shuddered and rushed through his duties, fleeing the morgue as soon as he could.
When he got to the top of the stairs, he heard Jack's voice and almost wept with relief. His Captain sounded tired, but most definitely alive. He ran up the last few steps and joined the rest of the team in the Hub.
Gwen was walking Beth up to the greenhouse, talking to her quietly as they climbed the stairs. Beth looked shattered, but calm, as if she had finally accepted the truth about herself. Ianto's eyes shot to Jack. He was standing by the steps down to the med bay, talking to Owen. He had his coat sort of bundled in his arms, covering his chest.
"Get it ready, I want this done now," Jack was saying.
Owen nodded and headed down the stairs.
"Sir?" Ianto asked quietly. "Can I take your coat?"
Jack looked startled and then shook his head. "No, it's fine. Thanks, Ianto. Is everything set downstairs? Tosh said you were tidying up."
Ianto nodded. "All set. Are you okay, Jack?"
"Fine. We know how those burglars died now. This species can transform their arm into a stabbing weapon. Not sure how I'll be able to spin that for the Cardiff Police, but at least we can close that case for them and add some more information to our file."
"Good, good," Ianto said. He stepped forward and put his hand on Jack's arm. "Are you sure you're okay?"
Jack rolled his eyes and stepped away. "Fine. I… er… it's just a scratch. Can you… er… get me a cup of coffee?"
Ianto couldn't shake the feeling that Jack was hiding something from him, but he did as he asked. He was on his way back to Jack's office when Tosh asked Gwen for the EMP device she'd taken into the field.
Gwen looked around her workstation for a second and then frowned. "I must have left it all in the SUV."
Tosh gave her a tight smile and said, "No problem."
Ianto set down Jack's coffee and caught Tosh's eye. "I'll just run and grab it," he offered, recognising the signs of exhaustion creeping up on everyone. It's no wonder, really, we've been up for more than a day and a half.
Tosh gave him a grateful smile and a murmured thanks before turning back to her computer.
Heading for the SUV, Ianto hoped Jack would give them all a nod for a few days off as soon as Beth was sorted. Starting your week off with a day like today is not a - what the hell? Something odd caught his eye as soon as the lights flickered on in the garage. He walked around the vehicle, distracted momentarily by the dirt and debris covering the grille. Then he stepped around to the driver's side and just stared.
"Duct tape," he said out loud in a flat voice. "He used duct tape?"
Ianto pounced on the wing mirror and started clawing at the tape, muttering curses in a creative mix of Welsh and English. He managed to get the majority of the tape and the aerial off the mirror, leaving behind a sticky mess. He stared at the jerry-rigging for a moment and tried to fathom why on earth Jack had done such a thing. He shook his head and walked around the vehicle, still muttering to himself. He pulled open the passenger side door and spotted the black backpack, resting between the two seats. He leant over to pick it up and froze. Turning his head slightly, he swallowed hard against the bile that rose up in his throat. There was blood all over the back of the seat. Jack's blood. A lot of Jack's blood…
"No wonder he was holding his coat like that," Ianto whispered to himself. "Just a scratch." He slammed the door so hard the windows rattled. "Just a bloody scratch, was it?"
He stalked back up to the Hub, dropping the backpack at Tosh's workstation on his way to find Jack who was standing in the doorway to his office, pulling on a clean shirt and arguing with Tosh. Ianto frowned when Jack caught his eye and immediately retreated into his office.
Oh, no you don't, Captain! he thought and put on a burst of speed. He got to Jack's door just as the Captain was closing it.
Ianto pushed it open and gave Jack a withering glare. "Really? You're going to hide in here?"
Jack had the grace to flush slightly. "Sorry, survival instinct kicked in," he joked.
"I'm beginning to believe you don't have one of those," Ianto said. "Just a scratch, Jack?" he asked, repeating Jack's words. "A fucking scratch wouldn't have left the SUV looking like an abattoir."
Jack flinched and then frowned. "Can we skip the hyperbole and the lectures, please?"
"No, I don't think we can. Christ, Jack, you - "
"Died," Jack said baldly. "The guy stabbed me before Gwen could hit him with the EMP. He missed my heart, so it took a while. I didn't die until we were on our way back."
"I knew there was something wrong," Ianto said, still glaring at Jack.
"And now there's not." Jack shrugged. "You're going to have to get used to this, Ianto. It's… who I am."
"Just because you can come back doesn't mean you should just throw your life away over and over."
"So what should I have done?" Jack yelled. "Let Gwen take the blade? Beth? Never. Too many people have died in my place already. You all know the score now - if there's any way for me to take a bullet for any one of you, you're gonna stand back and let me do it. Got that?"
Ianto bit his lip and stared at Jack who sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Look," he said more softly. "I know it bothers you, but this is the way it is. I will come back. The rest of you won't. Don't ask me to live with losing you if I can stop it."
"What if you don't?" Ianto whispered.
"Don't stop it?"
"Don't come back. How can you trust that it will always work?"
Jack shook his head. "I can feel it, somehow, inside me." He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Ianto. "I promise, I will always come back." He held Ianto for a long moment and then pulled back with a chuckle. "I thought you were coming in here to yell at me for the duct tape," he said, pointing to the aerial caught between them.
Ianto's lips twitched. "I was. What the hell were you thinking?"
"I needed to get a clear signal, it was the only way."
Shaking his head, Ianto finally let himself laugh. "Did you see the second plug on the end of the aerial wire? Where it split?"
Jack furrowed his brow and nodded. "Yeah."
"That goes in the extra socket in the dash and boosts the signal using the aerial on the SUV," Ianto explained.
Jack's mouth dropped open. He closed it carefully, the faint blush reappearing on his cheeks. "Oh."
Ianto laughed again. "Yeah, oh."
Scratching the back of his neck and chuckling ruefully, Jack said, "I don't suppose - "
He was interrupted by shouting from the Hub.
"I won't let you freeze me!" Beth screamed. "I'll kill you all!"
TBC in Chapter Twenty-Nine