Guilt - 24/70ish
Title: Guilt
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Torchwood is not mine. No matter how much I sometimes wish it was.
Spoilers: Better say everything through s2, just to be sure. Begins pre-S1.
Summary: Can what Ianto found actually be used to help Lisa?
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy for all her wonderful work, and my cheerleaders angelzbabe1989 and piper08 for putting up with me when I whine about being stuck.
Author's Notes: Voting is open at Children Of Time - Brokeback Manor is nominated in the AU category - go vote!
Yes I know this is later than normal, but it's been a very long day.
Fic starts here
Previous chapters at my master list
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Tosh?” Ianto called as he skidded to a stop at the base of the water tower. “Tosh! I found it!” He couldn’t keep the excited anticipation out of his voice.
Tosh stood up and hurried towards him. “You’re sure?”
The look he shot her could have cut glass. “Of course I’m sure.” He turned the item over to show her the label as she approached. “See? Item 02-153, probable medical equipment.”
Tosh took the item carefully, tilting it this way and that as she looked it over. “Yep, this is definitely the one I was thinking about.”
She handed it to Owen as the rest of the team joined them. He examined it slowly, bemusedly, before a light bulb appeared to go off behind his eyes. “Oh! I remember this now. It’s a sort of gas dispersal and filter thing, right?”
Tosh nodded. “I think it was the regulated pulses that made us go with medical use, although we never really tested it in that capacity.”
Ianto’s eyes were wide as the flitted between the other members of the team. “But you do think it could help her, right?”
Owen and Tosh answered simultaneously. “Yes.”
Tosh continued alone. “We’d need to refine it a bit, and there are some things it probably won’t do, but with a bit of tinkering….” She paused and looked to Suzie who nodded in agreement. “With a bit of tinkering, I’m confident we can get it to do what we need.”
“There should be a full set of reports on the tests we did on it in…” Suzie’s voice trailed off.
Ianto sighed and finished her sentence, his shoulders dropping a little in defeat. “In the archives. Great. I should have known. I guess I’ll just be…”
“Hey,” Jack said, interrupting as he stepped forward and rested an open palm on Ianto’s arm, preventing him from breaking away. “Before you go working yourself up about this, it isn’t as bad as you think.”
Ianto’s eyebrows lifted in disbelief. “You mean the reports are actually archived in some semblance of order?”
“Well, no,” Jack admitted. “But there are only a couple of filing cabinets we’ve used since I took over, so you don’t have to search the whole place.”
In the end, even with Jack's dubious assistance (and Ianto wasn’t even sure Jack’s help warranted the term assistance), it took Ianto the rest of the day to locate the relevant folders. He flicked through them, but they were written in a level of Tosh’s techno-babble that, for the most part, rather went over his head.
Tosh, however, exclaimed happily upon their receipt and almost immediately had the mainframe crunching numbers. Ianto left her to it.
In an attempt to keep himself from hovering over the shoulders of his team mates as they worked, Ianto spent the majority of the next days back in the archives or sitting with Lisa, only reappearing in the main Hub at mealtimes or when he judged that another round of coffee might be appreciated.
Now that the urgency of finding a particular artefact had been removed, he found himself almost enjoying the quiet rhythm of examining and logging the archived items. With Tosh’s updates to the system in place, he found himself beginning to add his own cross-referencing terms to items based on the descriptions, and an odd territorial feeling was starting to come over him.
These were his archives, and they were going to be great when he was done.
With the prospect of an actual action to be taken to help her, his time spent with Lisa also felt less fraught. He even caught himself smiling happily more than once as he talked to her.
The others had decided that Ianto was the best person to explain what was going on to Lisa, partly as they were all busy making sure it would actually work.
It wasn’t until he was mid-way through his explanation that he realised quite how ridiculously miraculous it would be if it all came together and just worked.
“So the disperser-filter thing - and yes I know we need a better name for it - will boost regulated doses of highly oxygenated air directly to your lungs,” he murmured, fingers gently stroking the back of her hand as he spoke. “Or at least that’s the plan. Tosh and Suzie are still working on the filters.”
His head tilted self-depreciatingly as he continued. “And I really don’t understand the next bit at all, but they assure me it will work. Tosh and Suzie have built something to combine with the main unit that Owen says should stimulate your lungs into a breathing pattern to match the air boosts.”
He could see the question shining in Lisa’s eyes, and he was quick to assure her of the answer. “Yes, if this works, we can get rid of the tube and you can talk to us, talk to me again.” He swiped a wayward tear from the corner of his own eye.
“I’ve missed your voice,” he whispered hotly, “I’ve missed your laugh. I’ve missed… Hell, I’ve missed it all.”
Lisa’s fingers tightened on his minutely, and a few rebellious tears escaped as he lowered his head to kiss her cheek tenderly.
“This has to work. It has to. I love you too much for it not to.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
All comments and concrit welcomed! (Comments = Love <3)
Fandom: Torchwood
Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/Lisa
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Torchwood is not mine. No matter how much I sometimes wish it was.
Spoilers: Better say everything through s2, just to be sure. Begins pre-S1.
Summary: Can what Ianto found actually be used to help Lisa?
Thanks to: My beta cazmalfoy for all her wonderful work, and my cheerleaders angelzbabe1989 and piper08 for putting up with me when I whine about being stuck.
Author's Notes: Voting is open at Children Of Time - Brokeback Manor is nominated in the AU category - go vote!
Yes I know this is later than normal, but it's been a very long day.
Fic starts here
Previous chapters at my master list
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Tosh?” Ianto called as he skidded to a stop at the base of the water tower. “Tosh! I found it!” He couldn’t keep the excited anticipation out of his voice.
Tosh stood up and hurried towards him. “You’re sure?”
The look he shot her could have cut glass. “Of course I’m sure.” He turned the item over to show her the label as she approached. “See? Item 02-153, probable medical equipment.”
Tosh took the item carefully, tilting it this way and that as she looked it over. “Yep, this is definitely the one I was thinking about.”
She handed it to Owen as the rest of the team joined them. He examined it slowly, bemusedly, before a light bulb appeared to go off behind his eyes. “Oh! I remember this now. It’s a sort of gas dispersal and filter thing, right?”
Tosh nodded. “I think it was the regulated pulses that made us go with medical use, although we never really tested it in that capacity.”
Ianto’s eyes were wide as the flitted between the other members of the team. “But you do think it could help her, right?”
Owen and Tosh answered simultaneously. “Yes.”
Tosh continued alone. “We’d need to refine it a bit, and there are some things it probably won’t do, but with a bit of tinkering….” She paused and looked to Suzie who nodded in agreement. “With a bit of tinkering, I’m confident we can get it to do what we need.”
“There should be a full set of reports on the tests we did on it in…” Suzie’s voice trailed off.
Ianto sighed and finished her sentence, his shoulders dropping a little in defeat. “In the archives. Great. I should have known. I guess I’ll just be…”
“Hey,” Jack said, interrupting as he stepped forward and rested an open palm on Ianto’s arm, preventing him from breaking away. “Before you go working yourself up about this, it isn’t as bad as you think.”
Ianto’s eyebrows lifted in disbelief. “You mean the reports are actually archived in some semblance of order?”
“Well, no,” Jack admitted. “But there are only a couple of filing cabinets we’ve used since I took over, so you don’t have to search the whole place.”
In the end, even with Jack's dubious assistance (and Ianto wasn’t even sure Jack’s help warranted the term assistance), it took Ianto the rest of the day to locate the relevant folders. He flicked through them, but they were written in a level of Tosh’s techno-babble that, for the most part, rather went over his head.
Tosh, however, exclaimed happily upon their receipt and almost immediately had the mainframe crunching numbers. Ianto left her to it.
In an attempt to keep himself from hovering over the shoulders of his team mates as they worked, Ianto spent the majority of the next days back in the archives or sitting with Lisa, only reappearing in the main Hub at mealtimes or when he judged that another round of coffee might be appreciated.
Now that the urgency of finding a particular artefact had been removed, he found himself almost enjoying the quiet rhythm of examining and logging the archived items. With Tosh’s updates to the system in place, he found himself beginning to add his own cross-referencing terms to items based on the descriptions, and an odd territorial feeling was starting to come over him.
These were his archives, and they were going to be great when he was done.
With the prospect of an actual action to be taken to help her, his time spent with Lisa also felt less fraught. He even caught himself smiling happily more than once as he talked to her.
The others had decided that Ianto was the best person to explain what was going on to Lisa, partly as they were all busy making sure it would actually work.
It wasn’t until he was mid-way through his explanation that he realised quite how ridiculously miraculous it would be if it all came together and just worked.
“So the disperser-filter thing - and yes I know we need a better name for it - will boost regulated doses of highly oxygenated air directly to your lungs,” he murmured, fingers gently stroking the back of her hand as he spoke. “Or at least that’s the plan. Tosh and Suzie are still working on the filters.”
His head tilted self-depreciatingly as he continued. “And I really don’t understand the next bit at all, but they assure me it will work. Tosh and Suzie have built something to combine with the main unit that Owen says should stimulate your lungs into a breathing pattern to match the air boosts.”
He could see the question shining in Lisa’s eyes, and he was quick to assure her of the answer. “Yes, if this works, we can get rid of the tube and you can talk to us, talk to me again.” He swiped a wayward tear from the corner of his own eye.
“I’ve missed your voice,” he whispered hotly, “I’ve missed your laugh. I’ve missed… Hell, I’ve missed it all.”
Lisa’s fingers tightened on his minutely, and a few rebellious tears escaped as he lowered his head to kiss her cheek tenderly.
“This has to work. It has to. I love you too much for it not to.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
All comments and concrit welcomed! (Comments = Love <3)