A change of scenery to clear the mind. 1/???
It started out as a completely and utterly normal day. Ianto got into work, fed the weevils, played with Myfanwy, got breakfast, set up the schedule for the day, and avoided Jack’s amorous advances, all before the team managed to arrive at 7:00.
He made coffee, worked in the archives for a few hours, made more coffee, did some call fielding for UNIT, and again shook off Jack’s amorous advances before ordering their lunch from the nice Indian take away a couple blocks down.
It was normal, it was routine.
It was all about to go to straight to hell.
Because the device Tosh had been trying to create, one that would help control the Rift, has currently backfired.
Immensely.
In fact, one would be more keen to say the device completely back-cannoned, or back-exploded.
Back-nuclear holocaust, even.
There is wind, and sparks, and the smell of ozone and fear; Jack is holding onto Gwen above the stairs, and Tosh is stuck behind her desk. Owen is, thankfully, out getting lunch when it happens. Ianto, however, is not so lucky.
No, he’s grasping for his life on a small handrail, being pulled further and further by the pure and untamable Chaos of the rift opening. His tie is flapping a bit into his face, and the bite of the metal grate on his hand is stinging. Ianto’s scared, scared enough it ranks highly on his list of times he’s be really scared.
A little more than the cannibals, but less than Canary Warf.
Suffice to say he’s pretty much on the verge of crying.
Somewhere underneath, though, there is the soft knowledge that Jack will save him. That everything would turn out alright in the end, and Ianto will simply laugh it off later with everyone over a pint, with Jack’s arm wrapped around his shoulders and the promise of heavy sex later in the evening.
Suddenly, Gwen is ripped out of Jack’s hands, and it’s only with luck she manages to grasp onto the same rail as Ianto. He can’t be certain, the noise is too loud, but she might have been screaming. He might have been as well.
The moments that come next are fractured. Ianto can see Tosh typing franticly, and he can hear the portal behind him grow larger, and feel the rail starting to break under their combined weight.
But then Jack is able to make his way to them, and it’s ok, because now he can save everyone.
Only, he only has one hand to use.
And he’s grabbed Gwen’s arm.
For one heartbreaking moment, he catches Jack’s eye. There is only a cold truth.
“Jack-“
And then the rail breaks, and Ianto Jones is thrown into the rift of time and space.
When he wakes up, he’s in a forest.
This is good, because it would have been terrible to land somewhere and suffocate due to the atmosphere.
Or land in an ocean and drown.
Or the middle of a war.
Or rush hour traffic.
It’s night, and he can hear the buzzing of insects. Wherever he is, it’s surprisingly similar to earth. There are trees that look like trees, and ground that feels like ground. He can even make out grass and flowers, and what could possibly be the sound of a stream or river. If he felt like being exceptionally delusional, he could lie here and pretend he was still on Earth.
-But the air is too clean, and the sky too clear.
And the distant calls of animals are too foreign, even for Ianto’s well versed knowledge of fauna.
The stars are reassuring, though. They’re still the bright silver lights he remembers, the tiny crystals he’d never gotten to see when he lived in Cardiff. They’re steady in their light, unchanging, and they allow Ianto to reflect and absorb what exactly had just happened to him.
And it’s looking upon the tiny lights that Ianto starts crying for his shattered heart.
When he wakes up again, he’s moving.
Ianto can feel like steady thump thump of a walking gait. When he opens his eyes, he sees the ground sway and change; short grass and impacted dirt, like some old road. He’s in someone’s...actually, more like something’s, arms. The red and blue draconic wings, along with a tail sprouting what could only be fire, sort of justified the ‘thing’.
And judging by the distance from the ground and his face, he’s being carried over its shoulder like a baby.
Any other time, Ianto would go Torchwood on his would be kidnapers. A few kicks, some witty one liners, and a general ass whooping would ensue, ending in Ianto walking off like the James Bond he’d always wanted to be.
As it stood, he was too emotionally drained to even care about his fate.
Well, that, and he generally got the feeling that whatever it was carrying him was trying to help. He wasn’t terribly certain as to wear the thought originated, but it was pretty much stuck on him that this whatever-it-was that was carrying him was doing so out of kindness.
It was....Nice, to think that someone from a different world was trying to help him. A bit scary, if he was completely honest with himself, but still nice all the same.
So, he made himself a bit more comfortable, and tried to sleep. The gentle swaying and un-human warmth made it a quick process.
When he wakes up for the third time, Ianto’s in a bed.
Actually, if his back has something to say, he’s in a cot.
A hospital cot.
A charming hospital, with cheery blue tiling and colorful animals (that Ianto had never seen in his life, Torchwood or otherwise, which is saying a lot) decorating the walls, but a hospital no less.
Ianto hasn’t had the best luck with hospitals. There’s only some many times you go in with stitches and bruises until someone starts talking to you about ‘safe places’ and ‘help’.
And he appreciates it, he really does. It makes him happy that the doctors and nurses care so much. But they should have just believed him when he said it was work related. It was so extremely awkward having to talk to PC Andy about such a dreadful, personal thing like his and Jack-
He surprised to see he’s still in his own clothes. He’s even more surprised to see that they aren’t damaged very much. In fact, with a good cleaning and a bit of thread, the suit would be as good as ever.
He gets up, and he wants to leave, but he just cannot find his shoes.
And Ianto Jones might have done many things in his short life, but walking around like a shoeless hobo would not be one of them.
He looks all around the room, from the floors to the small cupboard on the side, but his shoes are no where to be found.
It’s odd, because of all the things to remove, they choose only his shoes. His suit jacket and vest were kept on, and his pocket watch was fine (and still running, that god for small miracles). Even his tie and socks were left untouched. Yet, his nice, sensible loafers are completely missing.
Maybe they were destroyed when he came though?
Or maybe this world had some strange ritual of removing shoes from the injured.
Maybe his shoes fell though the rift into the place where the missing socks go.
He’s on his hands and knees, looking under the bed, when he hears the door open. Turning to look, he isn’t entirely sure he’s not experiencing head trauma.
What could only be described as a giant half pink, half white egg wearing a nurse’s hat was standing near the door. It had a pouch on its front with a smaller egg inside, and what appeared to be a natural tutu of white fur around its stomach and arms, and pink, fluffed up hair on its head. Two beady black eyes stared at him, along with a tiny mouth, and no visible nostrils.
Ianto didn’t quite know what to think.
“Um...Hello.” Alien planet or not, it never helped to be rude. “I...I’ve seemed to have misplaced my shoes.” The creature made what appeared to be a smile and bounced over, chattering in a sweet voice. It reached into its pouch and tried to hand him its egg. Ianto was slightly bemused at the action, and didn’t know what to make of it.
“Oh...Thank you.” The creature tittered and made a motion as if to eat. Ianto didn’t really know what to do. On one hand, he could end up offending this being and it could kill him. On the other hand, he could be eating something potentially deadly, and end up dying due to, possibly, good intentions.
He wasn’t sure which was worse.
As the dilemma in his mind waged, he was startled by the door opening again.
“Bella! I told you not to bother the man until he’s been checked out!” A human looking woman in her late twenties stood in the doorway, hands on her hips like an irate mother. She wore an old style of nurse uniform, with the same little cap that the first alien had on.
If it weren’t for her florescent pink, natural looking hair, Ianto would have been hard pressed to call her anything but human.
But even with her colorful curls and odd style of dress, she seemed awfully, awfully familiar. It was an almost deja-vu feeling, looking at her. Uncomfortable and awkward.
On the bright side, she did speak English.
“Miss, I’m dreadfully sorry, but I seem to have lost my shoes.” The nurse seemed almost at shocked as he felt; He’d have to wager she hadn’t counted on English either. Maybe his accent?
“Oh, sir, I’m so sorry-You should really get beck to bed, I need to check you out now that you’re awake-“ She was blushing almost as bright as her hair. Hm, it’d have to be the accent then. The first alien (Bella, was it?) still kept pressing her egg into his hand. Confused as the first time, he looked to the nurse.
“Um-“ The creature tittered again in a her (?) cheery voice and kept offering. The nurse, on the other hand, had a sympathetic, caring face aimed towards him.
“She’s a Blissey. Have you ever seen one?” She shook her head. “No, no, their still quite rare.....Anyway, they’re the most loving, caring beings in the world.” She smiled as she and Bella helped him up off the floor. “They give their eggs to anyone who is horribly sad; it’s said that one bite can make someone happy for a whole week.” She sat him on the bed and took the egg, handing it to Ianto. Bella the Blissey chirped happily and waddled out of the room. While the Nurse looked cheerfully at him, Ianto could only stare at the round object in his hand. Was the alien empathetic? It had to have been, to be able to pick up on his (undoubtedly) morose and self pitting inner thoughts.
And it was surprising thoughtful as well; if the Nurse’s beaming smile was any indication, he was being given a very rare and cherished gift in this culture.
A feeling of immense calm washed over him as he stroked the egg. He wasn’t healed, far from it; his broken heart and damaged psych had a long ways to go before ‘healing’.
But the egg was giving him a head start. He’d definitely save it for later-even if he never ate the thing, simply having it near was proving an immense help.
“So,” the Nurse clapped her together. “I suppose now is as good time as any for introductions.” Ianto grimaced and placed the egg down beside him, offering his hand.
“How extremely rude of me. My name is Ianto Jones” The nurse smiled and shook his hand.
Being part of Torchwood gives you a certain advantage when it comes to surprises.
Namely, that nothing surprises you.
Still, there is always that something, that unknown, that despite years as an Archivist and Field Agent, you just aren’t prepared for.
For example, take the thousands of theories concerning the universe. Now, being in Torchwood, one has the advantage of knowing many to actually be laws. In fact, most were.
The universe was just strange like that.
But of all the laws of the universe, some are too fantastical to even imagine.
So you bury them deep inside, forget about them, and then, when you least expect it, they come out to smack you in the face like a giant tuna.
“And my name is Nurse Joy. I’m the head nurse here at the Cerulean City Pokécenter. That’s in Kanto, by the way.”
Sometimes, when you say Parallel Universes, you really do mean Parallel Universes.