Fragments of a Shattered Life 26
Title: Fragments of a Shattered Life
Part: 26/34-ish
Rating: 18+
Warnings: Explicit violence, non-con
Genre: Angst
Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Tosh, Owen
Summary: After POTW Jack's life takes a turn for the worse and he desperately needs help. A Doctor Who/Torchwood crossover. Note that this is a very dark fic.
Disclaimer: Not mine.
A/N:
Previous Chapter here ohinyan.livejournal.com/7785.html
Chapter 26: Moving On
Ianto stood in his hallway in shock, clutching Jack's note. He knew that he had handled things very badly. Jack had offered him what he had wanted for the past two years, but his timing had been awful. Although he loved Jack, Ianto was halfway to convincing himself that he was not the right person to help Jack and had been thinking that he needed to cool things between them. When Jack had made his offer Ianto had found himself paralysed by indecision. On the one hand he did desperately want it, on the other he thought it wasn't fair to take advantage of Jack when he was no longer sure of his own feelings. And he could hardly believe that Jack was really ready for this so suddenly.
Ianto had dithered for so long that three hours had passed without him even realising. It had become too late to act even if he had made a decision. He had then been too embarrassed to go home and face Jack. When Jack had spoken to him the next morning, very calmly, he'd been so flustered he'd made a pathetic excuse about paperwork. Why couldn't he just have told him the truth! Deep down, Ianto knew why. It was typical ostrich mentality. He had hoped that he and Jack could get past that night by pretending it had never happened. Apart from that very mild comment when he arrived at work, Jack had seemed to be doing the same, or so he had thought.
And now Jack was gone, and who could blame him. He obviously didn't want Ianto or the team to know where he had gone. Ianto was just glad that Jack could now function fairly normally in society and had money. But he was not going to let things lie. This was all his fault and he would find Jack and make it up to him. He would track where Jack had gone with Torchwood resources, and when he found him he would ask him to return to Torchwood. If Jack no longer wanted him he would respect that, but the least he could do was make sure he was safe.
Now he had to go and tell Tosh and Owen. They were going to kill him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Jack found a bedsit to rent in the east end of London and went out to find himself a job. He wanted to keep a low profile so cash in hand was what he was looking for. He soon found himself a job cleaning up in the kitchens of a small restaurant. It didn't pay well but it was enough to keep him going if he lived frugally, and that should not be a problem. He kept himself to himself as much as he could, refusing offers to go out boozing (as they put it) with the other restaurant workers.
He did indulge himself and go see Martha (from a distance). He watched her going to the university where she was studying medicine. But he made sure she didn't notice him. He couldn't risk meeting her before the research station. He knew that in a couple of years she would be picked up by the Doctor and he wanted to warn her that the Doctor couldn't be trusted and not to go with him. But his time agent training had instilled in him a deep respect for paradoxes so he said nothing. He hoped that the Doctor would eventually bring her back to London and he would be able to contact her then.
The main problem with living alone and not socialising was the amount of brooding time it left him. He went over and over in his head how he could have misconstrued things so badly with Ianto. He had thought they were in love even though physically things were low key. He had certainly loved Ianto, and still did. He had thought Ianto loved him and understood his reticence with the physical aspect of things. And if he did understand he couldn't have missed the massive significance of what Jack had at last offered him. To turn him down, without even bothering to tell him directly, with the excuse of (non-existent) paperwork was just incomprehensible to Jack.
And this inevitably led to wondering what he had done to the Doctor to make him abandon him on Satellite 5 and then again on Nirvana. They had been lovers and Jack had believed with all his heart that the Doctor loved him. Surely being resurrected and thereby being “wrong” through no fault of his own could not kill any love that had been there and lead the Doctor to treat him worse than he would treat a random stranger.
Jack was left with only one conclusion. He had been wrong in both cases. The Doctor had never loved him and neither had Ianto. And also that, contrary to what he had thought about Ianto's opinion, they were both repulsed by the whore he had become, however unwillingly. In the cold light of day he could see that the Doctor had been right, only shop soiled was too kind a term. One client per week for over 100 years added up to a hell of a lot of use, and that ignored the guards at the research station and the Pleasure Palace.
But he was not going to let this happen again. He was done with love. He wouldn't be fooled a third time.
With his books and music Jack lived in peaceful but lonely obscurity in his bedsit for seven months before trouble arrived.
* * * * *
Jack had worked his shift at the restaurant as usual when he felt that he was being watched. He looked around surreptitiously but couldn't see anyone who appeared out of place. However, in the old days (pre-Satellite 5) Jack had learned to trust his instincts and though they were now rusty through disuse he would not dismiss them out of hand.
Instead of heading straight back to his bedsit, Jack turned down a narrow alley that he knew led out into the main street at the far end. If anyone was following him they couldn't remain hidden in the alley.
No one followed. Jack breathed a sigh of relief and continued down the main street. But he couldn't shake the uncomfortable feeling, so headed into a department store. He spotted a man he thought was behaving in a suspicious way in the men's clothing department, so rode up the escalator and ran swiftly down the stairs again and out into the street. The man did not follow.
I must be getting paranoid, he thought. I'm panicking over nothing. But he still couldn't shake the feeling. Was it possible that Ianto had come to look for him ? He shook off that thought. He'd been very careful not to leave a paper trail and anyway, why would he do that after all this time? He spent the next hour weaving in and out of shops, down alleys, and crossing busy roads. Eventually when he was positive that no one was following him he finally headed home.
They cornered him about halfway there. There were six of them, in radio contact with each other, which is why they hadn't needed to follow him. They'd chosen the perfect place to do it. A quiet street, off the beaten track. No witnesses.
Jack was panicking in earnest now. Ianto wouldn't send heavies after him, he'd come himself. So who were they? Was it possible that Astratech had come after him? They were trying to develop time travel, hence the rift experiments. But they would have no way of tracking when or where the rift had sent him so it wasn't really conceivable that it would be them.
Had someone found out that he couldn't die ? The Torchwood team were the only ones who knew that. And surely they wouldn't have said anything. His heart was in his mouth now. If they knew about that then he had to get away! He couldn't become an un-killable experiment again.
All this flashed through his mind in a second. Then he launched himself at the two men covering the end of the street. He managed to overpower them but another two came up behind him. They were both armed with stun guns. It only took seconds after that for the men to overpower him. The instant that they had, a transit van drove up and they bundled Jack's unconscious body into it.
By the time they arrived at their destination Jack was conscious again. He was petrified. Two of the men dragged Jack out of the van and hauled him up some stairs at the delivery entrance of a very posh house. The other four followed behind them.
Dragging him through the kitchens and into the main part of the house, the heavies threw Jack to his knees in front of a man he didn't recognise. The man was fairly ordinary looking, he wouldn't stand out in a crowd, but something about him struck Jack as terrifying.
He smiled at Jack, throwing his arms out expansively. “Welcome, I've been looking forward to meeting you.”
“Who are you?” Jack whispered.
“Oh, how remiss of me,” replied the man. “My name is Harold Saxon but you can call me Master.”
Next chapter here: ohinyan.livejournal.com/8345.html