galadriel1010 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
galadriel1010) wrote2010-12-07 12:17 pm
galadriel1010) wrote2010-12-07 12:17 pm
Entry tags:
The Darkest Night Prologue
Title: The Darkest Night
Chapter Title: Prologue
Challenge/Fest: Ianto Big Bang
Rating: M
Dedication: Thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mcparrot for the awesome beta work, and to xxholiclover and a_silver_story for the artses
Summary: Although the crisis with the 456 is over, Torchwood’s problems definitely aren’t. The government is meddling, Jack is pregnant and they don’t trust the team they’ve been assigned. When they cut loose from Torchwood, things get worse rather than better, and Ianto soon finds himself adrift from his loved ones and on the run, chasing down the chance that Steven’s death might not have been what it seemed.
Characters: Ianto, Jack and Alice, Steven, Agent Johnson
Contains: Pregnancy, violence, death, drug use, child in harm’s way, Ianto/OFC. COE compliant
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
The ceiling was stark white, and framed by the drape of curtains from a wooden rail. Sunlight filled the room from a window that showed through the curtain on his left, and footsteps from the corridor outside and the gentle beeping of the machines watching over him rang in a syncopated melody. The bedding was soft and warm, gentle to the touch.
It occurred to him to worry that he was in hospital, but warm lethargy and the solid comfort of Jack's hand holding onto his helped his eyes to slip closed again. Snapshots of memories slipped past him, just outside his grasp, and coalesced into a narrative that felt familiar. He forced his eyes open again and looked down at their joined hands on the coverlet. “Apparently it wasn't as lethal as they threatened.”
Jack laughed, a hollow, hurt sound, and leaned over to kiss him. “Welcome back.” He sat down again without relinquishing Ianto's hand. “Do you want a drink or...”
“Yeah, please.” His throat was raw and his voice rough, and talking was painful. He waited for Jack to return with a bottle of water and a straw, and wondered what it said about them that he didn't need to be warned to sip it slowly. “I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting a respiratory disease,” he commented when he could.
“It was a combination. Respiratory and circulatory, with added complications if you survived that.” Jack put the bottle on a side table and returned to sit on the bed instead of in the chair. “You had to be put on a ventilator because of some of the complications during your recovery.”
“Some of them?” He tried to sit up but the ache it caused persuaded him not to try it again. “What happened?”
Jack sighed and lifted Ianto's hand, pressing it against his lips as he spoke. “One of the standard injections you had at Torchwood protected you from the full effects of the virus. Your body still nearly shut down, but you were able to fight the virus off – just, with help from UNIT’s doctors.” He pulled Ianto's hand away and squeezed it. “It's been a tough month.”
“A....” He closed his mouth when he couldn't finish the sentence and just stared at Jack. “How?”
“They had to induce a coma. You were in too much pain to leave you like that.” He gave Ianto a smile that looked painful and kissed his hand again. “Rhiannon and Gwen have been here as often as they could, but they couldn't stay.”
“No...” Ianto ached, and his mind was sluggish and slow to process the information. He swallowed and flexed his fingers, extending them to brush against Jack’s cheek. “Did you... did you stay?”
“All the time.” There was something cold and empty in Jack’s eyes for a moment, and sadness lingered in them even after he forced a more reassuring smile. “You weren’t much of a conversationalist, but I stayed anyway.”
“I’m sorry.” He smiled up at Jack and squeezed his hand. “Makes up for you being not much of a listener the rest of the time.”
“Cheeky.” Jack brushed his thumb across Ianto’s brow, cupping his cheek in his warm palm. “I’m going to change, I promise. Be a better listener, a better friend.” He stilled Ianto’s protests by covering his lips with his thumb. “Hear me out. Sitting here, waiting, not knowing if you were going to come back... it was a wake-up call. I only get one chance with you, and I thought I’d wasted it. I’m not going to make that mistake twice.”
Ianto let his eyes slip closed and nuzzled his face into Jack’s hand. “Are you going to say it this time, then?”
Jack’s lips pressed against his forehead. “I love you.”
He tried to respond, but weariness dulled it to a mumble against Jack’s palm as he slipped back into the warm dark of sleep.
X~X~X~X
After a few days the doctor had let him out of bed to start on the physical therapy that would speed his recovery. He also insisted that Ianto ate in the well-appointed dining room, a luxury afforded to the patients at UNIT’s private hospital, Ianto was sure, to torture those whose doctors made them walk back to their rooms. Ianto leaned heavily on Jack, and a nurse followed with the wheelchair he’d used to get down there. She tidied it away whilst Jack sat at the head of the bed and helped Ianto to settle in in front of him, propped up against Jack’s chest and the pillows. “You did well today, Ianto,” she told him, coming over to check his pulse and ignoring his baleful glare. “Doctor Henson will be really pleased with your progress.”
“Oh good.” He leaned back against Jack, resting his hands on Jack’s arms around his waist, and closed his eyes. “Please tell me dinner will be here?”
“It will.” Jack’s lips pressed against his neck, just below his ear. “No need to get out of bed until tomorrow.”
“Okay.” The nurse left them to it, and Ianto wriggled into a more comfortable position that trapped Jack in place behind him. “So...”
“Ianto...”
“No, Jack. Whatever happened to end it, it’s upset you, and that upsets me.” He covered Jack’s hand and held it. “I want to hear it from you, not from the grapevine. No one will bother us for a while now.”
“Fine.” Jack’s arms tightened and he pressed his forehead against the back of Ianto’s neck. “The 456 killed Clem with a high frequency telepathic wave that overloaded his brain. Dekker realised that they could use the same frequency and project it back to them.” He drew in an unsteady breath that sent a shiver down Ianto’s spine and whispered, “They had to use a child to project it.”
Understanding slammed into him, driving the air from his lungs, and his fingers dug into Jack’s arms. “Steven? Oh God...” He released his painful grip on Jack and rubbed his thumbs across the marks he’d left. “It’s not... they didn’t...”
“He died,” Jack confirmed, voice shaky. “They killed him. And now Alice is missing and...” His voice wavered, and he had to pause before he could plunge on. “I should have been there with them. I should have stopped them and saved him.”
Ianto squirmed around in the narrow bed, clinging to Jack to avoid falling off the edge, until he could return the embrace and guide Jack in to lean against him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Jack.” Safe in his embrace, Jack wept against his shoulder, shaking with grief, and Ianto ached for him. He knew that no matter how much Jack survived, how many people he saved, he would always lose them anyway. To lose Steven so young was a cruel reminder tempering Ianto’s own survival, and Ianto would have given anything to change places with him, to give Jack a few extra years.
X~X~X~X
Whilst Ianto got stronger and regained musculature and lung capacity, Jack became drawn and pale. At first Ianto mistook it for the result of his grief and guilt and the long hours he’d spent watching over Ianto, but his condition worsened quickly . A few days of bleak depression and flu-like aches gave way to nausea and cramps that blackened his mood even further. He clung to Ianto, wrapped around him in the larger bed they’d eventually persuaded the doctor that they needed, listless and lethargic.
He’d also resisted all Ianto’s attempts to persuade him to get help, even anti-nausea medication, until a sleepless night had brought out the worst in Ianto and he’d stormed out of the room - as fast as he could on still-wobbly legs - to hide in the canteen. When he returned, it was to find Jack talking to Doctor Henson, looking thoroughly chastened and waiting for Ianto to come back before he’d allow the doctor to whisk him off to an examination room.
The tests took an hour, everything from untrasound scans to blood tests that would take days to come back with a result. Ianto sat as close to Jack as he was allowed, sometimes close enough to hold his hand and sometimes on the far side of the room, hovering whilst the tests were done. As soon as they were finished he returned to Jack’s side and sat on the examination bed next to him, disregarding Doctor Henson’s quick glare. The doctor hummed over his notes, a worried frown folding a crease between his eyebrows. Machinery beeped and whirred around them, and the printer spewed out another sheet of records. Ianto bit his lip and squeezed Jack’s hand, running a hand up his arm. “It’s okay,” he assured him. “It’s going to be alright.”
“Yeah.” Jack opened his eyes and smiled up at Ianto. It failed to reach his eyes, and his bitten-sore lower lip trembled. “I’m always alright.”
He leaned across and kissed Jack’s lower lip, flicking his tongue out to soothe it. Jack’s hands grabbed at him and pulled him closer, begging for reassurance in every trembling movement. Ianto ran his fingers through the over-long hair at the nape of his neck. “You’re more than alright.” He kissed Jack again and pulled back to look at Doctor Henson without apology. “Do you know what’s wrong with him?”
Doctor Henson pulled his glasses off and tapped them against his notes. “Captain Harkness, I have to ask; if you would rather we had this conversation in private, now is the time to say so.”
“Thank you, but no. I want Ianto here.” He looked back at Ianto and squeezed his hand. “It saves one of us repeating it.”
“Alright then.” Henson sat on the end of the bed, keeping a respectful distance between him and them. “The scans have located a growth in your abdomen. It’s developing between your sigmoid colon and your bladder, and its growth is putting pressure on them, which is what caused the discomfort and urinary difficulties.”
Jack was staring at him in shock, so Ianto squeezed his hands and looked over at the doctor, squaring his shoulders. “Do you think it’s a cancer?”
“We can’t be sure yet, of course - not until the blood results come back - but judging by the rate of growth, I think it’s likely.” He looked at them both, lingering on Jack, who refused to meet his eyes. “As it’s Jack, I’m going to recommend surgery as soon as possible, depending on the bloodwork results. We’ll know more once we’ve had the chance to examine it and determine the likelihood of a reoccurrence.”
“It’s not...” Jack’s voice was strained, and he had to clear his throat before he could continue. “I need you to run a pregnancy test on me.”
“Pardon?”
“I have the capacity for pregnancy,” Jack explained, closing his eyes tightly and turning his face away from Ianto. “I have a dual reproductive system, but it shouldn’t be functional! It takes a cocktail of hormones to stabilise my reproductive system and prepare my body...”
Ianto reached out when Jack choked off and rubbed his hand across his back in soothing circles. It took a moment to force back his own shock and find the place where he could reassure Jack, and he used it to slide closer to Jack and press their knees together. “It’s okay,” he reassured him. “We can get the tests done and find out and then... then.”
“Yeah.” Jack choked on a laugh and turned back to him, whilst Doctor Henson made a calculated retreat and Ianto thanked his stars for UNIT-trained doctors and their acceptance of ridiculous situations. “I’m sorry; I should have said something. I’m just one lie after another...”
“No, you’re not.” Ianto rested his forehead against Jack’s shoulder and kept rubbing his back. “One surprise after another, though.” That got a laugh, and he nosed Jack’s shirt collar out of the way to kiss his neck. “It’s okay. It’s a good thing, or just a thing, but it’s something we can deal with, even if...”
“If I don’t want to keep it?”
Ianto nodded. “Yeah, even if. Whatever happens, I’ll be here.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Jack confessed. He gripped Ianto’s hand and stared straight ahead at the wall. “If... if it’s a baby, our baby. Your baby. I don’t want to lose it. Already, I don’t want to lose it. But I’ll lose you anyway, both of you and I can’t... Ianto, I can’t have another Alice.”
“You won’t,” he promised. When Jack grunted, Ianto wrapped his arms around his waist and hugged him from behind. “Let Doctor Henson help you feel better first. Then we can make a decision when you’re not feeling like shit.”
“Eloquent as always.” Jack turned his head to demand a kiss. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never.” He granted Jack the kiss and held him tighter whilst they waited for the doctor to return.
Next chapter
Chapter Title: Prologue
Challenge/Fest: Ianto Big Bang
Rating: M
Dedication: Thanks to
mcparrot for the awesome beta work, and to xxholiclover and a_silver_story for the artsesSummary: Although the crisis with the 456 is over, Torchwood’s problems definitely aren’t. The government is meddling, Jack is pregnant and they don’t trust the team they’ve been assigned. When they cut loose from Torchwood, things get worse rather than better, and Ianto soon finds himself adrift from his loved ones and on the run, chasing down the chance that Steven’s death might not have been what it seemed.
Characters: Ianto, Jack and Alice, Steven, Agent Johnson
Contains: Pregnancy, violence, death, drug use, child in harm’s way, Ianto/OFC. COE compliant
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
The ceiling was stark white, and framed by the drape of curtains from a wooden rail. Sunlight filled the room from a window that showed through the curtain on his left, and footsteps from the corridor outside and the gentle beeping of the machines watching over him rang in a syncopated melody. The bedding was soft and warm, gentle to the touch.
It occurred to him to worry that he was in hospital, but warm lethargy and the solid comfort of Jack's hand holding onto his helped his eyes to slip closed again. Snapshots of memories slipped past him, just outside his grasp, and coalesced into a narrative that felt familiar. He forced his eyes open again and looked down at their joined hands on the coverlet. “Apparently it wasn't as lethal as they threatened.”
Jack laughed, a hollow, hurt sound, and leaned over to kiss him. “Welcome back.” He sat down again without relinquishing Ianto's hand. “Do you want a drink or...”
“Yeah, please.” His throat was raw and his voice rough, and talking was painful. He waited for Jack to return with a bottle of water and a straw, and wondered what it said about them that he didn't need to be warned to sip it slowly. “I don't know why, but I wasn't expecting a respiratory disease,” he commented when he could.
“It was a combination. Respiratory and circulatory, with added complications if you survived that.” Jack put the bottle on a side table and returned to sit on the bed instead of in the chair. “You had to be put on a ventilator because of some of the complications during your recovery.”
“Some of them?” He tried to sit up but the ache it caused persuaded him not to try it again. “What happened?”
Jack sighed and lifted Ianto's hand, pressing it against his lips as he spoke. “One of the standard injections you had at Torchwood protected you from the full effects of the virus. Your body still nearly shut down, but you were able to fight the virus off – just, with help from UNIT’s doctors.” He pulled Ianto's hand away and squeezed it. “It's been a tough month.”
“A....” He closed his mouth when he couldn't finish the sentence and just stared at Jack. “How?”
“They had to induce a coma. You were in too much pain to leave you like that.” He gave Ianto a smile that looked painful and kissed his hand again. “Rhiannon and Gwen have been here as often as they could, but they couldn't stay.”
“No...” Ianto ached, and his mind was sluggish and slow to process the information. He swallowed and flexed his fingers, extending them to brush against Jack’s cheek. “Did you... did you stay?”
“All the time.” There was something cold and empty in Jack’s eyes for a moment, and sadness lingered in them even after he forced a more reassuring smile. “You weren’t much of a conversationalist, but I stayed anyway.”
“I’m sorry.” He smiled up at Jack and squeezed his hand. “Makes up for you being not much of a listener the rest of the time.”
“Cheeky.” Jack brushed his thumb across Ianto’s brow, cupping his cheek in his warm palm. “I’m going to change, I promise. Be a better listener, a better friend.” He stilled Ianto’s protests by covering his lips with his thumb. “Hear me out. Sitting here, waiting, not knowing if you were going to come back... it was a wake-up call. I only get one chance with you, and I thought I’d wasted it. I’m not going to make that mistake twice.”
Ianto let his eyes slip closed and nuzzled his face into Jack’s hand. “Are you going to say it this time, then?”
Jack’s lips pressed against his forehead. “I love you.”
He tried to respond, but weariness dulled it to a mumble against Jack’s palm as he slipped back into the warm dark of sleep.
X~X~X~X
After a few days the doctor had let him out of bed to start on the physical therapy that would speed his recovery. He also insisted that Ianto ate in the well-appointed dining room, a luxury afforded to the patients at UNIT’s private hospital, Ianto was sure, to torture those whose doctors made them walk back to their rooms. Ianto leaned heavily on Jack, and a nurse followed with the wheelchair he’d used to get down there. She tidied it away whilst Jack sat at the head of the bed and helped Ianto to settle in in front of him, propped up against Jack’s chest and the pillows. “You did well today, Ianto,” she told him, coming over to check his pulse and ignoring his baleful glare. “Doctor Henson will be really pleased with your progress.”
“Oh good.” He leaned back against Jack, resting his hands on Jack’s arms around his waist, and closed his eyes. “Please tell me dinner will be here?”
“It will.” Jack’s lips pressed against his neck, just below his ear. “No need to get out of bed until tomorrow.”
“Okay.” The nurse left them to it, and Ianto wriggled into a more comfortable position that trapped Jack in place behind him. “So...”
“Ianto...”
“No, Jack. Whatever happened to end it, it’s upset you, and that upsets me.” He covered Jack’s hand and held it. “I want to hear it from you, not from the grapevine. No one will bother us for a while now.”
“Fine.” Jack’s arms tightened and he pressed his forehead against the back of Ianto’s neck. “The 456 killed Clem with a high frequency telepathic wave that overloaded his brain. Dekker realised that they could use the same frequency and project it back to them.” He drew in an unsteady breath that sent a shiver down Ianto’s spine and whispered, “They had to use a child to project it.”
Understanding slammed into him, driving the air from his lungs, and his fingers dug into Jack’s arms. “Steven? Oh God...” He released his painful grip on Jack and rubbed his thumbs across the marks he’d left. “It’s not... they didn’t...”
“He died,” Jack confirmed, voice shaky. “They killed him. And now Alice is missing and...” His voice wavered, and he had to pause before he could plunge on. “I should have been there with them. I should have stopped them and saved him.”
Ianto squirmed around in the narrow bed, clinging to Jack to avoid falling off the edge, until he could return the embrace and guide Jack in to lean against him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Jack.” Safe in his embrace, Jack wept against his shoulder, shaking with grief, and Ianto ached for him. He knew that no matter how much Jack survived, how many people he saved, he would always lose them anyway. To lose Steven so young was a cruel reminder tempering Ianto’s own survival, and Ianto would have given anything to change places with him, to give Jack a few extra years.
X~X~X~X
Whilst Ianto got stronger and regained musculature and lung capacity, Jack became drawn and pale. At first Ianto mistook it for the result of his grief and guilt and the long hours he’d spent watching over Ianto, but his condition worsened quickly . A few days of bleak depression and flu-like aches gave way to nausea and cramps that blackened his mood even further. He clung to Ianto, wrapped around him in the larger bed they’d eventually persuaded the doctor that they needed, listless and lethargic.
He’d also resisted all Ianto’s attempts to persuade him to get help, even anti-nausea medication, until a sleepless night had brought out the worst in Ianto and he’d stormed out of the room - as fast as he could on still-wobbly legs - to hide in the canteen. When he returned, it was to find Jack talking to Doctor Henson, looking thoroughly chastened and waiting for Ianto to come back before he’d allow the doctor to whisk him off to an examination room.
The tests took an hour, everything from untrasound scans to blood tests that would take days to come back with a result. Ianto sat as close to Jack as he was allowed, sometimes close enough to hold his hand and sometimes on the far side of the room, hovering whilst the tests were done. As soon as they were finished he returned to Jack’s side and sat on the examination bed next to him, disregarding Doctor Henson’s quick glare. The doctor hummed over his notes, a worried frown folding a crease between his eyebrows. Machinery beeped and whirred around them, and the printer spewed out another sheet of records. Ianto bit his lip and squeezed Jack’s hand, running a hand up his arm. “It’s okay,” he assured him. “It’s going to be alright.”
“Yeah.” Jack opened his eyes and smiled up at Ianto. It failed to reach his eyes, and his bitten-sore lower lip trembled. “I’m always alright.”
He leaned across and kissed Jack’s lower lip, flicking his tongue out to soothe it. Jack’s hands grabbed at him and pulled him closer, begging for reassurance in every trembling movement. Ianto ran his fingers through the over-long hair at the nape of his neck. “You’re more than alright.” He kissed Jack again and pulled back to look at Doctor Henson without apology. “Do you know what’s wrong with him?”
Doctor Henson pulled his glasses off and tapped them against his notes. “Captain Harkness, I have to ask; if you would rather we had this conversation in private, now is the time to say so.”
“Thank you, but no. I want Ianto here.” He looked back at Ianto and squeezed his hand. “It saves one of us repeating it.”
“Alright then.” Henson sat on the end of the bed, keeping a respectful distance between him and them. “The scans have located a growth in your abdomen. It’s developing between your sigmoid colon and your bladder, and its growth is putting pressure on them, which is what caused the discomfort and urinary difficulties.”
Jack was staring at him in shock, so Ianto squeezed his hands and looked over at the doctor, squaring his shoulders. “Do you think it’s a cancer?”
“We can’t be sure yet, of course - not until the blood results come back - but judging by the rate of growth, I think it’s likely.” He looked at them both, lingering on Jack, who refused to meet his eyes. “As it’s Jack, I’m going to recommend surgery as soon as possible, depending on the bloodwork results. We’ll know more once we’ve had the chance to examine it and determine the likelihood of a reoccurrence.”
“It’s not...” Jack’s voice was strained, and he had to clear his throat before he could continue. “I need you to run a pregnancy test on me.”
“Pardon?”
“I have the capacity for pregnancy,” Jack explained, closing his eyes tightly and turning his face away from Ianto. “I have a dual reproductive system, but it shouldn’t be functional! It takes a cocktail of hormones to stabilise my reproductive system and prepare my body...”
Ianto reached out when Jack choked off and rubbed his hand across his back in soothing circles. It took a moment to force back his own shock and find the place where he could reassure Jack, and he used it to slide closer to Jack and press their knees together. “It’s okay,” he reassured him. “We can get the tests done and find out and then... then.”
“Yeah.” Jack choked on a laugh and turned back to him, whilst Doctor Henson made a calculated retreat and Ianto thanked his stars for UNIT-trained doctors and their acceptance of ridiculous situations. “I’m sorry; I should have said something. I’m just one lie after another...”
“No, you’re not.” Ianto rested his forehead against Jack’s shoulder and kept rubbing his back. “One surprise after another, though.” That got a laugh, and he nosed Jack’s shirt collar out of the way to kiss his neck. “It’s okay. It’s a good thing, or just a thing, but it’s something we can deal with, even if...”
“If I don’t want to keep it?”
Ianto nodded. “Yeah, even if. Whatever happens, I’ll be here.”
“I don’t know what to do,” Jack confessed. He gripped Ianto’s hand and stared straight ahead at the wall. “If... if it’s a baby, our baby. Your baby. I don’t want to lose it. Already, I don’t want to lose it. But I’ll lose you anyway, both of you and I can’t... Ianto, I can’t have another Alice.”
“You won’t,” he promised. When Jack grunted, Ianto wrapped his arms around his waist and hugged him from behind. “Let Doctor Henson help you feel better first. Then we can make a decision when you’re not feeling like shit.”
“Eloquent as always.” Jack turned his head to demand a kiss. “Don’t leave me.”
“Never.” He granted Jack the kiss and held him tighter whilst they waited for the doctor to return.
Next chapter