Another Path Chapter 1
Dec. 10th, 2012 12:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Title: Another Path
Chapter Title: Chapter 1
Challenge/Fest: LongLiveIanto Bingo
Prompt: Fork in the Road AU
Rating: T
Dedication: For
laligin,
Summary: One decision, two possible outcomes. Taking the wrong path leads Ianto down a life he thought he'd lost.
Characters: Jack/Ianto, team, others.
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
An activity alert flashed up on Ianto’s screen, obscuring the report he’d been writing. His first instinct was to brush it out of the way, but sometimes there was more to the reports than kids getting too close to the sensors and he pulled up the security cameras. It was one of their lock-ups in the docks area, where they kept a lot of the random space junk that didn’t really need to be lugged down into the archives. Nothing dangerous, really, but not something they wanted stealing.
Two men were leaning against a dark van, staring at the door. The van obscured the camera’s view, but they’d set off the sensors on the door somehow. He gave them a frustrated look and pulled his desk drawer open for his keys. “Jack, we’ve got someone trying to be clever down at lock-up three.”
Jack pushed his chair back so that he was framed in the doorway and could see Ianto. “You think it’s worth going out to?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “They’ve tried to get in once, so we’d better go and deal with it, just in case. They’ve probably just got the wrong one.”
“Probably isn’t good enough.” Jack sighed and reached up for his coat. “Alright, let’s go put the wind up them. God, I hate amateurs.” Ianto reached him and helped him to put his coat on, sliding his fingers down over his shoulders more slowly than was needed. He got a brief smile for it, and then Jack was bouncing down the stairs into the main Hub and calling out instructions. “Tosh, you’re in charge. We shouldn’t be gone long, but be ready in case we need to call for back-up. Like Ianto said, they’re probably just at the wrong locker, but it’s best to be sure.”
“Shouldn’t we all go, then?” Gwen asked.
“We can handle it,” Ianto told her. “I’ll let Jack off the leash if I have to.”
Jack had snuck up behind him, and stole the keys from him at that precise moment. “I don’t think they want to know what we get up to after hours. Come on!”
Ianto rolled his eyes and followed Jack into the lift up to the car park, and resigned himself to the passenger seat. It shouldn’t have taken long - it was only a half hour walk, after all - but the one-way system was against them and it took a long loop around before they got there.
# # #
They arrived in the car park by the lock-ups, and Ianto reached for the radio to find the right frequency. There was a microphone on the sensor at the locker, which would be picking up now the sensor had been set-off. Once he found it, if he found it, they’d be able to hear anything the idiots in front of it were saying.
True to form, Jack let Ianto fuss with it for a minute and then tapped at his wrist-strap, which tuned in to the right frequency immediately. Ianto gave him a withering look and sat back to listen.
The sound was crackly and indistinct, and it being on the wrong side of the garage door wasn’t helping. They got snatches of conversation, the occasional loud curse, a quiet buzzing in the background, and then very clearly, “Fucking Torchwood”. Ianto was reaching for the glove box before he was aware he’d heard it, and had his stun gun out before Jack had started telling him.
“We’ve got to keep them here,” Jack muttered. He reached up to activate his earpiece and smiled grimly. “Tosh, roll it. We’re going to keep them here, but come armed.”
She confirmed it and Ianto looked across at Jack. “Have we got a plan?”
“Don’t get close. They’ve put themselves down the side of that van, so we’ll just keep them there.” He looked at Ianto’s stun gun. “Have you got anything with more firepower?”
“We need them alive.”
“We need us alive.” Jack hesitated but nodded his assent. “We don’t want to get that close to them, anyway. Be careful.”
They got out of the SUV, locked it up and turned to face the lock-ups. One of them would have to go across the open, whilst the other could go around behind the garages. “Toss a coin?”
Jack gave him a stern look and pointed. “You go left...”
Jack gave him a stern look and pointed. “You go right...”
# # #
Jack took off from him, behind the garages, and Ianto edged forwards until he could see the van clearly. There was no sign of the men behind it, so he kept going across the open gravel yard. He was halfway across before he could see any movement, and realised that they were both facing away, towards where Jack had just emerged to cover him. He was still shielded by the van, though, so he made a quick burst to get behind the lock-ups, out of sight, and dropped a handful of tire-tacks across the only way out. He took a deep breath and edged back to the edge, waiting for confirmation from Jack that he was in place.
Instead of confirmation, though, he got a sudden burst of movement. He whirled around the corner as the first shots were fired, saw them facing away from him, dived forwards and caught one of them in the back before they could respond.
Out in the open, beyond the van, Jack had crumpled to the floor, and the last man standing hesitated just a moment too long over whether to finish Jack off or go for Ianto. He turned and tried to bring his gun up on Ianto, but Ianto was already there, up close and personal with his trusty stun gun.
# # #
Ianto took off behind the garages, away from Jack, to approach the van from the other side. There was a narrow alley between the block of garages and the wall of the warehouse, overgrown with strangled nettles and Oxford Ragwort, and he padded down the gap carefully. They were too close to the would-be-burglars to communicate with each other, so he just had to guess where Jack had got to.
He peered around the wall and saw Jack crossing the open land and dropping tire tacks into the gravel, and smiled to himself. When Jack got to the dangerous point, nearing the edge of the van, Ianto made his move as well, keeping his back to the warehouse wall and sliding down towards the van to cover Jack. He still couldn’t see them, so he got himself further forwards with more room to manoeuvre if required.
That proved to be a mistake, as one of them stood up and spotted him through the windscreen of the van. He tried to move into position, or back out of the line of fire, but before he could get anywhere the guy who’d seen him had got forwards enough to take a shot, and Ianto felt the sudden sharp shock of a bullet.
Time slowed down, and numbness slammed into him. He could feel, distantly, his knees crumpling, and then he crashed to the floor. Even that didn’t hurt, though. The numbness was all-consuming, and a blessed relief from what should have been agony, and probably would be just as soon as Owen got there.
# # #
He looked over at Jack, fished in his pockets for his handcuffs with one hand and activated his earpiece with the other. “Jack is down, guys, but our guests are out for the count.”
They were sprawled on the floor, either completely or mostly unconscious, but one of them seemed to be coming around. Ianto got his handcuffs out, snapped one around that guy’s wrist, threaded it through behind the fall-pipe on the lock-ups and cuffed the other guy to the other side. It wasn’t fancy and wouldn’t have held him and Jack for long at all, but with any luck at least one of them would be out for long enough for back-up to arrive, or for Jack to be up and useful.
Ianto turned his attention back to Jack at that point. He was crumpled on the ground, with his coat spread out below him, and Ianto hurried over and turned him, trying to find where he’d been hit. The bullet had entered his chest, and Ianto could already tell that it would be fatal. Jack swore fiercely, and blood trickled out of his mouth, but he smiled up at Ianto and grabbed weakly for his hand.
“I’ve got you,” he promised, brushing Jack’s hair off his forehead. “You’re okay.”
Jack smiled at the lie, and cried out as Ianto pulled him into his arms. He was bleeding out, and whilst Ianto couldn’t do anything to hasten it, he wouldn’t do anything to slow it, either. They were too used to this dance, too used to Jack’s rash mistakes and unthinking selflessness. Ianto kissed him and held on as the life left him.
# # #
He focussed on keeping breathing and staying conscious as Jack raced across to him. One look at Jack’s face told Ianto that it was worse than he’d believed, and he choked with fear, feeling blood trickle out of his mouth. Darkness started to crawl at the edges of his vision, and he fought it back, reaching out for Jack’s hand and clinging to it as tightly as he could.
“Jack...”
“Don’t... Save your breath,” Jack told him fiercely. “You’re going to be okay.”
Ianto smiled at the lie, because the truth should have hurt. The numbness was turning to ice, though, and he could barely feel anything. “Shut up...” he paused to gasp for breath, “kiss me.”
Jack, for once, did as he was told. He bent over Ianto and cupped his face, holding him tenderly as he kissed him. Ianto felt warmth flooding into him from the kiss, and when he closed his eyes he could see a golden glow. He’d seen it before, when Jack kissed Carys, and felt it when Jack kissed him, when Lisa nearly killed him. He reached for Jack, weakly, and let Jack gather him into his arms. It should have hurt, should have burned with agony, but the numbness was only settling deeper and the darkness was coming closer.
Sirens sounded in the distance, and Jack pulled away to look for them. When he turned back to Ianto his eyes were red, and his smile was cracked. “You’ll be fine, the ambulance is nearly here. Please...”
He closed his eyes and gasped for breath. “I love you.” It was barely a whisper, choked and breathless, but he knew Jack heard it. “Jack...”
“I love you too,” Jack sobbed. “Please don’t leave me.”
Ianto tried to laugh and choked. The ice was receding and the blackness was encroaching. Sounds turned fuzzy and faded out, until all he could hear was his own breath, until that too stopped.
# # #
The team roared up in Owen’s 4x4 and piled out. Ianto stayed where he was, pinned by Jack’s body, and started giving them instructions. “Tosh, we need you to look at the door, see what they were using and if they got anywhere with it. Owen and Gwen, go through their van and see if there’s anything incriminating in it and then take them back to the Hub in it. Try to get them back before they wake up.”
They nodded at him, and Owen gestured to Jack. “Need a hand there?”
“I’ve got him.” He looked down at Jack and at his own arm, which was going numb. “We’ll load him into the back of the SUV if he’s not awake in time.”
It was a simple mop-up, really, and most of the work would be getting the answers out of their ‘guests’, however long it took. Gwen and Owen declared the van empty and dragged its comatose owners into the back, then shut them in and took the van back to the Hub. With that out of the way, Ianto could see Tosh checking the locks on the garage. She’d just turned and given him a thumbs up when Jack gasped and lurched up in his arms. Ianto held him steady and pulled him closer as he regained his balance, and Jack eventually slumped back against his chest.
“Are we done?” Jack gasped.
“All finished. A bit of a damp squib, really.” Ianto helped him to sit up properly and then extricated himself so that he could stand up and massage feeling back into his arm. “Did you have to die on my arm?”
“Hey, I died where you put me.”
He reached a hand up and Ianto got the message, tugging him to his feet. When he swayed, Ianto stepped closer and put one arm around his wait to hold him steady. “You okay?”
“Fine.” He smiled tiredly. “I think you might have to drive, and God I need a shower.”
Ianto rolled his eyes and released him, then turned away to wave at Tosh. “You’d better take Owen’s car - he’ll kill me if Jack gets blood on the seats.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that’s Owen’s job. Basic tech on the door, by the way. No wonder they couldn’t get in.”
“No wonder indeed,” he agreed. “Alright, we’ll follow you back.”
Before he could start towards where they’d left the SUV, Jack grabbed him from behind and whirled him around to kiss him fiercely. Ianto gave as good as he got and clung to Jack’s shoulders, until Jack had pulled back and he could breathe again. “Feel better for that, Jack?”
“For the moment.” He released Ianto and smiled tightly. “Although I might have to do it again later, just to be sure.”
“Well I’m sure I can fit you into my schedule somewhere.” He smirked and dodged away before Jack could smack him. “Now come on, we have burglars to threaten.”
# # #
Burning, lancing pain shot through him, radiating out from his heart. He gasped and arched his back against it, felt hands restraining him and fought against them, and sank back onto the hard ground as the pain subsided. Opening his eyes was a mistake, as the light formed daggers of pain, and he squinted against it. He could hear raised voices, jumbled and incomprehensible, and then heard Jack coming closer, shouting. A moment later Jack was holding him tight, babbling at him, and Ianto just curled towards him and gasped with the pain.
It started to recede at last, from a consuming fire to pockets of heat that faded into pins and needles and then a vague numbness. Jack’s arms were vice-tight and reassuring around him, and he was rocking Ianto gently. Someone tried to pull them apart and Ianto just burrowed closer, clinging onto the only thing that made sense.
It only took a couple of minutes, although it seemed much longer in the moment, before he got his bearings and started to focus on what was happening around him. Three familiar sets of legs and two unfamiliar sets in Paramedic uniforms were crowding around them, which really hadn’t helped, and Owen was trying to reassure Jack that they just wanted to check Ianto over. He blinked against the light again and raised his head to look at them.
“I’m fine.” His voice was a wreck, but they all looked more shocked than he was. “Just... back off, okay?”
They did as he told them, although they didn’t go far, and Ianto forced himself to focus on Jack. He was distraught, shaking and crying even as he stared at Ianto like he couldn’t believe it. That was fair enough, because Ianto couldn’t believe it either. He made a grab for Ianto again and Ianto hugged him tightly, clinging on for dear life. “I’m okay,” he gasped, reassuring himself as much as Jack. “I’m okay.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Jack sobbed. “I thought you were...”
“Yeah.” He was, but that wasn’t something he needed to think about right now. He pulled himself together for Jack’s sake, kissed him, and pulled back. “I need to let them look me over, make sure I’m okay.”
Jack nodded and released him, eventually, and dragged himself to his feet to sway unsteadily. Tosh caught him and steered him over to sit in the back of the SUV, and Ianto gave her as grateful a smile as he could manage as the paramedics and Owen dragged him over to the waiting ambulance.
# # #
Jack emerged from the locker rooms still fastening his shirt, and Ianto rolled his eyes. He held out Jack’s mug and followed him down to the cells, where their two visitors were across from Janet and the Hoix, looking decidedly unhappy about it. He leaned against the glass door of Janet’s cell and gave her a stern glare, then settled back to drink his coffee and watch Jack work.
He’d grabbed the chair from the corner of the room and dropped himself into it with his legs crossed casually. They watched warily as he drank his coffee and ignored them, and the one at the back of the cell started darting nervous, furtive glances at them.
“You can’t keep us here forever,” he snapped at last, earning a glare from his companion and a raised eyebrow from Jack. “This is kidnap.”
Jack picked up the newspaper he’d brought down and opened it with a sigh. Silence descended again, broken by Janet’s grunts and the drip of water down the walls of the damp cells. Ianto finished his coffee, collected Jack’s empty mug from him and took them to the stairs out of the cells to put them out of the way.
When his back was turned, the more confident of the two men spoke up. “Our bosses know where we are.”
“Do you know where you are?” Jack asked in a bored tone.
“Yeah, I do.” He glared at them and bared his teeth in a snarl. “This is Torchwood.”
Jack turned a page and pointed at it. “Tesco have been given planning for another store, Ianto. I can’t believe the council lets them get away with it.”
“Well, people will keep shopping there, sir. Including you, I hasten to add.”
He sighed and cracked the paper out again. “True, I suppose. So, brains of the operation, would you like to tell your friend exactly why he’s wrong?”
The man kept glaring at them as he said, “They’re Torchwood, above the law. They can keep us as long as they like, fake our deaths and wipe out our identities, if they want. Nothing the police can do to stop them.”
Jack nodded approvingly, looking at them over the top of his paper. “Ianto’s very good at faking deaths, and at wiping people’s identities. You should see the fun he has, just by wiping a couple of details. Oh, it can take weeks for people to get it sorted, and that’s just because they cut him up at a roundabout. Isn’t that right, Ianto?”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to teach them a lesson, sir.” He picked at his nails. “And it’s so much neater than faking a death - I do hate it when I get my hands dirty.”
“He really does.” Jack grinned. “There was this one time...
“Jack...”
“In fact, I think I’m going to go and get his hands dirty right now.” He stood up and stretched. “I’m hungry, and I’m tired, and someone shot me today, so I think I’m going to go home, eat pizza, let Ianto fuck me into the mattress, and come back to deal with you in the morning. How does that sound?” They were silent, so he shrugged and gave a long-suffering sigh. “Well, there’s just no pleasing some people. I’ll leave the light on for you, because otherwise Janet gets all antsy. Don’t mind her, she can’t eat you... from over there.”
They let themselves out into the corridor, sealed the door behind them, and smirked at each other. Ianto shook his head and set off towards the kitchen. “So which of us was the good cop and which was the bad cop?”
“I think I was the bond villain and you were my sinister assistant.” Jack put his hand on Ianto’s arse to steer him along, unnecessarily. “God you’re creepy when you do that.”
“I do my best, sir.”
Jack growled. “Let’s skip the pizza.”
“I’m hungry!”
“Then let’s eat the pizza quickly.” They got back to the Hub and Jack clapped his hands. “Alright kids, call it a night. Owen and Gwen, I need you to stay behind and mind the Hub - I don’t think we’ll get visitors, but just in case. Tosh, I want as much on these guys as you can by tomorrow lunch time.” He turned around as Ianto emerged from the kitchen and grinned. “Ianto, pizza.”
# # #
Ianto did his best to ignore everyone, focussed on getting through the check-up from the paramedics and Owen. They could find nothing wrong with him, much to their distress and confusion, and Owen ended up giving him a stern clean bill of health and taking them off to explain in small words that this was none of their business and didn’t even happen.
He let Tosh guide him into the passenger seat of the SUV, and was vaguely aware of Jack piling into the back seat behind him. Part of him wanted to crawl into the back, cling to Jack and not surface until Jack had proved once and for all that they were alive and there and together. Numbness was winning out, though, and he tuned out the background noises to focus on the suddenly loud thumping of his heart and the rush of air in and out of his lungs.
She took them straight back to their apartment, and dropped them at the door. Jack said something, Ianto didn’t hear what, and guided him into the hall and into the lift. The movement started to wake him up, and he caught sight of his own reflection in the mirrored wall. Blood soaked his shirt and jacket, spreading out from a strangely tiny hole at the edge of the pocket. If it had hit him there, it was no wonder he’d...
They stumbled into the flat and kicked off boots and coats. Ianto dropped his jacket in a pile on the floor and started removing his shirt as he went. “I need a bath,” he managed to mutter. “Just... bath.”
He stood under the shower first and watched the water run red with his own blood, then dripped over to the bath and let it fill around him. It was as hot as he could take it, and his skin turned an angry, living red. The heat sent him dizzy, and he sank into the water, only reaching out to turn the taps off because he’d locked the door and didn’t actually want to flood the flat.
The water started to cool, and he grabbed the bar of soap, scrubbing it at his skin and fighting the urge to scratch at his chest until he bled again. Blood was real, and alive, and caught under his nails... he scrubbed at them and dropped the soap into the water to hide his face in his hands and choke back sobs.
The water was properly cold and his fingers were wrinkled by the time he got out of the bath. He wrapped a towel around his waist and brushed his teeth several times, then let himself out through the other door into the bedroom, pulled on jeans, a disreputable T shirt and a band hoody and his trainers. Jack started when he walked into the living room, and made to stand up until Ianto waved him back down. “I need to go for a walk; a long walk.”
Jack nodded and dropped his hands between his knees. His eyes were still red-rimmed and swollen, and he followed Ianto’s movements around the kitchen area. “When will you be back?”
“When I’m ready.” He dropped a couple of chocolate bars into his pockets and cracked open a can of coke, then stomped to the front door and dragged it open. “See you later.”
# # #
Ianto grunted when Jack rolled out of bed, and turned just enough to watch him disappear into the bathroom. He smirked to himself and forced himself out of bed to follow him, caught the door of the shower before it had closed behind Jack and crammed himself into the tiny space with him. Jack showed no objections - quite the opposite, in fact - and they took far longer than they would have in separate showers. Jack left him brushing his teeth, and by the time Ianto had finished off and got dressed he was already in the kitchen watching the toaster.
“Coffee?” Ianto offered, more for something to say than because it needed asking. He got an enthusiastic non-verbal response anyway, and chuckled to himself as he made up two travel mugs.
Five minutes later they were out of the door, walking to work and eating cheese on toast and trying not to spill their coffee down themselves. Cardiff was still barely waking up by the time they got in to relieve Owen and Gwen, who went home willingly, and they threw themselves into their work to sort through the information the night scans had brought up, before Tosh got in and started dragging up data on their overnight guests.
Ianto took them tinned peaches for breakfast, in bright orange plastic bowls from Tesco with Thomas the Tank Engine baby cutlery - they didn’t look remotely impressed, and he came away grinning. “Any sign of someone coming for them?” he asked when he got back to the main level.
“No sign yet, and no one claiming responsibility.” Jack was watching the CCTV with his feet on the desk. “Tenner says they’re just going to get cut loose.”
“Twenty says someone tries to break them out for the information they’ve gathered.” He pulled his wallet out and slipped a note under the coral on Jack’s desk. “And if I win, you can buy me dinner.”
“With that twenty?”
“With whatever twenty you like.”
# # #
Ianto was still walking when the sun started to rise, and he turned towards town, keeping his head down and scuffing his feet along. His mind wouldn’t stop turning, but it hadn’t touched the numbness that seeped through the rest of him. In town, he found an all-night corner shop where he could buy a cheap notebook and an expensive biro, and a greasy spoon cafe that would give him terrible coffee in huge mugs and bacon that made his arteries cry.
As he waited for his breakfast and coffee to arrive, he started writing down his thoughts in the notebook. They arrived and went cold as he filled pages and pages with his confusion and emptiness and pain. By the time a waitress had come and huffed at him and taken them away, he had the beginnings of a plan, and a concrete idea of what he needed to happen.
He crossed the road to the bus station and got the Bay circular down to the Plass. It was still nearly deserted at that time of the morning, and he sloped across to the Invisible Lift and waited to be let in. Someone must have been watching him, because he was barely steady on it before it started descending, bringing him down into the dark Hub.
Jack and Tosh were waiting at the bottom, watching him, and Jack stepped towards him when he got to the bottom. He tried a smile that didn’t fit as well as it should, and Ianto looked away. “Did it work?”
“I had a lot to think about,” he answered, turning away from them and making for the kitchen. “A lot to... I have a lot to plan.”
“For what?”
“I’m leaving Torchwood.” He propped his fists on the edge of the counter and dropped his head forwards. “I can’t live like this.”
“Ianto!” Tosh caught his shoulder and tried to turn him. “You can’t. You’re...”
“I died last night, Tosh, and now I’m here. I’ve seen so much shit, and every day I’m looking over my shoulder... I can’t live like this forever.” He shrugged her off and didn’t turn. “I need one life without knowing.”
“Please, Ianto,” Jack begged, sounding like he hadn’t moved since Ianto got into the Hub. “Please don’t. I lost you once already.”
“I’ll come back. Of course I’ll come back, but not... I was eighteen when I joined Torchwood, you know?” He shook his head and growled. “I was mad, and I’m fucked up. I want one lifetime without it.”
“Without us.”
“Without being me.” He looked over at Tosh and smiled weakly. “I didn’t know until now how much I relied on knowing I was going to die.”
Jack sobbed and Tosh stepped back, shaking her head. “How can you say that?”
“Because now I’m living the opposite.”
The silence rang, and then Jack cleared his throat. “What do you need from us?”
Ianto reached into the cupboard for the mugs. “I’ll need a week, probably, to get everything ready. And then I need you to leave me in peace, for as long as possible.”
Tosh hurried away, and Jack’s office door closed firmly. He dropped his head against the cupboard door, and wiped away the tears that flowed freely down his face.
Chapter Title: Chapter 1
Challenge/Fest: LongLiveIanto Bingo
Prompt: Fork in the Road AU
Rating: T
Dedication: For
laligin,Summary: One decision, two possible outcomes. Taking the wrong path leads Ianto down a life he thought he'd lost.
Characters: Jack/Ianto, team, others.
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
An activity alert flashed up on Ianto’s screen, obscuring the report he’d been writing. His first instinct was to brush it out of the way, but sometimes there was more to the reports than kids getting too close to the sensors and he pulled up the security cameras. It was one of their lock-ups in the docks area, where they kept a lot of the random space junk that didn’t really need to be lugged down into the archives. Nothing dangerous, really, but not something they wanted stealing.
Two men were leaning against a dark van, staring at the door. The van obscured the camera’s view, but they’d set off the sensors on the door somehow. He gave them a frustrated look and pulled his desk drawer open for his keys. “Jack, we’ve got someone trying to be clever down at lock-up three.”
Jack pushed his chair back so that he was framed in the doorway and could see Ianto. “You think it’s worth going out to?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “They’ve tried to get in once, so we’d better go and deal with it, just in case. They’ve probably just got the wrong one.”
“Probably isn’t good enough.” Jack sighed and reached up for his coat. “Alright, let’s go put the wind up them. God, I hate amateurs.” Ianto reached him and helped him to put his coat on, sliding his fingers down over his shoulders more slowly than was needed. He got a brief smile for it, and then Jack was bouncing down the stairs into the main Hub and calling out instructions. “Tosh, you’re in charge. We shouldn’t be gone long, but be ready in case we need to call for back-up. Like Ianto said, they’re probably just at the wrong locker, but it’s best to be sure.”
“Shouldn’t we all go, then?” Gwen asked.
“We can handle it,” Ianto told her. “I’ll let Jack off the leash if I have to.”
Jack had snuck up behind him, and stole the keys from him at that precise moment. “I don’t think they want to know what we get up to after hours. Come on!”
Ianto rolled his eyes and followed Jack into the lift up to the car park, and resigned himself to the passenger seat. It shouldn’t have taken long - it was only a half hour walk, after all - but the one-way system was against them and it took a long loop around before they got there.
# # #
They arrived in the car park by the lock-ups, and Ianto reached for the radio to find the right frequency. There was a microphone on the sensor at the locker, which would be picking up now the sensor had been set-off. Once he found it, if he found it, they’d be able to hear anything the idiots in front of it were saying.
True to form, Jack let Ianto fuss with it for a minute and then tapped at his wrist-strap, which tuned in to the right frequency immediately. Ianto gave him a withering look and sat back to listen.
The sound was crackly and indistinct, and it being on the wrong side of the garage door wasn’t helping. They got snatches of conversation, the occasional loud curse, a quiet buzzing in the background, and then very clearly, “Fucking Torchwood”. Ianto was reaching for the glove box before he was aware he’d heard it, and had his stun gun out before Jack had started telling him.
“We’ve got to keep them here,” Jack muttered. He reached up to activate his earpiece and smiled grimly. “Tosh, roll it. We’re going to keep them here, but come armed.”
She confirmed it and Ianto looked across at Jack. “Have we got a plan?”
“Don’t get close. They’ve put themselves down the side of that van, so we’ll just keep them there.” He looked at Ianto’s stun gun. “Have you got anything with more firepower?”
“We need them alive.”
“We need us alive.” Jack hesitated but nodded his assent. “We don’t want to get that close to them, anyway. Be careful.”
They got out of the SUV, locked it up and turned to face the lock-ups. One of them would have to go across the open, whilst the other could go around behind the garages. “Toss a coin?”
Jack gave him a stern look and pointed. “You go left...”
Jack gave him a stern look and pointed. “You go right...”
# # #
Jack took off from him, behind the garages, and Ianto edged forwards until he could see the van clearly. There was no sign of the men behind it, so he kept going across the open gravel yard. He was halfway across before he could see any movement, and realised that they were both facing away, towards where Jack had just emerged to cover him. He was still shielded by the van, though, so he made a quick burst to get behind the lock-ups, out of sight, and dropped a handful of tire-tacks across the only way out. He took a deep breath and edged back to the edge, waiting for confirmation from Jack that he was in place.
Instead of confirmation, though, he got a sudden burst of movement. He whirled around the corner as the first shots were fired, saw them facing away from him, dived forwards and caught one of them in the back before they could respond.
Out in the open, beyond the van, Jack had crumpled to the floor, and the last man standing hesitated just a moment too long over whether to finish Jack off or go for Ianto. He turned and tried to bring his gun up on Ianto, but Ianto was already there, up close and personal with his trusty stun gun.
# # #
Ianto took off behind the garages, away from Jack, to approach the van from the other side. There was a narrow alley between the block of garages and the wall of the warehouse, overgrown with strangled nettles and Oxford Ragwort, and he padded down the gap carefully. They were too close to the would-be-burglars to communicate with each other, so he just had to guess where Jack had got to.
He peered around the wall and saw Jack crossing the open land and dropping tire tacks into the gravel, and smiled to himself. When Jack got to the dangerous point, nearing the edge of the van, Ianto made his move as well, keeping his back to the warehouse wall and sliding down towards the van to cover Jack. He still couldn’t see them, so he got himself further forwards with more room to manoeuvre if required.
That proved to be a mistake, as one of them stood up and spotted him through the windscreen of the van. He tried to move into position, or back out of the line of fire, but before he could get anywhere the guy who’d seen him had got forwards enough to take a shot, and Ianto felt the sudden sharp shock of a bullet.
Time slowed down, and numbness slammed into him. He could feel, distantly, his knees crumpling, and then he crashed to the floor. Even that didn’t hurt, though. The numbness was all-consuming, and a blessed relief from what should have been agony, and probably would be just as soon as Owen got there.
# # #
He looked over at Jack, fished in his pockets for his handcuffs with one hand and activated his earpiece with the other. “Jack is down, guys, but our guests are out for the count.”
They were sprawled on the floor, either completely or mostly unconscious, but one of them seemed to be coming around. Ianto got his handcuffs out, snapped one around that guy’s wrist, threaded it through behind the fall-pipe on the lock-ups and cuffed the other guy to the other side. It wasn’t fancy and wouldn’t have held him and Jack for long at all, but with any luck at least one of them would be out for long enough for back-up to arrive, or for Jack to be up and useful.
Ianto turned his attention back to Jack at that point. He was crumpled on the ground, with his coat spread out below him, and Ianto hurried over and turned him, trying to find where he’d been hit. The bullet had entered his chest, and Ianto could already tell that it would be fatal. Jack swore fiercely, and blood trickled out of his mouth, but he smiled up at Ianto and grabbed weakly for his hand.
“I’ve got you,” he promised, brushing Jack’s hair off his forehead. “You’re okay.”
Jack smiled at the lie, and cried out as Ianto pulled him into his arms. He was bleeding out, and whilst Ianto couldn’t do anything to hasten it, he wouldn’t do anything to slow it, either. They were too used to this dance, too used to Jack’s rash mistakes and unthinking selflessness. Ianto kissed him and held on as the life left him.
# # #
He focussed on keeping breathing and staying conscious as Jack raced across to him. One look at Jack’s face told Ianto that it was worse than he’d believed, and he choked with fear, feeling blood trickle out of his mouth. Darkness started to crawl at the edges of his vision, and he fought it back, reaching out for Jack’s hand and clinging to it as tightly as he could.
“Jack...”
“Don’t... Save your breath,” Jack told him fiercely. “You’re going to be okay.”
Ianto smiled at the lie, because the truth should have hurt. The numbness was turning to ice, though, and he could barely feel anything. “Shut up...” he paused to gasp for breath, “kiss me.”
Jack, for once, did as he was told. He bent over Ianto and cupped his face, holding him tenderly as he kissed him. Ianto felt warmth flooding into him from the kiss, and when he closed his eyes he could see a golden glow. He’d seen it before, when Jack kissed Carys, and felt it when Jack kissed him, when Lisa nearly killed him. He reached for Jack, weakly, and let Jack gather him into his arms. It should have hurt, should have burned with agony, but the numbness was only settling deeper and the darkness was coming closer.
Sirens sounded in the distance, and Jack pulled away to look for them. When he turned back to Ianto his eyes were red, and his smile was cracked. “You’ll be fine, the ambulance is nearly here. Please...”
He closed his eyes and gasped for breath. “I love you.” It was barely a whisper, choked and breathless, but he knew Jack heard it. “Jack...”
“I love you too,” Jack sobbed. “Please don’t leave me.”
Ianto tried to laugh and choked. The ice was receding and the blackness was encroaching. Sounds turned fuzzy and faded out, until all he could hear was his own breath, until that too stopped.
# # #
The team roared up in Owen’s 4x4 and piled out. Ianto stayed where he was, pinned by Jack’s body, and started giving them instructions. “Tosh, we need you to look at the door, see what they were using and if they got anywhere with it. Owen and Gwen, go through their van and see if there’s anything incriminating in it and then take them back to the Hub in it. Try to get them back before they wake up.”
They nodded at him, and Owen gestured to Jack. “Need a hand there?”
“I’ve got him.” He looked down at Jack and at his own arm, which was going numb. “We’ll load him into the back of the SUV if he’s not awake in time.”
It was a simple mop-up, really, and most of the work would be getting the answers out of their ‘guests’, however long it took. Gwen and Owen declared the van empty and dragged its comatose owners into the back, then shut them in and took the van back to the Hub. With that out of the way, Ianto could see Tosh checking the locks on the garage. She’d just turned and given him a thumbs up when Jack gasped and lurched up in his arms. Ianto held him steady and pulled him closer as he regained his balance, and Jack eventually slumped back against his chest.
“Are we done?” Jack gasped.
“All finished. A bit of a damp squib, really.” Ianto helped him to sit up properly and then extricated himself so that he could stand up and massage feeling back into his arm. “Did you have to die on my arm?”
“Hey, I died where you put me.”
He reached a hand up and Ianto got the message, tugging him to his feet. When he swayed, Ianto stepped closer and put one arm around his wait to hold him steady. “You okay?”
“Fine.” He smiled tiredly. “I think you might have to drive, and God I need a shower.”
Ianto rolled his eyes and released him, then turned away to wave at Tosh. “You’d better take Owen’s car - he’ll kill me if Jack gets blood on the seats.”
She laughed. “Yeah, that’s Owen’s job. Basic tech on the door, by the way. No wonder they couldn’t get in.”
“No wonder indeed,” he agreed. “Alright, we’ll follow you back.”
Before he could start towards where they’d left the SUV, Jack grabbed him from behind and whirled him around to kiss him fiercely. Ianto gave as good as he got and clung to Jack’s shoulders, until Jack had pulled back and he could breathe again. “Feel better for that, Jack?”
“For the moment.” He released Ianto and smiled tightly. “Although I might have to do it again later, just to be sure.”
“Well I’m sure I can fit you into my schedule somewhere.” He smirked and dodged away before Jack could smack him. “Now come on, we have burglars to threaten.”
# # #
Burning, lancing pain shot through him, radiating out from his heart. He gasped and arched his back against it, felt hands restraining him and fought against them, and sank back onto the hard ground as the pain subsided. Opening his eyes was a mistake, as the light formed daggers of pain, and he squinted against it. He could hear raised voices, jumbled and incomprehensible, and then heard Jack coming closer, shouting. A moment later Jack was holding him tight, babbling at him, and Ianto just curled towards him and gasped with the pain.
It started to recede at last, from a consuming fire to pockets of heat that faded into pins and needles and then a vague numbness. Jack’s arms were vice-tight and reassuring around him, and he was rocking Ianto gently. Someone tried to pull them apart and Ianto just burrowed closer, clinging onto the only thing that made sense.
It only took a couple of minutes, although it seemed much longer in the moment, before he got his bearings and started to focus on what was happening around him. Three familiar sets of legs and two unfamiliar sets in Paramedic uniforms were crowding around them, which really hadn’t helped, and Owen was trying to reassure Jack that they just wanted to check Ianto over. He blinked against the light again and raised his head to look at them.
“I’m fine.” His voice was a wreck, but they all looked more shocked than he was. “Just... back off, okay?”
They did as he told them, although they didn’t go far, and Ianto forced himself to focus on Jack. He was distraught, shaking and crying even as he stared at Ianto like he couldn’t believe it. That was fair enough, because Ianto couldn’t believe it either. He made a grab for Ianto again and Ianto hugged him tightly, clinging on for dear life. “I’m okay,” he gasped, reassuring himself as much as Jack. “I’m okay.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” Jack sobbed. “I thought you were...”
“Yeah.” He was, but that wasn’t something he needed to think about right now. He pulled himself together for Jack’s sake, kissed him, and pulled back. “I need to let them look me over, make sure I’m okay.”
Jack nodded and released him, eventually, and dragged himself to his feet to sway unsteadily. Tosh caught him and steered him over to sit in the back of the SUV, and Ianto gave her as grateful a smile as he could manage as the paramedics and Owen dragged him over to the waiting ambulance.
# # #
Jack emerged from the locker rooms still fastening his shirt, and Ianto rolled his eyes. He held out Jack’s mug and followed him down to the cells, where their two visitors were across from Janet and the Hoix, looking decidedly unhappy about it. He leaned against the glass door of Janet’s cell and gave her a stern glare, then settled back to drink his coffee and watch Jack work.
He’d grabbed the chair from the corner of the room and dropped himself into it with his legs crossed casually. They watched warily as he drank his coffee and ignored them, and the one at the back of the cell started darting nervous, furtive glances at them.
“You can’t keep us here forever,” he snapped at last, earning a glare from his companion and a raised eyebrow from Jack. “This is kidnap.”
Jack picked up the newspaper he’d brought down and opened it with a sigh. Silence descended again, broken by Janet’s grunts and the drip of water down the walls of the damp cells. Ianto finished his coffee, collected Jack’s empty mug from him and took them to the stairs out of the cells to put them out of the way.
When his back was turned, the more confident of the two men spoke up. “Our bosses know where we are.”
“Do you know where you are?” Jack asked in a bored tone.
“Yeah, I do.” He glared at them and bared his teeth in a snarl. “This is Torchwood.”
Jack turned a page and pointed at it. “Tesco have been given planning for another store, Ianto. I can’t believe the council lets them get away with it.”
“Well, people will keep shopping there, sir. Including you, I hasten to add.”
He sighed and cracked the paper out again. “True, I suppose. So, brains of the operation, would you like to tell your friend exactly why he’s wrong?”
The man kept glaring at them as he said, “They’re Torchwood, above the law. They can keep us as long as they like, fake our deaths and wipe out our identities, if they want. Nothing the police can do to stop them.”
Jack nodded approvingly, looking at them over the top of his paper. “Ianto’s very good at faking deaths, and at wiping people’s identities. You should see the fun he has, just by wiping a couple of details. Oh, it can take weeks for people to get it sorted, and that’s just because they cut him up at a roundabout. Isn’t that right, Ianto?”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to teach them a lesson, sir.” He picked at his nails. “And it’s so much neater than faking a death - I do hate it when I get my hands dirty.”
“He really does.” Jack grinned. “There was this one time...
“Jack...”
“In fact, I think I’m going to go and get his hands dirty right now.” He stood up and stretched. “I’m hungry, and I’m tired, and someone shot me today, so I think I’m going to go home, eat pizza, let Ianto fuck me into the mattress, and come back to deal with you in the morning. How does that sound?” They were silent, so he shrugged and gave a long-suffering sigh. “Well, there’s just no pleasing some people. I’ll leave the light on for you, because otherwise Janet gets all antsy. Don’t mind her, she can’t eat you... from over there.”
They let themselves out into the corridor, sealed the door behind them, and smirked at each other. Ianto shook his head and set off towards the kitchen. “So which of us was the good cop and which was the bad cop?”
“I think I was the bond villain and you were my sinister assistant.” Jack put his hand on Ianto’s arse to steer him along, unnecessarily. “God you’re creepy when you do that.”
“I do my best, sir.”
Jack growled. “Let’s skip the pizza.”
“I’m hungry!”
“Then let’s eat the pizza quickly.” They got back to the Hub and Jack clapped his hands. “Alright kids, call it a night. Owen and Gwen, I need you to stay behind and mind the Hub - I don’t think we’ll get visitors, but just in case. Tosh, I want as much on these guys as you can by tomorrow lunch time.” He turned around as Ianto emerged from the kitchen and grinned. “Ianto, pizza.”
# # #
Ianto did his best to ignore everyone, focussed on getting through the check-up from the paramedics and Owen. They could find nothing wrong with him, much to their distress and confusion, and Owen ended up giving him a stern clean bill of health and taking them off to explain in small words that this was none of their business and didn’t even happen.
He let Tosh guide him into the passenger seat of the SUV, and was vaguely aware of Jack piling into the back seat behind him. Part of him wanted to crawl into the back, cling to Jack and not surface until Jack had proved once and for all that they were alive and there and together. Numbness was winning out, though, and he tuned out the background noises to focus on the suddenly loud thumping of his heart and the rush of air in and out of his lungs.
She took them straight back to their apartment, and dropped them at the door. Jack said something, Ianto didn’t hear what, and guided him into the hall and into the lift. The movement started to wake him up, and he caught sight of his own reflection in the mirrored wall. Blood soaked his shirt and jacket, spreading out from a strangely tiny hole at the edge of the pocket. If it had hit him there, it was no wonder he’d...
They stumbled into the flat and kicked off boots and coats. Ianto dropped his jacket in a pile on the floor and started removing his shirt as he went. “I need a bath,” he managed to mutter. “Just... bath.”
He stood under the shower first and watched the water run red with his own blood, then dripped over to the bath and let it fill around him. It was as hot as he could take it, and his skin turned an angry, living red. The heat sent him dizzy, and he sank into the water, only reaching out to turn the taps off because he’d locked the door and didn’t actually want to flood the flat.
The water started to cool, and he grabbed the bar of soap, scrubbing it at his skin and fighting the urge to scratch at his chest until he bled again. Blood was real, and alive, and caught under his nails... he scrubbed at them and dropped the soap into the water to hide his face in his hands and choke back sobs.
The water was properly cold and his fingers were wrinkled by the time he got out of the bath. He wrapped a towel around his waist and brushed his teeth several times, then let himself out through the other door into the bedroom, pulled on jeans, a disreputable T shirt and a band hoody and his trainers. Jack started when he walked into the living room, and made to stand up until Ianto waved him back down. “I need to go for a walk; a long walk.”
Jack nodded and dropped his hands between his knees. His eyes were still red-rimmed and swollen, and he followed Ianto’s movements around the kitchen area. “When will you be back?”
“When I’m ready.” He dropped a couple of chocolate bars into his pockets and cracked open a can of coke, then stomped to the front door and dragged it open. “See you later.”
# # #
Ianto grunted when Jack rolled out of bed, and turned just enough to watch him disappear into the bathroom. He smirked to himself and forced himself out of bed to follow him, caught the door of the shower before it had closed behind Jack and crammed himself into the tiny space with him. Jack showed no objections - quite the opposite, in fact - and they took far longer than they would have in separate showers. Jack left him brushing his teeth, and by the time Ianto had finished off and got dressed he was already in the kitchen watching the toaster.
“Coffee?” Ianto offered, more for something to say than because it needed asking. He got an enthusiastic non-verbal response anyway, and chuckled to himself as he made up two travel mugs.
Five minutes later they were out of the door, walking to work and eating cheese on toast and trying not to spill their coffee down themselves. Cardiff was still barely waking up by the time they got in to relieve Owen and Gwen, who went home willingly, and they threw themselves into their work to sort through the information the night scans had brought up, before Tosh got in and started dragging up data on their overnight guests.
Ianto took them tinned peaches for breakfast, in bright orange plastic bowls from Tesco with Thomas the Tank Engine baby cutlery - they didn’t look remotely impressed, and he came away grinning. “Any sign of someone coming for them?” he asked when he got back to the main level.
“No sign yet, and no one claiming responsibility.” Jack was watching the CCTV with his feet on the desk. “Tenner says they’re just going to get cut loose.”
“Twenty says someone tries to break them out for the information they’ve gathered.” He pulled his wallet out and slipped a note under the coral on Jack’s desk. “And if I win, you can buy me dinner.”
“With that twenty?”
“With whatever twenty you like.”
# # #
Ianto was still walking when the sun started to rise, and he turned towards town, keeping his head down and scuffing his feet along. His mind wouldn’t stop turning, but it hadn’t touched the numbness that seeped through the rest of him. In town, he found an all-night corner shop where he could buy a cheap notebook and an expensive biro, and a greasy spoon cafe that would give him terrible coffee in huge mugs and bacon that made his arteries cry.
As he waited for his breakfast and coffee to arrive, he started writing down his thoughts in the notebook. They arrived and went cold as he filled pages and pages with his confusion and emptiness and pain. By the time a waitress had come and huffed at him and taken them away, he had the beginnings of a plan, and a concrete idea of what he needed to happen.
He crossed the road to the bus station and got the Bay circular down to the Plass. It was still nearly deserted at that time of the morning, and he sloped across to the Invisible Lift and waited to be let in. Someone must have been watching him, because he was barely steady on it before it started descending, bringing him down into the dark Hub.
Jack and Tosh were waiting at the bottom, watching him, and Jack stepped towards him when he got to the bottom. He tried a smile that didn’t fit as well as it should, and Ianto looked away. “Did it work?”
“I had a lot to think about,” he answered, turning away from them and making for the kitchen. “A lot to... I have a lot to plan.”
“For what?”
“I’m leaving Torchwood.” He propped his fists on the edge of the counter and dropped his head forwards. “I can’t live like this.”
“Ianto!” Tosh caught his shoulder and tried to turn him. “You can’t. You’re...”
“I died last night, Tosh, and now I’m here. I’ve seen so much shit, and every day I’m looking over my shoulder... I can’t live like this forever.” He shrugged her off and didn’t turn. “I need one life without knowing.”
“Please, Ianto,” Jack begged, sounding like he hadn’t moved since Ianto got into the Hub. “Please don’t. I lost you once already.”
“I’ll come back. Of course I’ll come back, but not... I was eighteen when I joined Torchwood, you know?” He shook his head and growled. “I was mad, and I’m fucked up. I want one lifetime without it.”
“Without us.”
“Without being me.” He looked over at Tosh and smiled weakly. “I didn’t know until now how much I relied on knowing I was going to die.”
Jack sobbed and Tosh stepped back, shaking her head. “How can you say that?”
“Because now I’m living the opposite.”
The silence rang, and then Jack cleared his throat. “What do you need from us?”
Ianto reached into the cupboard for the mugs. “I’ll need a week, probably, to get everything ready. And then I need you to leave me in peace, for as long as possible.”
Tosh hurried away, and Jack’s office door closed firmly. He dropped his head against the cupboard door, and wiped away the tears that flowed freely down his face.
