Bring Him Home: Chapter 4
Nov. 8th, 2010 10:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Title: Bring Him Home
Chapter Title: Chapter 4
Challenge/Fest: Schmoop_bingo (card 3)
Prompt: Perfume/cologne
Rating: G
Dedication:
Summary: One of Jack's missions has gone badly wrong, and Ianto has had to go to be with him, leaving 18-year-old Mica to babysit her young cousins and keep them distracted.
Characters: Mica Davies, Andrew Harkness-Jones, Mirabelle Harkness-Jones, Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, mentions of other canon and non-canon family
Contains: Fluff, family and friendship, cookies, a kitchen disaster, cricket and children.
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto sat down on the end of the bed and rubbed at his tired eyes. He'd been in Ecuador for twelve hours by now, so it was about twenty four hours since he left Wales, left Belle and Andrew with Mica to try to find Jack. Twenty eight hours since he got the call telling him that Jack had triggered an anti-trespassing system in the ancient pyramid and hadn't been seen since. They'd called the rescue team back as soon as Ianto arrived and was able to decode the message transmitted with the trigger. No point looking in a pyramid for someone who you know has been teleported off-world.
The heels of his palms came away wet from rubbing at his eyes, and he dropped his face into his hands, pressing his fingers against his eyelids as if that would get rid of the images running behind them. Memories segued into fantasy until he couldn't be sure which was which. Most people would be able to dismiss the bits with aliens as pure fantasy, but Ianto couldn't. And, of course, he had an ample catalogue of images of Jack dead and dying for his mind to bring up for him.
He growled and pushed up off the bed, pacing backwards and forwards between the end of the bed and the plate glass window. Jack had been given a top floor suite, with two bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, two huge ensuite bathrooms and a balcony with loungers and a hot tub. The balcony was between the two bedrooms, with the living room on the third side, so the bedrooms and balcony all had superb views across the lush rainforest to the imposing ruins that Jack had been called out here to investigate. Only the night before, Jack had been in the hot tub whilst he was on the phone to Ianto, telling him how much he wished he were here to enjoy it with him.
Well he was here. Not so much of the enjoying, or the with him, but here. He ran his hands through his hair once more and his gaze dropped to his case at the end of the bed, and he hauled it up onto the bed to open it and put his things away. It wasn't the right climate for shirts and suits out here, so he'd brought short sleeved shirts and loose trousers.
The wardrobe was huge, and barely a quarter of it was taken up with a row of blue shirts. Ianto was just putting his shirts away alongside Jack's when a flash of red caught his eye amongst the blue. He smoothed his shirt out to let the creases drop out and tugged on the red, finding a silk shirt sleeve. “Oh Jack...”
He blinked back tears again and stroked the cuff once more, then lifted one of Jack's shirts out. The soft cotton was so familiar and the colour spoke so much of home, it made him ache. He slid it off the hanger and sank down onto the bed, pressing the material to his lips and inhaling Jack's unique scent. “Please come home,” he whispered. If he closed his eyes he could nearly believe that Jack was there with him. “I don't know how long I can do this without you.”
---
A knock on the door roused him and he grumbled, opening his eyes reluctantly. It took a few seconds for the fog to seep away and unveil the room he'd been sleeping in, and for the smell of Jack to retreat to just that. It had been comforting, being surrounded by that familiar odour, so much so that he'd fallen into an exhausted sleep. The knock came again and someone called out, “Director? Are you alright in there?”
He got up and went to the door, running his hands through his hair to neaten it. “Yes?” he asked, looking down at the runner they'd sent to get him. “Sorry, I was asleep.”
“Long day,” the soldier commiserated. “Commander Fernando sent me to fetch you, sir. They've found the teleport controls.”
He swallowed hard and nodded. “I'll be right down. Just give me time to change. What's your name?”
“Phillip, sir.”
“Right. Back in a moment then, Phillip.” He closed the door and fumbled with the buttons on the shirt he'd travelled in, which was creased from sleeping in it and the fact that he'd been wearing it in the sultry heat for so many hours. Dropping it on the end of the bed, he pulled open the wardrobe and reached for one of his short-sleeved shirts, but that glimpse of red caught his eye again and he smiled.
Phillip drove him out to the pyramid and led him up the steps and into the cool, dark interior. Battery powered lights had been placed on the lamp shelf halfway up, and he carried an LED lamp as well to light the way. The walls were painted with depictions of religious ceremonies which seemed to feature a lot of death and an inhuman god figure. “I guess we can be certain that Supay wasn't from around here, then.”
“No. It confirms the theories about his demons as well.” Phillip brought the lamp closer to the wall and revealed a gruesome frieze of child sacrifice. “Makes you wonder why he stopped.”
“Maybe the conquistadores were just too much for him to deal with,” Ianto suggested. “or maybe he forgot about them when it stopped being worth it.” He clenched his fists and hoped that there was no one at the other end by now, but somewhere safe for Jack to land. “How far is it?”
“Down a level yet. Not far, though.”
They found the staircase in the grand hall, behind the sacrificial altar, and descended into the priests' rooms below. Commander Fernando was standing against the wall next to a doorway into a room now lit with clear white light. “Director Jones, welcome back,” she greeted him in her lilting accent. “I hope your rest was sufficiente?”
“Brief, but restful,” he told her. He glanced at Phillip's insignia and to smile at him. “The Corporal tells me that you've found the teleport device?”
“Yes, señor.” She gestured into the room. “I can show you.”
He followed her in, past the large stone bed and the altar to a panel on the back wall. A UNIT technician was crouching in front of it with a scanner, and she looked up at him before moving aside. “Señor.”
“I'm sorry, Director, but Maria does not speak English. I can provide a translation, though.”
“That's not necessary,” he assured her in Spanish. “My Spanish is rusty, but I can get by. What have we got here?”
Maria smiled at him and showed him the readings. “Low energy levels. They were probably just strong enough to teleport the Director out of here when he touched the trigger panel. Whether he knew what he'd found and did it on purpose and found himself unable to get back, or just activated it by accident, we can't tell.”
He nodded and set his bag down on the floor, pulling out his tool kit. “Have you been able to access the controls?”
She fiddled under the panel and lifted it. What had appeared to be stone was just a covering to hide the complex device underneath it. “It must be centuries old, though.”
“It's new enough,” Ianto assured her. “I've not seen one quite like this before, but it's based on the Telgari system, and they're always similar enough.”
“What do we need to do?” she asked.
He clucked his tongue. “Haven't you got a reverser in that kit? Reverse the polarity. Fiddly if you've never done it before. Fiddly if you have done it before,” he admitted, opening the system carefully. “But it's the only failsafe these things have, so it's easy to do.”
She nodded and sat back on her heels to watch him working; long, calloused fingers connecting wires to shortcut the power. “You have done this before?”
“Oh yeah,” he chuckled. “Useful when someone's been using one of these systems where they're not supposed to, and they've escaped using it. Just hook this little thing up and back they come. I've got it.”
She nodded and gestured to it. “I'll activate it. Then you can wait for him.”
He smiled at her gratefully and handed it over. “Just flick the switch in the middle to the left.”
They waited whilst the power surged with a fizzing noise, and then a frission of power raised their hair and Jack appeared just inside the doorway, swaying and pale but safe. He blinked as if unaccustomed to the light and his face lit up when he saw Ianto. “Did you miss me?”
“Only because I wasn't trying hard enough,” he joked. “Come here.”
Jack stumbled to meet him and nearly fell into Ianto's arms, clinging to his shoulders and burying his face in his neck whilst the teleportation-induced dizziness wore off. They held onto each other tightly, and Ianto focussed everything he had on Jack, stroking his fingers through his hair and running his palms over his shoulders to reassure and ground him. All that mattered, right now, was that Jack was back in his arms where he belonged.
Next chapter
Chapter Title: Chapter 4
Challenge/Fest: Schmoop_bingo (card 3)
Prompt: Perfume/cologne
Rating: G
Dedication:
Summary: One of Jack's missions has gone badly wrong, and Ianto has had to go to be with him, leaving 18-year-old Mica to babysit her young cousins and keep them distracted.
Characters: Mica Davies, Andrew Harkness-Jones, Mirabelle Harkness-Jones, Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, mentions of other canon and non-canon family
Contains: Fluff, family and friendship, cookies, a kitchen disaster, cricket and children.
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto sat down on the end of the bed and rubbed at his tired eyes. He'd been in Ecuador for twelve hours by now, so it was about twenty four hours since he left Wales, left Belle and Andrew with Mica to try to find Jack. Twenty eight hours since he got the call telling him that Jack had triggered an anti-trespassing system in the ancient pyramid and hadn't been seen since. They'd called the rescue team back as soon as Ianto arrived and was able to decode the message transmitted with the trigger. No point looking in a pyramid for someone who you know has been teleported off-world.
The heels of his palms came away wet from rubbing at his eyes, and he dropped his face into his hands, pressing his fingers against his eyelids as if that would get rid of the images running behind them. Memories segued into fantasy until he couldn't be sure which was which. Most people would be able to dismiss the bits with aliens as pure fantasy, but Ianto couldn't. And, of course, he had an ample catalogue of images of Jack dead and dying for his mind to bring up for him.
He growled and pushed up off the bed, pacing backwards and forwards between the end of the bed and the plate glass window. Jack had been given a top floor suite, with two bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, two huge ensuite bathrooms and a balcony with loungers and a hot tub. The balcony was between the two bedrooms, with the living room on the third side, so the bedrooms and balcony all had superb views across the lush rainforest to the imposing ruins that Jack had been called out here to investigate. Only the night before, Jack had been in the hot tub whilst he was on the phone to Ianto, telling him how much he wished he were here to enjoy it with him.
Well he was here. Not so much of the enjoying, or the with him, but here. He ran his hands through his hair once more and his gaze dropped to his case at the end of the bed, and he hauled it up onto the bed to open it and put his things away. It wasn't the right climate for shirts and suits out here, so he'd brought short sleeved shirts and loose trousers.
The wardrobe was huge, and barely a quarter of it was taken up with a row of blue shirts. Ianto was just putting his shirts away alongside Jack's when a flash of red caught his eye amongst the blue. He smoothed his shirt out to let the creases drop out and tugged on the red, finding a silk shirt sleeve. “Oh Jack...”
He blinked back tears again and stroked the cuff once more, then lifted one of Jack's shirts out. The soft cotton was so familiar and the colour spoke so much of home, it made him ache. He slid it off the hanger and sank down onto the bed, pressing the material to his lips and inhaling Jack's unique scent. “Please come home,” he whispered. If he closed his eyes he could nearly believe that Jack was there with him. “I don't know how long I can do this without you.”
---
A knock on the door roused him and he grumbled, opening his eyes reluctantly. It took a few seconds for the fog to seep away and unveil the room he'd been sleeping in, and for the smell of Jack to retreat to just that. It had been comforting, being surrounded by that familiar odour, so much so that he'd fallen into an exhausted sleep. The knock came again and someone called out, “Director? Are you alright in there?”
He got up and went to the door, running his hands through his hair to neaten it. “Yes?” he asked, looking down at the runner they'd sent to get him. “Sorry, I was asleep.”
“Long day,” the soldier commiserated. “Commander Fernando sent me to fetch you, sir. They've found the teleport controls.”
He swallowed hard and nodded. “I'll be right down. Just give me time to change. What's your name?”
“Phillip, sir.”
“Right. Back in a moment then, Phillip.” He closed the door and fumbled with the buttons on the shirt he'd travelled in, which was creased from sleeping in it and the fact that he'd been wearing it in the sultry heat for so many hours. Dropping it on the end of the bed, he pulled open the wardrobe and reached for one of his short-sleeved shirts, but that glimpse of red caught his eye again and he smiled.
Phillip drove him out to the pyramid and led him up the steps and into the cool, dark interior. Battery powered lights had been placed on the lamp shelf halfway up, and he carried an LED lamp as well to light the way. The walls were painted with depictions of religious ceremonies which seemed to feature a lot of death and an inhuman god figure. “I guess we can be certain that Supay wasn't from around here, then.”
“No. It confirms the theories about his demons as well.” Phillip brought the lamp closer to the wall and revealed a gruesome frieze of child sacrifice. “Makes you wonder why he stopped.”
“Maybe the conquistadores were just too much for him to deal with,” Ianto suggested. “or maybe he forgot about them when it stopped being worth it.” He clenched his fists and hoped that there was no one at the other end by now, but somewhere safe for Jack to land. “How far is it?”
“Down a level yet. Not far, though.”
They found the staircase in the grand hall, behind the sacrificial altar, and descended into the priests' rooms below. Commander Fernando was standing against the wall next to a doorway into a room now lit with clear white light. “Director Jones, welcome back,” she greeted him in her lilting accent. “I hope your rest was sufficiente?”
“Brief, but restful,” he told her. He glanced at Phillip's insignia and to smile at him. “The Corporal tells me that you've found the teleport device?”
“Yes, señor.” She gestured into the room. “I can show you.”
He followed her in, past the large stone bed and the altar to a panel on the back wall. A UNIT technician was crouching in front of it with a scanner, and she looked up at him before moving aside. “Señor.”
“I'm sorry, Director, but Maria does not speak English. I can provide a translation, though.”
“That's not necessary,” he assured her in Spanish. “My Spanish is rusty, but I can get by. What have we got here?”
Maria smiled at him and showed him the readings. “Low energy levels. They were probably just strong enough to teleport the Director out of here when he touched the trigger panel. Whether he knew what he'd found and did it on purpose and found himself unable to get back, or just activated it by accident, we can't tell.”
He nodded and set his bag down on the floor, pulling out his tool kit. “Have you been able to access the controls?”
She fiddled under the panel and lifted it. What had appeared to be stone was just a covering to hide the complex device underneath it. “It must be centuries old, though.”
“It's new enough,” Ianto assured her. “I've not seen one quite like this before, but it's based on the Telgari system, and they're always similar enough.”
“What do we need to do?” she asked.
He clucked his tongue. “Haven't you got a reverser in that kit? Reverse the polarity. Fiddly if you've never done it before. Fiddly if you have done it before,” he admitted, opening the system carefully. “But it's the only failsafe these things have, so it's easy to do.”
She nodded and sat back on her heels to watch him working; long, calloused fingers connecting wires to shortcut the power. “You have done this before?”
“Oh yeah,” he chuckled. “Useful when someone's been using one of these systems where they're not supposed to, and they've escaped using it. Just hook this little thing up and back they come. I've got it.”
She nodded and gestured to it. “I'll activate it. Then you can wait for him.”
He smiled at her gratefully and handed it over. “Just flick the switch in the middle to the left.”
They waited whilst the power surged with a fizzing noise, and then a frission of power raised their hair and Jack appeared just inside the doorway, swaying and pale but safe. He blinked as if unaccustomed to the light and his face lit up when he saw Ianto. “Did you miss me?”
“Only because I wasn't trying hard enough,” he joked. “Come here.”
Jack stumbled to meet him and nearly fell into Ianto's arms, clinging to his shoulders and burying his face in his neck whilst the teleportation-induced dizziness wore off. They held onto each other tightly, and Ianto focussed everything he had on Jack, stroking his fingers through his hair and running his palms over his shoulders to reassure and ground him. All that mattered, right now, was that Jack was back in his arms where he belonged.
Next chapter
