Timelord!Ianto: Change 5
Jul. 14th, 2011 09:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galadriel1010Title: Trials of a Timelord
Chapter Title: Change of Place 5
Challenge/Fest: LongLiveIanto Bingo
Prompt: Magical Creatures
Rating: G
Dedication: For![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ablated_crayon, for the brilliant idea.
Summary: Ianto is coordinating a retrieval operation when the problem comes to him.
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen, Gwen and Tosh.
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto tapped his comm. and was gratified to hear everyone fall silent as soon as he did so. “Tosh,” he called, “the police impounded a horsebox last month; I’ve arranged for it to be waiting for you in the yard ready to go.”
“Thanks, Ianto.”
”Ianto, how are you doing with finding out what our guest is doing here?” Jack asked, slightly out of breath. He, Owen and Gwen had been chasing the alien around the centre of Cardiff whilst Tosh and Ianto tried to find a horsebox for it. ”Anything we can use?”
“Sorry, Jack.” He leaned forwards on his desk and scrolled through the results again. “Nothing in the records from any of the organisations. Plenty in children’s books, though.”
”Is there a consensus on a way to deal with them?”
He sighed again. “Virgins.” There was silence from the team so he elaborated. “They were symbols of purity and innocence, and could be trapped because they would lie down and sleep in the arms of virgins.”
”Oh, great. Tosh, private question but…”
”Owen, shut up.” Jack cut him off. ”We are not going based on fairy stories. Or Wikipedia.”
Ianto grinned despite himself. “Then the only advice I can give you is not to spook it. Treat it like a horse, be gentle and hope it wears itself out.”
”Oh great,” Jack sighed. ”I think we can safely say that it’s spooked.”
He rubbed his eyes with his fingertips and watches Jack’s tracker trail through the centre of Cardiff. Their heavy breathing was his only soundtrack until Owen asked, ”Is it just me, or is that thing getting whiter?”
There was a flurry of swearing and Jack’s shouted instructions, and Ianto pulled up the CCTV from the high street just in time to watch the creature glow brightly and leap into the air, disappearing in a bright glow. Jack walked into shot and stared around, then shrugged at the camera and activated his comm. again. ”It’s gone,” he said, unnecessarily. ”Can you track it, Ianto?”
Metal rang on metal behind him and he didn’t need to turn to know what had happened, but he did so anyway. It was beautiful, far taller than he was with a pearlescent coast and a mane that shimmered like a waterfall. Its horn stood proud, a foot long and shining like diamond in the lights of the Hub, whilst its hooves crashed on the walkways with every step. He got up and backed away from it, activating his comm. again as he did so. “It’s here, Jack,” he whispered. “It’s in the Hub with me.”
Jack cursed, a litany of invective against and to everyone who would listen, and Ianto didn’t have time to pay him any attention. As long as he survived for long enough, Jack would get him the rest of the way. He just had to avoid the foot-long horn and the hooves that could kick his head in. There would be no regeneration from that, even if he’d been willing to give up this life in that way. The creature, unicorn for want of a better word, tossed its head and brayed. The sound echoed around the cavernous Hub and woke Myfanwy from her eyrie, bringing her out to dive at the interloper, her screeching adding to the din.
Ianto dragged his eyes away from Myfanwy just too late and found the creature bearing down on him in a clattering of hooves. Hot, rank breath slapped against his face and the bellow made his ears ring. He raised his arms to protect his face, backing off as fast as he could, and a cable caught his ankle and sent him tumbling to the ground. It was too close to him now and it couldn’t stop, its hooves had no grip on the iron grating. Sparks flew from its hooves as they barely missed him and he scrambled to his feet and away from it, turning back to face it and still backing away. “Jack,” he hissed. “I could do with some help here…”
”We’re on our way,” Jack promised. ”Just hold in there.”
“Holding,” he muttered to himself. He didn’t have much choice, really. Myfanwy swooped on the creature again and snapped at it with her beak, but it tossed its head at her and drove her off with its horn, even whilst it was turning back to him.
As quickly as he could he skirted the edge of the Hub to the ladder up to Myfanwy’s eyrie and started scrambling up. His hands and the leather soles of his shoes slipped on the rungs but he kept climbing. He just needed to get high enough, out of reach of that horn, and then Owen could laugh at him when they found him hanging from the ladder all he wanted as long as they got him out of here.
He was safely out of reach, clinging to the ladder and shaking, when Myfanwy spotted him. He hadn’t considered her in his escape plan because she usually trusted him, but either she thought he had brought the interloper into her home or she had changed her mind about him and she swept towards him, beak clacking close to his head as she screeched at him. He ducked, pressing himself against the ladder and his feet slipped from their rung. Despite struggling to hold his grip the rung slipped from his hands as well and he fell back, back towards the creature below.
Pain seared through his shoulder, but he landed and rolled off the creature’s back. It bellowed in anger and he screamed, curling up as small as he could to dodge its hooves as it danced on the spot. One hoof clipped his side, but it was a minor pain compared to the one in his shoulder, the one that was making the world go grey around the edges.
With tears in his eyes he rolled away, against the wall, and had to fend it off again with his good hand. To his surprise it lets him fends if off and just huffs at him, slapping him with its horn rather than finishing him off, then turns away to deal with the more pressing problem of Myfanwy. Ianto uses its distraction to drag himself under the raised walkway as much as he could and curled up even tighter, pressing his good hand to his injured shoulder and biting his lip to stop himself crying out.
He lost track of time, which scared him more than anything else. His vision fogged in and out and the noises of the on-going fight moved in starts and jumps. Finally he heard voices and the stamping hooves calmed. The footsteps crossed the Hub, moving carefully through the destruction that had been wreaked, and Jack called out softly but desperate, “Ianto? Ianto where are you?”
“I’m here,” he answered, uncurling and kneeling up to see over the edge of the platform. The desks were upturned and boxes, books and stationery scattered everywhere – he’d seen things falling through the grate into the water below – and Jack was looking the wrong way. “Jack!”
He turned and saw Ianto, who was struggling to get to his feet without using his hands, and crossed the space between them in seconds, hopping off the edge of the walkway to help him to his feet. His hands ran down Ianto’s arms to his sides and back up, checking him over carefully, and then cupped his face. He pressed their lips together and Ianto leaned into it. Jack’s lips were soft and warm, damp where he’d bitten them in his worry and so gentle. They parted slightly and Ianto felt warmth spreading through him and chasing away the grey edges of the pain, pushing it back to a manageable level and centring him in time once more. He gasped, and Jack brushed his tongue against Ianto’s once, just for a second, and then pulled back to look at him. His eyes were red, and stood out all the more because his face was unusually pale, and his thumbs drifted across Ianto’s cheeks as if he couldn’t stand to stop touching him.
“You’re safe,” he breathed against Ianto’s lips, as if he were reassuring himself as much as Ianto. “I’ve got you, you’re safe.”
“Jack.” He closed his eyes and leaned into Jack, hissing when Jack dropped his hands to wrap his arms around Ianto and hold him close. “It’s okay,” he reassured quickly, before Jack could pull away again. “Just… hold on.”
“Holding on.” Jack rocked him slightly and rubbed his back with one hand. When Ianto had relaxed enough to rest his cheek on Jack’s shoulder and press his face into his neck, Jack pushed him away gently, but kept an arm around his waist. “Let’s get you to the med bay and patch you up, okay?”
He nodded and let Jack help him up onto the walkways and then lead him through the destruction to the medical bay. Owen spotted them and approached but he waved him off. “Not now, Owen.”
“You’re injured and I’m your doctor,” Owen insisted. “Jack can go and deal with the unicorn and I’ll patch you up.”
Ianto shook his head again and clung to Jack, resisting his urging forwards. “Don’t go. I don’t…”
“It’s okay,” Jack assured him gently, putting himself between the two of them. “Owen, go and deal with the unicorn. Get Trish to hang around until I’m ready to talk to her. Ianto’s in shock, and I’m not going to leave him like this.”
“Bollocks, Jack. I can take care of him.”
“I don’t care, Owen. If we need you I’ll call.” Ianto started to relax when Jack made it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere, and Jack turned to kiss his forehead. “I’ll look after you.”
The argument was settled with bad grace from Owen, and Jack bustled Ianto down to the medical bay as quickly as he could and got him sitting down on the edge of the autopsy table. His hands were gentle and careful as he eased Ianto’s jacket, then his waistcoat and finally his shirt off his injured shoulder. The backs of his fingers drifted across Ianto’s skin when he slid his clothes the rest of the way off in one go and Ianto shivered under the tough. Jack stopped immediately and withdrew his hands to ask, “Are you okay? Do you want me to stop?”
“I’m fine, just a little light-headed,” he insisted. “And in quite a lot of pain. Stopping now is not what I want you to do.”
Jack chuckled and made quick work of getting his other arm out of the sleeves, then dropped them on the floor despite Ianto’s protests. “They’re ruined already. I’ll buy you a new one to make up for it.” He left Ianto for a moment to get an anaesthetic and returned with a needle and a cotton swab. He wiped the swab across Ianto’s shoulder and then injected the anaesthetic quickly. “Tell me when it stops hurting,” he instructed, helping him to swing his legs onto the table and lie down as he did so, then he went again to bring the equipment table closer and fetch a blanket. “Still with me?”
“Still with you,” Ianto confirmed. “Still hurts. What’s the prognosis? Will I ever play the violin again?”
Jack eyed him and started cleaning him up with a warm, damp cloth. “I think it looks worse than it is because of all the blood, but it’s gone clean through. You won’t be able to use that arm for quite some time.”
“Oh.” He sighed, flexing his fingers and gritting his teeth against the pain. “No violin then?”
“Not until you get yourself a violin at least.” Jack smiled down at him and carried on cleaning his shoulder.
The anaesthetic took hold and Jack set to work patching up Ianto’s shoulder. Whilst Jack worked, Ianto rolled his head to look the other way, despite the fascination that the neat, precise movements of Jack’s hands held. He stared up into the Hub where, presumably, his assailant was still there. They were going to have trouble getting it out of there unless it got itself out. Owen’s face appeared over the railings and spoiled the view.
“How is he, nurse?” Owen asked sharply.
“He’ll be fine.” Jack’s voice was calm and he didn’t look up from what he was doing. “It’s a clean wound, but it’ll take time to heal.”
Owen grunted and leaned forwards on the railing. “So you two are together at last? Thought you were asexual, Ianto?”
“I am asexual,” he protested.
Jack’s hand pressed down on his chest, between his hearts, to hold him still. “Ianto,” he chided in a warning tone, “stay where you are. Owen, don’t ask personal questions when Ianto’s up to his eyeballs. Not of him, anyway.”
“Fine. Are you shagging the coffee boy?”
He reached for the scissors and cut the thread, then set everything aside and helped Ianto to turn onto his front. “No, I’m not. I’m sleeping with him, but we’re not having sex.”
“It didn’t look like that earlier,” Owen pointed out. “And I find it very hard to believe that you, of all people, can have a relationship without sex involved.”
“That earlier,” Jack said, voice dropping to a warning growl, “was utter relief.” His tone gentled and he rubbed Ianto’s good shoulder with one hand. “And some things are worth compromising for.”
Owen rolled his eyes at Ianto, who smiled back, and gestured over his shoulder. “What about Trish, then? Retcon?”
“Who’s Trish?” Ianto asked.
“We borrowed her from the police, she’s in the animal welfare division,” Jack explained gently, then raised his voice again for Owen. “We need her help to get Rapidash to UNIT’s place. I…” he drummed his fingers against Ianto’s back as he thought. “Not Tosh, so send Gwen with her. We’ll see how she copes with the reserve and decide what to do with her after.”
Owen left, and Jack helped Ianto to sit up so that he could bandage his shoulder. He rested his other hand on Jack’s waist and fought the urge to lean in and rest against his chest. “Thank you.”
“For what?” His hands moved carefully around Ianto’s shoulder, wrapping the padding in place.
“For taking care of me. If it had been Owen…” He closed his eyes and leaned, pouting when Jack caught him and held him upright. “Jack…”
“Just a minute more, I promise.” He brushed his fingers through Ianto’s hair gently before he returned to bandaging his shoulder. “I didn’t want to let anyone else take care of you.” He paused, having finished what he was doing, and smoothed his thumb over the edge of the bandage. “I was scared.”
“So was I.” Jack chuckled and Ianto leaned forwards, resting his cheek against his chest. “But I knew you’d come and get me.”
Jack stepped closer, into the space between Ianto’s legs, and wrapped one arm around his chest, combing the fingers of his other hand through Ianto’s hair gently. “I’ll always protect you, as much and as long as I can.”
Next chapter
Chapter Title: Change of Place 5
Challenge/Fest: LongLiveIanto Bingo
Prompt: Magical Creatures
Rating: G
Dedication: For
ablated_crayon, for the brilliant idea.Summary: Ianto is coordinating a retrieval operation when the problem comes to him.
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Owen, Gwen and Tosh.
Contains:
Disclaimer: Torchwood and its environs, occurrences and persons belong to the BBC. The original characters have disowned me.
Ianto tapped his comm. and was gratified to hear everyone fall silent as soon as he did so. “Tosh,” he called, “the police impounded a horsebox last month; I’ve arranged for it to be waiting for you in the yard ready to go.”
“Thanks, Ianto.”
”Ianto, how are you doing with finding out what our guest is doing here?” Jack asked, slightly out of breath. He, Owen and Gwen had been chasing the alien around the centre of Cardiff whilst Tosh and Ianto tried to find a horsebox for it. ”Anything we can use?”
“Sorry, Jack.” He leaned forwards on his desk and scrolled through the results again. “Nothing in the records from any of the organisations. Plenty in children’s books, though.”
”Is there a consensus on a way to deal with them?”
He sighed again. “Virgins.” There was silence from the team so he elaborated. “They were symbols of purity and innocence, and could be trapped because they would lie down and sleep in the arms of virgins.”
”Oh, great. Tosh, private question but…”
”Owen, shut up.” Jack cut him off. ”We are not going based on fairy stories. Or Wikipedia.”
Ianto grinned despite himself. “Then the only advice I can give you is not to spook it. Treat it like a horse, be gentle and hope it wears itself out.”
”Oh great,” Jack sighed. ”I think we can safely say that it’s spooked.”
He rubbed his eyes with his fingertips and watches Jack’s tracker trail through the centre of Cardiff. Their heavy breathing was his only soundtrack until Owen asked, ”Is it just me, or is that thing getting whiter?”
There was a flurry of swearing and Jack’s shouted instructions, and Ianto pulled up the CCTV from the high street just in time to watch the creature glow brightly and leap into the air, disappearing in a bright glow. Jack walked into shot and stared around, then shrugged at the camera and activated his comm. again. ”It’s gone,” he said, unnecessarily. ”Can you track it, Ianto?”
Metal rang on metal behind him and he didn’t need to turn to know what had happened, but he did so anyway. It was beautiful, far taller than he was with a pearlescent coast and a mane that shimmered like a waterfall. Its horn stood proud, a foot long and shining like diamond in the lights of the Hub, whilst its hooves crashed on the walkways with every step. He got up and backed away from it, activating his comm. again as he did so. “It’s here, Jack,” he whispered. “It’s in the Hub with me.”
Jack cursed, a litany of invective against and to everyone who would listen, and Ianto didn’t have time to pay him any attention. As long as he survived for long enough, Jack would get him the rest of the way. He just had to avoid the foot-long horn and the hooves that could kick his head in. There would be no regeneration from that, even if he’d been willing to give up this life in that way. The creature, unicorn for want of a better word, tossed its head and brayed. The sound echoed around the cavernous Hub and woke Myfanwy from her eyrie, bringing her out to dive at the interloper, her screeching adding to the din.
Ianto dragged his eyes away from Myfanwy just too late and found the creature bearing down on him in a clattering of hooves. Hot, rank breath slapped against his face and the bellow made his ears ring. He raised his arms to protect his face, backing off as fast as he could, and a cable caught his ankle and sent him tumbling to the ground. It was too close to him now and it couldn’t stop, its hooves had no grip on the iron grating. Sparks flew from its hooves as they barely missed him and he scrambled to his feet and away from it, turning back to face it and still backing away. “Jack,” he hissed. “I could do with some help here…”
”We’re on our way,” Jack promised. ”Just hold in there.”
“Holding,” he muttered to himself. He didn’t have much choice, really. Myfanwy swooped on the creature again and snapped at it with her beak, but it tossed its head at her and drove her off with its horn, even whilst it was turning back to him.
As quickly as he could he skirted the edge of the Hub to the ladder up to Myfanwy’s eyrie and started scrambling up. His hands and the leather soles of his shoes slipped on the rungs but he kept climbing. He just needed to get high enough, out of reach of that horn, and then Owen could laugh at him when they found him hanging from the ladder all he wanted as long as they got him out of here.
He was safely out of reach, clinging to the ladder and shaking, when Myfanwy spotted him. He hadn’t considered her in his escape plan because she usually trusted him, but either she thought he had brought the interloper into her home or she had changed her mind about him and she swept towards him, beak clacking close to his head as she screeched at him. He ducked, pressing himself against the ladder and his feet slipped from their rung. Despite struggling to hold his grip the rung slipped from his hands as well and he fell back, back towards the creature below.
Pain seared through his shoulder, but he landed and rolled off the creature’s back. It bellowed in anger and he screamed, curling up as small as he could to dodge its hooves as it danced on the spot. One hoof clipped his side, but it was a minor pain compared to the one in his shoulder, the one that was making the world go grey around the edges.
With tears in his eyes he rolled away, against the wall, and had to fend it off again with his good hand. To his surprise it lets him fends if off and just huffs at him, slapping him with its horn rather than finishing him off, then turns away to deal with the more pressing problem of Myfanwy. Ianto uses its distraction to drag himself under the raised walkway as much as he could and curled up even tighter, pressing his good hand to his injured shoulder and biting his lip to stop himself crying out.
He lost track of time, which scared him more than anything else. His vision fogged in and out and the noises of the on-going fight moved in starts and jumps. Finally he heard voices and the stamping hooves calmed. The footsteps crossed the Hub, moving carefully through the destruction that had been wreaked, and Jack called out softly but desperate, “Ianto? Ianto where are you?”
“I’m here,” he answered, uncurling and kneeling up to see over the edge of the platform. The desks were upturned and boxes, books and stationery scattered everywhere – he’d seen things falling through the grate into the water below – and Jack was looking the wrong way. “Jack!”
He turned and saw Ianto, who was struggling to get to his feet without using his hands, and crossed the space between them in seconds, hopping off the edge of the walkway to help him to his feet. His hands ran down Ianto’s arms to his sides and back up, checking him over carefully, and then cupped his face. He pressed their lips together and Ianto leaned into it. Jack’s lips were soft and warm, damp where he’d bitten them in his worry and so gentle. They parted slightly and Ianto felt warmth spreading through him and chasing away the grey edges of the pain, pushing it back to a manageable level and centring him in time once more. He gasped, and Jack brushed his tongue against Ianto’s once, just for a second, and then pulled back to look at him. His eyes were red, and stood out all the more because his face was unusually pale, and his thumbs drifted across Ianto’s cheeks as if he couldn’t stand to stop touching him.
“You’re safe,” he breathed against Ianto’s lips, as if he were reassuring himself as much as Ianto. “I’ve got you, you’re safe.”
“Jack.” He closed his eyes and leaned into Jack, hissing when Jack dropped his hands to wrap his arms around Ianto and hold him close. “It’s okay,” he reassured quickly, before Jack could pull away again. “Just… hold on.”
“Holding on.” Jack rocked him slightly and rubbed his back with one hand. When Ianto had relaxed enough to rest his cheek on Jack’s shoulder and press his face into his neck, Jack pushed him away gently, but kept an arm around his waist. “Let’s get you to the med bay and patch you up, okay?”
He nodded and let Jack help him up onto the walkways and then lead him through the destruction to the medical bay. Owen spotted them and approached but he waved him off. “Not now, Owen.”
“You’re injured and I’m your doctor,” Owen insisted. “Jack can go and deal with the unicorn and I’ll patch you up.”
Ianto shook his head again and clung to Jack, resisting his urging forwards. “Don’t go. I don’t…”
“It’s okay,” Jack assured him gently, putting himself between the two of them. “Owen, go and deal with the unicorn. Get Trish to hang around until I’m ready to talk to her. Ianto’s in shock, and I’m not going to leave him like this.”
“Bollocks, Jack. I can take care of him.”
“I don’t care, Owen. If we need you I’ll call.” Ianto started to relax when Jack made it clear that he wasn’t going anywhere, and Jack turned to kiss his forehead. “I’ll look after you.”
The argument was settled with bad grace from Owen, and Jack bustled Ianto down to the medical bay as quickly as he could and got him sitting down on the edge of the autopsy table. His hands were gentle and careful as he eased Ianto’s jacket, then his waistcoat and finally his shirt off his injured shoulder. The backs of his fingers drifted across Ianto’s skin when he slid his clothes the rest of the way off in one go and Ianto shivered under the tough. Jack stopped immediately and withdrew his hands to ask, “Are you okay? Do you want me to stop?”
“I’m fine, just a little light-headed,” he insisted. “And in quite a lot of pain. Stopping now is not what I want you to do.”
Jack chuckled and made quick work of getting his other arm out of the sleeves, then dropped them on the floor despite Ianto’s protests. “They’re ruined already. I’ll buy you a new one to make up for it.” He left Ianto for a moment to get an anaesthetic and returned with a needle and a cotton swab. He wiped the swab across Ianto’s shoulder and then injected the anaesthetic quickly. “Tell me when it stops hurting,” he instructed, helping him to swing his legs onto the table and lie down as he did so, then he went again to bring the equipment table closer and fetch a blanket. “Still with me?”
“Still with you,” Ianto confirmed. “Still hurts. What’s the prognosis? Will I ever play the violin again?”
Jack eyed him and started cleaning him up with a warm, damp cloth. “I think it looks worse than it is because of all the blood, but it’s gone clean through. You won’t be able to use that arm for quite some time.”
“Oh.” He sighed, flexing his fingers and gritting his teeth against the pain. “No violin then?”
“Not until you get yourself a violin at least.” Jack smiled down at him and carried on cleaning his shoulder.
The anaesthetic took hold and Jack set to work patching up Ianto’s shoulder. Whilst Jack worked, Ianto rolled his head to look the other way, despite the fascination that the neat, precise movements of Jack’s hands held. He stared up into the Hub where, presumably, his assailant was still there. They were going to have trouble getting it out of there unless it got itself out. Owen’s face appeared over the railings and spoiled the view.
“How is he, nurse?” Owen asked sharply.
“He’ll be fine.” Jack’s voice was calm and he didn’t look up from what he was doing. “It’s a clean wound, but it’ll take time to heal.”
Owen grunted and leaned forwards on the railing. “So you two are together at last? Thought you were asexual, Ianto?”
“I am asexual,” he protested.
Jack’s hand pressed down on his chest, between his hearts, to hold him still. “Ianto,” he chided in a warning tone, “stay where you are. Owen, don’t ask personal questions when Ianto’s up to his eyeballs. Not of him, anyway.”
“Fine. Are you shagging the coffee boy?”
He reached for the scissors and cut the thread, then set everything aside and helped Ianto to turn onto his front. “No, I’m not. I’m sleeping with him, but we’re not having sex.”
“It didn’t look like that earlier,” Owen pointed out. “And I find it very hard to believe that you, of all people, can have a relationship without sex involved.”
“That earlier,” Jack said, voice dropping to a warning growl, “was utter relief.” His tone gentled and he rubbed Ianto’s good shoulder with one hand. “And some things are worth compromising for.”
Owen rolled his eyes at Ianto, who smiled back, and gestured over his shoulder. “What about Trish, then? Retcon?”
“Who’s Trish?” Ianto asked.
“We borrowed her from the police, she’s in the animal welfare division,” Jack explained gently, then raised his voice again for Owen. “We need her help to get Rapidash to UNIT’s place. I…” he drummed his fingers against Ianto’s back as he thought. “Not Tosh, so send Gwen with her. We’ll see how she copes with the reserve and decide what to do with her after.”
Owen left, and Jack helped Ianto to sit up so that he could bandage his shoulder. He rested his other hand on Jack’s waist and fought the urge to lean in and rest against his chest. “Thank you.”
“For what?” His hands moved carefully around Ianto’s shoulder, wrapping the padding in place.
“For taking care of me. If it had been Owen…” He closed his eyes and leaned, pouting when Jack caught him and held him upright. “Jack…”
“Just a minute more, I promise.” He brushed his fingers through Ianto’s hair gently before he returned to bandaging his shoulder. “I didn’t want to let anyone else take care of you.” He paused, having finished what he was doing, and smoothed his thumb over the edge of the bandage. “I was scared.”
“So was I.” Jack chuckled and Ianto leaned forwards, resting his cheek against his chest. “But I knew you’d come and get me.”
Jack stepped closer, into the space between Ianto’s legs, and wrapped one arm around his chest, combing the fingers of his other hand through Ianto’s hair gently. “I’ll always protect you, as much and as long as I can.”
Next chapter
