A/N & Disclaimer: Everything belongs to the BBC Wales or whoever. If it belonged to me I wouldn't be writing this in the first place. I still refuse to believe it... Oh Ianto... As Jack said, 'please don't go'... :_(
Jack held Gwen's sobbing form in his arms and gazed down, over her shoulder and past the tears cascading down his cheeks, at the still, white form of Ianto Jones.
It was a strange feeling that was welling up in the very core of Jack's being. His body, his outward feeling, senses, felt numb - but inside he had so many emotions shrieking through him.
Panic. Pain. Love…
Jack looked away sharply, biting back fresh tears that were welling in his eyes.
Ianto had loved him.
He'd told him so himself, dying in Jack's arms. He'd thought he'd forget him. A thousand years down the line, and Ianto thought Jack would forget him. But Jack wouldn't. Couldn't.
Not ever.
A pain, searing hot and sharp, dug deep into Jack's heart.
He'd never known.
Jack had never told Ianto that he loved him too. It'd happened so fast, he hadn't thought.
He'd felt it though, rooted deep inside him, but he hadn't wanted to say it aloud. He'd been too afraid of losing him to say it aloud, and he could never muster the words.
But now he was gone. And it was too late.
Part of him hoped that Ianto had realised in those last moments. The moment Jack couldn't hold back his despair any longer. When he realised that this might be his worst - or one of his worst - nightmares. That this might be real. That Ianto may never again tell him off for driving the SUV too fast, or ask him gently about his past --
That he was losing him.
And suddenly, all Jack wanted to do was push Gwen aside and hold Ianto and scream. Scream until he had no more tears left to fall. Scream until he had no breath left. Scream until his lungs burst under the pressure. Scream until the walls crumbled down around them. Scream until it was just him and Ianto, at the end of the world. Forever.
Scream until time reversed.
Until Ianto opened one, unseeing eye and whispered in that wonderful voice of his, "still got a few years left, sir."
Until everything was right again.
Where was the Doctor now, eh?
Ianto had never left him. Even at the end he wouldn't leave.
Jack would trade his immortality, his life to see Ianto smile, laugh, breathe and live again.
And Jack would be damned if he was just going to give up on him.
Ianto had never given up on him, so neither would Jack.
Rising shakily to his feet, Jack began to walk away.
"Where are you going?" Gwen's teary voice echoed after him.
"To save Ianto," he called back, "and teach those bastards that to mess with me is to mess with hell itself."