Title: Jack's and Ianto's Private Archives – Season 2
Between dream and reality (1/5 parts)
POV: from Ianto's point of view.
Characters/ pairings: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Owen Harper, Toshiko Sato and Gwen Cooper.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: only if you've never watched Doctor Who and Torchwood. (Silly grin)
Author's note: Just as Jack and Ianto seemed to find each other, all Hell broke loose and released Abadon. After a promising kiss, Jack ran away with the Doctor. You'll find out that my seasons aren't completely compatible with the TV show season. It's mainly because I'm not trying to tell another version of the show, but a story of its own.
Season 2 begins with the first day after the year that never was.
Disclaimer: The usual, I don't own what you'll be able to recognize, the rest is all mine.
Beta: czarinakit ty
...
He woke up with a start, everything staggering around him. It wasn't a mere loss of balance, but true vertigo. The kind giving you the feeling of being on a fairground ride running at full speed. He clung hard to whatever his hands had found, focusing on his breathing, and not daring to open his eyes.
Slowly but surely the world around him began to slow down. Ianto was pretty sure he hadn't got pissed. Not only could he not remember drinking, it didn't feel like a hangover. He wasn't even sure where he was and what the last thing he'd done was. Thinking of it, what day was this? He tentatively opened one eye. He was home sitting or more precisely slumped on his sofa; the TV was on, but muted.
He must have fall asleep on the couch and had had the worst nightmare of his whole life. Something about the new Prime Minister being a mad alien taking over the world, helped by an army of small spheres. He shivered and found the remote. A reporter was speaking on the screen. Ianto gave her back her voice.
"The curfew will be maintained until further notice. Authorities are calling the population to remain calm. A crisis has been met, and new elections will be held very shortly... "
What the hell was this about? Okay, it's looked like the American president being murdered on the Prime Minister order wasn't just part of his nightmare... Yes, but that was just before the Master set the Toclofane on the world population.
That wasn't making any sense and what about new elections? Of course, if the Prime Minister had really killed the President... Don't be silly Ianto, you got pissed or someone has put something in your drink...
He tried another channel.
He didn't know which felt more unreal; being here, in front of his TV, channel surfing, or Toclofane, the Earth enslaved by a psychopath Time Lord, and Jack ... Jack chained like an animal!
"The death of both the American President and the Prime Minister of Great Britain ... "
Saxon was dead? Ianto couldn't feel anything but relieved: the Master of his nightmare was dead. God this was getting ridiculous. None of the reporters had talked about Saxon killing the President. Both men had died in a terrorist attack.
Ianto stood up somewhat unsteadily and walked to the window. Outside the city was slowly waking.
Cardiff had not been burned to ashes. All this had been a nightmare... Just an awful nightmare.
His own apartment seemed almost foreign, reality looked so fragile, so unreal. He glanced at the coffee machine with tenderness, and made good strong coffee. He would need it; it would help him to keep hold of his wits. He drank the beverage with intense pleasure, as he'd enjoyed his eggs with bacon. It was like he hadn't been able to have a proper breakfast in weeks, or months.
What a horrible nightmare! He'd had a lot, but had never felt this way before.
He prepared himself, shaved, and showered with a feeling of longing. He tasted everything with a strange pleasure and a certain anxiety. It was very disturbing, but he couldn't help it. He was almost surprised not to find the ugly scar on his face that a Toclofane shot had left...
Reality seemed strangely intangible and extremely fragile, he was afraid of waking up to find himself back in his nightmare.
He took the stairs and greeted Miss Purple on his way down. It was unlikely that was her name, but that's what Jack used to call her.
He walked through his neighbourhood like a stranger, astonished at every detail, and his heart filled with gratitude beyond understanding. And when he reached the Roald Dahl place, he found himself wanting to run, jump, and shout his joy loudly... It was insane.
His city was still here, rising proudly towards the sky, and the huge ugly scar tearing the sky apart had just been an absurd nightmare.
"Hello, Rhi? Are you okay? No, I needed to hear your voice. Tell you how much I love you... no, no I'm fine, I swear! I love you. No, don't worry, I'm fine, really, didn't want to bother you..."
Reacting this way wasn't like him. He used to have a lot of nightmares, awful nightmares. He had dreamed of apocalypses more than once and had never felt so relieved to be awake. At least, never like this...
The feeling didn't go away. It was still there when he walked into the fake tourist office and it followed him down into the lowered part of the Hub. As if he was coming back after a long time away. He turned on all the terminals, activating sensors, scanners, and all the other weird detecting and recording stuff, alien or not, within the Hub. He needed to know what was wrong; he didn't know if it was the world or him, but something was definitely wrong.
He opened the hatch to Myfanwy's lair and fed her chocolate while monitoring the results of his search: nothing! Nothing seemed to have happened, except for the accidental death of the two politicians aboard the Valiant...
He was there, all alone standing in the middle of the Hub, sharing chocolate with a pterodactyl. He began to wonder if he should consult a psychiatric when his phone rang.
"Hi mate! Not too busy? It looks like you were right to miss the plane. We found no trace of Jack ever having been there. We'll do our best to come back as soon as possible, but it's chaos here. Are you okay?"
"Fine. Just the usual routine... What about you?"
"Some frostbite. Gwen has caught a cold, and Saxon is lucky he's dead because, I swear, I'd gladly have had a word with him."
"Yes, I can imagine."
"And you, how are you? You sure you okay? You sound weird...?"
"I'm fine, Owen. Waiting for you, the three of you."
Ianto hung up. He never thought he would ever be so pleased to hear Owen's voice. It was ridiculous! But when he closed his eyes, he couldn't wipe away the image of Owen's calcined body amid Cardiff ruins.
Ianto spent the rest of the day listening to the radio, jumping from one news channel to another. He had tried to get information from UNIT, but they seemed to be under a total lockdown. He tried to sort his memories, but it was getting more and more blurred and incoherent, like a dream fading in the morning. That should indeed prove it was nothing but a nightmare. But none of his nightmares had ever left him in such a state of shock.
Ianto welcomed his colleagues return with fresh coffee, sweets, and sandwiches. It didn't go unnoticed.
"Looks like someone is asking for forgiveness," Owen said.
"Stop it Owen, he just missed the plane," Tosh said.
"Yeah, right. Of course. The man who's never late, huh?"
"I must admit I did it in purpose. I thought someone had to stay. The rift didn't exactly sleep during your absence and I have been really busy."
"Right. You wanted to be here if our beloved Captain came in through the back door."
"Weren't you supposed to be fetching him?" Ianto replied mockingly, he was still too light headed to dryly answer Owen's bantering. "Anyway, he won't come back," he added.
There was no anger, no bitterness in his voice, just sadness. No, Jack would not return.
The others had no idea. When Jack disappeared into the vortex with the Tardis they hadn't really understood what had happened, or what it meant. They knew nothing of the origins of Torchwood nor of the Doctor, and that's why Jack had chosen them. That was exactly the reason he didn't want anyone from London.
"Don't say that, Ianto," Gwen said.
Even assuming Jack could come back, why would he? They had killed him. They'd disobeyed and opened the rift, releasing Abadon on Earth. If it wasn't for Jack being ready to give up his immortality and life, Earth would now be a dead stone. Jack was dead for eleven days. From what Ianto knew, Jack never stayed dead more than a few minutes, except when his body was completely destroyed, in which case it could take several hours for him to come back.
At the time, while Owen couldn't explain why Jack's body wasn't decaying, Ianto was caught between conflicting feelings. He knew very well that Jack's immortality was a terrible curse. He knew very well Jack had been running purposely to his death. He knew very well Jack wanted it to be the last one, the last time. But Ianto couldn't prevent himself from hoping Jack would come back, it was selfish, but he wasn't ready to lose him.
And then Jack woke up. He hugged them all, one by one, in a forgiving embrace and then there was that fucking kiss ... Of course, at the time, like the others, he was so relieved at Jack being alive and once again forgiving that he didn't mind the display of affection, even if he had been a bit surprised.
But, as they went out to collect some takeaway coffee, the Doctor and his Tardis showed up and Jack threw himself into the vortex in its wake. While the others were still checking if Jack was somewhere in the Hub, Ianto had watched the CCTV records of the Plass to find Jack running like a mad man. Ianto watched and rewatched the records.
The Doctor had landed his Tardis right on top of them, but as soon as Jack had been in sight he had restarted engines and left. Jack didn't even take the time to think about it, he just threw himself into the vortex after him. There was no way to say if he had managed to get to the Time Lord, no way to be sure he wasn't trapped forever in the vortex.
Ianto never told the other; he erased the records. They didn't need to know the truth, running Torchwood without Jack would be hard enough.
"He will come back, Ianto, We'll find him," Gwen said with a motherly tone.
The kiss seemed to have changed his status within the team. For Gwen it had been a shock; she had never guessed. Tosh already knew, that girl played way too much with the CCTV. As for Owen, he had always suspected something was going on between them, he had more than once call him Jack's part time shag. Jack kissing him in front of the other had, in some way, made their relationship official.
Problem was it never was a relationship. It was friendship, sex, and fun, nothing more.
Of course, he would miss Jack, but just like his teammates.
Strangely, and perhaps of that stupid dream, Ianto now had the feeling that Jack had managed to find his Doctor, and would be fine.
To be continued.