Trust Issues

Word Count: ~ 31.900

Summary: After Torchwood One falls, Ianto Jones escapes with a half-converted cyberwoman in the back of a stolen van, but UNIT catches them. Four months later, Torchwood Three leader Jack Harkness lets himself talk into taking over custody of Prisoner Jones, not knowing that he's inviting trouble into his base.

Characters: Ianto Jones, Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper, Lisa Hallett, Doctor (Ten), OCs

Pairing: Ianto/Lisa Hallett, Ianto/Jack, Gwen/Rhys (implied)

Rating: R

Spoiler: Everything Changes, Cyberwoman, Fragments / Doctor Who: Army Of Ghosts, Doomsday

Setting: AU setting places it a while after Everything Changes

Warnings: Violence, language, mention of torture

Author's Note: Written for ianto_bigbang.

Beta: danian did the English version and Vistin, ravenja1170 and Inja Morgan did the German one. Thanks for your input and a special thanks to danian and Inja, who put up with not only my ianto_bigbang, but also my tw_bigbang about a month ago.

Disclaimer: I'm not making money with this fanfic. The tv-shows Torchwood and Doctor Who and the characters appearing within belong to their producers and creators. Any similarities to living or dead persons are purely coincidental and not intended.

xxx

Prologue

Ianto Jones had left London behind like a thief: fast, quiet and guilty.

His hands were tight around the wheel of the Torchwood van he'd stolen, his eyes trained on the night-time street, his thoughts on the woman in the conversion unit he had stashed in the back of the vehicle, his suit clinging to his body with nervous, panicky sweat. The small door that connected the driver's cabin with the storage area was open, so that Ianto could see the back of the conversion unit when he looked over his shoulder. He needed to make sure that it was still there regularly, as if it would just disappear and take Lisa with it. He didn't like her still being in that thing. It was responsible for her condition after all. She'd told him that she needed it to stay alive, though, so he had to bear it. At least until they'd found a way to make her human again. He didn't know how they were going to accomplish that or where they were going, but then again, he hadn't known that he'd leave his whole life behind just a few hours ago. They were taking this one step at a time. They had to get far away from London first, then they would decide what to do.

Headlights flashed behind them and Ianto startled. He told himself to calm down. He couldn't overreact now. Lisa needed him. He tried to tell himself that the car behind them wasn't UNIT trying to catch him and Lisa. It was just some bloke or woman on their way home after a long day at the office. Or maybe a group of teenagers who'd spent the day in London and were now hurrying to get home before their parents realized it was nearly midnight. Another set of headlights lit up, then the second car swerved to the right to drive on the wrong side of the street beside its partner. Ianto's heart stopped for a second.

"Oh, no," he muttered. It was UNIT after all, coming to clean up the mess Torchwood One had created. Now, he could see the cars in the harsh glow of their headlights – typical, military models, brash and fast and sturdy, just like the UNIT officers themselves. He'd thought that with the chaos the invasion of the Daleks and Cybermen had left behind at Torchwood Tower, he would have a bit more time to hide Lisa. Apparently, he'd been wrong. He had to get away. They wouldn't understand. Lisa hadn't been fully converted into a Cyberman, yet. She wasn't like the monsters who'd killed and converted so many people today at Torchwood One. She could still be healed. UNIT would only see her as the enemy and kill her on the spot.

Unexpectedly, the communication system in the van crackled to life – apparently, it had been hacked. "Mr. Ianto Jones," a man's voice said, "this is UNIT. Please pull over."

"Like hell I will!" Ianto muttered and accelerated. The cars behind him kept up.

Lisa's voice came from the back of the van, scared and vulnerable, "Ianto? What's going on?"

"It's UNIT," he said. "I'm trying to get rid of them."

"How did they find us?" Lisa asked.

"I don't know."

The comm unit crackled again. "Mr. Ianto Jones, pull over right now!"

Instead, he drove faster. The street was a long straight line and Ianto knew that there was no way he would be able to win his race, but he would try. For Lisa. His beautiful Lisa who was now so scarred because of something Torchwood did. It had started so innocently with the ghost shifts. Everybody had been impressed when the first "ghosts" had appeared and the general population had soon picked up on the rumors Torchwood had created to cover up the true origin of their appearance. Ianto had believed the higher-ups of Torchwood. Oh, how he'd believed them when they'd told everybody that they were experiencing the dawn of a new age. And then the ghosts had turned into the invasion force of the Cybermen and even though they'd been conquered in the end, everything was gone – Ianto's working place, his friends, colleagues, team … he only had Lisa left. And he would do everything in his might to keep her, to make her fully human again. But he had to do this alone, because asking UNIT for help – the only other organization besides Torchwood knowing the truth – wasn't an option. There were too many military minds in their ranks to see more than an enemy in Lisa. Asking the Torchwood branches Two and Three would be madness, too, since they'd see things UNIT's way, as rarely as that happened. No, he had to do this alone. Find someplace to hide and then find somebody trustworthy to help reverse the process that had turned half of Lisa into a machine.

And then, suddenly, the engine of Ianto's car died with a splutter. The van was still rolling, carried by the forward momentum, but Ianto knew that would end soon enough.

"What ..." Ianto tried to start the engine again, but it didn't work.

"Ianto," Lisa cried, "run away! I don't want them to get you!"

He turned the key again and again, only getting a spluttering, sad response out of the car. He knew that UNIT had scavenged alien technology just like Torchwood and that they had quite probably designed a device to disturb engines of cars. That had to be the reason for the car dying in that moment. Then they rolled to a stop and just for a moment, everything was almost deadly quiet. Ianto heard his own fast breaths and he saw his hands shake. This was it. He would most certainly die in the next five minutes.

He scrambled out of the seat and through the small door to the back, slamming it shut. He searched out Lisa's hand in the weak headlight's illumination falling through the tinted windows of the back doors and squeezed it. Her hand was still warm, soft skin, no metal fused to her skin there to hinder their contact. "I'm sorry," he whispered.

Outside, car doors slammed shut, there were voices yelling commands. UNIT was surrounding the van.

Ianto sought out Lisa's lips to steal a kiss, one of his hands strayed to her waist and encountered metal there, bolted into her bones and covering up her body. 'She's a Cyberman,' his mind whispered, but his heart ignored it: she was only half-converted, her mind and personality were still there, he could help her …

"Promise me to find her," Lisa whispered suddenly.

Ianto shook his head. "No promises. Lisa, we're going to be-"

"Promise!"

He closed his eyes.

Lisa sobbed. "Promise me you'll find her and say sorry."

Ianto silenced her with a kiss. "Okay," he whispered, more to make her stop implying that this was the last he'd ever see of her than intending to keep his promise. Because either they both walked out of this alive or … neither of them.

"You should have run," Lisa said.

Ianto kissed her again, breathing her scent in. Her perfume was still there – flowers and coconut. "No. I am where I need to be." His hand found the gun tucked into the belt of his suit trousers. "I love you," he said, just when the doors opened and someone yelled, "Hands up! Don't move!"

Ianto squeezed his eyes shut when the bright headlights of UNIT's cars blinded him, then he straightened and intended to shoot blindly, but somebody was behind him all of a sudden and grabbed his arm. The door to the cabin. He should have thought of that.

He screamed his rage and tried to turn around, but the soldier behind him wrestled him to the floor and took away the gun, before brutally cuffing his hands on his back. "Secured!" he said and pulled Ianto up, pressing him to his chest by holding the small chain of the cuffs and hooking an arm around Ianto's throat threateningly.

A dark-haired man in a neat green UNIT uniform stepped closer to the van and took an appraising look at Ianto and then Lisa. Ianto could see the insignias of a captain on his shoulder and assumed that he was in command of these men. The captain made a noise that was somewhere between disgust and pity. "Foster, get him out of there."

Ianto was shoved towards the doors.

He tried to reason with them. "No! She's not dangerous! She won't hurt you!"

Foster all but threw him out of the van. Ianto had no means of catching his fall and landed on the hard asphalt of the street. He was lucky that he didn't hit his head and he was sure that he felt one of his ribs break. He didn't care, but just turned onto his back and managed to roll up to kneel on the street. He wanted to get up, but a soldier stepped forwards and pointed his gun at Ianto's head, preventing any further movement. From the corner of his eye, Ianto saw Foster jump out of the van. He was huge and athletic. No wonder he hadn't stood a chance. Foster righted his red beret on his blonde hair, as if the short fight with Ianto had disheveled him. His dark eyes glittered while his lips formed a mean smile in Ianto's direction.

Ianto turned to look at the captain pleadingly. "She's harmless, only half-converted, she's not like them … she's not a Cyberman."

The captain looked him up and down and snorted. "Get him away. Put him in the car for questioning."

Foster's strong hands grabbed Ianto's arm and pulled him up ruthlessly, almost dislocating his shoulder in the process.

Ianto strained against the hold, trying to give the captain a pleading look. "Please don't!" he said.

The man just stared at him with an unreadable face and cold, dark eyes, then he addressed his soldiers, "Get ready to neutralize it."

"No!" Ianto screamed. He was pulled towards the cars. The soldiers trained their weapons on Lisa who started to cry and call Ianto's name. Ianto fought against Foster's hold, stumbling along behind him. "No!" Lisa looked at him, tears streaking down her face. Ianto let himself fall. "Please!" he sobbed. Foster cursed and tried to pull him to his feet but Ianto refused to stand on his own. He pleaded, "Don't kill her!"

The captain raised a hand. "Wait a minute, Foster."

Foster stopped dragging Ianto towards the cars.

The captain looked at Ianto for a long moment, then he said, "Fire."

The noise of the guns was almost drowned out by Ianto's scream. He saw Lisa being hit – in the chest, in the legs, in the arms, in the head ... everywhere! And they wouldn't stop!

"Stop!" he screamed. "Stop!"

The captain nodded at Foster and the last thing Ianto saw was Lisa's broken body, before he felt the butt of a gun smashing against his temple and lost consciousness.