TITLE: The Boy Is Gone
AUTHOR: Erin Giles
DISCLAIMER: Torchwood and its characters are property of the BBC. The Family Jones is of my own creation.
RATING: PG-15
PAIRINGS/CHARACTERS: Jack/Ianto, Gwen, OC's
SUMMARY: The Rift has never been the most stable influence in Ianto Jones' life but when children in Cardiff start disappearing all over the city, Ianto's family life crashes rather dramatically with Torchwood.
AUTHOR NOTES: This is the sequel to my stories, "Family Matters" and "A Nostalgic Yearning" and is the finale in the series "Footprints in the Sand". It will not make sense unless you have read these. Set in post Exit Wounds.
I have been pulling my hair out over this piece. It's not entirely finished (so I fear there may be a brief hiatus at some point) and I don't entirely know how long it's going to be (I tentatively estimate around 15 chapters and 35000 words). Also it may bear some resemble to Torchwood: Lost Souls. Please note this was written before I even knew what the radio play was about, let alone what happened. Finally the title 'The Boy is Gone' is in reference to the quote from Finding Neverland, "Magnificent. The boy is gone. In the last 30 seconds... you became a grown-up."
Friday 15th August 11.42am
"Ianto!" Jack called as he stumbled across the rubble of the building. He had a terrified flashback to when a building had collapsed on them not so long ago. He could remember searching fruitlessly through the rubble then, calling out to Ianto in the hope that there would be some answering cry. Jack had died and Ianto had come away with a few bumps and bruises. Jack dreaded to think that he had been less lucky this time.
"Ianto!" Jack yelled into the silence of the building. He heard Gwen stumbling along behind him, calling out to the young Welshman as well, desperation in her own voice. She wasn't ready to lose another member of their team; Jack didn't think she could cope if it happened again.
Jack paused, sure he had heard something. He motioned for Gwen to stop.
"What is it?" Gwen asked, hope daring to break through in her voice.
Jack put a finger to his lips as he listened again, his ears honed like a cats for the slightest sound or movement.
"Ianto?" He called tentatively.
"Uncle Jack?" A hesitant voice bounced back to them in the empty building before Jack was lurching over rubble again towards the source of the voice.
"Finn? Where are you?" Jack shouted in desperation. He heard Finn sobbing in reply as he rounded what was left of the corner of one of the rooms. He found the small boy cowering beside a steel girder, coated in dust but apparently unharmed. He crossed to him without hesitation, pulling the boy up into his arms, rubbing at his back in reassurance as he cried into the shoulder of Jack's coat.
"He won't wake up." Finn sobbed between hiccupping breaths, clinging onto Jack's coat with vehemence. Jack was about to ask what the boy was talking about when he heard Gwen gasp from behind him.
"Oh God, Ianto!" Gwen was on her knees in front of Jack now, pulling away bricks in an attempt to get to the prone body of Ianto Jones lying half under the steel girder. Her shaking fingers felt tentatively for a pulse at his neck as Jack's brain shut down. He knew he should be calling an ambulance, searching for the rest of the missing kids, helping Gwen dig Ianto out of the rubble, comforting Finn; but all he could do was stand there and listen as the building continued to fall down around him.
Friday 8th August 11.42am
Finn looked down at his legs as he swung them happily back and forth on the plastic waiting seat. Ianto was sat beside him pretending to read the magazine he was flicking through while he kept glancing at the clock on the wall before checking his mobile for any missed calls.
"Do you think I'll get a little brother or a little sister?" Finn asked, trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing when Ianto knew how uncertain he was about having a sibling. Ianto couldn't entirely blame him.
"I don't know, what would you like Mummy to have?" Ianto asked, putting his phone back in his jacket pocket and turning to regard his nephew.
"I don't know. A little brother might steal all my toys, but then a little sister might not want to play with me. But if I got a little sister then I could look out for her like you do for Mummy." Finn enthused, looking back up at Ianto. Ianto failed to correct Finn and the fact that he was actually the younger sibling and it was really Rhiannon who looked out for him.
"So if you could choose you'd have a little sister then?" Ianto prompted, watching as Rhiannon wobbled down the corridor towards them behind a nurse.
"Doesn't Mummy get to choose what she has then?" Finn asked, suddenly curious about this fact. Ianto chuckled.
"Sadly no. She gets what she's given which is why she's put up with you for so long." Ianto teased, tickling his nephew as Rhiannon arrived in front of them, taking her coat and handbag that Ianto presented her with.
"Everything ok?" Ianto asked, smiling at Ria as Finn continued to giggle, recovering from Ianto's attack on him.
"Yup, it's still in there, hugging my bladder and making me want to pee every five seconds." Ria moaned, handing her coat back over before disappearing across the waiting room to the toilets there. Ianto watched her go before sitting back down again with a sigh. He was never going to make it back to work in time to have lunch with Jack and Gwen at this rate.
"Mummy's grumpy." Finn pointed out as he sat down beside Ianto, mirroring his sigh. Apparently his nephew was just as fed up with living in the same house as a hormonal Rhiannon as he was.
Friday 8th August 12.17pm
"Right, I'll do the food shopping on the way home from work, and the washing's been on, you just need to take it out the dryer when it's done. Also there's a shirt of mine in the sink that I'd be grateful if you would rinse out and hang up before tea?" Ianto looked hopefully down at his sister who was now lying back on the couch, channel hopping, settling on Jeremy Kyle.
"When will you be home?" Ria asked, almost sulkily.
"I don't know, but I'll get the shopping on the way back I promise." Ianto replied, running back into the kitchen to get Ria the cup of tea she had wanted.
"Remember and bring back another jar of branston pickles. Also are you still taking us up to Dad's for lunch?" Ria called after him.
Ianto took a deep breath as he poured the hot water into the mug, counting backwards from ten.
"Yeah, I'll drop you up there when you've finished your tea. But I can't pick you up I'm afraid." Ianto replied, coming back into the living room with a mug of some awful smelling herbal tea, which Ria took happily from him.
"Thanks love." Ria genuinely smiled up at him, supping on her tea before she settled in to watch the Jeremy Kyle show. Ianto knew that she wasn't moving until it had finished.
"I'll just go clean the bathroom and kitchen while you drink that." Ianto said dejectedly, shrugging off his suit jacket and rolling up his shirtsleeves. He could probably catch 40 winks now if he really wanted but he didn't know when he'd get another chance to clean his house, which he'd already neglected for two weeks. He hadn't had time between helping clear up Cardiff after John Hart's attack on it; sorting out the Hub after everything - which included the emotional state of both Jack and Gwen which was fragile at best; running his pregnant sister around half of Wales to doctor's appointments; taking his nephew to nursery, the park, the swimming pool and most unforgettably to the supermarket to do the weekly shop he just hadn't had a chance to make sure there were no toothpaste stains on the bathroom sink and nothing growing in the bottom of the fridge.
"By the way the hot water in the main bathroom's not working again." Ria called after him. Ianto scrubbed his face in frustration. Another day, another problem, he thought.
Friday 8th August 3.58pm
"Ianto?" Jack called softly as he stood over the young Welshman slouched on Tosh's old workstation. Jack placed a hand on Ianto's shoulder, shaking slightly.
"Ianto?" Jack repeated. Ianto woke with a start, blinking blearily at his surroundings before catching sight of Jack stood next him.
"Did you-" Ianto coughed. "Did you want something?"
"I want you to go home." Jack answered truthfully as his hand moved to the back of Ianto's neck, kneading the knotted muscles there.
"Jack, I need to finish off these reports and then I need to finish running diagnostics on the system and then there's-"
"The paperwork will wait until tomorrow, the diagnostics can be left to run overnight." Jack reasoned. "Also I know you're good but I don't think even you can work with your eyes closed."
"I was just resting them." Ianto protested, moving to stand up and walk away. There was a problem though, Jack was doing that thing with his fingers at the back of Ianto's neck that he usually reserved for post-coital bliss or when Ianto had had a particularly bad day and was having trouble sleeping. Now though Ianto knew he was doing it to prove his point and get his own way. Ianto's body wasn't listening to him either, his shoulders were sagging and he was slouching forward towards the desk again, sighing in pleasure.
"Want me to drive you home?" Jack asked softly as he continued to knead at the back of Ianto's neck.
Ianto let out a breathy please as his eyes slipped closed again, his body betraying him as he stumbled to his feet and then fell into Jack's arms in exhaustion.
"When's the last time you went home?" Jack pressed as he guided Ianto towards the exit.
"When did you come over last?" Ianto asked, frowning in confusion.
"Eh, about five days ago. Ianto please tell me you have been home in that time and actually slept?" Jack looked worried now as he pressed his palm flat against Ianto's back.
"Well I've been home, but at home there's Finn who's up at the crack of dawn watching cartoons and Ria who currently gets up to go to the loo every five minutes during the night like she's a leaky camel." Ianto admitted as he tripped over his own feet into the lift. Jack let out a slight chuckle at Ianto's description of his sister.
"You need to get some sleep Ianto." Jack whispered sadly, pressing a kiss into Ianto's hairline. "You're no good to me or Gwen unable to function due to lack of sleep, or worse, dead."
"'m sorry. Just there's so much to do. There's three times as much work to do now that-" Ianto trailed off guiltily.
"But you don't have to do it all yourself, Ianto. You're only one man, you were already doing the job of two people before all this happened. You're going to make yourself ill, and then where will Gwen and me be? Effectively another two men down with a job to do between the two of us that requires six people." Jack half teased as he opened the door of the tourist office.
"I'd still help. Even if I was ill." Ianto admitted sheepishly as Jack laughed in reply.
"I know you would." Jack rolled his eyes in response. "But you just need to slow down a bit okay otherwise you're going to burn up or burn out, and as hot as you are, neither sound particularly pretty to me."
Ianto smiled as he opened the passenger door to the SUV, climbing in less than gracefully.
"Ok?" Jack asked as he slammed his door shut behind him.
"Ok." Ianto nodded, his head already resting against the back of the seat as he nodded lazily, his eyes drifting shut again.
"I'll have a word with Ria about you getting some uninterrupted sleep. You can sleep at the Hub if you want, I know my bed's not the comfiest." Jack offered, not starting the engine but looking over intently at Ianto in the passenger seat.
"She's taken Finn round Dad's today. They won't be back until after dinner." Ianto said round a yawn.
"Good." Jack almost sighed with relief as he started the engine of the SUV, pulling away.
"I'll come back and make you dinner later on if you want?" Jack glanced over into the passenger's seat when Ianto wasn't forthcoming with a reply. Ianto's head was slumped against the window; eyes closed and mouth open, causing Jack to smile affectionately.