Very mini-fic to keep people ticking, popped into my head while taking a short tea break from other writing.

Coping

When Jack left the Valiant, the Doctor gave him some advise. It was to help him cope with the many flash backs they were all bound to suffer from. It was so sound Jack had shared it with Ianto once, after the young man suffered a particularly bad nightmare. Jack had used the method of grounding Ianto on the hear and now, asking if he could hear the rain outside the window, smell it, feel the warmth of his duvet, wrapped tightly around him, and forcing Ianto to focus solely on the face in front of him. Gradually, as Jack watched, Ianto's eyes focussed and he came back to the reality Jack was describing.

Jack had used the method all his life. It was one of the countless reasons he took time out of his day to visit a roof top. Up there he looked as far across the city as he could, until the cityscape faded into darkness on the horizon, or the sun coming up blinded him. When it rained, Jack could taste it, and he analysed the many ingredients that made rain on earth so very unique. And Jack listened. The distant sound of police sirens, birds settling, people arguing, car horns blaring the city was alive with the buzz of life and Jack never felt more grounded than when he returned from his rooftop.

The advise was simple, but so very wise that Jack would be a fool not to remember it. Sometimes when memories get too strong, and threaten to overwhelm, they can swallow you alive and for that time, you are lost to yourself, inside the darkest parts of your mind. But if you can ground yourself, focus on the present, someone or something and fill your mind with the right here, right now, really focusing all your attention on those specific things, it keeps the darkness away and very often you find your fears dissipating in the reality of the day.

Jack needed that advise more than ever after being buried alive. He was extremely grateful Ianto knew of it too, because in the weeks to come, it was that same advise the young man issued back at him; instructions to listen to those beautiful Welsh vowels spilling from his lips, that returned Jack to himself, grounding him in reality. The touch and sound of Ianto Jones was a life-line to Jack, yet Ianto seemed to be unaware of just how vital a role he played.

Finis.