This is a sequel to Devil's Tongue. To understand the key elements you should read its predecessor however if you just want a bit of light reading, well then please enjoy. Reviews will be much appreciated.
This fic is for Fi3 fi3 who was a very helpful reader and suggested a sequel to settle Ianto's decisions. Thank you Fi3 fi3.
FlowerPetalsToTheWind
Ianto busied himself with clearing coffee mugs and rubbish. Like usual. Though he'd taken a few field trips now, he just couldn't leave the Hub unattended for too long. It just got wrecked. Nobody could pick up after themselves. He sometimes felt he was like a babysitter for a load of grown up children.
He had just finished his routine complete spring clean that he did daily when Gwen stormed in dripping mud and water everywhere. Ianto felt a nerve twitch behind his eye as he watched water droplets and clumps of dirt fall behind her as she came through. She sat down heavily at the seat of her work station as Jack entered looking just as thunderous. He carried on through to his office also dripping wet but not muddy unlike Gwen.
Owen then wandered in looking grim. Toshiko trailed closely behind with her fingers interlocked with Owen's her face tear-stained as well as wet from the rain. She had become like his inseparable Siamese twin since that day a while back with the murderous yet deadly glamorous lap dancing alien. Being hypnotised to your own death can sometimes make you realise what are the important things in your life.
Owen threw his own wet jacket on the back of his chair and mumbled to Ianto, "Don't ask mate." Nodding towards Gwen as he walked past cuddling Toshiko as he went.
Just after that Jack reappeared from his office. "Toshiko. A word please." Tosh's face fell and the tears slipped from her eyes again. Gwen stood up at this point and started yelling at Jack,
"Don't you dare, Jack fucking Harkness! That wasn't her fault; you can't blame her for it. Who the Hell would have known? Not even Tosh thought that would come out…" she kept screaming as Jack rolled his eyes and beckoned more sternly for Tosh to go to his office. She bowed her head and scuttled over quickly leaving Owen behind looking just as crestfallen.
Ianto's brow furrowed even deeper after Jack shut the door and Gwen finally gave up screaming. He turned towards Owen for an explanation. Owen sighed, seeing Ianto's puzzled expression, knowing he was going to have to retell the story to him. He sat down at Tosh's workstation and wheeled her chair closer to Ianto. Ianto sat down too, then paid attention while Gwen started slamming things and mumbling angrily.
"Remember that alien a couple of weeks back? The red head lap dancing one that killed those men at the nightclubs?" Owen asked, Ianto nodded his head, he remembered very well. She had picked him right off the ground and above her head before throwing him half way across the Hub and knocked him out causing him concussion. "Well, apparently, there had been a spike on the Rift monitor the day we reckon she came through. But it had been ever so, ever so small. Almost like she was nothing. So Tosh thought at the time it might be some space junk or something. So she ignored it and thought to tell Jack later when we weren't so busy. 'Cause if you remember we were almost overloaded with weevil sightings at the time.
So she forgot about it and didn't report at all. So then these murders pop up and it still didn't trigger her memory until the police came to us because the men had died of suspicious circumstances. Then she was going to tell Jack but then all that stuff happened and Jack got killed as usual which distracts us all. So she didn't get a chance.
After it all blew over, it turned out that the piece of space junk was the alien's crashed spaceship which the alien had come in from the Rift. So now Jack's decided to relieve her of her duties for a month for causing unnecessary deaths in Cardiff. Which Tosh feels absolutely shit about. Then while we were out just now, Gwen overheard Jack saying this to Tosh and completely flipped out and attacked Jack. Jack then had to restrain her but accidentally, he reckons, pushed her over into a pile of mud." Owen concluded, finally adding, "Have you seen the rain out there? It's pissing it down in bucketfuls."
Ianto sat there quietly. He remembered that week with that infamous alien. That was the alien who killed five men and put Jack in a coma. The alien that had himself and Gwen hunting after it across the whole of Cardiff. The alien that brought him and Gwen closer together. Closer than they should have been, he shuddered guiltily. While Jack had been in a coma he had slept with Gwen out of grief. The same as how she had slept with him out of grief. The grief that had bonded them in a way that shouldn't have been allowed. Especially that since Jack had come out of his coma he had promised Ianto that he would stay loyal to him.
But Ianto couldn't worry about those things now. He was worried for Tosh who he empathised with. He knew the shame and humility of being relieved from his duties for a couple of weeks. But he refused to think of why he had been relieved. It brought back memories that didn't want to be uncovered.
Everyone looked up as Tosh came out of Jack's office sobbing. She slowly dragged herself to her workstation where Owen opened his arms for her but she pushed him away gently. She collected her laptop and other things and walked towards the cog door. It wheeled back obediently and she walked straight through without looking back, still sobbing heavily.
Gwen ran over to the door that was already shut but was stopped by Jack who knew what she was going to do. She scowled at him before shrugging him off and heading back to her workstation. She picked up her phone and dialled Tosh's number. Suddenly a phone started ringing on Tosh's workstation. Gwen sighed and cut off the call. "You are such an arse Jack." She said in a deadly low voice.
"She put lives at risk, Gwen. People died because she underestimated the Rift. You can't do that without there being consequences. Torchwood is supposed to save lives. We protect humans against things that come out of the Rift. We can't do that if people are going to overlook spikes in the energy that end up being murderous creatures." Jack answered, also in a lethal whisper that made Gwen shiver more than if he had shouted at her. After that Jack went back to his office and shut the door with a snap.