1 of 14, complete
Author: veritas6_5
Fandom: Torchwood
Rating: M for adult situations
Pairing: Gwen C., Jack H., Ianto J., Toshiko S., and Owen H.
Words: 1,104
Classification: After S1, slightly AU; S2, then completely off canon
Genre: hurt/comfort, angst
Disclaimer: All characters belong to BBC and RTD. I mean them no harm. No copyright infringement is intended. I just take them out to play with them. I'll put them right back. Beta: karaokegal, the finest ever Wait. Chapter 1—"I told him to wait."
Wait. Gwen thought to herself, Jack was just here. He was here, and alive, and real. Now he's gone, as if he never was. She was shattered by the long vigil she had kept over Jack's body, and just when it seemed that all was about to return to something approaching normal, suddenly, Jack was gone. And Rhys . . .
Gwen fumbled her keys, hands made clumsy by her impatience to get into the flat, and threw open the door. "Rhys? Rhys!" It had been nearly a week since she'd been home, but she had called every night. Almost every night. She talked only to the answering machine, apologetic, but unable to explain to him what she was still doing at the Hub, and why she couldn't come home yet.
The rooms held an air of emptiness and staleness. It felt like no one had been there for a while. The kitchen was tidy, but the houseplants were wilted. The message machine was blinking, full of her messages. In the fridge the milk was sour, and leftovers had grown a protective coating of mould. There was no evidence of Rhys in the bedroom or bathroom either, toiletries scattered about, but both their toothbrushes dry and stiff.
"I told him to wait. I told him I'd be back for him," she muttered to herself. She put the phone back into her pocket, and sank down onto the settee. "Where would he have gone?" She tried to recall every moment of her quick visit home before she'd returned to the Hub. She could still feel his lips on hers. She knew he wouldn't have gone anywhere without checking with her. How was it, then, that he was gone?
The realisation fell on her like a ton of bricks. He wasn't gone. He'd been taken.
Gwen heard the roar of the engine as Ianto's car sped up and stopped behind the Torchwood SUV, and he ran, followed closely by Owen and Tosh, to the rock-strewn expanse where Gwen was still cradling Jack's body. Ianto fell to his knees on the ground, and Owen stooped to feel for a pulse, but Jack's body was cooling already. "He'll come back," Ianto whispered, "he always wakes up."
Gwen relinquished Jack to Ianto's frenzied embrace, rose to her feet, and let Tosh put an arm around her shoulders to lead her back to the car. "He screamed so hard," Gwen managed to choke out, "and then he just collapsed backwards, flat onto the ground, and didn't move again. It was horrible. The shadow of Abaddon touched him, and he started screaming and screaming . . ." Tosh pushed Gwen into the back seat of Ianto's car, and she hurried around to the other side to hold Gwen's shaking body close.
Gwen watched Ianto and Owen as they took Jack's body to the SUV, and Ianto climbed into the back seat, where Owen gently handed the limp corpse to him. Ianto rocked with Jack in his arms, weeping quietly, caressing the cold face.
Back at the Hub, they took the corpse on a gurney to the medical bay where Owen was able to do a more thorough examination. He sighed heavily, looked up to the balcony where Gwen, Ianto, and Tosh were waiting anxiously, and said, "I think he's dead. I can't pick up any sign of life, there's no electrical activity in his brain."
"He'll come back," Gwen insisted, and reached for Ianto's hand. He clasped her hand in his, and she embraced him, rubbing circles on his back. She said it again, "he'll come back," as much to herself as to Ianto for reassurance, Owen shook his head. He pulled one of the plastic shrouds out of the medical supply cabinet and shook it out.
Gwen quickly led Ianto away from the medical bay and to the couch by the workstations. She didn't want to watch as Owen started unbuttoning Jack's shirt, stripping the body of its clothing, and she didn't think it would be something that Ianto could bear, either. Tosh went to the kitchen to start some strong coffee. It was going to be a long night.
Owen had finished preparing the body. Gwen and Ianto returned to the medical bay and they all accompanied Owen as he pushed the gurney down to the crypts. He pulled open cabinet 304 and they transferred Jack's shrouded body to the slab. The shroud was still open, and as Owen reached to zip it up, Gwen held his hand back, "Wait. I agree with Ianto, I think he'll come back."
"Gwen, there's not a chance," Owen assured her. "There's nothing there. He's gone."
"I want to stay with him," she said firmly. They all stood around looking at her, as she bent over Jack's body, and straightened the medical gown Owen had put on him, then straightened the edges of the shroud. She refused to meet anyone's eyes, but kept watching Jack, waiting for any sign of life.
Owen was aware of Ianto, stood in the back corner, watching Gwen, obviously wishing to be anywhere but here. He knew that body on the slab wasn't Jack. There was no life in that empty husk. The great warm hands were cold, the lips were blue. The brilliant eyes were closed, the face was still.
Owen followed at a distance as Ianto, obviously controlling himself, could barely keep from running away from the crypts. If Jack were really gone, for good, could this be the best thing, for Jack, at least? Ianto found his way to the medical bay and picked up Jack's greatcoat from where Owen had folded it. Owen was about to speak, but Ianto turned to the stairs and carried the coat up to Jack's office. He hung it on the coat rack, and grabbed fistfuls of the lining, burying his face in the coat's lining, crying as if his heart would break.
Owen knew better than to interfere. The grief was a good thing for Ianto. He would deal with it and maybe be able to accept Jack's death.