He stared out of the window trying to hold onto one of the scenes, but the fields were moving too fast for him. He looked at his mum who was in the driving seat, her eyes focused on the road.
"Are we there yet?" Ianto asked. They had been driving for over two hours.
"Almost," Came the cheery answer from his mum. "Why don't you put one of your CD's on? Sure it will make the journey quicker." Ianto did as his mum suggested. He pressed play and listened to the familiar rock song. The simple melody helped him relax.
This was what he needed. Everything was going to be okay once they got out of the car. For the four week holiday, everything was going to be fine. He smiled as he let the music lull him into a light sleep.
-x-
"What's happening to him?" Owen asked. Ianto was lying unconscious on the floor, his body shaking and sweat was pouring from his forehead. "Jack!" The team stood around the body of their team mate, Gwen and Toshiko's eyes were watering. Jack just stood motionless. Their bodies were all covered in a dark green slime from the alien that had worked its way into the hub. "Jack!" Owen barked. He had no idea what was happening to his friend.
Ianto had been standing nearest to the cog-door when the alien had appeared behind him. The creature, who was a pale green with dark green gashes across its body had grabbed hold of his arm, the muffled scream that had escaped Ianto's lips had alerted the team and once they had their guns trained at the alien, Jack didn't hesitate to shoot. The alien had pushed Ianto in front of him, his tentacle like arm had pushed through his suit jacket, shirt and into his pale skin. Jack raised his gun to the alien's head, firing three shots throughout the hub. The three shots hit the creature in the middle of his head.
Ianto's body had fallen slack on the floor, his suit jacket failing to hide the blood spilling from his shaking arms. The alien had exploded, his green blood covering the Torchwood team, mainly Ianto.
"We need to check is arm, now!" Jack ordered, his senses kicking in. He tried to think of Ianto as just another one of his team, another Torchwood employee but he wasn't just another one of his team. This was Ianto Jones, his Ianto Jones.
"What was that thing?" Gwen asked. She had seen her fair share of aliens, but the one that partly covered her clothes, looked scarier then most.
"Everto of Vereor. Demon of Fear," Jack said darkly. He bent down to pick Ianto up, the young archivists body didn't stop shaking as Jack carried him over to the autopsy bay. Owen helped Jack hold Ianto still as the girls removed the suit jacket and eased his shirt off. Jack hated the idea that they would have to strap his Ianto down onto the table, but the way his body was shaking he realised he had no choice. Once strapped down on the bed Jack stared at his lover, his eyes grew wide at the site in front of him. Ianto's pale skin now had a dark green tint to it, as though someone had laced his blood with green ink and it was now running through his veins.
"What do we do?" Owen asked, he had already started to wipe away the blood that was drying around the small puncture wound. The training he had from being a doctor was lost on him, he knew what to do with a patient who was in pain, if they were ill, he would be able to prescribe them just what they needed. But he hadn't had any medical training to do with aliens, his medical knowledge never needed to extend from cleaning up artificial cuts. This was something new to him. He looked up at Jack who knew what they were dealing with, at least he hoped so. Owen didn't want to risk treating him without consulting Jack first, knowing that any medication given to Ianto could react badly with what ever the alien had done to him.
"He's collapsed inside himself," Jack started. "His memory is being flooded with all his happy memories, every good thing that has ever happened to him is now being changed into a nightmare." He grimaced; Ianto had enough nightmares in his life. "But we can stop it." Jack said loudly. He moved himself away from Ianto and rushed up the stairs.
The dark green slime had covered most of the wall, and floor. He looked around frantically, "Oh Yes!" He cheered as he bent down to pick something up amongst the slime.
"What's that?" Toshiko asked, her eyes staring at the new piece of technology curiously. Her and Gwen had been standing in the autopsy bay. Both feeling useless as they watched Owen take blood tests. They wanted to help, but they had no idea what they were dealing with and were both waiting for Jack to give his orders.
"This is what brings Ianto back to us." Jack said in triumph.
"How does it work?" Gwen asked. Jack stood behind Ianto, watching as Owen cleaned the wound and took blood samples. It was a standard procedure for the medic, when ever any of them got too close to an alien.
"Short version, it will put me in Ianto's mind. What ever memory he is reliving I'll be there. Ianto won't know what's happening. Sometimes it fixates on one memory, normally from childhood."
"So you'll be in his head?" Toshiko asked.
"In his memory yes." Jack answered, his fingers webbing over the box.
"How will he wake up?" Gwen asked. She couldn't quite get to grips with what she was being told, it all sounded slightly ludicrous. Demon of fear. She was used to aliens, she figured that they must be the same thing. She made a note to ask Jack about it later, but right now they needed to concentrate on getting Ianto better.
"I don't know how it works, but I know it does. As long as I can make things stay happy and not go wrong, he'll wake up." Jack stared down at his young lover, promising him silently that everything was going to be okay.
"So how do you get into his head?" Owen asked. He had listened to everything intently. He had given up questioning everything to do with aliens. This didn't mean that he didn't have questions, but if he was given the chance to ask them all they would spend more time listening to answers to questions then saving the people of Cardiff.
Jack opened the box, it looked like a normal trinket box. Inside was a green pill. "I take this."
"If the alien wanted to do this to Ianto, or who ever, why would it leave the cure?" Gwen asked. Owen realised this was a reasonable question, which for Gwen was a good thing as the ex copper had a tendency to stay in police form and not a Torchwood employee.
"It doesn't do it intentionally. It's just how it's body decomposes. With these creatures they're just out to feed on people's fear. We'll work it out once this is all over. We'll need Ianto in the archives for this." Jack squeezed Ianto's hands, he was relieved that he had stopped shaking, but he still looked uncomfortable.
"I'll be out of action completely once I've taken this, so Owen you're in charge. It should take about four hours. I want you to research everything you can on the alien. Find out how it got in, and see if you can find out what it wants. Any questions?" The team shook their heads, they all had questions but getting Ianto back was more important then the answers. Jack pulled his body up onto one of the metal surfaces, he didn't fancy falling unconscious and hitting his head on the cold floor.
"Bring him back, Jack." Toshiko said gently as she watched Jack dry swallow the pill. Within five minutes, Jack's body had fallen limp onto the surface.