Title: Shadow of a Doubt

Author: Sheela

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Still no profit for me. Maybe next time?

Summary: Set pre-1x04 "Cyberwoman". Lisa is terrified of spiders and Ianto sees something he wishes he hadn't.

Author's Notes: There's a slightly longer version to this that I will probably post at my Livejournal at some point, however, I really wanted make this as short as I could and box it into a drabble-esque shape, since I've never written a proper drabble before. (I guess since this is 300 words exactly, it doesn't really count as a drabble either, but what the hell.)


His Lisa may have been a brilliant member of the scientific staff at Torchwood One, with a rare gift for analysing alien weapons technology, yet at the same time she wouldn't hurt a fly. She was terrified by the presence of the smallest of spiders in her flat. Ianto always had to come over and get rid of them for her, heroic knight in a suit that he was. Until one day Lisa told that the best solution would be for him to simply move in with her permanently. Which he promptly did.

Nowadays Lisa was helpless, totally trapped as she was in a Cyber conversion unit. On a good day she was barely able to move her head or lift her right arm a couple of inches into the air; on the bad days she wasn't even strong enough to cry out her pain, much less move around at all.

Still Ianto tried to make her as comfortable as he could. He was constantly checking and adjusting her pain medication. He brought in framed photos of happier times and put them up in the room. He set up Lisa's favourite lamp from their flat, and regularly brought in flowers. And he spent hours hunting down every single spider in the room, checking for new, unwanted visitors every time he came down.

Once Ianto came down and found that one sorry little eight-legged creature had managed to escape his careful nightly search and had made its way up on Lisa's prison unit. That night Ianto mechanically checked her medication, pressed a tender kiss to Lisa cold lips and left the chamber with shaking hands and barely held back tears.

The spider remained where and as he had found it; inches next to Lisa's right hand, crushed into a squishy mess.