Each breath was like a lungful of fire, burning in his chest and surging him forward.
Gwen's screams faded into the chaos of noise as his weapon discharged, joining the others to force the creature back towards the water.
Realising their mistake he lowered his weapon. Pivoting on his heels he turned to head around the beast and cut off its escape.
They couldn't let it get back to the water; it would be across the bay in seconds and gone.
Jack noticed the flicker of movement out of sync to the rest of the team and instinctively turned to follow his lover. Coming to a stop a meter from the water Ianto again lifted his weapon and with a scream of rage at the image burned into his retinas of the two small children left crying as they held their dead mother's body between them back up the pathway to the car park opened fire again.
As it forced them back the water began to lick at their feet, ankles and then they were in the water. Jack and Ianto didn't notice until Owen, Gwen and Tosh were visible through the mist over the body of the alien.
Jack looked over at Ianto as they fired their weapons together and Ianto's steely glare may have been enough to kill a lesser creature than this. Jack noted the change from the writhing young piece of soft flesh that mewed with pleasure under his ministrations to this killing machine with deadly force.
He had been disappointed that their evening of fun was cut short but this seemed ok as well, angry sex now awaited. Jack loved to bottom angry sex with Ianto.
The empty clicks signalled empty chambers. They both saw it was down, dead and now very messy. With a nervous giggle they shared a grin of victory.
"Oi! You two! No frolicking over there, we've got clean up to do!" Owen snarked.
Jack shrugged good-naturedly with his "we win again" grin as he sloshed out of the water to help the rest of the team. Ianto followed with dismay as he realised his favourite shoes were toast.
It was after midnight before the last of the crime scene tape was being re-rolled and Ianto sighed with relief. A hot bath and warm bed were calling, would Jack join him tonight or would this be a rooftop deal? They were still keeping their "thing" secret from the rest of the team because Ianto knew that once Gwen knew she would up her game and Owen would be twice as caustic.
No. That was a lie really. He would tell them, if Jack would let him but he told Ianto that he didn't want them to see any favouritism and their coming out would cause disruption. Ianto was still trying to believe that explanation but couldn't keep that Suzie like snark in the back of his head telling him that he was a fool.
Owen had left his medical kit for Ianto to pack up (again) as he sat in the SUV arguing with Tosh about the kill shot. Ianto flicked the kit under the seat and went to climb in behind Jack, but looking back in one last scan he saw a lone PDA sitting on the ground by some fluttering tape.
Damn! Owen again. Ianto sighed as he slammed the door and headed back toward the piece of tech he had a desire to stomp into the ground. His feet were wet and already swelling in his shoes and his knee was killing him. He still couldn't believe the creature had caught him with its tail so easily, too busy looking at its claws to remember the tail.
The SUV engine gunned and Ianto swallowed down the urge to scream. Impatient as ever for an end to the affair, Jack was ready to go. Ianto turned in time to see it leaving the car park and joining the main road. He knew his mouth fell open like an idiot but really? Really?
Jack heard the back door slam and waited for Ianto's discrete pat on his shoulder as he pretended to climb into his seat. Nothing. Great, he was still pissed about the shoes! Jack sighed at the thought of another night alone at the hub while Ianto headed home to search e-bay for another pair of those leather shoes he loved so much. With a gun of the engine he surged the vehicle up over the curb hoping that Ianto falling back into his seat would show his annoyance at this childish behaviour.
He knew Ianto was annoyed at his insistence that they keep their "thing" as Ianto kept calling it, secret. As long as Ianto kept calling their relationship a "thing" Jack wanted to wait before admitting feelings for fear of rejection when Ianto realised that this was "no-thing".
Time seemed to fly along with their SUV as Cardiff grew in the headlights. Owen was muttering to himself about his PDA and Gwen was giggling at Jack's facial expressions in the dashboard light. Tosh sighed and leaned around Owen to ask Ianto if he had packed the PDA and looked at an empty seat instead.
She sat back and frowned. Huh? She turned to Owen and poked his forearm with her finger.
"Where's Ianto?' she frowned.
"Huh?" Owen turned to Ianto and froze.
"Jack? Um, we did have Ianto with us back there, right?" Tosh cut into Jack's game with Gwen.
"Huh? What do you mean?" Jack looked in the rear view at Ianto's seat and stared at the empty spot.
With a very un-manly shriek he slammed on the brakes and spun to face Owen.
"Where's Ianto!" he roared inches from Owen's face.
Owen knew two things simultaneously. The seatbelts had more give than he realised and Jack was about to kill them all.
Everyone screamed in terror at the SUV continued to slide towards the edge of the road. Jack faced front and brought the car to a stop, reaching to unclip his seatbelt and exiting the vehicle all in one fluid movement.
Standing on the verge he looked back behind them like he expected Ianto to be strolling up the road behind them. The full weight of what had happened hit him and his shoulders sagged with defeat.
Ianto was wandering up the dark country road with Owen's PDA active. With a grunt he noted the halt of the SUV and the hour and ten minutes it had taken them to miss his silence.
His heels were raw and at least he couldn't feel much anymore with the cold numbing his extremities. He slid the PDA into his coat pocket and started to hum to himself. With meandering thoughts of reprisals he slowly slogged the way home.
He kept drifting; sleep worrying at the back of his mind. After 32 hours straight he felt like he was drunk.
After forty-two minutes the PDA pinged, letting Ianto know the SUV was close. Good. Jack must be sweating bricks if he was moving that fast. Ianto began to formulate his comments and hoped Gwen didn't make this about her somehow, like always. At least Owen might do something about his feet.
Fate gave a twinge of cruelty. Ianto tripped over his stumbling feet, tumbling into the undergrowth at the side of the road and lay watching the approaching lights. As the SUV roared past he noted the grim set of Jack's mouth in the blink of sight and felt a little better. His wrist made a weird sound as he had fallen and he wondered if it was broken or just sprained. No matter. It had broken three times now, what was one more. It would always be his Achilles heel since Tad had first broken it in a drunken rage when he was four.
His cuff flapped and he realised with dismay that a cufflink was missing. Fuck! He looked about in the half light of the PDA screen but found no sign of it. Probably in the water or something. Long gone.
Getting to his feet he now concluded his suit was ruined too. Oh well. In for a penny in for a pound. Alone in the dark, injured, cold and rain looked imminent. Plus his entire outfit was stuffed. FUCK!
With a sigh of defeat he started to walk again, toward Cardiff. His confused brain pinged a reminder that something had just happened. Oh yeah, Jack. Too tired to care that he was walking away from Jack, he kept moving forward.
Knowing that they would be returning soon with even more worry was enough to tickle a small smile as he returned to the road and his gentle plod. His mind began to wander as the cold settled about his bones and his head nodded once, twice, then he started himself awake again. Walk idiot!
Jack was beyond angry. Reaching the scene and finding no Ianto waiting was too much. His thoughts of removing his coat to wrap his lover into his embrace and loving kiss in front of the gang, (fuck them and their small 21st Century minds) blown away. His loud apologies and fussing was now a moot point.
Fine! Jack turned to the team and motioned his arms back toward the SUV. Gwen snapped her phone shut and turned to Jack.
"No one has him logged as a passenger back to Cardiff. He must had copped a ride somewhere!" she reasoned with a shrug.
Tosh looked at her PDA and sighed softly. They had passed him. He was moving slowly, probably walking. She showed Owen the screen silently and he groaned with annoyance. Jack noticed and snatched the PDA.
"FUCK!" he screamed throwing the PDA on the ground and stomping on it in a three year old style fit of rage.
Everyone reclaimed their seat in silence, no one wanting to be the one to tell Jack that had been the only active PDA since Gwen's had a flat battery (again) and Ianto's had gotten wet during extraction.
Jack knew he was grinding his teeth but had a grim satisfaction that Ianto was not there to do that silent sigh thing whenever he noticed Jack doing that. Then Jack realised when he had just thought and the satisfaction was replaced by shame and then the rage returned full force. He wasn't sure who he was mad it the most. Owen for leaving his PDA, Gwen for ignoring hers, Tosh for apologising repeatedly while being the only one who hadn't fucked up or himself for not missing the one person he wanted to protect the most.
Now he knew Ianto was mad too. They must have passed him. Why hadn't they seen him? The only explanation was that Ianto had hidden as they passed. He didn't want to be found. This was not new. After the cannibal episode he had gone into a funk of epic proportion, with days of not speaking and hiding in the deep recesses of the archives preferring to deal with his demons on his own.
Jack knows that had been different to this. The betrayal had been general mankind but this was a simpler betrayal of trust in his team. A team that Jack has repeatedly assured him cared.
As they neared the figure slowly walking along the side of the road he lifted his foot from the accelerator and let the heavy vehicle coast along side the gently weaving Welshman.
Ianto gave no acknowledgement to their arrival and continued to walk unsteadily towards home.
The windows slid down and Jack leaned across Gwen trying to get Ianto's attention.
"Yan! Hey, Yan!" he shouted in Gwen's ear.
"Fuck! Hey, care to stop before you kill us all fuck-wit!" Owen roared from the back.
"Babe? Sweetheart please, stop!" Jack whined oblivious to the shared gasp of surprise from inside the vehicle.
Ianto continued to walk and hum. Jack recognised the tune and swore softly. Ianto was in his own world, a melody he hummed when concentrating on a report or filing that even an offer of a blowjob couldn't infiltrate. His comfort hum.
Jack applied the handbrake and left his door open, pinging into the dark. He heard the other doors slam but concentrated on Ianto's humming.
"After my blood turns into alcohol," Jack sang as he walked a step behind Ianto.
"no I just wanna hold ya," Ianto quietly answered absently.
"Give a little time to me, we'll burn this out", Jack continued as he gained ground.
"We'll play hide and seek, to turn this around," Ianto smiled softly looking at his moving feet.
"all I want is the taste that your lips allow," Jack looked into his face.
"my my, my my oh give me love, my my, my my oh give me love," Ianto's voice boomed out.
Jack joined in as they came to a stop and Ianto looked at jack with a dreamy smile.
"Were you sleepwalking my love" Jack said softly dragging Ianto into his arms.
Ianto's mouth found his and the team watched in shock as they swayed to music only the two of them could hear.
Give me love like her,
'Cause lately I've been waking up alone.
paint spotted tear drops on my shirt,
told you I'd let them go.
And i'll fight my corner,
maybe tonight I'll call ya,
after my blood turns into alcohol,
no i just wanna hold ya,
Give a little time to me, we'll burn this out,
We'll play hide and seek, to turn this around,
all i want is the taste that your lips allow,
my my, my my oh give me love,
my my, my my oh give me love,
my my, my my oh give me love,
my my, my my oh give me love,
my my, my my give me love.
give me love like never before,
'cause lately I've been craving more.
and it's been a while but i still feel the same,
maybe I should let you go
you know i'll fight my corner,
and that tonight I'll call ya,
after my blood, is drowning in alcohol,
no i just wanna hold ya,
give a little time to me, we'll burn this out,
We'll play hide and seek, to turn this around,
all i want is the taste that your lips allow,
my my, my my, oh give me love
give a little time to me, we'll burn this out
We'll play hide and seek, to turn this around
all i want is the taste that your lips allow
my my, my my, oh give me love
