A/N: This was a tough one. Concrit would be most welcome. I wanted a Flat Holm story and this is what I got. Not sure it's compelling enough….
"The Measure of a Man"
Coel was waiting for Captain Harkness. He had heard the Captain was going to be around today, and he was glad for that. Coel needed to talk to him. He had an idea, and it was a good one. He liked Captain Harkness, and since he came to see him every once and a while and no one else really did, he looked forward to his visits. The Captain was kind, and everyone around liked him. They called him 'the handsome Captain,' and while Coel didn't really see that, he did know that the Captain had eyes Coel trusted, and that was a good thing. Coel had been away, but the Captain had helped him upon his return, and now he sat reading while he waited for the Captain to arrive.
After a while he heard the door to his room open, and when he looked up the Captain was there. He stood, smiling, and stepped to the Captain's outstretched hand and shook it. "Captain," he said, his voice low but pleased.
"Just Jack, Coel," the tall man, a few years older than Coel, said with a grin. They did this every time he came. Coel nodded, and then Jack held up a couple of books. Coel felt the thrill rush through him; the Captain knew how much he loved new books, and so he took them carefully and turned to set them on the floor next to his mattress bed. There was no furniture in the room, but Coel stacked the books on the floor next to his bed, and he was eager to sit down and see what Jack had brought him. But he was also looking forward to visiting, so he patiently stood back up, forcing himself to wait until later to see what he had. Jack knew what he liked anyway, so he knew they'd be good.
Jack was standing next to the door already and said, "Ready for a game?"
Coel smiled, "Yes. It's Poker today, right?"The Captain nodded and Coel followed him down the hallway to the room where they played games. Last time it was Scrabble and Coel won three games, even though the Captain tried to cheat by using dirty words in alien languages. Coel knew that Jack forgot that Coel knows some of the languages, though, and he caught him. 'No dirty words' was the rule that Jack always tried to break. Coel won anyway, though. Three times. Today was Poker and Coel knew his chances were slimmer. The Captain was good at poker.
"You're practically showing me your cards, Coel," he says after a few hands. Coel had already lost fifty pennies, but he just shrugged and dealt another hand. "How was your week?" Jack asked.
"Good, Jack. I read a good book," Coel replied, dealing the cards. They always talked about what Coel read. That and history. Coel loved history. Except he kept getting Earth history mixed up with his other planet's history and sometimes he confused Jack. Jack understood, though, and helped him unmix it as best he could. Once they sat and played Poker and talked about history for hours. Apparently Jack's friends back home got mad at him about that, but he said they'd get over it.
"What did you read?"
"It's called 'Of Mice and Men,' and it was really very good," Coel replied. "I wonder if you've read it."
Jack trumped Coel's ace and took the hand and nodded, "Yep. It is a good one. Good ol' Lenny."
That startled Coel. He put his cards down carefully and looked at Jack. "He wasn't good, Jack. He killed that girl. He wasn't good." He looked down and his hands were shaking. He set them on the table, and slowly calmed down.
"Well," Jack says, setting his cards down too, "He didn't mean to do it. He wasn't evil."
Coel picked his cards back up and thought to himself that Jack didn't know about evil. And he went back to the game because talking about evil wasn't something he liked to do. History, yes, but not evil.
After their game Jack walked with Coel back to his room, and after they get back he told him, "I have news, Jack."
The Captain grinned, "Yeah? What news?" He was always interested in what Coel had to say, more than anyone else.
"I want to go home," Coel said confidently, and he watched Jack's reaction with anticipation.
But Jack's smile disappeared. He didn't say anything, and he stopped where he was and stood very still. Coel felt confused. Jack was supposed to smile and say sure and that he'd help him pack and call his mom and take him home. Jack wasn't doing that. Instead, he took a deep breath. "Coel, I can't take you home," he said, sounding sad.
Coel knew that's not what Jack was supposed to say, so he reminded him, "Jack, I'm better! Remember, you said that I was getting better, that I could have a good time with you, that I was really good at remembering things now and at being good with the people here who take care of me. You said that, Jack. So if I'm better, if I'm good with other people, I need to go home to my mom. She'll want to see me. I want to see her, Jack. I'll go home and she can get me my books and food and you can come over and play games and she can play too. She's good at remembering things. She'll take care of me." Coel had practiced those words all morning, but Jack's face still wasn't right. Coel didn't understand.
"Coel," Jack's voice is gentle. Too gentle for Coel, really. "There's too much that's different now. You can't go home. I'm so sorry."
"I am going home, Jack," Coel said loudly, feeling suddenly that this is the only choice, no matter what Jack said. He would go home, see his mother, and stay with her. Nothing else mattered.
The Captain stepped toward him, though, and said, "I'm sorry, Coel. Your mother wouldn't even recognize you, and you may not remember it, but you're not here all the time. When you're gone, she wouldn't be able to take care of you like we can." His voice was still too gentle. Coel thought Jack was treating him like a little kid. He was not a little kid, he was a grown man. He realized, suddenly, that Jack really didn't care. Coel suddenly realized that he'd just been placating him, not trying to help him with what he needed.
"I'm going home, Jack." Coel said, as he stepped confidently forward. All he needed was to get out of here. Then he figured he could make his own way home. He was smart enough, and he knew he'd remember where he lived if he got his bearings. Jack was in his way, though.
"No, Coel. Please, calm down and step back. You have new books to read. Go read your books until I come back again to see you? They're good books, I promise."
Jack was in his way and the room was getting smaller and Coel had to get out of there. He stepped closer to Jack, but Jack didn't move except to press a button and say, "Dr. Swift, can you bring a sedative to Coel's room?" He turned back to Coel and put his hands up and smiled, "Come on, Coel. Sit down and we'll start a new book."
Coel couldn't think. He realized he had to go home. He had to see his mother, had to tell her what he'd seen and had to get out of here. The room suddenly seemed very small and he stepped closer to the Captain as he backed to the door. Coel knew Jack was not going to let Coel through, and he was not going to let Coel go home. But he had to go home. If he could just get Jack out of the way then he could go home. So Coel pushed him out of the way. He didn't mean to do it so hard, but he did. Coel managed to open the door but the Captain came back to him, but he seemed smaller now, and Coel picked him up and shoved him out of the way. He watched Jack fall across the room and hit the wall and there was blood on the wall and Jack was not awake anymore. Coel was suddenly afraid of what he'd done, but he knew he could go home now, and he had to go home.
As much as Ianto knew playing World of Warcraft online with Tosh at the hub was probably wrong on some level, it was fun, and his checklist for the day had already been accomplished. . . . and it was fun. Owen was downstairs puttering in the autopsy bay, Gwen was researching a fishy story that had shown up on the police scanner this morning, and Jack had grudgingly left a couple of hours ago for an overdue visit to Flat Holm Island. Ianto had already booked them a table at Jack's favorite restaurant for tonight, knowing that he would need to make the evening as relaxing as possible for Jack after a visit to the Island. For now, though, he was enjoying the crazy quest he and Tosh were on in the game, and he almost didn't notice his mobile ringing on the desk in front of him. He grabbed it just in time, though, and was very surprised at the voice on the other end.
"Mr. Jones?" A woman's worried voice asked.
Ianto sat forward. "Yes?" he replied.
"Mr. Jones, we need you to come out to Flat Holm immediately. There's been an accident."
"Dr. Swift? Is that you?" Ianto asked, still confused.
"Yes sir. Really, you need to hurry. One of the patients lost control and did something to the Captain. He's hurt. He told us before never to take him to hospital, but he needs help and our staff doctor isn't here today." Ianto felt suddenly lightheaded and his mind ran through several possible scenarios of what could have happened, and none of them made any sense.
"We're on our way," Ianto said, and hung up quickly. "Owen!" He yelled, standing up and running to the railing of the bay. Owen looked up sharply. "Jack's been hurt out at Flat Holm. The staff is trying to help but said he's really hurt. We have to go."
"Shit." Owen said, scrambling to gather a med kit and get himself together. "Do any of them know about Jack?"
"I don't think so. We have to hurry," Ianto replied. Tosh and Gwen had come to the bay to join Ianto. "Gwen, can you come with us? I know how you feel about the place, but we might need an extra set of hands."
Gwen nodded and headed for her coat. "Tosh," she called out as she threw her coat on, "You stay and monitor the Rift, okay?"
Tosh agreed, and Owen, Ianto and Gwen ran out a minute later, with Owen taking the driver's seat of the SUV, putting on the running lights, and barreling out of the parking garage toward the boat docks. Ianto hailed a water taxi as quickly as possible and they tipped heavily to get the captain to go as quickly as possible over to the island, and they made it out there in a crazy-short time. Ianto's head was spinning with thoughts of what could have happened, and he could only hope that Jack hadn't died while they were on the way. Aside from just not wanting Jack to die as a matter of principle, it would also mean an entire re-staffing of the Island, which would be very difficult to pull off.
When they arrived at the facility, Dr. Swift, the psychologist Jack had hired years ago to try and help the patients as much as possible, was there to meet them. Dr. Swift was one of only two people staffing the island who knew the nature of the patients' disorders. The tall, no-nonsense blonde forty-something was usually level-headed, but right now seemed in a panic, her eyes narrowed and furtive.
"Oh thank god you're here so soon. Come on, he's down here," She said as she led them down the steps and into the corridor where the rooms were located. Ianto knew she'd only met Owen once, after Jack finally told him and Tosh about the island and Owen insisted on checking out their medical capabilities, which were minimal, but Ianto could see the relief on her face when she saw Owen with him. One of the doors was open, and she led them inside.
Jack lay prone on the small bed, which was actually just a mattress on the floor, his face pale; he was unconscious and there was blood streaming from a head wound, staining the sheets despite one of the nurses who was sitting there trying to staunch the flow. Owen and Ianto rushed over and Gwen stepped toward Dr. Swift, asking what had happened as the nurse stood and let Owen take over.
"It was Coel who did it," Dr. Swift said, and she looked Gwen sharply in the eye. "He's missing. We looked throughout the facility, but we can't find him."
"Coel?" Ianto asked, looking up from Jack sharply, "Coel and Jack get along great. I don't understand." He recalled the young man he'd met a few months ago, a very soft-spoken and lucid man with dusty blonde hair and sparkling green eyes who got his jokes and laughed easily. He and Ianto had played a few games when he'd gone out in Jack's stead a few times, and Coel loved their company. Ianto knew that Coel's episodes were the only clear indication that he had suffered anything traumatic.
Gwen looked at Ianto and then to Jack and back to Ianto. They locked eyes as Gwen said, "Can we leave Owen to take care of Jack while we discuss this in the hall?" Ianto paused and nodded, knowing she was right to get the doctor out of the room before Jack's healing kicked in, and Dr. Swift said, "If you're sure," and she led Gwen out into the hallway. Ianto turned back to Jack, hesitating. Owen caught his gaze and said, "Go on. I'll stay with him. He'll be okay, you know."
Ianto ran his hand through Jack's hair and then stood up and reluctantly followed Gwen into the hallway.
Jack woke to a throbbing head, and the room around him was quiet. He could feel someone sitting next to him and they were gently wiping his head with a wet cloth. He lay there for a moment, letting the throbbing dull a bit, and he suddenly remembered Coel stepping toward him and shoving him brutally against the wall. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He was completely caught off guard seeing Owen grinning down at him, holding the cloth.
"Hey, boss. Rough day?" Owen asked, and then continued to wash off Jack's head and place a plaster where the wound had been. Jack raised an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, "A few people seem to have witnessed your injury. This'll make 'em think I actually did something for you."
Jack looked around and saw that they were alone, which was worrisome. "Where are the others?"
"Ianto and Gwen are trying to help deal with the missing resident, I can't remember his name."
Jack sat up slowly, with a little help from Owen. The wound on his head had finally healed, but the room spun a bit when he sat up, and nausea rose from his stomach to his throat. He ducked his head to his chest and took deep breaths to quell it. "Coel," he said on an exhale.
Owen held onto his arm and asked, "Do you want an anti-nausea?"
Jack shook his head, no. It would pass in a minute. It always did. After a few more deep breaths, he felt better, with just a dull throb in his head now. He blinked the accompanying fuzziness away and looked over at Owen. "How long have they been gone?"
Owen checked his watch, "About ten minutes. The doctor said that the resident had fled the facility."
The nausea Jack had felt a moment ago was now replaced by abject panic. Coel would be a disaster if he managed to leave the island, but he was also determined and smart enough when he was coherent to do it. Jack rose to his feet, wavered just a moment and let his head adjust to the shift in position, and then stormed out the door, Owen following a few steps behind.
They found a nurse waiting for them in the hallway, a young girl with long, black hair tied up in a ponytail, and she looked shocked when she saw Jack. "Sir! You're all right? Oh, thank god."
"Where are my other team members?" He said sharply.
She pointed toward the exit and said, "They went with Dr. Shaw to try and find Coel above ground. He's missing."
Jack didn't even wait for the end of her sentence before he was running down the hall. He stopped in Dr. Shaw's office and grabbed a file from the filing cabinet as Owen watched, and then he headed toward the exit stairs. He took two at a time and emerged a moment later into the bright sunlight of the afternoon. He pulled out his cell phone because no one had comms today. He called Tosh. "Tosh, it's me. Can you trace Ianto's phone and direct me?" After a pause, "Thanks."
He started walking the direction she said, and after a few minutes they came over a rise and saw four figures standing near the edge of a cliff. One of them had another one pulled close. Jack snapped his phone shut and he and Owen began to run.
They slowed as they approached, seeing Gwen and Dr. Shaw with their hands out, obviously trying to show Coel that they weren't threatening. Coel was covered in sweat and had tears streaming down his face. He was holding Ianto by the wrist and had his arm twisted in a very wrong way behind him, and Ianto's face was pale and covered in a thin sheen of sweat. He was leaning back into Coel and he was breathing very hard. It was clear to Jack that Coel had probably broken Ianto's arm. Jack stopped walking when Coel saw him.
"Coel, what are you doing?" He asked calmly, looking him in the eye, ignoring Gwen and trying not to look at Ianto too closely. That would just distract him.
"I need to go home to my mother, Jack," Coel said, a childish whine in his shaky voice. "I have to tell her where I've been and she has to take care of me."
Jack paused, and then said smoothly, "Coel, you know how you go offline every day for a while, sometimes more than once? You black out, right? You know that." Coel nodded and tightened his grip on Ianto, who gasped. Jack looked briefly at him, wondering if Ianto was going to throw up from the obviously excruciating pain, and hoping he wouldn't. "Coel, do you know what happens when you do that? Have the nurses told you?" Coel shook his head, no. Jack continued, "You lose control of yourself, Coel. That's why you only have a mattress in your room and it's why you have to ask for your books back every day and think the nurses are mean for taking them. You destroyed the real bed you had in one blackout. You ripped it to shreds with just your hands, and you broke everything else in your room. It happens every day. Do you think your mother could take care of you then?"
Coel wavered for a moment, shut his eyes deliberately and opened them again and said, "I need to go home, Jack. I don't like it here, except when you come, and I need to tell my mother what happened."
Jack took a tentative step toward Coel, "I know you want to. But we never know when your episode is going to happen, or how many times in a day. It would be very unsafe for your mother to have you there." He took a deep breath and continued, "Coel, I have something to show you. Can I show you this?" and he held up the file he had taken from Dr. Shaw's office. Coel looked at it and nodded. Jack pulled a picture out of the file. As he did so, he said, "This is the police report your mother filed about you when you left Earth. Do you remember how old you were?"
"Seventeen," Coel said, "I'm twenty-nine now. I was gone a long time."
Jack shook his head, "You were only gone one year, Coel. Look," and he held out the report, which had the year of his disappearance on it. He also pointed to a newspaper he had grabbed from the doctor's desk. "Look at the date on the report and the date on today's paper. That was last year. You weren't gone more than a year, and now you look and think as if you're twenty-nine. Also, look. You've gotten taller and bigger since you left. Do you think your mother would recognize you? Do you think she might be scared?" Coel own face went pale.
"Coel, come back to the facility with us. Let Ianto go. We'll get you cleaned up and I'll come back tomorrow to check on you. But I can't take you home. It would be too traumatic."
Coel twisted Ianto's arm again and took a step backward closer to the edge of the cliff. Ianto cried out and suddenly passed out, leaving him hanging from Coel's grasp like a rag doll.
Jack yanked his gun from its holster and leveled it on Coel, "Let him go, Coel!"
The big man took one more step and he and Ianto were right at the edge.
Jack cocked the gun, "Please, Coel." He could hear the hysteria in his own voice; he was afraid to shoot, thinking Ianto would get dragged over as well, and his own fear went coursing through his body. Then he thought of something and lowered his gun. "Look at him, Coel," he said gently. Coel didn't. Jack said it again, more forcibly, "Look at him, Coel. Look what you did. He needs help." He watched as Coel looked down at Ianto passed out in his arms.
He paled and looked up at Jack with fear in his eyes, "Jack," he pleaded, "Jack, I didn't mean to hurt him! I really didn't! I just," he took a shaky breath, "I just wanted you to know I need to go home. I didn't mean to hurt him."
"Let him go, then, okay?" Jack said, still gentle. Coel nodded and laid Ianto down on the ground in front of him gently and then stood up again. Jack took a step toward them, "Come on, Coel. I'll take you back to the facility."
Coel looked past Jack in the direction of the building and then turned and looked out at the sea before glancing back at Jack and Ianto. "I can't ever go home?"
Jack nodded, "I'm sorry, but no. You can't ever go home. I'll take care of you, though, okay? I promise."
Coel looked back at the sea again and said, "No." He glanced at Ianto on the ground and whispered, "Tell him I'm sorry for hurting him." And then he turned and stepped off the edge of the cliff before Jack could do anything at all, and Jack stumbled forward, yelling Coel's name in vain, watching the man plummet to his death against the rocks below. Then the world went quiet and then the sea sounded amplified, raging, in Jack's ears. He looked in horror for a long moment while his heart clenched in panicked fury, and then he turned back to the others. Owen had rushed to Ianto's side and Gwen knelt down in front of Jack.
"I'm sorry, Jack, I'm so sorry," she said. "We tried to talk to him, and he caught us completely off guard grabbing Ianto. He was much faster than we thought he could be. I'm sorry."
He nodded and stood, stepping over to Ianto and kneeling down again, "Owen?" he asked, setting his hand against Ianto's pale and sweaty cheek.
"He passed out from the pain. He'll be okay. Arm's definitely broken. I want to do X-rays to make sure he doesn't need surgery, but I'll probably be able to just set it and he'll be fine."
Jack looked down at the face against his hand and closed his eyes for a minute. It had been too close today, way too close. And he looked back toward the cliff and felt a wave of nausea rise. He breathed deeply and turned, and he knelt down and lifted Ianto gently into his arms and began the walk back to the boat dock. He called to Dr. Shaw to walk with him and he gave Gwen orders to coordinate the retrieval of Coel's body. He would deal with the burial after they got Ianto to safety.
Ianto woke and remembered the helpless feeling of being held against Coel's body. The second Coel pulled Ianto to him and twisted his arm, he'd felt the snap of his elbow as it was forced into entirely the wrong position. He'd almost passed out then, but as black spots danced in his eyes and bile rose in his throat, he somehow managed to stay awake. When Jack arrived, Ianto knew his chances were better, but Coel just kept inching closer to the edge of the cliff, inching and inching. Ianto could hear the roar of the waves in behind him, adding an undercurrent of anger to the whole situation. The last thing he remembered was Jack saying no to Coel's plea.
Now he was lying on the couch in the Hub, and he felt groggy and his arm throbbed dully. He opened his eyes and Jack was facing away from him, sitting on the floor with his back to the couch, his knees drawn up to his chest and his head resting on his knees. Ianto took a deep breath and Jack's head snapped up and he turned to Ianto, concern creasing his forehead.
"Hey," Jack said softly as he gently brushed his fingers down Ianto's cheek, "How're you feeling?"
Ianto closed his eyes to try and get some focus and replied, "Drugged. What happened, Jack?"
"Your arm is broken in two places, as it turns out," Jack replied, his voice darkening. "Owen took care of it, but he said it's going to hurt like hell for a few days. Gave you a hefty dose of pain meds and said you're off duty at least for a day, and then light duty for a while."
Ianto shook his head, "That's not I meant, Jack. I knew it was broken – could tell from the cast and the drugs. How's Coel? What happened with him?" He watched as Jack sank back to the floor.
"He killed himself. Laid you down in the grass and jumped off the cliff," Jack reported dully, and Ianto knew the darkness in Jack had come back to the surface. He could hear it in his voice; he could see it in his shoulders. This was the darkness that Ianto could do nothing about, that none of them could do anything about. It belonged to Jack and had just acquired another shade, apparently. Ianto closed his eyes and said, "I'm sorry, Jack. I know you liked spending time with him."
Jack nodded. "I should have seen it coming," he said quietly, looking away. "Coel was too lucid, too normal for Flat Holm to work for him when he wasn't caught in an episode. I should have seen it and had Dr. Shaw tell him what was going on clearly."
Ianto sat up and pulled at Jack to sit with him on the couch. Jack moved and Ianto wrapped his good arm around him. "Coel was different. I doubt you could have known what to expect with him, Jack. It's not your fault."
Jack sighed. "Do you know what his name means in Welsh?"
Ianto thought for a moment and his heart sank a bit. "Yes." He paused and added, "Jack, he did trust you and that was good. You did all you could to earn it."
"Not all I could, Ianto. Not soon enough." Jack countered, and he leaned back on the couch and closed his eyes. "Another victim of the rift. Another bad day."
Ianto leaned forward and stood, feeling better now that he'd been awake longer. "Come on, Jack. Let's go to dinner and you can tell me about him. What you learned from him and what he was like. We'll celebrate him tonight. It's the least we can do." He pulled Jack off of the couch and they stood for a moment, quietly.
"Trust is a complicated thing," Jack said, turning to leave the Hub, "Made more so by the rift."
And they left for dinner, and they talked about Coel and the rift and other dimensions and John Steinbeck until they were both too tired to do much other than sleep. They buried Coel the next day out at the island, and Jack left a paperback copy of "Of Mice and Men" with Coel in his grave. It seemed the least he could do.