Title: Things Never Are As Bad As They Seem.
Pairing: Jack/Ianto.
Genre: Dark/Fluff.
Warning: Character Death.
Rating: 15.
Spoilers: None.
Disclaimer: Jack and Ianto belong to BBC. I own the plot, at least.
Word count: 1580
A/N: Thanks to aphy_snape at livejournal for beta-reading. This was probably done a few times, but I wanted to try it.
Summary: Something strange happens in an old house.
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'Jack!' Gwen's nervous voice spat through the comm in his ear.
Silence.
'JACK!' Now she was screaming.
'I'm sorry, Gwen,' Jack replied. 'I couldn't hear you, but I'm here. Hold on!'
'Fine, okay' She replied.
As Jack stepped into the derelict building, he could understand why Gwen sounded so desperate and scared. The place was almost falling into pieces. In cases like this, he wondered why things never slipped through the rift into recently built homes and offices.
'Always the most exotic places,' he mumbled to himself, passing through where the front door had probably been.
The walls were covered in an old green wallpaper, eighty per cent of it peeled off, revealing an old crumbling plaster wall, yellowed by the dampness of the place.
The living room, as Jack thought it was the living room, was big; there was neither furniture nor blinds. Even if there were furniture, they would be just as rotten as the walls and the wooden floor.
It smelled like an old house, damp, rotten wood, and there was another smell. A smell he couldn't quite define yet. Not with so little light. The small torch he had in his hands and the fading sunlight shining through the windows weren't big helpers.
'Gwen? Where are you?' He called, fearing the walls would shake and fall on him.
'I'm upstairs, Jack. Be careful, the stairs are dangerous,' she said.
Jack started climbing up the stairs slowly, carefully leaning on the walls. He felt like a disaster could happen if he put all his weight on them.
Jack was reaching the top when he realized that the texture of the floor was different upstairs, the old carpet was darker and rougher. It smelled like it had been rained on for ages.
'Gwen?' He called again.
'Over here, Jack. I'm on the floor.'
He continued going straight, the place wasn't as big as it seemed. He could see the red of Gwen's shirt. She was crouched on the floor.
'Here, Jack,' She raised an arm.
As Jack came closer the texture of the floor changed again, now he was stepping into something wet, really wet. He looked down, and saw that it was blood. There was a trail of blood leading to the place Gwen was.
'Are you hurt?' He asked rushing in her direction.
'It's not my blood,' Gwen said shaken. 'It's Ianto's.'
Jack's heart began to sink when she said Ianto's name. Jack directed the light of the torch to the motionless body she had resting in her lap.
Ianto was wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and a red tie that day, he remembered it. But the shirt wasn't white anymore. What was left of it was red. Redder than his tie. It was red from the blood. Blood from the huge cut in Ianto's chest. The cut covered his entire chest and ended down below the Welshman's belly button.
When Jack recognized those pale features, lifeless pale features now, His legs weakened and he lost his balance, falling on his knees, he grabbed Ianto's hand, squeezing it tightly in his hands, entwining Ianto's cold fingers in his.
He didn't know what to do, what to say. This was something overwhelming and unexpected. He didn't even remember teaming Ianto with Gwen for the field assignment that day. It was his fault; he wasn't ready to lose Ianto, not now.
A life without Ianto. Emptiness started to spread inside him.
Jack had never really thought about the day Ianto would die. In fact, he had always avoided those kinds of thoughts.
He dreaded the day he would have to move on without Ianto by his side, when he would have to live without Ianto's comforting presence, without his coffee, without Ianto's witty and snarky remarks. But the thing that hurt him the most was that for all that they'd been through, he'd never had the chance to tell Ianto how he really felt about him.
How would he move on from this horrific nightmare?
'JACK!' Gwen shouted, shaking him.
How long she'd been shouting, he couldn't tell. Tosh had been trying to reach him through the comms as well. Maybe Owen too, there was a male voice mixed in with the girls shouts. He could hear something, but he couldn't understand what they were saying.
'How did this happen, Gwen?' He sounded hoarse, but didn't remember shouting.
'I was downstairs,' She was trying really hard not to cry in front of him. But he could see old dried tear tracks. 'Then I heard a scream and a blinding light flooded the whole place…' Tears were streaming down her face now, but she kept speaking. 'I came upstairs and found his body in a puddle of blood. Everything happened so fast…' she started sobbing 'He wasn't breathing, Jack... The cut is so big and deep that I didn't even know how to try CPR…' She trailed off.
He didn't have strength to comfort Gwen. Not now.
'Its OK,' Jack said knowing it wasn't OK, he had his lover's body lying on the floor, with an enormous cut in his chest. Not even a doctor could have done much.
'Should we call an ambulance? The police?' She asked desperately. 'What do we do?'
'We need to remove his body, 'Jack finally said. 'Go get the body bag from the SUV… please?' He swallowed back his sobs, but he knew that sooner or later he wouldn't be able to hold them back. He tried to stop his eyes from watering, but was miserably losing the battle. He tried very hard to be their leader, their boss, and not let the others see his weakness, but what he was seeing in front of him was just too much.
When Gwen disappeared down the stairs he gave up fighting, letting the emotions flood through his entire body.
'I'm so sorry, Ianto.' He said, placing a gentle kiss on Ianto's hand. 'I'm so sorry.' He said again as the sobs raised in his chest, and tears rolled freely down his cheeks. It didn't matter now if the others saw their leader, their boss, crying. He was in pain, and he didn't care if the whole world could see him crying.
He grabbed the body in his lap, snuggling Ianto's head in his arms, and cried for long minutes.
'I love you…' He whispered hoarsely and kissed gently Ianto's cold and purple lips.
Then all of a sudden the whole house started to shake, the floor was cracking beneath his feet, and the walls were starting to fall down. He held Ianto's body close, as if it still needed protection, and closed his eyes.
Jack heard a loud shout.
A blinding light faded everything to black.
*****
'JACK!' A voice shouted his name as he gasped for air.
He opened his eyes, but couldn't see anything, everything was dark. He was panting, heart speeding, and his cheeks were wet from crying.
'Jack! You're OK. I'm here,' a hand held him and another one caressed his temple.
As his eyes got used to the dark, he recognized the place where he was and the arms that were holding him.
'Ianto!' He said loudly, as the relief flooded him.
'I'm here, Jack, I'm here,' Ianto said in a soothing tone. 'It was just a bad dream, everything is fine,' Ianto kissed his forehead.
'Bad dream? That was my worst nightmare…' Jack admitted hoarsely.
Jack took a deep breath, regaining his senses to awareness. He was in his bed, in the safety of the Hub, in Ianto's arms. He took another deep breath.
'I'm sorry I shook you,' Ianto said as Jack clung to his lover's arm. 'I had a hard time waking you up.'
'Was it my bad dream that woke you up?' Jack asked.
'Nope. I was upstairs checking the monitors when I heard you scream.'
Ianto shifted his body so that Jack could rest his head on his chest. Both men enjoying the comfortable silence.
'I feel so tired…' Jack exhaled after a few minutes.
'That's what happens when you chase aliens even in your dreams,' Ianto smiled.
Jack chuckled and placed a hand in Ianto's neck, pulling him down for a gentle kiss.
'You should try to sleep again,' Ianto said when they broke apart. 'You still have a couple of hours before the sun rises and another exciting day starts.'
'I can't hardly wait,' Jack said ironically.
'I picked up strange rift activity in an old house in Splott,' Ianto informed him. 'I think we should check that out later.'
Jack's heart jumped.
'I guess I know which house you're talking about. It always has strange rift activity in there. I'll check it later, alone,' Jack's words sounded more nervous than he expected. 'It's quite dangerous and old in there. I don't want any of you in danger.'
He lied. He would make sure Ianto never got close to that house, whether that was the house of his dream, or not.
'OK,' Ianto shrugged. 'If you say so.' He caressed Jack's hair.
'I'm not sleepy anymore,' Jack said sleepily after a few minutes.
'Yes, I know.' Ianto kissed his hair chastely, humouring him.
'Hmm…'
'And by the way,' Ianto said, not sure Jack could still hear him. 'I love you too.'
Jack did hear the words. He let his body relax, and his mind started to drift into sleep to the sound of Ianto's heartbeat.
~fin~