Secret Santa: Moment of Truth
Summary: Part of the Secret Santa Universe. Ianto's immortality is tested.
Disclaimer: Torchwood and Doctor Who are the property of the BBC, RTD and SM.
It was a late July evening and the team had gone home, leaving Jack alone in the Hub to finish his paperwork. He hated paperwork; usually he would get Ianto to finish it for him… He put his pen down and thought of his husband. They'd only been married a year and a half, but so much had happened in that time. The most important of which, was the arrival of their, now 3 month old, daughter Addiena. He felt lucky to finally have a loving family… a family who accepted him for who he was, without hesitation. He was so lost in his thoughts, that the telephone ringing made him jump.
"Jack! They took her. They…" There was a sudden cry of pain and the line went dead. Jack didn't waste any time, he rushed from his office and out of the Hub, heading to their house.
When he arrived, and stepped through the front door, all seemed normal. If it wasn't for Ianto's phone call, he wouldn't have suspected anything was wrong. He slowly walked up the stairs, heading for their daughter's room, unaware of what was waiting for him…
Addiena's room was the first door to the left of the stairs. As he entered the bedroom, his mouth dropped. The room was a mess, the cot was overturned, the window was open, and various toys and books were scattered all over the floor. As he picked up one of the books, 'The Gruffalo,' he noticed that beside it was a small blood pool, with blood drops leading from it. He took a deep breath, knowing that this wasn't going to have a good outcome. Blood could only mean one thing, someone had been hurt. Fear gripped him as he slowly followed the trail. As he got closer to the master bedroom the drops had turned to smears, as if someone had been crawling along the floor.
Upon entering the room, his heart broke, his knees gave way and he fell to the floor. Tears began to trickle down his face as he took in the sight in front of him. At the side of the bed, phone still in his bloody hand, lay Ianto. He looked like he was sleeping, but Jack knew he wasn't, by the blood covering his chest. He crawled over, and lifted his husband's lifeless body into his arms, cradling him close to his chest.
"Please," he begged, "please come back to me. I can't go on without you. I don't know what to do."
He had been so happy that Christmas, when the Doctor said Ianto was immortal, but now he was doubting what he'd said… Could he have been wrong? He didn't know how long Ianto had been dead for, but surely he should have come back by now? He still loved him, more than ever… Why wasn't he coming back?
He sat, rocking Ianto in his arms, for another hour, wondering how he was going to find their daughter, she could be anywhere in the universe by now.
Xxxx
Sat in his spaceship orbiting the planet below, Zephariah Lendras II sat in in his favourite chair, indulging in his favourite pastime, revenge. He was just planning how he was going to get his vengeance on his latest victim, when his first mate entered, carrying a screaming baby.
"Will you shut that thing up!" he cried. "Get rid of it!"
"But it's his offspring sir." His face lit up. Originally, he had planned to get his revenge on the man who called himself, 'Jack Harkness,' by killing everyone the man held dear, but this was so much better. He could raise the child as his own and get them to do it for him. It would be the perfect revenge, raising his enemy's child as a killer, to kill its father. Oh, he knew the immortal would return, but the look on his face would be priceless. He turned to his first mate, and said,
"Take it to Niara; she'll look after it…"
"Yes sir." Just as he was about to leave, he turned and said, "I almost forgot…we killed his mate too sir."
"Excellent!" He smiled, and turned back to his papers, changing the details of his plan to break 'Captain Jack Harkness.'
Xxxx
Jack lifted his husband's body onto their bed and tucked him in; after all, he wanted him to be comfy when he woke up. He gave him a small kiss on the lips and whispered, 'Love you,' before leaving the room to call the team. He didn't want to use the bedroom phone, Ianto's blood was still all over it, and he couldn't bring himself to touch it. Dialling Tosh first, so he could get her to start a scan of alien tech, he wondered what he was going to say. Should he tell her Ianto was… no, he couldn't think like that, Ianto had to come back, he loved him too much for him not to. In the end, he settled on telling her about Addiena and ordered her to start searching Cardiff for the missing child.
After ending the call, he phoned Owen and Frankie, their newest team member, and informed them of the situation and told them to get here and help search the house for clues, and look after Ianto. It didn't take long for them to turn up. Owen instantly headed for the bedroom to clean Ianto up and check for any of the usual signs Jack would exhibit when he came back to life. As Owen headed right, Frankie headed left, into Addiena's room. Stood at the open window was Jack.
"So, what do we know?" she asked. Having only been at Torchwood for just over a year, 23 year old Francesca Mayberry, aka Frankie, was slowly becoming like a member of the family. Having a son herself, she would often take Addiena when she had the day off, leaving Jack and Ianto worry free when dealing with hostile aliens. Jack liked her; she didn't stand for nonsense, and only asked questions that needed to be asked, like now.
"Nothing… All I know is that my baby is gone and my husband is dead, killed by the same people that took my little girl."
Frankie nodded and began walking around the room. Unlike her predecessor, she didn't have any police training, but she had watched numerous reruns of CSI to know what to look for. There wasn't much to go on… She took samples from the numerous blood drops, most likely they were all from Ianto, hoping that one might be from the kidnapper.
As the youngest team member pottered around him, Jack stared out of the window, looking into the garden. Only yesterday, he and Ianto had sat there with Addiena, having an out of the blue picnic on the grass. They had stayed outside for ages, just talking about the future and their little family… Now, to Jack, it felt like it was slipping away.
Xxxx
High above them, heading for his home planet Zephariah was sat in his chambers with his new wife and their newly adopted daughter. He couldn't deny that the child was very beautiful, just like his own children were before… Why was he doing this again? How was he going to be able to raise this child, knowing who her real father was? He shook his head; he couldn't afford to think like that. He had a plan, a brilliant plan, and he couldn't let it fail.
"We should give her a name. I want to name her."
"Of course… Let's call her Crystalia," he suggested, wanting to name the child after his own daughter, who died. He figured if he named this child the same, he might be able to forget who her real father was, at least until she was older. Niara nodded and smiled. It was a lovely name, although she didn't know the story behind it…
The next morning, the ship landed back on their home planet, Ryhdaxan. It was a small planet compared to earth, but on its surface, it looked just the same. They'd landed in a big field, surrounded by a forest of trees. The only difference to earth was that there were no buildings, just large tepees dotted around a central well.
As they entered their tepee, and settled the child on their bed, Zephariah went out, into the forest, to find materials to build a crib. He was gone for no more than 20 minutes before he was back, laden with sticks and blankets, given to him by the other settlement dwellers.
Xxxx
As their daughter was being cared for off world, Jack wandered back into his bedroom to check on his husband's status.
"I'm sorry Jack, there's no sign…"
"Right… Well, I'm going to phone a certain Time Lord and give him a piece of my mind…" He couldn't finish his sentence, he was too angry. How could the Doctor tell him Ianto was immortal when clearly he wasn't coming back? Admittedly, he had been prepared to loose Ianto before he'd proposed, but after being told they had all the time in the world, they started to relax, and didn't bother to do certain things. He was so angry that he'd put on hold so many things he'd planned to do with Ianto, thinking they had an infinite amount of time, only to find out now that they were misinformed. The fact that calling the Doctor might help them find Addiena completely slipped his mind, and that shouting at the Time Lord might be detrimental to their search.
It took an hour on the phone, to convince the Doctor to come and help. Luckily Owen had talked Jack out of yelling at the Time Lord, and directed him back to finding Addiena. Jack had calmly explained the situation and the Doctor had agreed to come. Now said Time Lord was perched on the end of his bed, examining his dead husband with his sonic screwdriver.
"Mr Jones is definitely dead… But he still possesses part of the time vortex, so he should be fine… as long as your love for him remains."
"It does. Thanks Doctor."
"So, where's my niece's room?" Jack led him to his daughter's room, where the Time Lord instantly began scanning it, like he had with Ianto. After 10 minutes he suddenly stopped, as if he'd thought of something he'd forgotten.
"You carried Addiena didn't you Jack?" Jack nodded.
"What's that got to do with anything Doctor?"
"Well, when a child of someone who carries a part of the vortex inside them is born, part of their blood keeps some of that residual energy during their life… It becomes a kind of tracker..."
They continued to talk about the Doctor's plan all the way back to the TARDIS. He took a sample of Jack's blood and used the TARDIS computer to pick up Jack's DNA in other parts of the universe.
"Ah ha!" he shouted as he picked up a signal from Cardiff. Jack looked at the location.
"That's not her Doctor, that's my other daughter and her son."
"Oh," he replied and went back to searching the galaxy. Nothing. "Ah ha!" he said again. "Mr Jones! If I mix both your blood, I can locate her better."
Twenty minutes later, the Doctor had found a signal and was trying to follow it in the TARDIS. It wasn't long before they landed on the planet Ryhdaxan. Cautiously, the pair stepped out of the doors and onto the planet's surface.
Using one of Tosh's PDAs Jack was able to track his daughter's signal. The Doctor hadn't been too pleased to have his sonic screwdriver upstaged, but he knew Jack needed to feel more included. Walking through the settlement, the Doctor noticed Jack had left his side. He turned around, but couldn't see the other man anywhere. Why do they always wander off? Every time…
Peering in one of the tepees, he saw that it was empty, but, on closer inspection, there in a little cot, was Addiena.
"Hey little one, Daddy's here," he said picking her up and holding her tight. As he turned to leave, Zephariah appeared at the door, blocking his exit.
"I see you've met my daughter Crystalia…"
"I think you'll find, she's my daughter…"
"Not for much longer… You see, originally I had planned to raise her and have her kill you, but I think taking her from you now, so you never see her again, is a far greater punishment, after you and that partner of yours at the Time Agency killed my family."
"I never killed…"
"No, but I did," another voice interrupted, as he slid a knife across Zephaniah's throat. He fell to his knees, as he began to slowly die. Jack was speechless, how had John got there? Surprisingly, he was actually glad to see the other man, this time.
"Why are you here John?" Jack asked, walking out of the tepee and heading back to the TARDIS.
"Paying back a favour. You let me live when you could've killed me. I figured I owed you one… Plus, I met this cute guy in a bar, who asked me to help you."
"Thank you," Jack replied, looking down at his sleeping daughter.
"Now if you'll excuse me. I have an engagement to get to." And with that, he teleported away, leaving Jack on his own to find the Doctor, wondering who the man in the bar could've been.
Xxxx
As Tosh, Owen, Frankie and the Doctor crowded around the bed, waiting for Ianto to come back to life, Jack sat next to him, holding his little girl in his arms.
"It won't be long little one, Taddy'll wake up soon." As if on cue, Ianto gasped. "Oh thank God!"
"It's about bloody time tea-boy!"
"Welcome back Mr Jones."
"Thank you Doctor… It seems you were right," Ianto said, as he began to sit up. He looked at Jack and smiled, causing Jack to beam in response. "Well done cariad, you got her back."
"Of course I did, she's our little girl…" In the background, the Doctor coughed. "With a little help from the Doctor." He decided to leave out John, being as he was still a sore subject with Ianto.
"Right, I must be off."
"Rubbish, you just want to get out of helping clear up."
"You're right Jack… Bye," he grinned and left the room. The rest of the team sighed and set about helping Jack and Ianto tidy the house. Lingering behind, Tosh asked,
"Do you want me to take Addiena?"
"No thanks Tosh." She smiled, and headed out of the room to help the others.
As she left, Jack got up and shut the door, before climbing onto the bed beside Ianto, laying the sleeping baby between them. He leaned over and gave Ianto a loving kiss.
"I love you Ianto."
"I know cariad… Or I wouldn't be here," he chuckled slightly.
"Don't joke Ianto, I could've lost you… both of you," he added, looking down at their daughter.
"We're here Jack, and we always will be," Ianto replied, before reaching out and stroking Jack's cheek. He cupped his hands around his husband's face and leaned in, for a sweet and gentle kiss.
Thanks for reading, please review. :)