Under lock and key
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or any people or places you may recognise. Parts of this fic have been taken from the Torchwood Novel "The Undertaker's Gift" written by Trevor Baxendale. This text is indicted by italics, also this is a one shot and separate from my other one which is currently being edited.
Thank you for reading, a review would be great if you can spare a minute or two.
His mouth was dry, gritty, parched; he tried to move his tongue to swirl moisture but he could not move it, his mouth was full of soil. Soil. He'd been buried alive again the weight was incredible – cold, wet, heavy earth pressing down on his face and chest pressing down on him from above constricting his movements. He remembered this feeling very well, he could tell you in exact detail if he wanted to and to add in the look on his brother's face as shovel after shovel of dirt was thrown on him. But this time there was no John Hart or tracking ring to help him. He wondered how many times had he died in this hole and came back to life already, how long would it take to die this time. How long till he was found?
Surely Ianto and Gwen were already looking for him, he pictured them at the Hub running scans on all of the equipment searching for him, they would not give up. They had carried on in the past, unbidden an image of Ianto entered his mind, jacket pressed, Windsor knot in his tie, not a hair out of place to give away the inner turmoil as he passed Gwen a cup of coffee before resuming his spot at the computer.
The image shifted to Gwen, a sincere smile of gratitude graced her face quickly at Ianto's retreating back, she lifted the hot beverage to her nose, eyes closed and inhaled the rich deep aroma. Her eyes snapped open she placed the coffee down turning to her computer. Her long deceivingly delicate fingers flew across the keyboard, as she gradually leaned further forward her nose almost touching the monitor. "Where are you Jack?" she mumbled eyes roving the screen. "Jack? Jack?"
"Jack?"
He lurched upright, not really asleep, but Jack could reach a dreamlike state through meditation and manipulating his breathing and heart rate. With a big gulp of air he looked around, he was in his bedroom at the Hub, OK so he didn't sleep but a bed was useful for a number of other activities and there standing at the foot of his bed was Gwen Cooper. "Have a bad dream Jack?"
"Not a dream per say but yeah, since Gray..."
"It's only to be expected," Gwen told him, She sat down on the bed next to him, naked, "After all you've been through"
Jack smiled and reached out to her, stroking the bare flesh of her arm. It was cool and creamy in the darkness. Her hair hung like a thick black curtain over her shoulders, and her eyes glittered. Jack's gaze travelled down her face and neck, examining the curves, looking for any imperfections and finding none.
"You are wonderful" he told her truthfully.
"I know" she whispered, leaning in to take his kiss. Jack reached up, cupping the back of her head in his hand and pressing his lips onto hers. Jack thought he would never have enough of kissing this wonderful women in his arms she tasted of clear mountain stream water, cold and refreshing and full of life. Jack pulled her down onto the bed, turning her over so that he could look down into her eyes. Such expressive eyes, so huge, a pair of deep dark pools, capable of pulling you down, deeper than time, those incredible eyes were gazing up at him, full of love, trust and want. Jack leaned down planting kisses along the slender column of her neck, her jaw line, and then he recaptured her lips. His hands danced across her taut stomach, teasing the hem of her black shirt up bit by bit, tracing every inch of her flesh, committing it all to memory, the smoothness of her skin, the way goosebumps erupted in the trail of his hands as they rose higher and higher.
"Jack" she breathed as he renewed his assault with those tantalising lips along her collar bone making a steady torturous descent to the edge of her top. "Jack!"
In a combined twisting and lurching movement Captain Jack Harkness found himself flat on his back his white bed sheet had fallen with him and was covering his middle leaving his naked upper body and thighs exposed. He never bothered with night clothes what was the point, they got in the way, usually ended up in heap on the floor and more often than not there was a warm willing body to keep him warm.
"Ahem, good dream sir" Ianto asked pointedly from the foot of his bed, dressed in crisp new suit, a cup of that heavenly dark liquid no one else could make like Ianto held in his hand. "Need a hand with anything?"
"Not this time Ianto, I've got it in hand but thanks," Jack smiled, standing up letting the sheet fall to the ground, he grabbed the coffee and headed to the little bathroom off the side of the bedroom. He couldn't tell Ianto about about the dream that was one fantasy that had to be kept under lock and key. "So what have we got?"
"Apart from a sexually aroused leader? Rift activity recorded in Splott, Gwen is on her way, about five minutes and will get the SUV ready. Initial scans show a small item has come through the rift, no indications that is is dangerous, but neither do they show if it is harmless. Approximate size is similar to a small mobile phone, it was located in a shopping area. A quick search reveals only two or three open shops in the area, but due to the time of night there is only one open. The local off-license naturally."
"Great well lets get to it"Jack announced coming out of the bathroom and fastening his belt. He put the now empty coffee mug on the side (Ianto made a mental note that it was there), holstered his Webley, and gestured for Ianto to lead the way.
Her feet pounded the pavement, arms pumping at her sides, thighs warm with the exertion, her hair damped by the light evening rain was plastered to the side of her face, adrenalin coursed through her veins.
There. A flicker, a movement in the shadows spotted out of the corner of her eye. It was the creature they were chasing. It somehow moved amongst the shadows, disappearing silently from one to the next. She kept her head turned away from where it was, they discovered earlier it was easy to track this one from the corner of the eye, her perceptive vision picking up movements her brain originally would of discounted. She loved this, Gwen Cooper loved Torchwood. She loved the excitement, the danger, the never-knowing what's-coming-next.
Reaching up she hit the button on her comms unit "Jack I'm on Tweedsmuir Road its gone down Kenyon Road"
"On it, Ianto any luck?"
"Still unable to plot a course, sorry Jack it could be headed to Tremorfa Park" Ianto answered, he was driving the SUV following the various GPS units, two tracked Jack and Gwen, the third was meant to be tracking the artefact. It worked well at first they were close, but then the signal jumped, obviously his creature took a liking to the object and was now giving them the run around. Ianto signalled then jerked the wheel to the right this time he focused on Gwen's GPS.
Her lungs felt like they might burst, she slowed down to a stop, she'd lost sight of the creature. Breathing heavily she turned slowly waiting on some clue as to where it had gone. "Oomph" the wind was knocked out of her as the creature came barrelling into her. Pinning her to the ground, she swiped at it with the butt of her gun, but her hand went straight through the smoky torso. Smoky as she mentally called it was a short, squat humanoid creature, with no physical attributes made of pure black smoke except for a cluster of five white smokey ovals where it's eyes should of been. It occurred to her how was Smokey pinning her in place? She writhed under him/her/it; and realised where it's body was in contact with her own, it was thicker, compacted."For the love of God, just get off me!" she yelled at it, but doubted it heard her over the screeching tires that came round the corner. Headlights flooded the area and Smokey just disappeared, the alien artefact that started the chase falling on her chest. Looking around into the dark areas of the park she could not see the creature
The slamming of car doors brought her attention back to her situation, the rectangular object disappeared as a hand grabbed it fingers brushing her chest. Her eyes followed the hand and watched as it disappeared into the pocket of Jack's great coat. He reached down and helped her to her feet. She always hated it when he did that, it seemed so old fashioned and strange for the man from the future.
Safe and dry in the back seatt of the SUV Gwen told the boys what happened, Jack's comment of "can't blame ol'Smokey Gwen, if you were writhing under me I sure things would start hardening to" resulted in Iantosuppressingg a laugh in the passenger's seat and Gwen glaring at the back of Jack's head.
When they got back to the hub, Gwen flung open the SUV door and stormed to the entrance. Jack watched as she went 'Headstrong and independent and as gorgeous as hell...Gotta love the women' he thought before closing the door.
"So any idea what it is?" Ianto asked putting up an umbrella he seemed to have conjured from thin air.
"Yep, its a well the name is a little hard to pronounce but it lets you share a memory with another person. You basically hold it in your hand, press this, twist that, pull here aaannd voilà just think of your memory pass it to someone else and they will get that exact memory"
"So not dangerous then, good"
"Just a trinket really. Gwen catch!" Jack called as they entered his office to find her waiting for them. Ianto went to fetch them towels and hot drink.
"What is..." she caught the item reflexively and started to question them, her face flushed and a slight sheen of sweat appeared on her forehead and her breathing changed. "What was that?" she gasped
"An alien artefact that allows you to share a memory" Ianto answered coming back into the room "or so Jack says"
"Well I certainly don't remember that! And I'm sure I would, wouldn't I" Gwen snapped glaring at Jack.
"Of course, you can only share the memory once but it does let you share any memory so facts and figures from school days, memories, day dreams, or just dreams"he smiled before grabbing the towel and walking out of the office smirking to himself 'Just because it had to remain under lock and key didn't mean he couldn't have some fun with that fantasy.
"Wait a minute. Jack, get back here. Jack!" Gwen shouted running after him.
"Wonder what he shared . Oh well off to the archives for you" Ianto mused picking up the mugs, towels and artefact he turned off the light, walked out of the office and shut the door.
End