Disclaimer: Not Mine they all belong to the Beeb.
Author's Notes: The Welsh word used at the end of this means Beautiful.
Rating: PG-13 for swearing.
Au End Of Days
Owen
The morgue was silent, there was no background noise of computers or people talking, it was just silent. Owen stopped a few meters away from Jack's body, he didn't know what to do, what to say. He was a doctor that couldn't save anyone; all his patients either died or were already dead.
I can't do this, thought Owen as he turned around to leave, but he didn't get more than two steps when he stopped again. The last thing he had done before Jack 'died' had been to shoot him, several times over. Now he wasn't sure if he could or should ask for any forgiveness from the man.
"I suck at saying things like this," the words tumbled out before he could stop them. "You were a good leader, Captain; we were the twats that didn't listen. We shouldn't…fuck…I shouldn't have bloody shot you."
Again the silence but this time it was disturbed by Owens' heavy breathing. The man was slowly becoming an emotional wreck, once in control, now he wasn't. Anger suddenly took hold and Owen stalked back over to the ice cold body and hit the chest.
"Your not suppose to fucking die, Jack. You're supposed to be alive and fucking firing every single one of us for screwing up!"
His anger vanished just as quickly as it had come and he suddenly pressed himself back against the other doors. He was breathing heavily again and couldn't look at Jack's body, there was also a distinct wetness on his face that he refused to acknowledge. He was Owen Harper; he doesn't break down and cry.
"I'm sorry," whispered Owen.
There he'd done what he had come to do, he had apologized. But it didn't make him feel any better, Jack was still dead and he didn't think he'd wake again. Finally Owen looked over to the body; he gave a silent goodbye before leaving the morgue. He couldn't stay with Jack constantly, the others needed to say…well what ever it was they wanted to say.
Tosh
In all her life Tosh had never come across another man like Jack Harkness, she admitted she loved the man like a brother. She respected him, admired him, and even envied him for his knowledge at times, but now he was gone; dead. That hurt her, Torchwood was her family away from home and to loose someone was devastating.
Toshiko had been strong for him when they had slipped back in time, and he'd met his name sake, so standing alone in the morgue with Jack's dead body, she wished she could be strong like she had been.
Going over she stood at his side, it was the most peaceful she had ever seen him be. Once full of life, he was now laying still, something that wasn't right for the Captain to be doing. Tosh took hold of his hand, feeling the coldness she resisted the urge to try to warm it up.
"It's me, Jack," started Tosh, "Owen has already come to see you, Gwen's gone home for the night and Ianto is making coffee, he said he'd be down later."
She waited to see if there'd be any response, but there wasn't, she squeezed his hand tightly.
"So I found your wrist computer sitting on my desk, I don't know what you want me to do with it. The power keeps fading from it, like it knows you aren't…with us any longer," Tosh knew she was rambling, but didn't know what else to say to him. "The hand in the jar is also still loosing power. Jack without you around we don't know what to do, there's things we don't understand."
Tosh stopped talking she realized she was pleading with him to come back and that wasn't right. After everything she'd gone along with, she didn't deserve to ask him to come back, she wasn't even sure if she should ask forgiveness. She'd been led to open the rift by her mother, someone she had not gone home to visit since she'd died.
"I'm sorry Jack," she said finally.
She didn't stop the tears as they fell from her eyes, her heart felt restricted with grief and she felt ill with guilt at what they had all done. The hand that was holding Jack's had turned white from squeezing it so hard. She relaxed her grip slightly but didn't release his hand. Toshiko smiled sadly at him, you didn't deserve our betrayal. Her thumb had begun stroking the back of his hand in small soothing circles.
"I love you."
The words echoed around the room but Tosh didn't care, she wanted people to know she loved her family and Jack was her family. When she had stood there long enough, Toshiko finally made to leave his side, with one last look and squeeze of his hand she left. It was harder to walk away then she had imagined, but she couldn't stay with him. The others needed to say bye and sorry to him as well, plus the world didn't stop because one man had died, no matter how hard you wish it could.
Ianto
Ianto had put off going down to the morgue, he told Owen and Tosh to go first, claiming he still had things to do. Entering and tidying Jack's office had been the hardest thing to do and he'd broken down, crying into the Captain's coat. He was grateful that neither Tosh nor Owen said anything to him about that, but now he was stood just inside of the morgue's doors on his own.
He didn't move, he couldn't move, this was the second time he'd betrayed Jack and this time it had cost someone their life. Someone that he had grown close to, someone he had come to care for. Ianto began to shake with pure repressed emotions, he wasn't sure which emotions he wanted to follow first, anger, grief, and guilt they all collided and made him feel slightly sick.
Finally he managed to get his legs to work and he walked towards where Jack was laid out in a white knee length shirt and white body bag. Ianto felt his breath catch in his throat at the sight of the man he was currently falling for. He couldn't quite believe that the same man on the morgue table was the same Captain Jack Harkness.
The man was never that still, even in sleep, but he isn't asleep, he's dead. The thought ran through Ianto's mind before he could stop it and made the grief twist his stomach into a knot. Ianto blinked a couple of times to clear his suddenly misty vision, before he reached out and placed a hand on Jack's arm. He wasn't prepared for how cold Jack would be and he took his hand back quickly with a gasp.
That was Ianto's undoing, the tears started again but this time he didn't have any coat to cry into. The tears fell from his face and on to Jack's cold arm, he muffled his sobs though. In some way Ianto knew he didn't have any right to cry over Jack, he was partially to blame for his death after all.
Drying his eyes, Ianto started speaking, "Sir, Owen and Tosh have already been down, and so I suppose it's my turn now. It wasn't supposed to end like this, we just wanted to get back the people we'd lost, and no one was supposed to die, sir."
Ianto stopped speaking there was a rather large lump in his throat that made it hard to speak. Instead he gripped Jack's hand in both of his, this time not pulling away from the coldness. Ianto took a step closer and brought up Jack's hand and held it against his chest. He didn't care about wrinkling up his suit, this was Jack and he didn't care.
"Arddun," Ianto whispered.
The sentiment was only just audible but it echoed in the silent room none the less. Ianto thought it was true, Jack was beautiful, even dead, he also didn't care who heard him. Not that Owen and Tosh would understand what he had just said, not without translating and they wouldn't do that, without asking him.
"I'm sorry, sir," apologised Ianto.
The hand in his didn't respond to the apology, finally Ianto realized that Jack really wasn't going to come back, a few more tears fell on to his face. Ianto laid the hand back down, straightened Jack's outfit, before he turned around and started to leave. Ianto realized it was very hard to walk away, from his friend, from his lover, but he knew he couldn't stay with him.
