Owen grumbled ass he made his reluctant way over to Ianto's workstation; this wasn't going to be anything but awkward!
"Ianto," Owen attempted to mask the sulk he felt with gentleness in his voice.
Ianto lifted his head from the desk forlornly but kept his back to Owen.
"Jack-" Owen heard Ianto huff, agitated "-wants to see you in his office."
"Tell Jack he can fuck off!" Ianto snapped.
"Tell him yourself. He's in almost as crappy a mood as you!" Owen returned to his own workstation to dissect alien bodies, also in a foul temper.
Ianto begrudgingly trudged to his boss's office, eyes fixated on the ground. If Ianto was going to be fired- as Ianto presumed was inevitable- and Retconned or even executed, then he was going to go out fighting and having said all that needed saying. No matter who it hurt.
Injecting sufficient contempt into his voice, Ianto knocked on the door and called, "Sir,"
Jack looked up from his paperwork and breathed in deeply, bracing himself, "Door's unlocked."
"You wanted to see me," Ianto forced the words out through gritted teeth and glared at Jack.
"Look," Jack sighed, "we can't just act like this never happened. We need to resolve this now."
Ianto laughed indignantly, "Is that what you're calling it now?" he scoffed.
"Wha-? Calling what?" Jack's brow furrowed in confusion, annoying Ianto intensely.
"Retconning me and firing me." Ianto said bluntly. Ianto caught Jack's expression of denial and added, "Well that's what you're gonna do to me, isn't it?"
"No!" Jack exclaimed, horrified, "Of course not!"
Ianto raised his eyebrows sceptically.
"You had your reasons for keeping her there, why would I punish you?"
"Hmm... let me think..." Sarcasm dripped from Ianto's tongue, "Maybe because I almost got you and the rest of the team killed!"
"Yes but it wasn't your fault!" Jack countered.
"Oh, but it was!" Ianto's voice was dangerous and livid.
"Ianto!" Jack yelled, "Do you want me to Retcon you?"
"I want the truth! You killed Lisa- the one person I have ever loved, will ever love- I deserve answers!"
Jack faltered and Ianto noticed. Why was Jack being so stubborn and why had he absolved Ianto so quickly?
Anger and resolve returned to Jack's face, "You deserve nothing from me," He deadpanned coldly. Behind all of the outrage, Ianto could see a hint of something else. It was something Ianto had never seen in Jack before and something he couldn't quite put a name to.
Jack didn't dare tell Ianto the truth. How could Jack possibly say that to anyone in Ianto's position? Jack needed a convincing lie...
and fast!
"Yesterday you threatened to shoot me," Ianto glared at Jack, "why didn't you? No, on second thoughts," Ianto flung his arms out and held them there as though he were being crucified, "why don't you?"
"BECAUSE-!" Jack bellowed. He was still working on a lie...
"Because-!" He shouted. Think, Jack, think!
"Because I can't." He muttered and hung his head.
"You- why?" Ianto lost some of his rage at the sight of tears in Jack's aged eyes.
The fight had drained from Jack; there was no way around the inevitable. Ianto would find out at some point, anyway. Anxiously, Jack sighed, inhaled again and hesitated, willing Ianto to take this well, "I..."
In that exact split second of wavering, Ianto found the word for the something he had never seen in Jack before: vulnerability.
Jack was vulnerable.
"I... I like you... like... really like you, Ianto." Jack was trembling. He had finally done it! Ianto knew now how Jack felt, how Jack had always felt. But now came the storm.
Ianto blinked. Had he heard correctly? Would Jack say something so tactless and cruel? Would anyone?
Jack winced slightly, as if he knew of the boiling of the blood coursing through Ianto's veins. Maybe he had spotted the blood vessels raise at Ianto's temple, seen the clenched fists held firm by his sides, identified the trembling of Ianto's being as he struggled in vain to contain his fury. Whichever of these had betrayed Ianto's wrath, it had made Jack visibly balk, as one would under the same circumstances; being face-to-face with a seething Welshman generally doesn't constitute to a good day.
"How DARE you?" Ianto separated each word as a ferocious clause in its own right, forming each syllable as an infuriated growl. He was shuddering violently now, compensating for the lack of worthless, inanimate objects to hurl at the walls.
"I-" Jack stuttered feebly.
Heatedly, Ianto interrupted him, "How inconsiderate is it possible to be?" Ianto never broke eye contact with Jack, he maintained a steely gaze.
"I didn't-"
"You didn't what?" Ianto challenged, fighting a fearsome battle with his limbs in order to keep them from lashing out, "You didn't think? You didn't mean it that way? You didn't know what else to say?" He bellowed, "Well I've got news for you, Captain Jack Harkness," Ianto spat out Jack's name, "I hate you! If you think for a minute I'm going to sit here and swallow some half-hearted, pitiful excuse then you're sorely mistaken!"
Ianto flung open the door and slammed it as he left the room, releasing a little of his frustration in the process and regaining enough composure to fabricate a more placid façade as he entered the view of the others.
Owen averted his gaze politely while Tosh studied Ianto's movements and face, she felt an overwhelming urge to go and comfort her friend. She nodded at him kindly and the gesture was reciprocated only by a cold scowl. Gwen observed from the balcony, not wishing to give away her position. She had been close enough to Jack's office to notice the volume of Ianto's voice. What had Jack said to wind Ianto up so much?
Jack was slumped over his desk, head buried in the arms of his coat, tears saturating the age-old fabric in seconds. The pain was pulsing deeply through his heart and he needed to end it somehow, he craved to cease this torture.
Death was the only answer.
Surely if Jack was dead, he wouldn't be aware that Ianto despised him.
Fumbling, Jack pulled his gun out of the holster at his waist.
He readied the pistol and raised it to just above his ear.
He squeezed the trigger.
Darkness.
Gwen heard the shot. She burst into Jack's office and gasped in shock- although, on hindsight, given the situation and the sound of a gunshot, she ought not to have been too stunned. A gunshot in Jack's office had only a limited number of possible outcomes.
What could she do? The others didn't know that Jack was immortal, she was on her own!
She resolved that the best course of action was to remove as much of the crimson pool on Jack's desk as possible and to wrestle his limp cadaver into a somewhat more comfortable position for when he woke up. The former, Gwen succeeded in with ease, while the latter proved very difficult. All the more so because every time she accidentally dropped Jack's head and heard the thud of flesh on wood, she would wince and have to remind herself that Jack couldn't feel it.
Leaving Jack's corpse alone sent a pang of guilt through Gwen but she knew she had to go; she needed to return to the others so as to avoid arousing suspicion. She sat at her own desk and joined Tosh and Owen in forcing herself not to acknowledge the sound of sobbing from by the coffee machine.