"Ianto."
Her voice behind him, no trace of the metallic grind that had shadowed her words since the tower fell. It took everything to turn around and see her standing, whole, in the hallway like none of it had ever happened. Pain shot through his palms but he was deathly afraid that he would feel nothing if he reached out, or worse, that the chill of metal would greet his skin.
Still, just like that, loyalty to Three fell away, crumbled out of him. Jack was his leader now - but it would always, always be Lisa for him.
Someday he would get it into his head; it always hurt, whether it was love or death. But every time he was surprised when they left, or when he saw himself bleed out, or he gasped back to life, limbs spasming and lungs burning.
So it still surprised him when four sets of eyes turned away from him, and it surprised him when the bullet slammed into his brain, and when they let him go and fight alone.
But, then again, it wasn't anything new.