Note From The Author—Okay, so this is only the second time I've ever had to do this, mostly because I've been lucky enough not to have tragedy strike close to home on a regular basis. I'm dedicating this story to a young man with whom I was acquainted who passed away this week after a long battle with cancer. I didn't know him all that well, but I liked him very much; and in the organization that we belong to, we're all a family, no matter how well we know each other. So this story is dedicated to him.
Disclaimer—I don't own the characters of Torchwood
As the leader of the Torchwood team, Jack's most difficult duty was to tell the Sato and Harper families of their loved ones deaths. Under any other circumstances, with anyone else, it would be debatable if Jack would tell the families at all; but this was Tosh and Owen.
He went to Toshiko's family first, and when he pulled up outside the house Ianto offered to go inside with him, and though he would have welcomed the support, Jack shook his head. It was he who had brought Tosh to Torchwood, he who had given the orders; so in his mind it was up to him to do this hardest thing.
Ianto waited with his breath caught in his throat for his lover's return. Though he tried to stop it, his mind kept drifting to Tosh and Owen. Thankfully the good memories tended to overwhelm the bad, and he was musing with a tearful smile on the time Owen had suggested the all shag before the world ended when Jack returned to the car. His arrival was punctuated by the slamming of the door, and the smile quickly fell from Ianto's face when he saw the anguished look on Jack's face and the handprint flaring red against his cheek.
They didn't speak; there wasn't any need. It was clear how the visit had gone, as could have been expected. But what was also painfully clear was that Jack had taken the full brunt of the burden in there. The pain that her family was feeling, the questions about the why and the how that could never be answered and the frustrated grief that came with them, he had taken it all on top of his own pain and anguish, and he was sinking under the weight of it.
Jack found that he couldn't stop the tears. No matter what he did, he couldn't make them cease. So rather than try, he put the car in gear and let them fall; and when Ianto's hand covered his on the gear shift he couldn't suppress the sob that hitched from his chest.
The Harper family was next, and neither man bothered to wipe away their tears when they arrived. Jack parked in front of the house, the situation so eerily similar to the previous. He knew that there was nothing that could be done to make the situation any easier for any of them. No matter the words he chose, no matter the story he told, that gaping hole left in the absence of loss wouldn't close. So with a deep breath, he climbed from the car.
He didn't hear the second door shut, didn't hear the quiet footfalls behind him, but he did feel when Ianto's hand twined gently with his. Teary blue eyes the color of the purest sapphire met those the color of a summer sky and for a moment the rest of the word dropped away. Nothing could ease the hurt or make the pain go away, but as the pair of them walked towards the door to change the lives of those behind it incontrovertibly, Jack finally realized that having Ianto there by his side made him stronger; and maybe that was what it was all about.