This Ends Now
By: Montez

Disclaimer: Don't own anything, Torchwood belongs to BBC.

A/N: This is my first Torchwood fic. I finally started watching the show after several false starts. I've quickly become a Jack/Ianto fan. I just love how that relationship has been built and it feels so real when you watch it (oh and not a Gwen fan at all). Anyway this part of the episode 'Adam' struck me as it really could have gone in a different way and this is my attempt to put more angst/hurt/comfort into a scene filled with it. The show pics up from where this story ends, slight AU as it doesn't include the 'lie detector' scene, but my own scene. Please be kind-Montez

Jack entered the Hub, memories that had laid hidden for more years than he wanted to remember were suddenly flooding to the surface. Why was this happening? He had never stopped thinking of his lost brother, but he had buried the memories of that fateful day so deep only at his darkest moments would they tickle his consciousness.

"Jack"

The older man froze at his name, for a moment not recognizing the near whisper. Turning slowly he could barely make out his youngest team member in the shadows of the room.

"Ianto" A relieved breath escaped as he moved to cross the room, "Hey, what's wrong?"

Little did he know that the response to those three words would freeze his soul like nothing else had in a very long time. Ianto, his Ianto was pleading to be put in the vaults, telling Jack that he had killed three girls in cold blood. Then the older man watched as this same young man jumped up, scrambling back as if something was after him before trying to roughly push past repeating that he was a threat to them all.

Jack was able to firmly grab Ianto, "What's happened to you?" he pleaded as the Welshman's eyes seemed to beg for help. Pulling him into a tight hug Jack could feel his friend shaking as for the second time in as many minutes his soul froze at the words expressed as an exhaled whisper near his ear,

"I'm a Monster"

In the next instant Jack found himself face to face with his own sidearm. In what Jack could only categorize as Ianto's paranoid delusion he had taken advantage of the attempt to comfort to pull Jack's own weapon, "I told you to put me in the Vaults!" Ianto hissed out between clinched teeth, his eye's darting around the darkened room before staring pleadingly into Jack's.

"Ianto, put the gun down and let me help you…this isn't you, please." Jack took a step forward but stopped when Ianto pulled the hammer back on the antiquated weapon.

The broken voice coming from the young man before him was killing Jack, something had happened in the hours since he'd left and until he could gain control of this situation that was quickly spiraling out of hand, he would not be able to help the younger man. "I have to be stopped…" Ianto pleaded, taking a step back, the hand holding the gun wavering slightly. The Welshman turned, his frantic back and forth rocking not ceasing as he looked toward the base of the water tower. It was in that moment that Jack really looked at his friend, the younger man was soaking wet and more disheveled that the Captain had ever seen him outside that terrible night just over a year ago when he realized the depths of devotion the man before him held toward the ones he loved.

Again taking the moments distraction to attempt to step closer Ianto whirled around, gun raised again. The look in Ianto's eyes stopped him, it was so different than the younger man's normally expressive gaze, the look was…for lack of a better word, dead.

"If you won't stop me, I will…" In that instant many things happened at once and only later when reviewing the CCTV did Jack fully understand what transpired. Ianto raised the gun to his own head, Jack yelled as he lunged forward, the deafening sound of the pistols discharged echoed across the Hub as he was just able to catch Ianto's collapsing form.

"Ianto!" Jack yelled as he wrenched the gun out of the younger man's hand, throwing across the room. In his frantic search of a wound his hand came away blood covered, he rocked the unconscious man in his arms a minute before he realized his hand had touched the back of Ianto's head, not the side. Again his hands roughly searched but found no bullet wound, but a large knot on the back of his head that was sluggishly bleeding. Releasing the breath that had caught in his throat Jack again pulled the Welshman close, burying his head into Ianto's mated hair. A head wound, but not from the gun, thank God, Jack whispered, was this the cause of what happened? Had Ianto somehow become injured in the darkened Hub, slipping on the grating and ending up in the shallow pool of water that it covered?

That still wouldn't explain why Ianto had said he'd killed anyone. Why he thought his was a threat to anyone, why it would make him try the unthinkable. Jack sat as a few more moment's passed, trying to process what had just happened, still holding Ianto close, his shallow breath's barely felt on Jack's neck as he continued to rock the younger man. He had come so close to losing him forever in those frightening moments, moments that made no sense in a day filled with events that made no sense. Then something pulled at the back of his mind, something that was telling him this was all wrong, the last couple days were all wrong; Gwen forgetting Rhys, Tosh head over hills in love, Owen stumbling over his words, him remembering his long lost family, and Ianto, looking down in the still man's face, a knot twisted again of what could have just happened, what could have been lost.

"This isn't right" Jack whispered, "this isn't right". He shifted Ianto so he could get up, half-carrying, half-dragging the younger man with him, Jack placed his charge on the sofa behind the computer terminals. Turning he started typing pulling up the internal camera feeds and found what he was looking for. Glancing back at Ianto's still form, he turned back and watched the assault on their 'Tea-Boy', then filtered through the footage from the last two days. He'd found his answer, he now knew what was happening and a plan was forming on how he was going to stop it and stop it he would, turning back toward the sofa as Ianto released a pained moan.

This ends now.