It was another late night at the Hub for Ianto; everything had been the same as always, due to the quietness he got more time together with Lisa. Suddenly the alarm started to rage like crazy. Ianto quickly said his goodbye to Lisa and rushed to the main Hub area. As he came up he heard Jack shouted through the intercom, "Ianto where the hell are you? We've got an object coming through Earth's atmosphere and it heading for Cardiff."
"Sorry, Sir, I was just updating the Archive, I'll be there in a minute. " Ianto replied in his usual manner, "Do you need me to contact Owen and Tosh?"
"That would be great. Oh remember to contact Gwen as well. Also I need you to pack all the necessary tools in the SUV as well, it is has just been identified as a meteor." Jack cut off quickly and left Ianto doing all the work.
Here we go again. What the hell is he doing?
Ianto pulled out his phone and text Owen, Tosh and Gwen to notify them is time for work, while collecting all the necessary equipment to be packed and ready to go.
As soon as everyone arrived at the Hub, Ianto directed everyone towards the SUV that was waiting and ready to go, on the way no one asked anything about the equipment or showing gratitude. Ianto expected their reaction as that was his intention, but in the back his mind there was an unsettled and uneasy feeling waiting to explode.
As soon as the team departed, Ianto realised Gwen had started work even before she was due in.
Suppose Captain Jack Harkness just can't wait to get his hand on Gwen.
He went back to the Archives where he could calm down and finish the report on the glove.
The team came back in the shadow of night. Ianto had finished his report and was waiting for the team to return. Ianto had already heard from Jack about the incident that occurred at the landing site and he started to surveillance the calls made to 999. He also made a mental note.
Never take a newbie who is full of themselves to a field mission, no matter the risk level and previous record. ALWAYS give them field training before hand.
Owen started his usual sarcastic talk, rubbing in on other's mistake; Ianto took quite an effect to hide his gloat.
Hearing Jack's comfort and Owen's criticism, for once he was swinging towards Owen's argument. Ianto could still remember what he heard from Lisa that a member on a dangerous field mission in Torchwood One made a huge mistake and killed two other members as well as 20 civilians due a runaway alien because he didn't follow orders, was retconned and kicked out of Torchwood One, with several criminal charges.
As they talked Ianto found a very interesting murder in a nightclub that was reported to 999. When their conversation is coming to an end, Ianto walked to the top of the steps with a clipboard, interrupted by clearing his throat and said. "This might help. Nightclub death been phoned in to 999. Circumstances sound…a little unusual…" Ianto saw Gwen hurry up the steps and handed her the clipboard with the information before continuing, "might be connected."
Seeing everyone rushed off again, Ianto actually felt a bit left out. Then he went to a blind corner of the CCTV and laughed at himself for feeling left out.
My god, what's wrong with me? Why do I feel left out? I'm not part of the team in the first place; I'm only here because I need to save Lisa.
Ianto reassured his motive and started to prepare equipment that might be needed. Ianto knew the case was probably related to the gas alien and he would need to cover everything up.
Just as Ianto was prepared, Jack called him through intercom "We'll need a body from the cryo-chamber, close match with the dead guy's appearance. Disfigure the face, dump it someplace remote, make it look like a suicide attempt." Before Ianto had even replied he was quickly cut off.
What a surprise? And he forgot to mention I've got to retcon people from the nightclub as well.
Ianto signed at his workload, got the dead guy's image as well as identity from the database and started his work.
Ianto had already finished the job on the dead body, and it was ready to be disposed and found and he had also heard from Owen the details about what was the cause of death and how they actually found out. It did not surprise Ianto that much. However he noted the security personnel and anyone else who had seen the footage needed to have a bit of memory alteration. Before he left the Hub to do his work he overheard the conversation Gwen and the rest of the team were having about their private life. It wasn't much of a surprise. No one had a partner, but it did reopen the wound in his heart about Lisa. In Torchwood One, because there were so many employees, people were able to have normal relationships without being worried about what would be said and what wouldn't be said. Thinking back, the time he spends in Torchwood One was heaven compare to Torchwood Three.
After an hour or so he came back to the Hub, Owen shouted at him. "Ianto where have you been, tea-boy? I need my coffee, now."
"I'm sorry, I'll do it now." Ianto came up to Gwen and before he said anything she screamed.
"Ah! Ianto, you scared me."
Ianto smiled at her. "I'm sorry, but what type of coffee would you like?"
"Anything is fine, don't worry too much." Gwen shook her head, and then was lost in thought again.
Ianto saw that, and left. A few minutes later Ianto came back down holding a tray with four mugs of coffee and went to Jack first, as Gwen and Tosh were busy. Jack just took his white mug, then smiled at Ianto, and went without a word of gratitude.
Ianto rolled his eyes when Gwen went on about civil liberties; data protection and all that stuff, while Tosh was trying to get an identity on the host body the gas took on. Then Jack contradicted Gwen saying about the use of 'you' instead of 'we', and clearly it wasn't the first time.
What quality does Gwen Cooper have that Jack is attracted to? Ianto thought in curiosity, or is that face of hers a resemblance to someone Jack treasured?
As Tosh came up to a dead end of 119 possible matches on the host, Ianto suggested, "It's narrowed the numbers down. I could check through the rest." Ianto looked around to see everyone staring at him before continuing. "You know, the old fashioned way – with my eyes." Suddenly everyone just lost interest and took his suggestion as a joke.
Well I'm only trying to help. Ianto opened his mouth, but didn't burst out the sentence. He disappeared into the tourist information office instead.
Not long after, the team went out again as they found the girl's address. Ianto went back down into the Hub again to look in the archives to see if there was anything that could help Lisa with her pain as well as reversing the process the Cyberman had done. While going through the archives he found in section 15 files 97 the inflatable cell was missing.
Well that's strange; it was here when I last checked. Ianto clearly remembered when he was checking the archives it was still there. Guess Jack must have taken it for the mission. And went on with his search for possible help or resolution.
When the Jack and the team came back from the catch, Ianto was back at the information desk already ordering Chinese for dinner. He got a glimpse of the girl they caught, from her expression she was scared, very scared. After they're gone Ianto couldn't help but pity the girl. It was not her fault, she just happened to be caught up in this mess. Then the doorbell rang and the door opened.
That's strange. Who would be here this late? Ianto took full precautions, it was a habit developed after the Battle of Canary Wharf. It was just a false alarm as it was a lost tourist who can't find his way to the hotel, while Ianto helped him the Chinese also arrive, so he shut the office and went down to the Hub.
As he called out "So… who's for Chinese?" he realised there was an awkward tension in the Hub between Jack, Owen and Gwen. Everyone walked in silence towards the conference room. As people went up Ianto was able to gain Tosh's attention and asked, "What happened between Owen and Gwen?"
"Well…let's just say it has something to do Carys. I can't tell you any further," Tosh replied and hurried into the conference room.
Ianto stood in silence until Jack called, "Ianto! What are you doing? We're starving up here."
"Sorry! Coming!" Ianto hurried towards the conference room with the box of Chinese in hand.
The Chinese take away went down smoothly. When everyone was half way through the meal, Jack brought up a case few months ago; an alien got married and the wife knew, but she didn't care until he started to behave less human like. Torchwood came into the picture because they discovered there were alien weaponries being sold in secret on a black market. Jack told the story. He questioned the wife to see if she knew her husband was an alien and whether she was associated with the crime her husband had committed.
"And she said…she said, 'If I'd known that's what he was, I never would have married him!" Jack said it in laughter.
"She knew, she knew all along." Tosh concluded with her observation, but Owen rebutted, "She didn't care." However his voice was quiet over the dinner table.
"Until he started leaving black piles of mucus in the bathtub," Ianto added. He had spotted it when he had inspected the house closely after the alien's capture. He saw Jack flinch from the vivid image of discovering black mucus in the bathtub and commented on the hygiene standards of aliens, and then left the room.
As soon as Jack was out of the hearing range, both Owen and Tosh interrogated Gwen on what she knew about Jack. They could not resist the mysteries surrounded Jack, yet they couldn't find anything about him. While Ianto listened, and made no comment, occasionally eating his dinner. He was curious, but he had gathered enough information from the remains of Torchwood One archives as well as Torchwood Three archives.
As Owen busted out his suspicion of Jack being 'gay', Gwen questioned him; Owen and Tosh gave two different response. Where Owen stood firm on the opinion, Tosh disagreed and then Ianto added, "And I don't care."
Owen supported his statement and said, "Period military is not a dress code for straight man."
Well if he's from World War II you wouldn't be so sure would you. Ianto had an explanation for the RAF overcoat, but didn't speak out strictly. Jack was very protective of his information. Anyone who knew about it were all high echelon staff and from his history of Torchwood One. He might have lost favour with Torchwood, and especially Jack and his new way of doing things, but he had work to do before he lost the chance of saving Lisa.
"He'll shag anything if it is gorgeous enough." After Ianto heard it he couldn't help chocking on his food.
Even though Jack 'will' shag anything if it is gorgeous enough, he still prefers guys.
Ianto remembered all the visits Jack had made to Torchwood One London. He had seen Jack flirt with both men and women, but when it came down to shagging the proportion of men he shagged was a lot higher than women. It was actually recorded, but Ianto wasn't sure if it was for benefits sake, or just someone who was bored enough to have done it.
Gwen made a wild guess of Jack's origin based on his American accent, but as Tosh, the computer genius, hadn't found any record of a person named Jack Harkness born in the last 50 years. It gave Jack even deeper mysteries of his origin.
That is because he was not born in the last 50 years and he's not American.
"Used to be something big in the CIA. That's what I reckon." Ianto tried to throw them off track, fully knowing that if Jack had worked in the CIA he would have never got a job in Torchwood.
Through the CCTV camera in the holding cells, Gwen could see Carys crying. Ianto could see the guilt Gwen had of her being happy, compared to the misery of Carys, which was caused by her mistakes. From her reaction Ianto saw an image of him at the end of the battle of Canary Wharf. He also had the guilt of not being able to save people. It was different, but he believed for a moment both he and Gwen felt the same. Even though Gwen's guilt was probably due to her sense of humanity and justice, while Ianto was regret and remorse.
As Gwen questioned everyone on the behaviour they had towards Carys' case, Ianto thought of Lisa who was hidden away in the depths of the Hub all alone and in pain. Just the thought of it took away Ianto's appetite. When he came out of his thoughts, he realised everyone else has already finished their meal and left him to do clean up. That just added more to his growing frustration.
After a year in Torchwood Three, I still get treated like a trash. Is it because the prejudice against Torchwood One, or I'm just useless to them?
This type of thought had arisen more often since Gwen joined the team. Ianto wasn't sure if it was jealousy for the position Gwen received or he was tired of being treated like shit. One way or the other he was ready to leave Torchwood when he could. He felt no belonging what so ever, but it was the only other thing he had beside Lisa so he just had to hold on for a bit longer.
Ianto continued to work through the night in the tourist information office. He couldn't visit Lisa, as it would risk her being discovered by the rest of the team. At dawn the front door opened unexpectedly; he had had no communication before hand about anything. He approached the door to check if anything had happened down in the Hub. When Carys rushed out the door with Jack's precious hand, he was quite shocked.
How did she get lose? What the hell are they doing down there?
Ianto wondered at the situation, but kept his caution towards her until Jack rushed through the door as well and pointed his gun at Carys.
"Need me to do any attacking, sir?" Ianto offered to help, but he knew Jack too well, and knew how precious the hand was to him.
"Appreciate the offer. Just open the door."
Ianto followed his order and stared at Carys, as Jack put away his gun and demanded the jar back. He saw a glimpse of hatred ran through her eyes and she threw Jack's jar over the information counter and ran for her life. Jack shouted in agony and quickly jumped over the counter. Soon Gwen and Tosh came through the door, Ianto just stared blankly at the situation. Then Gwen and Tosh ran out after Carys, but after 10 or so minutes they came back empty handed.
Before Tosh entered the Hub Ianto pulled her aside and asked her of Carys' result, as well as how had she had got loose. Tosh explained briefly what happened and Ianto got the picture pretty well. He was particularly worried that Carys was a walking aphrodisiac as well as it was going be much harder to track her. Furthermore he did the cover up for Torchwood, alien cases and anything to keep the civilians off alien issues was his job.
This is going to be a hell of a job.
When Jack and Gwen came back from Carys' ex-boyfriend's house, it was too late. Now they don't have a clue of where to go next.
"Ianto, can you cover up the ex-boyfriend…Eddie, I think. You know the usual," Jack ordered and took both Owen and Tosh on a search for Carys.
The usual…suicide sounds good. Ianto made a quick decision and got to work.
Ianto heard later that they had eventually caught Carys at Conway Clinic where she worked as a receptionist. However they got there quite late and there were a number of deaths caused by Carys. Jack hasn't said anything, but Ianto was expected to cover it up.
Just as I expected, this is a hell of a job.
Ianto signed at the workload. Frustration had built up with Torchwood work as well as finding a cure for Lisa. In the end it took Ianto three days to cover up the case, and in the mean time both Jack and the rift have been quite. After the cover up, Ianto immediately visited Lisa and comforted her, as he hadn't been with her for a few days. He felt cruel, not having visited Lisa and talked to her.
"Lisa, how's the pain? Is the medication working?" Ianto asked gently when he saw her awake.
"It's ok, but it's starting to wear off. I think I'll need new medications soon." Lisa replied in her normal voice, but Ianto didn't realise there was a cold, mechanic tone within it.
"Lisa, I'll cure you. I got in contact with Dr. Tanizaki; he will be arriving in a month or two. He just has to finish he's current project and will come straight away. With his help I'm sure you can be cured." Ianto told her the good news and with joy in his voice.
"That's good."
"Alright, good night Lisa. Sweet dream." Ianto waited until she closed her eyes and went to sleep. Then he left Lisa in the dark, resting.
