2
Jack asked Tosh to dig.
It took a few days but she came back like the little trouper she is, flourishing the file like a fan.
"Did you read it?" he demanded, finding it a surprise that he wanted to protect Ianto even from his little blossom.
She shook her head in denial but he knew she still had it and would most likely peek now it was done. He considered telling her not to and then wondered if she might see something he did not, delve deeper still.
Jack waited until Ianto was having a bath before he opened it in his study, drinking in the information with growing rage until he felt like he might be physically ill.
Ianto had been captured.
The other side had overthrown the convoy he was travelling in and there had been tragic losses with only a handful of them surviving the initial attack, taken prisoner and held hostage in return for the exchange of their own colleagues that were prisoners of war.
Tortured and used as a plaything.
He had watched three fellow soldiers die before they dragged him into the filthy room, plastic sheeting hung to catch the arterial spray as they worked and the hint of cannibalism stained the white page between the black type print.
His injured leg was almost decapitated.
Finally an agreement was reached and the half dead soldier was dragged into a clearing to be left with three others …barely living hunks of meat, the other eight bodies …or parts thereof still uneaten scattered around their unconscious bodies like a crude framework of horror.
Jack rose and walked around the study snarling as he opened and closed his fists, imagining the throats of those who had harmed that young man soaking in his bath being squeezed mercilessly.
Finally he felt like he had a handle on his emotions and he slid the file into the top drawer, pausing to look at the photograph of the emaciated man laying half dead on the stretcher before sliding the drawer shut.
He kicked the waste paper basket as hard as he could, then winced as the window shattered and rained broken glass into the alley below.
Oops?
He walked over to the edge and peered over, relieved to find it devoid of life …or injuries and he was at the door to the penthouse before the manager was rapping politely to inform him that there had been a mishap.
Ianto came out of the bathroom with wide eyes, running into the manager who squeaked and turned to apologise, growing pale as he stared at him.
"What the fuck was that!" Ianto demanded.
"I accidentally broke a window" Jack pouted and he watched as Ianto glared, then slowly nodded.
"Your window, I suppose. Your choice" he said after a few moments, tugging at the bathrobe before turning and glaring at the manager with open discomfort at the man's silent examination.
"Anyway" Jack decided to change the subject, "Didn't you say that you wanted to see New Years in New York?"
Ianto swung to look at him with interest, "But you've not left this place in years."
"Maybe not" Jack shrugged, "Had no reason to. I do have a Manhattan penthouse ya know."
He watched Ianto's eyes light up and knew he was making the right decision, "Besides, I have a few meetings I have put off with the partners. I can call into the New York office and scare the shit out of them."
"Now that!" Ianto pointed a finger at him and grinned, "I would like to see!"
Jack laughed as he was forgiven and then turned to make the necessary plans for an upheaval of epic proportions. When he was seen out and about again with this doppelganger on his arm, the press was going to go insane.
Weirdly, he was looking forward to it.