Title: Hauntings (2/4)
Rating: PG-13
Character(s)/Pairing(s): Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones; Jack/Ianto (mentioned), Jack/OC
Summary: Even after death, Ianto's ghost haunts the ones who knew him.
Warnings: COE compliant
Disclaimer: Torchwood and associated characters belong to BBC and RTD.
Even Stars Go Out
As soon as he can he tries to forget. He's on his fourth hypervodka and slumped across the bar when Ianto tells him, very matter-of-factly in his "I know everything" tone, that drinking actually reinforces bad memories in his mind. Jack finds the solution at the business end of his gun and wakes up the next morning in an alley with a killer headache. Which is good. The pain takes his mind of things.
He jumps from galaxy to galaxy and keeps running, but it's never far enough.
Alonso Frame is cute and game enough for the craziest things in and out of bed. But he's also quiet, just a little awkward and loves the coat far too much, so Jack directs him to Torchwood and then leaves him too.
On New China he burns the coat, an offering to the dead.
She reminds him of someone, but he can't go beyond fleeting snatches of memory until she's right in front of him and –oh– that's himself he's seeing, in her eyes. Just as broken, just as empty. She will come back with him tonight and he can forget, just for an instance, about his pain.
The cabin is dark when they stumble in and he polarizes the window so the starlight is shut out too. They fuck, blindly. She claws down his back and the marks disappear instantly. No name, no face and even her memory will fade in the morning.
Ianto's ghost sits by the dresser and watches, silently.
To be continued in:
Wake Up and Smell the Coffee