2
Ianto groaned as he surfaced out of the foggy dream he'd had.
A dream that left him with a nasty headache and a sore face.
He couldn't even remember falling asleep, and he didn't want to open his eyes or move either.
It was still dark. When did he take a nap?
Had he missed Lisa's drip change?
What a weird dream.
Very weird and scary with all the struggling in the dark, the sense of claustrophobia, and being unable to move.
Ianto tried to stretch his hands above his head, but something hard and metal was there, like a door or a ceiling, and he punched his fists into it.
"Ow!" Ianto yanked his hands back to his chest and his eyes snapped open, but there was nothing but pitch black all around.
Even in his apartment with the curtains closed, he should've been able to see something.
There were heavy metal bracelets around his wrists that hadn't been there before.
Ianto tried to pull his hands apart, but he couldn't separate them more than the width of his chest.
His breathing picked up, and his heart beat a fast and dull drumming sound in his ears as every tiny clue clicked into place.
He tried to tilt and turn his body, only to be met with cold, metal walls all around him. It was like he was trapped in a fridge with the light burnt out.
This wasn't supposed to happen to him.
His fear of coffins and the morgue drawers in the hub telling him with extreme clarity where he was, because now that he was inside, he was as good as dead.
Ianto banged his shackled wrists against the metal walls.
He twisted back and forth, slamming his body against every surface. The banging was loud, and the noise was louder still when he screamed, but nothing gave.
Nowhere to move.
No windows.
No air!
Ianto's heart rate and breathing spiked. It felt like he wasn't breathing at all as the sense of claustrophobia from his dream sucker punched him a hundred times worse than what he'd felt before.
Not a dream.
Not even close to being a dream.
It was real.
It was all real.
Terror gripped his heart and squeezed it nearly to the point of popping, and the mind numbing panic worsened as he screamed and kicked and punched around all sides of his small prison until his feet and fists were aching.
He couldn't think and couldn't breathe.
The box could be underwater and he wouldn't even know it.
What if Jack buried him?
He could die in here!
The top of the box opened without warning.
Bright light streamed inside and blinded him.
He had to close his eyes and turn away from it, covering his face as the pain in his head flared.
"Will you cut that out already?" demanded a voice that Ianto never thought he would hear again.
"Oh my God," Ianto panted, lowering his hands from his face.
Now that he could see again, could look up and out of the box and know for certain he wasn't being held underwater, or even underground, his lungs were able to open and close once more.
He could breathe.
Better than that, Jack was above him, holding the metal door of the box open and staring down at him.
His heart fluttered at the sight of him.
"It's you." He said with obvious relief.
He would've reached out to touch him, to make sure he was real and solid, if his arms had the strength.
This wasn't joy.
It was stronger than that because it was like someone had taken a needle and injected him with liquid happiness. "Jack?"
Jack's hands reached in to grab him, yanking him out of the box by his arms. It hurt a lot as his strong fingers squeezed too tight on the soft flesh of his upper arms, but he didn't mind since he was at least out of that damned coffin.
He was still wearing his trousers and dress shirt from the night before, but his shoes were gone.
The cement floor was cold on his bare feet, but his entire focus was fixated in on Jack's face like a homing signal was calling Ianto to him, his hands, his body.
He needed to drink in every part of him.
He could see the bags under his eyes, that he hadn't shaved in a couple of days and needed to comb his hair.
Or at least give it a wash.
"You...you came for me," Ianto said.
Jack's mouth thinned.
His blue eyes were frosty, and his face was solemn as he reached into the great coat he wore and pulled out a set of folded papers.
"Do you know what this is?"
"I...yes," Ianto said, and then stared back up into Jack's face.
His blue eyes were no longer cold, but incredibly, frighteningly, angry.
The brain-cell-killing panic from before slowly started to creep back under his skin, making Ianto shiver.
His dream hadn't been a dream.
Jack had attacked him, he'd put him under with a kidnapper's drug of choice, and then he stuck him inside a metal box.
Maybe it was obvious, but his brain was having trouble processing everything and he asked anyway. "So, you came to complete the execution clause in my employment contract after all?"