Part of my Sentinels 'Verse

.

In being part of the Sentinels this does technically cross with Stargate, Doctor Who, maybe references to Psych and other fandoms that are included in the Sentinels 'Verse,

.

Disclaimer: I don't own. Obviously.

Chapter Three: Storm Warning

Ianto sat in the boardroom, papers spread out along the table surrounding his laptop and tried to understand exactly what he was reading. The recent events involving the deaths of the President of the United States and the newly elected Prime Minister Harold Saxon had been hush, hush. No one really knew the exact details yet here he was reading about it because his father had been there.

Harold Saxon had been an alien, a Time Lord like The Doctor bus an insane one who had initiated a Paradox. His father had lived through an entire year that only a handful of other people remembered, a year of suffering and death. Jack had been through it too but lived under the mercy of Saxon and died, over and over, at least once a day if not more. Ianto's heart broke for Jack and he wanted to comfort him, but Jack wouldn't come back. Why would he after going through all that?

Besides, if Jack were coming back he would already have arrived by now. Those events had happened nearly two days ago and in that time his father had written his report and fled to Atlantis to be with John, powering the Stargate on his own just so that he could get there as fast as possible. If Jack wanted to come back, he would already be here.

Ianto rested his head on the table warily. The team was out chasing a blowfish that had apparently stolen a sports car. It was the first activity they'd had ever since that bogus attempt to get them out of Cardiff and on a bloody goose chase to the Himalayas. Thankfully they knew that not just anybody ordered them around. Well, Gwen hadn't but they'd informed her that unless the order came from the Queen herself they didn't have to answer to anyone especially someone in the government's office. The Himalayas wasn't even under their jurisdiction, if something happened there it fell to UNIT to take care of it.

He was exhausted, working nonstop to keep Torchwood running and not making it harder on the others. He was at the Hub twenty four/seven, slept for only four hours a night because he had all of Jack's former work to complete now that he was gone. If he didn't take some time off, a day or two to catch up on his sleep, then he would soon collapse. The others didn't really notice, he didn't let them because if he collapsed then they would soon fall apart. He didn't mean to think that he was the cornerstone of Torchwood, but he had seen the state of the team that had resulted from him being away fro only ten days and knew they couldn't afford him getting sick.

He closed his eyes and let everything just ebb away, his exhaustion, his worry and his awareness. He just let everything leave him and succumbed to the calling darkness.

. . . . . . . . . . . .

He was startled awake by the alarms that signaled someone was entering the Hub. He quickly gathered his papers and closed his laptop going out to see how the rest of the team had faired. They had taken longer than he expected and didn't even notice him, each of them angrily stashing their things on their desks and going to stand by the lift. Owen had a tray for some reason and Ianto didn't understand what was going on until the lift started lowering.

Everything in Ianto froze. Jack had actually returned, he was back in all his flamboyant glory proving Ianto wrong. He actually cared enough about the team to return. Ianto knew he wasn't the reason, Jack didn't even know he was there, but everything in him started becoming giddy. Jack had left yes, but what really counted was that he'd come back.

But then Ianto caught sight of Jack's companion and he began to tremble. An old fear that had been worked though resurfaced. Memories from around eighty years ago flashed through his mind and the emotions he felt at that time threatened to overwhelm him. How the hell could Jack let a man like that in their Hub? How could Jack even associate with him?

Ianto had never known the man's name, just his face burned into him memories, but apparently it was Captain John Hart. Fake, obviously. Ianto fought against everything in him that wanted to kill the man in cold blood, fought against the dark part of him that had developed during the First World War after their one and only meeting. He'd lost a lot of what made him who he was during that time and seeing Hart brought it all back.

Hart was flirting with everyone, Jack mostly and Ianto could see the familiarity between them. The way they were towards one another, Ianto could tell that they were former lovers and he wasn't surprised to find that that knowledge really hurt him. Had Jack been like Hart in his past? They knew nothing about him, was he really someone they wanted to put their trust in?

Knowing that he wouldn't be able to control his emotions he slipped silently down into the archives. He knew the place better than all of them and he could easily hid if they came looking for him, which they eventually did.

It was Owen first, yelling at him to make him a damn cup of coffee. Ianto had to smirk at that as he expertly climbed up the shelves to a height where the CCTV wouldn't be able to capture him. He knew that's what Tosh would use to find him. Gwen didn't try anything and it was Jack who actually ventured into the archives to search for him.

"Ianto?" he called as he searched. "Ianto why are you hiding? I need…Ianto I thought you were dead please come out. I need to see you, need to know that you really are alive."

He searched for half an hour before being called back up to the main Hub. Ianto figured he'd have stayed there all night if given the chance. He really couldn't face Jack now, or anyone else when he was like this. He was too unpredictable.

Time passed relatively slowly as he waited for whatever was going to happen to Hart was finished. His eyes narrowed when suddenly another figure entered the archives. Hart had come into his domain, obviously curious about the Teaboy who wouldn't show his face and that made Ianto's lips curl into a snarl. If he stayed any longer the bastard was dead.

Hart looked around himself for a moment before looking up, his eyes meeting Ianto's, "Eye Candy."