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Skeletons in the Closet
By: Tenshi-Chan
Part 3
Owen rubbed Ianto's back as the younger man regained his breath. He knew that inducing vomiting was not a very good way to flush anything out of the system, but he hoped it would prevent further absorption. Once he was back at the hub with Ianto, he'd decide what further action he would need to take. "Right then. You're going to be mad as hell once you come to your senses, but that's the price you pay for pulling something like this." He wiped Ianto's mouth with a piece of toilet paper and flushed the bowl one last time as he hefted the semi-conscious Welshman to his feet. After waiting as Ianto rinsed his mouth out with mouth wash, he practically dragged Ianto out of his flat and down to the car, stopping once to lock the door as they left. He grumbled the whole way about stupid kids even once they were both inside the vehicle and on the way to the hub.
"You know ... I handled the death of my Katie in a very different way. Instead of wanting to kill myself, I wanted to kill Jack. You kill yourself, you miss out on all the good stuff that can happen once the shit you feel like starts to fade." He glanced over at Ianto, who was blinking stupidly. "You'll be lucky if Jack doesn't strap you to a bed for pulling that stunt." He snorted. "Knowing Jack, though, he might just strap you to a bed regardless." He sighed and shook his head. "Lucky for both of us you only tried to overdose on Valium. There was not enough in that bottle to even cause the worst of overdose symptoms."
Ianto looked confused. "The bottle said Diazepam."
Owen chuckled darkly. "It was, and Diazepam is another name for Valium. You would have been loopy for a while, but it wouldn't have killed you. Unless, of course, you had gotten drunk at the same time."
After a moment of thoughtful silence, Ianto spoke again. "My girlfriend was a half-converted cyberwoman in the basement of the Hub."
Owen nearly slammed on the breaks at that unexpected announcement. "SHIT! Are you insane?"
Ianto sighed. "Lisa was still human."
Owen sighed. "Doubt it. Have you read up on the Cybermen? Everyone at the Hub did, right after Canary Wharf. Them and the Daleks. Jack wanted us to know just what Yvonne had opened her people up for. Damn egotistical woman." He snorted. "Her and her 'If it's alien, it's ours.' crap." He glanced over to see Ianto looking out the window. His eyes were still open. "Damn stupid kid."
Jack looked from Suzie to Tosh and back. He hadn't told them the whole truth, just like he hadn't told Owen. He only said that Ianto had recently learned that his girlfriend was dead. "So, ladies, any questions?"
"Will Ianto be all right? I mean ... I don't know how I'd react if I found out someone I loved was dead, but to consider killing yourself like that is beyond me." Tosh shook her head sadly. "Poor Ianto. He's so young!"
Jack nodded. "Owen is bringing him in. I'm going to send you both home for the day and save Ianto some embarassment."
Tosh was on her feet instantly. "Of course! You'll let me know if I can do anything to help, won't you?"
Jack smiled at her. "Thanks, Tosh. I'll let you know, but I'm sure Owen has the situation well in hand. I'll see the two of you in the morning if there are no alerts before then." He watched them leave and waited impatiently for Owen to arrive. He pulled out the bottle that had held the pills Ianto had swallowed and looked at it. He had been so frantic about the Welshman's life that he hadn't even bothered to look at it before.
He blinked and then chuckled mirthlessly. Of all the things Ianto could have on hand to try and kill himself, it had to be a bottle of Diazepam. He looked up at the alarms going off and shook his head at the sight of Owen with his hand firmly at the back of Ianto's collar as if he were directing a naughty school boy into the Headmaster's office. "So what have we here?"
Owen sat Ianto down on the old sofa and turned to Jack. "I was gonna do a stomach pump, but I think I got most of it out of him. What should we do in the mean time?"
Jack regarded the archivist a moment before speaking. "Ianto ... you're still so young. What makes you think killing yourself is the answer to anything?" There was no answer to that question, so he took a different tactic. "Would Lisa have wanted you to end your life? Do you honestly think she would have wanted you to die?"
"Big words from the man who killed her."
Jack shot a glance at Owen, who's only response was a raised eyebrow. The medic raised his hands at Jack's questioning look. "Kid told me about him keeping a cyberman in the basement. I dunno, but I think the teaboy was hoping I'd shoot him. Either that or get in a car accident."
Jack nodded and walked over to sit down next to Ianto. "Look ... I didn't kill your girlfriend, Ianto, the Cybermen did. No matter how much it looked and sounded like Lisa, it wasn't her any more."
Ianto shook his head. "But the way she spoke to me when she was awake. She knew things only Lisa would know."
"Considering that Cybermen have human brains, that would actually fit. Look at me." He waited as the downcast young man turned to meet his gaze. "That Cyber unit was just using you. It acted like Lisa because that was in its best interest." He held up a finger to prevent Ianto from objecting. "What were you planning on doing? What I might have done in your place is find the best cybernetics researcher out there. Your goal was to hopefully undo what was done, right?" When Ianto nodded, Jack sighed. "I wish it were that simple. It would have played an innocent victim ... still very human and very loving until it was no longer dependent on the conversion unit for its survival. At which time, its initial programming would have taken over. Was it your idea to keep the conversion unit fully operational?" Jack was immensely relieved when, after a moment of thought, Ianto reluctantly shook his head.
"Lisa said it would be best ... that it would keep her stable." He looked absolutely miserable for the second that Jack could clearly see his face before he leaned forward to put his head in his hands. "I can't believe that it wasn't her."
Jack felt a wave of rage on Ianto's behalf. It wasn't enough that the cybermen had disrupted what should have been a relatively peaceful life, but the last one that Jack knew about had to go and play with the young Welshman's emotions. "Cybermen are very logical, Ianto. They tap into what information they have at their disposal and use it to their best advantage. Since it had access to your girlfriend's memories, it knew just what buttons to push to make you do what it wanted you to do. Given enough time, it would have regained full functions and started converting people with the very same conversion unit that you kept it in." He shrugged. "Who knows? By the time it was done, you would have probably gotten yourself converted willingly."
Ianto paled at that comment and started to tremble. "Never. I would have never gotten into that thing willingly."
Jack and Owen shared a look before Jack acted on his intuition and pulled Ianto into a tight hug. "Hey ... it's okay. I destroyed it." His limited telepathic abilities allowed him to catch a brief flash of the nightmare that a person sitting in one of the conversion units would see, and he understood. There was more to this seemingly unassuming Welshman that met the eye.
To Be Continued ...
