Title - Start Me Up - Prologue
Disclaimer - I own nothing of Torchwood, unfortunately. If I did I would be a very happy woman.
Rating - T
Pairings - Eventual Jack/Ianto
Summary - When Ianto's body disappears from the Torchwood vault after rift activity, Jack's at a loss at what to do. But when The Doctor shows up with a new companion, things change forever. Post CoE
AN: Got this chapter out quickly again! A lot happens in this chapter. The next chapter might be a couple of days longer in getting to you! Thank you once again for all your reviews!
Ianto's body was gone. It had just disappeared. There had been the rift spike, then nothing. Ianto's body had been pulled through the rift and there was nothing he could do about it.
It was like the world had decided Jack hadn't had enough heartbreak in his life and wanted to cause him even more grief.
That was the only thing left of Ianto that Jack could easily get a hold of.
All of his things were in storage, which was all the way across town. It would be hard for him to go there in the evening or during the day without raising any suspicions.
With Ianto's body in the vault, Jack had slowly started to mend his heart. It was a slow process, and it would probably take years but it had started.
With this new development, the stitches in Jack's heart had been ripped out and he was starting to bleed again.
He was starting to panic, ripping at the bag and making sure that Ianto wasn't in there.
The rest of the team managed to get to the vault about thirty seconds after him. Gwen trailing behind a little more due to her baby bump.
"No, no this can't be happening…" Jack said in a rushed voice, checking frantically inside the vault to make sure that the body just hadn't slipped out.
"Jack? What's wrong?" Gareth asked, stepping forward a little to see what was going on, though Gwen put a hand on the man's arm to stop him from going any further.
"That was where Ianto's… where Ianto was." Gwen said quietly to the three of them, though Jack could hear it any way.
The rest of the team knew about Ianto vaguely, only from what Gwen had told them about.
She had thought it best to tell him, so they didn't ask anything that might upset Jack. It was why they still got coffee from the shop over the road instead of buying a coffee machine and left the archiving to Jack.
There was a tense silence over the room, and Gwen motioned for the three others to leave them alone. She wanted to talk to Jack, to make sure that he was… coping. It was obvious that he wasn't okay, but as long as he wasn't going to do anything stupid…
"Jack….?" Gwen asked, watching as the man was hunched the drawer that had previously contained Ianto's body.
"I'm fine Gwen, you can leave." Gwen could hear that Jack was trying to hold back the tears. She knew that he didn't like crying in front of other people. It was a rare sight when Jack had cried after reviving when Ianto had died.
"You know that's not true Jack. You're not fine." She said quietly, watching the man. Gwen didn't know whether she should go over and comfort him, or stay back where she was. "Ianto wouldn't have wanted this Jack. He would have wanted you to… at least come to terms with his death."
"That's not true. The last thing he said to me… the last thing Ianto said… he wanted me to never forget him." Jack's voice nearly cracked on the last word. "And now it's like the Universe wants me to forget him." He was getting quieter with each word.
Gwen nodded, watching the man for a moment before deciding that he best be left alone for a while. "Well, just… don't stay down here too long, okay?" She said before leaving.
Jack stayed down in the vault for a further hour, his mind running over all the possibilities of what could have happened to Ianto's body.
It had just disappeared, gone in thin air.
After, Jack had gone upstairs to the main area of the hub.
None of the team had said anything to him. He'd just gone into his office and continued work like nothing had happened.
He didn't like people seeing him be weak. Jack was a leader, and if he was emotionally unstable his team might start to doubt his leadership.
It had happened once before, and Jack hadn't liked it. When Tosh, Owen, Ianto and Gwen had opened the rift. It had broken the team for a while.
This new team, with Victoria, Gareth and Colin… they were finally settling into a routine and working well together.
It was something Jack didn't want to ruin.
Not by being selfish with his own emotions.
No matter how much he wanted to indulge in them, and mourn once more for the loss of Ianto.
"Uh… Jack, something's happening on the system. There's a weird sort of energy appearing on the sensors." Colin called out, looking at the screen before him. "It's strange… we saw something like this at UNIT…" He was staring at the screen trying to work out why the energy looked so familiar.
Jack had been talking to Gwen, trying to organise when she would be going on maternity leave. At the moment she was doing work around the hub, and not going out on field work.
She was being very stubborn, but Jack knew if he didn't arrange something soon he was going to get an earful off of Rhys.
And that was the last thing Jack wanted, he still hadn't gotten over Ianto's body disappearing. It had been three weeks and they were no closer to finding out what exactly happened when the rift spiked.
"Let's have a look at it then…" Jack was standing behind Colin, looking at the screen for a moment before recognising the signal.
"Call up the CCTV outside the Hub… quickly!" Jack said, watching as Colin did so.
Outside the entrance to the Hub appeared a blue police phone box.
With a grin, Jack ran through the hub and out of the door that came out onto a quiet street in the town centre.
With the doctor here, Jack might be able to convince the man to let him travel with him again. Just for a short while, just so that he could… maybe finally finish mending from Ianto's death. The team would be able to last a couple of weeks without him.
And it wasn't like he hadn't disappeared before.
It might be selfish, but Jack needed just to get away from things that reminded him of Ianto.
The Doctor stepped out of his TARDIS and looked around the place. Jack noticed that he'd changed once more. The bow tie was interesting, and he looked younger.
"Hey! That's not fair. You can't look younger than me!" He said, grin still in place.
"Ah yes… you're Jack Harkness… first time I've met you… well in this body of course… how's life on the rift?"
The Doctor was just as quirky and strange as Jack last remembered him.
"It's good, never dull that's for sure. How's Martha? Actually you won't have seen her for a while." Jack grinned again, watching the Doctor carefully. "So who's your new companion?"
"Well about that… you see it's a bit complicated…"
Behind the doctor, a man stepped out of the TARDIS turning to look at Jack. He had short dark brown, almost black hair and was wearing a well tailored suit.
"Ianto?"
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