Author note: Next chapter will have to be extra short, but have a double release, or almost double the size of the two last chapters. I haven't quite decided yet. What do you people think? Any review is a happy author :)
Ianto looked at himself in the mirror opposing the bed he was sitting on. His eyes red rimmed and skin sickly pale. He had freaked out; he had to get away from Jack, although he had no idea why. After the cab ride his head had calmed a little. He had the cabbie let him of at his apartment before he got in his car and started driving. There hadn't had a specific place in mind, but the drive had been soothing. It had gotten dark outside and he realized he was exhausted.
The doorbell rang and his head snapped up, hands inching, he felt like he needed to reach for a weapon. That was silly though; he hadn't held a weapon in his life, had he? What made him the most concerned was that few would have a reason to look for him and none of them should have the resources to actually find him. He was in a random motel in the middle of nowhere after all. Slowly standing up he went to the door carefully. His nerves were still on edge. All these sudden feeling and thoughts had shaken him. Ianto felt sadness and grief thought the reason behind the feelings eluded him.
"Yes?" At least his voice was back to normal. The first voice was that of a female. She sounded a bit young.
"Hello, I'm agent Lloyd and I'm here with agent Blackwell. We're from an official governmental group called UNIT. We need to speak to you." That got his interest, A few days earlier he would have assumed it was some sort of hoax, but now he knew something called the UNIT. Although from where was still a mystery. The uncertainty was getting increasingly annoying.
"What does the government want with me?"
"Mr. Jones" The woman, agent Lloyd said. " We wouldn't bother you unless it was urgent. We're worried about your safety."
At this Ianto opened the door and let them in. Agent Lloyd was first to enter, carrying a warm smile. She looked like she was in her late twenties. A rather petite woman. She had shoulder length brown hair with soft curls, big bright blue eyes and a smallish button nose. The man, agent Blackwell, looked to be in his forties. His hair grey and cut short, angry beady eyes and a hawk's nose. Tall and muscled. He looked more like he should be wearing army slacks instead of the plain black suits the agents were dressed in.
"Please sit down. Would you like something to drink?" It never hurt being polite. It tended to make people open to give more answers, and that was something Ianto sorely needed now. Lloyd sat down at the edge of the worn bed. The man seemed perfectly fine leaning against the wall right inside the door.
"What do you have?" Agent Lloyd answered in an amused tone. Apparently she was not used to people who would react like that. Government agents at their motel doors at the middle of the night with warnings of danger, what do we do? Offer them something to drink.
"Eh, all I can offer right now is water I'm afraid. I'm not sure of the quality though considering the cleanliness of this place." Agent Lloyd gave a mild laugh at that.
"Well then, no thank you Mr. Jones, I rather appreciate my health." Agent Blackwell rolled his eyes impatiently before cutting in.
"What do you know about a Captain Jack Harkness?"
"An acquaintance, why?" Jack? What would they want from him? And if they do want him, why are they here? Ianto glared at them suspiciously. Agent Lloyd took a deep breath before shooting an annoyed glare at her partner. Obviously she thought he'd been too blunt. She turned her eyes back to Ianto, though now she seemed uncertain.
"Please, we want to help, you were at a café with him before you stormed out, and may I ask why?" The agent lady's voice was soft and careful. Ianto shrugged and put his hands carelessly in his pockets.
"Diner, but why does that matter?" This whole conversation was making less and less sense.
"It's important Mr. Jones. We'll answer any questions you have after." Lloyd was trying to be gentle about this Ianto realized and suddenly he was worried about what they might have come to tell him tonight.
"I don't really know to be quite honest. I couldn't stay, I don't know why; I simply couldn't be around him." He was looking down at his shoes, still slightly ashamed at his previous actions.
"Good" The gruff reply from Blackwell made his head snap back up.
"Good?" Blackwell continued speaking in a tone that made it quite clear he didn't like Ianto much.
"Jack Harkness is a very dangerous man, Mr. Jones, your actions shows you still have some sense of self preservation. This is good" He finished his sentence with a huff at the end, like if this was something Ianto should have understood on his own. Lloyd set Blackwell another little glare. At least Ianto wasn't the only one who was starting to resent this man.
"What my partner is trying to say is, we want to help, but we had to know you were open to it. You showed this today which is why we decided now to come and try to ease the situation for you."
Ianto started rubbing his temples, trying to wrap his head around this. After a few moments he decided to comply and dropped his hands down to rest along his side. It's not like he had any clear answers himself.
"All right then, how is he dangerous?" He stared right at agent Lloyd hoping she would be the one to answer and she didn't disappoint him.
"Do you remember a girl named Lisa Hallett?"
Vaguely familiar, Ianto knew the name, but couldn't seem to pinpoint it. He felt like he should know it though. At a loss for what to say he settled for a simple answer.
"No."
Agent Lloyd pulled a picture out from her pocket and placed it on the bed next to her. Ianto walked over and picked up the picture before sitting down next to her. His head was hurting again and as much as he tried pushing it away some things kept seeping through. It him and Lisa, she was beautiful, with dark hair and eyes. She had a lovely smile and was wrapping her arms around Ianto, who looked happier than he ever remembered being. She was looking into the camera as he leaned his forehead against the side of her head. Looking at the picture he thinks, no, he knows he loved her. He also realizes she's dead. The grief bubbled up inside him, but Ianto pushed it to the back of his head. He didn't want to remember this.
"She was your girlfriend and Jack Harkness murdered her." Blackwell bluntly said with a bored expression on his face. Apparently he thought Ianto had taken to long.
Ianto looked up, at a loss of words. Jack? Jack was his friend he was always nice and asking him how he was doing. A grinning dufus at times, but a murderer? Was this why he had felt the betrayal and grief when Jack touched him? Is this why he had felt the urge to run? He was freaking out again, not just because of what they had told him, but because he did know Jack murdered Lisa. Ianto hated this, he felt like his head were only giving him pieces of a story he was trying to forget. It was confusing and unsettling; a hand on his arm reset his focus to the now.
"Let me explain Ianto." She let out a quiet sigh before continuing. " You were working for an organization named Torchwood, with Lisa. Harkness was your boss, Lisa was exposed to alien technology…"
"Alien?" It burst out of Ianto before he could stop it.
"Let her finish you can yell and go into denial later." Blackwell said with an annoyed expression back on his face. Ianto began realizing this must be one of the man's favorite expressions. Where were we? Right, Aliens? Lloyd continued.
"She was still herself, smiling and caring Lisa. The thing is just that she was in so much pain. You tried to help her, but Captain Harkness decided to deal with her himself, he murdered her in cold blood, after her death the two of you started a relationship." At this Ianto felt a wave of rage.
"Why would I have any kind of relationship with the person who murdered my girlfriend?" At least he didn't doubt a relationship with a man, agent Blackwell thought to himself with a smirk. Lloyd replied again.
"You didn't know Ianto, He was your caring boss trying to help you through grief. You found out, took a heavy dose medication, called retcon, meant to erase your memory and ran away."
"Apparently not far enough then." Ianto mumbled under his breath, agent Lloyd probably hadn't even heard him. She showed no signs of such at least.
"This is why we're here, we were worried he'd hurt you Ianto, We've watched him for a while now. He knows you found out about Lisa, and we were afraid of what he'd do."
"He's dangerous" Blackwell cut in with a death glare at Ianto. " We need to stop him before he hurt's someone else."
Jack came back to the hub a couple of hours after leaving the motel, but looking up Ianto's location he felt a sharp stab of shook. He was gone. The signal, Jack couldn't find it. He must have trashed his phone, but why? How the hell where they supposed to track him now? There was no choice; he would have to bring Owen and Tosh into it. It was Gwen's day of, besides two people yelling at him would probably be better than three. He needed his team to help fix this. Right now Jack was feeling beyond guilty. If he had listened to them, when they so adamantly said don't, maybe Ianto wouldn't have ran of on his own.
"Let me get this straight. You went to teaboy's new job scared the crap out of him, so he threw his coffee cup at you. Then he ran of and is currently by his boss and collages considered missing and after your little stunt, you'll be the prime suspect if it becomes an official police case?"
"He didn't throw it, it tipped." Jack knew the guilt was written all over his face, but neither Owen nor Tosh seemed to take pity in that as they stared at him in disbelief.
"Bloody doesn't matter Harkness, why couldn't you just leave well enough alone?" Owen began looking pissed.
"Fine, so I messed up okay? He remembered something and we need to make sure he is okay."
"He wanted to get away from you, right? Maybe he just drove to the next town and plans to move on with his life." After that comment from Owen, Tosh decided to break in. Jack had talked to her first and knew she had done some digging to check for something suspicious.
"I hacked into the cameras in the hotel. They have one by the entrance of the office and through the window I could see Ianto's car. Lucky, I guess, that he choose to park there."
"If he went to the next town he did so on foot. Now why would he do that when he has a perfectly good car right outside?" Jack said in triumph while looking over his team with a smug smile. Owen gave an exasperated sight before answering.
"Maybe he called a friend or Hitchhiked? He ditched his phone so you couldn't track him so he probably knew you could trace down the car as well." Jack smile fell. This wasn't going the way he wanted it to. After a short pause he continued.
"Listen mate, I think you might be overreacting."
"So you're going to abandon your friend when he could be in danger?" Jack realized this was a feeble attempt, but things were getting very frustrating. Tosh started answering while adamantly staring at the table.
"I don't think he's in danger, you said he remembered something and the old Ianto knew how to take care of himself. He probably just needs to be alone for a bit."
"Tosh, find him. I want to know where he's gone." An unfair demand, but Jack was determined to be able to keep an eye on him. Her face snapped up to look at him.
"Jack…" She begun in a low voice, but Jack ignored her. He rushed out of the boardroom as anger welled up inside him, not at Owen or Tosh, but at himself. Maybe he should have left well enough alone, but now it was too late. Things were messy and Jack was worried. Ianto wasn't the type to run. The first panic attack as weird memories returned to him he could get, but to dump his car, phone and flee society was different. He let out a sigh as he began feeling drained. Maybe they were right. Maybe he was acting like a paranoid ass clinging on to someone who wanted to be left alone. Jack had no intention to stop looking for him, but once Ianto was found, maybe he would leave it at that. Perhaps it was time to give him his breath of fresh air.
