CHAPTER ONE
Notes
CHAPTER TWO
AU- What if there was something more dangerous than
AU- What if there was something more dangerous than a Cyberman in Torchwood three? How far would Jack go to save Ianto? Just what is Jack capable of? And what is Ianto's secret?
#
CHAPTER THREE
I do not own Torchwood. Captain Jack and all the others
I do not own Torchwood. Captain Jack and all the others are not mine, never will be mine. No money is being made, no permission is asked, only forgiveness.
I don't know how but it will all work out in the end
Reviews gladly wanted.
WARNING!
THIS FIC IS DARK! There will be some bad things done. This plot bunny wouldn't leave me alone. And it boils down to this: If Hartman was as bad as we are led to believe why didn't she have a contingency plan?
CHAPTER FOUR
Second option
CHAPTER FIVE
One last night
Ianto was nearly asleep when Jack came back in. He was carrying a tray of food and he sat on the floor next to the bed.
"I'm sorry."
Ianto pulled himself into a seated position, the tray resting on his lap. "So I thought I would give you dinner in bed."
"Dinner?"
"It's just gone nine." Jack said. We had two days of fifteen hour days so I sent people home early." Jack smiled and pointed to the food. "I got us Dim sum. We were supposed to go out for it the night everything happened."
Ianto smiled as he pulled the rice paper off a Pork Bao and stuck it to Jack's forehead. "YOu do keep your promises sir."
"And you still look good in a suit."
"Harrassment."
They both laughed, surprised at how easily they both slid back into the easy rhythm of their friendship, and other things. "You know I didn't mean what I said."
"I know you should have." Ianto said. "She was a threat, and I was so busy keeping my own secrets that I didn't see the woman I loved was dead long before."
A testament to Ianto's hunger there was no more talking until he had cleared his plate twice. Four days without food and he was hungry. The spicy, slightly tangy Orange chicken made him smile as he wondered what joke or Innuendo Jack would have used if the situation weren't so dire. They both tried to forget that this might be his 'last night' but there was still that heavy, silent tension neither one of them could break.
Which is why Ianto was surprised when he had finished his meal and Jack took the tray away. Instead of leaving him to sleep, Ianto found himself being kissed desperately. Jack's hands twined in his hair. Jack grabbed Ianto's hands before he had a chance to do anything.
"I have a lot to make up for." Jack started the kisses at the jawbone, mirroring the red swipe that still marred his cheek, and then he moved down to the neck, his hands smothing out the skin of his back before Jack started kissing and nipping at the collar bone, following the line of an angry red burn that had caused Ianto to nearly stop breathing.
He continued on, licking the deep blue bruise that adorned the left side of the ribcage, before turning his attention to the cut on the right side. Jack had tried to keep his temper in check, but during the first day, a few times it had gotten the better of him, and he had drawn blood without meaning to.
Ianto yelped when Jack nipped at a red spot on his side, his hands sliding down, the tips just brushing the injuries making the skin prickle at the closeness. Ianto shivered as much from the pleasure as being able to relax.
Jack kissed him, turning him over planting a kiss on his left temple where the faint outline of a bruise could still be seen, and then Jack began again, kissing the red mark on the shoulders, and the line across the right shoulder blade that still stood red against the skin,
Licking at the deep black bruise on the ribs, from where he had punched him, once when his anger had gotten away with him. His hands slid over the skin, making Ianto shiver as the air moved hot and cold from kisses, caresses and gentle breaths. Each kiss, or lick was a silent appology, and a reassurance, Jack confirming that as bad as it looked, Ianto was ok.
Ianto felt warmth on his back and realized that Jack had poured massage oil on him. Gently, the hands that had hurt him began to work their way across the bruises, and take the pain from the knots in the shoulders, and relax the muscles that had bunched so tightly that Ianto hadn't realized he was breathing shallowly until the pressure eased under the warm hands, allowing him to breathe.
"You are so beautiful Ianto. I hated it, It felt like I was destroying a Van Gough."
Ianto didn't speak, lost in the warm, familiar feeling of those hands.
The hands moved to the lower back, kneeding and rolling away the pain, before the fingers trailed over the buttox on their way to the thighs and calves. "Don't want to get you worked up yet. Enough time for that later."
The kneeding continued, uncramping the thighs and calves that had knotted up in the four days of being suspended with most of his weight on his arms. Ianto sighed as those same hands worked the knots out of the feet that only a few hours ago had tried to kick Jack repeatedly. He had known what Jack was doing, and why, but it didn't stop the program from making him fight.
Finally Jack rolled him back over, noticing the half-lidded eyes he chuckled. Now the licks and nips were teasing, as Jack slid a hand down Ianto's thigh, feeling the sudden rush of blood as the familar touches and sounds began to overpower his exhaustion.
Jack knew exactly what he was doing. He planned to give Ianto a night he would never forget, and screw him into a welcome oblivion. He knew about the dreams Ianto never spoke about, and now, knowing about the program, he knew what those dreams were. He knew why Ianto had been so Terrified and yet so resigned when he had leveled the gun at him. According to torchwood, he was as good as dead.
Now, all Jack could do was tire him out, let him get a few hours of exhausted sleep before he decided what to do with him. Of course Ianto was right, he should have called Unit. But this was how it had to be.
#
CHAPTER SIX
Scheme
Owen had been working on the problem since it had come up. He had pulled all of the files and had even done some deep brain scans of Jack to try and understand what the Deep programming had done to Jack. And he had come to the conclusion that it was not reversable. Not totally. But he had noticed that Jack's brain was able to re-route around the area affected by the program. So what if he could forge those pathways in Ianto. Force his brain to segregate those pathways and short-circut the system?
He had a handful of ideas, a handful of things that might be useful. But the ones that kept coming back to him were the nanogenes. What if they could specifically re-program them, or maybe some sort of nanobot? He'd have to see what was available, but there was just one problem. Even assuming that it worked, they would need to do major surgery, something the program was prepared for. It would kill him to protect itself.
All of the deep programs were designed that way. Anything too extensive, anything that required high order drugs, the type likely to make you talk, would stop his heart.
Stop his heart. What if?
"Does the suggestion stay in the brain after death? What if you were able to wait it out, like letting the capaciter die before you plugged it back in?
He needed more information.
"What if?" Owen said to himself. He threw aside the file and went to talk to Jack.
"Jack."
"Yes?" he was sitting there, nursing a scotch.
"I need to run another test on you, and then I may have an answer to save Ianto. The problem is, I need to-" Owen waved his hand toward Jack and sighed. "I need to kill you."
Owen should have expected it. The webly was out of the holster and pointed at him almost before he could finish the words.
"Jack, listen. I need a brain scan while you are out. And if it says what I think it will, it means I'll be able to save Ianto."
"You are serious?"
"Yeah."
"How?"
"Not sure it matters, just need the brain scan."
"When?"
"Soon, before things get too out of hand."
"I'll come down to autopsy."
Owen nodded.
Jack had never been a good patient. And Owen, being a doctor, hadn't believed his "I'm immortal Shctick until he had seen Jack killed on a weevil hunt. "Ok, before this happens," Owen said, "I need one more thing."
"What?" Jack looked resigned. He hated being poked and prodded.
This is for Ianto he reminded himself. He was willing to do anything for Ianto.
"I need to put you into a suggestive state."
Hypnotyzing jack was actually pretty hard, which is why he had to have Jacks consent. "I need to test something."
It took Owen three tries and some heavy-duty drugs to implant the suggestion. In the end he had decided on a vocal trigger. That way there was less chance that Jack could kill him for it later.
Owen clicked his fingers causing Jack to begin to laugh uncontrollably. Owen clicked them again and he fell silent. Right now, blackmail was the last thing on his mind. He wanted to save the god-damned tea boy, he told everyone it was just because he didn't want to get his own coffee, but he had to admit, he sorta felt sorry for the kid.
"Ok, that's set."
Owen loaded a syringe and gave Jack a massive dose of Painkillers, enough of an overdose to kill him pretty quickly.
Owen always felt like a twat when he had to kill Jack, even though he knew Jack didn't die, it still went against his doctor's ethic.
Owen watched, Jack's wrist held in his fingers as he kept track of the fading pulse. Owen had to stiffen to prevent the years of medical training from kicking in. Knowing there was nothing else he could do, he simply waited.
It was nearly five minutes later that Jack opened his eyes. The air rushed back into him with a pained gasp, and Owen had to steady him before he flailed himself off the table.
Owen clicked his fingers in front of Jack's face, only to have Jack raise his eyebrows.
"YES!" Owen did a bit of a victory dance before settling down a bit.
He checked the readings, waiving at Jack to hush while he did a few computations.
"There may still be a way to save Ianto."
"What?"
"Jack. I have a scheme and it may work. With the readings I just got, It may just be crazy enough to work."
"What do you mean?"
"That is why I needed that test." Owen helped him sit up and waited until he had crossed the area and put on the greatcoat again. "I may have found a way around the program. Deep program is keyed to certain receptors, if key sequences, like those for heavy narcotics or Anastesia are detected, and the program knows it is a target, it will trigger a reaction that will kill the patient, wiping itself from the carriers mind."
"Yeah," Jack shrugged. "So?"
"So, we kill Ianto." Owen took a step back and held up his hands.
"What?" The word was ice.
"Listen. What if we could stop his heart long enough for the system to think him dead. Then we bring him back. The program is supposed to protect him until he dies. After death it would disable itself so that we can't get a good engram of it. It's one of the reasons we had such a hard time figuring out how they did it. It blitzes itself as soon as the electrical activity stops."
"He died when the Cyber got him didn't he? Why wouldn't the last time have done it?"
"Two reasons, firstly, his program wasn't active then. And secondly, he wasn't out that long. The residual energy was still there. If we did it we'd have to leave him out a while. Long enough that we'd probably have to shock him back."
"How long?
"Three minutes, maybe more. I'd be able to tell for sure with a scanner. But it comes with the risk of him not coming back, or if he does he could be 'altered.'
"But?"
"As far as I have seen it is the only thing that will actually work."
