Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood and Doctor Who, no copyright infringement intended. If you still want to sue bring Ianto back to Jack first.
Warnings: So fix it that it's actually more an Alternative Timeline, still everything gravitates around canon events. Set right before Reset, spoilers for everything happened in the series after that episode (MD not included). Not beta-read and English's not my native language. Constructive criticism is appreciated and, since I received some, I checked once again the already posted chapters, now they should be easier to read.. Slightly gore-ish near the end.
Bloodbath
As a matter of fact, things only got worse and frenzied from that point onwards.
As soon as Jack woke up, he reprimanded Ianto for neglecting his duties in order to watch over him. He also told him that they had been lucky that UNIT had actually sent Martha as he had requested and not someone else, otherwise the entire Torchwood Cardiff branch would have been screwed.
Moreover, Jack added, there were plenty of reasons why he had always trusted Ianto, and only Ianto, to handle the accesses to their hub, and none of them was him being a Welshman in Wales. Everyone could tend to him, but only Ianto had what it took to explain a difficult situation properly –or outright lie about it- and detour an unwanted guest until things became safe again.
Ianto had wanted to counter that, after seeing his lover in such a state, he couldn't give a damn about the UNIT-Torchwood relationship, but before he could speak his mind it had been Jack himself to point out his 'drifting loyalties', expressing his concern about how now he seemed more keen on protecting him and their daughter rather than their hub and its secrets.
The unspoken 'If you can't help yourself, you can't be Torchwood anymore' was heard loud and clear by Ianto, who chose to give up the fight with Jack and bit his lip, in a weird mix of both outrage and shame. A shame that, however, was equally shared with Jack himself.
His embarrassed and exasperated expression, the soft blush on his cheeks and his frightened and sad eyes told Ianto that the captain was, more than actually condemning him, yelling at his own frustrating weakness that had compromised the environment right before the UNIT member's arrival.
Despite recognizing the harmlessness –and the uselessness- of the rant aimed at him, Ianto couldn't deny that all those accusations still hurt quite a bit. What the hell had Jack seen in those flashbacks of his that had made him close up again so much inside his shell? And why had all that to happen now that their relationship was finally progressing?
Eventually, all Ianto could do was to plainly state that looking after his captain was in his job description as well, especially when the Torchwood medic was busy elsewhere or had deemed the official caretaker presence necessary for his patient's wellbeing. That said, he dutifully went back to work, leaving Jack to brood alone until he sorted himself out: when Jack was ready to talk to him again, he would know where to find him.
Going back to work in the hub, though, meant that Ianto had to give back his daughter to the Doctor, who, as soon as he saw him defiantly cross the T.A.R.D.I.S. threshold to hand over the kid, appeared to be a bit too smug for the Welshman's likings.
Swallowing down a bit retort, Ianto left quickly the Doctor's place to give back his attention to the small little things that made the hub work properly and set it back into motion: each time he missed his duties for any amount of time, he couldn't stop wondering how Jack had dared to say they didn't need a general-support officer in the team, while he was stalking him for a job almost two years ago.
Jack, in the meantime, had gotten Martha and the Doctor to follow him, but their talk about random things and previous adventures together was accepted by his friends only while he showed them the base, because, as soon as they were alone in Jack's office, the Time Lord didn't waste any time before asking some questions of his own.
It was true that he didn't trust Ianto, but, as the Welshman had well pointed out, he didn't trust Jack either.
"You turned down the boy before." He noted curiously, as Jack's and Martha's laughter were subsiding after a joke the captain had told them about the current case Torchwood and UNIT were supposed to be working on together. "Share with the class?"
Jack frowned and shrugged as he sat back on his chair, looking everywhere that wasn't the Doctor, who was still holding his daughter to his chest, a very real reminder of his own negligence in dealing with his feelings and their consequences.
"I might not have handled it well." He admitted eventually. "It wasn't his fault: his job is to take care about us and our necessities. Moreover I had promised him he could take the child after Martha got here, so his conduct is unquestionable. I was the one out of line, since I took my anger out on him"
Martha stared at Jack, sincerely sad for her friend seeing him so subdued, and once again wondered about the relationship between him and the man in a suit. Relationship that Jack still wasn't willing to talk about.
"Had it something to do with your visions or with your latest domestic?" The Doctor asked, offering him a frown of his own. "Because depending on which it is, I might want to know or be kept in the darkness"
Jack simply growled at those words and sank lower in his chair, a tiny hint of pink ghosting over his cheeks.
"The previous domestic ended well… A bit too well, actually, I knew that something had to happen to counterbalance the results and prove that once again I'm unable to sort myself for the better"
"What domestic?" Martha asked softly, trying to follow their argument without much success.
"Don't worry, Martha" Jack told her, trying to offer her a smile that, sadly, didn't reach his eyes at all. "It's the child thing I was telling you about before: I'm not dealing with it very well and Ianto is stubborn when he puts his mind into something"
"So… It's you and Ianto, then" She teased, raising a teasing eyebrow in his direction. "Ianto is her other parent and… your boyfriend?"
"Gossip later!" The Doctor interrupted loudly, making both Martha and Jack giggle at his clear annoyance. He ignored them, and tried to bring the discussion back on track.
"Was that related to what you've seen about your future, then?" he Doctor moved on, pointing to the child in his arms to be certain Jack understood about what particular future he was referring to.
"Yep" Jack admitted quietly, his stare brushing only slightly over his daughter before looking once again at nothing in particular. "I saw my life after Ianto's death… Knowing that I was going to become so dependent on him hurt quite a bit, even though I can't say it was unexpected"
"Well, he obviously cares about you" Martha said, offering him an encouraging smile and earning Jack's attention on her. "He was all keen on protecting you when I got here, and then he had no fear to challenge the Doctor in order to keep the child. Even though I happened to be on his bad side at first, I can't say he left a bad impression on me"
"He's a great guy" Jack offered, a little embarrassed by her words but more than a little proud that his lover had left such a good impression on Martha. "And I care a lot about him too"
"Can you really say that after what I showed you?" The Doctor argued, more surprised than angry. "After what you've seen?"
"Of course I can" Jack answered, without losing any second to think about it. "I trust my Ianto far beyond what would be sane to trust him after our past arguments"
"That's exactly my point" The Doctor pointed out tiredly.
"I don't know why you are so keen seeing only the bad side of things." Martha butted in, taking her chance to get the sleeping child from the Time Lord's arms to cuddle her a bit. "You know, I thought you couldn't get any worse than your last incarnation"
The Doctor stared at her as she'd grown another head, almost not realizing her stealth move to successfully get the baby from him.
"Please, don't say that again! I'm absolutely not like him despite him and me being the same person!" He protested vehemently, pouting and crossing his arms on his chest. "I don't know if you do understand what was at stake here: their games stranded me here on 21st century Earth, moved around most of my knowledge and hurt my T.A.R.D.I.S.! I do have the right to keep an eye on the culprit. I don't like not having the chance to run when I want to."
"We know, but this is happening because of the future. You're acting like this Ianto will throw himself in the time vortex just to become immortal and poke your ribs. That's no humanly possible" She pointed out, earning the Doctor's distrustful stare on her as she decided to completely ignore his glare to poke the cute little nose of Jack's daughter.
"Oh, and why's that, then?"
"Because…" Jack tried to explain, but no matter how much he tried to fight the lump blocking his throat, he couldn't manage to go forwards in his explanation of Martha's words.
She sighed, understanding Jack's pain as much as she realized that the Doctor needed to have the facts spelt out clearly to him.
"Because he would have to die first" Martha finished in Jack's place with a sad smile on her lips, stopping to fuss over the child in her arms to glance sideways at Jack, who could only nod at her as he tried to not think too much at what had destroyed him in that future.
Her statement was followed by thick silence, as the meaning of her words finally dawned on the Doctor. Not being human, dying wasn't something he thought too much about and, as a matter of fact, he tried to avert the discussion altogether if he could. Honestly, even if he couldn't or wasn't supposed to, he tried his best to not confront himself with death anyway, especially when involved people he cared about.
For Jack and Martha however, as much as for Jack's lover, things were quite different since the truth for every one of them was always the same: death was painful and scary. His previous incarnation had shared their same human fear, and this had brought him near to his own madness in the end; that's why he had made a point to himself to eradicate that kind of empathy once again. Being too human hurt too much.
The Doctor however could chose his fear to not be embedded in his DNA since he knew that he would have other chances at life, he could chose to run away -or at least try to run away- from it when involved his friends, but for humans it was different. It was their life that was about to end and, as soon as they realized it, it was the raw instinct for self preservation that kicked in. Even the bravest of them would be scared deep inside themselves at the final moment, and only a grand emotion would have made them make the last step to cross the boundaries of human nature.
Love, friendship, honour; egoism, mischief, hate. All of them had been proven to be enough of a reason to die for, and depending on which one it was, the Doctor could even be willing to forgive Ianto, if that was where they were heading to, but that was also the place where stood the ultimate question.
What would make Jack's lover cross the line?
Eventually, both the silence and the Doctor's thoughts were interrupted by Ianto's soft knocking at the door. As he allowed himself forward to deliver their coffees, the Welshman noticed the awkward glances directed at him from the entire group of friends, and correctly guessed to have been the main subject in one of their arguments.
Far from him hoping that Jack would have told Martha about them, certainly it was something case or hub related.
He sent a furtive glance at Jack as he laid his mug of coffee on the desk, but his captain said nothing to him and just looked elsewhere, slightly embarrassed.
Trying to ignore the hurt at being kept in the darkness by Jack, who usually filled him on everything new in the hub as soon as they could talk with one another, Ianto left them fast and went to deliver the last mug of coffee he had prepared.
Gwen and Owen still weren't back from their meeting with the head of F.A.R.M., so the only other person wishing for coffee, except himself, was Toshiko, who was still trying to find a way to breach through the Institute security system.
As soon as he had delivered Toshiko her coffee and shared few courtesy words with her, Ianto went back to the kitchenette, passing by his open station on his way back. His eyes caught the photo of the man Gwen and Owen went to interrogate, Doctor Copley, and an unhealthy wave of what he could only call disgust washed over him despite himself.
As he hastened to the kitchenette, he stubbornly denied that his great dislike for a man he hadn't even met was caused by Jack's behaviour. No, it wasn't because his lover, right after dismissing his care for him as 'unprofessional' had spent a good hour complaining with his friends about not having had the chance to meet a man so charming. It wasn't obviously because it all happened right after Martha had summed up to him what she and Owen had discovered while he had been asleep and asked him for his opinion on the matter.
Truth was that, in a normal situation, Jack would have been the one to go and question the suspect, being he not only the head of Torchwood, but also a man very few people ever managed to say no to. However, since he had been still asleep because of the sedatives, Jack lost his chance to meet him, Doctor Copley, who was not only head of the FARM, but also Owen's old medical idol and the main suspect for all those deaths they were trying to work on.
Ianto was all but displeased by how things had turned out.
After settling things in order inside the kitchenette, Ianto found himself not knowing what to do however. The hub was once again functional and the coffee had been delivered, but even though he had overheard the updates Martha had been telling Jack, not having had a full debriefing on the updated situation was actually at a loss in how to help.
Ianto knew that he could have asked Toshiko for more information and details, but he also realized that his friend would have used the chance to ask him about his personal situation with Jack and he had no real will to talk about it at the moment.
Only when Gwen and Owen came back enraged but with no news at all, Ianto was finally called back from the background to put his brain to good use, something that he enjoyed way more than he should considering his job description. Brain storming over a case was one of the only few moments in which his teammates' attention actually shifted to him: usually the others were too focused on the small details to see things from a different approach, and Ianto always had his time to shine pointing out what was, for him, just the obvious.
Somehow he knew that this time wouldn't happen any different.
To prove him right, after the much needed debriefing, his suggestion to look up whether the FARM was in the market for volunteers or not was accepted by everyone like a stroke of genius.
Ianto and Toshiko together quickly managed to even find a couple of their announcements on the most obvious websites, much to the Doctor's surprise. The Time Lord was in fact willing to bet that, if you had such a high number of deaths amongst the patients, the voice would have eventually spread, but Ianto and the rest of Torchwood proved him that money and hope to heal incurable illnesses paid more than self preservation.
Jack decided that now they only needed a Trojan horse disguised as guinea pig to infiltrate the F.A.R.M., but when it was time to vote on who to send, things proved to be harder than what he had thought.
Martha was the most logical choice, being her both a medic and a new face in town, but the Doctor simply would have none of it. He stomped his feet against the proposal, and eventually he found an unwilling back up in Jack, who had to admit that, after all the help she'd given them in the past, it wasn't nice calling her here in Cardiff only to put her in danger.
Martha didn't share their same concerns, however, and eventually even Jack had to admit that he knew that she could handle herself better than anyone else thanks to her experience with the Doctor.
Seeing Jack caught like a deer in the headlights between his own friends' fight, Ianto kindly decided to put his lover out of his misery and offered himself as her backup, hoping to make both Martha and the Doctor happy.
It wasn't much of a consolation for the Welshman seeing Jack's blood drain from his face as soon as he had finished speaking.
Jack's first reaction was to firmly refuse his proposition, saying that he was still new to this sort of dangers, since he was still more an admin than a field agent, and then that it was just plainly dangerous, especially considering all his fussing about raising their daughter despite working for Torchwood.
After tons of reassurances about his abilities from Ianto as well as from the rest of the team, eventually Jack had to give up, especially since, as the Welshman had honestly point out, there was no actual reason to be willing to send a UNIT newbie, but not a full- fledged agent with five years of Torchwood experience -if he considered both One and Three.
This still didn't mean that Jack was willing to accept Ianto risking his life even sooner than what had happened in that other future, so to cut the debating short he put himself in the guinea pigs' group too.
A surprised silence met his decision. It ended only when eventually Jack ordered Ianto to prepare their three fake identities and to everyone else to go back to their work, before storming out of the room with Gwen in tow.
The Doctor, despite being quite amused by Jack's reaction to a perfectly logical proposal, decided to leave him to his female underling and took Owen and Toshiko to one of the computers in the main hub in order to check their equipment and maybe sonic-screwdrive a couple of things for good measure.
He still cared a great deal about Martha and, even though Jack was wrong and immortal, he didn't wish for him to suffer without a reason either. If in the meanwhile he managed to protect also Jack's boyfriend, well, Jack surely wouldn't be the one to complain.
Ianto was therefore left alone in the meeting room with Martha, and slowly felt heavily conscious of the harsh words he had told her as a way of greeting the day before. He offered her an apologetic smile, and then he led her to his computer station to make her see how his work would be progressing.
During their short trip to his station and during the actual making of the documents and cards they would need, he kept distracting her with the details of her fake identities, hoping to show a nicer side of himself.
As soon as he let the silence fall once again between them though, the tension came back between them. After some awkward moment in which none of them knew how to face the situation about their first meeting, Martha decided they had better not confronting eachother about it at all, and took gladly advantage of their isolation from the others for some good gossip from the person who had –to a certain extent- made a honest man out of Jack Harkness.
"So… Jack asked me for a UNIT cap to wear."
Ianto tried to keep his composure intact, nevertheless a small smile crept on his face at the thought that Jack must have not been all that angry at him anymore if he was already thinking about their next time together.
"Did he?" He asked tentatively, glancing at Martha right in time to see her nodding. "Well… Red is my colour" He finished, stuttering embarrassed.
Despite his will to prove his professionalism to Martha, he couldn't deny the warm feeling spreading all over him, knowing that Jack had actually talked about him –or about things that included him- with one of his dearest friends.
"So… You really are a couple. I saw you holding close together when Gwen brought me inside the hub, but when I asked Jack for details he wasn't much forward except asking for pieces of our uniform"
Ianto pretended to focus on what he was typing, but the topic Martha had offered was overly distracting as well as extremely complicated to answer to.
"We… dabble" He said eventually, not happy about naming their thing this way now that he knew that they could already be much more than that.
"Ianto, honestly, that didn't look like just dabbling, when you just play you're not that committed to one another." Martha pointed out, closing the space between the two of them confidentially. "Jack pulled quite a stunt after you offered to back me up, and you, who Jack describes as the most professional of the men, wouldn't put him before your duties that easily. You must have realised the way you stare at one another…"
"Taking care of my captain is in my job description, and… Well, it's good dabbling." Ianto improvised quickly. "Innovative. Bordering on the avant-garde."
Martha's eyebrows shot up, extremely interested in the subject, even though she tried her best to not make her curiosity about Jack's prowess too evident to the man's lover. However, the small shift on his chair Ianto did at the mere thought of what was only vaguely describing made her quite sure that Jack's reputation could really live up to her expectations.
"Now" Ianto told her professionally, as he stood up and made his way to the nearby printer. "If you would follow me, your documents should be ready in a minute, Miss Samantha."
"I like it" Martha chirped happily, following him at close distance.
"I kept Jones as your surname" He teased, turning to smirk challengingly at her. "I guessed that wouldn't be a problem"
Martha answered his smirk with one of hers and then, as soon as she noticed the other set of documents leaving the alien printer, she got closer to him to spy on them. "What will your names be?"
"Ifan and Jack Jones. I took quite a few liberties." Ianto offered with a wink, smirking even more evilly than before as he hid the papers and cards for him and Jack from Martha with a swift move. "Married couple. Needing money to get through adoption bureaucracy"
If this didn't get him fired on the spot, Ianto had to admit, his work life in Torchwood would definitively be until death do us part.
Martha, however, didn't share his same concerns about his choice, and shoved friendly his shoulder. "See? This most definitely makes you a couple."
"This will most definitely make you in trouble Ianto Jones" Jack pointed out, appearing behind them and making the Jones couple freeze guiltily on the spot. "Or should I call you Ifan, dear?"
As soon as she deemed safe to move, Martha awkwardly smiled at Jack and quickly excused herself to leave them alone to solve their issues. Ianto, however, just swallowed thickly and slowly turned to stare at his lover, trying to sound more flirty than guilty.
"What kind of trouble?"
"Well" Jack told him seductively as he grabbed Ianto's shoulders and led him closer. "I could ask for the honeymoon, since apparently I got married without knowing and I didn't get one. There can't be a marriage without the best part of it. Think about it: what would you deem necessary between a ceremony with tons of paper to sign, and a week spent entirely inside one single room, having sex all the day, in every way you like?"
"I don't really think that's how honeymoons are usually supposed to work" Ianto protested without much conviction as his eyes lowered to not stare at Jack's. "I think they are supposed to be about getting comfortable with your partner, mould you lives together, your dreams and your different habits"
"Would you complain about it, though?" Jack asked rhetorically.
Ianto swallowed and his eyes slowly moved up again to look at his lover's body appreciatively before eventually finishing his trip staring at his lips. "No, actually"
Jack smirked, satisfied with the reaction he was getting, and let his hand trail languidly on Ianto's side. "We could look into something like that after everything is over. I think we'll need some time to ourselves to relax… We're having too many self appointed nannies here lately, and I always liked small families"
"I, well…" Ianto took his chance to note. "You're not angry?"
"Why should I be?" Jack laughed merrily "We have even a kid together."
"But I thought-"
"Stop thinking for a while there." Jack murmured in his hear, taking his chance to leave not so innocent kisses down his neck. "I've been completely unfair with you today, both times, but… Well, I saw my life after your death during those flashback or flash-forwards or whatever. When I woke up I was angry at myself, not at you… And then with Martha and the Doctor, the things we talked about... Let's say that they didn't help me to snap out of that nightmare, and eventually the last boast happened. Gwen even gave me an earful for taking it out on you."
That made Ianto's eyes shot up to stare at Jack's eyes to be certain that the man wasn't having him on. He also put some space between them to get out of those bloody strong pheromones and keep a cool head.
"Gwen?" Ianto asked surprised, eliciting a small laugh from Jack for it.
"Yeah, she said that I'm not a three years old anymore" Jack explained embarrassedly. "And I should know better than behaving like one when things are a little more complicated."
"It seemed strange that she had stood up for me." Ianto snorted, crossing his arms on his chest. "That's more her being upset at us fighting in front of our guests"
"Not at all" Jack pointed out quietly "She said that since it was pretty obvious who I liked, I should get out of the closet and live my relationship in the open air. Preferences included."
Ianto loved Gwen, and, if he stopped thinking for a while about her inability to realise the damages she could do simply speaking her mind, he had to admit that she wasn't bad at reading people. Obviously whenever her feelings didn't dictate her decisions or hindered her point of view.
"Was she right?" Ianto asked eventually.
"I don't know" Jack admitted with a loud sigh. "Everything is moving forward too quickly and my life is too long to make harsh decisions I could regret"
"My life isn't that long though" Ianto's voice was barely a whisper, but Jack head it nevertheless.
"Yeah, I saw that. And also saw what it will mean to me" Jack confessed. He held Ianto tight to himself and hid his face in the crook of his neck, trying to erase those images from his mind. "And I'm not quite sure that I can stop what I saw happening, no matter the place or the time… not even if you will become immortal. You will have to die, Ianto, and I'll live all that again. You will have to die on me, even worse you might die for me… You will leave me because of that, and-"
"I won't" Ianto interrupted him brusquely, determination blazing in his clear eyes. "And you are the one thinking too much at the moment"
"In my experience-"
"Your experience wasn't about me"
Jack chuckled at Ianto's inflexible retorts and, burying once again his nose on his lover's neck, he let the familiar smell of his aftershave lull him into security.
"Stubborn like always. I like that in a lover… Even though I do wonder what your stubbornness will bring us one day."
Ianto was tempted to say that certainly it would always bring him to Jack, but it seemed way too cheesy for them, so he simply stood there, enjoying the warmth Jack was offering him and hoping to be doing the right thing trusting both himself and Jack in that far future.
X
"So, is everyone ready?" Gwen typed to the three supposed future guinea pigs as they blinked a couple of times to adjust better to the camera lenses.
She saw them nodding and was glad that everything seemed to work just fine. She could see the plain waiting room in which they seated from their three different points of view on the monitor of her computer and had at her hand four different small keyboards, one for each of her friends, plus another one to communicate with all the three of them at the same time. The first thing she had asked Toshiko for, as on as she had explained what their task would have been, was to have each of them of a different colour and a small legend for the matches on a post it.
Toshiko was next to her to help coordinating, while Owen watched them curiously over their shoulders along with the Doctor, both of them hoping to not be needed as backup.
One after the other, Martha, Ianto and Jack were called inside some sort of infirmary for a first physical check up and an interview with the infamous doctor Copley.
Ianto took a deep breath of relief when the nurse asked him if he wished to take his interview with his partner. Jack didn't quite understand his lover's reaction to the nurse proposition, but Ianto received a typed message by Gwen stating 'Thank God. Good luck' as private support.
To prove them right, the Welshman passed half of Jack's side of their interview to damp his lover's fluent flirting towards the head of the F.A.R.M., much to the doctor's amusement, who eventually decided to give them a try.
After what they had discovered about his way to select people thanks to Martha, Ianto came to the unpleasant conclusion that doctor Copley had accepted them only because he thought that Jack slept around quite a bit, bringing with him delicious new sexual diseases he could test his medicaments on.
Thanks to that and a decent number of lies that they hoped couldn't be proven wrong, all the three of them were successfully admitted and nicely arranged in three adjoining chambers. They dutifully waited for the night to fall before coming out of their rooms to explore the building.
Their mission was supposed to be quite easy once gotten inside: steal the information Toshiko needed and the day after fake some emergency, promising to be back before noon.
The first part was easily managed thanks to Toshiko's expert guide though the institute internal servers, but after their complete success, Jack had to work hard in order to keep Martha away from eventual dangers.
She complained, however, that another chance to see with their eyes what the hell they were doing with those alien insects they thought were responsible for the deaths wasn't going to come back any other time soon. Jack rolled his eyes at her protests, admitting –as fellow former Doctor's companion- that she had a point. Ianto rolled his eyes at the both of them and cursed his bloody luck that always provided him with new danger-loving comrade to care for.
He wasn't paid enough for this, and he was paid a lot.
Regrettably, their exploration of the institute didn't last much. Through the windows, they saw an enormous mosquito that obviously was the answer to Martha's curiosity about the evolution of the infamous alien insects she and Owen had been obsessed with since their last trip together to question the only surviving test subject of the F.A.R.M., the one who finally gave them a lead for the deaths they were working on.
A little scared and disgusted by what they had seen, they decided not to test their luck more than that, and tried to rush back towards their rooms. Unfortunately they soon found themselves in front of doctor Copley and two nurses, who kept staring at them reproachfully.
"I thought I told you not to move from your rooms" The old man said.
"We heard the commotion outside, actually. Got curious" Ianto offered with a nervous smile. "Looks like you've a problem with pests, I could suggest good products to get rid of them"
"You're quite right about pests, Mister Jones. Still, I beg to differ on what kind of pests we are supposed to deal with. I can assure you that for these particular pests, we're already well armed"
Jack and Ianto put instinctively a hand at their side, where they usually kept their guns, only to remember they hadn't been allowed to bring weapons with them. They moved to retreat, but one of the nurses already had a small remote in her hand and, as soon as she pressed down the red button on it, a shower of sweet smelling vapour engulfed them, pouring from above.
"Don't breathe!" Jack managed to warn them, as he grabbed their arms to shove them out of the pink steam, but before then the nurse had already activated also the other showers of the corridor behind them and they had already breathed in too much vapour.
Before they could make it any further, all the three of them fell on the floor unmoving, as sleep claimed them faster that they thought possible.
When they finally regained consciousness, they found themselves tied up on an uncomfortable medical bed, while doctor Copley smiled cryptically at them accompanied by one of the omnipresent nurses.
Jack checked quickly at his left and at his right to reassure himself that Ianto and Martha were fine as well, and then he moved his glare to the handsome old man, addressing him with irritation mixed with contempt.
"Is this the way F.A.R.M. treats its test subjects?"
"You and the young girl have a peculiar immune system, my dear Jack" The doctor told him amused, ignoring his question altogether. "Such a peculiar immune system is typical of people who travelled across space… Even time maybe."
Both Jack and Martha cringed at his words, their wrists testing the laces tightening their limbs, unfortunately only to discover that they weren't so easy to break.
"What do you want to do with us!?" Jack asked plainly, realizing that they were running on a thin layer of ice with a mad scientist knowing about the peculiarities of their bodies. The risks were high for all the three of them: Ianto could be discarded as useless, and he and Martha could end up as actual guinea pigs. Painful torture before a slow death would be waiting for his friend and endless torture would be in store for him.
"We never managed to get the eggs to the last stage of their evolution" Doctor Copley explained quietly, smirking approvingly seeing Jack so pliant. "With such interesting tests in our hands, we absolutely need to make at least an attempt at perfection."
He gestured to a nurse to come forwards and she promptly followed his orders, reaching out to take in her hands a big syringe filled with white thick liquid: the concoction with the alien eggs to breed the alien mosquito larvae.
"No! Stop!" Jack cried in panic as he saw the nurse move further and approach Martha. "Leave her alone, try it with me! You just need one test, don't you? Make your experiment on me, you don't need to use her too!"
Jack pulled once again at his restraining unsuccessfully and then he tried to wriggle himself free to rescue his friend, who was staring panicked at the syringe, her pretty dark skin turning a dead shade of gray.
The doctor indulgently stared for a moment at Jack's attempts to wrestle himself free and then approached the captain, far enough to not be grabbed by his test but near enough to make Jack focus on him.
"Oh well, in the dire case of you both dying on us" He told Jack plainly, almost professionally "We would like a comparative experimentation."
"I beg you, don't do that to her!" Jack pleaded again, as he tried to sit up to stare at the old man in the eye. "How can you do this to a girl so young!?"
Doctor Copley granted him a snort, obviously used to not take age into account when dealing with test subjects he deemed useful, and gestured once again to the nurse to move forward with their plan.
"What if something goes wrong and Jack dies!" Ianto butted in, grief showing in both his eyes and voice, making everyone staring at him. "What if with his death you understand where the problem is!? You will be left without volunteers, you said yourself that their immune system is rare!"
Jack's questioning stare on him slowly turned in a softer one, as he realised how, despite his desire to spare him another death, Ianto was trying to back him up. After all, Jack would survive everything, but Martha wouldn't, no matter how much his death would hurt both Jack and Ianto.
The lenses they had been wearing felt damaged on his eyes, but Jack was sure that they were still working good enough to alarm their teammates and get them here. It was just a matter of buying them time, and they would also have plenty of proof to close down this bloody Research Institute once and for all.
He was glad that Ianto was there to support him, and even more that now there was a new light of doubt in Copley's eyes as well as in the ones of his assistant.
"He's right" The nurse told the doctor eventually, sounding a bit confused.
"Alright then" Copley said irritably, and hastily motioned for the nurse to move to Jack.
Both Ianto and Martha stared in horror as the thick liquid was injected inside Jack, their heart breaking as the initial annoyed groan of disappointment at being stabbed with a needle, way too soon became a pained whimper.
"What is it doing to him!?" Ianto demanded, not daring to tear his eyes away from his visibly ill lover. "What does this mean!?"
"It completely bypassed the healing stage" Copley noted, fascinated by each and every sign of discomfort appearing on Jack's face. "It looks like they had no need to clean the body at all"
Ianto mouthed a silent 'Fuck' as he realised that each time Jack died his body automatically set back to its factory settings: the alien eggs had nothing better to ask. As to prove his guesses right, Jack's forehead was turning slowly damper with sweat, his hands clenched in fists grasped the lined on the bed, whilst his eyes shut closed in pain.
"Jack" Ianto whispered horrified as the doctor's curious stare moved slightly to him.
"So there was something true in all those lies" He noted surprised. "He has no qualms flirting with others in front of you and you offered him up for this experiment… I was right thinking that you were more than a little strange as a couple"
Ianto glared at the old man in contempt, and then focused back on his lover as he wriggled in pain any second more, until he ached so much that he could barely contain a cry. All the while, the nurse on the background was only praising the success of their experiment and foretelling the beginning of a new phase of research and future awards for her principal.
Ianto had to snort at the pathetic scene between nurse and doctor: if Jack and himself were a strange couple, what kind of medics were they? At least their problems were just theirs and didn't try to kill innocents in the middle.
The nurse praises, however, had the positive effect to move Copley's attention back to Jack, leaving Ianto free to quickly scan his surroundings for something useful: if the eggs had already turned larvae, then they had much less time than what he had initially thought before Jack ended up dead. Martha would follow soon after, and that was something he had to stop no matter what: they couldn't waste any more time waiting for reinforcements. Speaking of which, what the fuck were they doing at the hub!?
A small scalpel laying forgotten not much far from him caught his attention, but reaching it with his hands tied seemed an almost impossible task to achieve, so he focused back to his tidings, as he desperately tried to free at least one hand. He pulled a couple of times with all the strength and determination he had, hoping to make it slide outside the bindings.
Ianto had always been bullied for his long fingered and graceful hands, but if he had to endure all that teasing in his youth –and currently at the hub because of Owen- for successfully escape now and save Jack and Martha, he would surely deem all that worth it.
The hard leather scratched his skin and broke it in several points, coating his wrists in slippery red liquid as the tiny droplets of blood, which stood out remarkably on his pale skin, spread under the bindings. Ianto focused on Jack's suffering whimpers to find in himself enough strength to keep pulling despite the dull pain of the scratches and stubborn resistance of the tidings.
Eventually the blood gave his wrists the small wetness they lacked of to finally get one hand free. He stole a quick glance at doctor Copley and at nurse to reassure himself that they were still distracted by Jack to stretch enough to get the scalpel safely in his hands.
Silently and yet quickly, he broke open his bindings, just in time before the old man noticed him.
As he turned towards Ianto, the Welshman punched him hard, breaking his lower lip and making him loose his consciousness, then, despite considering himself a gentleman, threatened the nurse with the scalpel, making her flee outside the laboratory terrified.
Gone the mad scientists, he was finally free to focus back on Jack, even though he had no real idea about what to do for him: he was wriggling in pain now, and Ianto could see something moving beneath the skin of his abdomen, threatening to get out.
He gathered his courage to leave Jack for a while, and kissed his damp forehead before moving to Martha to free her from her bindings.
"Martha, any suggestion?" Despite his attempt to sound detached, he himself could hear the sheer panic in his voice.
"No idea, I'm sorry! Owen and I never managed to find a way to put the aliens out of the body" She admitted, looking at Jack along with Ianto. "The alien. Oh God, they ate each other!? Ianto, why the others aren't they coming?"
Ianto bit his lower lip and helped Martha on her feet, shooing her towards the exit.
"They mustn't be too far. Try to get out of here, find them or call UNIT or whoever can help us and bring them here"
"What about you and Jack?" She asked worried, pointing her feet to make some kind of resistance to Ianto's pushing.
"We would hinder your escape and I can't leave Jack, not when he's dying. No matter if he will come back" He tried to offer her a small smile. "Moreover, until one of their test subjects is here, you won't be necessary, they won't search for you right away"
"Ianto, here's no safe!" Martha tried to reason with the stubborn Welshman. "What if the nurse gets back with help and they start experimenting on you?"
"I'm not useful for them. Now, there's a breach in the fence near the big gate we passed to enter the clinic. Go!" Ianto commanded, ignoring her complaints.
Martha wanted to keep protesting, but Ianto's determined glare didn't leave her any chance to win the argument, so she eventually nodded and rushed away, hoping to be back in time to get the Welshman alive. If something were to happen to him, no matter how Jack tried stubbornly to deny wanting Ianto immortal, having the Welshman back would be next on his agenda, world be screwed.
As soon as Martha was out, Ianto could finally focus back on his lover and try desperately to soothe his pain.
"C'mon, Jack, it's just a parasite, you can beat it" He murmured, inadvertently dirtying Jack's shirt with the blood still smearing his wrists.
The beast inside Jack kept moving, and in the few long minutes Ianto made himself to stare at it, he could swear that it was becoming bigger by the second. Each time it moved it seemed always more likely to break through, twisting and turning amongst Jack's organs any time nearer to the outer skin.
Jack's pained cries had reached a so high pitched level that Ianto felt the strength leaving his body despite his best efforts to stay focused and alert. He stared horrified at the scene, with Jack's hand in his, as he tried to sooth his searing pain with his own constant presence and hopeful words.
He was so focused on Jack's worsening conditions, that he didn't even notice doctor Copley regaining consciousness behind him.
The furious medic looked quickly around himself to find a weapon for getting rid of the man who had made his other test subject escape. Eventually, his eyes fell on the second syringe they had already readied for the escaped brunette.
He stood up slowly and moved silently his hand to his side, until he managed to clench his fingers around the plunger full of soon-to-be-mosquitoes. As he readied himself to stab Ianto with the needle, he let out a small noise who made the Welshman turn abruptly to stop the risen arm before he could dawn on him.
Doctor Copley, however, threw him out of balance, showing him off with his shoulder and making Ianto fall backwards, and he dropped the scalpel not far from him. Despite the age, the old man was soon over him and they struggled and wrestled on the cold flood: the doctor trying to inject the eggs inside Ianto, Ianto trying to stretch enough to reach the only weapon he had gotten himself without getting stabbed with the needle in the meantime.
A louder cry of pain from Jack made Ianto try his last and desperate solution: he pushed the doctor away from him with his elbow to finally get the scalpel back. Before Copley could see it coming, Ianto hit him right in the heart, the doctor's blood sprinkling out of his chest like hot springs. It killed him almost instantly as the blood kept flowing fluently from the breached chest, falling on both Ianto and the floor, and dampening everything it fell on with warm coppery moisture. His eyes soon turned white and the body fell boneless on the floor as the remaining blood now flowed out of the breach in his chest without all its initial pressure.
Still, Ianto hadn't been quick enough, and had to note with dread the empty syringe now resting in the doctor's lax hands.
Ianto knew that his and Jack's deaths were now only a matter of time and tried to keep his blood as cold as he could to think clear. The first thing he did was to move Copley's body far from Jack's bed outside the room, just in case the man wasn't so dead as he appeared to be, and in doing so he smeared himself and the floor even more with the medic's blood.
After that, he closed shut the door, to buy Jack enough time to die and come back to life if their reinforcements weren't quick to come to his rescue. When he was certain that enough things were to be destroyed before they got the Torchwood captain, he allowed himself to go back to his lover's side.
The situation seemed the same as the last time he had seen it, but that worried Ianto more than Jack's death would have. For Jack to be still in such situation when he had been teetering for a long time to the brick of death, it meant that his body was partially fighting off the invasion inside his body, partially healing him as he got hurt and making the torture longer.
Ianto tried to dry the excess of sweat from his forehead and then, seeing as it was a hopeless case, he held him tight at his waist, whishing his continued pangs of pain to stop. Then, he eventually started feeling ill himself.
It had been apparently a massive dose of concoction, because Ianto had only enough time to break their embrace before searing pain crossed his whole body too. He tried to keep the spasms in check whishing them away, and stoically kept caressing Jack's head and whisper soothing words to him to calm him down.
Jack still wriggled and cried, testing the resistance of his bindings as he tried desperately to free himself. Ianto debated if there was any chance for his lover to hurt himself more once free, but the pained whimper escaping Jack's lips was enough to make him decide to grant him his wish.
He searched around himself for something to free Jack with, and then he remembered the scalpel, still lying forgotten on the bloodied floor after serving his purpose. Ianto made quick work of the leather and, as soon as Jack was free from the bindings, was ready to catch his lover, as he desperately gripped his shirt.
"You're fine… You'll be fine…" Ianto repeated like a mantra, holding Jack tight to himself and hoping for someone to come and take care of Jack before his body gave out.
After a louder cry, in front of Ianto's horrified stare, an enormous alien mosquito eventually breached through Jack, splashing the Welshman with his lover's blood and flesh. Ianto's heart stopped in his chest at the sight, but he had just enough time to mutter a small "I'm sorry" before a spasm stronger than the previous ones sent him on the floor, bent over his knees.
Ianto tried to stand up again, but his every muscle seemed unwilling to move to his wishes and, when he tried to grasp Jack's bed as support, his hand slipped on the cold metal, damp with his lover's blood, still dripping down from the open wound.
He felt tiny little things moving inside himself, through his veins, breaching his flesh as if creating small tunnels. He was dying, dying close to Jack, but without the chance to say goodbye to him, to say he loved him.
He couldn't die without Jack knowing he had loved him.
Ianto put all the strength he had left on his legs and managed to stand, despite the illness and despite the pain. He found himself coughing violently and his legs gave away, but not before he could lean over Jack's tore apart body. He grasped the railings of the small bed and as soon as he was able to stop coughing moved forward for a last kiss.
"I love you, Jack" He whispered.
Then his hands slipped, and everything blacked out.
T.B.C.