Hi guys! Here's the next chapter, as promised! Not sure when I'll be able to update again, but I promise lots of feels in the coming chapters! Thanks for reading, and reviews are life as always. Open to doing the next chapter from Jack's POV if you'd like! :* Happy reading!
There was dead silence all around, and Ianto felt as if the world had dropped out from underneath his feet. It was a full five minutes until someone spoke.
"How… Where did you get this?" Gwen's voice broke on the last word.
Martha smiled sadly. "It was a gift."
This is so much worse than dying… Ianto had been fine before, thinking Jack was off gallivanting across the galaxy with his Doctor. But this... Nothing less than the end of the universe would make Jack give up that wrist strap willingly. He looked around at the team. Gwen had tears streaming down her face, Tosh looked like she was about to faint, and even Owen had a slight frown on. But all of them were looking at Ianto. Shaking from head to toe, he took a step towards Martha.
"What… exactly… do you mean, 'a gift'?"
Martha sighed. "You may want to clean yourselves up a bit first. It's a long story. Gwen's hurt, and the rest of you look like hell." But none of them moved.
"Look mate, you can't pull something like that out of your arse and then tell us to shove off!"
"Of course not. I'd want the same if I were you, but Gwen needs medical attention, at least. Give me a bit to patch her up, and then I'll tell you everything."
They grumbled, but gave in, mainly because Rhys was looking at Gwen with so much concern that it was physically making Owen sick. Having nothing else to do but wait, the others took Martha's advice and enjoyed a few well-earned comforts. They had been on the run or so long, they had forgotten just how good a simple thing like a hot shower could be.
Ianto didn't join them. He sat in Martha's office, not even bothering to take off his tattered suit, staring at Jack's wrist strap cradled in his hands. He let the tears fall and didn't even try to stop them as the memories came flooding back. Naked hide and seek. The first night after Suzie. Abaddon. Commenting on the fact that Jack didn't even take his wrist strap off in bed…
"Ianto?" He looked up, hastily wiping the tears away. Tosh was looking at him with sadness and pity in her eyes. "Are you okay?"
He sighed, shaking. "Would you be okay?" he asked softly. The others knew what was going on between him and Jack, but Tosh was the only one that knew exactly just how deep Ianto's feelings ran.
She came and sat down next to him, giving his shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. "They're ready for us." Ianto stood up slowly, taking a deep breath and attempting to steady his breathing. The last thing he needed was for the entire team to see him cry. Owen would never let him live it down.
Tosh led him to a small room. Martha was seated, surrounded by Owen, Rhys, and a heavily bandaged Gwen. Ianto gave her a small smile, glad to see that she was alright before sitting down, pretending not to see the sympathy in everyone (even Owen's) eyes. He still held Jack's wrist strap in shaking hands.
"Well, get on with it then," said Owen, his sarcasm failing to mask the legitimate concern in his voice.
Martha took a shaky breath. "Back when Saxon was first taking over, I was travelling with both Jack and the Doctor. We went all the way to the end of the universe, and got slightly more than we bargained for Saxon isn't an ordinary human, as you've probably guessed. He's a time lord, the only one in existence other than the Doctor, and his real name is The Master. Problem is, he's also a madman, and he wants the Doctor to suffer. He's keeping him prisoner aboard a helicarrier in the sky, along with… along with my family."
"The Valiant," Tosh chimed in, and the team looked at her in surprise. "Saxon tried his best to hide it, but I got wind of it a couple weeks ago. I never got around to telling you guys in between all the running, but that's where he's been holed up all these months. It's difficult to track, but if I tried hard I could definitely get a fix on it." Martha was looking at Tosh with a mixture of surprise and admiration, and Tosh gave her a smug smile.
"It's damn near impossible to keep something from Tosh if she's got a mind to find it," said Owen proudly, kissing her cheek.
"I'm impressed," Martha said, beaming. "Jack said you were good, he never said just how good." Tosh blushed scarlet. "Anyway, Saxon has my whole family, and the Doctor on board the Valiant, and would have me there too, if it hadn't been for Jack. He gave me his wrist strap so I could teleport off before things got really bad." Martha took a deep breath, to steady herself.
"And what about Jack?" asked Ianto, and he was surprised at the strength of his voice."
Martha's face fell. "He stayed behind… I spent ages trying to figure out a way to get him off, and I had hoped that he escaped, but…"
Oi, wait!" Owen jumped in with an angry looked on his face. "What about this Doctor bloke? If he's like Saxon, couldn't he have stopped this?"
Martha smiled sadly. "Saxon did something to him, made him look closer to his true age. And the man's nine hundred and three, so that's saying something. He is as much a prisoner as the most defenseless human."
"And Jack?" asked Gwen.
"I had no idea what was happening to him. He was on the Valiant, and I've been on Earth all this time, doing a job the Doctor gave me. There is a plan in place, but it's long in the making. I tried everything I could think of, using every ally I could to find a way to get to him, but nothing worked. And I had no idea what was really happening to him until I saw this that was broadcast about 2 weeks ago." Her voice broke on the last word, and she pulled out a laptop. She hit play, and Ianto felt his heart sink like a stone.
Jack was covered in blood, and the only thing still holding him upright was the handcuffs chaining his arms to the wall. He looked unconscious, and seconds from dying. He lifted his head, and his eyes… Ianto would never forget those eyes. He loved Jack's eyes, more so than anything else about him. They were the brightest blue he'd ever seen, always expressive and full of life, and always showing all the feelings he would try to hide. Ianto could read those eyes like the back of his hand, but now they just looked… dead. There was nothing there, no emotion, not even pain. Jack looked vaguely zombie-like, as if the life had been sucked out of him and he was an empty shell.
Ianto felt hot tears trailing down his face, and his bottom lip trembled. All this time, he thought Jack was dead, and now… now he wished he was. A man walked onto the camera screen, and Ianto felt bile rise up in his throat as he recognized Saxon. He gave a big grin at the camera. "Hello world!" he said, waving a knife at the screen. "I want you to meet my pet! Say hello, big guy!"
Jack looked up at the camera, and the team smiled as they saw him plaster that famous Jack Harkness grin on his face. But it was a sad smile- they could tell it didn't reach his eyes. "Hiya world!" said Jack cheerfully, and Ianto felt like he was floating as he heard that voice for the first time in months. God damn it if he still wanted Jack just as much as he wanted him the day he left. "Why are you still listening to this asshole anyway? You know he wets the bed." Ianto felt more tears fall as he heard Jack crack a joke.
Saxon frowned, anger in his eyes. Ianto barely had time to blink before he saw Saxon stab Jack twice in the stomach, hard and fast. Jack didn't cry out, but he could tell it took every ounce of strength he had. Ianto could feel his heart breaking into a million pieces. All this time, Jack was Saxon's plaything, being tortured day, after day, after day… He dropped to his knees and felt like he was going to be sick.
"Turn it off," he said in a shaky whisper, his voice breaking. He could feel himself trembling from head to toe. "I can't…" He felt a hand on his shoulder, felt arms lifting him up. He looked up to find Gwen with tears of her own streaming down her face. She squeezed his hand, and Ianto looked around to see the rest of the team with similar expressions- even Owen's eyes were glistening with unshed tears. He took a deep breath, running his hand through his hair, trying to stem the flood of emotion. He hastily wiped the tears away, cursing himself for breaking down like that. God, it's just too much… He was grateful when Martha broke the silence.
"Saxon's been keeping him as his personal plaything or the past few months, torturing him whenever he feels like it. I didn't want to believe it was true, but when I saw that… I couldn't handle it. I put everything I had into finding you, figuring if anyone could help get him back, you could."
She looked directly at Ianto now. "He loves you, you know," she said, through tears of her own. "He would talk about you like you put the sun in the sky. You should have seen the look in his eyes…" Ianto looked down, unable to speak through the lump in his throat. Jack loved him? Like, really loved him? Never in a million years did he think Jack cared for him that way. Sure, they had fun together, and they were companions and partners, but never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that he had such a high place in Jack's heart, and he smiled despite everything.
He was jolted from his thoughts when Owen said what they were all thinking.
"Well, we're here. A bit beat up and freezing our arses off, but here. And ready to kick Saxon's sorry ass back to wherever the hell he's from. So now, the question is, what are we going to do next?"