A STOMACH FULL OF RATS PART SEVEN

They sat around the boardroom table, the syrofoam cups long abandoned and no one had much to say. Jack took a long look at each of his team members and only Tosh could meet his gaze.

"Right everyone, firstly are you all ok? I know Brecon was a bit of a....."

Owen snorted. "Yeah, no shit Sherlock."

Jack shot him a look that said 'shut up'. "Owen.... Physically is everyone ok?"

The medic nodded. "Yeah, we all check out."

Gwen and Tosh were both nodding in agreement. Jack splayed his hands flat on the glass top.

"I know that particular assignment could have gone better. I certainly should have handled it better and it totally failed to achieve what I was aiming for."

"Which was?" Gwen asked.

Jack felt his heart drop into his stomach, her wide eyed innocence was just breath taking and somehow she appeared sullied now and Jack couldn't work out why. Some of the vibrance had left her eyes maybe.

He hauled in a long breath. "The aim was to get Ianto integrated into the team a little better. We've all been treating him like an outsider since the Lisa fiasco..... maybe even before then. I deluded myself into thinking it would be a simple, safe case to bring him out on.... Won't be making that mistake again."

Owen leant back in his chair. "Bloody Tea Boy was useless anyway, he's got no business being out in the field."

To Jack's surprise Tosh shot him a filthy look. "IF it hadn't been for Ianto, I would be dead. He sacrificed himself for me, so don't you dare go calling him useless." Her voice was barely audible but Owen baulked none the less.

Jack raised his hands to silence Owen's retort. "Alright, please I do not want an argument. In view of the disastrous outcome of three days ago I am implementing operational changes. The first one being new locking mechanisms on the SUV. Tosh you and I will deal with that. Owen, everyone and I mean everyone is to have a full physical and psycological work up every month, with out fail, that includes blood tests, scans and any other damn diagnostic test you have in that pit of yours... no exceptions. Gwen, Owen will train you to run the said tests on him so that Owen doesn't miss out on all the fun. Thirdly, if Ianto actually survives he will be moved up to field ops status. He is NOT any one's fetch and carry man, I will be training him and Tosh you will begin training him on your computer systems, we know he has an aptitude for it, so lets make use of it." He paused a moment. "Any questions?"

"Why the status change Jack?" Gwen asked as Owen scowled.

Jack sighed. "Have any of you looked at him or spoken to him lately?"

There were guilty silences all round.

"I thought as much. Like I said, he's part of this team, it's about time we showed him that."

Gwen was nodding in agreement and Tosh just faintly smiled as Jack turned to face Owen.

"When Ianto gets back he's gonna need a thorough exam. Tosh is looking into the work that Suzie was doing on the glove, she was experimenting with Ianto, I need to be certain that there's no lasting injury." Owen nodded deciding that was the safest thing to do, he was highly doubtful that Ianto would be back anyway.

"Right boss, don't worry I'll get straight on to it. Do we know exactly what Suzie was doing?"

Tosh sighed unhappily. "From what I can make out so far... she was well the same as we were doing with the dead people. It's looks as though the glove was responding to him even though he wasn't dead. I'll want to go through everything and I am currently trying to track her deleted CCTV records. When I have something more concrete, I'll let you know."

Owen nodded.

"Thanks Tosh."

There was a thoughtful silence and then finally it was Owen who spoke, surprising them all. He looked extremely uncomfortable.

"I fucked up Jack. I should have checked him over. I thought he was ok, he told me he was ok."

Jack nodded trying to hide his surprise at the confession. "None of us were on top form Owen, we'll just put this behind us. Ianto has been lying for some time about his health, lets just be a little more vigilant and start looking out for one another a little more closely from now on." He was at a loss and hoped it was the right thing to say, there was enough guilt floating about the Hub as it was and Jack wanted it gone.

Everyone obediently nodded. "Ok, back to work. Tosh I'm gonna head over to the hospital and find out how Ianto is doing, call me if there's a problem."

Jack rose from his seat, in truth he needed a walk to get away from the others, his motives entirely selfish. He pulled on his coat and strode out of the board room leaving the rest of the team to stare at his back in his wake. Owen shook his head, thinking he'd got off lightly but he kept his mouth shut for once. Tosh was already heading back to her terminal and eventually Owen followed her.

"There's something you two aren't telling me, isn't there, about Ianto I mean."

Tosh blinked up at him and finally nodded. "I'll forward you a copy of Ianto's undoctored personnel file."

Owen baulked. "What?"

"Just read it Owen."

He nodded. "Right. I will, thanks Tosh." He backed away, Ianto was clearly a sensitive subject for her. Owen wondered if she'd been shagging him on the sly, Jack certainly had though probably not since the Cyber chic thing. He ambled back down to his domain to discover Gwen was waiting there for him.

"Why don't you show how some of this medical equipment works then." She suggested.

Owen leered at her. "Well PC Cooper, that could be fun."

The only difference Jack could see in Ianto was the appearance of more dressings from the operation that morning. The Welshman remained unconscious and didn't look like he was going to be coming out of it any time soon. Jack didn't hang about. He went for a walk instead and ended up sitting on a bench in Bute Park with a Starbucks coffee and a copy of The Guardian newspaper. He only half read the front page, taking occasional sips and feeling very sorry for himself. Somehow leading Torchwood3 had not been so straight forward recently, both Suzie and Ianto had betrayed him. His supposed leadership skills had been non existent ever since he found out about Lisa. That, if he were honest with himself was the heart of the matter. Ianto's betrayal sat like a brick in his stomach. Jack didn't understand it, didn't want to so he tried to ignore it.

And failed.

It wasn't that Ianto meant anything much to him. Jack just didn't like being made a fool of and Ianto had certainly done that. Jack hadn't taken the time to ask why though, so blinded by his anger and the sheer terror of facing another one of those things. He hadn't taken the time to think for one moment about the impact this had all had on Ianto himself. Jack wondered how many more times in his excessively long life he would face failure. Damn it, he just wanted to be fixed! To be dropped back into the 51st century to rejoin a world he understood and felt at home in. He had never felt so lonely in his life as he did now. Ianto had been lonely too. Jack understood that and for a brief moment fondly recalled what had transpired between them as a result, the memories were soured now of course. Jack glanced at his watch and heaving in a deep breath decided he needed to get back to the Hub at least to pretend that he was in charge if nothing else.