Chapter 6 - Everything Changes
Over the next few months Ianto's set a strict routine and everyone at the Hub either had not noticed or simply allowed it as Ianto made everyone's jobs easier. He kept everyone well fed, the only person who he tended to forget was himself. At least until Jack started insisting he join them for meals. Always patting the chair to his right. Ianto fancied himself Jack's right hand man. He continued completing his regular job requirement along with those he picked up from his fellow co-workers. He kept to himself and fell into the shadows adeptly completing any tasks with the same attention to detail he prided himself on, no matter how large or small the job. On top of everything he already took upon himself he also tasked himself with fixing the archives.
To Ianto's horror no one had paid any heed to the neglected levels for decades and were in such a state of disarray it made the young man cringe. He set about organising everything and sending any boxes of unidentified tech to Tosh to play with. The two of them spent a great deal of time excitedly tinkering with the gizmos and gadgets Ianto would find buried beneath the bowels of Hub. The rest of the team were grateful as it kept her from giving them one of her techno speeches that none could comprehend. Ianto half the time had no idea what she was saying, but from the way her eyes were lighting up he didn't have the heart to stop her.
Owen eventually ceased the hostile attitude and their relationship developed into mutual sarcastic banter at the each others expense. They were never chummy but it was a bond of sorts. The only member he still had problems with was Suzie. The woman over the past months had been isolating herself from the rest of the team. Her hours spiked dramatically directly after she discovered the gloves function. To raise the dead. Albeit for only a few short minutes but it worked. She had been begging Jack for weeks to let her test it on humans and Jack had finally agreed. It hadn't worked on anyone in the morgue, at least not without the knife Ianto discovered packed away in the archives, made of the same metal as the glove. By stabbing the test subject and using the glove combo she was successful in bringing people back to life for similar amounts of time.
After giving Suzie the knife it seemed to have worked as a peace offering. They both seemed to know the other was up to something but neither knew what. Aside from the glove the Tosh continued to test the odd bit of tech they had picked up on their trip to Glasgow. How Archie knew it was dangerous know one understood, the crazy old man admitted to Jack he had know clue what it did, he simply felt it was dangerous. And the mysterious events were completely forgotten as per Jack's orders. Only he and Ianto remembered anything of it, but never spoke of it.
Suzie was still sceptical of Ianto and he often saw her eyeing him, however lately she was far to dedicated to her research and had all but given up on keeping an eye on him. Still, even with everything already on his plate he made sure to find room for the two most important things in his life. Lisa, who was still trapped in the storage room fighting for her life. The other being Jack, their relationship had been progressing steadily. Jack still flirted, not just with Ianto(though he was Jack's main target). Jack had cut back a bit in public knowing Ianto wanted to keep their friendship/relationship secret. They still hadn't slept together, but since that day in the range Jack's advances extended to be more physical in nature. Hugs and quick kisses with the occasional grope. Ianto let him, its not like he didn't enjoy it, as long as Jack was subtle when he did. Ianto didn't fancy rumours of him 'bagging the boss' to surface.
Ianto still wasn't brave enough to do much in the way of reciprocation, aside from a few touches here and there. Weeks of Jack sauntering about in those tight pants which clung to his arse left Ianto far to curious to not give it a little pinch, it didn't seem to bother Jack in the slightest. He seemed to have the patients of a saint and never pushed, Ianto almost wished he would.
Ianto came to know Jacks patterns and made sure to be well away from Lisa when Jack's flirtatious moods came on. Jack seemed to be up for just about anything, anytime, anywhere. His current favourite was cornering Ianto in the archives. The young man tried his best to try and anticipate those ones. His team mates weren't stupid and would definitely be wondering what Jack's sudden interest in the archives was.
All in all they he balanced everything quite well. Kept his team satisfied and Lisa as comfortable as possible. He never talked with Lisa about his flings with Jack, it became a silent agreement between them. She knew but didn't want to hear about it, so they never talked about it since that first time it came up.
Jack had tried teaching Ianto how to shoot several times since their first failed attempt with Ianto showing little improvement. Jack soon wrote him off as a lost cause and kept him back at the Hub and out of field missions, short of clean ups. Shooting practice for Jack was simply a reason to fondle Ianto.
Life was good, well at least until a string of murders started to spring up and a local PC started getting nosey. The woman liked to snoop and was determined, as such she took up a lot of Ianto's already full schedule. Someone had to monitor her and keep her off their tracks.
"Come in, Ianto, " Jack called out from within his office.
"How did you know it was me?" Ianto asked as he entered the room and closed the door behind him.
"Firm knock. Suzie and Owen would have just barged on in and Tosh's knock is much softer," Jack replied as he absent-mindedly stroked the coral which was the one constant figure to grace the mess which Jack refers to as 'his desk.'
"What is your obsession with that thing?"
"It symbolises hope for me," Jack answered truthfully. "Takes a long time to grow, but its always there as time passes. A one constant."
"Don't know if I follow."
"Maybe someday I'll explain it better," Jack smiled as he placed the coral back and leaned back in his chair. "So, Ianto Jones, what do I owe the honour of this visit?"
"Just here to pick up your completed files and to update you on that PC," Ianto replied as he walked around walked around to Jack's side of the desk. Jack leaned back to let Ianto through so he could reach the files in the far corner of his desk.
"I don't know why you insist on leaving your completed files way over here, it would be far simpler if I didn't have to all but crawl over you to get to them," Ianto said as he squished in between the small space between Jack and his desk, facing away from Jack towards the files he was attempting to take with him to be put away.
"You know Ianto, I'm old, stuck in my ways. Its always been like that and you'll just have to get comfortable with it," Jack said as he stared at Ianto's backside a meagre foot and a half away from Jack. The young man was bent slightly over the desk so his arse was sticking out. The thin material of his trousers displaying the globe shaped flesh hidden within. This was the real reason why Jack kept the files in such a inconvenient to access spot. Jack loved that in all the months Ianto has worked for him he still somehow did not seem to work it out. Jack couldn't help but be awe-struck by how positively naïve Ianto could be at times.
Today Jack just couldn't resist, he reached out and grabbed hold of the vulnerable flesh in each hand and kneaded it in his firm grip.
"Jack!" Ianto gasped at the unexpected yet not unwelcome touches, as he lost his balance and landed flatly on the desk.
Jack reached around and started unbuckling Ianto's trousers but stopped when Ianto's hand was felt gripped his own.
"I'm sorry, Jack," Ianto murmured weakly as he pushed Jack's hands away feeling guilty as he heard the older mans low but frustrated sigh. Their sexual banter had been going on for almost six months now and Ianto still hadn't so much as let Jack cop a feel without a layer of clothing in the way. Most people would've given up by now.
"Its no big deal, its not like I'm not getting any elsewhere," Jack snapped out before realizing what he was saying, immediately regretting it. It was just a frustrating situation to be around someone for months who clearly fancied him, as he fancied the younger man, only to be turned down constantly because of he considered to be archaic ideals of what sexuality should be. "Ianto, I'm sorry that came out…"
"Don't sir," Ianto said as he pushed Jack back down onto his chair preventing him from getting up. "I wouldn't have dared delusion myself to think you wanted anything more than a warm body."
"Ianto…" Jack tried again as he reached for the younger mans arm.
Ianto pulled back to quickly and retreated for the doorway and as he reached it he opened the door and stepped into the arch and paused. Without turning around to face Jack he said, "that PC, the PC which followed us from the hospital is now standing outside the plass trying to work out where you all disappeared too. She's been there for now," Ianto paused a moment to check his watch, "three and a half hours now," Ianto told Jack on their stalker problem.
"Determined little thing isn't she, her curiosity already cost the life of one person, we best take care of her before things get more complicated."
"There is nothing wrong with a little determination, sir," Ianto said at his defence remembering back to when he was the one stalking the Captain begging for a job. "And that hospital porter really wasn't her fault, it just means we're doing out job if they're ignorant of alien threats."
"True. But we're going to have to deal with this. Update me in a hour and if she hasn't given up we'll invite her in, give her a tour and send her home with a nice refreshing drink laced to the rim with Retcon."
"As you wish, sir," Ianto said as he vanished through the exit.
The last thing Jack needed right now was a nosey PC snooping about. Especially not now with the situation that's come to his attention that he would soon have to deal with.
"Jack you're not going to believe this, that PC is back on the plass again," Ianto shouted up towards Jacks office.
"Tell me you're kidding. We Retconned her she shouldn't have been able to break it," Jack moaned.
"She must have hit a trigger somehow."
"Finish shutting down the Hub and go home, I'll deal with it," Jack said as he jumped onto the invisible lift.
"Jack be careful, Suzie is still MIA since we Retconned the PC the first time," Ianto warned.
"I'll be fine, I'll see you tomorrow."
Jack arrived at surface level just in time to catch the tail end of Suzie's confession to PC Gwen Cooper, about how she had murdered three people in order to gain test subjects for the glove. It was not news to Jack, he had noticed the wound marks on the bodies of the murder victims and recognized them from the ones created by the knife used to test the glove in the morgue.
"It was the only way. The more I use the glove, the more I control it," Suzie said.
"I don't understand. What glove? Where have I seen you before?" Gwen asked confused. Her memories a jumble with bits of incoherent memory surfacing not making sense.
"If I can get enough practice, then think of what the glove could do. If I could get it to work all the time on anything, beyond the two minutes, if I could get it to work permanently, it could resurrect. Resurrection on demand for the whole world. Isn't that a good? Isn't it, though? Well, that's what I've been working for. All day and all night. The rest of them go swanning about while I'm working. You got to get inside this stuff. Surrender yourself to it. Like I did with the knife and the glove," Suzie rambled on. "And that's why the perception filter isn't gonna work on me," Suzie shouted as she quickly turned her gun on Jack who had been patiently awaiting a moment to intervene.
"Who is he? Where did he come from? What have you done?" Gwen cried as Jack's lifeless body collapsed to the floor up receiving a bullet wound directly to the forehead. "Please don't."
"I can't let you go," Suzie said apologetically.
"Please."
"I've got to. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've got to. I've got to. I've got to," Suzie repeated over and over again in a mantra trying to work up the nerve to pull the trigger.
"Put down the gun," Jack pleased as he stood behind Suzie, the two woman looking on as the bullet hole in Jacks head healed itself before their very eyes. "Suzie, its over. Now, come with me."
Suzie ignored Jacks request and simple resigned herself to her defeat. She pulled the gun up to her chin and pulled the trigger, only hear the soft sound of the trigger clicking, but no bullets being released. Three more times she pulled the trigger hopelessly as no bullets would discharge.
Jack quickly pulled out his webley and hit Suzie in the back of the head, effectively knocking the woman out. He grabbed hold of her gun in one hand and supporting her weight easily with the other. He slid the gun into the pocket of his beloved RAF jacket and slung Suzie up onto his shoulder in a fireman's hold.
"I remember," Gwen cried as she collapsed to the ground. The stress of the past events finally taking its toll.
"Ianto, are you still in the Hub?" Jack asked as he activated his headset.
"Was just finishing up and about to head out, sir." Ianto replied.
"Gonna need a hand here, we've got a situation," Jack said as he started at a shell shocked Gwen and held onto an unconscious Suzie. A situation might be a bit of an understate, he thought to himself.
"What the hell happened?" Ianto asked as he held onto Gwen allowing Jack to focus on Suzie while the lift descended back into the Hub.
"Long story. Cliff notes version, Gwen remembers everything and Suzie is responsible for those three murders and attempting to kill our PC Cooper here," Jack replied.
"Jesus. What do you want me to do?"
"I'll toss Suzie in the vaults for now and I'd like you to take care of miss cooper here. Get her a warm, drug free beverage to help calm her nerves. I'll meet you in the boardroom once your done."
Jack took off down towards the Vaults as Ianto sat Gwen down on the couch and went to go make her a cup of tea. After handing the drink to the shaken constable Ianto ran off to join Jack in the boardroom.
"What the hell am I suppose to do with her?" Jack asked angrily as he paced the confines of the boardroom. "She's killed three innocents and I cant turn her over to the authorities because I would have to Retcon her first and she wouldn't know what she did to begin with. So that leaves me to either execute, Retcon before Torchwood or leave her in the vaults for the rest of her life."
"Losing her is going to hurt the team, we're already understaffed before this whole mess," Ianto pointed out.
"Yeah well, that's a moot point because there is no way I can let her remain on staff after this."
"True enough."
"What do you think of our PC outside?" Jack asked wanting to avoid the subject of Suzie for the time being.
"She took to the existence of aliens well enough, but wouldn't be my first pick of constables to liaise if that's what your thinking."
"She's determined, headstrong and passionate. Maybe she was right and we need to be reminded there is a real world out there that needs us," Jack argued.
"You're the boss, if you want to hire her its your call. I was just saying she wouldn't have been my first pick. I left several files on your desk filled with good candidates."
"Didn't really like any of them," Jack lied, not wanting to admit he hadn't read it yet. "Don't think we really have much of a choice. We'll give her a trial run. She broke the Retcon in a few short days and I'd rather not risk what effects my have by administering another dosage so soon."
"Its your call."
"It is," Jack replied a little more assertion than he had planned. "Sorry, its been a long day."
"Its alright. I know the Suzie situation is complicated and you're faced with making a decision you probably don't want to make, but I have a suggestion."
"Go on."
"As you know I've been cleaning out the archives recently and me and Tosh have been checking out some of the alien tech that had yet to be identified. We found a piece of tech from a military species known as the Judoon. The tech is a simple ankle bracelet, not really designed for comfort but we can add some sort of cloth inline easily enough to make it wearable by humans. Tosh, worked out that its psychically connected to the wearer and has several settings. Basically it causes intense pain to someone who tries to perform certain actions. Seeing as it's an item designed to hold prisoners it would take Tosh little work to set it up to prevent wielding weapons or attempting to cause others physical pain. It can even be specie specific. For example, one could fire a weapon at a Weevil but not at a human," Ianto finished explaining.
"So you're suggesting I neuter her?" Jack asked.
"In a sense, yes."
"Hmm, we'll go over it further with Tosh in the morning. If she is confident she can set this up then that's what we'll do for the time being. I'd like you to locate a potential room for her to stay in, one that can be locked from the outside. If this works out she'll be a permanent resident here and as much as its tempting I don't want to leave her in the vaults."
"As you wish, sir."
"I'm going to go and offer our PC Cooper a job, you should head home and get some sleep," Jack said as he exited the room.
Ianto made a quick stop off to check on Lisa and talked to her for awhile before heading home. He was just about to exit the Hub and go home when he saw the light on in Jack's office. He decided to make a quick pit stop and check in on Jack too. The older man was sitting at his desk inspecting Suzie's gun lost in his thoughts. Ianto entered the room tapping lightly on the door.
"Did you need a coffee or something before I head home, sir?" He asked.
"No thank you, Ianto," Jack replied absent-mindedly.
"What do you got there?" Ianto asked motioning towards the gun in his hands.
"Suzie's weapon. Its odd. She was our weapons expert and never made mistakes when it came to weapons, yet somehow her gun wasn't loaded save one bullet," Jack explained.
"I might have had something to do with that," Ianto admitted.
"Oh?"
"I'm not sure if you noticed but I've been in charge of reloading the ammunitions and supplying the kits in the SUV and weapons vaults."
"I thought that was Suzie's job, no?"
"It was and somewhere along the line I took over. A few days ago, right after we Retconned Gwen, I don't know why but I felt the need to unloaded the bullets in Suzie's gun."
"Do you often feel the need to make sure a co-workers gun is unloaded leaving them vulnerable?" Jack asked surprised Ianto wouldn't have found it dangerous to put a team mate in potential risk like that.
"I can't really explain it, sir. Its was like déjà vu. I just got this nagging feeling in the back of my mind that said if I didn't unload the gun something bad would happen."
"Its possible. Those tests we did on you back when that damn glove first turned up showed traces of Retcon in your system."
"I thought Retcon wiped the memories clean?"
"Normally yes, but it has two flaws. First you witnessed today, with the right trigger it can be broken."
"So the déjà vu might have been from something that was wiped trying to make its way out?" Ianto asked.
"Its possible."
"What's the second flaw?"
"Retcon only wipes the memories, emotions, trauma and feelings remain. Which is why Torchwood staff that leave of either their own accord or forced out have high suicide tendencies. There is nothing scarier than not knowing what you're afraid of."
"Glad I didn't vote for Retcon like so many of the others after Canary Wharf. How nice of them to leave that part out."
"That's Torchwood One for you. Follow the rules and cover your hide by any means," Jack said as he placed both his own weapon and Suzie's in his desk drawer. "Oh, and before I forget, Ianto. If you're going to unload a weapon, make sure you check the barrel. Suzie's gun had one shot inside."
"Oh God! But you're both alright?" Ianto asked worriedly.
"Yeah, it missed," Jack lied thinking he better check the CCTV later to make sure nothing got picked up. "Anyways, Ianto go to bed. Sleep in tomorrow, you work to much," he said as he rubbed his palms over his face thinking for once he would love nothing more than to sleep in too.
