A/N: im soooooo sorry it took me so long to get this out, honstly ive had this posted for AGES everywhere else it just seems like ive forgotten here! So im very sorry about that and promise it won't happen again! ALSO im posting another story here right now, another TW one of course lol, but please check it out!

''Fuck you' Came the reply before Ianto quickly turned on his heel and walked away. Jack was left standing alone and speechless before taking after Ianto's retreating figure.

'Ianto stop! I'm not kidding Ianto. Ianto!' He reached out to snag the back of Ianto's suit jacket, pulling the man back, causing him to stumble into Jack's chest. Ianto immediately began to struggle as Jack's arms wrapped tightly around him, pressing the other man to his body.

'Get off! Get the hell off me you horrible bastard!' A stray elbow to Jack's stomach ensured Ianto's release.

As soon as he was released Ianto turned to look at Jack. The pain and the betrayal were almost palatable in the air between them. Jack reached out a hand towards his lover before rethinking the action and allowed his arm to fall back to his side. He sighed before closing his eyes and shaking his head. 'Ianto you have to listen to me. I'm not doing this to be cruel.' He took an experimental step towards Ianto who in turn took one back.

A snarl escaped Ianto's lips as he and Jack began to unconsciously circle each other. Jack pleading with his eyes for Ianto to understand and Ianto unwilling to have Jack be anywhere near him. 'You're sick! You're evil! How can you use her like that? She doesn't deserve to have her memory treated like that Jack. You know what she means to me and I thought...' Ianto paused when his voice quivered, his eyes downcast. 'I thought you had forgiven me for that.'

'I have!' Came Jack's firm reply.

'Then why are you punishing me?' Ianto whispered.

A tender look passed over Jack's features as he watched Ianto. His boy was so young really and it was only in these vulnerable moments that it became apparent. He sometimes thought that Ianto forgot how young he was, forgot that most people his age were off getting drunk and going on stupid excursions with their equally stupid friends. It amazed him that after everything he had been through, Ianto still retained some innocence and still delighted in the smallest, most mundane things. It was this fact that made him want to protect the younger man, the reason this whole fucked up mess had started to begin with.

'I'm not punishing you Ianto. I'm trying to protect you.' A snort of disbelief came from Ianto. 'It's true. I forgave you for Lisa a long time ago but other people don't forgive and forget so easily Ianto, you have to understand that. UNIT, they found out about what you had done.

Ianto gave Jack a look mixed with curiosity and accusation. 'If that's true, how did UNIT find out?'A look of panic shot across his features 'Did you tell them?'

Jack let out a condescending chuckle before continuing. 'Please, like I would help those jumped up useless Action man wannabes. Like I would give you up like that.' He added softly. 'A member of this team went crazy and committed a string of murders for the sole purpose of using alien technology. You think UNIT is not going to be keeping an eye on us after that?'

Realization started to spread across Ianto's face as his eyes darted around the hub, trying to make sense of what Jack was saying to him. The coloured drained completely from his face at Jack's next words.

'They were keeping close surveillance on us. Of course they didn't have a clue what you were up to until the night it all went to hell. They had agents permanently station on the roofs of the buildings around the invisible lift and the tourist office. They saw us come out, saw us fighting. Apparently their agents had seen the pizza girl entering the building too but didn't understand the situation enough to stop her.' Ianto began to shake at the implications of what Jack was saying and Jack had to lunge forward to grip Ianto around the waist when it looked like he might buckle.

'Whoa, come on let's go and sit down.'

'No, no, no you need to tell me. What happened? What did they do? Jack?' Ianto was on the verge of hyperventilating as Jack guided him over to the sofa despite his protests. Jack watched as Ianto clenched his eyes shut, his breathing deep and erratic. He ran a gentle hand up and down the other man's back while Ianto to clenched his other hand. Ianto gripped him so tightly, he knew he was going to have nail shaped marks imprinted in his skin.

He waited until Ianto's gaze slowly lifted to his own before he continued.

'It was partially my fault. I was so angry with you that I didn't employ the right amount of caution. I told Owen to do the clean up knowing full well that apart from me he was the angriest at you. I never asked him what he did with the conversion unit, I just wanted it gone from the Hub and once it was I just didn't care.' Jack shook his head at his own carelessness. If he had been thinking clearly none of this would have happened.

'UNIT must have found it somehow, perhaps they traced the residual energy from the conversion unit when it was liquefied, I don't know. But they pieced all the information together bit by bit. They had records that you were working for Torchwood One at the time of its collapse. All it took was a check of the list of the dead to determine just who had likely been using the UNIT. After that it was just a matter of verifying the information, finding the CCTV from the buildings around Canary Warf. CCTV of you salvaging tech from the ruins, loading Lisa into a van. Checking you credit card records showed a large amount of money being spent soon after, money for medications and equipment.'

Ianto's hands were shaking as he stared intently at the floor. It was all too much to think that UNIT had known all along. All this time they had known exactly what he had done, the danger he had put the whole world in. But there was something that didn't quite add up.

'If they knew, why didn't they come for me?' He softly questioned. He didn't have the strength to raise his voice higher, suddenly his body felt very tired. 'They wouldn't just let me get away with it unpunished and I doubt a month of suspension would be enough to satisfy them.' He observed Jack's expression, watching it morph from tender pity to resignation before he gently pulled Ianto towards him with a hand to the back of his neck. Ianto felt lips press to his forehead and linger there for a long time. He felt Jack's breath ghosting across his skin before he replied 'I gave them something they wanted more'.

Ianto frowned in confusion, pulling Jack's hand from his neck and looking at him in puzzlement.

'What? What did you give them?'

The answer was simple. 'Me.'

Ianto pulled away, moving across the sofa slightly. 'What?'

Jack closed his eyes, turning his body away from Ianto and towards the hub. To Ianto it appeared that he was almost ashamed, but that was ridiculous, wasn't it?

'UNIT acquisitions a lot of tech Ianto. In many cases they don't know how dangerous something is until it's tested but of course they don't want to risk their own personnel.'

'Oh my god!' Ianto looked at Jack in horror. He couldn't be saying what Ianto thought he was saying, could he? Jack would never put himself in such a vulnerable position, certainly not for him.

'You're, you're letting them test alien tech on you Jack?!?' Ianto yelled. 'Are you insane? Why would you do that?'

When it looked like Ianto was going to make a dash away from him, Jack snatched up Ianto's hands, holding them tightly between his own. Ianto's hands were cold; Jack gently rubbed them before pressing them against his chest.

'I did it for you Ianto. Do you understand what UNIT would have done to you if they had got a hold of you? They would have locked you up and no one would have ever seen you again. I wouldn't have seen you again. You would be kept in a tiny room, without the sunlight for the rest of you life. It would have been a living death and I couldn't let that happen to you. I let them experiment tech on me whenever they need to and in exchange they leave you alone, leave you with me' Jack whispered.

Ianto turned his head away from him and the younger man looked paler than he had before. 'I think I'm going to be sick.'

Jack couldn't do anything but grab Ianto's chin and force the other man to look at him. This was exactly why he had kept it a secret. He knew that Ianto would be wracked with guilt. Feel disgusted at the levels the human race could sink to and the attitude of UNIT. UNIT was becoming like Torchwood One.

As soon as Ianto and Jack's eyes locked, Jack saw the shutters slide into place as Ianto began to close himself off. 'No, no don't you do that. You stay here with me Ianto. I know this is hard for you but understand that no matter how angry I was at you, no matter how much I wanted to hate you for what you did, you are still one of my team, my family. There was nothing I wouldn't have agreed to, to keep you, any of you, safe. This is just a little sacrifice, it's nothing'. He tried to smile reassuringly, but was surprised at the anger that flashed across the other mans face.

Ianto ripped his hands away from Jack's chest before standing up. Jack's cavalier attitude to what had been happening made him all the more angry. The man completely disregarded his own existence as nothing and that hurt Ianto.

'It's not nothing Jack! It's a life, your life. If it doesn't mean anything to you it means something to me! We have to think about this, we have to do something.' Ianto began to rub the back of his neck as he rested one hand on his hip. It was his thinking pose and Jack always loved to take the time to admire the younger mans beautiful physique. Jack provided him with enough conundrums to ensure that this pose was used often. This time he could not be distracted.

"Can we can talk to them and get them to revoke the deal?'

Jack shot to his feet. 'NO!' he snarled, 'I'm not going to let you walk into that. All the times I've died for those bastards would have been for nothing. Do you want that?' It was a dirty trick to play but Jack wasn't about to let Ianto walk right into the lion's den. UNIT might be content with having him but they would have no objections to adding Ianto Jones to their collection. Especially if Ianto made his capture so easy.

Ianto's hand fell away and his shoulders slumped. That wasn't the type of logic he could fight against.

'I just..I can't let you do this Jack. It's too much; its sick.'

Jack said nothing, simply staring at Ianto as he tried to work everything out. Jack needed to give Ianto time.

Abruptly, Ianto straightened up and began to make his way across the Hub.

'I need some coffee.'

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The two men sat on the sofa together, shoes off with their feet resting on the table. Considering the situation Ianto thought on it could be allowed. Mugs of steaming coffee rested in each man's hand. For a long time the only movement was when one of them lifted the cup to his lips. The beeping of the machines seemed to lull them into a fragile sense of peace, before it was broken by Ianto's voice.

'So all those months ago, when you came back smelling…funny…'

Jack let his head fall back against the sofa. 'Alien toxins. They wanted to test if it could potentially be turned into an airborne virus if someone untoward got hold of it.'

Ianto nodded before asking again 'And when you were complaining of being stiff' A naughty chuckle emitted from Jack before he frowned disapprovingly and continued. 'In the shoulders! The mark?'

'A Dillapodonian torture device. It's like a rope of pure energy with the strength of steel. They didn't realize until it broke both my arms in four places. As for the mark, it was from an electrical device that they were trying to redesign. They thought it could help spinal injury patients walk again. They overloaded the charge.'

Ianto let out a long breath before letting his head fall back, turning it to look at the side of Jack's face. He was an amazing man. He had sacrificed himself for Ianto and even now, he wasn't sure he deserved it. It was a true display of the love Jack could display. Ianto was sure it was love, even if it was unspoken.

'You died. Every time.'

'Yes.'

Leaning forward slightly Ianto placed a long kiss on Jack's cheek. His breath of gently caress the Captain's skin.

'That woman. Marissa. She's the one in charge?'

Jack managed to hum an affirmative.

'She's the one that's been calling you? When you disappeared all those times, you were going off to be…to help UNIT?'

He received a nod in reply this time.

'So, she's the one were going to have to talk to then.'

Jack's head snapped around, almost hitting Ianto. 'And do what?'

'Find a way of getting you out of this godawful mess, of course."