CHAPTER ONE
The End?
You don't kill a parliment member and not get some grief for it. But it was finally found after two bouts of interrogation, something Jack was never supposed to find out about, that Ianto never fired. The Parliment member who died was shot from outside the window, and had an earpiece in. Torchwood had suspected him of being a patsy but they were unable in the short conversation, to track it back to the person pulling the strings.
So, finally, Jack and Owen had to recieve Ianto from the guards, and he had to go through the indignity of a prisoner hand off. Jack and Owen put him in the back of the Torchwood SUV, and as soon as the door was closed, Jack pulled the cuffs off.
Ianto was surprised to be brought to the new flat, the one that he had purchased his first week at three. Not the place where he had lived with Lisa, but new, a place he hadn't had a chance to build memories that were far too painful to forget. On the table was a dinner for two.
"What is this?"
"My part of the deal." Jack said. "He shrugged, I may not like it Ianto, but I made a promise. So enjoy your night."
It started with a quiet dinner, all talk of work was banished, as was any talk of what was coming next. As far as both of them were concerned, this was just another night, and they both worked hard to keep the fiction.
This time the lovemaking was slow and passionate. Jack trying to blow Ianto's mind as many times as was possible. Ianto had not clue what else was going on, but if this was to be his last night on earth, he could live with that.
Ianto was surprised to wake up in the morning, a note on the pillow that still faintly smelled of the captain.
"Come to work, wear your good suit."
He smiled and muttered 'Harrassment." Ianto wasn't sure what he had planned but whatever it was, he knew it wouldn't be what he expected. And besides, he reasoned, if he was going to go down, going down in the clothes he was known best for was to be expected.
He arrived at work exactly on time and started to make coffee like always. He couldn't help it, it was just what he did. And if he was going to die, which he had no doubt he would, it was going to be doing his job. Jack had given him a mind blowing night, and now he was working as a dead man.
Jack was two hours late. But when he came in, there was coffee waiting for him. And Ianto had once again faded into the woodwork. The other team members had said their goodbyes, Jack hadn't told them of his plan in case it didn't work. But he didn't care how bad the treason was, Jack couldn't shoot him, he just couldn't. Especially if it was something they wanted to be able to bring him back from.
He and owen had done some more research. Leading to Owen killing him a couple more times until they had what they thought was a sequence that would work. He would drug Ianto, a 51st century compound he kept in case of trouble, it broke down almost immediately, was oderless, tasteless, and killed in half an hour.
After that, they would pop him in the cryo while they prepared things. A week in Cryo should be enough to purge any remaining control drugs from his system, and then they will bring him back, hoping that the death and subsequent cryo should be enough to totally purge the system. But of necessity, the only two who would be present were him and Owen, just in case.
If the program didn't purge, things would get ugly. And he didn't want the rest of the team to see Ianto like that. If this failed he wanted them to remember him as the tea boy they always remembered him to be.
"Ianto, my office, we still have a couple things to discuss."
Ianto sat in the offered chair and the two of them had the talk about arrangements. What was to be expected, and what stories his family would be told. Ianto was nearly finished with his drink before he asked the question that really was weighing on him.
"What about Protocol?" Anyone who had worked at torchwood would have known that to mean 'when will you kill me?'
"Already in effect." Jack nodded toward the glass. "Drink the last little bit." There was a bit of an edge to it, proof that it was a command. "Drink it all."
"Poison?" Ianto wasn't sure if he was impressed or horrified. He looked at the last mouthful of scotch. Drinking it down was harder now that he knew it was poisoned.
Jack looked at his watch, watching the minutes tick down on Ianto's life. "There has been too much blood. I thought you might appreciate that it won't be like that."
Ianto nodded, even executing him, he was trying to save Ianto some dignity. "What can I expect?"
There was silence for a moment as Jack sipped his own drink. It wasn't until Ianto called his name that he finally spoke. He gestured for Ianto to come to him and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him into a kiss.
Jack pulled Ianto into his lap, putting his arms around him to hold him still. "I wish I could say it was totally painless, but nothing compared to what you have been through. Pins and needles, a general lethargy, then you will feel tired. And, once that happens you are in the final stages. If you start to have the worse reactions I'll be able to stop them."
The voice was far too flat, far too clinical to belong to Jack.
"Thank you." Ianto leaned against Jack, his hands buried in the captain's hair, hair he had pulled so roughly the night before, The scent of Jack was enough to calm him as Jack pulled him to his shoulder. He felt the arms tighten as the first spasm hit.
"Shhh." Firm hands rubbed circles on his back. "It's ok."
The hands shifted moving Ianto into a different position and he almost cried out at the lack of contact. Suddenly he felt the hands on him again, but this time flitting between his skin and his pants, and stroking his swiftly hardening erection in his hands. The sensation brought a gasp from Ianto as Jack proceeded to give him a hand job. Jack knew that Ianto had very little time left. And the rising heartrate would speed the reaction, so hopefully he could keep the young man's mind occupied while his body died.
He drew it out as long as he dared, having Ianto mewling and squirming in his lap begging for release, waiting until the heartbeat began to go thready before pushing him over the edge and watching as Ianto whited out in ecstasy, and faded away still clutching his hair.
It took him a moment to gather himself and his composure enough to shift the dead lover off of his lap. It was not the first time he had killed a lover, but it was certainly the most painful.
He forced the tears back into the box labeled Ianto, before cleaning him up and carrying him down to Autopsy where Owen waited.
#
CHAPTER TWO
Aftermath
To his credit Owen didn't ask. He just put a hand on Jack's shoulder and started redying Ianto for cryo. He was going to take a scan before they put him under, and then when they brought him back they would take another.
"You have a few minutes to say your goodbyes." There was a beat. "But I draw the line at necrophelia."
Owen's off-kilter humor pulled a smile out of Jack regardless. It was the only acknowldgement that Owen made of the situation. Five minutes later the two of them loaded Ianto into the cryo chambers. If everything went as planned, it would be a week.
Owen usually complained about getting to work this bloody early, but not today. Today was the day that they checked on tea-boy. If he was ok, they would give him a couple weeks off to process, but after that, he should be fine.
"Jack, this mixture we gave him it could stop his heart again. And if it does, I gotta keep it stopped long enough to make sure it doesn't stick. So I need you to take it easy. He might not know you when he first comes to. That's pretty normal.
Owen started the revival process, and pushed something to the side in hopes he wouldn't need it. It was a pretty potent cocktail that could take down almost anything, but if the program was still on, all it would do is slow him down long enough for Owen to take the shot.
The first reactions weren't good. Ianto jumped and twitched almost as soon as his brain waves started coming back. Finally, with nothing else he could try short of killing him again, He doubled the dose of blockers. His heartrate crashed and he spent the next ten minutes trying to get him back.
Owen was just about to give up in despair when Ianto began to breathe again. Gasping back into sinus rhythm. Owen held him down until the fit passed. "Easy tea-boy."
"What is the last thing you remember?"
"The cells. Lisa."
Owen nodded. "You had a bad reaction."
"When?"
"When what?"
"When are you going to execute me?"
His voice was hollow. He didn't really feel like he wanted to die, not anymore.
"Sentence has been commuted." Jack said. "You are hereby sentanced to Life in Torchwood."
"Life?"
"Yes. You ever pull a stunt like that again and I may just kill you. But I know why you did it." Jack helped him sit up slowly. "You loved her, and there is no crime in that. But you burned a lot of bridges, you hid yourself from us, the people whose job it is to trust you."
Jack stepped back. "So persuant to that order, you will be suspended a further three weeks. During which time you will get a life outside of torchwood. You may interact with any of the Torchwood staff, but all work is taboo for another three weeks.
It was two hours after Ianto had woken up in Autopsy, the chill of death seeped deep into his bones. He was standing in the shower inspecting the deep black bruises, and a few of the others that had began to turn yellow. He didn't know where they had come from, but he knew the shape and size of those hands. Somehow he knew Jack had done this, and he wondered what had happened. Had he awakened jack from one of his nightmares? He blushed as the next thought followed quickly on the first. Had they gotten carried away with a game?
Warm hands wrapped around him from behind, pinning him to wall. "I did those."
"Why?"
"To save you."
"To save me? From what?"
"From something so evil we had to kill it to save you. We weren't even sure we could get you back. I was so terrified that when you woke up, that would be all you remembered. Me, hurting you, trying to find a way to bring you back."
"I'm cold."
The arms wrapped around him tighter, pulling him in full skin contact as Jack whispered one of the few welsh phrases he knew into Ianto's ear. Loosely translated as 'fuck me now," Ianto colored almost head to foot.
"Harrassment." Ianto said.
"I don't care."
Jack's method of warming him up started with gentle kisses, and progressed to getting dirty in the shower before he very carefully cleaned every inch of him. And then, once out of the shower, both still starkers, they collapsed into the bed with a desperation that frightened Ianto a bit. But he knew, somewhere inside, Jack might hurt him, but it was only because sometimes that was the only way to save him from himself.
If at the end of the three weeks, he was standing a little more stiffly around the captain, it was because the captain was trying everything in his power to make the young man blush in public. And there were days, though few, where he would wake, screaming, begging for Jack to stop, and he would see the knife those words put into Jack's heart, but he would let Jack hold him anyways.
