10

"What do you mean?" The lack of food, water and proper sleep caught up to Ianto so fast his head spun.

He blinked, trying to understand what he was hearing while trying not to fall down.

"Why don't you come with us to the station? I'm sure you'll want to file an assault charge."

"No, not until we find Jack first." Why weren't they searching for him?

What was going on?

"Ianto, I really think you need to come down to the station with us."

Detective Davison put out a hand and grasped Ianto's arm. "You've been through a lot, and you're going to need some medical attention. We can have someone meet us down there."

"I'm fine," Ianto argued. "But if you don't know where the hell Jack is, then he may not be. They may still have him."

The last he whispered, sick at the thought of Jack still being held prisoner. "Please, we need to find him."

"Maybe he's already at the police station. Maybe he's there looking for you."

If there was one thing Ianto recognized, it was a patronizing tone. "If you think he's there, then go and check, but I'm not going anywhere until we find him."

Anger outstripped Ianto's fear and he poked the detective in the chest, ignoring the threatening stance of one of the other men. "You should have been keeping a closer eye on him. Where was his backup?"

"His backup?"

"You let him get snatched three streets away. What kind of cop does that to another?"

"You think Jack was a cop?"

It was the way the man said it that caught Ianto's attention. He seemed genuinely surprised, and confused.

"Well yes. He told me."

"And you believed him?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Lightheaded, Ianto wasn't sure if he comprehended the detective's question. "We talked for the last two days, discussed every minute detail of our lives. He was genuine, and nice, and… He wasn't lying, there wasn't any need to."

"There was if he's the one who abducted you."

Shaking his head, Ianto took a step back. "No. He was taken, imprisoned like me. We had no food or water. He tried to hold out, told me we wouldn't do anything, but I—"

Ianto linked his fingers behind his neck and bent almost double as weakness overcame him. "I couldn't last, and there was only one way to get out.

I made the first move."

Ianto took a deep breath before straightening up and meeting Detective Davison's pale eyes.

"I wasn't forced," he said.

"You were under duress. You may not have realized what he was doing."

Though said with compassion, the detective seemed unconvinced, as if Ianto should have known exactly what Jack was doing. "The video shows—"

"You've seen it?" Though Ianto knew there was a distinct possibility a video had been made and it would have been uploaded onto the net, he'd been hoping it may have gone unnoticed, but to know this man had viewed it…

"We needed to as part of our ongoing investigation, which is why we know the man you call Jack isn't a part of the investigative team. We don't know who he is."

.

.

.

.

.

"Have you heard of Stockholm Syndrome?"

Ianto lifted his head from the desk and stared at the detective sitting in front of him. He'd forgotten his name, Andy, or something.

He'd been one of the men at the park, and though while there he hadn't said a word, now he insisted on talking when Ianto would have been happy for him to keep his mouth shut.

"Yes, I've heard of it, and that isn't what happened." Irritation flared across his nerves because though Andy—or whatever his name was—loved to talk, he wasn't listening. "I know the difference between someone lying and someone being completely honest with me."

"Then you know I'm telling you the truth about this Jack not being a cop."

Ianto sighed, beginning to hate Andy's insistence he'd been duped. "Can I see the video now? You promised I'd get a chance."

"There's nothing on there, other than you two—" There was a light blush to the detective's cheeks, which caused a darker one to grace Ianto's own, but he wasn't concerned about their embarrassment, only about Jack's safety.

"There might be. If it was taken with special lenses to overcome the darkness, it may have picked up something you've missed, something about where we were held."

"You don't think we've looked?"

"Please, just give me a chance to look too." Ianto glanced at the bottle of water sitting on the table; it's condensation had long since dried up, but Ianto knew the water would be cool, and refreshing, and that it would help replace his rapidly dwindling energy levels, but he'd be damned if he took care of his needs before he'd secured Jack's. "He's still down there, and he's suffering."

"What if he's not? What if he's getting ready to kidnap someone else?"

They'd hashed out that line of inquiry more times than Ianto wanted to think about, but he shook his head, refusing to be persuaded. "Then all the more reason to check out the video, and find out where the victims had been held."

Andy held up his hands. "Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you."

He got up from the table and exited through the open doorway, shaking his head as he did so.

Ianto sat back against his chair, exhaustion beginning to sap what mental strength he had left. He shook it off, determined not to succumb to despair or doubt. Jack had been genuine, Ianto was positive about that, but why did the police insist he didn't work for them? It wasn't as if they could be wrong, so what were they trying to hide?

Thinking back to the conversations he had with Jack, the only thing that kept popping up was the fact that he was taken at a different location from the park; a complete contrast from the kidnappers' previous setup. Why? Did they know Jack was a cop, and if so, what was their reason for taking him?

When the detective came back he was accompanied by a man in a medical coat, who looked as grim as Ianto felt.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked.

"What? Try to find a man who kept me from going insane while I was imprisoned in a dark twelve by twelve cell? I don't know. What do you think?"

Sarcasm wasn't Ianto's strongest suit, but he thought he'd pulled it off when thr doctor frowned.

"I just don't want you to be traumatized any further. Seeing this might not be beneficial."

"It will if we find him." Ianto almost pushed up from the chair to put himself at elevated height to the smaller man, but he didn't have any energy left. Instead he placed his palms on the table and counted to three—ten being out of reach. "Just play the damn thing."

The doctor nodded to Andy, who clicked on a remote control. The television on the wall came to life, and after a couple of seconds, images flickered across its screen.

Ianto focused on it, lost in the confusion of dark shadows until he spotted movement on the left. In eerie silence Ianto watched himself tiptoe over to where Jack lay, and then crawl in beside him.

The scene played out as he remembered, but without sound. He figured the detectives had deliberately turned it off—because who wanted to hear two men moan as they had sex.

"There!" Ianto quickly stood, ignoring a wave of dizziness as he did so. He pointed to the screen, to the far left of where both he and Jack lay tangled in each other's arms. Andy paused the video, and Ianto stepped up close to the television. "On the wall. What's that writing?"

Andy zoomed in until the lettering was clear. "E.L. Bakeries."

"Shit, why didn't we see that before? Check it out, now!"

"On it." Andy ran out the room, muttering as he went.

The doctor turned to Ianto . "That might lead us somewhere."

"It better lead you to Jack, but why—" Ianto stopped. What if this doctor was in on it? What if they all were? Maybe Jack had found out something and they were trying to keep him quiet? Accepting that may be unrealistic, Ianto was still unable to shake off the feeling there was more to Jack's abduction than anyone realized. Head pounding, he stared at the larger than life image of Jack on the screen.

"Why haven't they let you go? Why are you so special?" Ianto sighed at the screen.

"Because he isn't a cop."

Ianto twisted to see the doctor walk into the room with a folder in his hands. He passed it over to Ianto, a sheepish expression across his face. "Jack Harkness, Captain of Torchwood. Heard of us? The captain's gonna chew my ass, given the way he's cradling you there. We're the team he was working with and we've kept it quiet because we suspected an inside job. Stupid if you ask me. We now know it was an alien abduction, like he had thought. By the way my name is Owen Harper. MD."

Holding back on saying I told you so, though every inch of him felt like shouting it, Ianto focused on the reason Andy and Owen had left the room in the first place.

"Did you find anything on that bakery?"

"They used to operate in what's now an abandoned warehouse just south of the city. I've got the address, and I'm joining a team that's already on their way."

"I'm going with you." Ianto started toward the detective, determined not to let the other man put him off, but just as Owen started to shake his head, his phone went off. He answered it, his gaze levelled on Ianto.

"When? How bad? Okay, I'll ask Davison to meet them there. I'm still going

to the site."

Impatience mixed with another twist of fear had Ianto close to losing it. What was going on? He was about to demand answers when Owen ended the call.

"Detective Harkness has been taken to hospital. They found him, alive but —"

"Which hospital?"

"I'll take you," Owen said. He glanced at Ianto, apology clearly written in his eyes. Right then Ianto didn't care. It was Jack who deserved any and all apologies.

They'd wasted so much time…

"How bad is he?" Ianto quickly asked of Owen as dread filled his stomach.

Owen shook his head. "You'd better get down there."