The Unexplained Chapter 11
TWTWTW
Owen looked down at the still form of Jack Harkness. He was pale and his skin was becoming cold to the touch.
"What are we going to tell Ianto? He'll be devastated."
"I don't honestly know, Gwen. It was bad enough when Jack left. Ianto closed in on himself. Lost weight. This will finish him off."
"Who's going to tell him?"
"I think we ought to get him into the boardroom and we can all sort of tell him," suggested Owen.
"It's going to break his heart," said Tosh, sadly.
"Then we better get it over with, hadn't we," the medic told them. He touched his coms. "Ianto, can you come up to the boardroom, please."
"Finally decided to get up off the floor has he?"
"Just come up, yeah."
"On my way."
"This is not going to be pretty," Owen stated, moving towards the stairs leading to the boardroom.
As Ianto entered the boardroom, he saw Gwen, Tosh and Owen already seated. He looked at the empty chair at the far end of the table. Where Jack usually sat. It was empty.
"He's not still sulking, is he?" Ianto asked, a smile curling his lips. He tapped his coms. "Jack, we're waiting! Get down here!"
"Ianto," began Owen. "Sit down. It's Jack we want to speak to you about."
Ianto frowned. "Did he put you all up to this?"
Owen shook his head. "No, he didn't. Jack….hasn't come back yet."
"Course he has. It's been…." Ianto checked his watch. "….a good hour since he died."
"He's lying up on the autopsy table, mate. He's getting colder by the minute."
Ianto ran out of the boardroom and up into the Hub. He stood for a minute before approaching the rail, over looking the autopsy bay. A white sheet covered a still form on the steel table.
"Jack!" Ianto whispered.
Slowly descending the stairs, the young man stood by the table and lowered the sheet.
Jack looked pale. His lips were blue.
"No!" Ianto said. "Not again!"
He felt someone take his hand.
"I'll stay with you, if you'd like," said Gwen.
"No!" Ianto said, emphatically. He pulled his hand away. "You stayed with his after Abaddon! It should have been me!" He moved to the other side of the table. "I'm the one he loves! Me!" He looked at Gwen, tears in his eyes. "Not you," he whispered.
The tears started to fall, as Gwen ran from the autopsy bay and straight into Owen's arms.
Tosh looked down at her young friend. "Let's leave them alone. We can grab a coffee in Starbuck's. I'll pay."
Owen nodded as he followed Tosh, guiding Gwen towards the cog door.
Ianto took hold of Jack's lifeless hand, bringing it to his lips. "Don't do this to me again. I'm not that strong." Then he leaned his head down to kiss cold, dead lips.
TWTWTW
Half an hour later, when the three Torchwood operatives returned to the Hub, they found Ianto sat by Jack, his head on Jack's chest. No one said anything as they went to their respective workstations.
"He's coming back," said Ianto. "He always comes back and I'll be here when he wakes up."
Owen shook his head, but didn't have the heart to contradict the young Welshman.
Tosh went over to the kitchen with a Starbuck's styrofoam cup and poured it into Jack's favourite blue and white cup, then she took it down to Ianto.
"I thought you might like something to drink," she said, offering it to Ianto.
He looked at the cup and then took it, thanking her. He took a quick sip before placing the cup on the counter behind him.
"He will come back," he told his friend. "He has too."
Tosh could only smile. She didn't have any words that would console him.
As the day wore into evening, Owen told Gwen and Tosh to go home.
Neither argued.
"You need to eat, take a break," Owen told Ianto. "You'll make yourself ill."
Ianto shook his head. "I don't care. If he doesn't come back, what's the use."
Owen approached Ianto. "Don't talk like that, mate."
"Don't you dare say 'life goes on'! It won't, not for me. He is my life! Don't you see that? Without him….I'm nothing." He sighed. "He showed me what if feels like to truly live," he laughed. "I thought I'd die after Lisa. She was everything to me. Then there was Jack." Ianto shook his head. "I won't give up on him, Owen. I can't!"
The tears flowed again and Owen felt impotent.
"Do you want me to stay with you? I don't mind."
"No, you go. I-I want to be alone with him."
Owen patted Ianto in the shoulder and then left the Hub. As he entered the lift, he could hear Ianto sobbing.
