Jack was waiting for John. He tried to stay patient but as the time went by he slowly lost all of it. It was six o'clock and John still wasn't home. He walked nervously around the apartment. He tried to call John but no one answered. His heart was racing as he was thinking about how his husband had succeeded in killing himself. He tried to push the thought away, but the image of John's slit wrists were buried to deep in his mind for him to ever forget. It had happened to many times.
He waited almost a half an hour before he decided to go over to the Song household to see if he had decided to stay over without calling him first. He was constantly watching his phone as he walked to the Song's door and knocked. He had called John almost ten times and sent a lot of massages but no one answered them.
River gave him a dark look when she realized who had been knocking at the door during their dinner. She wanted to slam the door in Jack's face but handled the situation in a grownup kind of way.
"What do you want," she asked in a strained calm voice. Her emotions for him were clear, she wanted him to fuck off and leave them alone.
"Is John here?" Jack asked. His heart sank when River shook her head. She looked worried, but tried to stay calm.
"Call me if you find him, I won't tell Chris until tomorrow. Be careful," she whispered. The last thing Jack could here before the door closed was a loud bump, like someone was wrecking the place and Chris calling River for help. He would have laughed at Chris's clumsiness if it wasn't for his worry over John. He didn't trust his husband to be alone for too long.
He didn't want to involve Torchwood in the matter, but if his husband wasn't home before the next day, then he didn't have a choice. He searched for John at the store and asked the workers to let him see CCTV footage during the day. The workers didn't let him in the beginning until he showed them his Torchwood badge. They gave him a drink while he was watching the footage carefully. He found John on the tape, he looked healthier now. He smiled when he saw his husband choose a big bunch of bananas. His heart almost stopped when he saw Rickston on the tape, stalking John. John's head was to far up in the clouds for him to notice that he was being followed. The last he saw of John on the footage was John choosing the longer way home, the one where only a few people walked. He swore as he grabbed his coat and rushed out from the store.
He was out of breath when he finally made it to the street where John had been taken. Jack wanted to throw up when he saw the items laying on the ground. He could see that John planned to make a chocolate cake for the next morning when the family would be reunited again. He saw John's wedding ring on the ground. He couldn't keep his tears inside anymore and it wasn't long until he had broken down on the ground. He held the ring with a tight grip. He had been so stupid, did he really think that everything would be fine if he just threatened the bastard. He should have arrested the rapist, he could have gotten all the authorities to do it, thanks to his position in Torchwood. Why he hadn't done it was beyond even him. John was now suffering the consequences for his stupid actions.
Jack was going to kill Rickston. He wiped his tears and let the anger fuel him. He hurried home to grab his gun before he headed for Torchwood. He didn't have the time to wait until the morning now that he knew what had happened to his husband. He called the gang, Owen first refused to let Toshiko go, because it had only been two months since her delivery, and she was still relived from duty. He gave up when Jack insisted for her to come and it was Owen in the end who needed to stay home.
"Toshiko, I want you to hack on to the CCTV and see what happened in these areas during the last few hours, I want you to follow my husband's route from the store," he told Toshiko as he was pacing nervously around in the hub. Gwen tried to comfort him like she usually did with the relatives who had lost someone near them. Jack didn't want her comfort. He didn't want anyone's comfort. All he wanted was to find John and kill Rickston.
He was drinking some of Ianto's magical coffee just for sake of passing some time as he waited for the results that didn't take to long. He watched the footage of how John was eating a banana as he walked home. Rickston wasn't stalking behind John anymore which made him relived for a while until he saw how John walked right into the rapist arms. He watched how his husband struggled and there was a moment where he thought he would see his husband getting raped on the street. His heart was pounding hard when he saw the syringe in Rickston's hand. He could feel his husbands fear when the needle pierced through the skin of his arm. He just knew John had been screaming for him the whole time. He touched his husband's face on the monitor like his husband could feel his touch. Jack wanted to turn the screen off when he saw how Rickston lifted John's limp body. He saw how Rickston threw something on the ground, most defiantly his wedding ring.
Jack was resting his head against his hand when the horrific scene was over. All of them knew John and they all were taking it on a personal level. He ordered Toshiko to follow them with the use of the CCTV. He knew it would take a while for the genius to find him, but he knew she would eventually find the route. Jack had told River what had happened, she had offered her help but he didn't take it. He didn't want her to leave her blind husband and the kids. He had to deal with the task of explaining to his children that their daddy wouldn't be home for a while, that he had gone missing but Jack would find him so they could be together again. Gwen had volunteered to do it for him, but Jack insisted it was his responsibility as a dad to tell them. All he could do now was the wait, and it was slowly driving him mad.