Jack, Owen and Ianto had gathered in Jack's office again after Gwen and Tosh had left. There was a take out pizza on the desk, half veggie, half sausage, and the rest of the hub was dark and quiet. Ianto and Owen were both sitting on the floor, while Jack was sprawled on the couch, picking the toppings off a slice of the pizza.
"Fuck!" Owen hissed, curling back into the couch, burying his face in his knees. His eyes were starting to pound, and the dim lights of the office were so bright he could barely see.
Ianto leaned forward and stroked his arm. "Are you okay?"
"Hate tests! My head is killing me!" Owen groaned.
Ianto sighed and put away the laser pointer they had been working with. "Well after what we've found out, it's not like we have much choice in the matter." Ianto ran a comforting hand across the back of Owen's neck. "I know it's uncomfortable, but you have to get used to brighter lights and turning down your sensitivity. If you have a problem in the hub, how are you ever going to manage outside? You're going to have these senses for the rest of your life, you need to learn to manage them."
Owen just made another pained noise, knowing that Ianto was right.
Jack gently rubbed Owen's shoulders, trying to relax him. "You're doing good Owen. And hey, at least you didn't get sick, so that's something right?"
Owen laughed. "Yeah I guess I'm lucky. My senses haven't made me bulimic, unlike some people."
"Sorry about that." Ianto apologized, with an embarrassed frown. "I didn't think adding something to your coffee would have that much of a reaction."
"Yeah well warn a guy next time." Jack said, grinning and popping a piece of sausage into his mouth.
Ianto gave a small nod, and continued to stroke Owen's arm. "I think you've had enough for tonight. Do you want me to get something for your headache?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Ianto got up and went to find something to make Owen feel better, dimming the lights as he went.
Jack continued to rub Owen's shoulders. "Is it really that bad?"
"Yes. No. Maybe? I don't know, I guess I don't hate all this Sentinel shit that much, but the pain parts still really suck." Owen rolled his head, feeling the muscles in his back start to relax as his vision began to clear a little. "It's been a long day."
Owen caught Jack's reflection in the glass as he nodded. "Yeah I know. Those vid-" Jack stopped, and suddenly changed the topic. "We over slept, didn't even have time to work on Ianto's shields this morning."
Owen sighed and pulled his head up to rub his temples. "You should do that when he gets back. His shields still kind of suck. Shouldn't he be better at it by now?"
He was worried about the younger man. It was hard to remember sometimes that Ianto was dealing with so much more than either of them. He and Jack had a better deal of it, splitting the Sentinel aspect between the two of them. Ianto was having to shoulder the role of Guide all by himself. It wasn't fair to be frustrated at Ianto for not handling it as well.
Jack shrugged. "I don't know. He's trying, it's just-"
"It's just that it feels like I'm underwater with my shields up," Ianto said as he came back into the office, holding a mug out to Owen. "And I can't tell when someone needs me." Ianto tugged on his ear, a habit that usually meant he wasn't comfortable, and gestured to the mug. "Drink that."
"What is that?" Owen sniffed it cautiously, diverging the topic back to safer ground.
"Herbal tea. White willow bark."
"No. Aspirin."
Ianto sighed. They had had this argument before, and Owen wondered when Ianto would give up.
"Sentinels don't react well to drugs." Ianto argues. "This will help."
"It tastes like crap, and it doesn't work! I want pills! Lab tested, scientific, pills!" It helped that they had actually tested the aspirin, finding it safe. He was not drinking soggy wood chip water if he could help it.
"You are such a wanker." Ianto told him and pulled a small bottle out of his pocket. Owen blinked at the insult, and grinned, taking the medicine gratefully.
"If you get sick, I will laugh at you." Ianto threatened.
"Yeah, yeah." Owen didn't believe him. Ianto was a coddler, born and bred. Owen popped a pill, washing it down with the dregs of his cold coffee.
Jack turned to Ianto. "Okay your turn. We missed your practice this morning, but it's too important to skip, especially now. So get comfy and start to shield. I'm going to try purposely throwing some emotions at you."
Ianto placed the untouched mug of tea on the desk and dropped down to the floor, looking unsure. Trust the Welshman, with all his tests and tortures, to not like a dose of his own medicine.
"Can't it wait?" Ianto asked.
Jack shook his head. "No. It's just as important for you to learn how to use your shields as it is for us to learn how to use our senses. You've barely left the hub since this started. What's going to happen the next time you're in a crowd?"
Ianto sighed, but obediently closed his eyes
Sliding off the couch, Jack sat in front of him, while Owen grabbed a slice of pizza and took Jack's place.
Owen shifted closer to Ianto, resisting the urge to reach out and try to ground the younger man.
--
"Ready?"
Ianto shook his head. He knew it was hypocritical of him, but he hated when Jack decided to test him. It was nice to be able to drop his shields once the others had left. Even with only four sets of emotions to shield himself from, it was tiring at times, Today even more so. Emotions were thick in the air after their discovery, and Ianto was starting to feel the first twinges of exhaustion.
Frowning in concentration, he waited a full minute before looking up, seeing Jack through the filmy shields he had erected. He still wasn't sure why he was seeing it as a physical bubble, but he refused to let it freak him out any more than necessary.
"Ready." He said.
"So tell me," Jack said with a grin. "Who put the pop in the bop she bop?"
"What?" Ianto winced as a bolt of amusement hit him. It didn't hurt, Jack and Owen's feelings rarely did any more, but it was a shock, and his shields wavered.
Jack grinned. "Distracting you. You won't always be sitting in a office meditating, or concentrating when you need to shield."
Ianto sighed, recognizing his own lectures thrown back at him. "Right."
"What's the square root of eight hundred and forty one?"
"Twenty nine." Ianto said without a twitch, feeling a throb of anger against the back of his eyes.
"Is Pluto a planet?"
"No."
"Ha! Wrong, it was made a planet again in 2024."
"Well it's not a planet, now." Ianto grit his teeth against a strike of annoyance, not his own.
"If you want my body, and you think I'm sexy, come on baby let me know."
"That's not a question." Ianto grinned as he felt a push at his shields, but no emotion leaked through.
"It isn't?" Amusement again, and Ianto winced.
"We are the Borg. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." Ianto swung his head to stare at Owen, as was nearly knocked over by a wave of lust from Jack.
Owen grinned looking pleased with him self, and Ianto quickly drug his shields back up.
Jack rolled his eyes. "I'm surrounded by Trekkie's. How much wood could a wood chuck, chuck if a wood chuck, could chuck wood?"
Ianto looked bewildered and shook his head, trying to shake off the urge to giggle as Jack got though his shields, with a hit of happiness. He tried to concentrate harder on keeping his shields up.
"What drugs do you put into the coffee?"
"None." Ianto smirked at Owen, managing to keep his shields up that time. He felt none of the annoyance on Owen's face.
"How big is a Krillian device explosion?" Jack asked.
"Uh, not big at all. It's a simple kitchen timer." A nudge against his shields again blocked.
"Why is the sky blue?" Owen asked.
"Well it has to do with the way light enter-" annoyance bit at Ianto, but faded easily when he acknowledged it.
"Have you ever done the nasty in the past-y?"
"Verily." Ianto smirked. "Though I must say sir, you watch too much TV." Ianto caught the anger being thrown at him, struggling briefly to push it down.
"Why won't you sleep with us?" Ianto's eyes widened, and a bolt of amusement barreled through his shields, slamming against the back of his skull.
"Where did you put my porn stash?" Owen demanded, and another wave of happiness swept over him
"Archive B, shelf 5, 'Personal effects'."
He squinted and reached up over his head for the tea mug. His own head was starting to hurt.
"Is fire hot?"
The hot tea sloshed out over Ianto's hand and he gasped as lust hit him from one direction, and guilt from another.
"Is water wet?"
Anger, Joy, Panic. Annoyance. Ianto's ears started too buzz, and he could feel his shields slipping.
"You don't by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?" Lust, again. Guilt. Anger. Ianto couldn't breathe.
A bolt of concern. "Do you find the most erotic part of the wom-" Nervousness.
Fear.
"STOP!" Ianto screamed and clutched his head, his shields slamming up as hard as they could go, He felt his mind pushing out violently at Jack and Owen, before he could stop him self.
He forced his eyes open, seeing only vague movement through the thick, iridescent shields, white noise rushed through his ears.
He watched as Owen dropped down off the couch holding his head, and Jack fell back on the floor, in slow motion, like shadow puppets seen through a fog.
He felt himself fall as well, the shield shattering as he hit the floor. He could see and hear clearly now. All three of them, lying on the floor, panting harshly.
Jack recovered first and leaned over Ianto, checking him out quickly. "Ianto? You still with us?"
Ianto took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before letting it out slowly, focusing on Jack. "Yeah. That was a bit...rough."
Owen groaned and pushed him self up right. "Yeah you could say that."
Jack looked up, and then gave Owen an alarmed look. Ianto turned his head, focusing on the doctor.
"Owen," he said cautiously. "Your nose is bleeding."
Owen reached up and felt his nose and looked at a blood on his fingers. "Fuck."
Ianto scrambled to his knees, pulling a handkerchief out of his pocket, and knelt next to him rubbing his arm. "Oh god I'm sorry! Did I do that?"
"Possibly. Maybe." Jack said watching Owen pinch his nose closed.
Owen pulled the handkerchief away and checked again. "It's okay, it's stopped already. I don't think there's any major damage. Maybe I just whacked it when I fell."
Ianto kept stroking Owen's arm, trying to ignore the way his fingers shook. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to lash out, it just happened."
Ianto bit his lip at the twin waves of concern, and concentrated on his shield until it was just a vague murmur in the back of his consciousness.
"It's okay Ianto. I'm not hurt."
"Do you want me to get a scanner to check, maybe?"
Owen shook his head, and probed his nose and cheeks with his fingertips. "I'll run a few scans in the morning. It feels okay. The headache's gone already."
Ianto looked at him, unconvinced. Still worried.
Owen grabbed the hand that was nervously petting his arm, and looked Ianto in the eye. "Yan, it's not your fault. We were hammering you, and you lashed out in self-defense. It's no different then if I got kicked in a karate class or something."
"But- I – I shouldn't have been able to-" Ianto was aware he was babbling. It was, in his opinion, the only sane thing to do in such a situation.
"Yan. Stop."
Ianto gave Owen a small smile as he felt a push of reassurance bump against his shields, seeping through the cracks. Owen was being ... insanely supportive and kind, and it helped. "I'm glad you're alright. Maybe we should all just..." he waved his hand vaguely towards the hole that led to the bedroom. He was done with tests for the night, worried what would happen if things went wrong again.
Jack stood, and then helped Ianto and Owen up. "You sure? If you're too tired maybe we should actually sleep tonight."
Ianto's eyebrow shot up. "You're offering to not have sex? Are you sure I didn't do some brain damage?"
"I just don't want to overwhelm you if you're too tired, and make you sick, then Owen will be out for my blood, in between coddling."
Owen swatted him, although the look on his face said Jack was right.
"It's been a fucking long day. We could just sleep." To his credit Owen very nearly managed to keep the disappointment out of his voice at the suggestion he made.
Ianto shook his head. "I'm alright. I'm not too tired. I'm getting better at that at least. I just … overloaded. Though I suppose, if you're not interested…" he said the last part teasingly, following the two men as they headed towards the bedroom.
Jack grinned as Owen climbed down the ladder, and then started down him self. "Good to know you're so eager to see us naked!"
"I could always change my mind you know! Maybe I suddenly feel a migraine coming on?" Even as he was saying that, he was already climbing down behind them, pulling up his shield around him like a cloak. He tried to push down a niggling sense of uneasiness, letting the bloody handkerchief fall on the floor beneath him.
This wasn't Star Wars, and Ianto refused to let any 'bad feelings about this' that he had get in the way of their life. And this was their life now wasn't it?
"Oi! We're waiting!" Owen called out playfully, and Ianto blinked, shaking his head as he realized that he had frozen hallway down the ladder, lost in thought.
"Keep your shirt on!" He called back, sliding past the rest of the rungs to land with a graceful thump on the floor of the small room, reaching out to snag his pillow from its usual place, piled next to Jack and Owen's.
