Stimulus: "Sorry"
Spoilers: End of Series Two
POV: Ianto
Dedication: Ally (you know her as the brilliant captain-ally, author of the fic Better Left Unsaid that I am so proud of her for!) - I'm really sorry, you gullible fool. And it was either apologise publicly (and very sincerely, of course) or wait for you to get back at me... I thought I'd better do the first one. LOVE YOU!
Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood. I may, someday, own the world... but that's a different story :)
AN: I feel I must do some apologising for that last drabble - the 'pink' one. Well... less 'apologising' than 'blame pointing'... It's ALL GERNUMBLIES FAULT!!! That's right, her!
-x-
The world, Ianto had reflected so many times the thought was almost painful now, was always ending. Always. Being at a wedding or falling in love or it ebing Christmas (especially that one) couldn't stop it. Saving the world on an almost daily basis had been so repetitive that not only could the Torchwood team do it with their hands tied behind their back but also had ingrained into each of them the singular purpose of we, not I.
Ianto could deal with that. The group thing - the world ends so many times but it's ok because you're not alone. Look at the bigger picture. You're saving the world and the people around you, not yourself. That made it so easy. Painfully so.
But what happens when it's personal?
Who saves us?
When Jack left, the world ended and no one noticed.
That was what hurt the most, Ianto reflected.
He could watch calmly and make coffee as aliens tried time and time again to take over the world but when Jack left, the idea that we not I was real fell away to reveal the even scarier truth.
You're alone.
Not quite, though, this time. That night when Jack left and Owen and Tosh soon followed, it was just him and Gwen.
Together.
And they sat and they waited and didn't speak until he noticed that the tears on her cheek were just like his and he took her in his arms and told her he was sorry.
Sorry.
Sorry he kissed me, not you.
Sorry you never got to tell him that you loved him.
Sorry I can't save you.
She told him she was sorry, too.
And the world went on turning, just like always...
