Torchwood Files: The Year That Never Was
Chapter 53: On the Valiant, Month 11
A/N: Warnings for violence and death. We're at the home stretch, people. Just one more chapter after this before time resets.
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"Are we really practicing?" Ianto whined. "I thought it was a euphemism for sex!"
Jack, setting out a collection of guns on the table in the shooting range, chuckled to himself. "We'll have sex afterwards," he said. "Don't worry."
"I'm not worried. I'm tired," Ianto muttered with a groan. "I don't think I'll be able to shoot straight."
"Then now is the perfect time for this exercise." Jack handed him ear protectors and safety glasses, donning his own as well. "You won't always be shooting a gun when in your best form. You have to be able to hit your target when you're about to pass out from exhaustion or injury. You have to be able to assess a situation and hit your targets in sudden darkness, or sudden light. You have to be able to hit them accurately and quickly."
"I'm not a field agent, Jack."
"And that's precisely why you need this training. Since you've been here, how many incursions have we had inside the Hub?"
"Um, six?"
"Eight. That's eight in ten months. I want you to be able to defend yourself no matter what happens."
"No matter what?"
"What if the rest of us are out in the field? What if we're all incapacitated? What if I get out of bed to bring you water and get killed and need you to take out whatever it is?"
"OK, OK, I get it," Ianto said stiffly, suddenly more awake.
"I don't want any of that to happen," Jack said, gripping Ianto's arms and staring into his eyes. "But you're important to me, and I don't want anything to happen to you when a few hours of extra training can prevent it. Understand?"
Ianto swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbing. "I understand."
Jack pecked his lips and turned Ianto towards the targets. "Good. Now get firing. I'll try to startle you, but I want you to keep going. The goal is to avoid distractions." Ianto nodded his understanding.
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Jack came out of his memory to the sound of Tish arriving with his meal. Their eyes met. She shook her head slightly, frowning. Since Saxon had found and destroyed Flat Holm, no one was allowed to speak to Jack. The transceiver had been ripped from his head, painfully, of course, and he was left with silence and the memories of his friends dying, screaming for help in his ears. He accepted the food and wished her well, as Saxon hadn't found a way to make Jack himself stop talking. Jack let himself fall back into his memory of the day.
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Jack watched Ianto with a critical eye as he fired at the targets, moving around in Ianto's peripheral vision to distract him. Ianto managed to ignore him. What he couldn't ignore was the bucket of ice cold water Jack threw at him, soaking his suit and making his shot fly wide of the targets. He turned angrily to Jack.
"Eyes front, soldier," Jack snapped. "We're not done here yet."
Grumbling to himself, Ianto returned to his task. He tuned out the shivers wracking his body. He tuned out Jack's movements. He tuned out the fact that Jack was taking off his clothing, taking off Ianto's clothing, kneeling before him.
"New target," Jack said, pressing a button on his wriststrap to position it. Ianto grunted and fired.
Darkness enveloped them. Ianto continued shooting until his clip was empty. Jack chuckled seductively in the dark. The gun disappeared from Ianto's hands to be replaced by another. Ianto automatically checked that it was loaded and fired at the target.
Light flooded the room. Ianto squinted, a shot going wild. "Fuck!" he cursed.
"Yes, please," Jack whispered in his ear, pressing his naked body against Ianto's from behind. One of Jack's hands relieved him of the gun while the other caressed his chest, moving lower. His first hand joined the act, finding Ianto's stomach, his cock. "Lesson's over," Jack purred. "Time for your reward."
Smiling devilishly, Ianto tripped Jack, knocking him to the floor. "Firearms practice might be over, but it seems that you need a refresher in hand-to-hand combat, sir," he said with a smirk.
Jack laughed as he pulled Ianto's feet out from under him. They wrestled for a few minutes before Ianto pinned Jack down and started kissing him. Jack responded instantly. Since they both were already naked, things devolved into sex quite quickly after that, culminating in mutually satisfying orgasms, a shower together, and another round of sex in Jack's bed before they fell into exhausted sleep, curled around each other in the tight space.
Jack was more than a little disappointed to wake up alone the next morning, though he would never admit it. It was rare for Ianto to stay the whole night, even though he kept several changes of clothing in Jack's closet and grumbled at the necessity of leaving a warm bed in favor of a quick drive and icy sheets. Of course, Jack reminded himself, when he stayed at Ianto's flat, he didn't stay until morning, either. He shook his head sadly and wondered how he could change that pattern without actually having to talk about it.
A month later he decided to bite the bullet and actually use words, very awkwardly, to see if Ianto was willing to spend the whole night with him. He didn't come out and ask, because that would put too many of his cards (emotions) on the table, but Ianto knew what he was asking. Ianto agreed surprisingly quickly, though Jack was a nervous wreck waiting for his answer. Wiser than Jack in some ways, Ianto had told Jack to live life for today, to take what pleasure he could from their time together and remember that, rather than anticipate the potential heartache losing him would bring.
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Jack sighed, remembering that night. He had cried while Ianto held him, feeling safe enough in Ianto's arms to let down one of his barriers and express one of his deepest fears — the fear of being alone.
Another sound distracted him and he turned his head. Striding confidently into the room was — Ianto! Jack blinked, trying to clear his head.
Ianto stopped directly in front of him and met his eyes. Hard and full of sorrow, they were Ianto's eyes, nonetheless.
"Let me smell you," Jack blurted out suddenly.
Ianto laughed heartily, and Jack felt stronger for hearing the sound. It was Ianto's voice. "Not one of your better lines, sir," Ianto said, stepping closer.
"They've fooled my eyes and ears. They've fooled my brain with drugs. There's no way they can fool my nose," Jack explained, taking a deep breath, breathing in Ianto's unique scent. Then Ianto's lips were on his and they were Ianto's lips, and all Jack's doubts vanished in a flash. "Ianto!" he moaned into Ianto's mouth. Goddess, to touch him again, to smell him and see him and hear those beautiful Welsh vowels.
Ianto pulled back. "Let's get you out of here." He reached up to his ear to remove several of the earrings that dangled from it. "Lock picks," Ianto explained, beginning to get to work on the first manacle. "Easy enough way to carry them."
"They're going to know you're here," Jack hissed.
"Cameras are out for another few minutes. Before she — Tosh had everything set up, before. I just had to activate the loop."
"Mr. Jones," a new voice said from across the room. "You're not as careful as you seem to think you are." Jack's blood ran cold at Saxon's voice.
With a click, the first manacle opened, releasing Jack's arm. His toes touched the floor. Ianto moved to the second lock, ignoring Saxon.
"It would be wise to pay attention to me," Saxon continued.
"Fuck off," Ianto growled, still working on the lock.
"Ianto, go, save yourself," Jack ordered, shoving at him with his free hand.
"Not happening, Jack." Ianto looked over and gave him a small smile. "I'm not letting you leave me behind this time."
"How sweet," Saxon said in that fake, saccharine tone they had become so accustomed to over the past year. "Guards!"
Six burly men converged on Ianto, dragging him away from Jack. They forced him to his knees and secured his arms behind his back. He raised his head to meet Jack's eyes. "Believe, ashe'ha," Ianto whispered as Saxon shot him from behind, his forehead exploding from the impact of the bullet.
Jack screamed. Everything went red.
***TW TW TW***
Jack came back to himself to find the room empty except for bodies and blood. Six — no, ten guards lay dead, ripped apart by his anger and grief and bare hands. (And the bowie knife that lay on the floor in front of him. He didn't know where he got that.) He knelt on the floor next to Ianto, sobbing. His hands were covered in blood. His arms, too, all the way up to his elbows. He didn't care. He would kill everyone on the entire ship, just to have Ianto back.
The analytical part of his brain noted that Saxon was missing, that there were more dead guards than had been in the room before, that the room was sealed off and that somehow the lock had broken and he was free of the manacles.
He didn't want to touch Ianto's body. He didn't want to turn it over to close his eyes. His blue eyes that would never sparkle again, that would never narrow in annoyance when Jack propped his booted feet on his desk, that would never widen in desire as Jack whispered something lewd in his ear as he passed him in the Hub. He sat in the middle of the gore, empty. Nothing mattered now. Ianto was dead. Dead.
There was nothing to do about it. Not even destroying the paradox machine would work any more, because Ianto was here, on the Valiant, with the cannibalized TARDIS that was the only hope of bringing him back, of ending this nightmare.
Reluctantly he turned Ianto over and closed his eyes. He rested his hand on Ianto's bloody hair, loosing himself in memories again.
***TW TW TW***
"Jack?"
"Hmm?" Jack grunted in the dark.
"Are you awake?"
Jack shuffled closer to Ianto but didn't make another sound. He didn't feel awake, that was for sure. He let the scents of asheke and shimshiki wash over him, mingling with the scents of their bodies and lovemaking. The only thing that could make the night any better was if Ianto knew that they'd just gotten betrothed and if he'd agreed to it.
But that would never happen, Jack mused, halfway between sleep and wakefulness when he could actually admit that he wanted Ianto's love, and that he loved Ianto, without worrying about the grief that would come of pursuing more than the physical relationship they had.
Ianto settled down deeper in the bed. "I'm falling in love with you," he whispered as he fell asleep with a contented sigh.
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Jack bolted upright, climbing to his feet as the unbidden memory slammed into his head, shaking him to the core.
"Ianto," he moaned. "Ianto!" He slipped on the slick floor and fell, not caring that he would bruise. Ianto was dead. Nothing mattered any more. Hard wracking sobs shook his body.
Ianto was dead, and Jack hadn't even heard his confession all those months ago. Would things be different if he had? Would he not have left with the Doctor? Would his whole team be sitting around the Hub, alive, talking about Weevils while he planned yet another way to seduce Ianto?
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"I'm falling in love with you," Ianto whispered, falling asleep beside Jack with a contented sigh after seven and a half hours of lovemaking.
The next morning, Ianto gave Jack a small, genuine smile with a cup of coffee. "I knew you would leave, Jack. I'm not upset…It was marvelous. All that I could have wanted and more."
