Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood or its characters

Chapter 4

Jack knelt down next to the young Ianto. "Well you're going to have a huge cast on your leg for a few weeks. You can get your friends to write messages and draw pictures on it."

Ianto sniffed. "I don't really have any friends. Only people who would sign it would be my mum and sister."

"I'm sure your dad would" Jack replied.

Ianto shook his head. "He won't. He'll just say it's my fault, even though I told him to stop" Ianto's voice wobbled.

Jack put his hand on Ianto's arm. "I'm sure he didn't mean it. Accidents happen. If your dad didn't care he wouldn't have gone running off to call for an ambulance. Riding in an ambulance is fun. And you might get a pretty nurse" Jack winked.

Ianto pretended to gag. "Girls yuck!"

Jack and Ianto started laughing as his father came rushing back, an ambulance not far behind him.

"Thank you" the man said, shaking Jack's hand.

Jack nodded and stood back as the paramedics came to examine Ianto. He watched as they helped Ianto onto a stretcher. He waved at Jack as he was loaded into the ambulance and Jack waved back.

Ianto sat up with a gasp, then grimaced as pain shot through his skull.

"Welcome back sleeping beauty" Owen said, shining a light in his eyes.

Ianto batted him away. "What happened?"

Owen sat back and Ianto noticed Tosh and Gwen looking down at him.

"You clutched your head and started muttering about a memory changing. You broke your leg as a kid but Jack was there. You then passed out" Owen said.

Ianto closed his eyes. Yes he could see the memory, two versions side by side. One where his dad had left him alone to go call for an ambulance. The other his dad asked Jack to stay with him. Jack looked the same as he did when the rift took him. He opened his eyes as he realised what this meant.

"I know where Jack is! Tosh if I give you a date and location could we use the manipulator to create an opening for Jack to come through?"

Tosh nodded. "I need exact location and exact date and time. If I feed it into my calculations we should be able to do it."

Ianto stood then fell sideways. Gwen and Owen caught him. Ianto rubbed his head, pain building in his skull. He suddenly felt like he was going to vomit. He heard Owen dash away and put a bin under him just as he vomited. Gwen rubbed soothing circles round his back as Owen rushed to the med bay.

"Roll his sleeve up!" Owen ordered. Gwen rolled it up and Owen injected him twice. "Pain relief for what I assume from the pained expression on your face is a blinding headache and an anti-nausea drug. Hopefully when we bring Jack back you will start feeling better."

"I hope so" Ianto said.

Jack watched as the ambulance drove away. He was slightly worried he might have caused a problem with the timeline, but he couldn't see how anything could have really changed given how brief the conversation was and how young Ianto is. He hoped he would get back to the present soon. He wanted to ask Ianto whether there were any hot nurses. He chuckled to himself as he walked around, enjoying this brief reprieve. He thought about going to the hospital to check on Ianto but decided against it. He didn't want to push his luck. He didn't know much about Ianto's childhood as he tended to shut down when asked about it, much like himself. As much as he was fascinated at looking at these glimpses of Ianto's life, he wanted to get home, back to his Ianto.

He walked around some more before a thought hit him. What if he kept jumping through Ianto's timeline? What if he went right to the end? Jack suddenly felt sick. He couldn't watch Ianto die. He didn't even want to think about it. When Ianto slept he would watch him and think about the ways Torchwood could claim him, from Weevil mauling to deadly alien viruses, the list was endless. Jack shuddered and pulled his coat round him, trying to protect himself from these thoughts. He prayed that he wouldn't end up jumping to the end. He didn't know if he could handle that.

"I think I've got it!" Tosh said.

Everyone crowded round her but no one could make sense of the numbers on the screen. Ianto trusted Tosh though.

"Right what next?" he asked.

"Have you got the piece you need to connect?" she asked.

Owen pulled out the circular piece they had used when opening the rift to 1941. Owen placed it in the empty space and Tosh started tapping away on her keyboard. Suddenly the manipulator sprang to life.

Ianto tapped his earpiece. "Anything yet Gwen?"

"Sorry nothing yet" she replied.

Ianto looked at Tosh. "Tosh what's going on?"

"I don't know. If Jack is there he should be seeing some sort of opening!"

Jack wandered back to where he had appeared when he heard a cracking sound. He turned round and saw light appearing. He recognised it as a rift opening, like the one he saw in 1941. He could hear Gwen's voice.

"Jack? Jack are you there?!" he could hear her shouting.

Jack started running towards it before that familiar pain hit him again. He fell to his knees doubled over as his nerves burned. He felt another rift opening form around him.

"No!" he choked, reaching out.

He felt the opening claim him and he found himself tumbling again.

"What the hell?!" Owen yelled as sparks flew everywhere. "Tosh what's happening?"

"There's some sort of overload!" she cried, tapping furiously on her keyboard.

"We need to pull the plug!" Ianto yelled as more sparks exploded from the manipulator. As he ran towards the mains power supply everything suddenly stopped. He ran back to the main area to see Owen grabbing his medical bag and running for the cog wheel door.

"Tosh what's happened?" he called.

"We had an opening but something was interfering with it. Like another rift opening interfering with ours. It overloaded us and there was a massive shock wave. Gwen was blown backwards." She pulled up the CCTV to see Owen helped Gwen stand up. "Looks like she is alright. I'm sorry Ianto."

Ianto put his hand on her shoulder. "It's not your fault Tosh." He sighed as he looked round at the damage. There didn't seem to be a lot but he and Tosh needed to have a closer look. He just hoped that whenever Jack was, he was safe.