Thirteen days after they had identified and dealt with the sex slavers, Jack was stretched out on the sofa with his head in Ianto's lap in what was now officially the home they shared. The rift was being kind to them all at the moment and Jack had been able to get home to Ianto at a reasonably hour for almost two weeks and they were both enjoying the normality of things. Ianto was combing his fingers through Jack's hair, occasionally slipping a hand inside his shirt to gently caress his chest skating the pads of his fingers over Jack's nipples and smiling at his small responsive moans. An open bottle of red wine was on the low table by the sofa and there was a Bach cello concerto playing quietly and the atmosphere in the flat was warm and contented.

Jack turned his head and, moving Ianto's tee-shirt aside, placed a soft kiss on his belly, 'this is nice,' he said

'Yeah' agreed Ianto, 'if someone had told me six months ago that I would be this happy I would have laughed in their face.'

Jack twisted to look up into Ianto's face seriously, 'are you happy? Do I make you happy?'

Ianto bent down and kissed him, 'so happy, I have to pinch myself to remind myself that I am not dreaming. You have given me a life that I never believed I would have. I don't have words enough to tell you how happy you make me and how much I love you.'

Jack smiled against Ianto's lips, 'how about we adjourn to the bedroom and you can show me instead?' He rolled to his feet and positioned Ianto's wheelchair so that he could transfer himself. Just as Ianto had got himself settled, the door of the apartment was kicked open and a large man strode into the room. Jack's hand automatically dropped to where he kept his Webley and he cursed silently as he realised he had locked it in the safe when he had got home as he always did. He stepped quickly away from his lover, trying to keep the intruder's attention on himself. 'Who the fuck are you?' he demanded.

'Who I am doesn't matter,' the man said, 'I want to talk to you, Captain Jack Harkness.' the last said with such satisfied venom that Jack recoiled a pace or two.

Ianto wheeled himself forward before Jack could stop him, 'that does not give you the right to break into our home, you shit.'

'Yan' Jack moved to stand beside the young man and placed his hand on his shoulder; he could tell that this man, whoever he was, was very dangerous but Ianto's fury was coursing through his body making it vibrate like a wire under tension. Jack was afraid that Ianto's anger would make him do something foolish.

'NO!' Ianto was adamant, 'I've been cowed and bullied my whole life but no more,' he wheeled closer to the angry intruder, 'I don't know who you think you are,' he snarled, 'but you either leave right now or I will call the police.' He fumbled in his pocket for his mobile phone

The man snatched the phone from Ianto's hand and, dropping it to the floor, stamped on it then he tangled his fingers in Ianto's long hair, dragged him out of his wheelchair and threw him across the room, where he hit the wall with a disturbing thud and slumped, unconscious, to the floor. 'Be quiet you insignificant little cripple' he snarled. Outraged and furious, Jack sprang forward but the intruder produced a stun gun and discharged it into Jack's chest.

When Jack regained consciousness he had been bound hand and foot to one of Ianto's dining chairs. He blinked fuzzily at his captor, who was standing in front of him, cleaning his nails with one of the chopping knives from the block in the kitchen. 'I'm sorry,' Jack quipped, 'have we met?' he raised an eyebrow, 'one night stand maybe?' he ran an insulting eye over the man in front of him, 'I do lower my standards occasionally'

The man smacked Jack, hard, across the face, making his eyes water, 'yeah, they told me that you had a smart mouth, Harkness. Do you have any idea how much money you have cost me?'

Jack spat blood from a split lip, 'well, I do pride myself on never being a cheap date,' he quipped, earning himself another stinging slap.

'Aside from the considerable amount of money I have lost since you closed down my special interest club...'

'BDSM brothel' translated Jack

'Together with the inconvenience of losing all my stock.'

'Freeing and repatriating your sex slaves'

'Plus, closing down my supply line.'

'Getting your alien collaborators arrested and imprisoned' interpreted Jack with a smug grin

'I had to pay out well over 250,000 quid just to get information about where you live – surprisingly the residents of Cardiff, both domestic and alien seem to hold you in high regard and with a great deal of affection.' for a moment his threatening demeanour wavered, 'is there anyone in this city you haven't slept with?' he asked curiously. Jack opened his mouth but the man did not allow him time to reply, 'never mind, the important thing is I have you now.'

Over his shoulder, Jack could see Ianto stirring and pushing himself into a sitting position. He tried to keep his expression neutral but something of his relief must have shown in his face, his captor turned round, 'oh good, your little crippled fuck toy is back with us, that's good. I want him to see this.'

'Who are you?' ground out Jack again, struggling against his bonds

'Yeah like I'd give my name to Torchwood,' the man scoffed, 'you can call me Nemesis. I am going to be your worst nightmare.'

Jack laughed, 'there's a long line for that job.'

Nemesis waved Ianto's chopping knife in Jack's face. 'I had planned to use this to pop your eyeballs,' he jabbed the point of the blade towards Jack's eyes, making him reflexively jerk his head back. Nemesis laughed, 'oh yeah,' he gloated, ' first one then the other 'mwpop, mwpop' he gave a high titter, 'but on reflection I want you to be able to see what I do with your fuck cripple when I get bored of carving bits off you.' He balanced the knife on his hand, 'this is a good knife, well balanced, sharp. Bet I could cut your balls off with this, easily. What kind of noise will you make when I fuck you with it? What kind of noise will he make? Which one of you will squeal the loudest, do you think?' He fumbled at Jack's flies and pulled out his penis, 'we'll start with this, shall we?'

'LEAVE HIM ALONE YOU EVIL FUCKER!'

Jack watched in astonishment as Ianto levered himself to his feet. He staggered across the room and snatching up a bronze bust of Anthony Trollope that had pride of place on the coffee table he slammed it down hard on the back of the interloper's skull. There was a loud crack and Nemesis went down like a felled ox. Ianto followed up his attack the several vigorous kicks to the unconscious man's head and a particularly vicious one to his balls, that made Jack's eyes water.

'You fucking bastard, you shit, you bastard, shit, fucker bastard.' Ianto's range of insults seemed quite limited but he was making good use of what he did know.

'Ianto'

'Don't you dare touch him, you sick shitty, shitty...'

'IANTO!'

Ianto stopped his assault and spun to face Jack, taking his face in both his hands 'oh my god, Jack, sweetheart! Did he hurt you?' He bent and captured Jack's mouth with his own making Jack hiss as the pressure opened the split on his lip once more.

'Ianto,' tried Jack again, 'do you see something odd with this picture?'

For the first time since he had catapulted himself across the room to Jack's rescue Ianto appeared to realise that he was standing on his own two feet and was mobile once more, he staggered and semi-collapsed onto Jack's lap, 'I walked' he whispered, 'I got up and I walked.'

Jack wriggled against his bonds, 'I need to hug you but I'm a bit tied up.' Ianto laughed and got to his feet, moving with alacrity over to the knife block on the kitchen counter. Selecting a sharp vegetable knife he efficiently cut through the rope binding Jack's wrists before moving round to do the same to the restraints at his ankles. As soon as the rope parted Jack was on his feet and in Ianto's arms, kissing him senseless.

Later, when the UNIT security team had left with Alfred Pearson, the mundane name of the man who had given himself the grandiose title of Nemesis, Jack tidied up the apartment and went to join Ianto who was standing on their balcony sipping a glass of wine. Moving quietly, Jack went up behind him and wrapped his arms around him. Ianto rested his head back on his shoulder with a small hum of pleasure.

'Are you OK, sweetheart?' asked Jack softly

'Bit shell shocked, really. The transition from cripple to action hero was a bit sudden and completely unexpected, but on the whole I believe I'm OK'

Jack kissed the back of Ianto's neck, 'you were an action hero, you are MY action hero.'

'I just knew I couldn't allow him to hurt you,' whispered Ianto, 'I knew I had to stop him, nothing was more important than keeping you safe.'

'Oh, Yan,' Jack turned the young man in his arms so that he could look into his face, 'he was armed, he could have injured you, he could have killed you.'

Ianto looked deep into Jack's blue eyes, 'I didn't think about that,' he admitted, 'but even if I had, you...you are worth the price.' Jack's arms tightened involuntarily, pressing Ianto closer to his body, nobody had ever placed Jack's life above their own, of their own volition. Ianto kissed Jack, it gave Jack a jolt to realise that he was kissing away the tears Jack did not even know he was shedding. Ianto gave a beatific smile, 'Jack, I was chained to that chair in more ways than one. I pushed people away, wouldn't let anyone in and then I met you and all of that shit became meaningless. You loved me, you brought me back to life,' he laughed, 'hell, you gave me life, protecting you is the very least I can do for you.'

The determination and vitality in Ianto's face made all Jack's protestations die on his lips, Ianto had presented him with a great gift and he had no right to refuse it. Carefully, gently he placed his mouth on Ianto's; the kiss was slow and sweet and Ianto's lips parted willingly under Jack's own. Jack slid his tongue into Ianto's mouth taken aback as he always was at the wonderful taste of the man. Ianto lay his tongue on top of Jack's and held him in his mouth for several heartbeats before pulling away and smiling at Jack.

'I love you.'

'Love you too'

Ianto gave a triumphant laugh and jumped into Jack's arms wrapping his long legs firmly around Jack's waist, as he had longed to do from the moment they met, 'take me to bed and show me how much.' he demanded. 'I want you inside me, I want to feel you come inside me and I don't wait to wait another second.'

Jack pulled back a little to look directly into Ianto's eyes, 'are you sure?' he asked hesitantly.

Ianto gave a tiny thrust of his hips, making their erections rub against each other though the barriers of their clothes. Jack gave a deep groan which only made Ianto harder.

'Never more sure of anything in my life.'