Chapter 16

Running along the rooftops of Splott, moving silently with ease keeping perfect balance on the slick tiles.

His night vision showing him everything he needed to see on the darkened roofs, the street lights to far below to cast any light where he moved, blocking him from prying eyes.

Pausing at the end of one roof he let his sense guide him, the smells of the streets wafted up from below but there was one scent he was looking for in particular… there it was that way.

Focusing his energy he easily jumped across the alley way below onto the next rooftop taking off at a run again following the scene.

The cool breeze sailed past his ears, his hair, jeans and jumper damp from the light drizzle that had been falling for the last couple of hours.

He heard a scuffing sound as he approached the next alleyway, pausing he listened but a dog barking at him from the yard below was causing problems.

Looking down at the dog he growled deep in the back of his throat and the dog fell silent, backing down from the stronger predator.

Now the dog was silent he listened again for his prey, hearing a scuffle and grunting just down the alley way he leap silently and effortlessly off the roof to the ground below.

There further down the alley going through the trash was his target.

Creeping silently up behind it he was almost there where his prey turned having sensed him.

Snarling it lunged at him but he easily dodged out of the way, teasing it, wearing it down he kept just out of reach.

Hearing someone walk past the end of the alleyway reminded him he needed to end this.

Moving quickly he tripped his prey sending it crashing to it's knees, flipping it over he pinned it to the ground while using one hand to slip a needle of special sedative into it's neck.

The creature bucked beneath snarling and snapping at his neck but he was stronger, holding him down as the sedative took effect.

Jumping back up onto the roof he gained his bearings, spotting his car a couple of streets over.

Scanning the streets to see that no one was likely to stumble across his captive by accident he quickly jumped across a few roofs and down to his car, moving it to the end of the alley where he bundled his captive into the back before heading back towards the city centre.

Letting his abilities slide back into their dormant state, the silver seeming to melt from his eyes as they returned to their blue colour.

Reaching up to his ear he activated his Bluetooth to call his lover.

"Finished already have you?" Came a smooth, though slightly puffed American accent in his ear.

"Hmm, on my way back to the hub, are you going to be long?"

"No shouldn't be, I'm chasing him into a dead end now, should have him cuffed and in the SUV in no time."

"Well, hurry up will you. I'll be ready and waiting for you when you get back,"

"Mmm is that a promise?" Jack replied managing to push a husky note to his voice even while trying to catch his breath.

"Only if you hurry back," Ianto replied with a smirk closing the connection between them.

Ianto sat in Jack's office nursing a glass of blood as he read through the Doctor's Journal. He'd asked Jack if he minded a few days ago, who of course had let him so it was in these quiet moment by himself that he took a few minutes to read it.

The hope was that he could try to help Jack with his issues with the doctor but having never met the man, he often found it hard to comment.

Reading the diary was helping and he was beginning to see the fascination that so many others have with the Time Lord, he was such an amazing being.

The hub door rolled open, with a smile he downed the rest of his glass before getting up and heading towards the main area of the hub.

"Ianto we have a problem," Jack bellowed into the hub,

As he stepped out of Jack's office and into the main area of the hub he was just about to reply when he stopped in surprise, as he came face to face with an equally stunned Gwen, but no Jack.

"What are you doing here?" he blurted before he could stop himself

"I… um, was having dinner with Rhys when Jack ran past, grabbed me to help since the Weevil was giving him a bit of grief," She replied and Ianto quickly tried to squashed the bristling Jealousy.

This was supposed to be their night together, as they hadn't had a nice quiet night in since Xmas.

Ok the Weevil alarm went off, no problem, they had a great time weevil hunting together, Ianto letting his abilities aid them in a quick catch.
Two Weevils, no big deal, spilt up and bring them in, finish the bottle of wine they'd opened earlier when they were both back, but oh no he just had to bring Gwen back to the bloody hub.
If he was having trouble he could have bloody rang me. He knew I was done and back here waiting…

"Ianto?" Gwen asked snapping him out of his internal rant,

Forcing a smile onto his face he looked up to meet her eyes, "Sorry Gwen I was off with the fairies what was that?" he asked pleasantly.

"I was just saying how different you look, what happened to your suit?" She asked wanting to know what he was doing here dressed like that without actually asking.

"I do have clothes other than suits," Ianto smirked

"I know I've just never seen you wear them into work," Gwen blushed

"I was having a quiet night in when I went out to deal with a Weevil, couldn't be bothered changing so I went out in what I was wearing at the time. I just bought the Weevil in and was waiting for Jack to get back from his Weevil hunt before I went back to my nights plans," He said wording the entire explanation carefully.

"There you are." Jack said spotting Ianto as he came around the corner, an apologetic look on his face which he quickly covered as Gwen turned to look at him as well.

"Looks like we're in for a bit of work. Gwen call Owen and Tosh in, Ianto my office, I want a quick report on your weevil." Jack said heading past them into his office.

"What if I can't get Owen, he's getting harder to reach these days," Gwen asked

"Keep trying," Jack replied poking his head out the door.

Ianto followed Jack into his office closing the door behind him to give them complete privacy, since the blinds were still closed from earlier that night.

"Are you ok?" Ianto asked walking over and examining his lover's chest where he'd spotted blood and ripped fabric earlier.

"Yeah almost all healed now," Jack replied looking down at where Ianto fingers were running over the thin scabbed lines, nothing like the nasty gashes they had been earlier.

"You should be more careful," Ianto replied a small frown on his face "Why didn't you call me if you were having trouble?"

"I wasn't I just…"

"Wanted Gwen's help?" Ianto scowled

Jack paused and looked at Ianto "Are you jealous?"

"No," Ianto snorted turning away from Jack as he began to clean up from his earlier feeding, making sure there was no remaining trace of the blood anywhere.

Jack watched Ianto in wonder, he'd never seen Ianto like this before, never really expected him to be the Jealous type… though it did explain the dirty looks he'd seen him give Gwen on occasion when he thought no one was looking.

Jack sighed walking up behind Ianto and wrapping his arms around the younger man's waist, pulling him back against his chest.

"I'm sorry our night's ruined. She was supposed to just give me a hand then I'd drop her off home. But something's come up that we have to look into right now, so I brought her back with me. Sorry, we'll do this again soon I promise, I'll put the cork back in the wine and put it in the fridge for later ok?" Jack replied

"How did such a nice night go so quickly down the shit hole?" Ianto sighed leaning back into Jack's embrace.
He was overreacting… but only a little, he had every right to be annoyed. It was just that the adrenaline and the thrill of the hunt and freedom in his abilities always left him on an emotional buzz. Which Jack and he were quite used to enjoying, unfortunately as he'd just discovered his emotion buzz could go both ways, boosting his negative emotions as well.

Sighing he turned in Jack's arms and pulled him into a deep kiss.

Finally they pulled apart for air.

"Sorry," Ianto muttered referring to his behaviour and knowing Jack would make the connection.

"Don't worry about it. Go get changed, I'll clean up downstairs then change and be right up. Knowing her Tosh should be here soon and we can work this thing out." Jack replied nudging Ianto towards the office door as he made his way to the hatch that led to his private quarters.

Ianto would have to use the suit out of his locker since it would seem a bit strange to nosey Cooper that he kept a suit in Jack's office.

By the time Ianto made it back to the main section of the hub Tosh was already there working at her computer.

He could see Gwen above them in the conference room pacing backwards and forwards while on her mobile.

"Hey," He greeted as she stood to give him a quick hug.

"Not how either of us planned on spending tonight is it?" Tosh replied as they turned to head into Jack's office, even though Jack wasn't there, they knew it was where they were going to be briefed so they went in to wait for him.

"No, not really had to postpone out plans again. What about you? You had a date tonight with the guy you met at the coffee shop last week." Ianto replied

"He wasn't to impressed that I was running out for work. Said not to bother calling him again," Tosh replied with a shrug,

"Oh Tosh, I'm sorry," Ianto replied, and he though his evening has ended badly,

"Oh don't worry about it, by the time Gwen called he'd had a few drinks and I was beginning to see what an asshole he was." Tosh explained pulling a face,

Ianto chuckled, "No great loss then?"

"Not really no," Tosh grinned before turning to Jack as he joined them.

"One since when did other people know about Weevils? Two have they done this before and if so how come we didn't know about it? Three, What do they want with them anyway?"

Ianto walked into the upper level cells where Owen was keeping one of the Weevils separate from the others they had in captivity.

He had a feeling something was wrong and decided to check on her, when he walked in he found her moaning and crooning in one of the corners.

Reaching for his earpiece he contacts Jack,

"I don't care Gwen." Ianto heard Jack's annoyed voice as he activated his com unit, picking up the end of his previous conversation, before he turned his attention to the call. "What is it Ianto?"

"Can you come down to the cells? Something's wrong with the Weevils," Ianto replied

"Sure I'm on my way," Jack replied and Ianto could hear the smirk in his voice.

Pulling out his PDA he tapped into the CCTV records and rewound the footage of the cell to find out how long she's been like this.

It wasn't long before he heard Jack on his way, putting his PDA away he watch as she began to move about her cell, still hunched over and crooning quietly to herself.

Jack slid down the stair rails bounding to a stop beside Ianto his mood dropping as he realised Ianto had been serious about the Weevils. It hadn't been a cover to get him down stairs for a bit of mischief.

"It started ten minutes ago… what do you think it's doing?" Ianto asked not taking his eyes of the weevils as she began moaning again.

"I think it's weeping," Jack replied arms crossed as he concentrated on the Weevil in front of them.

"Why?" Ianto asked confused

"Owen's been studying this one, he thinks they have a low level telepathic ability to share emotions across distance," Jack explained

"You mean it might be feeling the pain of another Weevil?"

"I kind of hope we're wrong though,"

"Why?" Ianto asked as Jack turned to look at him,

"Because that would mean somebody's not only kidnapping Weevils, they're causing them pain." Jack sighed stepping up close to the glass he looked down at the Weevil opening his mind to see if he could connect with the alien beast. "What can you feel? What do you know?"

"Fear… anger… despair… mourning… worry… pain…" Ianto muttered,

Jack turned to stare at him in surprise, Ianto stood with his eyes closed a look of complete concentration of his handsome face.

"You can hear it? What they're thinking? What they're saying to each other?" Jack asked amazed, as even with his own telepathic abilities, he'd not been able too. Though he didn't use them much these days so he was a bit out of practice.

Ianto shuddered, his eyes sliding open, their silver meeting Jack's blue.

"Not completely, but I can sense the feelings they're projecting," Ianto replied shuddering again from the Weevils emotions still coursing through his mind.

Jack stepped forward pulling Ianto into his arms, "Let it go. Close them off and let it go. Come back to me,"
Ianto trembled in Jack arms, his arms wrapped tightly around Jack's waist for support as he used the meditation techniques Dexter had taught him to close his mind off.

As he got himself back under control he buried his nose in Jack's collar using his scent as the final hold to ground himself.

Sighing he pulled back, blue eyes meeting blue. "Damn you smell good,"

"Gotta love those 51st century pheromones," Jack smirked

"Modesty really isn't your strong suit," Ianto replied pulling himself from the other man's arms and straightening his suit.

"What now?" Jack wondered as he stared at the Weevil who was still acting oddly.

Ianto watched as well for a few minutes until he realised what they needed, the solution to their current confusion and lack of movement in the case. "I know what we need,"

"What?" Jack asked looking at Ianto.

"Coffee," he replied with a small nod heading towards the stairs.