Okies peeps! Since I've actually sort of left this hanging for so long I've finally found it within myself to continue with it (since technically there's only meant to 5 parts overall -.-)
Anyway, tell me what you think of it and also, I'm revising it and changing any little mistakes that I notice (if any of you see anything wrong with it just holler kay?)
Right, now you can get on with this and enjoy
Kasey
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Ianto and the TARDIS
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PART ONE
After Jack and the ever impossible Doctor had left Ianto all alone in the - probably limitless - expanse of the TARDIS Ianto had wandered around the long, golden-lit corridors trying to idly pass the time. It wasn't as if there was anything he could really do within the confines of the ship since he'd been informed to "not touch ANYTHING!" by both the Doctor and Jack before they'd gone gallivanting off to God knows where.
Jack had told him he wasn't to leave the TARDIS as he wouldn't be any good in the field since he wasn't allowed a gun - stupid Doctor and his "I hate guns" malarkey; what did he think Ianto was going to do? Shoot everyone they came across? - so that meant Ianto was stuck inside a Gallifreyan time-machine that seemed to either have the hots for him or just liked to piss him off. He was sort of veering towards the 'pissing-him-off' theory because for the last hour and a half he'd been forced to walk around in circles.
Of course Jack would argue with him and say it was an entirely different corridor but Ianto knows – and how he knows he can't explain because he just does - that it's the same one he'd first walked along; even though the Doctor told him the TARDIS is psychically linked to him and it can hear his every thought which meant that he wouldn't notice any differences between one corridor and the next – although the Doctor had given him a funny look when he'd said he couldn't hear or feel anything poking around inside his head – and it was meant to tell him where he was, but since he wasn't connected to it he should've been lost. Oh well, Ianto did seem to have a penchant for blowing perceived facts out of the water.
Ianto continued to pace up and down the long corridor and to the outside observer it would've seemed like he was simply walking to elevate his boredom when in fact he was seething inside and resisting the urge to kick one of the walls.
About two hours after he'd first started walking along that corridor Ianto's attention was diverted from his continuous pacing to a door that had opened at the opposite end of the corridor. Gingerly walking towards it, forever cautious even though nothing and no-one would jump out at him, Ianto strained his ears and widened his eyes slightly allowing him to hear and see more.
When he reached the door he stopped on the threshold into the main area of the TARDIS. Looking behind himself quickly Ianto gently placed his left foot in front of his right and took a soft and stealthy step forward. The door through which he'd just entered closed, snapping shut.
Quickly and silently Ianto almost glided to the console in the middle of the room – his feet barely touching the grating beneath him – before stopping and looking at the screen.
Although Ianto was fluent in eight different Earth languages and one or two alien languages that Jack had taught him, Ianto couldn't read the text that was flitting across the screen at an astonishing rate – about as fast as Tosh writes Owen a video game that will wipe the porn off his computer after being played for 46 hours – and Ianto could barely memorise all the digits – he supposed they were digits, they sort of looked like digits – before another string of digits appeared, taking their place.
Sighing in resignation Ianto looked away from the screen over to the blue doors that he wasn't allowed to exit without having Jack or the Doctor with him. It annoyed him to an extent that they thought him too naïve to be able to walk around outside alone but the logical part of his mind reminded him that it was for his protection and it was better to be safe than sorry. Still annoyed him though.
Closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose gently Ianto drew in a deep breath that turned into a yawn. God, how he was going to kill Jack when he got back! Keeping him up two nights on the trot was just evil and then giving him nothing to do whilst Jack went to have a nice chat with some lovely aliens that would gut him if they didn't like him much, knowing that Ianto wouldn't sleep whilst he thought Jack was in danger or getting hurt was just frustrating and ignorant on Jack's part.
He growled quietly as some of his pent-up anger found a small way to vent Ianto swiftly made his way over to the seats and collapsed graciously into a heap on them, the cushions allowing him to sink into the seat and his muscles to relax slightly.
Leaning his head back he felt the rough coral-pillar behind his head pulse rhymically. Startled Ianto jerked his head away from the pillar and looked at it from the corner of his eye. He didn't see any tentacles or wires - all he saw was a coral-pillar. Scanning the room Ianto noted that the screen on the console was, well it looked frozen.
Sighing and writing off the pulsing as his tired mind playing tricks, Ianto stood once more and moved towards the screen. When he was about half-way to it the doors to the TARDIS flew open with a loud BANG and the Doctor and Jack sprinted into the TARDIS, Jack stopping briefly to slam the door shut whilst the Doctor clambered around the console flicking switches and pulling levers, turning knobs and twisting dials.
Ianto just stood there, half-way to the console, and watched. He watched as Jack practically pranced up to the console and looked at the screen; the text on it seemed to have unfrozen and was flitting by at the same pace as before. Ianto didn't know what to do, he had nothing to do.
So he just stood there, silently; he could've been a statue since he was rigid enough. His face was a mask, emotionless, bland – showing nothing whatsoever. The same with his eyes, they showed nothing, they were as blank as his face. If it weren't for the fact that his chest was rising and falling softly you never would've known he was alive.
"Jack! What's the read-out?" The Doctor called across to Jack as he crouched down and fiddled with a loose-wire, whizzing his screwdriver over it.
"Err, 1.546 parsecs." Jack replied staring intently at the screen, he didn't appear to have noticed Ianto standing all of 3 feet away.
"Great! That should do it!" The Doctor muttered as he shoved his screwdriver back into whatever pocket he'd pulled it from and connecting the wire into a port on the underside of the console. Jumping to his feet the Doctor dived on the nearest lever and pulled it.
A loud groaning sound echoed throughout the TARDIS as the console began to pulse and hiss steam. Ianto still stood in the same place watched as Jack grinned and watched the pulsing - he seemed to have completely forgotten Ianto even existed; which just Ianto feel so good about himself! Invisible again.
The Doctor held onto the console tightly as the room began to shake and Jack fell backwards, his body connecting with one of the coral-pillars. Ianto graciously slipped back towards the seat and clutched the back of it with his left hand lightly. As the TARDIS continued to groan Jack called over to the Doctor. "Doctor! What's the TARDIS saying?"
Ianto had no idea what Jack was talking about but he supposed that he wouldn't know because he had no link to the TARDIS. The Doctor looked over at Jack and replied, his voice tighter and a bit more restrained than usual. "She's saying that she still can't get him, he won't let her!"
'Who were they talking about? Who couldn't the TARDIS get?' Ianto's mind suddenly became flooded with hundreds of questions that he couldn't answer. It annoyed him because he hated not having all the answers; he prided himself on being the one who knew everything.
"But why? He's not a Time Lord Doctor!" Jack replied clinging onto the railings next to him.
"I know Jack! But, she can't get him - he just won't let her in!" The Doctor ground out through gritted teeth, he sounded extremely frustrated with whatever predicament they were in.
Ianto just continued to stand next to the seat, holding onto it lightly, when the TARDIS started to settle. He guessed it was settling; the speed of the steam hissing out of the console was slowing and the groaning sound was quietening. Jack let go of the railings and stood with his back against one of the coral-pillars as the TARDIS ground to a complete halt and was quiet.
The Doctor made his way around the console to the screen and read a string of the digits before pulling a face; he looked like he'd just come across a big puzzle that he couldn't solve. Then standing up the Doctor looked directly at Ianto.
Jack looked across at Ianto too and Ianto suddenly felt the need to go and find a rock to hide under. He felt like he'd done something wrong but had no idea what.
Jack said to him, his voice harder and more emotionless than it should've been. "What are you?"
Ianto looked at the Doctor and then at Jack, his eyes and face a mask not showing his discomfort and hurt at being referred to as a 'what'. Staring into Jack's carefully blank eyes Ianto replied, his voice curt and polite. "Human the last time I checked. Why do you ask Sir?" He used the term 'Sir' to distance himself and not to say 'Jack', he couldn't think of him as a lover right now or he'd say something he'd later regret. It was better to think of him as his boss and only as his boss at the present time.
Jack's eyes momentarily betrayed him as they flashed with hurt from being referred to as 'Sir' – he knew he'd hurt Ianto and that Ianto was now going to be purely professional, no feelings involved. That moment was gone as soon as it arrived though as Jack hardened and became unfeeling, he became 'the boss'.
"I'm asking because the TARDIS is saying different. That's why I'm asking." Jack replied and he strode over towards Ianto before stopping directly in front of him. Jack stood an inch or two higher than Ianto due to him wearing his work boots and Ianto his dress-shoes, so Jack was looking down on Ianto and Ianto up at Jack.
"Perhaps the TARDIS is wrong Sir, nothing is infallible after all." Ianto replied, leaning back away from Jack slightly so as to avoid those 51st Century pheromones that were starting to assault his senses.
The Doctor looked at Ianto rather darkly at his statement and said indignantly. "The TARDIS is never wrong." The Doctor walked over to Jack and Ianto and stood behind Jack glaring at Ianto. "You can't be human."
Ianto's mind screeched to a halt. For one terrible moment he couldn't think, he couldn't speak, he couldn't breathe. And then like a countdown had ended Ianto exploded, his thoughts flitting at twice the speed of the text on the screen and his breathing increased slightly. When he spoke his voice was so controlled that it was took emotionlessness to a whole new level.
"I am human Doctor. I was born on Earth to human parents. I have no abnormalities in my blood or DNA that would indicate any form of alien material. I have lived my entire life on Earth and regardless of whatever your TARDIS has told you it must be wrong. As I've said before, nothing is infallible Doctor." Ianto looked directly into the Doctor's eyes and felt... something...
Something was pushing against his mind, trying to worm its way inside and Ianto resolutely refused it entry. Swiftly he raised his mental barriers and reinforced them with renewed determination.
The Doctor's left eyebrow rose slightly and his eyes widened minutely but this was enough of an indicator that the Doctor was responsible for the unwanted attempt to intrude into Ianto's mind.
"Well, sorry to say but I don't believe you. If you'd let me run some tests and stuff I'm sure we find out who's right." The Doctor said, keeping his voice deceptively casual.
Ianto continued to look the Doctor in the eye for a few seconds before saying, his voice polite. "If that is what it takes Doctor then I'd be quite happy to let you run some tests."
"Right then! Let's get on with it shall we?" The Doctor said lightly as he spun on his heels and strode across the main area towards the door into the corridor Ianto had previously been trapped in.
Jack gave Ianto one last, cold look before turning and following the Doctor. Ianto sighed silently and followed Jack to wherever the Doctor was heading, his feet barely touching the grating and not making a sound; unlike Jack's boots that clumped along as he walked.
He was going to have to endure tests just to reassure the man he loved and an alien that he was human. He felt his heart ache slightly when he thought about the way Jack had looked at him, like he couldn't trust Ianto.
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To Be Continued...
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Anyone getting the feeling that the TARDIS doesn't like Ianto? I think I should explain why really in extra detail – with little diagrams and annotations. BUT! I can't do that because it'd make things simple – and I hate simple, simple's boring.
The next chapter may be up soon but I do have other fics to be getting on with as well as coursework – the most effective torture device ever invented!
