Two Way Road
Chapter 2
By Wildfire
Ianto stared in horror at the cheap plastic coffee maker on the counter top; something that would have looked more at home in a student dorm.
"Now, Pretty, we've been through this. What's step one?" Jack coaxed him gently.
Ianto turned his head to look askance at him before turning his attention back to the evil contraption. Ianto wondered if there was a way to get a proper coffee machine, this thing would make black sludge no matter what he did. He slowly pulled out the filter holder, nearly gagging at the gunge inside. There were the sodden disintegrating remains of the last filter plus a lot of very old grinds.
"Very good, now what do we do with that?" Jack asked.
'Toss it out with the rubbish?' Ianto thought with disgust. He moved to the trash bin, turning it upside down, watching the nasty pulpy mass fall down into the metal container with a heavy wet thud.
"Very good, Pretty," Jack approved. "Now what do we put inside there?" he continued, still talking in baby talk.
Ianto stared down at the holder, 'Soap,' he decided heading to the sink.
"No, no," Jack said patiently, stopping Ianto in his tracks. "We put the water in the big part, not this part. You see, this has a hole in it so the water would just leak out. No, we need to put something else in there. What do you think that is?"
Ianto stared at him incredulously for a moment before continuing to the sink and turning it on.
Jack sighed opening the cabinet and stood beside Ianto leaning past him and shutting off the water. He held the filters up. "We need to put these in there, remember?"
'Not bloody likely.' Ianto glared at him, reaching over to turn the hot tap back on.
"Pretty, no." Jack shut the water off again this time swatting Ianto's ass too.
Ianto's jaw locked. He turned to face Jack and snagged the filters from his hand tossing them onto the counter, away from Jack. Then he deliberately turned the tap back on.
"Pretty! If you can't make coffee the right way you won't be allowed to make it at all," Jack said sternly.
'Ha, I'd love to hear that threat in my world.'
"Turn the water off, Pretty." Jack commanded, crossing his arms.
Ianto ignored him and instead bent over to open the cabinet under the sink. He was more than a little appalled to see there was no washing-up liquid, not even a hint of there ever being a bottle. 'What are they cleaning their dishes with? Spit?"
"Pretty, stop. You're getting yourself confused. There's nothing under here." Jack pulled him up and away from the sink, once again shutting the faucet off. "Go sit down at the table. I'll bring you some juice and you can drink that."
Ianto sulkily sat down at the table, glaring at Jack's back. The mystery of the dirty dishes was solved though as Jack pulled out a paper cup and set it on the counter. He blinked as he noticed Jack starting to pour something that looked like medication from a waxed carton.
Ianto quickly stood up taking the carton of juice from Jack and started reading the ingredients. It was apple juice mixed with a large dose of anti-depressants!
"Pretty, what are you doing?" Jack took it back. "I told you to sit down."
Ianto glared at the cup, he didn't feel drugged up; he felt fully alert. Was it that when he came here the drug was knocked out of his system? Did the drug move on with 'Pretty'? He wondered where 'Pretty' was? Was he in his place? Was he drugged up?
"Here. Stop being so impatient." Jack handed him the drink.
Ianto refused to take it.
"Come on, Pretty, don't be like that. This is your favorite treat. Drink it," Jack said firmly, clearly tired of Ianto's attitude.
Ianto took the cup, then took a step and dumped the contents down the sink.
Jack stared at him. "You love that stuff!"
Ianto wished he could get his fingers to uncurl to flip the man off. Drugging people so they didn't care, removing their voice boxes… it was all so sick!
Jack sighed. "Pretty, I don't know what you want. These new weird moments you seem to be having... I almost thought it was because you understood you were human… but clearly even the most basic of humans can use a coffee machine!"
'Ironic statement since you can't operate the one at home,' Ianto thought warily.
"So what is this, Pretty? Are you trying to mimic someone? Maybe… Owen?"
'That's insulting.' Ianto sighed, moved back to the table and sat down.
Jack moved a chair so it was in front of him and sat down bringing his face down to Ianto's level. "Let's try and communicate, Pretty."
Ianto's glare intensified, he was realizing he really hated the word 'pretty', let alone being called it as a name.
"What's the matter now?" Jack groaned. "Pretty—"
Ianto slapped the table to stop Jack's words.
"Stop that! Damn it, Pretty—"
Ianto slapped the table again and this time Jack slapped him.
"Stop it!" he said firmly.
Ianto's cheek burned from the slap; he was horrified to notice his eyes were burning too. Jack had never slapped him before, not… like this. They'd fought, even exchanged punches if they were both fired up enough. This was different though, this was a slap to put Ianto in his place. He felt sick and his hands were shaking as he brought one up to his burning cheek.
Jack grabbed his wrist before it got there and pulled it down sharply. "Don't pull this crap on me, Pretty, you've been kicked around a lot more than what I just did. Now, I am NOT going to tolerate this behavior! I was willing to allow some things for a while since they didn't seem to do any harm. But I can't have you wandering around here thinking you can defy me. I won't have it. I will put you down before I allow that. Now, you can crawl around for the rest of the day, you've put me in a foul mood and you don't deserve to be walking like a human. On your knees, Pretty." Jack's voice was deadly calm and Ianto knew he was balancing on the edge.
Ianto looked at the ground, his cheek burning. The harsh words Jack said to him hurt more. He knew if he didn't get onto the floor Jack would probably kill him, or as they called it 'put him down'. He had no interest in dying; he wanted to go home to his son and his Jack.
"Don't test me, Pretty," Jack warned.
Ianto's eyes hardened at that name; it wasn't his name. It wasn't really a name at all, it was a description! He stood up and spit in Jack's face. It was probably the stupidest thing he'd ever done. It was literally condemning his life.
Jack's face was livid; his jaw was clenched and his eyes wide. Ianto was well aware he was about to die, so he bolted. He ran out of the kitchen as fast as he could. He could hear Jack's heavy footsteps thudding after him. Ianto knew he was fast though; he'd always been fast, and this body wasn't going to be different. More importantly he knew just where to turn to force Jack to slow up. He made sharp turns and jumped over items.
He raced down the stairs into the cells. Grunting when the door into the cell block wouldn't open, he quickly jammed the code into the keypad and raced in, slamming the door shut and entering the override code to keep it shut. Jack would be able to override it of course, but it would take time, and that time should give Jack the chance to calm down.
He jumped as Jack slammed his hand against the window, his gun was out, but they both knew the window was bullet proof.
"Open this door!" Jack shouted.
Ianto backed up from the door, looking around the room he'd ended up in. He had to smile when he saw Janet's cell. It figured his legs would bring him here, he was so used to caring for her. Well, he had been once upon a time. He went to the cell door putting his hand on the glass that separated him from Janet.
Janet gave a snarl, as she stared at him. Ianto gave her a smile. He knew Jack was furiously trying to override the lock. He also knew he'd go for the fastest way to do it.
Ianto went over to the lock for Janet's cell, tapping in the release code without any of the proper clearance codes before it. His actions would, of course, not release Janet but instead create a minor lockdown; something else to slow Jack down.
Jack's cussing could be heard loud and clear.
Ianto went to the door tapping on the small glass window. The look Jack gave him was murderous before he looked back down at his wrist strap, continuing to enter in the override code ignoring Ianto's persistent taps.
Ianto stared at him in frustration and then started tapping out the Morse Code for S.O.S. It was on the fifth tap of the code that Jack finally realized what Ianto was doing and looked up at him curiously. Ianto was relieved to see that some of the anger in Jack's eyes was gone.
"Who are you? You aren't my Pretty, are you?"
Ianto shook his head 'no'. He pointed to Jack's gun.
Jack stared at him, but then took it over to the stairs and set the gun down on them before returning to the door, showing his empty hands.
Ianto debated whether to make Jack remove the one on his ankle, but decided not to push it. He moved to the key pad typing in the release code. It took longer with his curled fingers, but after a few moments there was a loud click.
Jack came in the second the door clicked open. He glared hotly at Ianto. "I'm giving you 2 minutes to explain, and then I'm shooting a hole in that head of yours."
Ianto did roll his eyes then, and gestured to his throat. He took a deep breath, wishing now that he liked the game of charades. He pointed to himself.
"You," Jack said flatly
Ianto nodded, and then paused he smiled and yawned, pointing to his open mouth.
"Yawn?" Jack ventured.
Another nod from the Welsh man. He held up his foot.
"Foot?"
Ianto shook his head no and wiggled his toes.
"Toes?" Jack corrected
Ianto held one bent finger up.
"One?"
He kept the finger raised and pointed back to the toes.
"One toes? Toe?" Jack now looked very confused.
Ianto pointed to himself again, yawned and pointed to his toes.
"You- Yawn- toe? That makes no sense!" Jack said flustered.
Ianto groaned and made the best typing motion he could with his crooked fingers.
"Oh, hell no, you're not going anywhere unless you manage to convince me you're all right or perhaps in a body bag."
Ianto shot him a flat look, walked over to the glass in the door and breathed on it until it was fogged up; he then very slowly spelled out 'Ianto'.
"Ian-to?" Jack asked pronouncing it like the American name Ian and the number two.
Ianto wiped it off and repeated the process, this time spelling out 'Yan-toe'
"We're back to the yawning and toes? What does that mean? Is it the name of your race? What are you? A parasite?" Jack now sounded wary.
Ianto felt like banging his head against the glass. He shook his head no, and once more started breathing on the glass, making more room this time. "I'm human."
"Then you shouldn't have possessed a pet, lousy choice," Jack huffed.
Ianto underlined the word 'human' with a glare.
"Listen, Pretty-"
Ianto slapped the glass in anger.
"Alright, Yawning-Toes, you cannot be human as humans cannot possess the bodies of other creatures. They're just not that talented. So that leads me to believe you are in fact, not human. See the logic here?"
Ianto sighed wearily, leaning back against the glass of the cell wall. How in the world could he get Jack to understand? His hard-headed Jack. Where the hell was his Jack? Did he know what had happened? No, his Jack would probably still be running around Cardiff like a chicken with his head cut off looking for him.
A loud thunk, followed by a snarl sounded behind Ianto as Janet suddenly attacked the glass, trying to reach him. He looked back calmly at her before looking to Jack pleading him to understand.
"Alright, let's pretend I'm willing to give you something to write with. Pretend," he said firmly. "And you write down a bunch of, well let's face it, bullshit." He ignored Ianto's glare. "Then what? We're still stuck in this position of you being in my Pretty's body and you not leaving. I don't much like that you're here as I'm rather fond of my Pretty."
Ianto smiled a little at that. Somehow the idea that Jack was so attached to him even when he was completely useless was nice. Now he just wished he could see if Jack would still be so attached if he was completely ugly, but with a brain.
"Why are you smiling?" Jack asked with a frown.
Ianto straightened up, and shrugged.
Jack took a hold of Ianto's shoulder and steered him out of the room and down toward the Archives.
Ianto stopped mid-step as he entered the room. It was in a worse state than when he'd started working as an Archivist! He gave a little grunt as Jack gave him a shove forward.
"Don't get any ideas, it's all junk. Nothing in this room will help you." Jack stepped in front of him. "But we have an old fashioned typewriter around here somewhere."
Ianto looked around the room. In reality there was plenty in here he could use to his advantage. Jack was either bullshitting him or he honestly hadn't studied any of the objects to know what they did. Ianto moved over to a ball. He picked it up carefully; it was a Yituo Ball, which he had used to entertain Jordan for hours on end when his son had been so new to this world. He carefully turned the ball so it had a dividing line down the middle.
"Hey, put that down!" Jack barked.
Ianto pressed the top and bottom and the ball burst into light; bright sparkling light that changed colors every couple of seconds seeming to flow within the ball.
As Jack came toward him, Ianto quickly held the ball to his chest, not yet ready to let it go.
Jack stopped. "It's just a toy, made to entertain little children. It won't do anything, besides be pretty. But then given how quickly you activated it I'd say you already know that, don't you?" He pointed over to a crowded desk "Use the typewriter."
Ianto reluctantly put the ball back down and moved over to the typewriter sitting down on a folding metal chair. Typing would be slow with these crippled hands, but it would be easier than the guessing game he'd been playing with Jack down in the cells.
After a minute he pointed to the sheet of paper turning it slightly so Jack could read the uneven black type,
'I am Ianto Jones; I am the Archivist at Torchwood 3 and second-in-command. I work under Captain Jack Harkness, who is also my lover and has been for many years now…'
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