"Our past defines us with out the path of history there is no foundation for the soul."
CONCRETE COLOURED SKY PT 2: CHAPTER 2
Ianto looked up as the cell door opened. He got to his feet straight away straightening his suit jacket, rather taken aback when Jack and Owen entered the white tiled room. He sank back down to the bench. Jack came over and sat beside him and rested a hand on Ianto's shoulder.
"What are you doing here?" Ianto visibly tensed up at Jack's touch.
"Detective Swanson called us. She advised me that you'd made a statement about killing three women."
Ianto nodded looking down at his feet.
"Is this what you remembered last night, what made you so upset?"
Ianto nodded again, not trusting himself to speak.
"Ianto, look at me."
Ianto reluctantly complied. Jack's eyes were awash with compassion. Ianto struggled to hold his gaze and chewed at his lower lip.
"You know I don't believe you would do those things right?"
Ianto sort of attempted a shrug.
"How can you be sure I didn't? Our own records have been so thoroughly cleaned out? How can you be sure Jack?"
"Because I know you."
Ianto turned to look at Owen who was still standing by the cell door.
"And you Owen? What do you believe?"
Owen sighed. "I know you're not going to let this rest until you know the truth one way or the other. You may never get those answers Ianto and you have to be prepared for that. Though I agree with Jack, it's not something I can see you ever doing. Personally I think the Retcon has fucked you up."
"If these memories aren't real then where have they come from?"
"That's something we're going to look into." Jack replied.
Ianto returned his attention to Jack, the man he trusted above anyone else in the world, the man he was in love with.
"Detective Swanson is going to investigate your claims. It's a police matter after all and quite frankly I don't think anything we do on that front will convince you of your innocence. If you have done these things then it's up to due process to determine your fete. I can't help you other than provide a decent solicitor. Swanson has asked for access to all of your personal data and I've agreed to that. I want this matter settled as soon as possible so we can get you home."
Ianto nodded satisfied with that. "Alright. You've got the keys to my flat and my car if they need to check them."
Owen stepped forward. "You missed your medical this morning, so I'm going to give you a quick check over now."
"OK. Jack can you make sure Moses is fed?"
Jack rubbed his back reassuringly. "Yeah, sure. Ianto, it'll be fine. We will get to the bottom of this."
"And if I am a murderer Jack? What then?"
"I think you've already made that choice Ianto. If you are then you've done the right thing by coming here. If you're not the worse case scenario is a waste of police time and Kathy Swanson skinning me alive. My concern is your peace of mind."
Ianto hitched in a shuddering breath. "I'm scared. I don't want to be that person."
Jack pulled him into a tight embrace. "You're not that person Ianto I promise you. I wouldn't love you the way I do if I thought otherwise."
Owen didn't know quite where to put himself.
"Er….guys. Can I do this check and then leave you two alone for a bit, all this sloppy stuff is not doing much for my nausea levels."
Two hours later and the Torchwood team were gathered around the table in the boardroom. Gwen and Tosh both looking expectantly at Jack and wondering what on earth had been going on with Ianto. Jack was looking decidedly edgy and Owen was looking annoyed.
"So Jack, why was DI Swanson ringing us about Ianto?" Gwen demanded.
"Right. Ianto believes that during our missing time we found out about and covered up the fact that he murdered three women. Ianto turned himself into police custody while the matter of these deaths is investigated. The police are taking his confession seriously and are currently in the process of matching Ianto's claims against missing persons and cold cases. I obviously do not believe he is capable of such a thing so we are going to investigate exactly what happened over that 48 hours and also do a detailed search into Ianto's past history. Owen believes it has something to do with the way he has reacted to the Retcon, but these memories that Ianto claims to have must have come from somewhere, whether they be confused things from his childhood or something more recent. Gwen and Tosh I'd like you both to find absolutely everything you can about Ianto going back from his date of birth. Owen and I are going to go over all that we find relating to the missing 48 hours. We meet back here in eight hours."
Owen and Tosh got up and left the room and Gwen went to follow, hovering by the door.
"You can see why I didn't want Rhys Retconned now can't you?" She couldn't keep the accusatory tone out of her voice. Jack glared at her but didn't trust himself to respond.
"Is Ianto alright?"
"No he isn't. He thinks he's a serial killer and thank God he had the good sense to go to the police instead of putting a bullet in his head."
Gwen nodded. "Is he a murderer Jack?"
"No and I'll thank you for not asking me that again."
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After finishing their pizzas Jack called everyone back to the boardroom and got straight down to business.
"Ok, Tosh, Gwen what have you got?"
Tosh slid a folder across the desk to Jack. "Ianto Jones, born Aug 19th 1983, oldest son of Manon and Ifan Jones. One younger sister who died at the age of eight from cancer. Ianto's school attendance records are all good until 1995 when his parents were both killed in a car accident on the M25. After that it gets a bit patchy, there changes through four different foster homes, four different schools and at the age of fifteen he disappears off the radar for about 18 months. Then I've got a theft conviction from the Met. There are no bank transactions, no benefit claims, no applications for rental properties, so my guess is he was living off the streets. The next thing I have is an admission to Casualty at St Thomas' hospital London. Victim of assault, broken ribs and left arm, discharged himself as soon as the doctors patched him up. Torchwood picks up the file from that point, apparently Ianto was an accomplished thief, lots breaking and entering getting past some highly sophisticated electronic security systems, stealing things to order for one Sean Taylor whose currently residing at Her Majesty's pleasure in a prison in Northamptonshire. Sean Taylor has a wrap sheet as long as my arm. He's a nasty piece of work with old IRA connections. Anyway all the burglary was halted when Torchwood One picked him up for trying to get into one of their archive facilities in Acton. After that he was recruited and trained and the rest we pretty much know."
Owen's eyebrows had climbed into his hairline, "Who'd have thought it, our straight laced Tea Boy, he's a wiley bugger then that one. Did you know about all this Jack?"
Jack nodded. "Yeah, Ianto told me a while back. Ok, Owen your turn."
"Well he definitely had the same dose of Retcon as the rest of us. I had another look at his scan from yesterday after that black out. There's nothing unusual there. The only thing of note really is his survival from Canary Wharf. I wouldn't like to guess what he saw that day. It wouldn't have been pretty, coupled with the emotional stress of dealing with Lisa. I looked into the other survivors Jack to see what affects from the Battle they were suffering."
"And?"
"Out of 935 people, there were 27 that survived, 8 of them have since been institutionalised with severe PTSD, 12 chose to be Retconned and all of them seem to be living normal 'new' lives with no hiccups, six have committed suicide and Ianto is essentially the only intact survivor with full recall of the events of that day. A wild guess maybe he's transferring some weird survivors guilt thing into these memories. I need to look into it a bit more, but that's it. Physically apart from being a bit under weight he's in good health."
"Right, Gwen do you have anything to add?"
She splayed her hands on the table. "I spoke to Rhys about my memory loss and he said that Ianto brought me back home late in the night and that he seemed 'his usual amiable self'. You and Ianto left our flat together a short while later. The only weird thing is, when I called you for help you turned up at our flat with a blond guy who Rhys had never seen before. I'm still waiting to get more information from social services about Ianto's foster families."
"Thank you, everyone. I appreciate your efforts on this. I went back through our entire database. As Tosh has already confirmed there is no way to retrieve the missing files. The only physical evidence was the items I found on my desk, which were Ianto's diary with final entry ripped out, this wooden box and this plastic bag with the name Adam written on it. Ianto's already been through our own records and found no evidence of a Torchwood employee of that name and I certainly don't remember one. The milometre in the SUV indicates approximately 123 miles were driven in the vehicle during that 48 hours so we must've gone somewhere, but the whole vehicle is completely clean. I left a note myself on my desk saying 'don't look too deeply into this you'll regret it.'. That's all I have."
"In other words we've made no progress what so ever." Owen remarked.
Tosh, Owen and Gwen were looking at Jack as if expecting him to pull a rabbit out of the proverbial hat.
Jack just gave them an unhappy look and hoped that DI Swanson had found as little as they had.
"Thank you, OK everyone go home. I'm going back to the police station to update DI Swanson and check in with Ianto. I'll see you all in the morning."