FALLEN ANGEL PART 7
Don't look too closely in the mirror, you may not like what you see.
"Shit! Ere Gabriel, give me hand!" Owen bellowed attempting to lift Ianto's boneless body from the floor. The priest was at his side in an instant and he gathered the boy up in his arms in one simple move.
"Where do you want him?"
Owen nodded his thanks. "This way...Tosh you OK?"
Tosh nodded wiping at her tear streaked face as she followed the two men down to the autopsy bay.
"Grab the crash trolley Tosh."
Gabriel lay Ianto down on to the metal autopsy table and stepped back watching intently as Owen ripped away the bloodied shirt to expose his chest. He slapped two silicon pads on to his skin and took the paddles that Tosh handed to him.
"Charge to 360 Tosh and stand by with the ambu bag."
Gabriel took another pace back and then remembered the American who had been shot first so he charged back up the steps to check on him. To his utter disbelief the man was hauling himself to unsteady feet. He moved to assist offering a steadying hand which Jack took, gripping him tightly.
"What happened?" He barked out.
"Your colleague shot Ianto; he's taking care of him now."
Jack wrenched his arm away and charged down the steps into the autopsy bay Gabriel on his heels barely able to take in what was going on.....
Ianto was awake and struggling against Owen who was trying to hold him down as he snarled and screamed obscenities. Owen was terrified the young man should be dead, there was nothing on the monitors, but the filth issuing from his mouth bore no resemblance to the kind of speech that Ianto would use. Ianto locked his gaze with Gabriel and suddenly Owen, Jack and Tosh were staring at the priest as if frozen.
"Priest!"
Gabriel took the last two steps down into the bay and went to the end of the table at Ianto's feet.
"Taneth." Gabriel's hand went to the tiny relic in his trouser pocket. He knew he was safe now, his conviction firm. The thing was dying with Ianto.
"You haven't won you know, my child grows in that white witch." He spat out with a hiss.
Jack looked from Gabriel to Ianto, disgusted and horrified.
Gabriel nodded and closed his eyes and spoke Latin verse, shutting out the presence of everyone around him. It was a prayer for Ianto; at this point it was all he could do.
Ianto slumped back down against the metal of the table and Owen stepped out of the way as his body arched and a black vapour issued from his nose and mouth and dissipated into the air. Ianto went limp, an arm dropping over the side of the table. Gabriel continued to pray his hands gripping Ianto's feet. Owen and Tosh were too stunned to move, but Jack went to Ianto's side and pulled him up into his arms and cradled his head, Ianto's dead eyes staring up into his. Jack closed them, vaguely aware of Toshiko's tears and Owen comforting her. Jack planted his hand over Ianto's heart and leaned down, kissing his mouth trying desperately to draw energy out from his own body into Ianto. He'd done it once before when Lisa had attacked him, maybe this time too, maybe. He deepened the kiss, his tongue exploring every aspect of his lover's mouth...
Ianto went rigid and hauled in a juddering breath. Startled Jack jumped back as Ianto sat up with such force that Jack was pushed away.
Gabriel fell silent opening his eyes and he locked gazes with Ianto and immediately crossed himself.
The young man, looking pale and exhausted still managed to smile.
"It's alright Gabriel, Taneth is gone." It was not Ianto's voice and Jack watched as pale white light seemed to emanate from Ianto's skin. Tosh and Owen were backing away behind him.
Ianto kept his gaze focussed on the priest by his feet.
"Ianto expelled him. The demon will not return."
"And Ianto?"
"He will recover in time, though I fear that he will need some time to heal." Ianto faced Jack and Jack realised immediately that it wasn't his lover addressing him.
"You must take care of him. I have mended the physical injury, but his soul is something that only he can repair, with the help of those around him." A hand went to Jack's face and it took great force of will not to flinch.
"You are the constant one, a unique thing in the order of things. You must be strong in the end, and I believe you will be."
"Who are you?" Jack asked gently wanting so much to touch the fingers that brushed his cheek, the warmth radiating off them was beautiful.
"A messenger." Ianto's gaze returned to Gabriel. "You must take Sister Elizabeth to the Vatican, she will be safe there, and the one inside her will not be allowed to harm anyone else. And now I must go and let this boy breath again. Gabriel, servant, you honour me."
Gabriel was smiling. "Can you not remain?"
"It is too painful here. I cannot bare to be in this world." He lay back down and closed his eyes. The light vanished and Owen's monitors jumped into life. It took everyone a few seconds to gather themselves. Owen was the first to move straight to Ianto's side as the young Welshman began to regain consciousness hauling in ragged breaths. Jack was there, opposite Owen Ianto's cold hand tightly grasped in his, Tosh at Jack's right her hand resting on Ianto's leg as Owen slipped an oxygen mask over Ianto's face and began checking him over.
The first thing Ianto saw as he opened his eyes was Toshiko; looking at him with such love in her eyes it broke his heart. Pulling his hand from Jack's grasp he slid the mask off from over his face and spoke to her.
"I'm sorry Tosh. I'm so sorry." And then he cried.
Five minutes after Owen was satisfied that Ianto was in fact alive and well he knocked him out with a sedative injection.
Still thoroughly shaken Tosh went to make a pot of tea, she made good tea, and everyone looked they needed one. Owen and Jack got Ianto cleaned up and into a set of surgical scrubs before settling him on to a cot with a drip and another dose of sedative. She found Jack and the priest in the board room and gave them both a cup of tea before leaving them to talk and going back to Ianto's bedside.
The tea was perfect and Gabriel savoured it, realising only now, just how tired he was. He was aware of Jack's eyes on him as he warmed his hands around the mug in his grasp.
"How long?"
Gabriel frowned at the vague question.
"How long have you been after that thing?"
"Ianto was its fourth host. The first two died during the exorcisms, the previous one, a little girl...somehow she managed to cast it out herself, but she was a devout child. Ianto was...was different." Gabriel looked at the piercing blue eyes without flinching under the intimidating gaze.
"How was he different?" Jack also sounded drained.
Gabriel smiled at that point. "Some angels are stronger than others."
"Angels?"
"Yes Captain Harkness, angels. You saw, the same as I did, the light coming from him."
Jack shook his head and sipped at his tea.
"How is it, with all the things that you see, and I know judging from the looks of this place and that fact that you do not stay dead, how is it you cannot bring yourself to believe in an angel?"
Jack placed his cup down on the table. "It was an Alien of some kind, the same as that Taneth thing."
"Of course...." They sat silently for some time. "Who is Sister Elizabeth?"
Jack heaved out a sigh and scrubbed his hands down his face. "Something Ianto is never going to forgive himself for. When he was possessed he...he raped her." The words tasted like bile in his mouth. "She's pregnant, the foetus isn't human."
"I will need to take her back to Rome."
Jack gave him a withering look. "Sorry, no can do. She stays here until we are certain she presents no threat."
"I see."
Another silence settled between them.
"Tell me about Ianto Jones."
Jack shot him a guarded look. "Why?"
"Curious I suppose. He's special..God has...."
Jack rose to his feet. "Tortured him enough, don't you think?"
"That would be the work of the devil Captain." Gabriel replied watching as Jack went to the door.
"Yeah, whatever. Wait here." He left the room and went down to the autopsy bay. Owen and Tosh were still there and Gwen had joined them. Owen having filled her in on the details.
"Tosh, did you put Retcon in Gabriel's tea?"
She shook her head, vaguely appalled at the notion of drugging a priest. "He might be able to help us understand what happened to Ianto; I thought it prudent to wait."
Jack nodded then carefully moved Gwen away from Ianto's bed side so he could take her place. He gently rested his hand against the young man's fore head.
"How's he doing Owen?"
"His vitals have stablelised and the gunshot wound has totally healed over, it's like he healed in the same way you do. Is that what you did when you were snogging him?"
In truth Jack wasn't sure. "I think so, sometimes I can transfer the energy. It worked on Ianto once before."
"And the light coming off him?" Tosh wanted to know, she was much calmer now.
"Residual energy. The vortex is part of my make-up since Rose made me immortal, maybe once it had used what was needed to heal him the rest of it just bled away. I don't know for sure."
Gwen grasped Jack's arm and whispered in his ear. "We need to talk."
He nodded and followed out of the autopsy bay. They stood at the top of the stairs in subdued conversation.
"A vicar was murdered last night in the early hours...I've advised Swanson that we are dealing with it, the crime scene has been cordoned off and is under police guard. I went out there Jack. It's pretty horrific." She gestured to the medical bay. "If Ianto...well...just be prepared Jack. If he remembers what he did whilst under the control of that Alien or whatever it was... he's...it's going to be hard for him."
"You sure Ianto was involved?"
"CCtv footage was pretty conclusive. I got to it before the police did."
Jack touched her arm never more grateful in his life. "Thank you, can you deal with clean-up?"
She replied with a smile. "Owen's help would be appreciated."
It was a battle just to open his eyes, primarily because he didn't want to. He never wanted to wake up at all after the things he had done....well, how could he ...go on that was. He was at home. Ianto wasn't certain how or when that had happened. It had been days and had felt like weeks of being in the fog of antidepressants and sedatives. He was no longer certain. It wasn't that he didn't care anymore, because he did. Ianto just felt so deeply ashamed that he had refused to even so much as look at his friends and lover as they each in turn had tried to comfort him. Owen and Jack had sat with him explaining what had happened. Ianto hadn't needed the repeat show, he knew, was well aware of everything that had transpired from violating that poor woman to stripping the skin from a man's living body and then turning on Toshiko and Jack. His guts hurt with the guilt, his hands shook so violently that he couldn't even hold a glass of water any more.
He vaguely remembered resigning from Torchwood and then a week later...was it a week? Whatever, he downed a bottle of codeine tablets with a litre of vodka. Owen had saved him, Jack had held him and Tosh had cried over him, yet again another repeat show then. Ianto lost track after that. He wasn't sure of his own name sometimes, didn't want to remember the name of the man he was ashamed to be. They wouldn't leave him alone though, each time he regained some sense of time and space, someone was there. Today it was Jack. Ianto could hear him talking on the phone in the other room.
Ianto hauled his dead weight body out of his bed and pulled a hoodie on over his pyjamas and went through to the kitchen. Jack was just hanging up from the call as he took in Ianto's shadowlike appearance. He looked thin and frail, nothing like the vital young man he had fallen in love with, was still in love with.
"Hey." Jack offered up gently, it was the best he could come up with.
Ianto sat at the kitchen table and rested his hands in front of him clasping them to stop the shakes.
"Coffee?"
Ianto nodded. "Thanks Jack."
Jack set to the task and a moment later a latte was sitting there in front of Ianto.
"Sister Elizabeth is coming to see you today, Owen's bringing her and he's going to check you over at the same time."
Ianto stared at the mug. "Why?"
Jack sat opposite him and engulfed Ianto's cold hands in his warm ones. "Because she is worried about you."
Ianto looked at Jack's face and Jack swallowed at the frightened child before him. He tried to show Ianto how much he was loved in his returning look. "She's wanting to see you, to talk to you."
"I'm surprised she can stand to look at me."
"I'm looking at you aren't I?"
Ianto nodded.
"I don't know how many times it will take my telling to convince you...The things that happened were not your fault...let me ask you something."
"Go on."
Jack sucked in a breath knowing the dodgy territory he was about to tread on with his next words. "Did Lisa kill Dr Tanizaki and Annie or did the cyberwoman?"
Ianto flinched at the very idea. "Lisa would never have hurt anyone!"
"And neither would you."
Ianto looked down at their clasped hands for a long moment. Jack wondered at the silence, for once Ianto wasn't disagreeing with him. Maybe he'd finally gotten through.