Based on the song "Baby don't' you break my heart slow"

Everything belongs to the BBC. Except the song, this version of which belongs to Vonda Shepherd

I like the way you'd hold me
Every night for so long baby
I like the way you'd say my name
In the middle of the night, while you were sleeping

"Right," said Owen tiredly. "Gwen's gone home to her husband. Tosh is sorted. I've fixed her up and her neighbor's agreed to check on her tonight."

"What about Ianto?" Jack asked.

"He fell asleep on the autopsy table while I was treating him, poor sod. Had to strap some ribs and put in some stitches. And he's concussed. Those cannibals kicked the shit out of him. I gave him some pretty strong painkillers and he's out to it. You can take him home when he wakes up. And make sure he's got someone keeping an eye on him.

"There's no one," Jack pointed out. "No next of kin on his files."

"I can't watch him," Owen said irritably. "I've got to take Tosh home. Need to tell the neighbor what to check for. Keep him here, if you can't be stuffed getting him home."

"He can't stay on the autopsy table," Jack protested.

Owen sighed in annoyance. "Then I'll help you move him. You've got a bed here, haven't you? Lend him that." The medic grinned evilly, "Probably not the first time he's used it."

Jack glared. Owen smirked. "We moving him, or what?"

Ianto twitched and murmured as he was moved. Even woke slightly as they handed him down the ladder. But the drugs hadn't worn off yet, and he was soon fast asleep again.

"Check on him every hour or so," Owen ordered. "No need to wake him up, just make sure he's," and the medic smirked again "Responsive."

Jack closed his eyes. "Shut up," he said tightly.

Owen shrugged. "If you don't want comments, you could try discretion. The rest of us don't really enjoy seeing you drool every time he walks past. " That evil grin again. "However good he is at twitching those hips."

"Get out of here, Owen," Jack said through gritted teeth. "Before I do something I'll regret."

I've turned him into the office joke, he thought, disgusted in himself. I have to make it up to him. And I don't know how.

Jack tried to work in his office. But Ianto had become restless, and he was calling out in his sleep. "Lisa," mostly. But there was "Jack" as well. And after the sixth time of being called, only to find that Ianto was fast asleep still, Jack gave up trying to work and simply sat against the ladder and watched him sleep. And listened.

"Jack, No, Help me." And "Jack, I'm sorry." Not surprising that he was having nightmares. Bit hard to take that I'm featured in them.

The words blurred, turned into screams. Jack knelt beside the mattress and tried to still the thrashing arms.

Ianto's eyes opened groggily. "Jack?"

"Yeah, it's me." Jack dropped his arms and moved back.

"You saved me, again," Ianto said wonderingly. "Saved all of us."

Jack shrugged uncomfortably. "Wouldn't have been anyone there to save, if you hadn't delayed them."

Ianto pulled himself slowly into a sitting position. His face paled as a wave of nausea hit. Jack's arms itched to help him, but "Don't touch me," echoed in his head, and his muscles froze.

"Guess I owe you," Ianto mumbled.

"You don't owe me anything," Jack said harshly, arms crossed tightly against his chest to stop himself reaching out again. They regarded each other in silence.

"Owen left more painkillers, if you need them," Jack offered eventually, turning to the ladder, trying to escape before he crossed the line again.

Ianto shook his head, paling again as the motion triggered another wave of nausea. "Don't go," he pleaded weakly. "I don't want to be alone."

"I thought," Jack said tensely, "that being alone with me is the last thing you'd want."

His hands gripped the ladder so tightly the knuckles turned white, Owen's contemptuous comments replaying in his mind. He had to fix this. Had to try, at least. "I treated you badly, and I'm sorry. You deserve more respect than I've ever shown you. It won't happen again."

Ianto collected his wandering wits. Between the terror of what he'd been through today and the effect of the drugs, his defenses were completely down. He'd been trying to make himself believe Jack was a heartless monster, but he couldn't. And he didn't want to acknowledge the pain in Jack's voice, but it was there. Actual pain. Ianto couldn't stand seeing anyone in pain. Not when he could fix it. Not when he wanted to fix it.

"I didn't mean it," he said, steeling himself for rejection. "Any of it. Any of the stuff I said."

Jack turned around slowly, leaning against the ladder. "You don't owe me anything," he repeated.

"Not even the truth?" Ianto asked quietly.

Jack's legs felt weak, suddenly. He gestured towards the mattress. "May I?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

Ianto waved a hand vaguely. Couldn't risk nodding again. The room was already sliding in and out of focus.

Jack settled himself tentatively as far away from Ianto as he could get while still being on the mattress.

"I did play up to you to get a position in Torchwood," Ianto confessed. "For Lisa. Because I couldn't bear to let her go. But I…but you…" He stopped, swallowed. "It stopped hurting when I was with you. And I hated myself for that, too."

"And you're still hurting, aren't you?" Jack's voice was soft.

"Yes."

"But I'm not going to stop it this time," Jack said gently. "Not the same way, at least. You deserve better."

Ianto looked up, eyes distant. "Do I?"

"Yeah, you do. And one day, when you're ready, maybe you'll let me prove that I can do better. That I can be better."

Ianto smiled, a tiny smile. "I think I'd like that. But," his voice shook, then firmed. "I'm not going to do casual. So don't….just don't ask unless….."

"Fine with me." Jack breathed a sigh of relief. Time. Patience. Respect. All the things he hadn't offered before. But his gut told him that this could be worth it.

"I'll get those painkillers," he offered. "Be right back."

When he returned, Ianto was lying on the mattress again, blankets pulled up to his chin.

Jack held the young man's shoulders while he swallowed the painkillers, then lowered him back onto the mattress. Watched him shift to the very edge in a wordless invitation. Plenty of room beside him.

It wasn't easy to hang on to his new resolve, but he did. Ianto slept in his arms, before long Jack's name was on his lips again.

But not a nightmare, this time.