CHAPTER SEVEN

Ianto floated in the abyss of unconsciousness for what felt like an eternity. It was just an empty space. If this was death, he was fine with that.

He didn't want to go back to the real world. There was nothing there for him anymore. Lisa was gone. He had failed. What would he do now without Lisa to care for, to love? His heart felt empty and his soul tired.

Somewhere in the abyss he heard a voice calling to him. Gentle, demanding and filled with concern. Ianto tried his best to ignore it. The darkness was preferable to the light of the world. But the voice would not be silence.

He felt his body jerk slightly, felt a sharp pain radiate through his face and he fought to remain in the blackness. He would not go back. He told himself. He would stay here forever. There was nothing that could make him return to a world without love and friendship. Without the gentle words of comfort that came with knowing another person cared for you beyond measure.

Then he felt it. A warmth that seemed to blaze through every nerve, pulling him further and further away from the emptiness of eternity and back towards the light. He fought with all his will. He would not go back. He could not face life without Lisa.

But life it seemed was not willing to give up on Ianto Jones….and neither was Jack Harkness.

The warmth wrapped itself around Ianto tighter and tighter until he was dragged screaming back into consciousness. He was still on the brink when he became aware of what exactly that warmth was. He didn't need to open his eyes to know it was a kiss.

His heart swelled with hope that it was Lisa but his mind and his body destroyed that hope. The hand pressed to his jaw and throat wasn't the soft fingers and palm of a woman but rather the rough solidity of a man. The pressure on his lips was still warm and gentle with framed with what he could only imagine was stubble.

The pressure grew, the kiss deepened as if Prince Charming was giving all he had to wake Sleeping Beauty.

Ianto continued to fight it, but no matter how much his heart ached for death he couldn't fight the feelings Jack had long ago awakened in him.

He came to back to the world with a gasp of breath and a meeting of eyes. Jack's hushed him silent, but he didn't need to be. He was too surprised and confused to speak. He just stared up into the blue eyes of Jack. His body still stirring from the kiss.

Jack's hand drifted away from his mouth to brush of Ianto face and his had the warm feeling that the older man wanted to kiss him again, and in truth Ianto wanted it too.

Suddenly mechanical scream broke whatever bubble had encased the pair; causing Ianto to shoot away from Jack with an intense feeling of shame. How could he have forgotten Lisa?

He stumbled into the morgue to find Lisa slumped against the wall with a wound in his side. Owen was pleading innocence, but Ianto wasn't listening. He was staring sickeningly at Lisa's lifeless body. He hated himself, painfully. He hadn't been here for her, he'd been with Jack. Fresh tears filled his eyes.

When Lisa's eyes shot open, he was shocked. Not just because she wasn't dead as he'd believed, but because he wasn't so completely overjoyed. He stepped back from her with fear in his eyes.

He felt Gwen's hand on his arm, her voice demanding that he leave.

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