Gwen ran towards the TI office and put in the security code as fast as she could, only to practically run into Jack standing in the middle of the empty office. Tears were streaming down the captain's face as he stared at the empty desk, rooted to the spot, shaking and sobbing silently.
She rested a hand on his shoulder and he blinked rapidly, covering it with his own but not turning around. He sighed heavily and visibly collected himself, then took her hand silently and led her down into the Hub.
As they set systems and scans running, every scan they could think of, more people joined them. Mickey was the first to arrive, as he'd dropped Gwen off and gone to park the car, and he joined them immediately at the computers. Not long afterwards, Rhys's arrival surprised them but Jack said nothing, just nodded at him gratefully and accepting it. This, more than anything else, worried them. To this day he still didn't like Rhys coming to the Hub, because it was symbolic of him crossing the line from protected to protector, it was one more person he cared about who could be in danger any moment, but today… Today it was like he hadn't really realised, hadn't considered it, hadn't thought. They watched surreptitiously and with horror as he shut down, the worry and anguish fading from his eyes to be replaced with nothing. Cold emptiness.
Gwen looked up as the cog door rolled open again and stared in shock at the sight of a blowfish in drag. "Bloody hell Rax! What the…"
He pouted at her and posed for a moment, "I got Jasmine's message, came straight here."
She groaned and gestured for him to use her computer to keep in touch with Jazz over in Vegas, "Let us know if any messages come in from her, OK? Mickey you get her station set up ready." She ran through a mental checklist and cast another nervous glance across at Jack. He met her gaze for a moment and nodded again before turning back to the computer screen, concentrating once again on whatever means he was using to try to find his lover.
"Jazz is back at the crime lab waiting for John. Should be with us soon." Atraxet called across to her.
She nodded, "Thanks Rax." Her phone buzzed and she flipped it open, hurrying to what had been Owen's station when she'd read the message, "That was Martha, she's coming over as soon as she gets off duty."
Jack looked up at her with a dry, strained chuckle, "Is there anyone Jasmine hasn't mobilised?"
Gwen stood up again and took her station back from Atraxet, "No. We will find him Jack."
He said nothing, just staring bleakly at the screen in front of him for a moment before their attention was distracted by a sound like ripping fabric and a yell as Jasmine and John arrived in the middle of the room with worried expressions matching everyone else's.
Jack managed a very weak smile in greeting but didn't get up. His ex-girlfriend took one look at him and practically ran across the room to hug him, but he hugged her back only briefly before holding her at arms' length again. "OK people." He stood up, "What have we got?"
They gathered in the boardroom and Gwen used the big whiteboard to write everything down. Jack started, stating the facts whilst gripping tightly onto Jasmine's hand, "We went to bed at about half past eleven, I think I went to sleep at about one, maybe a bit later."
"Was Ianto asleep by that point?" Gwen asked calmly, having taken on the mantle of investigator
"No, at least the last thing I remember he was awake."
"Was he having trouble sleeping, or was that normal?"
"Fairly normal I suppose, but you know our sleeping patterns. I think the fact that we'd actually slept in the same bed for seven days on the trot may have thrown him a bit. Also we had coffee, really strong coffee, just before we went to bed."
"Was anything worrying him?"
"No. Gwen, tone it down a bit, please? You're starting to make me feel guilty." He refused to meet her gaze, instead staring fixedly at a point on the table.
She sighed and reached across to squeeze his other hand apologetically, "I'm sorry Jack, but we need to know."
"I know." He sighed, "I know, but…"
Jasmine squeezed his hand tighter, "Jack, focus for the moment. Are you certain that Ianto did not leave the house voluntarily."
He blinked fiercely and held her gaze fearfully, "I'm certain, there isn't a pair of his shoes missing, his keys are still there... He didn't leave the house."
"How many sets of keys are there for your house, and who has them?" Gwen asked
He leant back and retrieved his hand to count out on his fingers, "Mine, Ianto's, yours." He pointed at Jasmine, "The Doctor has a set, God only knows why, and there's a set here."
"And that's where it belongs?" Jasmine asked Mickey
He nodded, "The keys haven't been accessed today, I checked both sets of records, twice."
"OK, so no one got into your house who shouldn't have been there, we assume. I'll check later, just in case, but I can't believe it wouldn't have woken you." Jazz ran her fingers through her long hair nervously, "Has there been any tech activity anywhere?"
Mickey and John snorted, "Cardiff, remember?" John pointed out
"Yeah," Mickey agreed, "constant alien madness, but nothing in that area, no rift activity all night."
Everyone in the know breathed a heavy sigh of relief, "So he hasn't been taken by the rift." Gwen wrote the word 'rift' on the board and crossed it out with red pen.
"Basically…" Jack commented in a small, quiet, lost voice, so unlike the captain they loved that their hearts broke, "We have no idea where he is, or how he got there."
Jasmine pulled her chair out and crouched in front of him, hugging him tightly. The others watched in pity and despair as the man, usually so strong and confident, broke down in completely, drowning in terror and grief. After a moment to contemplate the horror facing them, they escaped the now claustrophobic boardroom and left the two immortals clinging to each other, both of them now crying for him, letting go of their emotions for a brief moment before they would have to shoulder the façade they bore every day.
John hurried to join Mickey at the computers, running yet more scans and fielding calls and emails with him. The pain on losing Jack to Ianto bit hard at him again, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he didn't feel as strongly about the man as Jack did about Ianto, or as he, John, felt about Jasmine.
With a sigh he pulled himself away from the computer and indicated that Atraxet should take over, then made his way down towards the archives. On his way there he passed Gwen and Rhys, working quietly and brushing touches against each other more often than was unnoticeable, reassuring each other that they were still there, that they were safe. He realised with horror that all they knew was that a young man had vanished in the middle of the night without warning, for all they knew it could happen again to anyone.
Gwen looked up and caught his gaze, smiling tightly at him, "Not good, is it? Are you going down to the archives?"
"Yeah, looking for any similar occurrences, have you checked recent police reports?"
She shook her head, "Andy's coming over soon, he'll have all the information we need. Can you get Ianto's file for me please whilst you're down there?"
"Sure thing." He escaped to the archives, as Ianto had so many times before and rested his forehead against the wall once he was out of sight. But he couldn't stay there long, they had a job to do, a friend to find. "Come on Ianto, where are you?"
Jack clung to Jasmine tightly, trying and failing to hold himself together. The worst thing, and God did he know it; the worst thing was that he didn't know what had happened. He could be anywhere, he could have been taken by anything, it could strike again at any moment and take anyone else. Any… Any…
The young woman in his arms pulled back slightly to kiss his forehead. For the first time since he'd broken down, maybe quarter of an hour before now, she spoke, "Jack, we will find him. I know it, I can feel it."
"I'm so scared Jazzy, what if I never see him again."
"What was the last thing you said to him?" She searched his eyes deeply
"I told him I loved." He responded quietly
"Well then," She smiled and stood up, "You've got something to cling on to, haven't you? Come on, we've got a Welshman to find."
"And possibly something odd to stop, this is what we live for, isn't it?" He stood up and studied the board, "What do we know, really know?"
She sighed softly and leant back on the desk, "That Ianto's gone, and we don't have a how, where or even a when maybe."
"You mean we don't know anything." He scrubbed at his eyes with the heels of his hands, "Maybe the others have found something?"
"John's gone to the archive, Mickey and Rax are running scans, let's get down and see what they've got, yeah?"
They left the room and leant side by side on the railings to watch the proceedings for a moment before Jack called out, "Anyone got anything?"
John looked up, "Quite a few unexplained disappearances over the years, emphasis on unexplained. Recently we've not had anything though. There's nothing we can go on, no indications of… of anything. Sorry Jack, I've found lots and nothing, all at the same time."
"OK… Anyone got anything?" Jasmine ran her fingers through her hair, "Andy?"
"Nothing similar recently Jack."
Gwen picked up a pen and span it in her fingers, "The good news is that it's not the rift, it's not any alien tech that our systems or John can detect, and he's strong and can look after himself."
The captain leant his elbows on the rail and buried his face in his hands for a moment, before clasping his hands together and resting his chin on them, "Did I mention that he's probably naked?"
There was a pregnant pause before Rhys cleared his throat, "We should have figured that one out, shouldn't we?"
"Yes, yes we should." Gwen agreed, her mind replaying an image of the two men, then another, and another. "I'm amazed you're ever clothed actually."
Jack smiled at that, tipping her a wink that was almost his normal, "Well when we get him back I'll consider it."
"Please no." Mickey feigned shock and horror
"Yeah, you're hard enough to resist when you're clothed." Jasmine teased, "OK, so we have an impossible task, a bunch of misfits, lost of high tech… tech."
"And a science fiction novel." John smiled, "There's no way we can fail."
Jack's eyes emptied again and he twisted the ring on his finger, pain ripping through him again, "I hope you're right, I really do."
"So do we Jack." Gwen gripped Rhys's hand tightly and leaned into him, "So do we…"