Ianto smiled, it was a smile that no-one had seen for almost ten years. The first and the last person to see it had been Ianto's father as he lay dying of an agonizing heart attack and Ianto had leaned casually against the wall of the squalid kitchen of their so-called home, watching him and making no effort to call the emergency services. It was feral and cruel and looked so completely out of place on Ianto's soft boyish features that its effect was both terrifying and unsettling.

'I drank from my mug to reassure you that the coffee was clean,' explained Ianto, speaking slowly as if to an idiot, 'but the mug I gave to you had a very, very substantial dose of PUSH at the bottom of it.'

'I don't believe you' said Gwen, 'you haven't got the balls.'

'Really?' snapped Ianto, 'sit down and shut up and do it NOW!'

The furious look on Gwen's face as she sat back down on the bench and fell silent was evidence that her actions were not of her own choosing.

Ianto pulled a chair forward and settled himself down. The vicious smile was still on his usually pleasant face and the low lighting of the vaults turned it into a nightmarish mask. Gwen seemed mesmerised; her large eyes were fixed on the young man's.

'I'm not much of a talker' began Ianto, 'but I'm going to make an exception for you. I know how you, how all of the team, really, see me. As some kind of innocent who was corrupted by an older more experienced man. You all think I am so pathetic, a stupid boy in love with Jack Harkness, the man who couldn't spell commitment if you gave him the first eight letters; giving him my body just to get the luxury of his attention for a short time but you are so wrong. I'm not Jack's victim, or his plaything or his sex toy – I'm his rock, his strength and his purpose; I'm what makes him the amazing wonderful man that he is. He cajoled the Queen of England into expediting our marriage because he loves me and he needs me and he wanted to bind us together irrevocably as quickly as possible. At the moment he is virtually immobilised with terror not because he doesn't know what to do but because he does not want to risk losing me by dealing with you in the ways he knows you deserve. He knows you are a dangerous liability and he is frozen into inaction because he does not want to give you the power to make him the man he does not want to be, the man he does not want to be because the man he is...the man he wants to be...is the one who is mine and will stay mine forever.'

Gwen was puce, she was desperate to speak but the PUSH was preventing her from saying a word. Ianto favoured her with his feral grimace of a smile once more. He settled himself more comfortably into his chair and continued, 'now, the thing is, ' he said, in a confiding manner, ' is that whilst I help Jack to be the amazing man that he is, he does much more than that for me. He makes me visible for probably the first time in my entire adult life. People look at Jack and they see me because I'm the one who Jack is always looking at...and I don't mind if they wonder why he is with me, or what on earth he sees in me or if they think I'm just a place holder until someone better comes along, because they have to see me to think those things and after a life time of invisibility, that feels great.' A sneer of contempt crossed Gwen's face and Ianto laughed to see it.

'Having to remain silent is killing you isn't it?' he chuckled, 'well tough shit Cooper, it's my time to speak now and you have to stay quiet and listen.' He paused, 'where was I now? Oh yeah, so thanks to Jack I have a place in this world, friends who care about me and the love of the most incredible and beautiful man I have ever known, I have a life I can feel proud of and... I value that. I value it so much , more importantly, I understand that having a satisfying life, and especially being loved, comes with duties and responsibilities and that, I fear, is a simple truth that you never grasped. You did not take care of Rhys when you had him, and Rhys is a good man who deserves to be cared for and you did not look after Jack when you had the opportunity. That is why love will always be a disappointment to you because you never fulfil your part of the bargain.'

Gwen scowled, made a tremendous effort and stammered, 'f-f-f-f'

Ianto raised an offended eyebrow, 'I'm nearly through' he said, 'consequently I will ask you to bear with me just a little while longer. So part of my responsibility in loving and being loved by Jack is a willingness to spare him even the smallest amount of pain or distress, if it is within my power to do so. To make the decisions that he knows are the right decisions but that he really cannot bring himself to make, to do the things that he fears to do in case they change him irreversibly. Do you understand me? Do you know what I am talking about? You may speak'

'Me' ground out Gwen. 'you are talking about me'

Ianto nodded, 'yes, you' he confirmed.' Jack is upstairs, paralysed by fear. He knows he needs to deal with you if he and I are ever to have a peaceful moment again but his love for me, his need to maintain his self-integrity and, if I'm honest, I guess some infinitesimal remnant of the regard he once had for you are making him impotent.'

'Not a problem he ever had when he was with me' smiled Gwen, smugly.

Ianto rolled his eyes,' Let me spell it out for you. I want you out of our lives, Owen wants you dead, Tosh wants you to suffer and Jack doesn't want to be the one to deal with you. You have threatened my friends and my spouse and my happiness and I will not let that go, so I have decided that I will be the one to sort this mess out'

Gwen was clearly prepared to make the most of having permission to speak, 'you? You are weak, Jones, you hide behind Jack's bravado and you think that makes you brave too. Jack only kept you around because Torchwood is not the place for a puppy and he needed a pet. You are feeble and pathetic and frankly I don't think you have the guts to kill me.' He voice trailed away as Ianto got that predatory, evil smile on his face once more.

'Oh, I'm not going to kill you, Gwen. That would be guaranteed to destroy Jack because he would think that forcing me to take that action equates to him letting me down, the guilt could easily annihilate him and I will not allow that to happen. No,' he fumbled in his jeans pocket and pulled out a small bottle of tablets, 'you are going to kill yourself.' Gwen opened her mouth to protest but before she could say a word a Ianto barked, 'SILENCE!' Gwen subsided and Ianto carried on, 'listen to me very carefully Gwen. This is what you are going to do. I am going to give you this bottle of tablets which you are going to hide somewhere on your body, I am going to give you this bottle of water and then leave you alone. You will lie back down on the bunk as if you were asleep and count to 3,000 silently and slowly. When you get to 3,000 you will sit up, extract the tablets from their hiding place and take the entire bottle washing them down with the water. Repeat your instructions back to me'

In a monotone but with a face like thunder and with eyes full of hatred Gwen intoned, 'hide the tablets, lie down, count to 3,000, take all of the tablets in the bottle with the water you have given me.'

'Good' Ianto nodded, he wiped the bottle of pills with his handkerchief and handed it, with the water, to Gwen ensuring that his fingers did not touch the glass of the pill bottle and turned to go; he hesitated and turned back to face the woman who had systematically tormented and undermined him for years, tried to end his precious relationship and who had abused the man he loved, 'Owen thinks we should kill you and when you take these tablets, you will die but Tosh thinks you should suffer as well. I told you I spent a productive afternoon in the medical archive and that's where I found these tablets – compound KDI/668 – once absorbed they will gradually acidify your blood, dissolving your circulatory system and your vital organs over the space of about 5 hours. The records suggest that it is an excruciatingly painful way to die. This is an elegant solution, no? Everyone gets their wish. You suffer, you die, I never have to worry about you again and Jack has absolutely nothing to do with it'

He looked at his nemesis for the last time, 'Good bye Gwen, I expect to have a long and happy life with Jack, think about that as you die horribly.' And he walked away without a backward glance turning out the lights as he did so.

The next day Jack woke up with a hideously dry mouth and a long lithe Welshman asleep in his arms. He tried to clear his throat and croaked 'hey, beautiful'

Ianto stirred and kissed whatever part of Jack was closest to his mouth, 'hey. How are you this morning?'

'Thirsty, got a weird taste of bubble gum in my mouth '

Ianto leant across Jacks body, causing his husband to groan as most of his bodily fluids headed to his cock, then sat up with a chilled bottle of water in his hand which he balanced on Jack's stomach making him sit up with a small squeak of discontent

'Sorry, Jack' smirked Ianto

Jack let his head fall back with a thump as it hit the headboard, 'Oh gods! I remember now. I got a face full of party gas. Was I very bad, Yan?'

'No Cariad' Ianto pulled Jack's head onto his shoulder and stroked his hair gently, 'you were very loving and sweet'

'Oh no' Jack buried his head into Ianto's neck.

Ianto chuckled, 'Owen gave you a little something to help you sleep and he took Tosh home to look after her. I stayed with you all night because you insisted, and I quote, "that you can't sleep without your Yanni Wanni" I love you Jack, you know I do but if you ever call me Yanni Wanni again I will kill you'

'I'd help you' Jack lifted his face up to Ianto's giving him a look of faux-penitence, 'what can I do to make it up to you?'

Ianto laughed and rolled them so that Jack was beneath him, 'oh, there's quite a list.'

An hour later a subdued and embarrassed Tosh and a well shagged looking Owen arrived in the Hub bearing breakfast. Ianto was in the kitchen making coffee for everyone and fending off Jack who still seemed to have a little of the alien party relaxant in his system and could keep his hands to himself even less than usual

'Alright, Tosh?' called Jack across the Hub, laughing as Tosh blushed and gave him a quick nod of the head, keeping her head down. She hurried to her work station to make her review of the previous 24 hours CCTV footage, as she had every morning, since that strange incident when the team had lost two days worth of memories.

Ianto was laughing having just smacked Jack's hand away from his flies for the third time and Owen was moaning that such behaviour was likely put him off his breakfast and if he wanted to see a man being groped he would just have stayed at home with Tosh when Tosh's voice echoed around the Hub

'Oh fuck!'

The three men looked at each other, Toshiko was not generally given to profanity and that particular expletive was one none of them had ever heard her use. Jack ran to her work station

'Tosh?'

Tosh pointed at the screen, it showed an apparently peacefully sleeping Gwen Cooper stir, sit up and produce what looked like a bottle of tablets from inside her bra. Jack frowned, 'You didn't search her before you locked her up, Owen?' he enquired tersely.

Owen gave a theatrical shudder, 'not in there, no'

On the screen Gwen was swallowing the entire contents of the bottle and washing them down with some water.

'Where did she get water from?' asked Jack

'Me' said Ianto, 'I took her some food down around 1 a.m.; just sandwiches and coffee. I left her the water. I didn't check on her again because I wanted to make sure that Jack was alright and also...well... because I didn't want to.'

'Can't blame you for that' muttered Owen

Jack closed his eyes, 'when was this' he said gesturing to the screen which showed Gwen convulsing on the cell floor and screaming in anguish as blood poured from her eyes, nose and ears.

'Time stamp is 2 a.m' said Tosh

'Eight hours' said Owen as he moved toward the vaults, 'this is not gonna be pretty.' Reluctantly, it seemed to Ianto, Jack followed him. Tosh and Ianto stared at the screen in silence

A short while later, Jack and Owen emerged from the vaults carrying Gwen's body carefully between them.

We'll take her straight down to autopsy,' panted Owen.

'Treat the body as a biohazard' warned Jack, ' this stuff she's taken, compound KDI/668 will render her body fluids very acidic and highly toxic.'

Owen frowned as they lowered the corpse onto the autopsy table, 'That sounds an incredibly painful way to kill yourself.'

Ianto spoke up from viewing platform, 'I believe that compound KDI/668 was developed in the planet Shubbaroth to execute only the most wicked and dangerous of criminals. The average length of time that it took to finally kill someone that it was administered to was around 5 hours. Contemporary records and eye witness accounts suggest that the agonies of the victim were dreadful to behold and served as a deterrent to others.'

Jack was looking a little but lost and dazed, 'why would she use this?' he asked, 'even this benighted planet can supply easier, softer ways to kill yourself.'

Ianto have a quiet cough, 'she was not expecting to be confronted and locked up but she had planned dinner for the three of you,' he said slowly, 'May be she had stolen the drug to use on...other people?'

'You think she was planning to poison Owen and Tosh?' said Jack unbelievingly

'She was confident that she could control you with PUSH, she knew, or thought she knew, that she had you under her thumb. She also liked to believe that all she had to do was click her fingers to have Owen back in her bed and she had nothing but contempt for Tosh. Then you, Jack, try to fight her drug control, and Owen and Tosh have the temerity to fall in love with each other and get engaged. She was deranged and ego-centric to a bizarre degree – does it seem so farfetched?'

'Put that way' mused Jack, 'probably not'

'So that's it' asked Owen, sharply 'no need for us to agonise over what we should do with her. No debate about execution or imprisonment, no angst, no guilt. She's all neatly tidied away, just like that.'

'Sometimes,' said Ianto, as he moved into the well of the autopsy bay to wrap his arms around Jack, kissing him gently on the back of his neck, 'the universe works in mysterious ways.'

A couple of hours later, Jack was ensconced in his office with the door firmly closed brooding and Ianto was cleaning the kitchen. So intensely was he focused on cleaning the microwave he didn't hear Owen and Tosh come in, until Owen cleared his throat.

'You do know that you don't work here anymore, don't you?'

Ianto huffed a small laugh, 'that's painfully obvious' he said, 'you people are pigs.'

Tosh reached over and gently took hold of Ianto's wrist, forcing him to stop what he was doing.

'What did you do?' she said

Ianto took a step backwards, 'what?'

Tosh looked at Owen who shrugged, 'I've finished the preliminary tests on Cooper' he said, 'that stuff is really unpleasant and corrosive but I managed to get enough blood to run a modified analysis on.'

Ianto turned his attention to an unidentified and recalcitrant stain on the work top, 'so?'

'So' continued Owen, 'I don't understand how, when she died, Cooper had a massive amount of PUSH in her system. I took her supply away when Tosh zapped her.'

'And then there's the CCTV feed' added Tosh

'Ianto, face impassive, raised a sceptical eyebrow but remained silent

'Oh you are good, Ianto Jones but you aren't as good as me' said Tosh, smugly. 'There are a couple of places on the feedback where the image stutters almost imperceptibly; it takes a real expert to spot it. This feed has been tampered with and you were the only one here last night with the skills to do it. So, we'll ask you again – what did you do?'

Ianto looked Toshiko and Owen straight in the eye, 'what was necessary to protect Jack' he said firmly, 'and, Tosh? Owen? No-one else ever needs to know, do I make myself clear?'

Owen nodded, 'crystal' he said emphatically

'You love him very much, don't you' said Tosh softly

'More than life itself,' whispered Ianto.