A/N: I've been promising an update of this for a while, and here it is. For the sake of actually posting something, I've had to end this chapter on something of a cliffhanger, but I promise it will not be nearly as long until the next update. The plot bunnies are finally bouncing again after a long ideas drought, and I know pretty much what's happening next.

Kathy Swanson got a report of the all-clear just after dusk, which she reported with much reluctance to Jack. He reacted immediately, with perhaps a little more bravado than was natural even for him, announcing they were on the move and sweeping through the Hub like a proverbial force ten hurricane, on his way to the garage. It surprised no one, however, that upon arrival in the garage, Jack bypassed the SUV altogether without sparing it so much as a glance, and instead made a direct beeline for Ianto's car.

"Jack," Gwen spoke up tentatively. "It's okay to take the SUV. It's been fixed, see?"

The Captain glanced around in the direction of the SUV, and all of them caught the flinch that rippled through his body. Ianto spoke up quickly, anxious to do whatever he could to alleviate Jack's distress. It was going to be hard enough on Jack when they got to the Butetown estate. Quite frankly, Ianto didn't blame Jack for any nervousness or distress. The idea of seeing the place where Jack had been so brutally assaulted wasn't exactly a recipe for a settled stomach.

"Jack and I will take my car," he announced before anyone could say anything. "After all, we can't all fit into the SUV."

"Not bigger on the inside, then?" the Doctor queried. Several pairs of eyes turned towards him with incredulous and confused stares, but Jack smiled and chuckled softly in appreciation of the joke.

"No, Doctor, it's not bigger on the inside. You're the only one with that trick."

The Doctor grinned brightly at his former companion, and the look on his face was clear. Tension broken – mission accomplished. Feeling grudgingly grateful to the Time Lord, Ianto ushered Jack into the passenger seat of his car, and then turned back and tossed the SUV keys to Owen.

"We'll follow you there."

Owen nodded and got into the SUV without uttering a word of protest. Kathy climbed into the passenger seat beside him, and Tosh, Gwen and the Doctor clambered into the backseat together. Tish, having been given the choice, had quietly decided to remain behind at the Hub, and wait for them to come back. As much as she wanted to support Jack, she wasn't ashamed to admit that she didn't want to go anywhere near the place where Jack had been assaulted. It reminded her too much of recent past experiences, she'd said.

In response, Jack had gathered her to him in a protective hug, and kissed her gently on the top of her head.

"I understand," he'd whispered, and for a moment the two of them had just stood there holding each other, lost in a moment of melancholy that only the Doctor seemed to have any real understanding of.

Now, the rest of them were on their way to the scene of the crime, for a purpose which they all suspected that even Jack didn't really know. Owen glanced at his passengers as he guided the SUV out of the garage, and wasn't entirely surprised to see a frown on Gwen's face. He could guess what she was upset at, and made an effort to keep his voice calm as he spoke.

"I'm sure that Jack appreciates the effort you made to get the SUV clean, Gwen, but you do get why he wouldn't ride in it, don't you?"

When she didn't answer, Kathy spoke instead.

"The last time he was in this vehicle, he was at someone else's mercy."

"Someone who didn't show him any mercy," the Doctor added sombrely.

"Exactly," Kathy agreed. "It'll take time before he can even look at this car again, let alone ride in it."

"I understand that," Gwen protested. "Really! I just thought…"

Owen's gaze hardened fractionally.

"You thought what?"

They locked stares for a moment before Gwen shook her head.

"Nothing," she murmured, sounding defeated rather than belligerent. "Nothing, it's not important."

None of them chose to argue the point with her.

Jack was understandably silent as they followed the SUV. His eyes remained cast downwards, fixed on his vortex manipulator. Ianto considered trying to make conversation for all about twenty seconds before deciding to just let him be. If Jack wanted to make small talk, then he'd initiate it.

Instead, he focused on the road ahead, and what they were likely to find at the scene. He hoped there had been some effort made to clean up, although he strongly doubted it. As much as he suspected Jack would baulk at going into the building once they arrived, he also knew better than to try and predict his Captain's reaction. Even if he had the kind of insight that Owen had, Ianto knew he couldn't possibly know what was really going on inside Jack's mind. No one could, and Ianto suspected the truth was that not even Jack really knew for certain. There really was no way to know whether Jack would be willing or able to venture inside the building once they were there, and he sure as hell wasn't going to ask the question now.

"You're thinking I should have stayed behind, aren't you?"

Ianto was hardly surprised by the accusatory tone Jack used, and certainly not offended by it.

"We already talked about this, remember?" Ianto reminded him. "I told you that I support you."

"But that doesn't mean that you agree with it. You don't, do you?"

"Like I said before, I don't necessarily agree with the timing. I think you might have been better off doing this further down the track. As far as evidence goes, I don't see that we're achieving anything, but this isn't about finding evidence, is it?"

Jack looked away quickly. Ianto took the opportunity to glance down and, sure enough, Jack was rubbing fiercely at his wrists.

"I need…"

Ianto waited patiently. He knew full well that pressing any harder would only lead to Jack shutting down on him. A minute passed that felt more like an hour before Jack spoke haltingly.

"You were right," Jack said softly, forcing Ianto to strain to hear him. "I need to… to face it… What they did."

"I understand," Ianto murmured. Jack still didn't look back at him.

"I need to face it, but I didn't want to… I couldn't do it alone."

Ianto sighed. There it was, finally out in the open.

"You didn't need to hide that from any of us, Jack," Ianto admonished him lightly. "You could have said that's what it was really about."

"You think so?" Jack growled. His voice betrayed a hint of impatience, aggravation and, if Ianto wasn't mistaken, a not-so-small dose of nerves. "You really think I could have said that, and Owen wouldn't have argued?"

"But you weren't just worried about how Owen would react, were you?"

"All of them," Jack confessed.

"Well, for the record, if you'd put your case forward on that footing, Owen would have been the last person to argue with you."

"I know," Jack said miserably, resting his head lightly against the car window. "You… you do support me, don't you?"

"Of course I do. Whatever your reasons for doing this, none of us have the right to dictate to you, and say you shouldn't be doing it. You're doing what you feel you need to do, and of course I support that." He paused, and rolled his eyes. "That didn't half come out sounding trite, did it?"

Jack, however, didn't seem to notice.

"Thankyou," he murmured sincerely. His gratitude brought a warm smile to Ianto's face.

"You're welcome."

There was silence for the next couple of minutes, only to be broken by Jack once more.

"Gwen was upset, wasn't she?"

"Over what?" Ianto asked. He wasn't entirely sure what Jack meant, possibly because he'd paid Gwen – or anyone else, for that matter – little attention in his efforts to keep Jack calm and settled.

"The SUV. She cleaned it, didn't she?"

"I believe so, yes," Ianto confirmed. He was grudgingly respectful of her for that, knowing as he did from past experience how hard it was to get fresh blood stains off upholstery, let alone old ones. He suspected that cleaning the blood out of the SUV must have taken hours. He had no idea how she'd managed to get the window repaired, but he had a sneaking suspicion that the Doctor was behind that. Whatever the explanation, he figured he was better off not knowing.

"She cleaned it," Jack said haltingly, his voice bringing Ianto back to the present. "But I still couldn't ride in it. I could barely even look at it. She was upset, I could tell."

"She'll understand," Ianto insisted. "It just comes back to the same thing, Jack. You need time. It's going to take time for you to get back any sort of semblance of normal. Don't be ashamed of that, because we do understand. Even Gwen."

Jack looked away again, out the window.

"I feel like I'm letting you all down."

"What? No! You're not, Jack, believe me. You are not letting us down in any way."

Jack, however, seemed to take no reassurance from Ianto's words.

"I wish I could believe that."

Ianto swallowed a sigh.

"You will, Jack. Eventually, you will."

To say that the Butetown Estate was creepy at night was a bloody big understatement. Ianto pulled his car up a short distance away from the SUV. Not right next to it – he didn't want to do that to Jack, given his admission that the mere sight of the vehicle set him on edge. He then turned off the ignition and turned the Captain.

"Do you want to get out? Or would you prefer to wait here?"

Jack didn't answer. His gaze was fixed on the building before them, and Ianto could see the sick horror on his face.

"You weren't ready for this at all, were you?" Ianto murmured sadly.

Jack's breath hitched in his chest and he suddenly seemed to regain his self-control. Almost throwing the door open, he climbed out into the chilly Cardiff evening. Sighing softly, Ianto followed suit.

"Well,, are we going to get this over with?" Owen asked brusquely. Kathy took a step towards a somewhat dilapidated and heavily graffiti-covered doorway.

"This way," she told them – unnecessarily, as it turned out, for the crime scene ribbon was still there in a tattered heap on the ground.

For several long, awkward seconds, no one moved. Then the Doctor walked purposefully into the building, followed with reluctance by Tosh, Owen and Gwen. Kathy hesitated, looking back at Jack and Ianto. Jack stood frozen and trembling, while Ianto watched him worriedly. Kathy approached slowly, sensing Jack was dangerously close to a full-blown panic attack.

"You don't have to go in there. It really isn't necessary."

"I should be able to…" he whispered hoarsely. She uttered a loud, derisive snort.

"Oh, bloody bullshit! You need to stop being so bloody hard on yourself, Harkness. The truth is that most people find it impossible to return to the place where the crime against them took place. So what if you can't actually bring yourself to go inside? The fact that you're standing right here, right now, is pretty damned amazing. So quit beating up on yourself, because it really isn't necessary. You're already doing so much better than most who have been in similar situations to you."

Ianto watched Jack carefully throughout Kathy's tirade. Though the strain on his face remained, it appeared the panic faded minutely. When he spoke, it was in a heavily subdued whisper.

"I can't go in there. I… I thought I could, but I can't."

Kathy smiled gently at him.

"And that's okay. It really is okay. Ianto?"

"I'll stay with Jack," he offered. He wasn't sure how much of it was a desire to take care of Jack, as opposed to simply not wanting to witness the scene where the assault had happened. Jack, notably, never argued.

"All right," Kathy conceded. "Wait here, we won't be long."

Once she was gone, Ianto turned back to Jack in worry.

"Are you okay to wait here? Because if you'd prefer, we could just head straight back to the Hub."

"No," Jack answered, unsurprisingly. "No, I need to stay."

Ianto refrained from pointing out that Jack didn't need to do anything that made him uncomfortable. Though he disagreed, the choice still lay with Jack. If the Captain felt he had to stay, then so be it.

Silence fell. Combined with the rapidly failing light, it made for an oppressive atmosphere, and Ianto had an increasing desire to get as far away from the place as he could. In an effort to keep himself from thinking too hard on where they were, Ianto turned his attention to the night sky and silently began to pick out the constellations.

"Maybe when this is over, I can talk the Doctor into taking us for a short trip."

Ianto started a little at Jack's voice whispering into his ear, and turned to look at him quizzically. There it was, that hesitant, anxious look that suggested to Ianto that Jack was desperate to appease him. It was a look that Ianto had seen so often before, usually after Jack had screwed up in some way. Smiling softly, Ianto took Jack's hand in his own in a carefully exaggerated gesture.

"I thought we were clear. You don't have anything to make up to me. I'm the one who needs to atone."

Jack seemed to consider that before flashing a grin at Ianto.

"Does that mean I'm finally going to meet your mother?"

It was an ill-concealed challenge that Ianto very nearly recoiled from by instinct. Jack was watching him closely, though, and Ianto knew in an instant that he was being tested. Under any other circumstances, he would have been angry, but Jack had earned this right and Ianto only had one option for a response.

Leaning in, he kissed Jack oh-so-softly on the lips before resting their foreheads lightly together.

"Yes, Jack. I'm going to introduce you to my mother. If she doesn't scare you off, then I'll know it's safe to let you meet the rest of my family."

Jack laughed, and the sound sent waves of warmth through Ianto. He was further warmed when Jack threw his arms around him, and hugged him tightly. Encouraged, Ianto folded his own arms around Jack.

This was the man that Ianto had desperately missed – the man who showed affection without fear or concern; without worrying what anyone else thought. He felt Jack bury his face at the junction of his neck and shoulder, and smiled at the soft huff of contentment that tickled the bare flesh above his shirt collar.

Ianto stroked his hands up and down Jack's spine, knowing the motion would soothe him further. He wanted nothing more right then than to bundle Jack into his car, take him home and thoroughly pamper him – this was the last place where he wanted to have a cuddle. While Jack was settled, though, he dared not do anything to disturb him.

He heard the sound of approaching footsteps, and deliberately ignored it. He figured that at this stage, the others would not be so unthinking as to make any sort of derogatory remarks about finding them in each other's arms. His train of thought was shattered when a hand grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked him backwards, away from Jack. He stumbled and fell, landing heavily on his arse in the dirt, and a quick glance told him Jack had just experienced the same indignity.

"Fuckin' fags," a grating voice snarled in the darkness. "You fucking perverts make me sick!"

Even over the unpleasant, sneering voice, Ianto could hear Jack's sharp intake of breath, and he knew, he just knew who it was who had interrupted their moment together.

Ianto started to get back up, already reaching for the gun that was hidden by his jacket, when a booted foot slammed into his back and sent him sprawling in the dirt. He heard Jack utter a cry that was half rage, half fright, and felt his lover's hands on his shoulders a moment later.

"Teach 'em a lesson, Gaz," another voice urged. "Go on. Just like we did with that poof on Christmas Eve."

Someone came to stand over them, and Ianto grunted as a boot was planted squarely on his back, pinning him to the ground.

"You fucking perverts never learn," a grating voice snarled. "Just when we think we've got a handle on the situation, more of you come slinking out of the fucking walls! When the fuck are you gonna learn? We don't want you in our city!"

Each of the man's last few words were punctuated with a solid kick to Ianto's side, and on the last kick Ianto uttered a strangled cry of pain as he felt one of his ribs crack. At the same time, though, Ianto could feel Jack's hand slipping beneath his body, and all he could think was that it was hardly the moment to cop a feel. But then he felt the gun in his holster shift, and he realised what Jack was about to do.

"Jack…"

He got no further. In a fluid movement that reminded Ianto fairly starkly of earlier days when even cannibals posed no threat to the legendary Captain of Torchwood, Jack lunged upwards. He grabbed the foot that had planted itself in the middle of Ianto's back once more, and twisted hard. There was a loud, ominous crack, followed by a scream of pain, and a heavy-set man landed with a painful thud on the ground beside Ianto.

With a bellow of rage, Jack turned on one knee and fired Ianto's gun. Shouts of surprise and anger turned swiftly to howls of pain as Jack shot out the kneecaps of two of the felled man's accomplices, bringing them down as well. A fourth man turned tail and bolted, disappearing into the darkness before Jack was able to fire another shot.

"Ianto, are you okay?" Jack asked, and the young man nodded breathlessly.

"Yeah… Just winded…"

"Good," Jack growled. "Keep an eye on them. I'm going after the one that ran."

It took Ianto a moment to realise just what Jack had said, and by then it was too late. Jack had already gone after their would-be attacker.

A grunting noise alerted him to movement, and he looked back to see the one who had kicked him was trying to get up, despite an obviously broken ankle. He cursed quietly at the realisation that Jack had taken his own gun, but it wasn't an issue for long. Out of the building, his colleagues came at a run, and the three downed men suddenly found themselves surrounded by four guns and one irate Time Lord.

"Where is Jack?" the Doctor demanded to know. Ianto pointed in the direction that Jack had gone. He desperately wanted to go after the Captain himself, but even breathing was causing him considerable pain. He knew he had no chance of catching up to Jack.

"That way. He went after a fourth one that ran off." He looked around at the remaining three men in disgust and anger. "It's them. They're the ones who attacked him on Christmas Eve, and they were going to attack us just now."

"Broken ankle," Owen mused aloud as he went quickly from one assailant to the next. "And you shot out their knees. That's impressive, Ianto. I didn't know your aim was that good."

Ianto grimaced as he struggled up into an upright position with Gwen and Kathy's help.

"It wasn't me. It was Jack. I was busy breaking my ribs on that bastard's boot. I thought Jack was having a breakdown, or a panic attack, but I think it was just for show. He got hold of my gun, and then he broke that one's ankle, and shot the other two in the knees. He brought all three of them down, and then he went after the other one."

"If he kills him…" Kathy said uneasily. Ianto glared at her, though there was no real heat in his gaze.

"He could have killed these three. He could easily have shot all three of them dead, but he didn't. He just incapacitated them. Give him a little credit, Detective. He does still have some reasoning and control."

"Maybe," Gwen said grimly, "but I'd rather we didn't take the chance. Owen, do what you need to do for these three, and for Ianto, not necessarily in that order. Tosh, will you stay and help? The rest of us will go after Jack."

Kathy's expression reflected her surprise at the sudden way in which Gwen stepped up to take charge, but neither Owen nor Tosh appeared concerned with the shift in dynamics of authority; Ianto was in too much pain to care and the Doctor…

The Doctor had already gone after Jack, she realised in dismay.

"C'mon, Cooper," she growled at Gwen, and hurried off into the darkness after Jack and the Time Lord.

tbc...