5.
As soon as the door closed, Rick asked, "Are we having words about morals?"
"Yes," John answered.
"With you of all people?" Rick replied with a disbelieving snort. "Please, John." He let himself fall into Jack's chair and put his feet on the desk. "This place has all the technology we could ever want. We can sell it, use it, do whatever we want with it."
"So this isn't just about Sophia?" John asked.
"Jack says she's dead. If that's the case she was killed by him or someone related to him. I don't care to be honest. Fact is she's dead and I want him to pay for it. With his life – and I'm not talking the normal 'I'm going to kill him' routine. That's boring. It's much, much better to take everything away he ever cared about and make him watch."
John stared at him in disbelief. Sure, he'd had fantasies along those lines when he'd found Jack again a few months ago. Especially since Jack didn't treat him as anything else but a nuisance. But while his motivation at the beginning had been anger, he'd later realized that the reason for his destructive behaviour and the injuries he'd inflicted on Jack's team had been jealousy. Jealousy over Jack's plain luck in having such a dedicated group of friends around him while John had … nobody, really. Nobody as close to him as Jack team was to Jack. Trying to take it away had been wrong. Especially since he'd become quite fond of them. He would make it up to them now. He forced a grin. "You haven't changed one bit."
"You haven't changed, either," Rick replied. "Frankly, I'm surprised you turned up here."
John shrugged. "I cared for Sophia. I wanted to find out what happened." He glanced at the main Hub, where the team was still kneeling. Kenya was standing behind Ianto, clearly having taken over the role as interrogator, while Lance was keeping an eye on everyone. John looked back at Rick. "Don't take it out on the pregnant guy."
"John, you know as well as I do that finding the weakest link will break a group apart. We know damn well what kind of weakness a pregnancy is, especially if the father's the one we want the information from."
"Jack won't tell you anything. You could cut out the baby in front of his eyes and he wouldn't utter a word."
"We'll see," Rick replied. He looked at him thoughtfully. "This is the moment you should decide whether you're with us, John. I won't ask you to do anything to the carrier – I respect your grief for Terry –, but you should know that I want the information … badly. You can watch or you can go outside and take a walk, it doesn't matter to me, as long as you're not letting your feelings get in the way."
John knew what he had to do. His first move would be to get Ianto out. Not only would Jack want that, but it would give him the chance to ask Ianto where Torchwood's reinforcements were. He could take Ianto to a safe place and then return with others to free the rest of the team.
Because he knew that Rick would hurt Ianto and the baby if he didn't act now.
"Sure," he answered. "I won't stop you."
"Good to hear," Rick replied with a grin. He got up and looked through the window outside. "Because Kenya already started without us."
John whirled around and stared through the window into the main Hub when he heard Jack scream. He saw the team straining against the handcuffs while Lance held Ianto in a choke hold and Kenya removed a needle from Ianto's neck.
John ripped open the door. "What did you do?" he asked, striding towards them. Kenya threw the syringe away. "What was that?" John asked. Lance and Kenya looked at him steadily.
It was Rick who answered, "It's Telka poison."
John froze. "No," he said softly.
Rick strolled towards Jack who was still straining against the handcuffs. John saw Tosh cry silently while Gwen wouldn't stop pulling on her chains even though tears were running down her face. Owen was staring at Ianto as if he was trying to think of a way to heal him. Rick stopped in front of Jack. "First stage: fever, pain, delusions. Second stage: loss of consciousness. Third stage ..." He crouched down. "Death."
Jack hissed, "Give him the antidote."
"Give me the codes."
"This is between you and me. It's got nothing to do with Ianto or my team."
"Are you sure?" Rick asked, looking at Ianto who had started to struggle with each breath. "It seems to be about your lover, too. And after him, the little brunette and then the Japanese girl and then the guy." He smiled. "I have enough dosages."
"Bastard!" Jack screamed, lunging for him, but the handcuffs held him back.
"Are the codes that important to you?" Rick asked.
Jack narrowed his lips and his eyes met John's, just for a second. It was all John needed. Jack had asked for his help and he would do this right. Not just for Jack but also for Ianto. He saw a small leather case on the top step to Jack's office and remembered that Rick kept the Telka poison in it. He crouched down to pick it up while Rick was busy with Jack, Lance was keeping an eye on the rest of the team and Kenya was watching Ianto. He put the case into his jacket. At least that way, nobody else would get the poison. Owen saw what he was doing and started to fight harder against his handcuffs. When Lance stepped closer threateningly with his gun raised, Gwen kicked him, hitting his ankle pretty hard with the heel of her boot. Lance let out a scream of pain and Kenya hurried over. She hit Gwen across the face.
John programmed his manipulator with a few quick keystrokes, ran to Ianto and pulled him back against him before activating the manipulator and taking him away.
xxx
John fell to his knees as soon as they materialized on top of the building he'd arrived at when he'd visited Torchwood the first time. He hurried to switch off his manipulator so that the others wouldn't be able to track him and helped Ianto to sit up. Ianto's head fell back against John's shoulder and he stared up at him dazedly, struggling to breathe. John touched his forehead. A fever was already starting to heat the skin. He brushed his hand over Ianto's belly. "Okay," he said, trying to calm Ianto. "We need medical help for you and then reinforcements to go back into the Hub. But first, we need a place to stay. Somewhere safe, preferably with someone there we can trust to look after you."
Ianto closed his eyes and nodded slowly. "I think I know a place," he whispered.
xxx
Rhys closed the magazine he'd browsed through while eating his sandwich and took his plate to the sink. He rinsed it, put it in the dishwasher and checked his mobile. Since Gwen had run out on him last night, he hadn't heard anything from her and still, just past nine in the morning, no text message. He wasn't really worried. It happened. But he was starting to feel slightly uneasy. He sighed. No, okay, he was worried sick. His fiancée was fighting aliens, anything could happen. There was a knock at the door. Rhys hurried to answer it, even more so, when the knocking became more insistent immediately and then turned into a banging.
"Yes, yes, alright already." He yanked open the door. "What's your problem, mate? Can't you ..." He stopped when he really took in the man standing in front of his door. A bit older than Rhys, tall, athletic and a terrible taste in clothes if the red vintage military jacket and the tight trousers – was that leather? – were anything to go by. And he had a sword. A sword. And then Rhys noticed that his visitor wasn't alone. He had an arm around another man wearing tracksuit bottoms and a t-shirt and his belly … it was Ianto.
Before Rhys could work through his surprise, the guy shoved his way past him into the flat, helping Ianto along. "Hello, sunshine," the man said. "I'm Captain John Hart and we need your bed." He looked around, found the bedroom on instinct and said, "Ta."
Rhys looked after him. This couldn't be good. "Bloody Torchwood."