Chapter Twenty-Eight
Meh. I hate life. It's far too busy for my tastes. I'm sorry that this has been so long in coming – I've been horrendously busy recently (Erin, I WILL get that chapter to you some time in the near future – promise) and I've got my grade 5 singing exam on the 17th, for which I am terribly unready.
So, yeah. Enough of my moaning – here's chapter 28! Enjoy and please let me know what you think.
Disclaimer: I had a dream last night about the end of the world occurring and then Jack and the team saving it. But that's as far as my ownership extends – nowhere.
The Doctor emerged from the cabin with a thoughtful frown on his face. Martha looked up, her eyes hopeful.
"Well?" she demanded. "What can we do?"
The Doctor didn't reply for a moment. He sat down and locked his fingers under his chin. "Well..." he said slowly. "I don't really know."
"There's got to be something," Martha said, her pulse fluttering at the base of her throat in what was verging on panic. "We just need to think of it."
Owen was tapping away at the screen of his scanner. He didn't look up as he asked, "Did Ianto say how he was feeling?"
Martha's pulse elevated further. She took a deep calming breath and shrugged. "He said that he was fine when I asked, and there wasn't anything that I found to contradict that. Why?"
Owen looked up, his already pale face eerily lit blue with the light from his PDA. "I've got a hunch," he said grimly. "And if I'm right, then everything's going to go to shit."
"This is all a bit Suzie-esque, don't you think?" Gwen said, pushing back her thick hair from her face.
"Who's Suzie?" The Doctor asked, wary.
"Psycho ex-colleague," Owen explained brusquely. "Long story."
"Gwen brought Suzie back to life using the Resurrection Glove," Toshiko said. "In an effort to keep herself alive, Suzie was draining Gwen's life energy."
The Doctor sucked in air through his teeth, hollowing his cheeks. "Nasty," he said. "So how did you stop Psycho-Suzie?"
"We shot her," Owen replied shortly, handing his PDA to Tosh. "And, as much as tea-boy annoys the hell outta me, I don't think we'd like how Jack would react to that."
"So..." the Doctor mused, dark eyes fixed on a vacant space above the porthole. "We could either let it run its course, so that Jack'll die and Ianto'll survive, or we can find another solution."
"Jack would just come back to life again," Martha agreed. "That sounds like our best option so far."
Gwen shook her head. "But what if Jack doesn't come back to life? What if this is the one thing that finally kills him – for good?"
"We've got to risk it." Owen folded his arms, chewing on the end of a pen he had found lying about. For a doctor, his idea of hygiene left a lot to be desired.
"There's no other choice." Toshiko said. She pushed her glasses further up her nose and examined Owen's PDA readout. "From the tests we've run on Jack, it seems like his life energy is infinite – it's highly improbable that Jack would die for good."
Gwen folded her arms, pasting on an agreeable expression. "OK, OK... forget I said anything."
Martha nodded. "Let's go and tell Ianto."
-T-
Ianto was still leant against the polished wooden wall of the cabin, Jack's head cradled in his lap. He experimentally tried wiggling his fingers. They felt cramped and stiff; the whole of his body felt uncomfortable and unfamiliar, like a pair of newly-washed jeans.
He could hear the others talking in the other room, but he ignored them. Jack hadn't woken up yet. His eyes were closed, and if Ianto hadn't known better he would have said that Jack was merely asleep. But Ianto did know better, and he knew that Jack was slowly and uncertainly slipping towards the precipice of death.
With any other person, this knowledge might have induced a panic, but Ianto had been with Torchwood – and Jack – long enough to simply wait. Once Jack was dead, he'd come back to life. Then everything would be OK.
That was what Ianto was telling himself. He placed the back of his hand against Jack's cheek. It was cold. So cold.
A knock at the door heralded Martha poking her head around.
"Ianto?" she asked softly.
"He's still out," Ianto replied. "Give him a little longer."
Martha swallowed. "Ianto – we think we've worked out what's wrong." She stepped through, closing the door behind her.
He frowned. "What's that?"
"Owen and Tosh told us about Suzie—"
"This is nothing like that!" Ianto interrupted. "I—"
"We know that, Ianto – it's just an idea. We think that the best thing would be to just let Jack die and—"
"No."
"Sorry?"
"We can't just let him die." Ianto took a deep breath, steadying himself. "What... what if it's the last time?"
Martha perched on the edge of the bed next to him, putting her hand on his knee reassuringly. "Tosh and Owen are pretty certain that won't be the case."
"What does he think?"
"The Doctor," Martha said pointedly, "agrees that it's the best thing to do, in these circumstances."
Ianto frowned. "These circumstances?"
"Ianto... there's nothing else we can do." Martha shrugged. "Other than shoot you, that is. And there's no way we're doing that."
Ianto looked away. "I'm meant to be dead, Martha."
"No, you're not," Martha said forcefully. "That was an accident, which was fixed. You're meant to be as alive as the rest of us."
"Excluding Owen." The corner of Ianto's mouth twitched in amusement.
"Other than Owen," Martha conceded. "But you can't just throw your life away – think about what it would do to Jack. To all of us."
Ianto shook his head. "But if I don't, then Jack'll die."
"Jack comes back!" Martha argued. "You don't."
"We don't know for certain that Jack will come back to life," Ianto said in a low voice. He still wouldn't meet her eyes. "I'm not going to risk his life simply to save my own."
Martha sighed impatiently. "Look, Jack wouldn't want you to sacrifice yourself for him. I know he wouldn't, and you know it too. If Jack was up, he'd be the first to suggest this."
"But Jack's not here," Ianto replied. He stood up and stretched. "And I've got an idea."
"Ianto—!" Martha reached out to grab his arm, but he was gone, rushing through the cabin and up the steps.
The Doctor leapt to his feet and was after him in a flash.
The others gaped after them.
"Where's Ianto going?" Gwen asked.
"He said that he's go an idea," Martha said. "We'd better stop him before he does something we'll all regret."
Toshiko's eyes widened in horror. "Do you mean—?"
"That's exactly what I mean," Martha said grimly.
There we go, guys. Hope that you enjoy – I meant to cover a bit more, but that'll have to wait for the next chapter because Ianto and Martha started arguing.
Reviews are loved... they cheer me up a lot! :-P