Joe was awake when Ianto and Gage brought dinner in for him that evening, and Joe's expression was deeply wary when he saw Gage. Ianto, however, only smiled warmly and put his arms around Gage in an exaggerated gesture of friendship.
"It's okay, Joe," Ianto reassured him. "He's friend. He's come to help bring you dinner. See?"
At Ianto's urging, Gage ventured forward, carrying a plate that held a modest serving of hot meat and vegetables. There was a fork on the plate, but no knife – Ianto had taken the liberty of cutting everything up into manageable portions before bringing it in to Joe.
As Gage set the plate down on the little table that Ianto had procured – he'd told Spence in no uncertain terms that Joe would no longer be eating off the floor like a dog – Joe suddenly growled menacingly at him. Gage leapt back, startled, but Ianto strode forward and sat down fearlessly beside Joe.
"Stop that," Ianto told him sternly, as though he was telling off a small child for misbehaving. "He's being nice, so you can be nice, too. Now, stop that noise."
The growling ceased abruptly as Joe's attention shifted to Ianto, and all of a sudden Gage was sure Joe was about to cry. His lower lip trembled, and his eyes became watery as he sat there, looking thoroughly chastened.
"Now then," Ianto said in a gentler tone. "Tell Gage you're sorry."
Gage was fairly certain that Joe didn't really comprehend what Ianto was telling him, but when Joe looked around at him, the expression on his face was heartbreaking. Whether he understood what Ianto had said or not, it was obvious that he understood the intent behind the words. Suddenly deciding that he didn't like seeing the other man looking so upset, Gage put aside his uncertainties and crouched down in front of Joe.
"Hey, it's okay, really," Gage told him gently. "Don't be upset."
Tentatively, Joe held out his injured hand to Gage, who looked to Ianto in puzzlement.
"He's telling you he's got a sore hand," Ianto explained. "When I came back after being ill, his hand had been horribly broken. Spence said Bourke did it, because Joe got upset when he took the camping bed away."
"Son of a bitch is as bad as Carl Branton," Gage muttered heatedly. He then took Joe's hand in a careful, gentle grip. "This won't happen to you again, Joe. We won't let it."
Gage smiled wryly as Joe reached out with his good hand and clumsily patted the top of his head. His amusement shifted to confusion, though, when Joe lifted his bandaged hand towards his face. He looked to Ianto for help, only to be even more startled when Joe spoke softly.
"Better?"
"He's talking!" Gage sputtered in disbelief. "He's actually talking! How'd you pull that off?"
"The credit has to go to Joe. I wasn't even trying to teach him. Oh, and he's waiting for you to kiss his hand better."
Gage coloured a little.
"Sorry, he what...?"
Smiling, Ianto gently took hold of Joe's bandaged hand, and brushed a light kiss over it.
"There we go," he said. "All better."
"Better," Joe echoed contentedly. It was at that moment, that Joe finally saw the bruising on Ianto's face, and his split and swollen lip. His expression changed so fast that Ianto felt a flash of fear – not for himself, but for Gage, whom Ianto suspected that Joe still associated with being beaten and tormented and hurt. He braced himself to get between the two, fully expecting Joe to attack Gage. At the same time, he couldn't help feeling a tiny thrill at the realisation that Joe was feeling protective of him.
He watched, heart in his throat, as Joe tensed visibly. Then, as fast as it appeared, Joe's anger vanished. Before Ianto had a chance to react, or pull away, Joe leaned in and planted a somewhat sloppy kiss right on his mouth. When he leaned back, Ianto was in shock and Gage was trying not to laugh. Suddenly aware that he might have done something wrong, Joe's lower lip took on that telltale tremor once more.
"Better...?" he asked shakily, and this time Ianto picked up on the tangible fear in his voice. Pushing aside his shock, Ianto smiled warmly at his charge.
"Yes, better. Thankyou, cariad."
To emphasize his words, he reached over and drew Joe to him in a comforting embrace. Gage could only watch in astonishment as Joe snuggled in against Ianto, practically purring at the comforting gesture.
"C'mon, then," Ianto murmured. "Before your dinner gets cold."
Gage stood back and watched as Ianto sat with Joe at the table and helped him to use the fork to eat with. The meal itself was simple enough, and yet Joe devoured it with the enthusiasm of someone who had just been presented with their favourite delicacies.
"Wow, he really enjoyed that," Gage mused as he watched Joe chew and swallow the last bite off the plate. Ianto smiled wryly.
"Not a surprise, considering the slop he used to get. But I got rid of all that. Only good, fresh food from now on... What is it, Joe?"
Joe had picked up the plate and was staring at it mournfully. He turned it upside down and shook it, as though by doing so more food would miraculously appear.
"He's still hungry," Gage pointed out.
"I know," Ianto admitted. "I'd like to give him a bigger serving, but it wouldn't be a good idea at the moment. It would only make him sick. He needs to work up slowly towards bigger portions."
"Well, how about a bit of dessert? Would that be okay?"
Ianto looked up in time to see Gage produce a large piece of chocolate cake.
"Where did you have that?" Ianto asked incredulously. Gage grinned.
"What can I say? I have really big pockets."
Ianto chuckled and waved him over.
"Gage has a treat for you, Joe."
As before, Joe's face lit up at the word 'treat', and he looked eagerly to Gage. The other man unwrapped the cake and placed it on a spare napkin. Joe barely hesitated in trying it, much to Gage's interest.
"He knows now that when I say treat, it means something good," Ianto explained, watching fondly as Joe proceeded to demolish the cake. When he finished, both Ianto and Gage were stunned when Joe got up and put his arms around Gage in a brief hug.
"I think that was meant to be thankyou," Ianto murmured as Joe retreated to his bed and turned his attention to the torn blanket, which Ianto suspected had been adopted as a kind of security blanket.
"Yeah, I figured that," Gage murmured, watching Joe curiously. "Um... You do realise he's cuddling a blanket now?"
"I know," Ianto said. "It's the one I bought originally to go with the camping bed. He somehow managed to hang on to it when the bed was taken away from him. He's hardly let go of it since. Gage... Thankyou."
The older man looked puzzled.
"For what?"
"For giving Joe a chance. For treating him like a human being, and not some sort of freak."
"He's got you to thank for that, mate. If it weren't for you, I'd never have grown a set to stand up to Spence. And you were right. He's not an 'it'. I'm just sorry we don't know his real name. I reckon it'd help a bit."
"I know," Ianto agreed. "But I don't have any way of accessing the part of the archives where that information might be. And even if I could, word is that Torchwood Three deliberately never recorded his identity."
"Did Spence tell you how long he's been here?" Gage queried, watching in fascination as Joe rubbed his blanket against his cheek, all the while humming tunelessly to himself.
"A hundred and six years," Ianto confirmed. "I might not have believed it if I hadn't seen him come back to life after Spence shot him."
"Just imagine," Gage said bleakly. "An eternity, trapped in this place. I wouldn't want to be him for anything."
Gage's words played on Ianto's mind for the rest of the evening, distracting him until Lisa demanded to know what was wrong and, against his better judgement, he told her.
"Wow, it really does bother you, doesn't it?" she murmured, and for the first time Ianto saw genuine concern and sympathy in her eyes. "That they have this guy locked away like that..."
Ianto practically sagged in relief.
"Yes, it does! I hate it, Lisa. I hate that they have him locked up, like some kind of wild animal. He should be free, not trapped in that god-awful place. I just... I wish I could find a way to contact the Doctor."
"Ianto!" Lisa burst out, horrified. Ianto shifted uncomfortably at her reaction.
"I know, he's the enemy and all, but even so... They say Joe used to be a companion of the Doctor. If I could just find him, I could get him to get Joe out of there, and take him right away from Earth, to some place where he'd be safe. He deserves to be safe, Lisa."
Lisa reached out and grasped Ianto's hands in her own. The look on her face was full of anxiety, pleading for him not to do anything foolish.
"All right, Ianto. I get that you care about it... I mean, about him. I get that you care about him. But think about what you're saying! You said it yourself, the Doctor is the enemy of Torchwood!"
Ianto stared grimly at her, and when he spoke it was in a low voice that was full of grim determination.
"Every day, Lisa. Every day I look at Joe, and I see what Torchwood has done to him. The Doctor might be the enemy, but the truth is that I don't know anymore who the good guys are as opposed to the bad guys. If we're meant to be the good guys, then I'm not so sure that I want to be one of them anymore."
Ianto's evening with Lisa just went downhill after that. Despite her efforts to see his point of view, she was blindly loyal to the Institute and as far as she was concerned, his talk of contacting the Doctor was treated as treasonous.
He knew then that, with the possible exception of Gage, he was on his own. If he was to save Joe, it would have to be without help, of any sort.
Joe greeted him the next morning with a hug, and another sloppy kiss on the mouth. Ianto had to smile. It was completely sweet and innocent, and he found himself enjoying the emotional connection that was beginning to develop between them. It served to enhance Joe's trust in him, and that was something that Ianto believed would become vital before too long.
"Better," Joe stated after planting the rather wet kiss on Ianto. He was charmingly confident that his innocent gesture really was helping Ianto's split lip.
"Yes, much better," he agreed. "Thankyou, Joe."
And then Joe was suddenly waving his own hand in Ianto's face. The bandages were half pulled off, revealing the pale and undamaged flesh beneath.
"Better!"
Ianto raised an eyebrow and gently took hold of Joe's wrist so that he could finish what Joe had obviously started. Sure enough, his hand appeared to be completely healed. Smiling, Ianto kissed the knuckles softly before releasing the newly-healed hand.
"Yes, it's all better. Come and have breakfast now, and then we'll sit and have a talk."
Happily oblivious to the nervous tension in Ianto's voice, Joe loped over to the table and waited eagerly for his breakfast. That morning, Ianto had provided toast with strawberry jam, and a bowl of cereal complete with a couple of chopped bananas. He was providing fruit with nearly every meal, now. Apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, melons; he loved all of it. Although, Ianto mused as he watched Joe wolf down his breakfast, if he had a favourite, it would probably be apples.
He suspected that had more to do with apples having been his first experience of fresh food after the diet from hell. On a healthier diet now, Ianto could see the beginnings of improvements in Joe – not the least of which, he was far happier for getting fed properly.
Once the meal was finished, Ianto pulled his chair around so they were sitting side by side.
"I want to show you some pictures, Joe. You just look, okay?"
Joe appeared puzzled, but sat patiently regardless. Ianto lifted a small album out of the bag he'd brought in with him, and began to turn the pages. To begin with, it was just a collection of Ianto's family photos. The young man chuckled at the enthusiastic way Joe patted a photo every time he spotted Ianto's image.
"This is my family," Ianto told him, pausing at a photo of Ianto, his parents, siblings and his nieces and nephews. "That's my mam, and my tad, my sister and my brothers..." He looked sideways at Joe. "I bet you had a family once, didn't you? A mother and father? Maybe brothers or sisters? I wonder if you remember them at all?"
He got no response from Joe, verbally or otherwise, and so continued to turn the pages. It was about halfway through the album when the pictures changed.
No longer family snapshots, the pictures were all the images of the infamous Doctor that Torchwood had been chasing for over a century. For the first two pages of somewhat blurred photos, Joe showed no reaction. There was a man with an impossibly long scarf and curly hair... one wearing cricket whites and what looked suspiciously like a stick of celery... Several different images, but none of them garnered a response. When Ianto turned the page again, though, he felt Joe stiffen beside him, his breath catching audibly in a tiny gasp.
Ianto looked down quickly. Joe was staring at a slightly grainy photo of the Doctor whose image had been recorded by an artist for Queen Victoria's private memoirs. Tall, lanky and with a messy shock of blond hair... but it was not the Doctor whose image had Joe's attention. It was the young woman who was with the Doctor that Joe appeared fixated on.
As Ianto watched, Joe's finger stroked the image of the young woman with a tenderness that, just two weeks ago, he wouldn't have believed it was possible. Not a sound came from him, and so it wasn't until large drops spilled onto the page that Ianto realised Joe was crying.
"Hey," Ianto murmured, encouraging Joe to look at him. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to make you sad. C'mon, now, don't cry."
Once started, though, the tears wouldn't be stopped, and Ianto sighed and drew Joe's head down to rest on his shoulder.
"All right, then," Ianto said, hugging Joe to him. "I've got you. It's a pity you can't tell me what it is that's got you so upset. Poor love..."
Slowly, Joe relaxed against Ianto, and the sobs became more pronounced. Ianto shut his eyes while he continued to murmur nonsense words of comfort.
It was nearly ten minutes before Joe's sobs began eased enough for Ianto to coax Joe over to his bed, and encouraged him to lie down.
"You knew her, didn't you?" Ianto said. "Was she perhaps the who was with you and the Doctor in Cardiff? I bet she was. I wonder if you loved her?"
There was no verbal response from Joe. He only tucked his blanket up under his chin, scrunching it up into a ball that he could cuddle. Ianto sighed again and reached across to stroke his thumb lightly over Joe's cheek, wiping away the tears.
"How did you end up in this god-awful place? If what Sylvia said was right, you were a companion to the Doctor once. What happened? Did he leave you behind? Damn, I wish you could tell me what happened to you."
It was another hour before Ianto left, smuggling the album out and back to his locker. He hadn't been game enough to let Joe see it again, for fear it would trigger another upset. As it was, he left a rather forlorn-looking figure behind when he left.
For the rest of the day, every time Ianto entered the room, Joe clung to him, clearly didn't want him to leave, and cried miserably when he did. When Ianto left him for the night, he was nearly in tears himself at the sound of Joe's unhappy sobs. He was met just outside by a worried-looking Gage.
"Ianto? What's going on? He's been miserable all day."
Ianto shook his head, not wanting to explain anything where prying ears might overhear.
"You're on duty tonight, aren't you, Gage?" he asked instead.
"Yeah," Gage answered with a weary roll of his eyes. "It's Spence's way of punishing me for telling him to take a flying jump off a cliff. Why? Did you want me to keep an eye on Joe?"
"If you wouldn't mind. I'm just not sure how he's going cope tonight."
Gage clapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"Sure, mate. I can do that."
"Thankyou, Gage. And please, don't hesitate to call me if you need me... if Joe needs me."
Gage smiled wryly.
"Oh, don't worry, mate. I won't."
The first few hours were incident free, and Joe appeared to be sleeping peacefully enough. At first, Gage only checked him via the CCTV. The fourth time he looked, though, Joe was out of bed and curled up in a corner, clutching his blanket and crying miserably. Gage didn't hesitate. He went straight to the room, and let himself in. He was hit by the acrid smell of urine as soon as the door opened, and just a brief glance told him that Joe had wet the bed.
"What's the matter, Joe?" he asked, crouching beside the distraught man. "Did you have a bad dream?"
Two blue eyes that were red and swollen peered at him, and soft, miserable sobs escaped Joe's lips. He clutched his blanket to him with a desperation that was heartbreaking.
"G... Gone," Joe whimpered in a trembling voice, and Gage's eyebrows rose in surprise.
"Gone? Who's gone? Where?"
It seemed to be the limit of Joe's communicative abilities, though, and he began to sob loudly, burying his face in the blanket. Gage reached out cautiously, but Joe cringed away from him the moment Gage's fingers brushed his shoulder.
"Okay," Gage murmured. "I'm going to call Ianto, and then we can get you cleaned up. All right?"
Joe's head came up a little, and he peered at Gage quizzically.
"Yan Toe?"
Gage smiled and nodded.
"That's right. Ianto. Just hold on, okay?"
tbc...