"Do you remember?" Ianto asked a little later on as they wandered leisurely through the market.
"Remember what?" Jack asked distractedly. After finally clearing the air between them, Jack had quickly returned to the excitable and rather easily distracted little boy personality that he was so familiar with. Whilst it was a relief to Ianto to see him cheerful again, at the same time he longed for Jack to show more than just an occasional hint of adult maturity.
"Your life, Jack. Do you remember your life before Torchwood... before the Doctor? Your family, for instance. Do you remember your parents? Brothers? Sisters...?"
Jack stilled so suddenly that Ianto knew without even having to look at his face that he'd touched on a sensitive topic. The immortal stood at a stall for a long while, making a show of intently examining some ornate jewellery. Ianto let him, guessing that he was trying to compose himself. Another glimpse of the man hidden beneath the many layers of trauma, he mused sadly.
"I had a brother," Jack answered so suddenly that Ianto very nearly missed it. "No sisters. Just me, my mum and dad and Gray. We lived near the beach... a human colony in the fifty-first century. It was invaded. Dad died... Gray was taken. I... I never found him. Mum never forgave me."
Ianto was horrified, and at the same time so many of Jack's insecurities suddenly made so much more sense to him. Anxious to offer reassurance, Ianto slipped his hand into Jack's and squeezed it lightly.
"I'm sorry, Jack. C'mon, there was a stall back here somewhere that had a gorgeous necklace that would look fantastic on you."
A shy, delighted smile graced Jack's face.
"A present?"
"Yes, a present," Ianto confirmed, and took great pleasure in watching the grief wash away from his companion's face. Right at that moment, Ianto was grateful to have the exuberant little boy in place of a sad, grief-stricken adult. "You act like you've never had a present before!"
Jack grinned boyishly, a look that charmed Ianto thoroughly.
"I like presents. I like the presents you gave me. New clothes, and my blanket. And the person who gave me my dog... And Gage gave me the book with stories and pictures. I like my presents. No one ever gave me a present before."
Ianto's eyebrows shot up.
"What about for your birthday?"
Jack frowned, visibly confused.
"What's a birthday?"
"What's a...? How can you not know what a birthday is?"
Jack shrugged, watching and still waiting for a reply. Conceding, Ianto explained.
"Everyone has a birthday, Jack. Oneday, every year, you get to celebrate the day you were born. For example, I was born on the nineteenth of August, so every year, my birthday is the nineteenth of August."
"Oh..." Jack murmured, in a tone that had Ianto suspecting that he stil didn't really understand. "When's my birthday, Yan?"
Ianto faltered.
"Well... I don't know. We'll have to ask the Doctor, and see if he can work that out."
"Okay," Jack agreed placidly. "Can we go get my present now?"
Chuckling, Ianto squeezed Jack's hand again, and led in the direction of the stall he'd seen earlier.
Ianto wasn't entirely certain what happened next. He would later tell the Doctor that it happened so fast that he had no clear recollection of how they'd allowed themselves to end up in such a sticky situation. They were just passing a brightly coloured tent when a strong pair of hands grabbed Ianto and all-but lifted him off his feet, dragging him inside the tent before he had a chance to so much as utter a squeak of protest.
He was thrown roughly to the ground, his hands bound tightly behind his back and a gag shoved into his mouth. A pained grunt beside him told him that Jack had suffered the same indignity. Ianto struggled with his bonds, only to suffer a cuff over the head that had him seeing stars.
"Knock it off, boy. We don't want to hurt you if we can avoid it."
Someone else uttered a short, harsh bark of laughter.
"Yeah, the slavers don't pay so well when they're bruised."
Ianto went cold with fear. The mere idea that they had survived Torchwood and Canary Wharf only to end up being abducted on a strange planet and sold as slaves was more than he could bear. He was helpless, though, and so was Jack. There was nothing either one of them could do that wouldn't result in bloodshed – namely, their own.
"Get them ready for transmatting," the first of their abductors ordered. "The mistress will be along shortly to inspect them."
One of the other men – and they were human men, Ianto realised with a sickening feeling – snorted loudly.
"What's to inspect? They're perfect." He stopped in front of where Jack lay, and leered obscenely at him. "Especially this one. The kid we can sell on the regular market, but this one? He'll go for a high price on the pleasure market."
Ianto wanted to kill them as he glimpsed the terror in Jack's eyes. Never mind his earlier conversation with Jack, and his natural revulsion to killing. Right at that moment, Ianto wanted to kill every single one of them for putting that look of terror back in Jack's eyes.
He grunted in protest as his shirt was cut expertly away from his body, followed by his jeans, leaving him wearing nothing but his boxer shorts. He was then hauled to his feet, and held there at gunpoint beside a now similarly-attired Jack.
The young Welshman dared not move for fear of provoking their attackers. If they were going to get out of this situation, then it would need someone – namely, himself – to keep a clear head.
The heavy folds of the tent were pushed aside, and a woman of average height and equally average looks strode in. She was dressed in a style of military garb, her hair was jet black and cropped short in a no-nonsense style, and her black eyes took in the scene before her with vivid amusement that quickly morphed into astonishment when she laid eyes on Jack. Ianto felt another chill surge through him as she approached the immortal man with a disturbingly hungry look in her eyes.
"I'll be damned. Well, actually, I probably already am, but you know. Semantics."
With a predatory grin, she reached out to stroke Jack's cheek in a grossly intimate gesture. Jack tried to pull away with a muffled whimper, but the guns at his back held him in place.
"Agent Jaksyn Cale," she stated with a smirk. She glanced bemusedly at Ianto, acknowledging his presence for the first time. "Or at least, that's the name he was using when I knew him." She returned her attention to Jack, once more forgetting about Ianto. "The prodigal son has finally grown a set and decided to show his face again." Her fingers played over the gag. "I'll take this out, but if you yell, I'll knock all of your teeth out of your pretty little mouth. Understand?"
Jack nodded, his eyes wide with fear. She removed the gag, still smirking.
"Who are you?" Jack asked hoarsely. She pulled a face at him, and sidled up close, causing Jack to cringe.
"Aw, you don't remember me, Jakky? You don't remember your little Maia?"
Jack shifted, trying to dislodge her from where she was pressed up against his chest.
"No. I don't remember you. Do I know you?"
As though she'd suddenly realised he was joking, the woman who had introduced herself as Maia drew back and positively glared at him.
"Are you fucking kidding me? You really don't know who I am?"
"That's a bad word," Jack told her, and his words were immediately met with raucous laughter.
"Oh, that's priceless, it really is," Maia laughed. "Seriously, though, time to quit fucking around, Cale. Why have you suddenly turned up now, after all this time?"
Jack looked uneasily at Ianto before speaking in a shaky whisper.
"I'm sorry. I don't remember you."
Ianto heard the telltale tremor in Jack's voice, and knew that he was on the verge of tears. For once, he felt like joining him. The woman stared at Jack for a long minute before roughly yanking the gag from Ianto's mouth.
"Is he for real, boy?"
"Yes, he's for real," Ianto growled. "Whoever yu are, I can guarantee that this is not the man you used to know. Now please, just let us go and I swear that we'll forget we ever saw you."
Again, Maia laughed, and the cruelty in her voice send a fresh wave of shudders through Ianto.
"I don't think so. You're quite a pretty young thing, and you look relatively unspoilt. I think we could get quite a good price for you on the pleasure market. As for my former colleague here, let's just say that there are quite a few people back at the Time Agency Headquarters who will be very eager to see him again. And this time, they'll do much more than just take a couple of years from his memories."
"Yan?" Jack asked hoarsely, panic evident in his tone.
"Be quiet, Jack," Ianto said tensely, and the immortal obediently fell quiet. Their captor laughed nastily.
"Wonders will never cease! Jaksyn Cale has been domesticated! Who would have thought a runt like you could have achieved what that lunatic partner of his couldn't?"
Jack glanced anxiously from Ianto, back to Maia.
"What are you going to do?"
She stroked his cheek again, leaning in close enough to brush her body up against his.
"We're going to transmat your little friend here to a Slaver that I have a contract with, and sell him for a pretty price. Then, I'm going to take you home to Time Agency Headquarters and collect on the hefty reward that's on your head, and then watch while our superiors make the ultimate example of you. Of course, if you're especially good, I might be convinced to take the scenic route. It could add at least a week to our trip, if you get my meaning."
Ianto felt a rush of indignant rage as she suddenly pushed her knee between Jack's legs, deliberately rubbing against his crotch. To her irritation, and Ianto's private amusement, Jack was completely unaffected by the less than subtle provocation, and all-but ignored it.
"You want to sell my Yan."
"That's what I said."
She ran her hands over his bare chest, and down his stomach towards his groin. Jack huffed in annoyance, and tried to pull away from her.
"Stop that! I don't like it."
Maia pouted, but Ianto could see the dangerous aggravation and impatience building in her eyes.
"No? You used to. You used to like it very much."
"I don't want you to sell Yan."
"Don't you worry, sweet cheeks. It's nothing personal, just good business. And trust me, you'll have plenty to worry about yourself before too long without worrying your pretty head about him."
"But you're going to take him away from me."
Ianto could see renewed flickers of irritation in the woman's eyes.
"He's a runt. We'll get rid of him, and then you and I can get reacquainted and have a good time, just like we used to." She leaned further in, and kissed him harshly, biting his lip and clearly relishing his yelp of pain. "Condemned man's final request, if you like."
Throughout the entire exchange, Ianto's eyes were fixed on Jack. He watched the slow burn of rage in the other man's face as comprehension dawned over exactly what she was intending to do, and Ianto felt a equal thrill of fear and anticipation. The only other time that he could recall seeing that specific look on Jack's face had been two or three months ago, and it had ended with two men dead.
Maia stepped away from Jack and snapped her fingers, then motioned towards Ianto.
"Get him out of here, and transmat him directly to Dunn. Let the little troll do what he wants with him. I want to get reacquainted with my colleague."
Ianto grunted as he was shoved unceremoniously towards the back of the tent, and away from Jack. He was completely unsurprised by what happened next.
He heard Jack utter a snarl, and the next moment there was an ugly cracking sound as flesh and bone collided. There was a distinctly feminine groan, and Ianto twisted around to see Maia crumple to the floor in a daze. The half dozen guards all converged on Jack, but they were no match for the force of his rage.
With an ease that frightened Ianto a little, Jack snapped the ropes that bound his wrists, and proceeded to plough through the men like they were paper targets. With the same precision that Ianto had witnessed the night that Jack had killed Burke and Branton, the immortal took out one man after another until the only ones still standing were himself and Ianto. Then he crouched down in front of their would-be captor, and spoke in a threatening tone that gave away no hint of the childish side of his personality. This was the soldier, Ianto reflected, that Jack had clearly been trained to be, and that coupled with his ferocious loyalty and protectiveness made for a deadly enemy.
In that moment, Ianto was immensely grateful that he had Jack's unfailing love and loyalty.
Jack was speaking to Maia, and Ianto shook himself back to reality to hear his snarled warning.
"He's my Yan, and no one gets to say he's leaving me except him! You're a bad person, and I don't want to know you!"
Ianto barely suppressed a snort of laughter at the childish words that were spoke with such adult menace. Then, Jack was suddenly back at his side, untying his wrists and finally freeing him.
"I'm sorry, Yan..."
Ianto whirled around and planted a short but fierce kiss on Jack's lips.
"Don't apologise, sweetheart. You did brilliantly. You saved us both, you did it without killing anyone, and I am so proud of you for that. Now, c'mon. Let's get out of here..."
Jack's pained yelp cut him off short, and Ianto looked down in horror to see that Maia had jabbed Jack in the hip with a small but deadly looking hypodermic.
"What did you just inject him with?"
She sneered up at him.
"Insurance policy, eye candy. All time agents carry one of these. It's a slow acting poison, and there's no cure. You have approximately twenty-four hours left with him, and then you get to bury him. Can't say they'll be a particularly pleasant twenty-four hours, either."
Enraged by her cruel pleasure, Ianto dropped down and planted his knee squarely in the centre of her chest, taking dark pleasure in her grunt of pain. He reached down and closed his hand around her throat, and squeezed.
"Tell me what you just gave him."
She uttered a harsh laugh.
"Your threats don't bother me, boy, but I'll tell you if only for my own amusement, because I know you're going to go mad looking for a cure that doesn't exist. It's called B31, and it's a synthetic compound created by the Time Agency for situations just like this. If you can't bring 'em in, then bring 'em down... What are you doing?"
While she was talking, Ianto snatched the hypodermic from her hand. It was empty, but for a few drops of the poisonous compound. Ianto fervently hoped that those few drops would be enough for the TARDIS to be able to analyse it, and hopefully create an antidote in time to save Jack from a dreadful death.
"Personal analysis, thanks very much."
"You little bas..."
Her protest was silenced very abruptly when Ianto punched her hard in the face, knocking her out cold.
"Not so little, thankyou very much," he retorted. Standing up, Ianto turned to look at Jack who was staring at him with a look that was sheer love and adoration. "Jack, are you feeling all right?"
"I feel okay," Jack confirmed tentatively. Ianto took hold of his hand. He was acutely conscious of their states of near nakedness, but there was nothing to be done about it. Their own clothes had been torn to shreds, and he didn't care to hang around to try and get the clothes off the brutes who had grabbed them. In addition to that, Ianto had no idea what would happen when the compound began to affect Jack, and he did not want them to still be out in the open when it did.
"All right. We need to run and get back to the TARDIS as fast as possible. Can you do that for me, Jack? Can you run fast?"
Jack nodded. He was as eager to please as ever, but at the same time Ianto could see the comprehension of their situation in his blue eyes. The immortal was as aware as him of their vulnerable position. Ianto smiled, and kissed Jack briefly in an effort to reassure them both.
"Let's run."
to be continued...