A/N. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed, and put the story on alert/favourite. It's very much appreciated. Enjoy the next chapter, although it has a fair bit of angst in it.
Chapter 7.
Ianto looked at Jack for a minute. 'Do you really think now is the best time. We should be getting supplies for the others.'
'Yeah I know, but I don't think this can wait any longer. The sooner we talk the sooner we can deal with it.'
Ianto didn't like the sound of this. 'Talk about what exactly?', although he was pretty sure this was going to have something to do with his dreams, and he also suspected Molly had a hand in this.
'Look, lets go and sit down over there.' said Jack pointing at a bench.
They walked over to the bench and sat down, with Ianto now thinking that this was going to be really bad.
Jack took his hand in his, and looked at him straight in the eye saying, 'We need to talk about your dreams,' he paused for a moment, 'about what happened at Canary Wharf.'
Ianto looked away, 'I can't. I don't know anything.' This wasn't exactly true, but as his dreams made no sense he didn't really want to talk about them. 'Did Molly put you up to this?'
'Not exactly, I knew this was going to come up sometime, I just wanted to avoid it as long as possible. Molly did tell me that your dreams were connected to this though, and she couldn't help, so she gave me the push I needed to do it.'
There was a palpable tension in the air now and Jack knew he just had to get this over with. 'What do you see in your dream?'
Ianto took a deep breath, thinking hard about what it was he saw. 'ermm.. I can see people running, I can hear lots of screaming and calls for help and… no I can't it's going to sound stupid.'
Jack squeezed his hand reassuringly, 'You can tell me. I won't think it's stupid, promise.'
'I can see these big metal things, they look like robots or something.' Ianto looked down at the floor, knowing he must sound crazy.
'They are called Cybermen' said Jack. 'They came from a parallel universe, and they were once human. They change humans so that they are like them, no emotion, it's called 'upgrading'.
Ianto just stared at Jack, he had been half hoping he had made these things up, because in his dream they were truly terrifying. The images that he had been seeing started to make more sense, like pieces of a puzzle fitting into place. 'So the Cybermen destroyed Torchwood London?'
'Yeah, they killed a lot of people before they got into a battle with the Daleks and the Doctor stopped them.'
'I remember you telling me about the Doctor, and the Dalek was the thing that got into the Hub once, right.'
'That's right, except this time there were hundreds of them. You ok?' Jack knew that as bad as this was to hear that there was worse to come. He almost thought about leaving it at this, but he knew it wouldn't be that simple.
Ianto didn't answer, he was still trying to process some of the images that he was seeing, there were more now and while they made some sense, they didn't fit with what Jack was telling and he still had this feeling he had done something terrible. He looked at Jack and could tell there was more to this than he was saying. 'There's more isn't there?' He could tell he was right because of the way Jack looked at him. 'In the dream I can hear a woman begging me to help her, and… and…' he trailed off before composing himself, 'I don't know if I did, or if I left her there to die.'
'You didn't leave her there to die, you tried to save her. Her name was Lisa, she was your girlfriend.' Jack looked up sadness filling his eyes when he looked at Ianto.
Ianto was suddenly getting a much clearer picture of the woman in his dream, but he was confused by something. 'You said I tried to help her, so she died anyway.'
'Yes, but not until later. You see when you got to her, the Cybermen had already half converted her You bought her here because you thought you could save her.' Jack could see the shock on Iantos face and he could also see the recognition that he was remembering.
Ianto pulled his hand away from Jack and stood up. It was starting to come back to him. 'I couldn't though, could I? She tried to… to convert Gwen.' he said horrified at the image he was seeing of Gwen strapped to some kind of table. He started pacing up and down. 'In fact, she tried to kill you all.. Oh God.. This is so much worse than I thought.'
Jack stood up, and stopped him from pacing, holding him by the shoulders and trying to get him to look him in the eye. The pain he could see on Ianto's face was heartbreaking. 'Look, you did what you did because you loved her and wanted to do whatever you could to try and save her.'
Ianto stood there trying to process all this information, but it was hurting so much, there was something else. He focused as hard as could until he remembered… He took a step back from Jack. 'You killed her, you all did, because I wouldn't.' He could see it all clearly now, and it was no wonder his memory had tried so hard to suppress all this. He was right when he had said to Molly it might be something he shouldn't remember.
'Yeah I did but…' Jack couldn't finish his sentence, he didn't know how too. He stepped forward and reached out towards Ianto, but he stepped back out of Jacks reach.
'I don't understand why I'm still here, why you didn't get rid of me. You must have hated me for what I did, you probably still do deep down. I deceived you all, I put everyone in danger, I also said so many horrible things to you. Oh God I can see it all now.' Ianto turned his back on Jack and put his hands over his face, trying to somehow block out all the images.
'I don't hate you,' Jack said softly, 'I never did. I was upset, disappointed, angry and I even felt a little betrayed, but I never hated you. If I hated you I never would have fallen in love with you.' The words came out of Jacks mouth before he realised what he was saying. It was the first time he had ever admitted to Ianto how he felt. He had tried to deny it to himself for so long, he had loved before, but everyone eventually gets old and dies, leaving him alone, so he tried to ignore what he had felt towards Ianto, trying to convince himself it wasn't love. Then Thames House had happened, Ianto had told Jack he loved him, but Jack hadn't been able to say it back, and he had regretted it. When he got this second chance with Ianto he told himself he was going to do it right and this was not what he had in mind.
Ianto turned to face Jack. 'What' he said. His mind was going into overdrive, he was having a hard time processing all the memories flooding back to him, and to top it all he thought Jack had just said he loved him. He was also pretty sure Jack had never said this before, he had the memory of himself saying it to Jack, but Jack hadn't said it back. 'Did you just say you loved me?'
'Yeah, I think I did. It wasn't supposed to come out like that, I realise this is not the best time.'
'There's an understatement. You need to give me some time alone.'
'Do you really think that's a good idea.' Jack said, he was worried about what might happen if Ianto was alone after all that had come out, actually he was worried if he let Ianto go he wouldn't come back.
'You can't expect me to just be ok with all this straight away. I will go and get what we need and then come back to the Hub, we still have work to do.'
'Ianto…' but Jack didn't get to finish.
'Please Jack just…just stay here.' Ianto then turned and started to walk away. Everything going round in his head, and no idea how he was going to sort through it all. He didn't get very far though before he heard a voice over his comms. 'Jack, Ianto, can either of you hear me.' It was Gwen and she sounded panicked.
'Gwen, this better be important.' Jack answered, still not taking his eyes of Ianto, who still had his back to him, but was obviously listening to Gwen.
'It is, Jack you have to get back to the Hub now!' There was a real urgency in her voice now.
'What's wrong?'
'The others have found us.'
Jack was confused for a minute, 'The others?
'The other alien creatures, they know where we are and are trying to find a way in.'
Ianto turned around and looked at Jack, as Jack said, 'Ok, we'll be right back.' Then they both ran back towards the Hub.
