"How's the math going?" Jack reappeared about an hour later, his fake smile upon his face again. I was laying on the bench, my head hanging over the edge. I thought better when I got some blood into my brain.
"All done." I smiled up at him. Jack nodded, crossing his arms across his chest. I sat up and looked out at him.
"Well, you can keep the book. It'll keep you occupied for a while. There are a lot of problems in there." I nodded.
"And I finished all of them." I smiled again. Jack's smile dropped and he looked utterly confused. "Jack, I told you this was child's play for me. I learned this stuff when I was 12." I laughed slightly. Jack sighed and touched his earpiece.
"Ianto, we are going to need a more difficult math book." He sighed and looked back at me. "Charlotte, I don't know what to do with you." He leaned against the wall outside my cell.
"Jack, do what you like with me. I would just prefer if it involved your clothes still on. I mean, I get that Ianto and Willow enjoy that, but I don't, so keep it in your pants." I smiled up at Jack, who narrowed his eyes at me.
"You are getting involved in other people's private business, where you do not belong. I took you in because I knew you could be something great, but now I just see that you're just another freak who hides behind her brain. Maybe if you actually had a heart in that empty shell of a body, you would have friends and a great job. You don't thought, so you're all alone, locked up in a cell because no one else wants you." Jack gave me a hate-filled glance and disappeared up the stairs.
It was almost silent that day. Ianto showed up with another textbook, brought me breakfast, lunch and dinner, but disappeared right after each time. I would watch him leave, a part of me wishing he'd stay. I liked talking to him. It was odd for me, because I wasn't exactly someone who liked people, but there was something different about Ianto. Every time he showed up, I would just smile at him as he handed me my tray. He would smile back, but we never said anything to each other. After dinner, when he came to take my tray away, I spoke up.
"I miss talking to you." I said in a quiet voice. Ianto looked up at me, then at the floor. "It's really lonely down here. Now that my tests are done, seems like Jack just put me in here to rot." It surprised me how vulnerable I sounded. I was actually a little scared. A week ago, I would have loved being alone, but something was different now. I was scared that I would be stuck here forever, never even getting a second glance. Ianto nodded slowly, holding the tray in one hand.
"Charlotte, I don't know what to think of you." He looked up from the floor and sighed. "Everyone upstairs is terrified of you, because you know more then you should. I'm not scared of you. I've talked to you, held a normal conversation with you. No sarcastic remarks, no creepy secrets about me that you shouldn't know. Just a casual conversation." Ianto looked away. "Yet, a few nights ago, you used me to get information about the other people." I opened my mouth to try to explain, only to find that it was near useless. "I don't know what to think of you." He gave me one last glance before closing the door and disappearing.
After that night, Ianto and I never spoke or even looked at each other. I would sit on my bench, staring at the wall. I went through four math book and a quantum physics book, never speaking a word to anyone. My food would appear and when I was done, my tray would disappear. There were days where I felt like I forgot to blink, I was just motionless. And emotionless.
As the days went by, I could feel something inside of me slowly breaking. I felt nauseous and dizzy. In the middle of the night, I would wake up from a dreamless sleep to find tears streaming down my cheeks. I was running on no sleep, my body seemed to reject any food I put in my stomach and I couldn't think. It was day in and day out, silent and dark. I was deteriorating and no one noticed.
Ianto didn't say anything when he took my full tray of food away, nor did he even stop to glance at me. I would watch him, my empty stomach churning. He would close the door behind him and disappear, leaving me only to stare at the wall once again.