Martha tired not to fidget as Suraal ran the scanner over her legs.
He scowled when she twitched. "Please Martha Jones. This will not go any quicker by moving your legs."
Martha gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, but..."
"I know you want to join the search for your friends, but it will be no good to anyone if you try and walk on still damaged legs."
Martha sighed...Suraal was right, but still she wanted out. It had been two weeks since Jack and Gwen had gone after the Doctor...no the Darkness. Two weeks since was left of the Darkness's fleet had. Two weeks since the report that Major Lissar had boarded the flagships, and even longer since Ianto had been captured.
She wondered where they all were and were they still all alive. That thought terrified her...the thought of being alone in a universe without the people she knew and cared about.
She twitched again and smiled again when Suraal tutted.
He'd just finished when a soldier burst into the room. "Doctor Jones, they're back and they've got Major Jones!"
Ianto had expected to die in his cell, chained to its cold steel walls. He'd been alone, apart from the unwanted visits from the Darkness.
He could have tolerated the torture from a stranger; but when your torturer wore the face of a person you looked up to and considered a friend, it became more than just torture. He remembered vividly his first encounter with the Darkness.
"Wake up pretty boy, it's no fun talking to yourself," a voice cut into the dark that surrounded him.
He jerked awake at the unsavoury tone in that voice. He recoiled at the set of black orbs that were only inches from his face.
"Ianto Jones, not pleased to see me? I see absence has done nothing to your heart. Oh well, I'll have to persuade you to want me."
"Go to hell!" Ianto spat.
The blow he received in returned loosened at least two of his teeth. He spat the blood into his abuser's face.
The growl it elicited froze his blood and he knew he'd made a mistake.
The thing that wore the Doctor's face growled and grabbed hold of Ianto's hair and kissed him. It was a kiss that held no passion or feeling; it was cold and full of unpleasant lust.
"Ianto Jones," the Darkness snarled. "You really shouldn't play hard to get, I'll just hurt you more."
Ianto closed his eyes at the first blow and let his mind slip away.
The sounds of gunfire and the shouts of panicked voices startled Ianto from his world.
Through blurred vision he thought he saw a familiar figure. Relief flooded through as a familiar voice spoke into his ears.
"It's okay, you're safe now."
That had been two days ago. Now he was stepping off a shuttle, eyes blinking at the sunlight. He narrowed his eyes at the brightness, so he didn't really see the figure that threw their arms around him.
"Oh thank god!" a female voice cried into his shoulder...Martha?
The next few hours were filled with every test that he recognised and some he didn't. The pain of the beatings, the torture and the things he would not think of were now painkiller fuzzed memories.
But the one person he really wanted to see wasn't there. He looked up when Martha entered the room.
"Martha, where's Jack?"