I AM SO SORRY FOR HOW LONG THAT TOOK I TOTALLY FORGOT ABOUT IT

Three months had passed from when Jack had left. Ianto was beginning to give up hope when the phone rang. It was a number he did not recognize. Thinking it to be another stupid sales call, he didn't even move and let it go to voicemail.

"Ianto…"

Ianto froze. It couldn't be.

"Ianto, when you get this message, I...I need help."

It was, though. Ianto scrambled to grab the phone and, hands shaking, pressed talk. "Jack?" he cried, unable to believe it.

"Ianto! Oh, my God, you're there."

"Jack, why the fuck haven't you been calling?!" Ianto shouted.

"I'm so sorry-"

"Do you have any idea how worried-" Ianto broke off, taking a deep breath. "You said you need help. What's wrong? What can I do?"

Ianto could tell that Jack was holding back tears from how choked up his voice sounded. "I'm...I was in a bit of trouble, Ianto. A lot's been happening, a…" His voice was trembling so much that Ianto could barely understand him.

"Shh, calm down, cariad. It's going to be alright."

Jack took a deep breath. It crackled over the phone. "I'm in Wales, but I'm not sure where."

"What?!" Ianto exclaimed. So close? "How are you calling me?"

"There was a pay phone," Jack explained, "a really old one, on the side of the road. "They brought me as close as they could to home before they had to leave."

"They?"

"Doesn't matter. Ianto, please, I need your help."

"Anything," Ianto told him.

"Can you figure out where this phone is and come and get me?" requested Jack.

"Of course I can, anything. Are you okay?"

"No," Jack told him. "Hurry?"

Ianto ran over to his laptop and searched for the phone number. "I've got you," he said. "I'm on my way, do you have enough money to stay on the line?"

"For about another ten minutes."

"I can get there in fifty if I break a lot of speed limits," Ianto told him.

"Don't hurt yourself," Jack said.

"Don't worry about me. Are you hurt?" Ianto was getting into his car, having printed out directions to the pay phone, way off in the middle of nowhere of the Welsh countryside, where nobody lived except for a couple of sheep.

"Not really, I just...I just really need to be home."

"Okay, I can get to the pay phone, will you be right there?"

"I can do that. Thank you, Ianto."

"You are so, so welcome, Jack. I'm going to have to hang up now so I can drive, are you alright?"

"Yes."

"I'll see you in fifty minutes." Ianto pressed end call.

Jack was shivering. A mid-April night in Wales was not a warm time and place to be, and he sank down to the ground after hanging the payphone back up in its little box. He wrapped his arms around himself. He was only wearing a thin t-shirt and a pair of jeans that they had given him after-No, nope, don't think about that. Ianto's coming, that's all that matters.

He waited and waited for Ianto. It felt like hours, though he wasn't quite sure how to measure time anymore since the past two and a half months felt like a whole year. A couple of cars passed by without stopping, and his hopes were raised each time, only to fall miserably. A couple of tears traced their way down his cheeks.

Then, a car did stop. Jack looked up, recognizing Ianto's small silver car, and heard a door slam. "Ianto!" he called out.

Someone was running towards him in the moonlight. Jack would have stood up, but he just couldn't find the energy, and then Ianto was there, dropping to his knees next to Jack and pulling him into his arms desperately, and Jack hadn't been hugged in three months and he couldn't stop himself from sobbing a little. "Hey, hey, Jack, shh, come here," Ianto was saying, helping Jack to his feet. "Oh, my God, you're freezing, come here."

Ianto led him to the car and Jack climbed into the passenger seat. It was warm already, and Ianto turned the car around to take them both back home. Jack reached across the middle between the two front seats, desperate to keep physical contact with Ianto, and rested his hand on Ianto's leg.

"What happened, Jack?" Ianto asked.

Jack shook his head. He couldn't answer that, not yet. "I'll be okay," he said eventually. "I just...I just want to be home right now."

"Okay," Ianto murmured. "Well, I'm right here, but it'll be a little while before we're home, okay?"

But you are my home, Jack wanted to say, but didn't. He was exhausted, and he closed his eyes. When later he felt a light touch on his arm, he flinched and woke up.

"Hey, it's okay," Ianto said softly. "We're home, Jack." Clutching Ianto's hand tightly, Jack went inside. Ianto turned on the lights and pointed Jack to the couch, where he curled up at one end as Ianto got him a blanket. "Here. I'll make you a cup of tea."

"No," Jack protested. "Just sit here with me."

"If that's all you need," Ianto agreed readily. He sat down right next to Jack and got underneath the blanket with him and folded him into his arms. "God, you're skinny!" Ianto exclaimed, shocked. "Jack, what the hell happened?"

Jack put his head down on Ianto's shoulder, and the younger man ran his fingers through Jack's mussed-up, neglected hair. Jack closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the gentle touch. Then, "Here," he said by way of a reply to Ianto's question. He brought his arm out from underneath the blanket so that Ianto could see it in full light.

Ianto gasped softly as Jack glanced away so he didn't have to see his expression in response to the pale mess of halfway healed cuts on his skin. "Jack," Ianto whispered.

"There's more, but…" Jack couldn't look Ianto in the eye as Ianto lifted the edge of Jack's t-shirt up, eliciting another gasp.

"Does it hurt?" Ianto asked once he could find any words to say.

"Not much anymore." But Jack shied away slightly as Ianto put his hand on the injuries on his back. Ianto's touch disappeared instantly.

"I'm sorry!"

"No, it's okay." Jack tugged his t-shirt down all the same, but collapsed back into Ianto's arms. Ianto held him even more tenderly than before.

"Tell me what happened."

"I can't tell you where I was, because I don't even know," Jack began. "And I can't tell you who I was with, because they made me swear not to tell anyone, including you."

"That's fine," Ianto reassured him. "Just explain to me why you look like someone used you as a knife sharpener." He was angry, incredibly angry at whoever did so for hurting his Jack like that.

"Well, someone else decided that we had the information that they needed," Jack said simply. "And I was the only one that they managed to get."

"Shit." Ianto resumed stroking Jack's hair, hoping he was providing a little comfort. "And how did you end up in the middle of the Welsh countryside?"

"I got rescued," Jack answered. "They came as quickly as they could, but...it was a long two months."

Ianto froze. "Hang on, are you safe now? Will they come looking for you?"

"We're safe," Jack hastened to say. "It's all taken care of. Believe me, if I thought there was any chance that I would lead them to you, I'd be on the other side of the planet."

"I'm so glad you're not," murmured Ianto. "I'm so glad you're right here, in my arms, where I can see you and touch you and make sure you're safe." There was one more thing that Ianto wanted to know, but he wasn't sure how to ask it, or if it was a question that needed to wait until Jack was a bit better. "Jack," he started quietly. "Just one thing. It doesn't make any difference to anything, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to. But did you tell them? What they wanted to know?"

Jack stiffened, undoing all of the work that had gone into Ianto's gentle touch that made him start to relax. "I did not," he answered. "If I had, I'd be dead."

Ianto shivered. He rubbed his fingertips over Jack's arm, lightly so as not to risk hurting him. "I'm proud of you." Jack said nothing. "I'm so glad you're here right now, Jack. I missed you so much."

"Not as much as I missed you."

"Well, I am rather amazing," Ianto teased gently.

"I know you are," Jack sighed. "I should never have left."

"Hey," Ianto said, "it wasn't your fault. What would have happened if you had said no?"

Jack thought for a second. "They probably would have made me go, anyway," he admitted.

"Exactly." Ianto grew still, deep in thought, until Jack made a soft noise of discontent and shrugged his shoulder up towards Ianto's hand as if asking him to continue the caressing. "Oh, sorry. Was that helping?" apologized Ianto, starting again. Jack settled down once more.

"What do you think?" Jack mumbled.

Stupid question. Ianto thought about the fact that Jack probably hadn't felt a kind touch since he left, and his heart went out to the man lying across his lap. "Well, I won't stop, then."

"Don't." Jack's breathing gradually became slow and even, falling asleep under Ianto's calming hands. Eventually, Ianto, too began drifting off, not bothering to make any attempt to bring Jack to the bed.

He awoke some time later to a whimper. It took him a second to remember everything that had happened as he looked down at Jack. The man was crying out softly and beginning to toss and turn. Ianto wrapped his arms around him before he could fall off the couch. "Jack, wake up."

"No, n-no!" Jack pleaded. "No, please!"

"Shh, Jack, wake up." Distressed, Ianto shook him gently. He had seen Jack have nightmares before, and this wasn't like the single cry and then waking up, panting, that had happened all of the other times. This really wasn't what I was expecting when I went on a date with a man who came into my coffeeshop, he thought. But I don't care.

Jack screamed. Ianto held him tightly. "Ianto!" cried Jack.

"I'm right here, Jack, wake up!" Ianto called, but Jack screamed again. Frightened, Ianto stood up, holding Jack's hands still because he was moving so much and so violently that Ianto feared he would hurt himself. "Jack, you're safe, come on, wake up," he urged. "Jack!"

Jack's eyes flew open, wide, tear-filled, and terrified. He was breathing hard and he tried to push Ianto away, but Ianto wouldn't budge.

"Jack, it's me. Look at me." Ianto pressed his hand to Jack's cheek, holding his face still and making him look at him. "That's it," he murmured as Jack recognized him. "Shh, you're fine."

"Ianto," was all that Jack could say. "Ianto."

"Shhhh, I've got you." Ianto sat back down and Jack clung to him. "You're alright, you're okay, you're safe," he repeated. "Just breathe, Jack, try to calm down, okay? And then talk to me."

"Okay," Jack whispered. His face was pressed into Ianto's neck, and Ianto could feel the wetness of tears against his skin.

"Can you remember it this time?" Ianto inquired after a few minutes, when Jack seemed to have calmed down a bit.

"A little. Doesn't matter anymore, you're here."

"It does matter, but if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine," Ianto made sure he knew.

"Hey, Ianto?" Jack said timidly.

"I'm here," Ianto repeated.

Jack leaned back so he could look Ianto in the eye. "I love you."

Ianto's heart skipped a beat. He had to take a second to process that Jack had actually just said those three words, out loud, to him. "I love you, too."

Two more chapters to go! And I PROMISE I won't forget for another three weeks this time. ~Clare