Spoiler alert: They Keep Killing Suzie
Beta-ed: GlassSplinter
"Ianto, Ianto," Jack was calling him when Hub went into shut down.
"Captain," Ianto replied in the same way, mocking him just a little.
It was dark, he had a flashlight, and Jack was looking down at him. It could've been fun if there wasn't an 'all life is leaving Gwen' situation. He was surprised that Jack thought that he was the one who'd started the lock down, and even more that he thought he could reverse it. Jack obviously thought he could fix just about everything broken down here. It wasn't all that bad if he thought that. He watched them for a moment fussing and trying to find a solution, and then he realised there was one thing he could fix, so he hooked up his phone to the water tower. Jack's surprise was worth the effort.
Standing there in the back with nothing to do, listening to verses spoken to the dark, and looking at Owen's count down on Gwen's life, Ianto couldn't help but fall down into a darker mood, where his childlike behavior seemed distant. He felt nothing towards Suzie; he didn't have a reason for why he would. He knew her only for a few months, and in that time she hadn't done anything to show that she knew he was there.
On the other hand, Gwen with her stupid games, in wrong moments that make people uncomfortable and ashamed, or just gloating; with her constant yelling, arguing, resisting, investigating, and knowing. He'd discovered that he cared for her and he didn't know her any longer than Suzie. Maybe it was because she stood up for him in front of a raging Jack, (and a raging Jack is not a pretty sight), even after Lisa strapped her up in a conversion unit. Or simply because she looked at him, noticing him behind the coffee.
While Owen and Jack drove off he stood behind Toshiko. They stood there listening to the silence and brief conversation. He couldn't help but notice that the others also preferred Gwen. He thought about it, why it was that way. It wasn't just because Suzie became a killer, in Torchwood life and death weren't so clearly defined. It was something more fundamental. It was the version of themselves that they were with them. Since Suzie woke up, there was confusion, like everyone didn't exactly know who they were.
With Suzie around Ianto was more blank and withdrawn than usual lately. Owen was all nerves, and Toshiko just stared at the screen. Jack was edgy, ready to burst. Ianto knew why they all preferred Gwen.
With Gwen, Owen's sarcasm became almost fun, he had a perfect target, and she would just smile and say don't tease me. Toshiko became cute and shy under Gwen's prying eyes; she didn't mind the attention and questions. Jack became a tutor and protector of little Gwen Cooper, and at the same time his temper got a safety button. Ianto, well she had no impact on Ianto. Ianto lost his Lisa, that's what changed him. So why would he care. For all he knew she's just competition, nothing more. But then he remembered.
In the moment he never thinks about, when the butcher men held a blade on his throat ready to spill his blood, when he felt terror like nothing before, sensing death, bloody and messy, and Jack came to the rescue. When that butcher dropped him on the ground Gwen jumped and caught him. She held him until Jack and Owen came and separated them. In that moment he barely noticed it through the pain, and disbelief at his survival. And of course there was Jack and his boots. They stole away all the attention. Ianto never thought he would ever enjoy so much watching someone shooting a shotgun. But Jack aside, she held him in spite of her own wound, and he felt safe, like she would protect him. And he knew she would try. It seemed that made the difference between apathy and caring.
He'd discovered that caring made him edgy. For the first time he wished that he could be there with them doing something, not helplessly listening in safety. Listening to Jack's shooting, Owen's yelling, Suzie's mocking, made him pace around, so when Tosh shouted the gun code he just grabbed it and tossed it through the air. Tosh made a perfect hit and then the silence came, it was brilliant. Gwen was alive. That came as a relief. Without her the Hub would once again become a quiet place disturbed only by typing and the spinning processors. He didn't mind the yelling, not anymore.