Torchwood: Divergence
Book Two: Adferiad
Chapter 21
The three of them sat quietly for a time, considering each other's prized memories and the other tidbits they'd learned. What else might they discover as the 'game' progressed?
"What's the funniest thing you remember?" Ianto asked finally, starting a new round. "I have to say that mine is when you walked in on Jack and me in the old Hothouse. Drop-dead embarrassing, but definitely funny even at the time because of your reaction and all the over-the-top impersonations of it Jack did later. Though there was his reaction in Amsterdam, when Martha introduced me as the Welsh Ambassador, you as my wife, and Jack as my 'personal aide'… definitely a close second."
"I almost have to agree with both, especially the Hothouse," Gwen laughed, taking another drink of beer. "I felt like such an idiot. But I think the one that really does it for me, is Tosh and the loose threads. I mean all you did, Ianto, was ask what was on her lapel, she glanced down and though it was a spider. Oh, God… she was slapping and brushing and dancing around, until she realised it had just been some spare bits of thread. And then she laughed so hard, she squeaked that she'd nearly we herself and ran for the loo. What made it so funny wasn't her first reaction though, it was how much it made her laugh too and that mad, giggling dash at the end."
"I must have missed that one," Jack stated with an arched brow.
"That's when you'd gone chasing after your Doctor after Abaddon and ended up in the middle of an apocalypse best forgotten," Ianto explained as he tried to decide if he wanted more pizza, keeping things vague so Gwen wouldn't ask questions his lover would refuse to answer. "It's still in the CCTV logs if you don't mind digging back several years. How about your funniest moment?"
"Hey, it's harder for me," the American protested, silently grateful to the younger man for sliding around the subject of The Year That Never Was. "I've got a lot more to sift through for this stuff. Hmm… one of the big ones has to be Owen's reaction when we found out that the alien device at the zoo had made you invisible. The whole 'now I've seen everything, wait, I can't see anything, God, what a joke' tone and his expression… classic. Though you roughing up a constable so he'd arrest Brigstocke just before that ranks pretty high too."
"Ianto!" Cooper gaped, trying not to laugh. "You assaulted a PC?"
"Only a little," the twenty-six-year-old shrugged, selecting a final piece of pizza. "Parental slur in Welsh, shove in the back of the knees, tossed cap, oh… and a decent slap to the side of the head. Not enough to do any real damage, but plenty to make him get that nosey reporter out of our hair."
"Evil genius," Harkness chortled, reaching for more food as well.
"I could blame Tosh's bad influence," Ianto smiled. "But Jack already knows me too well for that to work. What's next?"
"Well…" Gwen began, grabbing another small slice of pizza. "Barring the Hub being destroyed and what happened at the MI5 building because I think those would top all our lists, what's your worst memory ever about working for Torchwood?"
"What's yours?" Jack countered smoothly, taking a swig of beer. "You started the round, you go first."
"Now I'll have to think a minute," the former constable complained with a frown.
"I can break out the stopwatch," Ianto offered, carefully removing the more offensive items from a now less than scorching hot slice of the Veg Special.
"I'm surprised it's not in your pocket," Cooper laughed, then nearly choked when the young Guardian tentatively patted the front pocket of his blue jeans and produced the item with an innocent smile. "Oh, you did not…"
"Always at the ready, remember?" he prodded cheerfully.
Jack laughed, the old glitter of humour back in his blue eyes.
"Come on, Gwen," he urged with a grin. "This game was your idea. Don't make his push the little button."
"Shut it!" the raven-haired woman demanded, but she was smiling as well.
There was a brief silence as they all simply took a minute to chew and swallow, then Cooper went for a big drink of beer before frowning.
"I didn't think it would be so hard to pick a single incident," she confessed. "But there are things that keep lining up, one as bad as the other."
"What are they?" Harkness coaxed, well aware that half the point of this 'game' was to help the three of them get things out in the open instead of allowing the stress to build to such dangerous levels… and to simply get to know each other better after all they'd been through.
"They're all pretty equal," Gwen explained. "Finding Rhys after Bilis murdered him… knowing we'd lost Owen and watching Tosh die right in front of us… being face to face with a Dalek here in the Hub and not knowing how long the barrier would hold, or if Rhys was safe, and not having any idea where you were, Jack, or if you were coming back."
She paused and actually shivered before continuing, "Watching the Time Store latch onto Ianto, hearing him scream as it started shredding him for his energy even as it reached for me, and thinking there was no way we'd ever escape, that we were as good as dead."
There was an appreciative moment of silence as they all thought back on those events.
"Ianto?" Cooper prodded, passing the proverbial torch. "Worst four?"
"Pretty much anything about the Battle of Canary Wharf and everything that happened with Lisa after," the young Welshman murmured after taking a deep, calming breath. "Even though there was time between, it was on going and all related. The cannibals in the Beacons… being 'tenderised', the hanging bodies, and feeling that cleaver slicing into my throat. Though now I think on it, the entire Undertaker's Gift nightmare actually edges that out… being eaten alive by those nasty little bugs was definitely worse.
"Owen shooting you, Jack, and not wanting to go through with opening the Rift but being afraid not to… I was so scared that you were gone forever after you destroyed Abaddon, and I'd never be able to make amends for betraying you again… never even had the chance to sit with you in the morgue and say goodbye. Being helpless when that dead phoneline, alien computer virus put you in that strange trance state… not knowing if we could stop it, and facing the fact that someday you'd move on and leave me behind. But there's really one more…"
He was quiet for a moment; the lost child look briefly showing before he continued.
"Doing recon of Johnson's house of horrors at Ashton Down to find you, Jack," Ianto said at last, his voice barely audible as he closed his eyes against the pain of the memory. "Listening to you scream and choke as she had your cell filled with concrete, and knowing that at that moment in time, there was absolutely nothing I could do."
"Oh, my God…" Gwen breathed, turning a wide-eyed gaze on their leader. "You were conscious when she did that?"
The American nodded, reaching over to put a hand on his partner's nearest shoulder.
"You never told me you were there for that," he stated quietly. "I wasn't even sure the two of you were still alive at that point. Knowing you witnessed it, makes it twice as bad as it was at the time."
"Which is why I hadn't said anything before now," Ianto admitted with a wince. "That and the fact that every time I think about it, I want to find Johnson and bash her with whatever comes to hand."
"So, no pairing you two on missions when she comes back, yeah?" Jack half-smiled, shifting to rub the back of the younger man's neck. "I know you still don't trust her and she hasn't exactly been around enough to change that."
"What are your four or five… six or seven?" the twenty-six-year-old immortal queried, squarely meeting the Captain's gaze and giving a slight nod to show he was all right. "You've got a lot more to choose from, considering you've been working with Torchwood off and on since it was created."
Harkness sighed and leaned back in his seat to rub both hands over his face, taking a few minutes to collect his thoughts and try to decide which of the horrors he'd witnessed over the years were among the worst. It was a very long list…
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AN: So… going to be posting Saturday and Sunday until New Year's Day… You'll still be getting the actual Christmas chapters after the Holiday, but it's the best I can do. Hope that's okay…
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