audrarose

A teeny ficlet coda.

Title: the next time she sees them
Pairing: jack/ianto (torchwood)
Rating: PG-13 or so
Spoilers: for 2x11 and 2x12
Summary: Gwen walks in on them again. Coda to Fragments.

Notes: Oh, janto. I refuse to believe you're just dabbling. (Even if I am. My first attempt at Torchwood fic. meep.)



Gwen is the last to leave.

She stays to finish up while Jack chases John through rift signatures and spike patterns. It isn't like being here now will make up for not being there then, but it's late and she's practically given up being amazed at how many ways a routine job can go balls up and leave Jack in a towering rage while the rest of them nursed a wider array of cuts and bruises than usual.

She supposes she should be relieved that Jack had been too busy and too grateful for her help to do more than gruffly tell her it couldn't happen again, but Gwen's stomach had still turned with guilt at the way Tosh's face had been ashen beneath the scrapes, her shoulders shaking with shock. She'd painfully noted how Owen had been stiff-moving and far too quiet, tending to the bruised purple mess of Ianto's shoulder. Ianto had actually taken the worst of it; his back a mass of bruises and jagged cuts where flying glass like shrapnel had gone clean through his jacket and the shirt beneath, leaving the ragged edges gaping and damp with blood.

So she'd watched as Tosh and Owen had left the Hub, moving carefully, their stiff politeness toward each other making her want Rhys and home but she hadn't seen Ianto since Owen had drugged him up and stitched him back together. Jack had banished him to his own quarters to sleep it off but that had been hours ago, and though Jack might conceivably spare a thought to worry about him she didn't think he'd actually check to see if Ianto needed anything. She decides to just take a quick peek to make sure he's resting comfortably and then head home for a few hours, whether she deserves the break or not.

Jack's office is empty and silent when she enters. She hopes Ianto is sleeping, so she quietly drops to her knees and stretches out next to the ladder, leans over the edge to peer down into Jack's bedroom.

And freezes.

Stops dead with her body frozen and her face burning, afraid to move because this time she can't just laugh and announce her presence; she knows she isn't supposed to see this. No one is supposed to see this... stillness, in the sprawl of pale skin over gold, with Ianto's dark hair tucked under Jack's chin, his eyes closed as Jack stares at the ceiling. Long seconds pass while she holds her breath, finally taking a slow inhalation when she realizes that they have no idea she's there.

Unbelievable that they're so unaware. Idiotic, really -- they should know better and she should just stand up and back away but... she can't. She can't take her eyes off the light touch of Jack's fingers over Ianto's skin, a hypnotic caress that carefully avoids the bulky white bandages, and for a moment it's like she can feel that touch herself.

She starts when Ianto shifts awkwardly over Jack's body, letting out a low grunt of discomfort.

Jack's fingers tap Ianto's good shoulder, gently, before resuming their slow stroking. "You're supposed to be sleeping."

"Oh, is my severe physical pain keeping you awake, sir? I apologize." Ianto doesn't even open his eyes.

The corner of Jack's mouth twists. He pulls Ianto fractionally closer. "Maybe you should try to think of others, occasionally."

"And perhaps you shouldn't have insisted I use you as a mattress." Ianto drags his cheek lower across Jack's chest, settles in over his heart.

"Oh, I don't know. This position has some advantages," Jack says absently. He seems fascinated by the sight of his own fingers threading through Ianto's hair, light through dark, the strands twining around his fingers the way the bedsheet falls around their hips and tangled legs, making it obvious they're naked beneath it. "This way I can feel you breathing, for one."

Ianto makes a sound suspiciously like a snort.

Jack lets Ianto's hair slip from his fingertips and slides his arm around Ianto's shoulders instead. "Indulge me."

"Continuously," Ianto murmurs, voice muffled against Jack's skin.

Jack laughs once, shortly, the sound cutting off abruptly and the arm around Ianto tightening all at once, making Ianto groan in protest. Jack immediately relaxes his hold.

"Today," he starts. "What happened earlier."

"Mmmm."

"In the warehouse."

"The exploding bit, I assume." Ianto still sounds half asleep.

"That." Jack sounds like he's choosing his words. "That was too close." His fingers trace the edge of a bandage, the movement deliberate now, tense.

Ianto stills, then reaches up blindly, rests his fingers against Jack's lips. "I thought you said I should be sleeping."

Jack turns his head slightly, pulling away from Ianto's touch. "It was a fuck up. A total cluster-fuck from start to finish and it can't happen again."

Ianto's eyes are open now, his expression pensive, and she can feel her own heart pound at the rebuke.

"I don't know precisely what you'd have had us do differently," Ianto says eventually, voice reasonable, but he seems to be holding his breath when Jack doesn't answer.

Then Jack blinks and looks down at the top of Ianto's head. "Not you -- I'm talking about me. Me." He still sounds angry. "I should have anticipated this. I should have been ready."

Ianto visibly relaxes, closing his eyes again. "Oh, you cocked it up. That's fine, then." He turns his smile against Jack's chest and slides his leg between Jack's thighs, pressing close beneath the sheet so Jack's eyes flutter shut. "Everyone's still breathing," he continues, mouth against Jack's skin. "We're all still alive, and considering Owen was dead to begin with --"

"My fault. My responsibility," Jack says, as if Ianto hadn't spoken. "I can't let him get that close again. I won't. Not to --" and he bites the final word off before he says it, face gone violent and bleak.

Ianto must hear the same emptiness there that Gwen does because he lifts his head from Jack's chest, the movement as carefully wary as his smile. "Why, Jack. Would you miss me?"

His smile slips away completely when he sees Jack's expression.

"Yes," Jack says, fierce and soft.

Then he cups a hand hard around the back of Ianto's neck, drags him down into a kiss that looks like it hurts, like it could draw blood the same way she has, biting her own lip until it bleeds. Then she's moving blindly, not caring if they hear and only waiting until she's down the stairs before she breaks into a run.

END




Audio version by the talented jadesfire2808: megaupload. (Thank you, hon!)