They Come in Pairs - 11/?
Jack/Ianto (mentions of Ianto/Lisa in this part)
NC-17
set between 1x08 and 1x13




I decided not to change the name, and I hope this part is as strong as it was supposed to be, but it probably isn't.


They Come in Pairs - 11

-----


Jack woke up gasping against the bulky weight of the dead Weevil on chest. He then cursed off a rather impressive string of swear words.

"Oh thank god." Ianto's relieved voice immediately calmed Jack. "Owen's on his way, should be there any second."

Which was true; Jack could already hear the pounding footsteps. It was only a second before he and Toshiko were pulling the Weevil off of him. Its nails were still in his shoulder and scratched his recently healed skin again as they did so. Jack let out an obligatory "ouch" of protest.

"Not detecting any life readings," Owen grumbled at Toshiko as they finished heaving aside the body. "Looks pretty bloody alive to me!"

Jack quickly pulled his coat closed, covering the tears in his shirt before they could be noticed. He pushed himself up so that he was sitting.

Toshiko gasped. "Pretty bloody indeed! God, Jack, how are you still alive?"

"I'm guessing it's not his blood," Owen commented, although he was still stooping in front of Jack, clearly checking for injuries. "He can't be wearing that much of it on the outside rather than the inside and be sitting up otherwise. How many bullets did you put in that thing anyway?"

"Quite a few," Jack admitted, relieved that Owen was once again drawing his own conclusions. "I'm fine. Just got the wind knocked out of me."

He did feel fine, and still immortal obviously. Ianto was also okay, so Jack supposed he had nothing to worry about. Other than that the glove had a delay on transferring things. "Ianto, you alright? Still with me?"

"Unless he was attacked by the coffeepot, yes, Jack, I'm sure Ianto is perfectly fine," Owen snapped, removing his fingers from Jack's wrist, done counting off his heart rate. "We're the ones out here getting thrown around by Weevils. And why exactly is it that you were crying for help?"

Good question, seeing as Jack was all nice and healed now. He glanced over in the direction of the dead teacher. Owen left his side to go check the man out.

"Still here," Ianto answered when Owen quit talking. "Thought you'd left me for a minute there, though. Glad you haven't."

Jack nodded, holding his hand to his earpiece. He'd been afraid of the same thing, that he'd lost Ianto. "Yeah..."

"This guy is already dead, from an obviously fatal wound, and you called a fucking emergency?" Owen stated angrily, bringing Jack's attention back to the situation at hand.

Toshiko glared at him while helping Jack up. "He was unconscious under a Weevil, Owen, don't be a prat."

"And I'm sure he made that call while passed out." Owen spun back around to face her. "We shouldn't have left Gwen."

Jack was almost afraid to ask. "What happened to Gwen?"

-----

Ianto was waiting for them in the garage when they got back. He cast several worried glances at Jack, but neither of them said anything. Owen was trying to comfort Gwen, who was also streaked slightly with blood, although nothing nearly so drastic as Jack. She refused to be consoled. He finally gave up and passed her over to Toshiko. He joined Jack and Ianto at the back of the SUV.

There were five body bags. They hadn't managed to capture any of the three Weevils alive. For once, Gwen wasn't distressed about that. She also hadn't said anything about the dead teacher.

Ianto's eyes went to the too small figure in the fifth bag. "Do we know how old she was?" he asked quietly.

Jack shook his head. "Probably about 13."

"You can't cover this up, Jack," Gwen insisted, stubbornly wiping tears from her face. "Her parents deserve to know the truth."

"What kind of parents let a kid that age walk to school by herself?" Owen demanded.

"Ones who don't know the kind of monsters that are out there," Jack answered. Gwen started to protest and he placed his hands on her shoulders. "Go get cleaned up. We'll take care of the bodies."

"Take care of them?" She shook her head angrily at Jack, then tried to shake off his grip "You can't just take care of this, Jack. You can't fucking take care of it!"

He held her more firmly, until she eventually stopped fighting. He looked to Toshiko. "Take her inside, get her cleaned up."

She nodded, then somehow successfully steered the distraught Gwen into the main Hub.

Owen ran a hand across his face, then through his hair. "I hate this job."

-----

When Jack stripped off his clothing this time, there was no innuendo. He undressed with his back to the team, shoving his ripped shirt into a biohazard bag. It was drenched in blood and would be disposed of without anybody looking at it and discovering the tears.

"Jack..."

He turned to find Ianto holding fresh clothes for him. Jack had always wondered why there was a set kept aside for him as well considering he actually lived at the Hub, but he supposed this was why. It was already laid out, nothing to be gone through. He accepted the clothing gratefully from Ianto. "Thank you."

He put on the trousers but left off the shirt since Owen wanted to take a closer look at his shoulder. He sat awkwardly on the exam table as Owen pulled on a pair of latex gloves. Owen poked and prodded a bit, then deemed that the wound literally was 'just a scratch' and should heal up quickly. He cleaned the area and smeared antibiotic cream on it regardless.

He checked Jack's head next, still unable to find any sign of a cut or lump. Which of course he never would since Jack hadn't been knocked out, he'd bled out. He wasn't going to tell Owen that, however. But Jack had lost consciousness, and despite Owen's grumbling, he didn't take that lightly, which was why Jack was undergoing having a light shined in his eyes for the second time. They'd already done this once at the school.

"Pupils still even and responsive, no sign of a concussion." He stopped sticking his penlight in Jack's face and shoved it back into his pocket. "Any chance you just fainted? Nothing unmanly about admitting it, big scary Weevil and all..."

Jack merely glared.

"So smacking your head is the story you're sticking with then..." Owen snapped off his gloves. "In which case, you probably shouldn't sleep for more than a few hours at a time tonight, make sure you don't slip into a coma. Any clue how long you were out for?"

Jack opened his mouth to retort on how incredibly dumb that question was, seeing as Jack had been unconscious at the time and clearly hadn't been keeping an eye on his watch, but Ianto spoke before he had the chance.

"Four minutes, twelve seconds." Owen and Jack both turned matching gazes on him. "That's how long Jack's comm went silent."

He'd stated it nonchalantly, but Jack could hear the subtext. That's how long Ianto hadn't been able to raise him over their headsets. That's how long Ianto had spent wondering if Jack was dead. He'd gotten himself killed over an open line. Again.

The same thing had happened back on Satellite 5. He'd yelled last man standing and then been exterminated, and the Doctor had heard everything. Probably the reason he'd gotten left behind.

Only this time, Ianto had still been on the line when he'd woken up. Jack wanted to thank him for that, wanted to say something, but Owen had already resumed checking Jack over and Ianto went to help Tosh with Gwen.

"If you really were out that long, we should probably check you into a hospital, have them keep you under observation for the next 24 hours, preferably 48."

"Owen, I'm fine," Jack insisted.

Owen didn't seem to believe that, but he finally declared Jack fit for duty, albeit against medical advice, and then handed him a tiny paper cup with half a dozen pills in it. Jack didn't ask what the medication was for. He'd been drenched in alien blood and had an open wound. Owen would likely be forcing unneeded antibiotics on him for the next month.

Jack dumped the pills into his trouser pocket when nobody was looking. He wasn't going to get sick, he didn't have a concussion, and he wouldn't be sore for the next several days. Well, his chest was actually a little sore, but he had woken up with a Weevil on top of him. He slid down off the exam table, used a disinfectant wipe to wash the remaining blood from his skin, and then pulled on his new shirt.

He still had a job to do.

-----

Gwen was holding the small hand in hers. She alternated between doing that and straightening out the girl's clothes. "She'll need new ones," Gwen commented. "I wonder what size she wears."

Jack placed his hand on her shoulder. "Gwen, go home."

She shook her head stubbornly. "No, I'm not leaving her."

"Call Rhys," Jack ordered firmly. "Have him come pick you up."

"Not until we find out who she is," Gwen stated, wiping at her face again. "She's all alone, and I can't leave her."

Yes, she was only a child and Jack hated that as well, but this seemed to have hit Gwen harder than Jack expected it to have. Gwen tended to get upset easily when people got hurt, but he'd never seen her this frazzled. "Give me your phone. I'll make the call."

She ignored Jack. "I should have gotten her inside. She shouldn't have been out there."

"It wasn't your fault," Owen commented. "We all got there too late. Nothing you could have done."

"I could have gotten her inside," Gwen insisted, checking the girl's clothing for a size tag. "It was my job to get her inside."

Owen started to pull her away but paused. He pushed aside a lock of auburn hair. There was name written in marker on the tag of the girl's jacket. "Tilly."

"She must have sisters," Gwen said, staring at the tag.

"How do you figure that?" Owen asked.

"How many only children do you know who write their names in their clothes?" Gwen replied.

It was a good point. Jack walked over to Toshiko. "Check the school records. Look for any students named Tilly or Matilda. Probably one with siblings."

Two minutes later, Toshiko handed a printout to Jack. "Tanya Ledger, goes by 'Tilly.' Age 14." He passed the sheet to Gwen. Now that the girl wasn't nameless, maybe Gwen could make some kind of peace with this. Or maybe it would only make her guilt worse.

Ianto promised to stay with Tilly until they notified her parents. After that, Owen was finally able to get her phone and call Rhys. Jack wondered again about the relationship between Owen and Gwen. They were obviously having an affair, but Owen was dutifully calling her boyfriend to come pick her up. He supposed working at Torchwood made for strange friendships.

-----

Toshiko headed home shortly after Rhys picked up Gwen. Owen had forgone the autopsies on Mathew Price and Tanya Ledger, merely writing "WEEVIL" as cause of death on the forms and handing them to Ianto. He'd then also left. Ianto remained behind.

He was still holding the clipboards when Jack finished incinerating the bodies of the dead Weevils. "I'm not sure what story we should tell her parents," he said as Jack walked up behind him. He didn't turn to face Jack, instead still focussed on the body of the girl.

Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto's waist, holding him and offering comfort. He ran his hand across Ianto's stomach and side. He didn't flinch at the touch or show any indication of pain.

"Maybe it would be better if we don't tell them anything, if she just disappeared," he continued, leaning back into Jack's embrace. "Then at least they'd still have hope."

Jack rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder. "If it were you, would you want to know?"

Ianto sighed deeply. "Yes." He sounded certain, and Jack supposed he was since he hadn't required time to think about the answer. He pulled away from Jack. Jack followed.

"I can't do this." Ianto set down the clipboard and finally faced Jack.

"I should be the one doing it anyway," Jack replied. It wasn't Ianto's job to deal with this stuff.

"I didn't mean this." He tapped his fingers against the clipboard. "I used to know that the monster in my closet was only imaginary, but now I know that the creatures under the bed are real, they do go bump in the night, and I can't go back to not knowing that. The bad things are real, maybe some people need to know that. Maybe knowing that will mean her parents don't lose either of their other daughters."

The information Toshiko had pulled up listed two sisters, 12 and 11, enrolled at a different school. Their mother had probably been driving them while Tilly walked. He reached for Ianto's hand and Ianto withdrew it.

"This thing with us has to stop, Jack, because it would be me pulling the covers over my head."

"So I'm what you can't do?" Was he saying that Jack was one of the bad things? Jack deliberately met Ianto's gaze, and Ianto's focus flicked subtly back and forth as he tried to look into both of Jack's eyes at once. Which was really rather endearing and fairly adorable, Jack decided.

"I'm sorry, Jack." He broke their gaze.

Jack reached for his hand again, this time catching it. "It's been a rough day. Maybe you'll feel differently tomorrow." Because everything had been fine that morning, hadn't it? Ianto'd been willing to give them a chance. Two more chances actually.

"I can't." And he somehow sounded simultaneously both firm and uncertain. "Not after Lisa. So this, Jack, you need to stop. I'm asking you to stop."

Jack released his hand. Had he really expected a relationship between him and Ianto to work? After Jack had killed Ianto's last lover? Jack still hadn't entirely forgiven Ianto for that betrayal, and Jack's actions had to be a thousand times harder for Ianto to forgive. "I understand."

They probably still could have had really great sex -- had practically ended up in bed together the night Suzie had died (again) -- except that somewhere along the line actual feelings had gotten involved. Jack figured Ianto couldn't sleep with him if he admitted there was a chance he could fall for him. Ianto could never bring himself to love the person he held responsible for Lisa's death.

And if it was about more than sex, they couldn't make it work. Jack hated to admit it, but it was more.

He picked up the clipboards, headed back to his office.

"You go out there every day," Ianto said, the words halting Jack's retreat, "and while normal people run away, you run toward the bad things. We all do, but you're reckless, and it's only a matter of time until it's you being brought back in a body bag... or worse. I can't do that. Not that. I can't handle it. Not again."

Oh. That was what Ianto couldn't do? He couldn't watch another lover die? This really was becoming more. Enough so that Ianto felt the need to end it before he could be hurt again. That's why he was breaking up with Jack over the body of a dead 14-year-old girl.

Jack slowly stepped back down the several stairs he'd made it up. "I've no plans of dying anytime soon." He was actually the least likely person in the universe to wind up dead, at least permanently. He couldn't promise he'd never leave Ianto, but dying almost definitely wouldn't be the way he'd do it.

"I'm sure Tilly wasn't planning on it either."

Jack had seen more death than Ianto, and he was willing to go through it all over again. At least most days he was willing. Hell, Ianto could be dying right that second from a claw wound to the gut that just hadn't shown up yet. He sighed in frustration. "I could use a cup of coffee."

Ianto didn't say anything else as he walked by Jack to go fix it. Jack moved Tilly's body into cold storage.

-----

TBC

And now I need to go watch a certain scene from the last ep over again, because I swear Tosh dropped her bag twice, and combined with the hair blowing, hair flat, hair blowing, hair flat thing, it really wasn't a good day continuity wise for poor Toshiko. Huh? Oh right, of course I'll also be watching THAT scene over again, but I figured that one was just a given.