And You Let Him Go

Chapter 1

"JACK!"

The line goes dead. Not even the buzz and crackle of static to break the ominous silence. Ianto is in shock. He has to find the team, and fast. A dead comm line is always the sign of the worst.

They were investigating some obscure Rift activity, and now the worst possible scenario is playing itself out.

Ianto leaps into Torchwood's secondary car nearly panicking. This is bad, this is so bad, and it was all his fault. If anything happened to them Ianto is sure he will never forgive himself.

The ride there is a blur, hardly registering at all. When he arrives he rushes to the team. He sees them all there splayed out in the wreckage. The smoking and destroyed remains are scattered around their still forms. Their wounds are horrifying and Ianto is at a loss for what to do about them. Their only doctor is one of the wounded and unconscious laying around him. Then he sees Jack. In a second Ianto is by his side. He knows he should be checking on the others, but the destruction would've crippled them all, and Jack is no different despite his condition.

Ianto surveys the scene for witnesses, and, finding none, turns to the rest of their victims. He blinks and looks again, but they're not there. He could've sworn he had seen them not a minute before, but there is no sign of them. The rest of the team has simply disappeared. There is no way any of them could've walked away from a scene like this one, and they would never leave without stopping for Jack.

Ianto's head snaps back to the surroundings. They are unimportant. There are no witnesses, but this looks like a crowded park, and it is barely after dusk. The place should be crawing with civilians, but there are none to be seen.

Ianto begins to panic. In no universe is this a good thing. He snaps his eyes back to Jack, and he's still there, just as he was before. Just laying on the ground. Still laying on the ground; unmoving. It's been too long, he should popping back up with a gasp and a mad scramble to grasp the nearest object, but he's still lying there. Dead.

Ianto doesn't want to, but he kneels and checks Jack for a pulse. Of course, there isn't one, and that's not what worries Ianto. Jack has come back from worse wounds before, but there's something else about the situation that is bothering Ianto. The mad rush to simply get to the scene in time had scrambled his senses, but as the odd nature of the surrounding area came into focus, so did Ianto's Torchwood skills.

There are smoke and ruins and rubble all around them, but no sign of a source. In fact, the only other thing besides the debris now is Jack; laying peacefully next to him.

What killed Jack this time? There are no visible wounds, and from the looks of the shattered ruins around him he should've been impaled by some sort of flying debris. There is nothing. Jack is completely clean of wounds; not even a speck of dust. His face is becoming a disturbing orange color, matching the flat pale orange of a child's crayon, and he is still dead. No pulse, nothing. He is actually gone this time. Ianto's biggest fear has come true.

"Jack?" Ianto is in shock. This isn't supposed to happen. It is the one stable variable in their relationship. Jack always survives with a wink and a cheesy one-liner. Jack always moves on, even through the pain and tragedy that follows him everywhere. "No no, not like this. Please, Jack!" Ianto is crying now, screaming to the world how unfair it is. "Jack! JACK!"

Ianto woke with a start. He was covered in a cold sweat with the sheets tangled around his legs. He was panting in the dark all alone. His eyes were wide as he looked around the dark room searching the other side of the bed for where Jack's body should be. He had fallen into a fitful sleep with Jack's arms wrapped securely around him, but now he was nowhere to be found.

"Jack?" Ianto rose and slipped out into the Hub clad only in his boxers and a T-shirt. His bare feet felt cold on the concrete floor and he shivered.

"Ianto," Jack said without turning. He was looking at the computer at Tosh's station with a puzzled expression, already partially dressed in his trousers and a white t-shirt with his braces hanging down at his sides. "Did I wake you?" He asked although Ianto had been sound asleep when he had left him.

"No, I did that myself," Ianto replied with a half-hearted attempt at humor. Something was off in Jack's demeanor. His expression was less than normal and he wasn't looking Ianto in the eye. In fact, he was hardly even looking at the screen in front of him. He bowed his head as though he couldn't bear to achknowledge what was there, and it unsettled Ianto. "What are you doing up?"

Jack lifted his head slightly and glanced at the screen. "Nothing. Just getting a head start on the day," he replied as he shut off the screen and turned back to Ianto with a mild but fake smile on his face. He was trying to assure himself as well as Ianto, but it was fooling neither of them.

Ianto frowned slightly in response, unwilling to let it go, but understanding that he would get nowhere with Jack when he didn't feel like saying anything.

"Did you have a nightmare?" Jack asked in all seriousness. He moved his hands to Ianto's waist in a gesture of comfort. Ianto sighed into the touch and reached his arms up to Jack's biceps.

"Yeah," Ianto murmered ducking his head slightly. Jack nudged his head up with his nose to look into Ianto's eyes. Jack gave Ianto the smallest smile and leaned in to kiss him tenderly. Ianto squeezed his eyes shut as the memory of the dream and the cause of said dream came rushing back. He tried to push it away as Jack pulled back and rested their foreheads together.

"It's alright. Alright?" Jack whispered nodding slightly and bobbing Ianto's head along with his own. Ianto saw the careful smile on Jack's face and couldn't help but return it. He was sure, however, that Jack could feel the sadness tinging its edges.

"Good. Now, back to bed with you," Jack's cautious smile grew into a grin as he held Ianto back by the shoulders. Ianto rolled his eyes and obliged. When Jack didn't follow he turned back, confused, and gave him a questioning look. "I'm just...gonna," Jack shifted a little uncomfortably as he found the words to say, "check on the others," he finished sheepishly. Ianto nodded slightly dipping his head, a bit of an 'Oh' ghosting his lips. "Go," Jack said, "I won't be a minute," and with that he turned towards the extra rooms in the Torchwood Hub to check on the rest of his team.

Ianto sighed and turned back to Jack's room noticing the ice cold in his feet once more. He slid into the bed with the knowledge that there was no way he was going to sleep the rest of the night -- make that the rest of the morning, Ianto groaned seeing the clock next to the bed reading 3 am. He flopped back on the bed staring up at the ceiling trying in vain to clear his head before he had to face the day.