Janto One-Shots

24 Hours (Part One)

Jack glanced over and locked eyes with Gwen. She had her back up against a wall, her gun held against her chest. If Tosh had done her job successfully, she should have turned off the digital locks on the doors. 

Torchwood was chasing after a human, shockingly. Except, this person was in possession of alien technology.  The warehouse was supposed to be empty, but when they found out that the doors were locked, they knew something was up. Owen and Ianto were supposed to go in through the back door, but their comms were completely silent.  

Gun shots echoed throughout the air, making the pair even more eager to get inside. 

"You should be good to go!" Tosh yelled into her comm from back at the hub. 

Jack nodded at Gwen just before he turned around pushed open the rusting doors. He held his gun out in front of him, but his view was blocked by piles of shipping containers. 

More gunshots. Jack and Gwen moved towards the noise, careful not to give away their position. Jack positioned his body against another shipping container, trying to peer around the edge. There was a pool a blood around a body Jack didn't recognize, but there was no sign of anyone else. 

Another series of gun shots drew Jack's attention toward the other end of the warehouse, where he saw Owen holding his gun to a man's head. There was another body on the floor next to them, slouched against the wall. Besides that, there was no sign of Ianto. 

Jack was suddenly met with the oh-so familiar sound of a cocking gun, then felt the cold barrel being pressed against his skull. 

"Walk." The voice instructed. 

Jack was going to protest, but when he glanced over and saw that Gwen was in the same position, he raised his hands above his head in defeat. The gun buried itself further into Jack's head, causing him to grunt a little. 

Jack began to walk forward into the empty space of the warehouse, where he could count two more bodies. There was no blood, so Jack assumed they had a run in with the classic stun gun. Jack tried his best to look around without provoking the gun holder, wondering where the last member of his team was.

Jack was slammed down into a chair alongside Gwen and Owen. 

"Don't try to run, we have insurance." One of the men said. 

On cue, or so Jack assumed, a women stepped out. She was a wreck with butchered hair, bruised skin, blood shot eyes. Once he looked past the discolouration in her skin, he could see that she did indeed have insurance. That would be, Ianto with a knife held against his throat. 

"I see you've caught me!" She sing-songed. "I really don't understand why you guys go through so much trouble just to fetch a couple pieces of alien technology! It's really not that big of a deal."  

"It is when you're selling it to secret organizations and governments all across the planet." Owen spat. 

Everyone in the room could see the energy building up in his legs, ready to jump out his seat and attack the mad woman standing before him. Jack had to resist the urge to slam his hand into Owen's chest and instruct him to sit still. 

"The only issue is..." she said, tracing the back of her hand over Ianto's trembling jawline. "I can't give this up! I run a business! I'm independent!" She chuckled. "So, I'm going to make this easy on you! Two options."

"We don't negotiate with psychos." Gwen stated. 

"You've already killed all my men, so I could easily get revenge by killing this one right here. You, the one in the blue coat? I presume you're the leader of this little gang. What do you call yourselves?" 

"Torchwood." Jack said, as monotone as possible. 

"Laaaame!" She laughed. "Anyhoo! I'm going to give you two options. Number one, try to come take me down and I slit this young man's throat. Option B, or wait. Did I use numbers? Anyway, the other option is you give me a head start and in 24 hours time he will be returned to you 100% alive."

"Why should we believe you?" Gwen shouted.

"Because I have your man at knife point, and I haven't killed him yet. I really don't want to kill him, he is quite attractive." She turned her head towards Jack. "I can see why you two fancy each other! Don't act surprised, I can see it your eyes. Which means I have the Captains lover as my hostage!" She let out a string of laughter that bounced off the tin shipping containers. 

"100% alive?" Jack asked. 

"Like I said, I could have killed him ages ago! 100% alive. I'll hand him off to a friend of mine who'll deliver him to you in 24 hours at a selected meet up point. If you agree, that is." 

No one from Torchwood spoke. 

"Difficult choice, innit?" She teased. 

"Jack what are you doing?" Gwen hissed. 

"It's a deal." Jack murmured. "24 hours, perfectly alive."

She gasped. "That is fantastic! Tomorrows time, you'll have your friend back, and I'll be illegally selling alien products under a different name in a different country. Don't let the snipers on the roof get you one the way out! Speaking of which, we have snipers on the roof! So don't try anything funny. He'll be given to you at.." She wrapped her hand around Ianto's neck so that she could push a series of buttons on her watch. "13:04 tomorrow in the back road behind the deli market on Hope Street."

"100% alive." Jack repeated. 

"Toodles!" She shouted, instructing the three Torchwood members to leave the warehouse. 

Just as they thought they were out of earshot, everyone came down on Jack. 

"Jack, what the hell?!" Gwen punched him in the arm. 

"Shit Jack, are we really going to leave him in there?" Owen said, raising his arms in anger. 

"Please tell me you have a plan." Tosh piped up over the intercom. 

"Yes, I do have a plan! And if all of you would just shut up and listen, I might be able to tell you. It's not like we had much of a choice anyways, and if we did have a choice, I assure you, Ianto would be here, right now. She had a knife to his throat and I'm not risking it." Jack instructed as he got into the front seat of the SVU. 

"I know for a fact that we're going to be able to get back in there before the 24 hours are up and we're going to get Ianto back and we're going to take down Maggie, or whatever the hell her actual name is." Jack began to pull out of the muddy driveway, the sounds of seat belts clicking filling the car for a moment. 

"How do you intend to do that?" Owen snapped. 

"That's a good question." 

"You don't actually have a plan?!" Gwen yelled out in disbelief. 

"Let's just get back to the hub and work something out." Jack mumbled, barely loud enough to be heard. 

"You come up with anything on the ride back?" Tosh greeted Jack as he returned to the hub.

Jack stormed back her and made his way to his office, then slammed himself into his chair. 

"If he did he didn't tell us anything." Owen said, clearly trying to be loud enough so that Jack could hear. 

Yes, Jack was stumped. He could have sworn he would have come up with an idea by now, but alas, he had failed. The clock ticked. 24 hours. Tick tick tick tick. 

The constant noise pounding into Jack's head, as if someone was using his skull as a congo drum. After what seemed like years, Jack stood up and drew his gun from the waist holster. Bang. The clock exploded as the bullet made contact just before it fell off the wall and what was left of it shattered once it hit the ground. It was just a cheap wall clock anyways. 

To Be Continued

 - 1364 Words -