Title: Don't Feed the Plant
Author: Clarity
Rating: PG-13
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Ianto
Warnings: Descriptions of gore and mutilation, character death
Summary: Love makes us stay...

***

The last thing Jack saw before the initial pain made him pass out was the team fleeing. The countdown to lockdown was ringing in his ears, loud and urgent, the lighting dimmed to red. He wouldn't have passed out unless he'd been sure the team were getting out.

Once there were gone, he could drop the pretence that being spiked in the back by an enormous plant, now growing around and inside you, didn't really hurt. It did. When Jack was sure he was alone he screamed until he could scream no more and welcomed the darkness.

Time fell over sideways as he came in and out of consciousness, the pain giving way to the fear of his predicament. If only he'd recognised the triffidium plant sooner, he would have locked it in a jar and in his safe, instead of getting close enough for it to suddenly grow to ten foot in as many seconds and spike him right in the back. Now the situation was very dire. He knew that, typically, the triffidium snagged victims in this way, bled them dry in order to grow, and then went to find more bodies to be able to keep on growing. Given sufficient time and population, they could easily grow across an entire continent or even a planet since they were pretty much indestructible. But Jack wasn't exactly like its usual meal. He knew that he wasn't about to run out of all the stuff in his body it was leeching out; its rate of growth seemed to be a good indication of that fact. So it wasn't likely to need any other victims in order to grow out of control. Jack would do just nicely.

So the only thing that could have been done in such circumstances was to lockdown and sit tight, waiting for it die. Except, Jack knew that it wouldn't. Because he wouldn't. Nor could he break free of it while it was wrapped around his spine and taking root in his vital organs. He was trapped and more scared than he dared to admit, even to himself. Being crucified and gutted by a plant for the rest of time had certainly not been an ambition.

Jack spent some time trying to pull away, even though every attempt made him pass out again. He spent time screaming and cursing it, hoping against hope that it had a noise aversion. When that didn't work, he tried to reason with it. The damned plant didn't take any notice.

He was woken from a dream about stomping on daisies by something cold on his cheek. Jack opened his eyes and lifted his drooping head to come face to face with a cyberman.

Great, he thought, that's all I need.

Only, as the blur in his eyes cleared, he realised it wasn't a cyberman at all. It was a welding mask. Someone was there, and they were wearing a welding mask. There was an apron too with a Kevlar shirt poking out of the top. And thick gloves with metal shields. The coldness on his cheek had been from the gloves, because the person was touching him.

The mask was lifted and he saw Ianto's face.

‘ ‘nto?' he mumbled.

‘Shhh,' Ianto said, pressing a finger to his lips.

‘Thought you out... why you still here? We're... lockdown.' His words were coming out slurred and lazy.

‘We are,' he said, at a whisper, and sighed. ‘I couldn't go. But the others are out, so don't worry about them.'

‘Oh ‘nto...' he groaned, sadly.

‘I was trying to find a way to stop this thing. I chopped some vines and did tests...'

‘No... don't touch... could still... still get you too.'

‘It hasn't got down in the lower levels yet. Besides, it doesn't seem to be interested in me. Even when I chopped some samples. Maybe because it's already got you.'

Ianto stepped a little closer and placed a cold cloth to Jack's forehead, making him feel a surprising amount better; he hadn't realised how overheated he was feeling. That was probably because that was the least of his worries, on a sliding scale.

‘I think I found a way to kill it, but...' Ianto looked down, guiltily, ‘it'll hurt you. A lot. You'll die.'

At that particular moment Jack couldn't find it in himself to consider that a bad thing. Until Ianto held up a tube, a funnel, and a large bottle which obviously had some sort of chemical in it. The wince on his face told Jack that it was exactly what he thought it was going to be. A nasty way to die too.

‘I'm sorry Jack, but this is the only thing I can find that kills it. And since it's using you as a sort of, I don't know, heart maybe... it's the only way to distribute it throughout the entire thing.' He swallowed hard and looked up to Jack with a suitably penitent gaze.

He really really didn't want to go through with it. But he didn't want to spend the rest of his considerably long life attached to an evil plant with pretensions of world domination. So there was no choice. Jack nodded and tried to smile a little.

‘Alright. This will hopefully take the edge off,' Ianto said as he quickly injected him in the arm. ‘I'll have to force the piping down your throat so you won't be able to breathe. I know it'll be hard but, try not to struggle.' He pointed to a wooden board on wheels with some rope attached, just large enough to lay Jack out on. ‘When it releases you I'll put you on here and we'll take the lift down to the lower floors. Then we can wait for it to die off.'

Jack nodded again, not really listening since whatever Ianto had injected into him was beginning to work. Then Ianto was forcing the tube down his throat and he couldn't help but give more of a reaction. And when he started pouring in the chemical, Jack thought it might be fire, even though his screams were nothing but gurgles against the tubing. The burn was incredible, like molten lava destroying him from the inside out, and got worse with every second until, mercifully, blackness finally claimed him.

He woke up warm and naked, on a mattress covered over with sheets. Sitting up, he saw Ianto on the floor, still covered in his improvised armour, black and withered vines and leaves wrapped around his legs and body.

Jack leaned over and removed the mask. He was breathing fine and just appeared to be sleeping. So he gave him a light kiss.

Dull blue eyes fluttered open and Ianto smiled. ‘You're okay?' he whispered.

‘Looks like it. Thanks to you.' Jack carefully pulled away the armour and rolled him into his arms on the mattress, giving him a more comfortable place to pass out from exhaustion.

Although it took two or three days for the triffidium to truly die, and for it to be safe to go out of lockdown, they managed to pass the time easily enough.

***