Title: Don't Have Nightmares (aka I Dream of Ianto)
Author: Clarity
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Jack/Ianto (though there is also minor Gwen/Owen, Gwen/Jack and Tosh/Jack if you squint)
Spoilers: Small Worlds, Cyberwoman
Summary: When Ianto goes missing on the base, all the team have to go on are their nightmares.

***

Skin pressed against skin. Silk and rough together. Moving. Pressing. Rubbing. Fingers pressed hard into his back. Clawing. Rhythm. Waves of pleasure, crashing down around them. Everything moves so slow and glows bright and beautiful. Tangled, blissfully tangled together. He knows this body, this being, so well. He knows every push and crush he needs. Every gasp and moan. Each tiny kiss and bite. Arms holding him tightly. He presses him down. Long legs wrapped around him, moving with his rhythm. Lips brush against lips, soft and wet. Rocking harder into the warm, welcoming heat.

Kissing away tears. Tears of fear. He is afraid.

Why is he afraid?

They are close. They are close.

Thrusting, loving, undulating, pleasure. He doesn't want it to stop.

But they close now and the body he is holding is growing cold with fear.

'Jack. I'm lost. It's dark. I'm lost.' The words drift to him, whispered and dull, as if calling from the depths of an ocean or across the distant skies. 'Please. Help me. I can't see.'

The brightness that had wrapped around them is growing dark. Dark, like ink bleeding in. They are here and he is so scared. He clings on tightly. Desperate.

Monstrous hands, sharp with claws, descend around them. No eyes but they see all. They see the fear.

Tearing at them. Pulling. Grabbing. He fights and struggles but feels him slipping away, screaming into the darkness, his cries swirling around him amongst the din of primeval roars...

'IANTO!'

Jack woke up the moment he hit the floor.

It took a moment for him to realise where he was. His heart was pounding and his forehead drenched with sweat. Jack rubbed his face to get his vision into focus and looked towards the clock. He groaned. Not even three a.m. The Captain rubbed his eyes again and forcefully willed himself to get up off the floor.

Only one thought occupied his mind at that moment, since experience taught him that there was no prospect of going back to sleep.

Coffee.

Lazily he padded down the corridor to the lift. In some half-assed way he was hoping that Ianto might be wandering around somewhere in the main section of the Hub, just waiting around for certain bosses to come asking for coffee. It wasn't that far fetched really; he was known to work late quite often.

Instead he was greeted by the sight of Tosh slumped over her console, fast asleep, creating a novel consisting of the letter "k" on her computer screen, since that was the key her finger happened to be resting on.

His fond bemused smile dissipated as he got close enough to hear her mewling and breathing heavily. She was dreaming, that much was obvious, but it didn't look like she was enjoying it. 'Mmm no. Ianto...' she groaned. 'Let him go.... Ianto. No Ianto!' She woke with a start, fighting the air. Jack had to grab her flailing arms to prevent her from damaging her equipment or sending any of the empty mugs dotted around the workbench flying.

Toshiko stared at him for several seconds before reality broke through her dreamstate and she realised where she was. 'Oh... sorry. I... weird dream.'

'What are you doing here?'

Coy, she tried to fix her mussed up hair and only managed to make it look even worse. 'I was doing some code sequences. Must have fallen asleep. What time is it?'

'About two forty five.'

'A.M.?!'

Jack nodded and shrugged. 'You could still go home and catch some rest. Or you're welcome to take my bed, I'm not going to be getting any sleep for a while.'

'I ah... I think I'll stay up for a bit now. Not sure I want to go just yet,' she admitted. 'Is there any coffee around here?'

'Not unless there's a cute teaboy hanging around here somewhere.' He did a quick turn around. 'Not looking hopeful. Guess I'll go make some.'

'Ugh,' Tosh groaned, and looked terribly embarrassed when she realised she had groaned at that prospect out loud. 'I mean, mmm great!'

Jack's eyebrow responded to that slur. He struggled his way up the stairs and made a mess of Ianto's workbench before getting anything approaching coffee ready. He didn't think it was too bad.

Tosh agreed. Although he chose to ignore the way her eyes watered as she did.

'I can't believe I fell asleep,' she said, deleting the "k"s from her screen irritably. 'And I didn't realise you were still here.'

He shrugged the implied question off.

She took a sip of her coffee, looking very thoughtful for a moment. 'Are you sure Ianto has gone home? Did you see him leave?'

'He doesn't appear to be here right now. That's good enough for me.' After all, nine times out of ten when he couldn't sleep Ianto tended to be there when he woke up, either still working late or draped over him, snoring gently into his chest. With Toshiko sticking around Jack guessed Ianto would have just left early for once. 'What was the dream about then?'

'It was... nothing that bad. I think there were some mean aliens though. Really ugly.' She shuddered. 'And Ianto was here. He brought me some coffee or something... but he looked really pale and, he kept saying he was lost. Asking for help. Then these huge monster alien things came and dragged him away.'

All of the hairs stood up on the back of Jack's neck but he kept his cool. 'Uh, this might sound a little strange, but what did they look like?'

'Um, from what I remember they were big. Really big. They had these huge hands with long sharp claws. Uh, they had like lumpy heads but no faces. Just all mashed up and blank. That's the last time I have a quatre formaggio at midnight.'

Jack was already on his feet, reaching for her phone. He paced back and forth, refusing to answer her questioning gaze. 'I can't connect to his phone.' He pushing her to the workstation and sat her down. 'Can you find out where he last was? Or if he left the building.' he asked, adrenalin making him wide awake.

'Uh, probably.'

'Okay, do that. I'm going call Owen and Gwen.'

'What? Why?'

'Let's just call it an unhealthy bout of déjà vu,' he said, and disappeared.

Ten minutes later Jack was back and Tosh had tracked down Ianto's movements as far as storage.

'Find anything?'

'Last place the cameras recorded him was going into the vaults. The ones inside are coming up scrambled. But he didn't leave so he must still be in there.'

'I called the others up but neither of them had nightmares. So it's just us.'

'Us?'

'About Ianto. I had the same dream. About those things with the weird faces and big hands dragging him away I mean.' Next he was pulling her up out of her seat. 'Come on, we're going down to the vault. Bring your gun.'

'My gun?'

Jack reached under Owen's workstation and took out the gun he knew was there, but knew Owen didn't think anybody knew about, and checked it for bullets.

Together they rode the elevators down a few floors and came out on the level they rarely had much cause to visit. Mostly it was Ianto's domain, since it was his job to catalogue, organise and store all of the bits of alien junk they picked up along the way.

The lights tentatively flickered awake on sensing their approach and cast the corridor into in an eerie red glow.

Jack knew, he just knew, that something was wrong. It was too quiet. The atmosphere felt strangely thick. He told Tosh to hold back as he entered the vault Ianto had apparently been in for some reason or another.

The place was a mess as one of the shelves had toppled, spilling bits and pieces of mostly unknown technologies across the floor. Splattered across every wall was a thick whitish goo, like thin porridge, dripping down. 'Ianto?' he called, not really expecting an answer.

Tosh came in behind him and hitched a breath. 'What the hell happened here?'

A deep dark sense of foreboding left Jack unable to answer. All the signs were pointing in one direction. And if Ianto had somehow been taken by what he thought he had been taken by, then they were in a lot of trouble.

*

Although he hadn't asked them to come in, Gwen and Owen soon made an appearance to find out what was happening. Jack set Owen straight to work on the camera footage to see if he could get that technical mind working to decode the static.

Tosh meanwhile decided to take a sample of the goo in order to test it.

There wasn't much point because Jack was pretty certain he knew what it was. The tiniest of tiny lingering hopes made him hold back and let her get to work. He had to be sure.

'Ectoplasm,' came the verdict. 'High content of amino acids and proteins. It matches other samples we have.'

Jack's eyes slid closed and he sighed. The bill fit. 'He must have been messing with some of the technology we've got stashed down there. It's the only explanation.'

'Ah ha,' Owen said, extra loud so they would know he had hit on something.

The three of them rushed over to see. 'You cleared the static?'

'Did you ever doubt me?' He took the pen he had been chewing out of his mouth and tucked it behind his ear. 'The frequency was just thrown off for some reason. It was probably just some camera malfunction.'

Jack wasn't so sure about that but he decided not to say anything.

The screen cleared to show an image of Ianto his suit covered by an apron with a feather duster and some cleaning products on the floor nearby. He was crouching down beside one of the locker racks they kept some of the smaller artefacts in. For some reason, it had been pulled out from being against the wall a little. As Ianto rose to his feet, they caught sight of something vaguely t-shaped and tinted a purplish-grey in his hands.

He picked up one of his dusters and began to rub it. Then he dropped it as if it had suddenly grown hot or shocked him. But it didn't drop to the ground. Instead, as Ianto stepped backwards, it hovered in the air, changing shape. Suddenly some kind of huge rift in space opened out around, swirling and crackling with electrical bolts.

That was when all hell broke loose.

Jack turned away, having to take deep breaths to push his anger down.

'What the hell is that?' Owen asked, eyes wide and fixed onto the screen.

'Some kind of vortex,' Tosh pronounced the obvious. 'Now we know why there was so much damage in the room.'

They all flinched back as Ianto was zapped in the back in the process of running for the door. He dropped immediately. The electrical tendrils crackling around the room encircled him and began to drag him towards the vortex.

'Turn it off,' Jack growled.

The three of them turned to him, questioning in their faces.

Jack was sitting in the rec area, dim lights and a dark expression casting shadows on his face.

'Do you know what that was?' Gwen asked.

'Nightmares,' he muttered. 'It has to be Nightmares.' Seeing them staring at him, waiting for an explanation, he continued. He knew he had to pick his words careful so as not to reveal that he'd learned about them during military training in the future they didn't know he came from. 'They're alien beings; existed across the universe since the dawn of time. They were banished from this dimension into a sort of midway collection point between dimensions. They were vicious, life-sucking creatures but generally they're harmless now they're trapped. They only cause problems where ley lines cross over. Ectoplasm is a classic sign of Nightmare activity and there have been a lot of instances of people disappearing. They um... feed on life energy. The more they have, the more they are able to cross over here. That's when humans can end up on that dimensional frequency; when they dream. Hence the nickname. The question is, we're not on so much as one ley line, so how the hell did that device open a window to their dimension?'

'What about the rift?' Tosh asked. 'Could that have been involved?'

'No. It's completely separate. Or at least, should be.'

'Will Ianto... will he be alright?' Gwen asked, gently. 'Can we get him back?'

'I really don't know. The longer they have him, the weaker he'll be, and the less likely it is that we can help him find a way out.' He considered mentioning the fact that no one had ever been rescued from that particular hell before, but decided there was no point in worrying them. They would find him and they would save him. He refused to believe anything else, whatever the sick gnawing feeling in his stomach said. 'Tosh, Owen, go find that alien whatever and contain it. We need to do some tests before we start messing around with it.'

Owen gave him a nod and grabbed Tosh by the arm. The two of them disappeared together quickly.

Jack wished he had sent Gwen as well the moment she fixed him with the caring face. A lot of the time he liked it. It was comforting to have someone so compassionate on his team, not least because she was rubbing off on him and the others a little, and by God they did need that. But right now, he didn't want to have to deal with it; didn't want to have to go there. So instead he made a beeline out of the vicinity, under the pretext of clearing away some of the coffee cups, only to accidentally break one of them by dropping it too clumsily into the sink in the little sideroom Ianto used as a kitchenette. He kicked himself, actually seeing Ianto frown at him for it in his mind's eye. Jack had the sudden urge to laugh at himself, but knew that if he did he might just fall to pieces and that was the last thing any of them needed.

For some reason a vision of Estelle flittered in and out of his mind; not how she had been when they had been married and in so very much in love, but as the cold wrinkled corpse she had been when he'd found her dead in the garden. He had been unprepared for the sensation of breaking in two that knowing he had been too late to save her had produced. Even though that flame had long since died it still hurt so very much. That had been the first time he'd cried for many years.

What he felt for Ianto, well, it wasn't love. Not as he remembered it. Not yet at least. Ianto still kept a part of himself cordoned off from him, from everybody. It was only because he happened to be the sort of guy for whom life meant very little without someone to care for that he had moved on Jack so quickly after he lost Lisa. Jack had been only too happy to indulge, grateful for the chance to do something to make it all better again. That effort had been the starting point of their relationship and it had being growing from there. But there was still a little part of himself that Ianto refused to give away, even if the woman it belonged to was very much dead. Every day he let Jack peek behind the walls he'd built up inside just a little more but it was slow progress. For now companionship had been enough; Ianto needed someone, and so did Jack. No, it wasn't love, but it was something. And it was more powerful than he'd ever realised, until he found himself standing over the sink starting to tear up over a stupid broken mug.

Quickly, aware of the fact that it probably wouldn't take long for Owen and Tosh to return, he pulled himself together and banished Estelle from his mind. Yet the voice of his old Commander barked in his brain in the form of a memory of the seminar on this particular alien menace. The Time Agency weren't exactly known for being coy about the dangers facing their agents. They had all received stringent warnings about the Nightmares, just in case any of them were to go back to a time prior to the war which saw them banished. The general lesson was that they should be avoided at all costs and any dangerous leaks between dimensions sealed off without delay. Basically that meant blowing stuff up at the site to disrupt the energy flow opening the window.

This was different. It wasn't a natural overlapping of universes, so that meant all bets were off. He knew his duty should be to just destroy that piece of technology, whatever it was, and try to forget about the whole thing. But there was no way he was going to abandon Ianto so easily. Not if there was still a chance to get him back.

Jack tossed the pieces of the broken mug into the trash and went back down into the Hub. Gwen was inexplicably making an effort to clear up, gathering all of the Jubilee pizza boxes and dropping them into a black bag. He'd never seen her do it before. 'Ianto will kill you if he finds you cleaning up instead of him,' Jack joked, but knew that it came out as sounding rather weak.

'You're probably right. He's so meticulous I'll bet he has a system for binning pizza boxes that I've just disturbed.'

'Twice on Mondays, noon and six; once Tuesday through Friday at five, and never on weekends.'

It amused him that the look she gave him seemed to imply that for a split second she really thought he was being serious.

'It's going to be a while before Tosh manages to get some test results. Why don't you go home? Rhys will be missing you.'

'I've already woken him up once tonight leaving. No point in doing it again. Besides, I'd like to help out if I can.' She smiled at him, sweetly, and he found himself nodding.

For the sake of the safety of everybody else, he knew he was going to have to wait for the analysis by Tosh before proceeding to even touch that thing, so if anything else Gwen would keep his mind occupied. That could only be a good thing, he reasoned.

It took two hours for the computer to correlate and spit out its results. Tosh, somewhat predictably, went off on a babble about its make up; metal inside with some sort of strange polymer shell. The important thing was there were no moving parts; nothing that might explode. In fact there was no indication that it had any particular function at all. Of course that meant nothing with unknown technology.

It was at that point a piercing shriek made his heart leap out of his chest, and he turned to see Owen already running across the Hub to Gwen. She had dozed off quietly on the chairs while they were waiting for the lab results and he hadn't had the heart to wake her.

Owen wrapped his arms around her and held on while she struggled. She snapped out of it with a gasp and buried her head in his shoulder, jabbering something unintelligible about monsters with no faces. Jack put a hand on her arm and she turned to him, tears in her eyes and smudging the mascara she always denied wearing a little.

'Ianto?' he asked, gently.

She nodded but didn't elaborate.

That was good enough for Jack. He immediately went and opened up the armoury, ordering everybody to get armed to the teeth, just in case. Back in the main Hub they lined up well behind him, giving him plenty of space as he aimed it out at the side wall. When merely rubbing it with his hands did nothing, he took out his monogram handkerchief — a souvenir from the forties — and used that. But there was still nothing.

His head snapped towards Tosh. She shrunk under his sharp gaze a little. 'I don't know. There's no indication as to how or why it worked in the first place so I don't know why it isn't doing anything now.'

'Rub it some more,' Gwen suggested.

'Yeah, rub it like you mean it,' Owen continued for her.

Jack shot him a very dirty look which had him shrinking back a little. He turned around, directed it out, and gave it a far more vigorous rub. Yet still it did absolutely nothing.

'Damn!' he growled.

'Maybe it's only supposed to be used once,' Toshiko piped up, and again cowered back a little at the unimpressed stare Jack gave her in response.

'No there must be something I'm not doing right. We should rewatch the video and see if we missed anything.'

Owen led the way back to his computer station and flipped it back on for them to watch. By the third time Jack had stopped wincing and was able to focus. The problem was, there didn't seem to be anything remarkable about the way Ianto rubbed it. He'd done exactly the same as him, stroke for stroke.

'Jack, what about our dreams?' Gwen said finally, slightly hesitant for some reason.

'What about them?'

'Why is he in them? I mean, is that him, or a version of him from our imaginations? For that matter are those dreams ours or his?'

Though he couldn't quite fathom why she was asking, he gave her the best answer he could. 'That's him but their our dreams. He's just sort of tunnelling into them, into familiar scenarios, as he runs from them. That's how the Nightmares are finding us; they're following him.'

'Okay, so if it's him, does that mean we could talk to him? In my dream, we were talking and it was like, well it was like actually talking to him at first before those things came.' She shrugged. 'Maybe he'll know what we're doing wrong.'

A slow smile crept up on Jack's face. He would have kissed her but he knew for a fact that she and Owen were some kind of couple (either that or she had taken to wearing the same cologne as him) and he knew from experience that Owen happened to be the jealous type. Instead he patted her on the shoulder. 'That just might work.' Then he remembered his own acute problems with sleeping and ended up frowning. He would have liked to have been able to give it a try himself, rather than leave it to one of the others to get him talking. 'Anyone feeling sleepy?' Jack didn't give them time to answer. 'Owen, Tosh, you guys have had the least sleep out of all of us. How about you two catch some shut eye?'

They both seemed strangely reluctant but both agreed. He took Tosh to his room and had Gwen standing by to wake her if she got distressed, and took Owen to Ianto's room and remained to watch him.

By the time Owen started yelling out it was nearing dawn. Jack woke him, but Owen said he hadn't managed to get much out of Ianto, except that he was really not a happy bunny. That this conversation had taken place over a game of darts puzzled both of them since it really had nothing to do with anything.

It was another house before Toshiko freaked out again. Her screech was so loud they all heard the pterodactyl in the roof squawk back ferociously.

Once Gwen had calmed her down, she said that Ianto had talked about electricity. He'd said it was something to do with electricity, right before the cannibals holding them captive were themselves eaten by the Nightmares. To Jack and everyone else that meant somehow jacking it into the mains.

Toshiko, on the other hand, earned her genius stripes when she declared, 'Of course!' before running off and raiding the utilities cupboard where Ianto kept his cleaning chemicals. 'We should have thought of this sooner. But the ectoplasm had made such a mess of the vault, it didn't occur.'

'What didn't occur?' Owen asked, in a very snide tone.

She waved a dusting rag in his face. 'He was using a yellow one.'

'And?'

'Do you have any idea how much static electricity yellow dusters store up? I'm sure you don't, so I'll just tell you that it's a lot. Maybe that's what charged it up somehow.'

And once again Jack was reminded of why he hired her. Since he knew for a fact she was unattached he gave in to his urge and gave her a friendly little kiss. It was worth it just to see her blush bright red and go awkward.

'Most bosses offer promotions. Ours offers saliva,' Owen quipped, rolling his eyes.

'You just wish you'd thought of it,' Jack said, with a wink and wiggle of the eyebrows. 'Okay,' he continued before Owen could retort, 'let's try this people. Follow me.'

They went back up to the main Hub and got back into position. Jack stepped forwards once again and got to work rubbing the device.

An unearthly roaring sound rushing like wind all through the corridors of Torchwood and swirling around in force them heralded the fact that something had gone wrong.

And then every computer screen and light in the place shattered, plunging them into sheer darkness, with only the bitter howling and desperate cries left to keep them company...

*

'Mine's broken,' Tosh yelled, peering at the torch under her desk with a penlight. 'The bulb is shattered.'

'I think mine's okay.' Owen flicked on his. 'A bit cracked but it works.'

There was a horrid roar somewhere close which made Gwen jump and spin around. 'Jack? What happened? What's going on?' Her voice was tight, like it was barely making it out of her throat.

'I think the fabric between their dimension and ours has gotten thinner somehow.' He peered at the alien device in his hands. 'Great, this is fried crispy.'

Someone cried out and it thundered around them. 'Ianto?' Jack mumbled, his heart momentarily pausing. 'Ianto?' he called out.

Another roar added to the sound of his voice echoing and a pterodactyl's squawk. Then they heard a voice bounce back, all around them, intangible and almost distorted, 'Jack?'

'Ianto!'

'Help me Jack! It's... it's so dark... I can't see... they won't stop... won't stop coming...'

Another growl hit them and Ianto cried out.

'Don't let them get to you, Ianto! Keep running.'

'They keep on coming... coming for me. They won't stop! I'm so... so tired but they won't... they won't...'

His voice faded out and something ungodly cackled.

'Ianto?' Gwen called, her shrill voice adding to the din. 'Ianto?!'

Jack ran over to Owen and Tosh. 'You two, take the torch and go get some rope and a pulley. And a harness if you can find one. Hurry!'

They ran off, leaving Jack and Gwen with only a penlight to keep them sane.

'I don't like this,' she whispered.

'That's why nightmares are better had when we're asleep.'

She nodded and jumped again with more terrible noises sounding out. A gust of air swirled around them and she shivered. 'What if they break through?'

'Actually, that's my plan.'

'You have a plan?'

'I always have a plan,' he said with a forlorn chuckle. 'Gwen have you done your target practise lately?'

'Yes. Why?'

'You're going to need it.'

Something screeched and they heard Ianto yell something unintelligible.

'Ianto!' Jack called out to him.

'Please stop! Please! Nooo!'

He screamed out and then abruptly it all went silent. Gwen and Jack exchanged glances, even more disturbed by the calm than by the noise.

Then something started to growl, quiet at first, then quickly building up to thunderous proportions until the base was practically shaking. 'You leave him alone! Don't you dare touch him!' Jack was bellowing out but his voice was swallowed in the din.

He didn't notice Owen and Toshiko running towards them until they had grabbed him.

'Found the climbing kit.' Tosh held up a set of black straps and Owen hauled over a heavy looking pulley with lots of rope on it.

'Perfect!' Jack grabbed the harness and fought to climb into it quickly. Once buckled in, he threaded the end of the rope all through it and tied it tightly at the front with a knot he'd learned from a certain kinky sailor many years back. 'Owen, hook the pulley to the floor and get ready for some heavy grinding. Tosh, Gwen, get armed with everything you can and prepare to do a lot of shooting.'

'What are you...' Owen began, but was waved off.

'Corathdo noor ahmru!' Jack hollered out an insult in a language they would have known - virtually the only thing he remembered from that course on history - and the sounds of roaring died down a little. 'Ah, thought that would get your attention. I have a proposition for you.' He slowly walked forwards, getting clear of the others. 'I'm not the same as the others you take. I'm... I have more energy to share. I'm one with the vortex which sent you there. You know what that means? You'd have the power to return here finally.'

Nothing.

'Don't believe me? Open a rift and let me show you.'

There was a pause, and then a tiny rift, no more than the size of a small Frisbee opened up in front of him. He put his hand in, wincing at the electric shock and the feeling of energy being ripped from him.

Immediately the entire room seemed to crackle with electricity and the din became more enthusiastic than ever. The miniature fissure in front of him closed up as he pulled back.

'Ah like that did you? See, I'm everything you ever wanted. So come on, you sons of bitches, open up to me.'

Tosh turned to Gwen, horrified. 'Tell me he's not going to...?'

She didn't know what to say to her.

'Open up!'

The air started to shimmer in front of him and flickering blue light exploded around them. A much larger aperture opened out.

'That's it,' he said, almost as a sigh, and turned to Owen. 'Count to thirty then start to wind the rope back!'

With that he turned around, stepped back and launched himself forwards into the vortex.

The effect was immediate. Electrical tendrils began to explode out of it at a superfast speed. As Owen's count reached seven, two faces creatures stepped out, one on each side of the rope. Their faces were mushed lumps of nothing and their bodies large and angular and disturbingly not quite in proportion.

Gwen and Toshiko immediately opened fire to take them out. They collapsed down and melted into a thick black goo.

When he reached fifteen more came. Again they shot them down and hurried to reload.

After that they came faster and faster, with some making it several strides before the girls were able to kill them. When they ran out of ammo, Tosh had to run to her desk and grab her emergency pistol.

Owen hurried his last few counts; he couldn't help it. He started turning the lever on the pulley to take up the slack. He made it a fair way before meeting resistance but was determined not to give up. Though the sweat poured from his forehead, his muscles ached and his back was killing him, Owen refused to give in.

Eventually, though his progress was painstakingly slow, he reached what he knew had to be the last pull. The resistance was enormous. With a huge roar to rival that of the Nightmares coming after them he tugged the lever round one last time and there was a huge bang accompanied by a flash of bright light, an unearthly wail and a tremendous splat.

Suddenly the emergency lights kicked in and they were all bathed in a red glow. Gwen and Tosh attempted to wipe the ectoplasm which had completely splattered all over them from their faces as Owen collapsed to the floor.

'Jack!' Gwen yelled and almost slid on the pool of black gooey mess running to him.

Jack was lying there with Ianto wrapped tightly in his arms; both covered in various kinds of gunk, and both as still as the grave.

*

'It's been nearly eight hours, Owen,' Gwen said, and immediately bit her lip to avoid saying anything more or getting two emotional. 'What if...?'

'They'll wake up. Vitals are fine. As far as we know they're just sleeping if off.' He put his arm around her, trying to lend some comfort, feeling a little buzz in his chest as she turned to him and let him hold her. 'Shh, give them some more time, okay?'

She nodded and allowed him to lead her away and let Jack and Ianto sleep in peace.

'We're going to have to wake up sometime, you know,' Ianto gasped, clinging onto him, every nerve inside him alight.

'Right now I don't think I want to be anywhere else,' he pushed in and bit Ianto's lip at the same time, loving how good this felt.

'You're... kinky, I'll give you that.' He stole a glance aside, wondering why on earth the rest of the Torchwood team, two Daleks, a sailor, the Queen and the Prime Minister were standing by watching them. He especially couldn't figure out why the Daleks kept telling them to 'lubricate! lubricate!'

'You have no idea.'

Ianto moaned and kissed him. 'Thank you,' he said, breathlessly, 'thank you for saving me. It... it all seems so distant now. But it was... it was...'

'Don't think about it.' He pressed inside again, relishing the heightened sensations he was creating in their shared dream.

'I... I feel really strange.'

'The effects will fade,' Jack promised and then groaned, suffused with pleasure. 'Mmmm s'why we need to enjoy this link while we still have it.'

'Can't....' he gasped in and rolled his hips, 'disagree.' Ianto's attention was suddenly caught by a strange sort of high pitched wavering humming sound. He looked aside to see a strange sort of blue telephone box materialising next to the sailor.

'Wh...?' he began but his mind instantly turned to mush as the pace was picked up.

Jack chuckled and grinned. 'I love this.'

***