Title: The Next Day
By: Lupa
Summary: When something causes Owen, Tosh and Gwen to age rapidly, Jack (understandably) and Ianto (less understandably) seem immune. Can they halt the process before the rest of the team die of old age?
Author's notes: This is the sequel to "Turning the Tables". I recommend you read that before reading this, but for those who don't wish to, briefly, we catch up on the day after Ianto was able to outwit Jack and left him naked and handcuffed to Owen's autopsy table. It takes place shortly before "Reset".
Rating: AO
Genre: Slash, humour.
Warnings: BDSM, explicit sex.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto.

Chapter 1

"Alright Jack, I've definitely learnt my lesson now.  It won't happen again."

Ianto was naked, bent over Jack's desk with his wrists tied by a length of rope (because Jack said that he was not safe anywhere near handcuffs) to its legs.

"Damn right it won't!" snorted Jack.  

"And what is the lesson you've learnt?" he continued.

"That you are my boss and I am to show you proper respect at all times and that does not include leaving you naked and handcuffed all night to an autopsy table - Ow!"

The exclamation was prompted by Jack delivering a smart blow to Ianto's buttocks with a riding crop.

"Not just 'an autopsy table'"

"Sorry.  'A cold, hard autopsy table'."

Ianto turned his face forward into the desk as he said this, with his nose pressing against the surface.  He had an idea that it would not really serve his cause if Jack could see that he was struggling to keep a straight face.

"Now say the whole thing."

Ianto rolled his eyes, but although he couldn't see him, he could sense that Jack was poised with the riding crop, ready to quash any rebellion, so he recited the mantra again, word-perfect this time.

"Huh," was Jack's grudging response, but he did at least untie Ianto.

Ianto stood up and found that the papers which had been on Jack's desk where he had been lying came up with him, stuck to his groin and thighs.

"Oh bollocks," said Ianto as he started peeling them off.

Jack frowned.  "Those have to go into archiving," he said.  "How can we put them in there like that?"

"Well,” Ianto observed, “ the problem wouldn't have arisen if you hadn't made me come all over them in the first place.

"Which you had absolutely every right to do," he added hastily, seeing Jack turn ominously towards him.

"What are they going to make of these Magellan Cloud lunar charts being covered in human semen if they dig them out a thousand years from now?" Jack pondered.

Ianto sighed.  "A thousand years from now you'll still be around to explain it to them."

Without thinking, Jack put his arm around Ianto's shoulders and squeezed him affectionately.  Then, remembering that Ianto was still officially in disgrace, he withdrew his arm and coughed sternly, to cover his embarrassment at his own weakness.

“You can put your clothes back on for now,” he said.

Ianto began to gather up his clothes, with were dispersed over various parts of Jack's office, and put them on.

He found his waistcoat lying on the floor.  Earlier in the morning's proceedings it had suffered the same indignity as the Magellan Cloud lunar charts.  Ianto picked it up tenderly, holding it as if it were a wounded animal.  He looked ruefully at the stains and creases which now marred its integrity.  His jacket was lying nearby, bearing a footprint left by Jack's shoe.

Really, he thought, people could be quite unnecessarily vindictive sometimes. He put his waistcoat on and wandered nonchalantly over to the coat rack where Jack's coat hung.

“Hm, perhaps your coat needs to go to the dry cleaner's, Jack.”

“It doesn't,” said Jack not even looking up from where he was sitting at his desk, “and you are not taking any of your clothes there either.  You can wear them as they are today.”

Ianto chewed his lower lip thoughtfully.  He had not been subtle enough.  He suspected his blood sugars were low.  Knowing he would have to face Jack's wrath once he got to the Hub, he had been too apprehensive to eat any breakfast.  Now he was starting to feel decidedly in need of food.  Being shagged senseless by Jack, even in the variety of entirely passive poses he had been forced to assume, had burned up calories.

“Shall I go out and get some coffee, then?  I haven't had time to make any yet, might be quicker to buy some.”

“Yes, and get some doughnuts while you're out there.”

Ianto brightened at this suggestion.

“For me and the rest of the team,” Jack continued.  “Today is a day of penitence and fasting for you.”

It was as well for Ianto that Jack could not hear his inner monologue:

Arrogant shit....Can't take a joke....

“Of course, sir,” he said aloud, his face assuming the blandest expression he could muster. 

As he closed the door to Jack's office behind him, he thought that it was going to be a very long day.

Chapter 2

Ianto returned with coffee and doughnuts for everyone except himself.  He could have bought something for himself and eaten it before he got back to the Hub, but that, he felt, would be cheating.

He found everybody in the Hot House, looking at a plant which had come through the rift early that morning.

“It's so pretty,” said Gwen, putting out her hand to touch the petals, almost luminously white while Owen transferred it from the sterile container which they had used to transport it. 

“Don't touch it!” said Owen sharply.  “We don't know if it's harmless yet.”

“Well it looks harmless,” said Tosh.  “It looks a bit like a snow drop.  So fragile, you can't imagine how it survived coming through the rift.”

“Owen's right,” said Jack.  “Ianto, check through the botanical archives and see if there's a match.”

“Alright Jack,” said Ianto, and went downstairs to start checking.

After an hour which had produced no match, Ianto decided to give himself a break.  His concentration was starting to fade and he thought that a few minutes relaxation would help him perform better when he returned to his task.

He went upstairs and found Owen running some tests on a sample of the plant. 

“Anything?” Ianto asked him.

“Nah, except I've found out it doesn't photosynthesize,” said Owen, wearily.  He looked up and Ianto had to stifle a gasp of shock.

Owen seemed to have aged twenty years in the hour since Ianto had last seen him.  He was haggard and his hair was grey in places.

“What about you, Tosh?” Ianto asked although his mind was racing furiously and he was more interested getting Tosh to look at him than he was in hearing what she had to say.

“Not photosynthesizing would indicate it's a parasite. I've been checking the botanical data we've got, but nothing.”

She looked round as she spoke and Owen, caught a glimpse of her.  He did a double take.

“Christ Tosh, you need to start getting some early nights in!”

“I am feeling a bit tired.  Maybe I'm coming down with a cold,” she said, passing her hand across her eyes.  “And I think my eyesight is going.”

She paused, looked at Owen and frowned deeply, then looked at Ianto, as if to ask “Is it my imagination or…..?”

“Let me know if you find anything,” Ianto said, heading off to Jack's office.  He needed to get a second opinion.

He was relieved to find Jack looking exactly as he had left him.

“Jack,” he said, “I think you'd better come and look at Tosh and Owen.  We'd better check out Gwen too.  Something's going on.”

Jack got up immediately, alarmed by Ianto's expression as much as his words. 

“Gwen's gone out.  Call her back to the Hub.  Let me go and see what's going on with the others.”

Chapter 3

The team sat around the table in the boardroom.  Jack and Ianto looked at Gwen, Tosh and Owen, and Gwen, Tosh and Owen looked at each other. 

“Okay,” said Jack. “Three out of the five of us have become middle-aged in the course of approximately an hour.  Something has violently accelerated the aging process for those three.  Anyone got any theories?”

“It's got to be that plant,” said Owen.  “What else have we all three of us been in contact with?”

“Then why hasn't Ianto been affected?” Tosh asked.  “Jack doesn't age, or not detectably, so his staying unaltered is explicable, but why is Ianto unaffected?”

“Ianto wasn't exposed to it for so long?” suggested Gwen.  She fiddled with a strand of hair, looking pensively at the grey mingled with her normal dark tresses. 

Owen shook his head in bewilderment.

“That doesn't seem like it.  Yeah, you were there with us before Ianto turned up, but only by a few seconds.  And you left almost as soon as he did.”

“Well, perhaps a few seconds is significant in something that alters a time based processes,” Gwen persisted.

“I'd better run some scans on all of us,” Owen said.  “Get down to the scanner, I'll check everyone out.”

Once they were all assembled, Owen ran the scanner over Gwen.  He looked at the image it projected, narrowing his eyes.

“Now I need glasses,” he said crossly.

“There's something there,” said Jack, indicating to the stomach area of the image, where there was a small shape which was pulsing a soft light.

Owen enlarged the image.  “Yeah, you're right,” he said, frowning. 

“Let me do a general body scan, see if I can work out a biological age.  Mmmm, Okay, Gwen, according to these readings, your biological age is…58”

“What!” gasped Gwen.

“Jack, this thing is aging us exponentially,” Owen said.  “I don't know how much time we've got.”

“You mean we're going to die of old age?” Tosh asked, her eyes large with alarm.

“Pretty much, if we don't work out what's going on and how to stop it,” said Owen.  “Come on, Tosh, I'll do you next.  Bet that's something you never thought you'd hear except in your dreams,” he added, a flash of the old young Owen breaking through the new old Owen.

Tosh's image came up.  “57,” said Owen, grimly.

She peered at the image from the scan. “It's definitely some sort of botanical parasite.  Look, you can see that it's latched on to the stomach lining by its vascular system.  I think it's drawing its energy directly from us, the host, and the effect is to age us.”

Ianto frowned.  There was something….what was it?  Something he'd seen recently in archiving.  Not today, last week maybe? 

“We didn't eat the plant though!” said Gwen.  “I didn't even touch it in the end!”

“Ear, nose and throat, all connected,” said Owen. “That's why they put them in one department in hospitals.  The plant probably produces millions of spores.  If you breathe them in, some are bound to lodge in the throat and get swallowed.  It's like sperm, you don't need a guided missile, just produce enough and one of them's bound to get lucky.”

“And it's very unusual,” Tosh “because I've never come across any example of a parasitic plant which used an animate host.  They invariably live off other plants and usually the parasite doesn't destroy the host, they just co-exist.”

“Well, thank you, Tosh,” said Owen.  “That makes me feel so much better now I know that what's killing me is an inter-galactic botanical anomaly.  Jack, like I said, we don't have a lot of time.  Can you use the singularity scalpel?  We've got to get rid of this thing, there's no time for an operation and my hands aren't steady enough to use it.”

“I don't know, Owen,” said Jack.  “You're the one whose had some practice and even you haven't got the technique quite right yet.”

Owen grimaced at the understatement.

“Well, we need someone with a steady hand.  I don't think I qualify right now. Try it on me first, Jack.  Look, we don't have that many alternatives, do we?”

Suddenly Ianto, said “No Jack! Don't do anything yet! I think I may be able to find something from archiving.”

He ran out of the room.  Jack and the rest of the team watched him.

“Right,” said Owen, “let's get that singularity scalpel then.  What? Haven't any of you been listening?  We're running out of time fast and I really don't think we can hang around because the Tea Boy thinks he's had a brilliant idea.”

He went to where the scalpel was stored and handed it to Jack, who took it with some reluctance and turned it on.  Owen stood in front of him and Jack pointed the scalpel towards him.  The image of the plant was now displayed on the screen.  Jack looked at it intently and took aim.

“Jack, I can see from here that you haven't got it lined up properly.”

“How can you possibly see that from there?” snapped Jack.

“Because I may be old but I'm not completely blind and I'm not stupid either,” Owen snarled in reply.  “Oh, shit, this is bloody useless.  I'm going to have to direct you and I can't stand behind the scalpel and in its sights at the same time.  Which means, I'm sorry ladies, but one of you is going to have to volunteer to be first.”

Gwen and Tosh looked at each other bleakly.

“I'll be first,” said Tosh, her voice somehow both timid and brave.

She stepped forward to place herself in the scalpel's sights.  Jack raised it again and Owen stood next to him peering at the screen.

“Get it more centered,” he wheezed.  “Hold it steady, no really steady…”

“Which I would have more chance of doing,” Jack said, “if you would let go of my arm.”

“Jack, for God's sake don't!” Ianto appeared at the top of the stairs, gasping for breath and holding some sheets of paper. “Here, I know the answer.  Owen, just tell me where in the Hot House the Quavorian Phalanx is!”

Chapter 4

Ianto ran off to the Hot House with Owen's directions echoing behind him. He was doing rather a lot of physical activity for someone who hadn't eaten for well over twelve hours, he reflected.  But then again, it was not having eaten that had saved him.

Jack raced after Ianto and the rest of the team followed as quickly as their rapidly aging bodies would allow.

Ianto found the plant he was looking for, picked up the whole pot and ran out towards the kitchen with the pot held in his arm and the sheaf of notes he had been holding still in his hand.  Jack followed and as they ran they came across Owen, Tosh and Gwen still tremulously making their way towards the Hot House.

“Just wait there,” Ianto instructed them. “We'll be back in a moment, don't waste any more energy trying to follow us.”  Naked hide and seek was a great deal more fun than the game of septuagenarian tag which he now seemed to be involved in, he thought.

In the kitchen, Ianto switched the kettle on and began feverishly breaking leaves from the plant and dropping them into cups.

“What's going on Ianto?” Jack asked.

“The Moon Flower,” Ianto said. “I knew I'd seen it somewhere, but it wasn't separately catalogued. I was going to cross-reference it but I must've got distracted….”

He poured water over the leaves in the cups.

“Here, Jack, help me carry these back to the others.  The leaves should be sufficiently infused by the time we get to them.”

Now moving more slowly, restrained by the task of carrying the cups and their scalding contents, Jack and Ianto made their way back.

“Emily Holroyd was compiling a list of botanical remedies,” Ianto explained as they walked along.  “She said the Quavorian Phalanx was used to counter the effects of the Moon Flower, a parasitic plant, grows in the digestive organs of the host.  The seeds thrive on the acids and enzymes produced when the host eats, then in the second phase of growth, the plant feeds on the life force of the host itself.”

“And Emily Holroyd got that information from….”

“Alice Guppy.”

“Who got it from….”

“Alright, from a series of experiments carried out on weevils and other sentient aliens.  Look, Jack, we don't have to like the way this knowledge was obtained to use it. What are we supposed to do, watch our friends die because we're too high-minded to use knowledge which was acquired immorally?”

Jack sighed.  He hated the thought of what had gone into compiling those papers Ianto was holding, but Ianto was right.  There was a chance that some good could come out of the past evils and they couldn't afford to ignore what they knew.

“Here,” Ianto said, as they reached the three elderly team members, “Quavorian tea infusion anyone?”

“Highly alkaline,” said Owen sniffing the brew suspiciously.

“But I have it on the authority of Emily Holroyd,” said Ianto, waving the papers he had retrieved from the archive, “that it can be 'drunk harmlessly as an infusion and will only act to reduce the acidic environment in the stomach which is enabling the parasite to grow.'  I also have it on the same authority that once the infusion takes effect, the body will absorb the parasite and return to its chronological age.  Whereas,” here Ianto looked pointedly at Owen, “removing the parasite completely will stop further aging but leave the host at the biological age it reached before the plant was removed.”

“Well, Ianto, this must be like all your wet dreams come true at once,” said Owen.  “An alien invasion you can fight with a cup of tea.”

Chapter 5

An hour later they were down at the scanner again, watching as Owen scanned each of them, including Jack and Ianto.  Ianto's empty stomach showed no sign of parasitic activity.  Jack's showed that he was harbouring the parasite without any apparent ill-effect.  None the less, Owen ordered them both to take prophylactic drafts of the infusion.

“So what's the deal with this starving at work, then Ianto?” Owen asked, frowning.

“Oh, Ianto, you haven't been on one of those mad crash diets, have you?” said Gwen.  “They never work in the long run, you know, and anyway, you don't need to lose any weight.  Tell him Jack!”

“Ianto,” said Jack sternly, “you don't need to lose any weight.”

“I wasn't actually trying to,” said Ianto stiffly, “but thank you anyway, Jack.  Look, I just didn't get a chance to eat, that's all.”

“I'm sure it wasn't a life-style choice,” said Tosh, who was thinking about what she had seen and heard that morning and starting to add two and two.

“Gwen, Tosh and I are all almost back to our chronological age,” Owen announced, after running some further checks.  “We'd better stay off food for the next couple of hours, but it should be safe to eat again after that.  Same goes for both of you,” he said turning to Jack and Ianto.

“Okay, you may as well all go home,” said Jack. “Ianto and I will cover here for the rest of the day.  I'll order some pizza later.”

Ianto thought that if anyone was entitled to an early finish, it was him.  He was the one who had already been starving for hours and he was the one who had saved the rest of the team.  But he wasn't disposed to argue with Jack, even if Jack was being insensitive, unfair and thoughtless.

Once the others had left Ianto sat at his work station, deciding he would limit himself to something not too taxing, but then he heard Jack calling him from his bedroom.

Ianto went to stand at the top of the hatch and looked down, but Jack was standing out of sight.

“What do you want, Jack?” Ianto asked, apprehensively.

“Just come down here.”

Jack's tone was neutral.  Ianto tried to work out whether a summons to Jack's sleeping quarters was a good or bad sign.  Could be either.  He'd better go and find out.

He descended the ladder.  Jack was leaning against the wall at the foot of his bunk.  Dangling from one hand was a pair of handcuffs.  Ianto suppressed a groan and it wasn't one of sexual excitement.

“Oh…uh, really, Jack?” he said, trying to smile, although it came out more like a grimace.  “I thought maybe we were done with that.”

“Oh no, Ianto.  We're not done.  We're far from done.”

Ianto walked over to Jack, who still stood with the cuffs dangling from one hand.  As Jack made no move, Ianto after a couple of seconds, held out both his hands towards him.

For God's sake! Surely Jack's lust for vengeance ought to sated by now?

Jack took both of Ianto's hands and turned them over, then placed the handcuffs in one palm and the key in the other.

“Come on, Ianto.  Before you left last night, there must have been a part of you that was tempted…”

“Some of us have the will-power not to succumb to that particular part, Jack,” Ianto said loftily.

Jack then, as if mirroring Ianto's earlier movement, held out his hands towards him.  Ianto looked at Jack and they smiled at each other.  Yeah - why not? Ianto snapped the cuffs round one wrist, then pulled Jack's arm behind his back.  Jack moved his other arm to meet it.  Ianto, standing behind Jack, attached the other cuff, then walked round to face him again.

“Of course,” he said, “I could still walk off and leave you again now.”  He looked at the ladder up to the hatch which Jack would never be able to negotiate with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Jack looked at the very visible swelling in Ianto's groin and grinned.

“Somehow I don't think you will,” he said.

Ianto sighed.  It was true: he was so stiff his balls ached.

“Yeah, probably wouldn't even be able to get through the hatch,” he said.

Jack looked again at Ianto's groin, then up at the hatch and raised an eyebrow.

“Well, someone has a pretty good opinion of himself,” he said.

Ianto frowned and cuffed him softly round the head.

“Oh come on, Ianto,” Jack taunted him.  “Harder, you know I deserve it!”

Ianto sniggered. He looked at Jack for a moment, trying to decide what he wanted to do with him.  Well, there was no need to hurry.  It would probably help him, as well as giving him more time to think, if he prepared himself for action first.  He took off his shoes and socks, then carefully removed his jacket, waistcoat, tie and shirt. He could see out of the corner of his eye that Jack was transfixed by the strip tease that was going on.  Although Ianto appeared to be ignoring Jack completely, he was all the while conscious of Jack's eyes on him and determined to make sure Jack's lust was raised to fever pitch.

Ianto unfastened his belt and trousers, letting them slide to the floor.  He stepped out of them, picked them up and folded them carefully, before taking off his shorts, lifting the elastic waistband over his erection, then easing them down his legs.  Jack swallowed hard, unable to take his eyes off Ianto's naked body, pale and muscular. 

Ianto walked over to him and kissed him roughly, pushing him back against the wall, so that Jack stumbled slightly.  Then he released Jack's braces from his trousers so that they slithered over his shoulders and between his pinioned arms, to hang behind him.  Jack was toeing off his shoes while trying to prolong the kiss with Ianto. 

Ianto stood back, breaking the kiss.  Jack leant against the wall, resigned.  In his present circumstances, he couldn't do anything without Ianto's very active cooperation.  Ianto slowly undid the buttons of Jack's shirt and eased it over his shoulders and down his arms, until it rested against the handcuffs. Then he lifted Jack's vest over his head and pushed it down his arms, until that too was held by the cuffs.  Ianto pressed himself into Jacks groin.  Each man was hard against the other. 

Ianto nibbled and licked Jack's neck while he undid Jack's trousers to let them slide down to his knees.  He moved down Jack's body, tracing his descent with his tongue, over Jack's nipples, then down the line from his sternum to his naval. Ianto knelt to bring himself level with the part, still held inside his boxers, that Jack wanted him to attend to most of all.  Beads of moisture from Jack's engorged member had darkened a patch on his underpants where the tip strained against them.

Ianto slowly pulled down Jack's boxers, releasing his cock from their confines.  He kissed Jack's belly and moved his tongue down his body.  Jack gave a hiss of frustrated desire as Ianto skirted past his throbbing penis to lick and kiss his thighs.  Jack tried to move so that Ianto would take him in his mouth, but the harder Jack tried, the further Ianto removed himself, teasingly nipping at Jacks thighs - not where Jack wanted him to be at all.

“Now, where do you keep the lube?” said Ianto, who knew perfectly well.

“Top drawer, bedside cabinet,” panted Jack.

Ianto got up and rummaged around in the drawer, pretending he couldn't find it. 

“For God's sake, Ianto - how hard can it be?”

“Oh, I think it can get a bit harder,” sniggered Ianto.  He finally took out the lube and pulled Jack over to the bunk.  Jack sank down to bend over it.  Ianto knelt behind him and massaged the lube into Jack's ass.  He took his time, still teasing Jack as he caressed the opening, before, relenting, he moved a finger inside. Jack sighed with the satisfaction of pleasure long-delayed.

Ianto realised that his capacity to sustain the moment much longer was becoming strained and he decided that he would take Jack without further delay.  He pushed himself inside Jack and at the same time took Jack's erect cock in his hand and stroked it, eliciting appreciative murmurs of “Oh God, yes, that's good!”

But Ianto was now so excited he had to slow himself down.  He started to think of some lists to distract himself: Torchwood operatives from 1879 to present.  No, that was no good, he could never think of past Torchwood agents without wondering which ones Jack had shagged. He wanted distraction, not complete deflation.  Checks needed on the SUV to ensure it was roadworthy before its next test?  Okay, lights, including indicators, windscreen wipers, tyres, brakes, seat belts… and that big…powerful….throbbing…. engine.

“Ohhhhh….shit,” groaned Ianto sinking forward to rest his head on Jack's shoulders.

“Ianto!” Jack wriggled his captive wrists under Ianto's weight. 

“Huh, wha..Oh yeah.”

Ianto withdrew from Jack and collected himself sufficiently to retrieve the key from where he had left it, on top of the bedside cabinet.  He unlocked one of the cuffs and Jack roughly shook his arm free of his shirt and vest.  They flailed round still caught on his other arm as he sank onto the bunk while grabbing hold of Ianto's head and urgently pushing him down against his groin.

Becalmed by bliss, Ianto sat on the floor between Jack's legs, his head resting against Jack's thigh, and sucked him off with a sort of dreamy contentment, drinking every last drop of him when he came.

Jack fell back on the bunk and Ianto clambered over him to lie in his arms.  They remained for some minutes in companionable silence.  Eventually Jack pulled his arm away from Ianto to sit up and find the key so he could finally remove the remaining cuff and his clothes, still hanging from one wrist.

Ianto lay back and looked at the ceiling whilst running through the chain of events which had led up to this moment.  It had been a strange 24 hours, Ianto reflected even by Torchwood standards.  First he had thought he was going to be murdered, then he had thought he was going to be raped, then…

“What are you thinking?” Jack interrupted.

“I was thinking about last night.”

“Mmmm, you were a bad boy, Ianto Jones,” said Jack, whose mind turned immediately and exclusively to those parts of the evening which had most affected him.

“Mf, you might get tired of me if I was good all the time.”

“Yeah? I might get tired of you anyway,” teased Jack.

Ianto smiled, although actually that was a bit too plausible for comfort.

“Anyway,” said Jack, “I think it's time we made up now.”

“I thought we just had.”

“What?  You thought that was make-up sex? C'm'ere, I'll show you what real make-up sex is like.”

“Okay, then can we order the pizza-aaaaa…….ahhhhh, oh…..God!!!!” 

END