Title: Human Flu
By: cameragirl
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: G
Summary: With Ianto sick, the team lets Jack know what else he missed while he was away.

***

"Where's Ianto?" Tosh asked. She had just come into the hub and immediately noticed the absence of the Welshman, who usually spent his mornings in the tourist office.

Jack jerked his thumb back towards his office. "Sleeping. Sick, more specifically." Jack told them.

"How sick?" Owen inquired, ever the doctor. "He was fine yesterday, more than fine actually."

"Erm…" Jack's face went blank. "On, like, a scale of one to ten?"

Owen sighed and rolled his eyes. "I meant symptoms, fever, flush, vomiting."

"Aches, chills." Gwen continued for Owen.

Jack had made a face when Owen said vomiting. "I don't know, he started mumbling something about being ill, and then he stumbled a lot when he was getting dressed so I told him to stay down and sleep it off, we'd get him if it was important."

"Coffee doesn't count as important Owen." Tosh told him automatically.

"I wasn't going to say coffee, I was going to go check him out, make sure he's still living. God knows Jack doesn't know the difference." Owen mumbled.

"Hey! I resent that. If something were seriously wrong with him, you don't think I'd realize it?" Jack asked them wide-eyed.

Gwen grinned at him. "Well… you don't have the greatest track record. I had a virus last week and you thought it was just bad coffee and needed tea."

"Antibiotics and tea are the same thing." Jack retorted.

"Maybe where you came from Jack." Owen grabbed his medical kit. "Which way to the whiny Welshman?" Jack led them to the hatch behind his desk.

"It's locked." Owen said in surprise and looked up at Jack.

"You locked him in?" Gwen asked. She crossed her arms and waited for his explanation.

"It locks automatically thank you very much. He has his phone down there and he probably doesn't even have the strength to climb up." Jack gave his best explanation. Owen continued to ignore Jack, threw his kit into the depth, and climbed down the ladder.

For some unknown reason that Jack couldn't figure out, Tosh and Gwen insisted on going down into the hatch as well. He looked on, bemused, and then climbed down the ladder with ease.

Were they that concerned about Ianto? When had Jack's bedroom become the prime location to hold team meetings and perform standard medical checkups?

When Jack's feet had touched the ground, he found his team around the bed, Gwen and Tosh looking on anxiously as Owen began to examine Ianto. Jack realized that they were just sincerely worried about the Welshman.

While he was away with the Doctor, the team had grown close, extremely close. Hell, Ianto and Owen were civil to each, sometimes almost friendly. That must be it, Jack mused as he went over to sit on the edge of his bed. Owen was using his stethoscope on Ianto's bare chest and Jack's mind thought quickly. He was relieved when he remembered that Ianto did, indeed, have pants on under the covers that pooled around his lower abdomen. Ianto was lying on his side facing Owen and was asleep. He was flushed and his deep breathing sounded a little ragged. Jack wasn't the most nurturing person in the world, but then again Ianto wasn't the type of person that would want to be taken care of.

Earlier, Ianto insisted that he wasn't sick. Or, at least, he refused to believe that he was sick. This was mostly because he felt as if he wasn't going to get anything accomplished and didn't want to be a burden. Those aspects, topped with the ultimate defining fact that he was a stubborn Welshman, kept him arguing him Jack until the Captain finally won with rationalization of the situation and told him to stay in bed.

Now Ianto was groggy and disoriented as the cold stethoscope touched his bare chest.

"Jack?" His eyes scrunched but didn't open.

"I'm here." Jack said quietly.

"How do you feel?" Owen asked. Ianto's eyes opened suddenly in confusion. He scrambled away from Owen, his sleepy face now awake with surprise. Ianto backed right into Jack, who put comforting, safe hands on Ianto's shoulders.

"It's just a checkup; Owen's just looking over you." Ianto leaned back into Jack's touch as the Captain rubbed soothing circles on his back. Jack felt Ianto get flush and stiffen and realized the Welshman must have noticed that he wasn't wearing a shirt in front of the rest of the team.

"Remember last time you couldn't get off the couch near Tosh's desk?" Gwen asked, trying to ease the situation.

"Oh, that's right." Tosh grinned as she remembered. "You couldn't move at all and had a nearly 104 fever." Jack looked curiously at the two women and Gwen started to explain.

"You weren't here when it happened. First we thought maybe he hadn't been eating properly, but then Owen figured out it was some kind of alien fever."

"Usually we all get vaccinated, but he hadn't received one since he had it from Torchwood one. Well, we didn't know that those wore off and Ianto ended up catching this ridiculous sickness." Owen finished.

"Kept him off his feet for days." Tosh added, noticing that Ianto was asleep again.

"Had to look through all the records and try to get in touch with Torchwood Two, who was finally able to tell us what we needed." Gwen recalled the strange man who had sent them a box of the vaccinations.

Jack's hand froze in the middle of petting the dozing Ianto's hair. He had known about the vaccination and knew that Ianto had needed a vaccination.

Ianto hadn't known about it because only Torchwood leaders knew, everyone was retconned after receiving it. Ianto wouldn't have known about it. By the time he was better he must have been pissed that Torchwood still had secrets he didn't know about.

"I'm sorry." Jack whispered quietly. "Not sorry that I left, but sorry about what I left you in."

"You've apologized to us plenty Jack." Gwen said quietly. "We all need time. You missed a lot." Suddenly, the air in the room seemed to become cold. The conversation had taken an awkward turn and they all felt as if they were intruding on a sick Ianto.

Owen hastily finished up his examination. "It's the flu." He saw their faces and corrected himself. "The human flu." Within two minutes, the entire team cleared out of Jack's quarters.

Ianto was breathing deeply and Jack continued to run his hand through the dark curls.

"I came back for you. I am sorry for leaving you Ianto Jones." He said quietly.

"Jack…" Ianto murmured and tried to sit up. Jack gently pushed him back into the bedding and lay next to him. Ianto obliged Jack and closed his eyes, trying to sleep again.

"It was the Doctor." Jack whispered, ready to continue his explanation even after Ianto fell asleep.

"Jack." Ianto said again. He blindly groped around and grabbed on tightly to Jack's hand. "I understand." He said softly.

"But-" Jack started but shut up when Ianto's mouth opened.

"I've never been one to turn down a trip with the Doctor…" Ianto trailed off, a small smile on his face as he fell asleep with Jack's now wide-eyed features staring at him.

FINITE

 

Next story in series - Human Flu: Sequel.