Title: Love, You're Always at its Mercy
By: alicedebeton
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: PG
Discalimer: not mine wish it was...
Summary: Ianto needs help, Jack needs to feel again.

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Jack had shied away from any form of intimacy for years. He hadn't let himself fell affection for another. He had to protect himself. Immortality was the worst of the curses a man could live with, it meant that you lost everyone and every time it was like losing a little bit of ones self. A man, even the most disciplined had his limits. This curse didn't prevent him from falling in love it had happened before but it never had been this overwhelming. He had now met his match. He'd fallen head over hells for a human, a man Ianto Jones.

 

Ianto was like him in so many ways he seemed as weary of human contact. Jack couldn't blame him. Lisa, his first girlfriend had been quite a hardship to lose. For a young man to not only lose his first love once to an invincible enemy that had tortured her while there was nothing he could do about it would have been hard enough; but to then have to execute her himself to protect a world that had offered him very little was more than one should ever have endure. Ianto was a broken man and Jack couldn't stand that such a young person, full of potential had given up on life.

 

As for himself Jack was tired of trying to resist to this overwhelming attraction he felt toward his co-worker. His feelings had taken over his every thoughts and breaths in his pitiful existence. Because without love it could it was just existence it could not be called life.

 

****

 

Like him Ianto was an insomniac and put ungodly hours at the hub. Jack had watched him closely and as days ha went by his young co-worker had gone paler and gloomier. And if he kept on losing weight he'd just disappear. Unlike Jack he needed sleep   to keep up with the energy sucking lifestyle that was Torchwood.

 

Tonight it had gotten worse. Ianto was moving around the hub like a zombie on caffeine. Jack sighted, gave one last concerned look at Ianto and went to in his office to lie down to clear his mind. Only a few hours later Jack heard a loud noise. He ran out his office to see what had made such a noise only to see Ianto on the floor unconscious.

 

Jack gathered the frail young man in his arms and decided to take him home with him. He would help Ianto even if he knew that he was taking a risk of falling even deeper in love with his young co-worker. But Ianto needed him, needed a friend and Jack just couldn't stand on the side lines anymore.

 

****

 

Jack lived just a few blocks from the hub and found it very alarming that his arms weren't even a bit tired when ha laid Ianto on his bed. He stripped the man down to his underwear and wrapped him tightly in a warm soft blanket. Jack sat down at the end of the bed looking at the man in his bed a wistful smile on his lips. He was determined to make Ianto's life better whatever it took. It was really hard to resist the urge to wrap his arms around the thin frame and run his finger trough the soft brown hair that always smelled so good. Temptation had never been so beautiful and sweet. Jack wondered why he was torturing himself like this again Ianto would never see him as anything other than a superior. Christ, he was the only one on the team that still called him sir and captain while the other all called him by his given name. Jack couldn't stay in the room any longer. Ianto was too close, in his bed, but still nothing in his life had ever been so far out of reach.

 

Jack sat down in the kitchen with a tall glass of cold water. There was a small window above the sink and he could already see the first rays of sunshine. That's when he decided to keep himself occupied. Ianto needed to gain back the weight he had lost; it would start this morning with a breakfast fit for a king.

 

****

 

Jack had called early this morning and asked Owen to take charge for a week he an Ianto deserve and needed a short vacation.  He then waited until ten in the morning to see if his visitor was awake. He cracked the bedroom door open. The young man stretched and then abruptly sat in the bed surprised by his surrounding. The fast movement hadn't been a good idea since Ianto seemed to have gotten dizzy and had to lie back down.

 

"Good morning Ianto hope you slept well you seemed to need it badly." Jack said as he sat on the bed by the young man.

 

"Hello sir, may I ask where I'm and how I got here?" Ianto replied with a puzzled look.

 

"Well last night you seemed to have worked yourself into a state of unconsciousness so I took you to my apartment and decided that if you could not take care of yourself I would. So we both have the week off and I intend to nurse you back to health and if I can bring back a bit of happiness to your life." Jack had decided that upfront honesty was probably the best thing in this case.

 

"But Sir I don't want to be an inconvenience, I've slept now I'm fine I can go back to work." Ianto replied blushing while trying to wrap himself tightly in the sheet.

 

Jack gave Ianto a soft smile and put a hand on the young man's shoulder efficiently stopping him from getting out of bed. "Ianto I wasn't born yesterday, your not alright, you never sleep you never  talk to anyone except when strictly necessary and I haven't seen even a glimpse of happiness or other any emotion in your eyes for too long so please let me take care of you. We're friends aren't we and friends care for each other right. So let me take care of you."

 

A look of defeat crossed Ianto's face as he lay back down on the bed. And then the emotions shifted on his face he looked up at Jack with a look of desperation and sadness. With a small voice he then ask "Jack could you please hold me. I feel that I'm slowly falling apart everything I knew everything I've ever love disappeared now I wish that I had also." Than sobs began to wrack his frail body and Jack wrapped himself tightly around Ianto hoping that it was enough, that he was enough to help him out of this darkness that was consuming him.

 

Ianto had cried himself to sleep in Jack arms a few hours ago and Jack was wide awake but didn't dare to move this beautiful creature in his arms needed his sleep. Jack was running his finger tips in the soft hair. He could stay like this forever; taking a deep breath and fell asleep his face in the sweet smelling hair with the man he loved in his arms.

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