Title: Realm of Dreams
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 25fluffyfics
Prompt: 13. Nightmare
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own Ianto Jones or the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

***

The Doctor looked down at the body in his arms, his tears falling so fast and hard that his vision was blurred. But he didn't need to see the face. He knew who it was.

It was Ianto.

Dead. His lover had died in his arms, his lips forming the word "Doctor" with his last breath ....

He was alone again. He would be alone for all eternity. No one could replace Ianto; there would never be anyone else in his life, not even as merely a companion. He was well and truly alone, abandoned. Ianto had gone to a place where the Doctor couldn't follow him.

"No!" he shrieked, the cry echoing in his ears .....

The Time Lord sat bolt upright in bed, the scream still on his lips, tears streaming down his face.

Ianto was beside him, his lover's arms around him, comforting and soothing him. That soft voice in his ear, murmuring words of comfort, telling him that everything was all right.

"Shhh, love, I'm here. It was just a dream ...." Ianto's voice, husky and low-pitched.

The Doctor burrowed into Ianto's arms, trembling, trying to control the tears that didn't seem to want to stop. The shaking wouldn't stop, either; it was as though he couldn't erase that terrible picture from his mind's eye.

It had only been a dream. Just an evil, horrible, twisted dream. A nightmare. Ianto was here; he was safe. His love was beside him; he was cradled in Ianto's arms, those soft lips against his hair, his young lover whispering in his ear.

"It was just a nightmare, sweetheart," Ianto soothed him, tilting the Doctor's face up to his own and pushing back a few stray stands of hair that had fallen into the Time Lord's eyes. "Just a dream. There's nothing to be afraid of."

He nodded, gulping in air and trying to calm his racing hearts. A dream, he told himself over and over, only a dream. But a horrible one nonetheless.

"Can you tell me what it was about, love?" Ianto asked him, gathering the trembling Time Lord close against his body and wrapping his arms around the other man. "Or was it too bad to talk about right now?"

The Doctor shook his head, trying to relax. He knew that he should probably tell Ianto what had unsettled him so much -- but how did he tell the man he loved that he had dreamed of seeing him dead? That wasn't something he wanted his lover to hear.

But the words came tumbling out, in spite of his desire to hold them back. "I-I dreamed you were dead. I don't know how or why -- but you died in my arms. I was holding your body, and I knew that you were gone and I was alone ...."

His voice trailed off as the tears rose into his throat again; suddenly they were spilling down his cheeks, sobs racking his chest until he couldn't speak any longer. Ianto's arms tightened around him, holding him close.

"Shhh, it's all right," he whispered, rocking the Doctor back and forth as though he was a child. "I'm here, Doctor. I'm not dead. I won't be for a very long time."

"I know," the Doctor managed to gasp through his tears. "I know it was just a dream. But it was so .... so real, Ianto. I could feel that you weren't with me any more. That you'd left me, that you had moved to a place where I couldn't be with you."

He buried his face against Ianto's shoulder, shuddering, wishing that the horrible vision of Ianto lying cold and lifeless in his arms would go away. He couldn't deal with seeing that image in his mind's eye, not even when he knew that it was only a dream and Ianto was safe.

Ianto was reaching for the box of tissues on the table by the bed, gently raising the Doctor's face so that he could wipe away the tears.

"I'm here," he whispered, his blue-grey eyes meeting the Time Lord's gaze. "I'm not going anywhere, Doctor. You don't have to worry about that. You're my life -- you know that. There's no way that I'll leave you until ...."

His voice trailed off, and the Doctor was fairly sure that he knew what he had intended to say.

Until the day I die.

That was what he was afraid of -- that such a day was going to come to them much too soon. If it never came at all, it would still be too soon for him. He wanted Ianto to be with him forever. He didn't want their time together to be finite.

He couldn't bear to hear those words uttered, to even think that one day he would inevitably lose Ianto. He'd been alone for far too long; the thought of losing the one person he'd wanted to make his lifelong mate was too overwhelming.

As though Ianto could sense what he was thinking, the young man pulled the Doctor onto his lap, taking the Time Lord's face between his hands and looking into his eyes. As their gazes met, he spoke softly, the words a whisper but still steady and firm.

"I'm not going to leave you, Doctor. I intend to be with you for a long, long time to come. Try to forget that dream -- it's part of another world, one that can't touch us," he said softly, his eyes never leaving the other man's.

The Doctor nodded, feeling his racing hearts starting to slow down into a more normal rhythm. Ianto was right. It was a dream -- not reality.

A dream had no power unless it was given that power. He certainly didn't intend to do that -- he wasn't going to let dreams control his life. Even though it had seemed real, it wasn't. Reality was here, in Ianto's arms, safe from anything that could harm either of them.

"Try to go back to sleep," Ianto murmured, leaning back against the pillows with the Doctor still clasped in his arms. "You need to rest, Doctor. And if you have a nightmare again -- I'm here. Call out to me, and I'll be there. I promise."

"I will," the Doctor whispered, settling into his lover's arms and closing his eyes. He didn't know if he would be able to go back to sleep, but he would try. Ianto was right -- he needed his rest, and the twisted dream realm couldn't summon him again if he didn't let it.

Within moments, he'd drifted off into a peaceful sleep, lulled into slumber by the steady, rhythmic beating of his lover's heart.

***