Title: From track marks to teaboy
By: ebonyjet
Pairing: gen
Rating: PG-
Author's Notes: Thanks you so much to Bonzodog my loverly beta reader!
Summary: This is just my idea of why Ianto worked in Torchwood one and was demoted to tea boy in Torchwood three. Drugs and Torchwood change a man in to a confident mouse.

***

"AARGH!" Ianto screamed in agony. It had been twenty nine hours, forty three minuets and thirteen seconds since his last shoot.
He was in one of the residents room in Torchwood three, a room that the people here kept the sick or injured. That's what Captain Harkness had called him, "Your sick Ianto. But your gunna get better." Then the American had left the room, locked the door and taken the only key.

Now everything hurt. His Arm's, his legs, his skin and even his short dark hair. Why had he ever joined bloody Torchwood in the first place? At first it had been great, he'd met Lisa and was on one of the field teams. Everything had been fine or better until the adrenaline he felt all threw the day wore off at night and was replaced be an unbearable feeling of emptiness. He could lie with Lisa pressed up next to him, have her kissing his soft lips, he could sleep holding her in his arms and still feel nothing. That's when it had started.

At first it had just been a few harmless spiffs after work but that wasn't strong enough, the need increased as the danger involved in working for Torchwood increased. The spiffs, became pills, the pills fast became acid, and oh too quickly the acid had become a heroin filled syringe.

He screamed in pain and curled in to a ball on top of the plain white sheets that had been spread out over the camp bed, bringing his knees up under his chin and hugging them as his body shook uncontrollably. He'd only got this job at Torchwood three a week ago and it had only taken Captain Jack Harkness five days to figure it out. He was just lucky Jack hadn't seen what and who he'd hidden in the basement.

He'd been called to Jack's office and he boss had given him a choice, get clean or get out, and he'd chosen the painful of the two options. Now he was regretting that decision as the pain coursed threw his veins and his heart rate doubled. Every muscle in his body tensed and he rolled on to his back his hole body rigid.

***

"G-o-d!" Ianto's deep Welsh voice seemed some how stretched and restricted as he tried to ignore the pain in his body. The left leg trouser leg of his light blue genes had ridden up and was up by his knee exposing so of the track marks that where usually hidden, and his long sleeved light brown T-shirt was twisted his middle. He cried out in pain unable to move and as his cries echoed around the tinny room Ianto felt and saw dark black water creeping under the door filling the room It was soaking his bed, his clothes suddenly he was submerged in the dirty water. His eyes grew wide and blood shot as he struggled to keep them open. He couldn't breath!

He'd known Jack Harkness hadn't wanted him to work for Torchwood three but he didn't realise his new boss was prepared to kill him so he couldn't.

***

Jack banged of the window of the metal door that led into one of the resident's rooms, trying to get he new recruit to turn to look at him, and when he didn't Jack fumbled with a set of old fashioned keys. He found the right one and thrust it into the lock turning it and barging into the small room.
"Ianto!" Jack rushed to the bed and slapped the younger man across the face, to stop him from turning a darker shade of purple and the look of complete terror spreading from his eyes.
"C...can't!" Ianto gasped, "Breath!" His body shook uncontrollably as he realised there was and had never been any water in the room.
Jack lent over his face and looked into the blue eyes he found there, "Yes you can." He grabbed one of Ianto's hands and perched in the edge of the camp bed. "It's ok your just seeing things, your fine!"
Ianto blinked.

And all of a sudden Jack Harkness was stood in the middle of what looked like pictures he'd seen of no mans land on TV or in books. It was just like a seen from one of the old war films the BBC put on late at night when no one was awake to watch them. Jack was stood right in the middle of it all. Bombs, bullets and bayonets He was just stood there saluting him in a long grey blue military coat and black trousers with a smile the stretched from ear to ear.
"Jones!" He boomed over the deferring sound of guns, bombs and men shouting. "Your next! Go, go, go!"
Two large hands grabbed Ianto's collar and shook him.
"We're going over the top! Jones! We're going into enemy territory and we might not come back. So remember! The twenty first centuries where it all changes and you gotta be ready." The Welsh man frowned under Jack's steely gaze, what in the hell was going on?

"I'll execute you both!" Jack suddenly shouted at him, "It was the only thing that would stop her!"

Ianto twitched on the bed and screwed his eyes shut turning his face from where Jack still sat on the bed to the plain concert wall.
"Ianto its just a hallucination!"
"Jack?"
"Yes."
"As my superior officer do I have to call you Sir?"
Jack shook his head forgetting that the other man couldn't see him. "Ianto I'm not you superior officer, I'm your boss."
"Yes Sir." Again Jack slapped his new recruit across his pale face and for a moment Ianto snapped out of his hallucination.

***

Jack was sat next to him on the camp bed holding his clammy hand, but Ianto had his back to him and was facing the wall. Ianto turned to look back at Jack who smiled softly and stood up letting go of his hand as he walked to a tiny sink in the corner of the room. The American grabbed a light blue flannel and ran it under the cold tap for a few minuets before ringing it out and walking back to Ianto rolling the flannel up and placing it on his forehead.
"Ok Ianto Jones, I need you to listen to me. Can you do that?" Ianto nodded and Jack continued, "Your going to be fine. It will take a while but you're going to get thought this." He moved the flannel down a little so it covered the other man's eye brows and looked sadly down at him, "Ok?" Sitting down again.
"Give me a hit!" Ianto fixed is angry blood shot eyes other Americans chiselled features.
Jack shook his head, "Ianto that not what you want."
"Please Sir. I need it!" Tears filled his eyes as he begged for what his the pain in his body constantly cried out for. "Please!"
Jack shook his head again and this time stood up, "No, it hurts now but it will get better."
"Give me a fucking hit!"
"You chose this Mr Jones, You not me! All I'm doing is stopping you from going back on your dissuasion."
"Jack, please." Ianto's body started to shake move violently and his eyes move from side to side so fast he could hardly see.
Jack rushed back to the bed and grabbed his hand squeezing, "Ianto! Ianto don't! ... DAMN IT!" Jack jumped to his feet dropping Ianto's limp hand as he did so, he passed the room a few times glancing at the younger man every now and then looking back just in time to see his bright blue eyes roll back into his head.
"Ok... Ianto I'll come back in an hour... I promise." Jack shook he head for the last time before turning and leaving the room locking it behind him and leaving Ianto to his drug withdraw induced dreams.

***

In the time Jack had been gone, Ianto's little room had filled with imaginary rats and Daleks shouting "Seek, locate, annihilate!" and "Exterminate!" There were Cybermen calling "Delete!" in the darkness and for some odd reason far beyond Ianto's reasoning a small tin dog with a flashing red nose that kept saying "Affirmative." Even a black sea of spiders had crawled from the ceiling to take his skin.

Ianto was exhausted. His body ached from shaking and his mind was tired from conjuring imaginary things to come at him from the walls and floor.

When Jack unlocked the door, despite his poor physical condition, the young Welsh man practically jumped out of his weary skin. He rolled quickly off the bed and wriggled under it, huddling in one of the corners.

"Ianto? Why are you under the bed?"

"Sir, there's a war and we're right in the middle of it. Mind the rats, they'll have your arm off, they will!" The Welsh voice held nothing but seriousness and a slight hint of panic.

Jack frowned. He didn't think looking after a recovering heroin addict would be very hard after aliens and insane serial killers, but it turned out this was by far one of the hardest things he'd ever had to do. He thought maybe it would be easier to just go along with Ianto delusions.

"Solider! Why are you under your bunk?" He boomed in the voice he used to use when talking to his troops.

"Bombs, Sir. They scare the living shit out of me."

"Get out from under there now!"

"No, Sir. I don't wanna die. I'm going to get hit."

"You won't."

"Not by a bomb, by a needle."

"Pardon?" Ok, now Jack was confused. He knew drug withdrawal wasn't nice or pretty but how long was this going to take?

"Don't fuck with me Harkness! Give me a hit!" All Ianto could think about was that it would all get better, and all the pain would stop if he could just have the tiniest measure of what his body was crying out for. He scrambled from under the bed and stood, "Give me the heroin, Sir! I got shot. The guns, they hurt, give me the heroin!"

"Uh.... No." Jack pushed Ianto backwards and he fell back onto the camp bed with a loud metallic thud. "Jesus Christ Ianto! No one shot you. Your fine!"

Ianto sadly shook his head at Jack. "I'm not fine! It's like bugs under the skin biting and scratching. Make it stop Sir. Please make it stop!"

"I said no!" Jack said, taking a few steps backwards to casualty. He stuck his head around the door frame and yelled, "Susie! Get some rope."

"Jack, no!" The Welsh boy lunged at Jack, but he wasn't quick enough and soon found himself with the side of his face pressed against the wall, and his left arm pulled up his back. Jack turned his head to the door once again, shouting, "Susie!"

An angry female voice replied, shouting back at him. "I'm coming! Don't see why we can't just Retcon him and let him go back to the life of the junkie he is. So what if it might be because of Torchwood? It was his choice!"

"Susie, we can't!"

"Ok, ok. You're the boss!"

Ianto struggled under Jack's grip, feeling the ache in his limbs as his shaking knees gave way. Jack had to wrap his free arm around Ianto's waist to stop him hitting the floor.

"Ianto, stop struggling! I'm trying to help you!"

"Get off me!" He pleaded, "I have to go to the basement! She needs me!"

"There's nothing in the basement, I promise. Now stay still."

Jack had lowered the other man so he was now lying face down with his chest pressed against the slightly dusty stone floor. Jack's knees were in-between his shoulder blades, so Ianto couldn't move. His arms were out in front of him and both of his wrists where clutched in the Americans large right hand. Jack's free hand was gently resting on Ianto's left shoulder, and his thumb was softly rubbing the Welsh mans neck in a vain attempt to calm him.



"She's in the basement!" He moaned again, trying to escape Jack's grip and failing once more. Jack shook his head and whispered, "Ianto, stop."



"Oi, Jack. I got your rope." A woman with frizzy, light brown hair entered the room. She was carrying a coiled length of thick rope over her left shoulder, and a stun gun that was sparking electric blue smoke between two metal prongs in her right. "Need a hand?"



Ianto tried desperately to curl himself into a ball, but because Jack was still on top of him it was virtually impossible.



"It hurts, it hurts, it all hurts. All of me... every part!" He repeated again and again in a quite whisper, over and over again, as if he was caught in a verbal loop.



Jack looked up at the plain grey ceiling, and then at the girl in the doorway.

"No thanks, Susie. I think he's better off if there's only one person he can get used to in here." Jack told her, nodding to get the women to put the rope down.

"Well, if you're sure." She replied.

Ianto shook himself, managing to pull a hand free and attempted to push himself up so Jack would topple off of him.

"It's under the skin!" He muttered, struggling against Jack's firmly planted knee.



Jack gritted his teeth and pushed down a little harder in between Ianto's shoulders until they cracked.

"Susie, just get out!" He shouted, still urgently trying to restrain the wriggling Welshman. "And lock the damn door behind you!"

"Fine! I have work to do anyway. I'll leave my blue tooth on if you need me..."

"I'll call you. Now if you don't mind!"

Susie Costello spun on her heel and marched from the room, slamming the heavy metal door behind her.

"Ok Ianto. You gonna lie still or do I have to sedate you?" The other mans body was suddenly gripped by another bout of paralyzing pain, and his entire body stiffened. All his muscles tensed and he groaned in agony. Jack sighed.

"I guess your gonna lie still then." He slowly removed his knee from the Welshman's back, allowing him a moment to breathe and see what he was going to do, before getting up to get the rope.

Jack slung the alien design rope over his shoulder and moved back over to Ianto, heaving him to his feet and with a great deal of difficulty, over to the bed. As soon as the American let go of Ianto he collapsed onto the mattress and just lay there, breathing hevily and staring unblinkingly up at the stone ceiling.

"Ianto: this is for you own good. Ok?" Jack asked as he tied each of Ianto's limbs tightly to each of to bed posts. He left enough slacked rope so if Ianto was going to vomit again he could do it into the bucket Jack had put next to the bed hours before.

"If you need me, blow on this." He placed a small diamond like object next to Ianto's head on the pillow. "Then talk to me through it. Understand?"

Ianto nodded painfully and spoke again. "Sir... She's in the basement..."

"Sure Ianto, whatever you say. Just get better." And with that Jack left the room, locking the door from the outside and marching to the main room in the hub.

***

"Susie?"

"Yes Jack?"

"Bring up the CCTV image for the room our guest is in. I wanna keep an eye on him. We don't really know what's going on in his head right now."

"Fine." The anger in the woman's voice made Jack turn to look at her with confusion on his face.



"What?" he asked her.

"I just don't see why you're babysitting a drugged up scum bag like him."



Jack frowned. "Is that really what you think of him? It's odd he's so different to the confident little hottie I employed last week. I don't know what to do with him. I don't deal with stuff like this."



"So don't deal with him! He's a waste of life, just a drug induced excuse for a human being. Why you feel the need to look after him, I have no idea."



"Don't say that! He's just dug himself into a hole. Ok, I don't agree with the hole, but if you read his record for Torchwood one, he's exactly what we're looking for. One of the only survivors from the Canary Warf battle, but..."

He paused for a second, "Do me a favour; go check the basement."



"What for?"

"Just have a bad feeling, that's all. Now will you just go check?"

"Fine." She sighed and left the room, rolling her eyes as Jack called after her. "Take a gun! I'm not sure what's down there!"



Jack sat forwards and put his head in his hands with a sigh.

"This is a disaster!" He said shaking his head and taking his hands from his face. Ok, so it was kinda Torchwood's fault he had a young and very hot Welshman locked in a room by himself, suffering from drug withdrawal, but did that really make it his job to look after him? Until Susie had said something, Jack had been quite happy to help Ianto out. But now..... It was so much harder then he thought it was going to be, and Jack was a busy man. He didn't have time to waste on a worthless cause, but he had this nagging voice at the back of his mind telling him Ianto would come in useful long after Susie was on ice.



He spun around on his chair so he was facing one of the many computers surrounding the main room of the hub. "Right." He muttered to himself, before going on to the internet to research Drug Withdrawal Symptoms and how to ease them, without giving the junkie what he wanted.

***

Susie walked slowly, wondering just what it was about the new boy that made Jack want to keep him around. Maybe he was just really good shag. But from what she'd seen of him before Jack had decided to take action against his drug dependency, he was just an ordinary man. There were no lights down in the basement, so she held a large heavy duty torch in one hand, and her gun, ready to fire in the other. A light flashed so brightly in the corner of her eye it made her jump. She turned to look in to the window of the bolted metal door next to her. A malicious smile crept across her lips as she stared directly at the young Welshmans downfall.


The Bluetooth earpiece in her ears crackled and Jack's voice was transmitted down the line to her.

"Hey Susie. Anything down there?"

She pondered for a moment, deciding whether to destroy Ianto's life and frame of mind now or later.

"Nothing." She said, looking into the plain stone room, seeing the partly constructed cyber conversion unit and the dark skinned half metal woman that was strapped to it.

"There's nothing. It's all clear, Jack. Your wonderful gut instinct must be on the fritz."

"Are you sure?"

"Jack. There is nothing."

"Fine. Get back up here. You have work to get done."

"What are you going to do?"

Before Jack had a chance to answer her, another voice joined the conversation.



"Sir?"

"Ianto?" Jack's voice was a little confused, because the tone Ianto was using was so unlike the one he'd been using earlier.

"Sir, can you come back here please?"

"Yeah sure be there in... a minute."

Jack pulled a face, making his nose wrinkle slightly. What the hell? He thought to himself as he rose from his seat, taking the keys to Ianto's room from his pocket and walking towards the residence corridor. He wondered exactly just what was going on, and how Ianto had sounded so damn calm. He'd become a completely different person within the space of twenty five minutes.



"Susie, I'm gonna go to Ianto's room. Only come down if I call you."

He twisted the key in the lock and slowly, carefully pushed open the door. He saw Ianto was still tied to the bed and he straightened up. "Hello again Ianto."

"Sir." He nodded, "I won't get up. You know how it is."

"I do. Why did you ask me to come in here?"

"Untie me."

"No. I told you: it's for your own good. I don't want you hurting yourself."

"But I have work to do!" He whined frowning up at him. "Need to go sort out the stuff in the archives, clean up the hub and get the coffee's, so please untie me or it will never get done."

"I told you. I'm not untying you. You're sick. You need to rest. Okay?"

"No, no, no!" Ianto manically shook his head, and bit down on his bottom lip, making it bleed.



Jack rushed to his side, "Hey! Stop it, you're hurting yourself! Stop!"

"Can't, it's under my skin, it itches! It hurts! It hurts, hurts like being punched in the face."

"Ianto!" Jack eyebrows twisted into a worried frown.

"Stop it, now! You're hurting yourself, and trust me: it won't make me change my mind. The best I can do on the drug front is Methadone. It's used in rehab centres."



"Give me it then!"

"It's not what you're used to. It's a substitute used to get people off drugs with minimal withdrawal symptoms. It doesn't always work."

Ianto rocked himself from side and said, biting his bottom lip, "Don't care, just make it better. Please! Please god, just make it stop! Please make it stop!"

"Ok, Ok!" Jack hissed at the Welshman, as he raised his voice and almost screamed in pain again. This was doing Jack's head in. He had a good feeling about this boy, but if keeping him at Torchwood meant more nights like this, he would consider weighing up his opinions.



Maybe Susie had been right.

***