Title: Under Ice
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Doctor Who/Torchwood
Rating: PG-13
Table: 3, 50ficlets
Prompt: 2, Frozen
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.

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Ianto burst through the door of the Tardis, stumbling up the few steps to the console with the unconscious Doctor in his arms. He had no idea of where they were going once he got the ship out of here, but any place had to be better than this.

The door had slammed tightly shut behind him; he could hear the creatures who'd been chasing him outside, pounding on the door with what sounded like something heavy -- and possibly deadly. He had to get them out of here as quickly as possible.

The Doctor had shown him how to set the coordinates to any place they needed to go, making Ianto be sure he memorized the ones for 21-st century Earth. That was where he would take them, to Cardiff. It was really the only place he knew how to get to.

Entering the coordinates with one hand while he kept his other arm wrapped firmly around the man who slumped against him, Ianto closed his eyes as he hit the button that would make the Tardis shimmer into time and space, leaving the planet they were on.

He felt the slight displacement, almost slumping against the console himself in relief. They were leaving that place behind them -- and he could get the Doctor into their bedroom and get the TIme Lord warm again. At least, he hoped that he could manage to do that.

Ianto gathered the Doctor into his arms again, making his way quickly down the hall to their bedroom. He laid the unconscious man down on the bed, sitting down beside him and starting to strip off the Time Lord's jacket, then his shirt.

He chafed the Time Lord's hands as he removed the other man's clothes; there was a pulse, so he had no fear that his lover's life was at stake. But the fact that the Doctor was still unconscious worried him more than he wanted to admit.

The Doctor could survive much colder temperatures than a human; Ianto knew that. But he had no idea if his lover would be harmed in some way by being trapped inside an iceberg before Ianto could get to him -- or how he'd managed to stay alive.

That didn't matter, the young man told himself as he tugged at the Time Lord's sodden clothes. The important thing was that the Doctor was alive, and he was here on the Tardis. If he had been harmed in some way, the ship would take him to a place where he could be taken care of.

He had the Doctor's shirt off; his hands began working automatically at the other man's belt buckle, his eyes focused on the Doctor's face. If there was any sign of consciousness, he didn't want to miss it. He wanted to be sure that he knew when his lover woke up.

What if he didn't wake up? a voice in the back of his head asked him. What if being frozen inside that iceberg had sent him into some sort of deep coma that he might never come out of? What if he spent the rest of the life allotted to him in this body in this state?

Ianto compressed his lips, pushing that insistent thought to the back of his mind. No. That wasn't going to heppen. The Doctor was going to wake up, and they were going to Torchwood so that Owen could look him over and make sure everything was working properly.

There might be other places in the universe the would be more appropriate to take the Time Lord, but Ianto knew that Owen was learning more all the time about Gallifreyan physiology. The Doctor had given him several books on the subject, and he trusted the Torchwood doctor implicitly.

If only his lover would wake up .... Ianto's hands were pulling the Time Lord's trousers down his long legs, throwing them to the side, pulling the covers up over the other man. He wanted to be sure that the Doctor was as comfortable as possible.

Now all he could do was sit here and wait. It seemed that the Tardis had realized what was wrong, and had made it much warmer; he could feel the increased heat himself, and he was grateful for it. Maybe the warmth would help to bring the Doctor around more quickly.

Ianto took a deep breath, trying to relax his muscles. He'd been tensed and ready for anything that might happen to attack them ever since he'd found the Doctor; the adrenaline was still coursing through his veins, even though they were safely on the ship.

He couldn't suppress a shudder at the memory of how he'd felt when he'd seen his lover trapped under ice; it had only been sheer luck that he'd been able to chip away at the ice encasing the other man and get him out of that frozen trap before he hadn't been able to breathe.

Thank goodness for his second circulatory system, Ianto told himself, studying the Time Lord's face intently. Was it just his imagination, or had there been a slight flicker of the other man's eyelids, a sign that he was starting to awaken?

No, it wasn't his imagination. The Doctor was coming to; his head turned from side to side, his eyelids flickering again. He was breathing normally, the color slowly starting to come back into his cheeks, his chest rising and falling more rapidly.

Ianto breathed a sigh of relief at the sight, closing his eyes for a moment. The Doctor would be all right, he was sure; another adventure had been safely navigated. But he sincerely hoped that it would be quite a while before the next one came their way -- and that it wouldn't be such a close call.

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