Previous part of The Uninvited.

***

"Y'know, Jack, you really need to hire an interior designer for this place. Get some bright colours on the walls, better lighting...hey, maybe even fix the heating so I don't freeze my bloody balls off!"

Jack couldn't help but smile, his eyes dropping automatically to the other man's crotch. "You've had worse done to them," he pointed out.

John glanced down as well and grinned. "Yeah, those were good times," he said, sighing at the memory. "Speaking of which..." He approached the transparent wall and knocked on it. "How about you let me out of here?"

"Because you behaved so well the last time," the Captain responded sardonically.

"I didn't do anything wrong!"

Jack laughed briefly. He knew his former partner wouldn't believe his actions had been out of order and, under normal circumstances, Jack would probably have agreed with him. In this instance, however, Jack was rather less inclined to forgive Hart. "You know he isn't in control of himself," Jack said. "Did you think I'd let you get away with taking advantage of him?"

John gave him an innocent look; one with which Jack was all too familiar. "If anyone was taken advantage of, it was me."

"Oh, is that so?"

"He was so insistent, Jack, I couldn't stop him." Hart swept a finger under his eye and sniffed dramatically. "I feel so used," he admitted in a trembling voice.

"I'm not even going to bother playing along with that one, John," Jack told him. "Fact is you saw an opportunity to piss me off and took it."

The ex-Time Agent shrugged. He began to wander around the small cell, rolling his shoulders and stretching his neck. "How could I resist?" he asked. "Your little fuck toy all hot and eager and throwing himself at me. I would have sprained something trying to stop him."

"And you think I should just let you get away with that?"

"Hey, if you have some kind of punishment in mind just get on with it. If not, then let me out and I'll be on my merry way." He paused thoughtfully. "Unless, of course, you want me to stick around and teach you and your boy a few new tricks I've picked up?"

Sighing, Jack scratched his head, abandoning the Fierce-Captain routine. "Why do we always end up in these situations? You get into trouble and I let you get away with it each and every time."

"Obviously it's because you love me," Hart said.

"No, John, I don't." He fixed the younger man with a serious look, hoping he would finally give up the pretence of such deep emotions. He wasn't sure why John believed he loved Jack, but he knew whatever Hart felt wasn't the same as other people's definition of love. He also knew that even if he humoured John and claimed to return those feelings, absolutely nothing would change, except perhaps an increase in John's gloating for having triumphed over the mighty Captain Harkness.

"Jack," Hart began, lowering his tone and drawing out the name, "don't be like that."

"No!" Jack shut him up with a raised hand. "That's enough, John, I won't hear any more about this." He waited a moment to see if the other man would protest, but he remained uncharacteristically silent. "This is what's about to happen. You're going to tell me anything you haven't already, we're going to get rid of your girlfriend and her pets, and then you're going to get out of my town. In addition to all of that, you're going to keep your hands to yourself. Do you understand?"

John pouted.

"Do you understand?" Jack repeated.

"Fine, yes, whatever," agreed John sullenly. "But I don't have anything else to tell you."

"I don't believe that for a second." Jack opened the door as he spoke and stepped back to allow Hart to leave the cell. "You always keep a few little details back as leverage. That's something I taught you to do."

John snorted. "You wish. You think I was still wet behind the ears when you got hold of me, but I had a hell of a lot more experience than you gave me credit for. Did you really never figure out I let you believe I was a mere novice?" He laughed with delight. "Oh, Jack, playing your doting student was so much fun. You thought you were seducing an innocent, wide-eyed young Agent with no skills, but I was the one playing you all along."

Jack's mouth spread into a wide grin. "You're kidding, of course," he said. "Didn't you realise? That wasn't seduction; that was a lesson. You had to wait an entire year for something you could have had right from the start, if only you hadn't tried to get away with that virtuous act. Instead I had you running around for me, trying to please your far more experienced partner, until you were practically shoving your ass in my face to get some attention." He sighed happily and then chuckled at the rather more forced smile now on John's face. "Shall we?" Jack asked, indicating the exit with a sweep of his arm.

John attempted to hide his defeat in a pronounced swagger as they left the block of cells, but the effect was compounded by Jack's continual laughter as they walked through the Hub.

---

Gwen frowned deeply to see John out of his cell again. "You said he was going to stay locked up until everything else was sorted," she reminded Jack.

She had a point and the Captain knew it. After first banishing Hart to the boardroom upon finding him with Ianto, Jack had swiftly changed his mind and told Owen to take him back to his cell. He had then informed Gwen that absolutely nobody was to speak to or even come within sight of him.

In only a few hours Jack had broken that command, and he was entirely unrepentant.

"Change of plans," he announced, dropping into a chair around the boardroom's table. John followed suit and leered at the two women seated across from him. "John's going to help us deal with Lurrelia and then he's going to leave."

Tosh tapped her PDA stylus against the polished tabletop. "Wasn't he supposed to be helping us before?"

"Yes, but this time he's going to do it without lying and without trying to seduce anybody."

Gwen gave a short laugh, revealing her scepticism of that idea. "That'll be fun to watch."

"What did he lie about?" Tosh asked, ignoring the giggling woman beside her.

Jack raised an eyebrow at his former partner, directing the question at him instead.

"Not much," John admitted. "But it might not have been quite so accidental as I led you to believe that Lurrelia ended up on Earth."

"Meaning she knew to come here?" Tosh pressed.

"Meaning I may have mentioned something of my last visit here. Oh, and the fact that you have tenuous control over a big honking tear in time and space."

"So you gave her the location of a planet ripe for invasion and the idea to use the Rift in order to bring her army here?" asked Gwen, no longer laughing.

John sighed. "I was just telling her about a few recent experiences, not writing her a list of worlds she should go look at. I didn't even know her people were searching for a new home."

Jack gave him a knowing look and Hart grimaced. "All right, she told me her planet was no longer able to sustain the Fam and I joked about a few places that were abundant in resources. But I was talking about the Earth of the present, not the past." He pulled a face. "I mean the present then, not now. This is the past to me, remember."

"That's not really very reassuring," Gwen told him. "You were trying to sell out Earth and whether it's now or in the future, it's still not acceptable."

"I didn't know this would happen," John said innocently. "She didn't mention it again and then she starting playing around in time, got lost and scared and ended up here. It's a coincidence, that's all."

"And is it a coincidence that she turned up only a few months after you left here?"

Hart hesitated. "That...does make it sound less coincidental."

The satisfaction on Gwen's face was apparent and she sat back, proud of her victory.

"What else do you know about the Quar-Meil?" Tosh asked, capitalising on Gwen's success.

"Nothing more than you."

Jack rubbed his forehead and slumped further down in his seat. "So you didn't know before we witnessed it that the anchor has to die for the band to release? And you didn't know the band's removal is the only way to send back the beings that were brought here by them?"

After a moment John smiled. "Yeah, okay, I did."

"Why didn't you tell us that?"

"It wasn't important," John said with a shrug. "It's not like you would even consider slaughtering those people, Jack. Not since you've gone soft anyway."

Jack didn't respond, his eyes drifting towards Gwen and Tosh. They looked back at him, guilt written across their faces. Hart seemed to notice the tension in the air and sat up straighter.

"You have considered it?" he asked, surprised. "Well, well, well, maybe there's hope for you yet, Lover. If you want, I'm happy to help with the killing."

"That isn't going to happen," Jack said firmly, dropping a fist onto the table. "No one else is going to die."

John looked at the large screen at the end of the room, which displayed the tasks Tosh and Gwen had been working on before being interrupted. They were setting procedures into place to deal with the current situation; suppressing the sightings of naked hairy man-shaped beasts whilst encouraging the rumours of wild animals on the loose in the city.

It wasn't the most ideal way to handle the problem, but they were hard pressed to completely cover everything up whilst the aliens still roamed freely through Cardiff. The local authorities were doing what they could to keep people off the streets and clear away the scenes of carnage that marked Lurrelia's passing, and although this left Torchwood free to concentrate on the matter of the bands and their removal, it wasn't an ideal arrangement in terms of secrecy and panic-suppression.

"It looks to me like people are dying as we speak."

Gwen scowled at him. "We're doing everything we can."

"If you say so," said John, lifting his hands in mock surrender.

"Just get on with it," she ordered. "What else do you know?"

When Hart began to protest, Tosh interrupted him. "The link between Ianto and Lurrelia is different, isn't it? It's not the same as those between the animals and the comatose people."

"Of course it isn't, otherwise he'd have been out like a light the minute I put the Quar-Meil on him." He paused and considered his own words. "Actually, it's a shame that wasn't the case. It's been a while since I had a tumble with a passive partner."

"So why is it different?" Gwen asked him, before Jack could react to Hart's offensive comment.

He wasn't surprised by his former lover's words, he had known John for many years after all, but considering all that Ianto had gone through recently, the idea that John might have taken advantage of his unconscious body was just a little too much of a stretch for his good humour. He fixed a hard gaze on the younger Captain, making sure Hart knew just what he thought of that particular suggestion.

"Because the connection is between a human and a Perscalla-Fam, not an animal. It's something to do with the fact that the creatures aren't entirely sentient whilst the Fam have a much higher mental capacity."

"That makes the link stronger," Tosh guessed, talking more to herself than anybody else. "And if it's stronger that explains why it can't be broken by death like the others."

Silence fell over the room, the three members of Torchwood lost in their own thoughts. John glanced between them curiously, but was kept from asking anything as Jack leapt suddenly to his feet and ran from the boardroom.

Gwen and Tosh exchanged a glance as Owen, unaware of the Captain's departure, continued to call over the comms for Jack to get back to the autopsy bay as soon as possible.

***

Ianto's body felt as though it had been battered all over; a glorious ache that rose and abated with each breath. He was accustomed to waking up with unexpected bruises after a tough day at work, but this was an entirely different sensation altogether.

He dragged in a lungful of air, savouring the pull on his sides and the way it made his head swim.

"I know you're awake," Jack's voice said, somewhere above and a million miles away. "I'm not going to let you lie in if I can't join you."

Ianto smiled weakly and attempted to open his eyes. One remained resolutely shut, whilst the other unstuck just enough to make out the blurred and yet familiar shape of his Captain leaning over him. "Did it work?" he rasped, his mouth so dry that it hurt to speak.

Jack's fuzzy head turned away briefly, looking across the bed and back again. "No."

Groaning with disappointment Ianto attempted to sit up, only to feel a hand press down firmly on his chest. "Don't even think about it," Owen warned him. "You're not going anywhere yet."

"Why didn't it come off?" Ianto asked. He lifted his left hand to look at the band still clamped around his burnt skin. There was no sign that anything had changed, not even the slightest hint that the electricity forced though his body had affected it at all.

"We don't know," admitted Owen.

"We might know," Jack corrected, earning a curious look from the doctor. Ianto took some comfort in being able to recognise the emotion on his face; apparently his vision was clearing quicker than he'd realised. "John's been sharing some more information about the Quar-Meil. Seems he's been holding a few things back."

Owen grunted. "Why doesn't that surprise me?"

"The fact your band is linked with Lurrelia means it won't come off as easily as the others," Jack said, offering the young Welshman a rueful smile. "Sorry, Ianto, we didn't need to put you through that after all."

Ianto laughed weakly. "We would've had to try anyway, just in case." He licked his lips and shifted on the thin mattress, his limbs protesting the movement. Someone had tucked a blanket around him, the rough material scratching across his bare skin and he pushed it aside to peer down at his chest.

He wasn't sure what to expect but it was rather dissatisfying to find no mark of what had been done to him. "Are we sure this is why the other guy's band came off?"

"Pretty bloody certain," Owen replied. "One of the others died and it fell right off."

"The defibrillator was used?"

"Yep. Didn't save her though."

Ianto sighed.

Owen bustled away, possibly at the expression on Jack's face as he leaned closer to the reclining man. The Captain kissed him without any preamble and Ianto arched up to meet him. Jack's hand slipped under his head, supporting his neck, and causing another spike of pain that mixed perfectly with the feeling of their joined lips.

When they parted, Ianto was gasping and grinning. He felt strangely energetic, far more than he should considering all that had happened to him. His smile slipped a little as he noticed Jack's eyes.

"You died," the older man said, whispering as though it were a great secret meant only for Ianto's ears. "You died and for a moment I thought you weren't going to come back."

"We knew that was a risk, Jack."

Jack shook his head. "It shouldn't have been. I should have pressed John harder about what he knew."

"You would never have been able to trust what he told you. You still can't, in fact." Ianto tried to sit up again and this time Jack helped him, producing cushions from somewhere to prop him up on the temporarily converted bed. He groaned as his head span again. "I feel like I haven't quite finished dying yet."

And it's wonderful, he added silently to himself.

Ianto reached out to catch hold of Jack's hand and held it against his chest where one of the defibrillator paddles had been placed. The unnatural ache that his lover's touch created sparked his memory of the moment his chest had been set ablaze with electrical energy. He drew in a shuddering breath, relishing the stimulation until Jack gently tugged his hand away.

The conflict in Jack's expression made Ianto feel suddenly very uncomfortable. "What's the plan?" he asked, hoping to distract the Captain.

Jack grasped the change in subject eagerly. "We're going to need to get the bands off the others before confronting Lurrelia again. She's been gathering more and more of her 'pets', even faster than before. I think the first death surprised her and now she's trying to make sure she won't run out of protection."

"But no sign of any others of her race yet?"

"No, none at all."

Ianto frowned. "Doesn't that strike you as odd?" he asked, accepting the glass Owen handed him and taking a sip. The cold water washed through his mouth like frozen fire. "She's able to bring all those animals but none of her people have turned up."

"Perhaps she was lying about them coming here," suggested Owen.

"Or it might require a different process than the creatures."

Jack frowned. "When she came through, she needed both a link with Ianto and the Rift to be open in order to get here."

"No," Ianto said. "It was only her body that came through the Rift, her consciousness was already here. Maybe they need to send their minds ahead of their bodies."

"Meaning they could already be amassing in order to appear at the same time without warning." Owen paused to inject something into Ianto's IV line. "Then once they're in place, poof and we've got an army right on top of us."

"They'll need to force open the Rift again," mused Jack. "Which means they would have to come back here."

"Fantastic."

"It's not going to happen," the Captain said decisively. "We've had enough unwanted visitors in the Hub to last, oh, about a week, probably."

"If that," Owen muttered.

"We're going to get her before she has a chance to break in again, got it?" Jack glanced between them expectantly.

Ianto looked down at his bare chest. "Any chance I can get dressed first?"

---

The girls welcomed their weary and slow-moving colleague into the boardroom with a mixture of both relief and concern.

"Should he be out of bed?" Gwen asked reproachfully, frowning at Owen.

"Hey, don't blame me," the doctor said, lifting his hands innocently. "I was outvoted."

Ianto chuckled. "I don't recall you protesting all that much." He allowed Jack to pull out a chair for him, but the look he gave before sitting meant the older man didn't dare to push it in for him as well. Easing down into the seat, Ianto basked in the pain still resonating through various areas of his body, surprised that his brush with death had left such a widespread ache.

His right arm was back in a sling but he intended to get rid of it the moment they left the Hub. Even if he couldn't use the limb, being trussed up in the thin plastic made him feel more helpless than if it was just hanging uselessly at his side.

Plus the throbbing was much sharper when the injured limb wasn't held in place against his chest.

Disturbed by his own thoughts, Ianto glanced up, suddenly paranoid that the others would somehow know what he was thinking about. Only Jack was looking at him, an unreadable expression on his face that Ianto turned away from uncomfortably.

He wasn't entirely sure what to make of his recent uncharacteristic actions, but he was content to explain them away as both fatigue and the alien consciousness in his head. He only hoped that Jack wouldn't want to make an issue of it either when everything was sorted, as he really didn't want to have to verbalise some of things he had been feeling.

Or worse, the things he had been yearning for.

Tosh began speaking, bring everyone back up to speed, and Ianto forced his mind back to the matter at hand, grateful for the distraction.

"I've managed to increase the sensitivity of the sensors to pick up Lurrelia's movements," she informed the room. "So we'll be able to locate where she is a few seconds after one of her portals forms."

That got Ianto's attention. "Portals?"

Tosh made a face. "For want of a better word," she explained. "She's somehow drawing energy from the Rift and using it to jump around the city. It's the same signature as we saw in Grange Gardens and at the Weevil nest, which explains why we didn't find any sign of anything coming through the Rift at those places. Anyway, it's only a miniscule amount of power, almost negligible really, which I assume is the only reason she hasn't been able to do anything big, like bring a large number of the animals here in one go."

Ianto nodded. He felt a little out of the loop after spending a good six hours or so unconscious after their unsuccessful experiment, but it seemed that the rest of the team had been struggling to contain the wave of trouble caused by the alien; fighting fires instead of solving the problem completely. Deep within his mind he felt a perverse thrill that his colleagues hadn't been able to fix everything whilst he'd been asleep, despite the fact that it would have made things so much easier to have woken up and found that things were in their rightful places once again.

"The police have been put on alert and I've been feeding them information about where she is, but they just haven't been quick enough to reach and contain her before she escapes," Tosh said. "The few times they've come across her, they've been distracted by the alien creatures whilst she vanishes. And of course they're also busy cleaning up after her attacks and trying to keep people off the streets as much as possible."

"Well," began Jack earnestly, "now we're back up to full force, and now we have an idea what we're dealing with, I want to get back out there as soon as possible." He looked around the room, making sure he had everyone's attention. "I want her gone, but we have to sort out her pets first. According to the police reports of their encounters, they've proven resistant to tranquilizers and they can take more than a couple of bullets and keep moving."

Owen choked a little on the coffee he was drinking and at first Ianto thought he was just surprised by Jack's words, but the glare the doctor gave the mug in his hand made him think otherwise. He wondered idly who had been given kitchen duty whilst he'd been out of it. "Hang on," Owen said. "They can't be killed?"

"I didn't say that, I said that they're strong enough to handle a few wounds."

"So some have been killed?" Ianto asked, warily eyeing the cup that had been placed in front of him.

"No," Jack answered.

"Actually, yes," Tosh said and the focus of the group swung back to her. Her head was bowed over her PDA, intent on the display.

"I thought the police hadn't had any luck?" Jack said. "Tosh, if you say they've finally managed to bring one of those things down, I'm going to come over there and kiss you."

Tosh gave him a wan smile. "Don't get up just yet. They have killed three of them over the past hour," she lifted her hand to wave the Captain back down into his seat, "however three of the people with bands flatlined in the same hour. The doctors saved one, but the other two died."

There was a moment of grim silence as everybody's fears were confirmed. Eventually it was Hart who spoke up, exasperation in his voice.

"Oh, come on! What did you bloody expect to happen?" he demanded. "You've been working under the assumption that killing the humans would kill the animals, so you had to figure that it would work the other way too."

Gwen glared at him. "We saw one of the creatures disappear, not die, so we couldn't know for sure."

"And now you do." John shrugged and then yawned. "You ready to give in and accept my plan yet?"

"You mean killing those innocent people?" Gwen snorted in a rather unladylike fashion. "Yeah, we're definitely up for that."

The look of delight on Hart's face lasted for a heartbeat before he realised she was joking, but everyone had seen it and the mood around the table briefly lifted at his expense. Until Jack spoke again.

"We are going to kill them," he said solemnly, "but we're going to bring them right back. Owen, you need to return to the hospital and convince whoever needs convincing about our plan. I don't care how you do it, just make sure they realise it's the only way to wake up those people. The rest of you are going to come with me."

"So we're just going to run around the city hoping we bump into an alien?" Gwen asked, eyes wide with bemusement.

"Nooo," said Jack. "We're going to drive around the city, whilst Tosh fiddles with things and predicts Lurrelia's next jump."

Everyone looked at Tosh who straightened in her seat, a little startled by the attention returning to her so quickly. "I think I'm getting close to finishing the prognostic calculations, if that's what you're asking."

"Uh, when you say all of us are coming with you..." Ianto started to say, only to trail off as Owen scoffed loudly at him.

"Yeah, because we're going to leave you alone in here to run amok again! She'll get you to open the Rift and lay out the red carpet for her mates the minute we're through the door."

The young Welshman blinked. "I didn't mean me," he said placidly. "I meant Vera over there." He nodded towards Hart and received a cocky grin in response.

"I thought you were ignoring me, Eye-Candy," John drawled. "Playing hard to get, despite all the evidence to the contrary."

Ianto pointedly didn't respond to that.

"He didn't do anything stupid last time," Gwen admitted. She sounded reluctant and Ianto completely understood why. "But maybe that was because he had the cuffs on. We should restrain him again." She gave the former Time Agent a wide grin, very pleased with herself.

Hart leered at her. "You could have just asked to tie me up, Sweetheart."

"Trust me, I wasn't planning to let him roam around out there without a leash," Jack said, unable to keep from smiling at John's increasing enthusiasm at their conversation.

"Oh, this is just perfect!" he declared. "It's like all my wildest dreams come true. Only without the rellick oil. Or the kamberries. Or in fact most of the things in my dreams." He made a thoughtful noise. "Okay, it's more like a dim shadow of my wildest dreams, but I'll take it!"

Owen turned to Tosh, determined to steer matters away from their visitor's disturbing fantasies. "Do you really think you can predict where she's going to turn up next?"

She opened her hands in a sweeping gesture. "I can't imagine why not."

"I get it, there's a pattern to her movements, right?"

"Not really, no."

"Come on, admit it. There's a pattern, but instead of telling us, you're going to pretend you can foresee where the mad alien is going to hop through the Rift next."

Tosh glared at him over the rims of her glasses. "And why would I want to do that, Owen?"

"To show off, of course."

"Children," Jack said, putting no effort at all into his chiding.

John cleared his throat. "You know," he drawled casually. "I can tell where she's going to go quite easily."

Everyone gave him a dubious look, but rather than explaining, he merely lifted his right hand slowly from the surface of the table, waited until they were all looking at it, and then just as slowly brought it down again to point towards his bare left wrist.

Jack groaned loudly, realisation and frustration exploding out on the same breath. "Dammit, John!"

"You didn't ask," Hart responded with a shrug.

"I shouldn't have had to," the Captain growled. He stood up and eyed his former partner. "If I give it back to you, I'm going to have to put some limitations on it."

"For which you'll need my authorisation code."

Jack dragged a pad of paper across the table to rest in front of John and then dropped a pen on top of it. "Go on then."

John gave him a cheeky grin and bent his head to write what appeared to be a long and intricate string of symbols. Finished he handed it back to Jack with a flourish and stood, stepping close into Jack's personal space. "Can I drive?" he asked.

"You don't know how to drive."

"I'll learn on the way."

"You're not driving."

John pouted. "Spoilsport."

"Right." Jack waved the bit of paper with Hart's code on it. "Everyone get ready to go whilst I sort this out." He strode over to the door, calling back over his shoulder as he went, "Ianto, with me."

***

Jack knew that Ianto was following him to the office, even without looking behind or listening for the footsteps just fractionally out of sync with his own.

A long time ago he'd had his senses artificially heightened – one of the perks of being a Time Agent – and although it had only been a minor tweaking, it was one of few things about his stint with the Agency that he hadn't come to regret. And yet, even if he hadn't had the work done, Jack suspected he would still have been able to feel Ianto's presence behind him.

It was like having a blazing sun at his back, a fire so intense that it did not burn but rather caressed his skin. The heat burrowed into his spine, digging its way through with white hot fingers that left trails of scorch marks in their wake.

The door closed softly and Jack let out the breath he hadn't been aware of holding. Ianto moved closer, a single step, and Jack shuddered slightly, turning in order to cover his body's betrayal. He studied the young man's familiar face, not entirely sure when he had began to feel Ianto's proximity in such an unusual way. It seemed familiar, but he hadn't a clue why. All he could be sure of was the need roiling within him; desperate and raw, it was like nothing he had ever encountered before.

The lack of control was very unlike him, he knew that, but the knowledge did nothing to quell the hunger.

"I understand," Ianto said, startling Jack out of his daze.

The Captain hesitated, bewildered. "What?" he asked dumbly.

"I know what you're going to say and I understand."

"What am I going to say?" Jack asked, honestly wishing to hear the answer. He had called for Ianto to follow him without thinking, unconsciously unable to stand to be away from the brightness of the young man, and hadn't planned what he might say once they got there.

Fortunately it seemed that Ianto had been less blinded by his own presence. "When we confront Lurrelia we're probably going to have to kill her. And that means I'll die too."

Jack nodded slowly; the thought had occurred to him earlier whilst considering their next move, but he hadn't gone out of his way to encourage it. Facing the death of his team was an everyday chore, although normally the precise method by which they might die was not foreseen, and something that they avoided rather than pursue quite as actively as they were seeking Lurrelia's demise.

Over the years he had become accustomed to facing danger and exposing his colleagues to the same level of threat, but he never truly got used to the surprise of actually losing someone. Perhaps it was some twisted side-effect of his own immortality; a block in his mind which made him forget that when others died they tended to stay that way.

Jack shook his head, unhappy to even consider the idea. He was well aware of their mortality, that just wasn't something he could overlook, and he hated to consider that he could become so nonchalant about it.

"Jack?" Ianto said uncertainly, seeing the troubled thoughts in the older man's eyes.

"Everybody who joins Torchwood is made aware just how risky the work we do is and they always agree that it's necessary. If they didn't then they wouldn't even have been considered as a potential member of the team." Jack looked away. "But it isn't often we take an action that we know will kill one of our operatives."

Ianto gave him a small smile, a knowing glint in his eye. "Jack, we're always doing things we know could kill us. I say could because they often fail to do so. Look at it this way, I'm not in a coma like the others and the band didn't come off either when I...died...so we don't actually know for sure that her death would do anything to me."

"The likelihood of that-"

"Is slim, yes, but I'm willing to take the chance. It's in my contract, in fact, so I'm not quite sure why we're having this conversation. You of all people know that sacrifices sometimes have to be made."

"I do know," Jack said. "I just..." He frowned, still not entirely sure what he wanted to say. Ianto continued to look at him expectantly, his expression open and calm, despite the possibility of what might soon happen.

Jack growled, giving up on vocalising and stepped forward to grasp Ianto's biceps. The Welshman immediately began to tremble, his pupils dilating until his eyes were almost completely black.

"Fuck," Ianto swore desperately and reached out to pull the other man closer. His hand slid up Jack's arm to his shoulder, fingers clutching at the fabric of his shirt. Their lips met with furious passion, the craving so strong that Ianto wondered how he had lasted so long without Jack's touch.

And judging by Jack's enthusiasm, he felt much the same way.

Ianto moaned into the Captain's mouth, thrilled by the pain and rapture combining throughout his being. He pressed forward, aligning their bodies for the maximum possible contact, and ran his hand around to Jack's back.

The older man's hands moved as well, encircling his waist and holding his body still. Jack rocked his hips, bringing the evidence of his arousal against Ianto's own hardness. He smiled briefly before his lips returned to more important matters.

Ianto broke the kiss with a loud gasp. "If I survive," he began only to be silenced by Jack's mouth again. He pulled away resolutely, scowling at his lover's behaviour. "If I survive her death, your touch might not hurt anymore."

"I hope so," Jack declared absently, nuzzling at the young man's throat. His tongue lingered over the racing pulse in Ianto's neck.

"But..." Ianto struggled to get the words out, uncertain how to phrase it, not entirely positive that he wanted to. "But I...I need you. Right now."

Jack froze and Ianto feared he'd somehow said the wrong thing. The Captain straightened, disentangling himself from the shivering body in his arms. Ianto sighed in relief and disappointment at the loss.

"Ianto..." Jack said.

"Jack?"

He hesitated, torn between lunging forward and backing off entirely. "Oh, God," he muttered to himself. "We don't have time."

"Make the time," Ianto said firmly, closing the gap between them again and grasping one of Jack's braces.

The Captain laughed at the commanding tone, so rare and yet so pleasurable to hear from that particular member of his team.

"It's my dying wish," the young man went on quietly, blue gaze resolutely locked with Jack's.

Jack stopped laughing, the smile fading away as though it had never existed. Something shifted and hardened in his eyes and he took hold of Ianto's shoulders, turning and walking him backwards until his legs hit the edge of the desk. Ianto sat heavily, surprised, and looked up as Jack pushed his knees apart and pressed in close.

Warm fingers cupped his face, tilting it further and their lips met again. Jack's free hand slipped to the back of his neck and the plastic sling fell away. Ianto flung it aside gratefully and moved his arm out of the way, spreading his legs to allow Jack nearer as they continued to kiss, deep and intense.

Jack began to explore his body, hands leaping from shoulders to thighs to chest, unpredictable in their motions. "What do you feel?" he asked against Ianto's mouth.

"Agony." Ianto's muscles quivered beneath his palms. "Like pins and needles, all over. Don't stop!"

The Captain had no intention of doing any such thing, even though every logical voice in his head was screaming that he should not enjoy the whimpers of pain escaping Ianto's lips.

"Jack," the young man murmured, impatient and utterly oblivious to the fact that it really wasn't the time for this. He reached for the buttons on Jack's shirt but his hand was knocked gently away.

"No."

Ianto began to protest, only to fall silent when Jack's fingers began working at his belt. He gave a brief, eager laugh and was kissed soundly. In no time at all, Jack had Ianto's trousers unzipped and his erection freed from the confines of his underwear. The Captain teased the sensitive skin with fleeting torturous strokes and someone groaned loudly. Jack was sure it had been Ianto, but he wasn't willing to bet too much on that.

The cock in Jack's fist twitched, Ianto surging upwards to increase the friction. He tried to get up from the desk only to be pushed firmly back into place.

Jack pulled away and chuckled down at Ianto. "What do you want?" he asked in a low voice.

"You already know," Ianto retorted.

"Say it."

Ianto rolled his eyes. "You. I want you, Jack. Now get on with it."

"That's not very precise, Ianto. Where's that brilliant attention to detail of yours?"

"Brilliantly forgotten until you get a bloody move on," Ianto said, trying to stand once again.

Jack's eyes flashed and he held the younger man in place with heavy hands on his shoulders. When he was sure that Ianto had got the message, he dropped smoothly to his knees, fingers trailing over anything he could reach as he went. "We don't have enough time," he said mournfully. "Not for what I want to do to you." He punctuated the statement with a brief kiss to the tip of the erection bobbing in front of his face.

A sharp inhalation was the only response he received, a noise he would normally have taken as a sign that he should stop – a position he rarely found himself in – but he didn't even hesitate, darting his tongue out to taste the liquid beginning to leak from the younger man's cock.

Ianto lifted his hips, seeking more, and Jack took the opportunity to sharply tug the trousers and underwear further down, exposing more skin for his hands to investigate. At the same time he swallowed as much of Ianto's hard flesh as he could, tongue massaging the thick vein running along its length.

"Ah!" Ianto declared, sounding surprised and uncomfortable. Jack's rhythm faltered and fingers instantly found their way into his hair. "No, don't stop." Even as he spoke his body was moving, trying to pull away, but Jack pursued, obeying the insistent pressure of the hand on his head.

The heightened sensitivity of Ianto's body fascinated Jack. He had never experienced a situation like it before, and although he hated to think that he was hurting his young lover, he simply couldn't stop himself; not when Ianto was encouraging him with such conviction to keep going.

And especially not when he was making those delicious sounds.

On the next pass, Jack expertly dragged his teeth along Ianto's erection, causing the Welshman's breath to catch sharply. The muscles in his thighs tightened beneath Jack's kneading fingers and though he wasn't exactly keen to hurry things along, Jack was extremely pleased by the speed with which he had brought Ianto to the edge.

Deciding to forgo the temptation of teasing the young man, Jack snuck a hand down to cup Ianto's testicles, squeezing the tender orbs within his fingers. Ianto came violently in his mouth, crying out louder than Jack had expected. It was almost a wail, a keening sound, and Jack immediately jumped to his feet and enveloped Ianto in his arms, swallowing his seed almost as an afterthought.

"Hush," he whispered, worried for the first time as Ianto wheezed against his chest. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." He became aware of the other man's squirming and drew back just enough to look down. Ianto took the opportunity to place a hand against his chest, pushing him back, gasping for air as if he had just been submerged in ice cold water.

Jack took the hint and stepped back whilst Ianto remained where he was, eyes glazed and distant. Then he laughed, almost hysterically. Jack tensed, surprised and unsure what to do.

"Oh, God," Ianto panted. "Oh. God."

The pleasure in his lover's voice brought a smile back to the relieved Captain's face. "Good?" he asked smugly.

Ianto gave him a broad grin. "The best."

Jack straightened, ego bolstered by the compliment. He preened a little and then realised that Ianto was still sitting there, half-naked. His own hunger rekindled and he moved forward, capturing Ianto's eager mouth and sharing his taste between them. Ianto began to shake instantly, even more fiercely than before and Jack forced himself to back off again. He took a moment to examine Ianto a little closer, noting the sweat and flushed cheeks upon an otherwise pale face, the dark and distant gaze and the increasingly frantic breathing.

"We need to get going," he said quietly. Reluctantly.

Ianto blinked up at him dumbly. "No. We need to stay and finish."

Jack clenched his jaw. He had never seen Ianto this needy, never seen him so mindless or happy to ignore the urgency of the current threat they faced. "No, we have to stop Lurrelia."

"But..." Ianto cast his unfocused eyes around the room, looking for something but clearly not sure what precisely. "But you haven't..." He stretched out to touch the rather obvious bulge in Jack's trousers but the Captain sprang back, out of his reach.

"Ianto!" he said, adopting the firm, no-nonsense tone he rarely had to use on his own team. "We have to stop Lurrelia."

The young Welshman hesitated, a frown drifting across his brow. He blinked a few more times and then seemed to collapse in on himself. "Yes," he murmured. "Yes, you're right."

Ianto stood up, his legs wobbling, and Jack felt proud of having achieved that with so short and simple a blowjob. He instinctively moved forward to steady him but Ianto held up a hand. "You probably shouldn't touch me." He pulled up his trousers, avoiding Jack's gaze as he fixed his clothing as best he could with only one hand.

Jack frowned, concerned, until Ianto glanced up and smiled wickedly at him, eyes bright with the clear intention to finish what they'd started after dealing with Lurrelia.

If he survived the encounter.

***

Owen left the SUV at a fast pace, bending his head against the rain that had started up again. The bag he'd swiftly packed back at the Hub was slung over one shoulder and it bashed loudly against the automatic doors as he squeezed through the gap between them, too impatient to wait for the entry into the hospital to fully open.

The noise he made caused roughly half the people in the waiting room to turn towards him; so bored sitting in their uncomfortable plastic seats that any activity was a welcome distraction. The other half of the people had either adopted the distant stare of those experienced with queuing or had fallen asleep in a position their necks would punish them for when they woke up.

Bypassing the desk in a flurry of cold air, he hurried though Accident and Emergency without slowing. Someone called out half-heartedly as he went but he ignored them and increased his pace, going otherwise unchallenged as he headed further into the heart of the hospital; the precise reason he had chosen the always busy A&E as a point of entry, rather than daring to run past the formidable women protecting the main entrance. He'd had just one confrontation with them a couple of years earlier and it was enough to make him vow never to take that route ever again.

Owen rounded the corner into a ward he knew housed a few of the comatose victims. One of the beds he and Toshiko had visited the previous day was being made with fresh sheets, the bed's occupant nowhere in sight, and Owen clenched his jaw, cursing silently at the obvious implication.

"Hey," came a voice from behind him and Owen glanced away from the empty bed to find a woman glaring at him with the same kind of animosity that he had long accepted as an occupational hazard for Torchwood employees.

"Hi again!" he said brightly, not really feeling it. "I've come to save your bacon."

The doctor – mid-forties, pouty, and more than attractive enough for Owen – dubiously raised an eyebrow. "You weren't much help the last time you were here."

Owen leered at her. "I like to take my time." She remained unimpressed and he shrugged in defeat. "I've found a way to wake these people up, but you're not going to like it, Dr...?"

"Fitzgibbon."

"Dr. Fitzgibbon. I'm Dr. Owen Harper, nice to properly meet you. Anyway, you're not going to like it."

"And why is that, Mr Harper?"

He ignored her attempt to insult him and flashed a brief and unfelt grin. "It's best if I show you."

---

Ianto didn't even try to keep from rolling against Tosh as Jack threw the SUV around each and every corner in the road. They had just dropped Owen off, which had brought a sigh of relief from both himself and the two women crammed into the back with him. It was cosy enough with three of them, but with one body over capacity there had been far too much accidental touching of places that shouldn't be touched whilst out on a mission to save the world.

Unless, of course, Jack had been in the back with them; he would probably have found some reason for it to be absolutely vital to the survival of the human race.

Ianto smiled faintly at his own wandering mind and glanced over at the readings scrolling across Toshiko's PDA. She held John Hart's wrist strap in one hand, fingers gripping the alien object tightly as though it held all the answers to the universe. Ianto knew she had been itching to get her hands on Jack's for some time now, even though he claimed all the exciting things it could do had been deactivated against his will, so to be able to use Hart's was a dream a come true for her.

He watched her working, completely oblivious to the manic driving of their Captain, even when she slid along the seat and jostled Gwen against the door, causing the other woman to yelp in surprise.

"Any change?" Jack called back over his shoulder and Tosh shook her head.

"No, it's still saying she'll appear on Dawnet Street."

Jack nodded and accelerated again, eliciting a whoop of pleasure from the man seated beside him. Ianto glared at John's profile, ignoring the spike of lust his traitorous body felt when his eyes drifted momentarily to the leg the former Time Agent had propped up against the dashboard. The position immediately drew attention to Hart's crotch, and even though Ianto couldn't really see anything from his position behind the driver's seat, his imagination was doing a very good job of making up for his impaired vision.

Ianto was angry at the other man, angry that he had used him so carelessly, but he was even more furious at himself for allowing Hart to do so. He knew he hadn't been able to fight the desire; logically he knew that Lurrelia was behind those feelings, as well as the lack of control and resistance, but it still felt like something he should be ashamed of.

He certainly felt ashamed that he could vividly remember the other man's touch, his taste, his smell, as though they were still entwined up against the wall down in the cells. Ianto grimaced and looked out the window instead. It was a false pleasure and he hated that it got in the way of the far more real and enjoyable memory of what Jack had just done for him. He smiled again, heartened by the lingering sensation of heat around his groin, a prickling upon his skin that he wanted to itch and rub and bare to Jack so that he could bathe it again with that mobile tongue of his.

"I've got it!" the woman beside him exclaimed and Gwen gave a muffled grunt as an elbow was thrust into her side.

"Blimey, Tosh!" Gwen said. "I think you've given it to me too."

Tosh looked at her, baffled, but apparently far too excited to worry about it. "I've worked out the frequency of the Rift energy she's tapping into." She hesitated and held up the wrist strap. "Well, this device did most of the work, but now that I have frequency I can disrupt it and stop her escaping straight away."

"Perfect," said Jack, his voice low with dark intentions. "She'll have to stick around and watch whilst we ruin her plans."

They drove on for a few more minutes before Gwen yawned loudly. "Anyone else feel like they haven't slept for a week?" she asked, sounding far too calm for the situation.

No one answered her and Ianto returned to watching Cardiff flash past in a blur. It was late afternoon but the sky was so dark that it could easily have been the middle of the night. The streetlamps had already been alight when they'd left the Hub, the thin drizzle glowing in their orange halos, and the roads were oddly quiet for the time of day. It seemed that all the stories about wild animals on the loose in the city was doing wonders for keeping people out of harm's way and, although Ianto was surprised that it had worked so well, he was more than glad that it had done so. He made a mental note to remember that the next time Torchwood needed to clear the streets in short notice.

There came a sudden flash of light through the windscreen, highlighted against the dull clouds and partially hidden by a row of houses, as brief as lightning but originating not from the sky but the ground instead. Jack slammed his foot to the floor, making the SUV jump forward through a narrow intersection and around one last corner into a housing estate. The vehicle slewed to a stop, the brakes screeching in protest of Jack's rough handling, but there was no time to worry about the damage the frantic journey had done as they all peered ahead to the scene in the road before them.

It was clear the light had signified Lurrelia's arrival through one of her portals, and the size of the flare was obviously due to the fact that she had brought most, if not all of her 'pets' through it with her. They littered the street, a group far larger than Ianto had expected and he wondered for one fearful moment if there could be people in the city linked to the animals who hadn't been found.

The thought caused him to freeze with his fingers on the door handle, panicked suddenly by the idea that even if Owen managed to get the Quar-Meil bands off all the patients in the hospital, there might still be some of the alien creatures left behind to defend Lurrelia.

He turned away from the door to point this out, only to find that everybody else had already left the vehicle. Cursing his lapse in attention, he flung himself out after them. "Jack!"

Any response the Captain might have given him was interrupted by Lurrelia. "You can't be serious," she asked, laughing. "You should be enjoying your last few days of freedom, not wasting your time on something that you cannot change."

"Are you so sure about that?" countered Jack.

"Oh, you think by killing a couple of my pets that I will stumble and fall? In case you hadn't noticed, I have an endless supply." The alien female smirked and looked around. There were dozens of the animals surrounding her, filling the residential street. Those standing between her and the humans were watching the newcomers warily, prepared to defend their mistress with their lives, whilst the others were gradually spreading out, edging towards the houses on either side of the road.

There were already faces at the windows of some of the buildings and Ianto's instincts kicked in, swiftly taking note of their location and the number of houses with potential witnesses inside. The clean-up for the entire situation was always going to be on a larger scale than normal, but he had hoped that this confrontation might end up somewhere rather less public.

Lurrelia was still laughing. "Unless you've come to your senses and are offering yourselves as hosts?"

"Yeah, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Gwen declared sarcastically. "Us on our backs, drooling away."

Hart jolted in surprise beside her, impressed by her words. "I'd love that," he said, eyes roving over her body.

She glared back at him. "We'd be in comas."

"And?" John asked with a shrug. He turned to the alien. "Her first, yes?"

"Dearest John," Lurrelia sighed. "I did so enjoy our time together, even if it was all a deception. It's not too late to change sides again, you know, if you'd rather not be torn to pieces. I promise to only do things to you that aren't entirely fatal."

Hart looked as though he was seriously considering the offer.

"He's not going anywhere," Jack growled at her. "And neither are you. This ends now."

As though somehow choreographed, one of the creatures abruptly shuddered violently and let out a pained howl before vanishing into thin air.

"Oh, I am good!" Jack said, grinning proudly. "Next it will start raining naked and exuberant young men." He looked up at the clouded sky expectantly.

"Captain Harkness," Lurrelia said darkly, drawing his attention back to her. "You should not make light of your dire situation. Very soon everything you know, everything you care for, shall be destroyed."

"I don't think so."

"Then you are a fool. A heartless fool who deserves all that he gets." She waved a hand and a group of the alien creatures sprang forward towards the humans. Unable to do anything else, the members of Torchwood lifted their guns and fired at the animals.

After the initial failure of the police to kill the beasts outright, the team had come well prepared. Their weapons were loaded with bullets which Tosh had made herself; a design she had been working on for some time but had yet to face a large enough enemy on which to test them. The intention was for the specially cast bullet to enter a body with the minimum of fuss, driving through skin and bone until reaching the rather more delicate innards, whereupon they would explode, causing a great deal more internal damage.

It still took a number of the new bullets to take down one of the animals, but only a half-dozen had lurched forward to attack and they were easily taken care of. When the last fell, the silence hung for only a second before another creature further down the street yelped and disappeared.

Lurrelia's expression had grown thunderous. "You're killing your own," she said. She attempted to grin, but it was clearly forced. "It only makes my mission easier."

"We'll see about that," Jack muttered, glancing over at Tosh. She nodded in reply and he levelled the Webley at the nearest of the surviving animals, ready for another attack.

Ianto glanced down at the dead beast in front of him. By shooting the alien he may well have caused one of the coma patients to die, but before leaving the Hub, Jack had made sure that everybody understood the risk in what they were doing. When he had then asked if they were still happy with the plan, all had been in agreement that the chance was worth taking if it meant more lives would be saved in the long run.

Of course, having Owen at the hospital already meant that he would be on hand to help with any patients who suffered as a result of the animals being killed. That fact had been of great encouragement to the team and allowed them to take down the creatures without apprehension.

Ianto looked away, pushing the thoughts from his mind. He had to be strong, resolute in his decisions, lest compassion and doubt cloud his judgement and allow Lurrelia to take control of him again. He could already feel the temptation to go to her, the bright lure of her presence calling to something deep within him, something dark and terrible, and it was only his determination to stay with his colleagues and friends that kept him from moving.

"We're saving more than you're killing," Jack said, interrupting Ianto's thoughts. "And we're going to save a hell of a lot more before this night is out."

Lurrelia laughed bitterly. "Always the hero, eh, Time Agent? My, how the nightmares must torment you."

Jack frowned, and the others glanced between themselves. It was beginning to sound as though Lurrelia had a real problem with Jack, and not just because he was standing in the way of her plot.

"I'm not a Time Agent," Jack told her warily, having come to the same conclusion. "Nor do I have nightmares."

"Then you must not sleep," Lurrelia spat, "for I could never rest knowing so much blood was on my hands."

"What blood?" Gwen asked. "He's stopping the bloodshed that you've caused."

The alien woman sneered at her. "Poor child. You should count yourself lucky that you get to die thinking this man is your saviour, you shall never know what atrocities he is capable of. If I hadn't come to this world he would have destroyed it, brought it to the brink of ruin and then disappeared, abandoning you to struggle in the carnage that he leaves in his wake."

Ianto looked across to see Jack shaking his head in denial. "Listen, lady, I think you've mistaken me for somebody else. Perhaps it's another impossibly handsome man that you're looking for." Jack spoke lightly, a grin firmly in place, but Ianto could tell that she had struck a nerve.

"Oh, no, I know perfectly well who you are, Jack Harkness, even if you do go by another name these days." Her expression had hardened into one of hatred and Ianto realised with a start that he could feel that same burn of anger igniting in his chest. He frowned and drew in a deep, calming breath, attempting to suppress the emotion that he knew wasn't his own. Lurrelia's dark, empty eyes flickered towards him briefly and she bared her teeth in a mockery of a smile. "I am surprised that you did not recognise my name," she said, turning back to Jack. "But perhaps you are merely pretending, so as not to reveal the truth to your precious mortals. You cannot tell me the word 'Lurrelia' means nothing to you."

Jack stared at her, a mixture of dread and confusion on his face. "Should it?" he prompted cautiously.

"In the past I would have been known as Lur-Oal-Eeli..."

Jack's eyes widened. "That's what the Fam used to call the executioners of criminals."

"So you do remember my people and their customs."

"I spent time with them, but it was long before they reached your level of development." He scowled, impatient. "Look, I thought you came to Earth in search of a new home," he said, shaking his head in confusion. "But now it sounds like you think I've done something wrong by you. How about you get your story straight before we go any further."

The alien glared at him, lips pursed sourly. "You play with me. Not only did you set in motion the cause of my people's decline, but you insult me now by denying your crime."

"Crime?" Jack protested, but she ignored him.

"Well I'll stand for it no longer, Captain Harkness. I know you cannot die, so I am going to do to you what you did to my people; I am going to destroy your world. I am going to take from you all that you possess." She looked over the people standing around him, eyes glittering with fury. "And all that you care for."

Before anybody could respond, she lifted a hand and the air shimmered behind her, a yellow glow lit the area, just like the previous portal, but as the creatures began to move towards it seemed that a loud crack of thunder filled the air. It didn't stop rumbling, however, growing in volume as the glimmering brightened into a blazing white light.

Ianto threw his arm up in front of his eyes and turned away. The deafening noise of false thunder reverberated through his body and he struggled to keep his footing as the ground bucked beneath him. He became aware of a hand on his back, a hand that gripped his flesh like cold iron, and he was propelled away from the light, but then the world tipped and he was flying through the air, lifted by an explosion even louder than the rumbling, screaming sky above.

***

Jack shook his head to clear the ringing from his ears, dislodging a layer of dirt that had settled over him as he did so. He blinked grit out of his eyes and struggled to his feet, already able to determine where he would develop bruises. His back felt warm from the blast and he absently hoped that it hadn't burnt his greatcoat; it was already torn at the hem, but at least that damage was repairable.

Surveying the scene around him, Jack wiped a hand across his face, spreading the grime with a sweat-slicked palm. The portal's eruption had opened up a deep crater in the middle of the road; the low brick walls on either side were crushed into little more than rubble, the plants in the small front gardens flattened and charred beyond recognition.

Jack squinted and tried to peer through the dust still clogging the air. He could just make out the looming shapes of buildings along the street, so it was possible that little damage had been done to the houses themselves. He let out a sigh of relief, glad that anybody inside would have been safe.

"Tosh," he began, feeling her grasp his coat and use it to stand. "Anything you'd like to say?"

She looked up at him with wide eyes. "I didn't mean for it to explode," she admitted shakily. "I may have been a little over zealous..."

"Maybe," Jack agreed, glancing past her to see Gwen clambering upright. He opened his mouth to ask if she was okay, but swung around sharply at the sound of movement ahead.

One of the animals was shifting underneath the rubble and Jack narrowed his eyes, trying to gauge whether it was an immediate threat or not. After a low moan and a fruitless effort to move, it relented and slumped down again, twitching beneath the great clumps of tarmac on top of its back.

Jack relaxed and turned to Ianto, only to find he wasn't at his side where Jack had expected him to be. Glancing down, he realised the younger man was still on the ground, where the Captain had pushed both him and Tosh moments earlier. Dread rising, Jack dropped into a crouch and touched his fingers to Ianto's neck. For one dark moment he couldn't feel anything, but then blood throbbed against his fingertips and he let out a quiet but relieved laugh. "Ianto," he said, attempting to brush the dust from the other man's face. "C'mon buddy, time to get up."

Ianto stirred beneath his hands, mumbling something that Jack couldn't hear. He smiled gently. "Now really isn't the time to stop being a morning person, Ianto."

"Not morning," Ianto protested thickly, levering himself up on one hand. Jack caught him under the elbow and helped him the rest of the way. "Everyone all right?"

"All limbs present and accounted for," Jack told him cheerfully. "And a pile of trapped beasts to boot. I just wish Tosh had told us quite how disruptive she was going to be."

He flashed a grin up at her, but she didn't seem impressed by his joke. In fact she was examining her PDA closely, tapping at it with the kind of illogical impatience that one adopts when a gadget refuses to behave itself. She sighed, frustrated, and dropped her hand to her side, only to lift it and the other back up to be examined, as though they were completely alien to her. "The wrist strap!" she cried, spinning towards Gwen and gesturing with empty fingers.

The other woman caught on immediately and turned to her side. She cursed loudly. "He's gone."

Jack didn't even bother to feign surprise. He'd expected John to attempt an escape far earlier and had frankly become suspicious when his ex-partner behaved so well throughout the few days he was with them. Still, Jack smiled, he wouldn't get far. Not after he'd disabled the second override John thought he'd kept well hidden.

Gwen was rather more concerned, however. "Sorry, Jack. I was sure he was right here."

"It's okay. We've got more important things to worry about." He waved a hand at the scene of destruction before them. "It looks like most of the creatures were either killed in the explosion or have disappeared, hopefully thanks to Owen, but I want the rest tied up before they regain their senses. Then all we have to do is wait whilst Owen finishes up at the hospital."

Ianto and Gwen turned towards the SUV to retrieve the restraints stored there, but after only two steps they were brought back around by Tosh's exclamation of surprise.

At the far edge of the debris, Lurrelia was dragging herself free of a heap of shattered bricks, having apparently been thrown clear of the blast and into the garden wall of a nearby house. Her clothes were torn and her face darkened by dust, but the biggest change were her eyes; no longer flat and empty, they shone now with fury and hatred.

"You bastard!" she shouted at Jack. "You can't get away with this, I won't let you!" She cried out a word in a language that definitely wasn't from Earth and the few remaining creatures roused themselves, with obvious pain, from the wreckage. "You deserve to die for dooming the Perscalla-Fam, but I will settle for destroying your world instead!"

The animals began to lurch forward, slowed by their injuries, and the humans lifted their weapons once again.

Jack took a step towards the enraged being. "Just hold on a minute. Whatever you think I did to your people, you're wrong. I spent a few days gathering intel on a developing society and then left. Not nearly enough time to 'doom' it as you claim!"

"Days?" Lurrelia repeated scornfully. "You were there for a year, Captain, and you did more than watch, you situated yourself right in the middle of the council."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "I find that hard to believe, I've never had any desire to be involved in local politics."

"And yet you charmed your way right to the top, didn't you? You swindled and lied to get as high as possible and then you convinced all those unsuspecting people to do what you said. You convinced them to change."

"Jack?" Gwen said. "What is she talking about?"

The alien creatures were still shuffling across the mess of broken brick and tarmac, but they were getting steadily closer and none were disappearing due to Owen's work at the hospital. Jack shot the closest beast in both knees and it crumpled to the ground, causing another to fall over it. He waved away Gwen's question. "What change?" he asked Lurrelia instead.

She glared at him. "Why do you still persist to deny knowledge of your crime?"

"Because!" Jack shouted and then hesitated, taking a deep calming breath before starting again. "Because, I don't remember being there for longer than two days. That's the truth." He did, however, have his suspicions about why that might be, but he was not about to admit that out loud; especially not to a homicidal alien.

Lurrelia was silent, her brow creased in thought. She seemed to have finally realised that he might not be lying. And it galled her.

"What change do you think I instigated?" Jack asked calmly, not giving her the time to gather herself.

"You introduced what you said was a vaccine, made it compulsory that every child receive it." Her frown deepened as Tosh took down another of the creatures that got too close. "From that first generation onwards, my people began to change. They lost the things that made them the Fam."

Jack began to open his mouth to voice his confusion, but noticed Lurrelia's gaze sliding to one of her pets. "Them?" He was unable to control the grimace that flashed across his face. "They turned into them?"

"Whoa, hang on!" Gwen cried out. "Are you trying to say those things were once like her?"

"The Fam were exceptional people," Lurrelia said with a snarl. "Much like you precious humans, but now they have been corrupted, turned from their bright future and made to scrabble in the dirt like animals."

"How could that have happened?" Tosh demanded. "You would have to alter their DNA, which isn't as simple as giving a child an injection."

"I didn't need to know how," came the impatient retort. "All I cared about was who had done it."

Jack glanced to the side to find Ianto looking at him. Somehow he knew that the young man shared at least some of his suspicions about what might have happened and Jack wasn't at all comfortable underneath that knowing gaze.

He resisted the urge to look at the women on his other side, just in case the same expressions were present upon their faces. "I'm sure I wouldn't have done something like that," he said, hearing the doubt in his own voice. "Why would I want to change them?"

Gwen was the next to shoot and she winced remorsefully as the creature hit the ground with a thump. "What I don't understand is why you think it was Jack."

"And why aren't you like them?" Ianto added quietly. He had dropped his left arm to his side, Jack noticed, gun pointed downwards and index finger away from the trigger.

Lurrelia looked at each of them, chest heaving with the effort of breathing. She was hurt, and badly, but anger was keeping her on her feet; vengeance providing the strength to stay upright. "Because I am an aberration," she said, gaze settling on Ianto. "As a child something happened to me, something that woke my mind from the animal instincts that condemn my kindred, and as I matured I realised that I could do things that the others couldn't. I was able to see thoughts that weren't my own. The beings that enslaved my broken people had minds full of more than the simple drudgery of servitude and I sought to escape." She smiled, baring her teeth in a very feral manner. "Which is when I found I could also inhabit the bodies of others, if I so desired."

"You took someone else's body?" Gwen asked, stunned, even after all she had seen in her time working for Torchwood.

"I couldn't very well start a new life looking like that could I?" Lurrelia demanded, pointing at one of the beasts.

Jack flinched, realising with a start that they were still approaching and readjusted his aim. He didn't want to shoot them, they were weak and injured and following her command to attack purely because they had no other choice. On top of that, they were still linked to living human beings who could be saved if he gave Owen more time.

The Captain mentally calculated the distance between the remaining eleven alien creatures and his team and decided there was still a chance. "You went back in time to see your ancestors," he guessed. "Was it by accident or on purpose?"

Lurrelia clenched her jaw. "Accident."

"You saw that the Fam were once very different and sought out the reason why."

"And found you," she spat. The rage visibly built up once again within her, her face flushed and her body shaking with a surge of adrenaline. Her dark, glossy eyes slid to Ianto and Jack turned reluctantly in the same direction.

The Welshman had lifted his weapon again, but it was pointed upwards now, directly beneath his chin.

Behind him both Tosh and Gwen gasped and Jack threw out an arm to stop them from getting past him. His own gun had moved automatically to settle on Lurrelia and he spoke to her, whilst holding Ianto's fearless gaze with his own. "You'll die as well," he said, inwardly proud of his young lover's strength in showing no alarm at his situation.

"No, I won't," Lurrelia announced serenely. "You tried already, remember? Our connection is different from the others."

"Then I'll kill you and he'll survive."

"Wrong again," she said. "Kill me, he dies. Kill him, I live."

"That doesn't make sense," protested Gwen. She had moved forward, edging towards Lurrelia and the creatures.

"It doesn't have to. It simply is."

Ianto blinked, eyelids moving lazily. The gentle rain that Jack had forgotten was falling had caused streaks to appear in the dirt on the young man's face. It looked almost as though he were crying, but Jack knew that wouldn't be the case; Ianto was far too resilient for that.

Jack glanced down at the gun in the other's steady hand. He couldn't be sure of getting the weapon away in time, nor could he be sure of Lurrelia's insistence that Ianto's death would not cause her own.

But he was damned if he would let Ianto give away his life for no reason.

"What do you want?" he asked Lurrelia.

"For you to suffer," she replied easily.

Jack bit back his initial response. "Anything I can do to change your mind?"

She sneered, face twisting unpleasantly. "Nothing."

Ianto's body jerked, his muscles twitching violently as he struggled to battle the alien's control. Jack watched, fascinated, as his jaw clenched and then softened, lips curling up into a malevolent smile that the handsome face was never meant to wear.

Jack shifted his weight, preparing to leap at the Welshman in the hope that he could disarm Ianto before he was able to pull the trigger. Behind them another of the animals cried out as its connection to the Earth was severed and in the same moment, when Lurrelia was distracted Ianto whirled suddenly away.

Surprised, Jack had no time to react as Ianto slammed his broken arm forcefully into the remains of the low wall beside him.

The young man roared in pain, expression twisting and body folding in on itself. Hunched over for only a second, he straightened with a loud gasp, eyes bright with renewed alertness as he threw himself forward, away from Jack and straight towards Lurrelia.

"Ianto!" Jack called, echoed by both Tosh and Gwen. Ianto ignored them, scrambling carelessly over the rubble to reach the alien.

The two creatures nearest to Ianto turned to intercept him, only to crash to the ground as they were struck by Torchwood's modified bullets.

"Ianto, get back!" Jack shouted. He knew that Ianto was fighting her manipulation, refusing to let her hurt Jack by making him shooting himself, but that knowledge would not make the Captain stand by silently as his lover hurried towards his death. There was still hope that Lurrelia's claims had not been entirely true, however Ianto's reckless decision to attack her directly was quickly compromising the possibility of his survival.

The gentle rain had made the shattered road slick and Ianto slipped, coming down onto one knee and instinctively trying to catch himself with his right hand. He cried out again in anguish but pushed himself back up, even faster than before, and lunged for Lurrelia.

The alien's eyes widened as Ianto aimed his gun at her, surprise clear across her petite features. Clearly she hadn't expected such strength from the man, for she took a sudden step backwards.

"If I die, so do you," she reminded him desperately.

Ianto gave a brief and hollow laugh. "We all have to die some time."

Jack winced and moved to hurry after the Welshman. If only that were true.

"He killed my people," she shouted. "How can you deny me this retribution?"

"For one thing, you haven't proven he's responsible," Ianto said, coming to stop a couple of paces away from her. "And secondly, your people are still living, so you can't very well claim him a murderer, can you? Who are you to say that this wasn't just a case of natural progression?"

"Progression?" Lurrelia exclaimed furiously. "You think we were meant to devolve into these creatures?"

"It is possible," Ianto replied evenly, using the distraction of her anger to inch closer.

She realised his trick, however, and sneered at him in contempt. A glow began to form directly behind her, weak and barely visible in the dull light. Jack dashed forward, recognising her attempt to open another portal.

"Tosh!" he called back over his shoulder as he scrambled towards Ianto. "Don't let her get away!"

He couldn't hear any reply she might have given, for a sudden howling filled the air, the sound of a fierce gale along with the pull of an even stronger force.

Jack yelled a warning that was consumed by the wind and then lost his footing in the same spot Ianto had stumbled over only moments earlier. He urged himself on, trying to regain his balance by simply moving faster, but even as he sped towards them, he saw Ianto lunge for Lurrelia. There came a flash of intense light, lasting barely a second, and then heavy darkness fell over the street.

Jack skidded to a halt, blinking to clear the lingering blaze of white that hovered everywhere he looked. Silence roared in his ears and cold fear pressed in on him from all sides.

The streetlights had gone out, as well as the glowing windows in the houses further along the road. Even the headlamps on the SUV had been extinguished and the sky above seemed darker than before. The only thing which convinced Jack that he hadn't stepped through the portal himself was the sound of Gwen's voice.

"Jack! Jack, are you still there?"

"I'm here," he called back. Turning in a circle, he moved tentatively forward, hoping he was heading in the same direction as before.

"What happened?" Gwen asked. "Why have all the lights gone out?"

"It was the portal," said Tosh. "She opened it using a different frequency to the ones she's made before and it clashed with the obstruction I'd set up. It created a sort of tiny EMP, knocking out all the electronics in the immediate area." She sighed. "I didn't think she'd be able to use other frequencies, but I suppose I should have prepared for that just in case."

"It's not your fault, Tosh," Jack reassured her. His eyes were gradually adjusting to the gloom and he could make out vague shapes around him. He was also positive that the sky had lightened again, though he might have just imagined that it had grown darker in the first place. The rain, however, was a constant throughout, and it stung his eyes as he searched the area for sign of either Lurrelia or Ianto.

Gwen clambered over to stand beside him, grabbing his arm as she wobbled on the unstable ground. "Are they...?" she asked, taking his lack of motion as a bad sign. It was, but not in the way she thought.

"I don't know," he admitted quietly. "They both went through the portal."

***

Ianto was falling.

He knew it wasn't possible, because there was a solid surface beneath his feet and it wasn't moving at all, yet still he was falling.

Heated air moved swiftly around him, pushing against his face and making it hard to open his eyes. There was something in his left hand, something ice cold and living. Lurrelia, his mind provided and he nodded, pointlessly, agreeing with his own astute conclusion. He turned his face away from the wind so he could open his eyes properly, but no matter which direction he looked, he was buffeted by the air.

A high-pitched screaming filled his ears and suddenly he was thrust forward by an unseen force...

---

"Where is he?" Gwen asked softly, sounding almost afraid of the answer. She'd asked it twice already, but as she pushed the buttons of her mobile, the words seemed to emerge without thought. She lifted the phone to her ear and listened, biting her lower lip and tapping her foot impatiently.

Tosh had managed to get their comms back and the SUV was functioning again, but that was mainly because they had been designed to withstand such eventualities. The streetlamps were still dead and a few people had tentatively ventured out of their homes to ask why nothing was working. Gwen went off to get them back indoors and she returned having spun an encompassing lie about there being a gas explosion which had knocked out the electricity at the same time. Tosh had frowned at that, clearly unimpressed by the flaws in the other woman's story, but she'd said nothing and instead continued trying to contact Owen.

Once he had the SUV lights back on, Jack went over the wreckage carefully, checking the bodies of the animals which had apparently been humanoid many millennia earlier. He tried not to think about the accusations Lurrelia had flung at him, but his thoughts kept drifting back to the amicable people he had met whilst assessing the Perscalla-Fam.

As he recalled, the mission had been an easy one, and at the time he had considered it rather dull and far beneath his abilities. However, after spending the two days free to do whatever he wanted, so long as he provided the Time Agency with a competent report, he had decided that it hadn't really been all that bad.

Afterwards, however, upon his return to the Agency's base, he'd been commanded to remain on site and train some of the new recruits. It was during that time he had awoken on morning to find the date had mysteriously skipped ahead by two years.

Jack glared down at the ruined ground and kicked a chunk of tarmac at the hole in the middle of the street. He hated thinking of the way his employers had betrayed him. Some of his colleagues had been close enough for him to call them 'family', but after losing a part of his life without explanation he could no longer find it within himself to trust any of them at all.

It had been the reason he'd struck out on his own, abandoning an existence he had never expected to lose and descending into crime and deception. Throughout it all, he had hoped to one day find out that there was an adequate reason for what had happened to him, but if Lurrelia had told the truth and he had been responsible for the changes experienced by the Fam, he wasn't entirely sure that he wanted to remember it. He simply couldn't understand what might have caused him to do such a thing, even if it had been on orders from the Agency.

Back at the SUV Gwen growled in frustration and Jack glanced up in time to see her flinging her phone into the back seat. "Nothing!"

He frowned at her, suspicious of her behaviour. "Did you just try to call Ianto's mobile?" he asked, unable to stop himself from smiling at the way her face reddened. "That'd be a yes then."

Gwen shrugged self-consciously. "It was worth a shot."

Jack laughed, allowing his thoughts to be diverted from the past without much complaint. "It was," he agreed. "But I'm not entirely sure he had it with him anyway."

"Where could they have gone?" Gwen asked Jack, as though he hadn't been listening the other three times. "The other portals let Lurrelia jump around the city, so surely they're somewhere close by. Shouldn't we be out there looking for them?"

"We wouldn't find them," Tosh announced, looking up with panic in her eyes. "I've just got the link back with the Hub's sensors, but there's no sign of the portal reopening elsewhere."

Gwen shook her head. "That can't be right."

The other woman shrugged and glanced away uncomfortably, hiding her fear. "I've checked twice."

Jack could feel Gwen's eyes upon him but he didn't turn to meet them. He'd suspected the portal wouldn't lead to a different part of Cardiff; felt it deep in his bones that Ianto was somewhere far, far away. But now that Tosh had confirmed his hunch, he simply didn't know what their next step should be.

"Check again," he said quietly, sweeping his gaze over the wreckage. "And get hold of Owen."

"Ah!" Tosh said. "He's already on the line." She flicked a couple of switches and the sound of ranting filled Jack's ear.

"Owen?" he said, and the stream of curses cut off abruptly.

"Finally! What the fuck is going on out there?"

"Calm down, Owen," Jack said. "We've been a bit busy."

The doctor spluttered. "Busy! Tosh put me on bloody HOLD!" He audibly drew in a deep breath. "You know, we really should invest in some muzak," he suggested, sounding more than just a little serious about it.

"Sorry, Owen," Tosh said sincerely. "I was distracted."

"What's happened?"

"It's Ianto," Jack told him, kicking aside another lump of rubble to find a pair of clouded yellow eyes looking up at the dark sky. "He fell through one of the portals trying to catch Lurrelia."

"And hasn't reappeared again," Gwen added glumly.

It took a moment for Owen to react. "Shit," he growled and Jack nodded, despite the fact that the other man couldn't see him.

"How are things there, Owen?" Gwen asked. "We had no choice but to shoot a few of the animals."

"Yeah, I got that impression," he replied sourly. "The folks here couldn't understand why so many victims started arresting at the same time. Still, we managed to save some of them, and removed quite a few of the bands the other way too."

"How many survived?"

"Let's see...at last count there were thirty-four comatose people admitted to the hospital with metal bands burnt into their wrists. We woke six of them up with the defibrillator and brought back another five after you shot their counterparts. There are still four in comas and the docs here are just getting to work on them now. They've finally realised that I was right, it's just a shame it was a bit too late."

"God," Gwen whispered. "We killed nineteen innocent people."

"It's more than that." Gwen looked up sharply at Jack, eyes bright with moisture and guilt. "There are too many bodies here to account for the thirty-four at the hospital," he told her. "Lurrelia must have enslaved others that haven't been found yet."

"And now they'll all be found dead, thanks to us."

Tosh took Gwen's hand and squeezed her fingers; a rare display for her but one that Jack could fully understand. If he'd been able to move from his position in the middle of the carnage he would have done the same. Instead he wrapped himself in his role as the leader of their team. "Owen, make sure you save those last four. Girls, we need to start shifting these creatures. As soon as the police get here, we'll have them to cordon off the street and keep prying eyes away whilst we work."

"But we can't fit all of these in the SUV," Gwen pointed out with a frown. "It'll take us hours to make enough trips."

"That's why the police are going to transport them instead." Jack smiled grimly at her surprise. "We wrap up the bodies to hide what they are, then get your old mates to do the grunt work and dispose of them for us."

"Oh, come on now! They would never do that!"

"It's true," Tosh offered, heading for the rear of the black vehicle to find their stash of plastic sheets. "Or don't you remember that incident at the Pilling's Ale warehouse?"

Gwen pursed her lips in thought. "Was that when some machinery blew up and caused a flood or something?"

"Ernac businessmen out on a jaunt," Jack corrected. "Developed a real liking for ale but apparently their species shouldn't be exposed to yeast. They literally doubled in size and went on a rampage through the warehouse, breaking open all the containers and squashing quite a few of the workers before we managed to get there. Your lot moved all the bodies to a secure location for us, including a handful of very drunk, very corpulent men, all without question."

"Bloody Torchwood," Gwen muttered, though she smiled immediately after, shaking her head in amusement. Jack smiled back at her, holding her gaze, and thus saw the moment her thoughts turned to other matters. "Jack," she began carefully, "what she said, about what you did...is it true?"

The Captain turned away to conceal his scowl. "Leave it be, Gwen" he said.

"But-"

"I don't know and I don't want to talk about it. Especially not now, okay?"

"Jack-"

"OH!" Tosh exclaimed, interrupting Gwen's response. Her face was lit by the glow of her PDA, her eyes wide and her lips spreading into a wide grin. "There's another portal opening!"

***

It was all Ianto could do to keep from dropping to his knees. Blinding light and a shrill whining pressed in around him, suffocating him with sensory overload. Time had long ceased to have any meaning and, although he consciously moved through the strange landscape, he did so without truly being aware of his surroundings.

There was a trail of sorts, a slightly darker line upon the ground that twisted through the bewildering luminosity, and Ianto followed it; not because it was a pathway, but rather because the indistinct figure of Lurrelia was stumbling along it, trying to get away from him.

She was clearly suffering as much as he was, though she was the one to have brought them there, and thus he was able to keep pace with her unsteady steps. He pursued her for hours, or so it seemed to him, the world passing by in a haze and his head aching from the constant light and sound.

Ianto called out to the alien he chased; first for her to stop and then for her to at least explain where they were. He didn't really expect a response and wasn't at all surprised when she ignored him, but he refused to let her escape when she was his only hope of returning safely to Cardiff.

His chance came when she unexpectedly tripped over something that Ianto couldn't see and he lunged forward, grabbing her with his free hand. She struggled, screeching with fury and clawing at his face like an animal. They both tumbled to the ground, rolling over each other as they fought to either escape or detain their foe. Ianto's hold on her broke twice, but he was able each time to grasp her again before she could slip away.

The cacophony of sound increased as she screamed in his ear and he grabbed her about the throat to stifle her shrieking...

---

...and darkness fell between one blink and the next.

It came as a shock after the previous brightness and the abrupt silence rang in his ears like the aftermath of an explosion.

Ianto's left hand had clamped itself over his eyes without him noticing – and without it doing any good at all - and his body curled in on itself, bringing him into a foetal position on the ground. The entire right side of his body ached but it was nothing compared to the pounding in his head.

He wasn't sure how long he lay there, he only knew that moving was not an option; at least not unless he wanted to vomit all over himself.

A beam of light slid over his face and he squeezed his eyes shut behind his fingers, moaning at the new pain that blossomed in his temples. Footsteps followed the light, swift and urgent, and then there were hands on his shoulder, his chest, his face...

Pulling away from the frantic touches, Ianto rolled weakly to his knees, just in time to turn his head and throw up onto the wet soil beneath him. One of the hands returned, this time to his back, and began rubbing in soothing circles.

"Ianto?" It was Jack's voice and Ianto had never felt so glad to hear it. "Ianto, are you hurt?"

He gave a shaky laugh and then spat, cringing at the sour taste left in his mouth. "No," he said, slumping onto his back again, away from the mess. He looked up at the dark sky and recalled the last time he had unwilling lain out in the open, right before everything had started to fall apart.

"What happened?" Jack asked. "Your heart's racing."

"Not sure," Ianto said slowly as exhaustion swept over him. "I was somewhere...somewhere else." He opened his eyes wide to keep from falling into the tempting comfort of sleep. "Is everyone okay?"

Jack grinned down at him, one hand cupping the young man's cheek affectionately. "We're fine. Tosh and Gwen are taking care of the chaos Lurrelia left behind and Owen's sorting out the last of the coma patients."

"Still?"

"Yes, still. You were only gone a couple of hours, Ianto."

Ianto squinted up at him. "Really? Oh."

Jack frowned at his confusion but didn't press the issue. "We saved fifteen of them," he told him instead, voice quiet with remorse, and Ianto's stomach clenched at the low number. "And the rest of the planet, of course."

Ianto drew in a deep breath and tried to push himself up from the ground. Jack's arms came about him and helped, propping him up once he was on his feet. The world swam around the Welshman, his ears roaring with the motion and his insides protesting his new upright position. After just a few seconds, he leaned over and threw up again, Jack holding on tightly to keep him from falling down.

Whilst he was otherwise occupied, Jack pulled Ianto's left hand up and into the light, turning it gently to examine his burnt wrist. The skin was red still, the wound raw and fresh, but the metal that had been clamped around it was gone. Smiling in relief, he let go of the arm as Ianto straightened carefully.

"That place," Ianto began, eyes rolling in his head, "I think it was her planet, but the light, the noise..." He trailed off and grimaced in remembered pain.

Jack started to steer the traumatised man towards the SUV, keeping their steps slow and steady. "It's over now," he said. "You're home and we'll make sure she can never return here."

Ianto stiffened, causing Jack to stop and peer at him in concern. "She can't."

"That's right," Jack agreed, "we won't let her."

"No, I mean she can't." Ianto looked at Jack with wide and horrified eyes. "I killed her."

---

Jack waited until he'd bundled Ianto inside the SUV before attempting to respond to the unexpected admission, but as he slid into the driver's seat and looked over, he found a stoic mask had settled over the younger man's face. The dismay that had warped his features was gone, leaving behind only the telltale gleam of moisture in his blue eyes.

"What happened?" Jack asked, brushing his fingers over the back of Ianto's hand, just above the edge of the dirty cast. He couldn't help but touch him, surprised and relieved to have found his lover so quickly and in far better shape than he'd imagined after a trip through an alien spatial gateway.

Ianto shifted in his seat, body tense and uncomfortable. "It was...disorientating. I remember the smell of blood and her throat in my hand." The fingers of his left hand curled into a loose fist upon his thigh. For the first time, despite the younger man's already grubby state, Jack noticed the stains upon his fingers and found himself wondering at their specific origin. "I didn't mean to-"

"Of course you didn't," Jack interrupted, hating the guilt and revulsion in Ianto's voice, "but you had to. She would have killed you without a second thought."

"I know," Ianto agreed quietly, but without much conviction.

"And I much prefer this outcome to the alternative." The Captain smiled when Ianto finally met his eyes. His relief had overtaken the worry he'd been suppressing for the past few hours, creating a feeling of elation to which he was all too willing to submit. "How about we get you back to the Hub? When Owen's done at the hospital he can give you a once over and make sure that little trip didn't do anything untoward to that lovely body of yours."

Ianto's brow creased into a frown and his eyes slid away from Jack's.

"Hey," the older man said, taking a firmer grasp of Ianto's hand. "You did what you had to do. Anyone else would have done the same."

The reassurance didn't have quite the effect Jack had hoped for, however. Ianto's gaze dropped to their hands and he straightened, as though only just noticing the contact. "I can't feel any pain," he stated, surprised.

Jack grinned. "No band and no Lurrelia. Looks like we're back in action."

The young Welshman fell silent again and said nothing for so long that Jack feared something truly awful had happened to Ianto whilst he'd been gone. But then he sat up even straighter, squared his shoulders and nodded, just once, as though confirming something to himself. "Right," he said finally, though Jack wasn't entirely sure if it was in response to his previous comment or not. "Let's get going then, shall we?"

It took a moment for Jack's mind to acknowledge the command, abrupt as it was, during which time Ianto turned a forced smile on the older man. "Back to the Hub, I mean. I think my arm might need a bit of attention before we even think about any, uh, action."

Jack floundered for a moment longer; having neither taken his words that way nor been prepared for the u-turn in his lover's behaviour. He stopped himself from automatically calling Ianto up on it, realising it was neither the time nor the place to have that kind of discussion, and instead welcomed the suddenly lighter tone of proceedings. "Oh I don't know about that," he began, leering overtly at him, "there are plenty of actions we could perform without troubling that arm."

Ianto rolled his eyes and went to adjust a tie that was no longer where it should have been. He looked down at himself and frowned again. "I need a shower and a change of clothes," he announced. "And a new suit apparently," he added, tugging at a large hole in the knee of his trousers.

"You could always-"

With a groan that stopped Jack mid-sentence, Ianto slumped down in the seat and closed his eyes. "Can we continue this battle of wits when I've slept for at least a day?" he asked. "I promise I'll let you win if you say yes."

Jack laughed and put the SUV into gear. "Yes, Sir!" he said, easing the vehicle back onto the road and turning it towards the bay.

***

Ianto paused in the office doorway and scowled. He put his hand to his eyes and rubbed them. Then he turned around to check that he hadn't just passed through another portal into a different world. Finally he turned back and lifted both eyebrows in bewildered enquiry at Jack.

The Captain, still laughing, winked at him. "How are you feeling, Ianto?" he asked, unfolding his hands from behind his head and sitting forward at his desk.

Ianto blinked, looked pointedly at the man lounging on the small sofa, and finally decided to play along. "Better, thank you," he replied honestly. The only issue he had was lingering fatigue; he could have happily gone back to sleep, but then he wasn't entirely sure he had woken up. It certainly seemed like a dream to find John Hart sprawled in Jack's office, laughing along with the older man.

"I want Owen to have another look at you," Jack said, still seemingly unperturbed by the presence of his former partner.

"I just needed to sleep." Ianto couldn't help but look back to Hart, who leered at him, not even attempting to hide the way he was studying the Welshman's body.

"For fifteen hours?" Jack's own eyebrows shot up and then he chuckled. "I'm glad your sense of humour wasn't damaged as well, Ianto. Go see Owen anyway to ease my mind, if that's how you want to think of it."

"And should I bring you both some refreshments on my way back?" Ianto asked dryly, meeting John's smug gaze and refusing to look away first.

"God, no," Jack said. "He's not going to be here that long."

That got Hart's attention and he turned from his staring contest with Ianto to gawk at the other man. "What? I thought we had an agreement?"

Jack flashed him a wide grin. "No, you made a suggestion and didn't wait for an answer. So here it is now: no, you still can't stay."

Hart narrowed his eyes, his jaw clenching angrily. "But you disabled the vortex manipulator," he said through gritted teeth. "And the secondary system you weren't supposed to know about. You made sure I couldn't leave."

"That's right. I didn't want you prancing off until I was sure you wouldn't be of any further use. Now that Lurrelia's gone and Ianto's back, it's time for you to get going."

Ianto watched the exchange with a great deal of satisfaction. Although John Hart couldn't be blamed for all that had transpired, Ianto still viewed him with some contempt over the whole situation. He was a reminder of what had happened during the last week and if Jack had allowed him to stay, Ianto would've had a difficult time adjusting to his presence. He tried to hide his pleasure when John glared up at him, but he suspected that he didn't completely succeed.

Taking a step back, Ianto decided it was best to let Jack deal with the irate ex-Time Agent on his own, but Hart leapt to his feet and made to leave the office, shouldering Ianto aside as he strode by. When he reached the doorway, however, he paused for a moment before turning on his heel and coming to stand directly in front of Ianto. He smirked as the Welshman leaned back slightly, although Ianto refused to be cowed into moving away completely.

"It was fun while it lasted, Eye-Candy," he drawled, his eyes flicking over Ianto's shoulder towards Jack. "And just so you know, next time I intend to get to the main event." He grabbed the nape of Ianto's neck and pulled him into a forceful kiss. Ianto strained to pull back but it ended almost as quickly as it had started and then Hart was strutting away again through the door.

Ianto turned around to find Jack had risen to his feet, leaning over the desk with an expression of both anger and amusement. The Captain noticed his attention and offered him a blinding grin, the hint of fury vanishing instantly.

"Would it be reassuring if I told you not all my exes are that irritating?"

"Would you be telling the truth?" Ianto asked.

"Not even a little."

Ianto smiled and moved closer. "Then don't bother. Frankly I'd be more surprised if you didn't have any skeletons in your closet."

Jack laughed. "Oh I've got more than a few of those." His expression and his voice then softened. "Are you sure you're feeling okay?"

"I'm sure. I still ache from an array of bruises but it's nothing I haven't dealt with before."

"Good." Jack walked around the desk so there was nothing between them. "How about what you saw in that other world?"

Ianto grimaced. "Well, I think my dreams might be a little strange for a few nights, but I'll be fine."

"You went through something very traumatic, Ianto. I know you're strong enough to cope, but don't forget you're not on your own here," Jack told him, lifting a hand and stroking the young man's face with his fingertips. "If you want to talk about what you saw, or did, then just come find me. Okay?"

Ianto didn't respond; he was having too much trouble focusing beyond the feel of the hand on his cheek. After a long week of experiencing pain whenever Jack had touched him, to feel only warmth from the gentle caress came as a bit of a surprise. His eyes shut of their own accord and he fell forward into Jack's arms, meeting the lips that sought his own in a passionate kiss.

Ianto moaned quietly in his throat, only partially aware of being moved across the room, and then there was softness beneath him as Jack lowered them both onto the couch which John had recently vacated. Drawing back to catch his breath, Ianto looked up into Jack's bright eyes and smiled. "Before you ask," he began, "it still doesn't hurt."

"I'd kinda guessed," Jack said, grinning and leaning down to kiss him again.

"Better this way," Ianto breathed, just before Jack's lips closed with his. His legs parted on their own accord, bringing Jack closer against him, and he pressed his thighs into the Captain's hips, rocking up suggestively.

Tongues duelling, they lost themselves in each other for a long few minutes, Jack's fingers questing nimbly through Ianto's clothes and Ianto holding his lover as tightly to him as possible. Finally Jack pulled back, breathing heavily and laughing with pleasure. "We really should get you checked out, just to make sure everything's back in the right place."

Though he groaned lightly in disappointment, Ianto nodded, retaining enough of his wits to remember that the office door was wide open and everyone else was still in the Hub. "I suppose we should also wait until we're alone before you do your own examination," he pointed out with reluctance.

Jack growled unhappily at the lack of a protest and shoved his nose into Ianto's neck, breathing in his scent deeply. "I'll make sure John does as he's told whilst you're with Owen. I don't want to see him back in here ever again."

Ianto pushed Jack back enough to look him in the eyes. "You know I would never have let him do anything to me if I'd been in control."

"I know. Lurrelia was doing everything she could to hurt me, and letting John play with your body was just one of her tricks." The Captain studied his lover's face, as though committing the familiar features to his memory. "I'm sorry you had to go through all that because of me. Because of what I did."

"What she said you did," Ianto corrected, sitting up and straightening his suit. "You don't know for sure that it was your fault."

"And I don't know for sure that it wasn't." Jack sighed as he stood up. "But I suppose it doesn't matter now, she's gone and everything's back to normal."

Ianto accepted Jack's hand and rose from the sofa, only to be pulled into an embrace that quickly descended into another deep kiss. When they parted for breath, Ianto rested his forehead against Jack's. "As normal as things get around here," he muttered.

---

Two hours later, after Ianto had dutifully sat through another examination by a scowling Owen, he saw the others out of the tourist centre and locked up behind them. Jack had yet to return from seeing John off but he felt no anxiety at that fact, knowing full well that his lover could easily handle the obnoxious Captain.

Back down in the heart of the Hub, he pottered around tidying up, but after only five minutes a noise halted his movements and he turned around to find Jack leaning in the doorway to his office.

The older man grinned at him then started to walk backwards, beckoning for Ianto to follow, but when he reached the door, Jack had already vanished down into the little bunker beneath the room. Shaking his head in amusement, Ianto eased himself over the edge of the hole and made his way slowly down the ladder.

"This isn't as easy as it looks," he said dryly as he climbed one-handed, but if he was hoping for Jack's help or sympathy he certainly didn't get it, for the Captain said nothing until he reached the bottom.

"I was hoping you'd work up a sweat."

Ianto rolled his eyes and turned to face his lover. "That's vastly less imaginative than I'd expected."

Jack shrugged and stepped aside, waving a hand at the low bed. "Why don't you lie down?"

"Oh?" Ianto looked at him suspiciously, not trusting the playful glint in his eyes.

"Actually why don't you take off your shirt, then lie down."

"Jack..." the Welshman began, but he'd already turned away and disappeared into his tiny bathroom.

"Shirt, Ianto!" Jack commanded from behind the door. The young man shook his head again and gave in graciously. He made quick work of his waistcoat and shirt buttons, but getting his arms out of the sleeves took far more finesse and he was only halfway there by the time Jack reappeared.

Chuckling fondly, the Captain moved to help him and when his chest was bare, long fingers swept gently over his skin. Ianto closed his eyes, savouring the touch, and Jack took the opportunity to steer him over to the bed.

"Lie down," Jack said quietly. "On your front." He lifted one hand to reveal the bottle of massage oil he had retrieved from the bathroom. "Now that you're better, I intend to touch you all over."

Ianto shivered inwardly at Jack's determined tone and moved quickly to obey. He settled himself on the bed, mindful of his cast but eager for the unexpected offer. He loved Jack's massages, but they rarely lasted beyond five minutes thanks to the Captain's impatience to get to the next stage. Ianto hoped he'd be able to contain himself this time, because his muscles were certainly in need of some attention after the week he'd had.

Almost as soon as he was flat on the blanket, Jack began to drizzle oil over his back. He started at Ianto's neck, working on the tight knots of tension that had formed there, and the young man was unable to stop himself groaning at the initial pain. It was swiftly followed by the wonderful feeling of eased muscles as Jack moved across onto his shoulders and soon Ianto felt himself drifting somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

The massage certainly lasted longer than usual and Jack kept his word about touching every part of the other man. At some point his trousers and underwear vanished and Jack worked his way down one leg and back up the other. After that Ianto was rolled over, though his eyes remained closed and his mind unfocused, and the fingers began again on the front of his body.

"How is it?"

Jack's words failed to break his reverie, a mere echo to Ianto's ears, and he simply hummed appreciatively in response. There came a laugh and then heated breath ghosted over his bare skin.

"Would you like me to finish you off, Sir?" the Captain drawled, hands tracing circles over the younger man's thighs.

Opening his eyes a fraction, Ianto saw that Jack had moved onto the bed, kneeling over his legs and bending to bring his mouth tantalisingly close to the semi-hard shaft before him. He had also cast aside his clothes somewhere along the line and laughed at Ianto's clear surprise at the development.

"Would I have to tip you afterwards?" Ianto asked drowsily, his hips lifting automatically upwards.

"That's entirely at your discretion," Jack told him, his voice low and full of desire. He dipped his head and ran his tongue up the length of his lover's erection, pulling back to flash him a teasing smile, but the moment he met Ianto's heavy-lidded eyes, his expression fell.

"What's wrong?" Ianto asked, alert as Jack straightened suddenly.

Jack looked away from him, guilt tightening his features. "Before, in my office-"

"Jack..."

"But I knew. I knew it was hurting you and I still-"

"Jack, please, don't."

Jack opened his mouth to protest but Ianto pushed himself up and touched the older man's cheek with his fingertips. "I know," he said softly. "But don't blame yourself. I chose not to stop you."

The Captain's blue eyes flickered back to his own, the unexpected remorse within them surprising Ianto. It truly was rare to see the immortal so distressed and that troubled Ianto far more than the situation Jack was attempting to discuss.

"We can talk about it later," Ianto said, gentle but firm. The last thing he wanted was to think about all that had happened over the past week; there were issues he wasn't ready to consider, let alone accept and to forestall any further objection, he caught Jack's lips in a tender kiss, pulling him forward until they were both laying down on the narrow bed.

It didn't take much to reignite Jack's passion and his hands returned to the task of mapping Ianto's body, followed by questing lips and tongue. They rocked against each other, erections sliding together and creating a familiar spark low in Ianto's stomach. He moaned and tried to pull his lover tighter to him but Jack twisted instead, reaching down to retrieve the bottle of oil from the floor. "I can't wait," he murmured, taking the opportunity to nibble at Ianto's earlobe as he did so. "I need you now."

Ianto grabbed the back of Jack's neck, tugging him into another deep kiss, tongues battling and teeth nipping at swollen lips. Their frantic need was heightened with each passing moment and Jack was soon reaching down between them, greased fingertips slipping over Ianto's hole. The younger man rolled his hips, desperate for more and Jack obliged him, stretching the muscles quickly but efficiently.

"Ah!" Ianto gasped, his head falling back on the pillow as Jack brushed against his prostate.

Jack chuckled and removed his fingers, eliciting a groan of protest from his lover until he hooked an arm under one of Ianto's legs, exposing him even more, and positioned his cock at the twitching ring of muscle.

The Captain hissed in pleasure as he penetrated Ianto's body, ducking his head to bite at the side of his neck in an undisguised act of possession. He set a furious pace from the start, making long deep thrusts that propelled Ianto along the mattress until his head was at risk of hitting the wall behind him. The young man blindly reached up with his left hand, turning his palm flat on the rough plasterwork and pushing back against Jack.

Their bodies crashed together, sweat glistening in the light of the small bedside lamp and breath coming in short loud gasps. "Oh, God," Ianto panted, squeezing his eyes tightly as he began to soar, but he was suddenly snatched from the edge as Jack unexpectedly interrupted their rhythm.

He pulled almost all the way out and held himself there until Ianto's eyes snapped open, alarmed and clearly concerned that something else was wrong. Jack waited until he looked up and held his gaze as he slid back in again, slow and deep and Ianto's entire being shivered at the intensity of the action.

"Did you miss this?" Jack asked in a voice thick with lust. "Did you miss my touch?"

"Yes," Ianto immediately replied. His eyelids fluttered at another inward push. "God, yes."

Jack shifted, sitting back onto his knees and pulling Ianto's hips with him so that the contact wasn't lost. The young man instinctively curled his legs around his lover, encouraging him to adjust his angle and Jack's cock pierced even deeper into his body.

The new position freed Ianto's left hand and he reached instantly for his straining erection, wrapping his fingers tightly around the hot flesh. Jack watched as he caressed himself and in turn Ianto watched him from beneath hooded eyes. The young man smiled wickedly, gradually increasing the pace of his hand and inwardly rejoicing as Jack subconsciously echoed it with the thrusting of his hips.

It wasn't long before Jack was once again slamming into him and as Ianto soared towards orgasm his hand was pushed away from his cock and Jack took over, squeezing hard as Ianto arched up, eager for completion. He reached out with both hands, his left on Jack's pumping forearm urging him to stroke even faster, whilst his right flailed for purchase and knocked accidently against the wall, but then he was coming, his surroundings forgotten as brightness burst behind his eyelids and his body tensed with wave after wave of trembling pleasure.

He gasped for air, barely conscious of Jack still plunging into him, until the Captain suddenly froze and a groan escaped from deep within his throat.

After a few minutes of stillness, Ianto forced open his eyes and peered up at Jack. He hadn't moved at all, holding Ianto's hips tight to his groin and showing no sign of releasing them any time soon. His head was tipped back slightly, but at the young man's movement, he looked down and gave him a smug grin.

"Good?" he asked lightly, laughing when Ianto merely shook his head in despair. He pulled out of Ianto's body with a quiet sigh of regret and lay down in the space the younger man had made for him. Propping himself up on one elbow, Jack idly dragged a finger along Ianto's sweat-slicked chest. "I never realised before, just how much I enjoyed being able to touch you."

"You're joking, of course," Ianto said, his voice heavy and satisfied. "You've always enjoyed touching. Anyway, it's only been a week. Even you can go a week without sex."

"I'm not talking about just sex," argued Jack, before ducking his head in order to lick the same path he had traced with his fingertip, "I mean everyday touching, like patting your shoulder or shaking your hand."

The Welshman frowned slightly at that and looked away from the low ceiling to raise an eyebrow at his lover. "You missed shaking my hand?" he repeated dubiously.

Jack growled. "You know what I mean. When you'd pass me a mug or something and-" He stopped abruptly as Ianto began to laugh.

"Good grief, Jack, if that does it for you I'm surprised you don't walk around with a perpetual hard-on."

"Maybe I do," Jack muttered, leaning over to kiss the chuckling man beside him. Ianto met his lips eagerly, grabbing hold of the hand still on his chest and sliding it over his skin. He shivered at the contact and stretched out to mirror the action on Jack's body, though he pulled back and scowled when he realised he couldn't reach very far with just one hand.

Jack laughed softly and moved to give him better access. "I can't wait until you have both hands again," he said, running his fingers down Ianto's right arm to his cast. Ianto didn't look up, being far too engrossed in his exploration and Jack leaned in for another kiss as he quietly added, "then you can fix my coat..."

***

Next story in series - The Undeniable.

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