aviv_b_artwork | Renewal: Chapter 47

IANTO'S JOURNEY, PART III, RENEWAL
TITLE: Chapter 47 - Abandoned
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 47 - PG-13 - language and a few sexual references
CHARACTERS: Ianto, Jack, Gwen, Owen, Tosh
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1250
SUMMARY: Jack's gone. How will the team cope?

Title is from: It's hard being left behind. (...) It's hard to be the one who stays. "
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

Author's Note: I given Ianto far more more knowledge about Jack and The Doctor than in canon.

When Jack didn’t appear the next day, the team began to get a bit more concerned. Tosh went to check the CCTV feeds, Gwen to check police reports and see if P. C. Andy knew anything, Owen was calling local hospitals to see if anyone fitting Jack’s description had been brought in while Ianto hacked into Jack’s email.

Gwen and Owen couldn’t find anything related to Jack either through the police or hospitals. Ianto didn’t find anything unusual in Jack’s email. He phoned Archie at Torchwood Two and asked if he had heard from Jack. Archie said he hadn’t and he didn’t know anything about the hand.

“Did you check your archives? “ Archie asked. Ianto had to admit he hadn’t. After he finished speaking to Archie pulled up the Archive database from Torchwood One but could find no information about a hand. He knew he hadn’t seen anything in the current archives on it, but there was so much that hadn’t been cataloged yet, that it was always possible that there was some information buried down there.

As Ianto was thinking about how to search the files efficiently, he received an IM from Tosh.

Tosh: Everyone get over here, I’ve found something.

Ianto ran up from the archives and met everyone gathered around Tosh’s work station. She brought up some CCTV feed and enlarged and focused on the corner of a feed from inside the Hub.

“I was looking out side the Hub initially to see if he got kidnapped or got into a car or something, but it looks like he left from inside the Hub.” The feed was a little hard to see, but it looked like there was a large blue box with a flashing light in the corner. Jack was seen running toward the box and then both the box and Jack disappeared.

“Am I crazy, or was that an old police call box?" Owen pondered.

Ianto sighed. Everyone turned and looked at him. ‘It’s The Doctor; he’s gone with The Doctor.’

Tosh stared wide-eyed at Ianto. “Do you mean The Doctor, the enemy that Torchwood was designed to protect The Queen from?”

‘Yes, but I think everyone but Yvonne Hartmann recognized that that had been a mistake.’

Gwen indicated that she didn’t know what everyone was talking about.

Ianto patiently explained what he knew about The Doctor and the formation of Torchwood. Toward the end he told her, ‘so it's true that The Doctor shows up at times of trouble, but he doesn’t cause them, he tries to keep them from getting worse. As bad as the Battle of Canary Wharf was, think what would have happened if The Doctor hadn’t found away to send the Daleks and the Cybermen back through the rift. We might have all been converted.’

Owen shuddered. He had seen enough at Canary Wharf to give him nightmares for months.

“But why would Jack go with him?” Tosh wondered.

Ianto saw that everyone was looking to him for an answer.

‘I’m not sure, he never said much about The Doctor except that he had traveled with him at some point at the past. And he did tell me that his immortality started when he and The Doctor and The Doctor’s companion Rose Tyler were in the future. Something about him dying and then Rose taking the force of the vortex and putting it inside Jack to revive him. But she put too much in him and then he couldn’t die. He also said that The Doctor and Rose abandoned him.’

“But I still don't understand why would he go with him then,” Gwen asked. This wasn’t making any sense.

‘I don’t know,’ Ianto replied, a little agitation showing on his face. ‘I remember him saying once that he was waiting for his doctor, cause he was the only one that could fix him, but I didn’t make the connection at the time. And I know nothing about the hand.’

Gwen worried her lower lip. “When will he be back?”

‘I don’t know. He could be anywhere in time or space. He might never come back.’

While he spoke these words, everyone could see Ianto’s eyes fill with tears. When he was finished he quickly turned and walked away to go down to the archives.

Gwen went to say something, but Owen got her attention and signaled her to not do anything. After Ianto had disappeared from site, Owen whispered, “Let him be, for now. Tosh, I think you should find a plausible excuse to go down there in a bit, there must be something you can ask him to retrieve.”

Tosh nodded. “I always need something from down there. But while we are worrying about Ianto we have something even bigger to be concerned about. How are we going to get on with Jack gone? Ianto’s right, we don’t know if this will be a few days, a few weeks, months or forever. At what point do we let UNIT or Archie or The Queen’s representatives know?”

Gwen and Owen looked horrified. They had been so focused on Ianto, that they hadn’t had a chance to consider what this could mean for them as a team.

“Well, I have the most seniority, but I’m not a tactical person,” Owen offered. “It seems that Gwen should take the lead on tactics and Ianto should take charge of all communications with other organizations. Tosh and I are really support staff, but I think I’m safe in saying that we’ll both do whatever needs to be done to give us time to sort this out.”

Tosh nodded her agreement. Not long after, Tosh made her way to the archives. She was surprised to see Ianto busy at work, his IPod plugged in looking just fine. She signaled to him and he took the earphones out but continued his filing.

“Hey I was looking for a file…no not really; I came down to see if you are alright.”

Ianto snorted. ‘Yeah I’m good. As good as one could be when their lover disappears with another man without a word of warning. Not to mention the several weeks of dismissive behavior I got from him before he did a runner.’

“Maybe he couldn’t tell you, or maybe there was an emergency and he didn’t have time to tell you.”

‘Maybe, but I seriously doubt it,’ Ianto replied. ‘We all saw him staring at that hand for the last few weeks…something was up but I guess I wasn’t important enough to tell.’

“Ianto…” Tosh started.

'Please Tosh, I know you mean well, but I need time to process this.' He stopped filing and turned and looked at her. 'What am I supposed to do? Wait for years like a chaste maiden for my knight in shining armor to return from battle? What if he never returns? What if I move on and then he comes back? What if…''

“Ianto, you’re thinking yourself into tizzy, please calm down. None of knows what to do. Who’s going to run the Hub? What do we do about UNIT? Or the Prime Minister?”

Ianto went grey as he listened to Tosh. ‘I’m so sorry Tosh; here I am wallowing in my self-pity when we have bigger things to worry about.’ He came over and hugged her.

“And what about me?” she whispered. “You know about my five year contract to Jack and Torchwood; what if I have to go back to prison?” She began to cry.

Ianto hugged her closer. ‘Over my fucking dead body.’

Chapter 48 here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/23987.html