Ianto's Journey, Part V-Redemption, Chapter 79-Aftermath

[aviv_b_artwork]

IANTO'S JOURNEY, PART V- REDEMPTION
TITLE:   Chapter 79 - Aftermath
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 79- G/PG for violence
CHARACTERS::  Ianto, King William, Jack, Stephen
DISCLAIMER:  Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 3045
SUMMARY:  Ianto and the King await rescue; Jack picks up his pieces and returns to earth

Title is from: All the aftermath that so frequently follows in the wake of war still confront the nation, and we now, as ever before, must hold fast to the ancient landmarks and see to it that all of these plagues that threaten so mightily shall be rendered harmless. Alexander Henry

Ianto's Journey begins here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/1972.html
All Chapter are linked.

 

Seven days. Seven days without a peep from the outside world. By the evening of the seventh day Ianto and the King were getting on each other’s nerves. When they actually conversed they alternated between over-politeness and sniping at each other.

"If we don’t get out of here soon, I may have to kill you,” the King snarked.

'Don’t worry; I’ll be dead from your stench long before that. Either that or the beef stroganoff.’

“Oh I don’t think that one’s so bad. It’s that tuna and rice cassoulet that’s getting to me. It looks like vomit even before you eat it.”

‘Listen to us. We’re pathetic.’

“Yeah, you’d think we’ something more interesting to talk about.”

‘Like rugby,’ Ianto suggested.

“Never could abide rugby, now soccer…don’t you start rolling your eyes at me again.”

‘If we get out of here, I’m going to make sure places like this have a decent assortment of liquor.’

“And how about some guns. Nothing goes with liquor like guns.”

Ianto smiled and was about to retort when he heard something. He motioned the King to the far end of the room as he pulled out the Taser. The sounds were coming closer now, definitely human voices. Ianto tossed the Taser aside and opened a small panel in the wall next to the cabinets.

The King was stunned to see Ianto pull out a semi-automatic weapon. “What the hell…” Ianto motioned a zipper across the mouth to the King.

Ianto inserted a clip into gun, primed the chamber and aimed at the door. For the first time in seven days Ianto’s cell phone rang. It was Mickey and General Hagston. ‘Yes, the King is fine; do you want to talk to him?’

Ianto listened some more as the General provided the passwords they’d arranged previously. He activated the speaker phone so the King could hear as well.

‘What’s the situation up top?’

“It’s grim, Ianto. Something happened about ten hours ago. The Toclafane seemed to panic and lose control. All at once, all over the world. Most fled into space, the rest began to fire erratically and self destruct, those that didn’t were picked off one by one. There may be a few lingering so you both will be under heavy guard as you leave the safe room as well as for the immediate future until we are sure they are all clear.”

'Jack must have succeeded in killing the Master.’

That’s what we reckoned except we’ve seen no sign of his return.” Ianto nodded and then realized they couldn’t see him. ‘That doesn’t surprise me; he’s probably a long way from Earth.’

At the other end the General and Mickey looked at each trying to decide whether they should say anything else to Ianto. “Ianto, this is Mickey. I’m sorry to give you this kind of news right now, but I think I should so that you aren’t surprised by it.”

‘I know about Aaron.’ The General was stunned but Mickey understood. “How much...” he started to say, but Ianto interrupted him.

'I know exactly how he died.’ Ianto had to steel himself to ask, ‘listen, can you put his body…parts together so they can be buried.’

The General spoke a little gruffly. “Well, you know there are lots of casualties to deal with, so as soon as the bodies are identified we’re cremating them and burying them in community graves.”

Ianto shut his eyes as he felt tears threatening. The King angrily grabbed the phone from Ianto and shut off the speaker.

“General. I’m ordering you to do exactly as Ianto has asked. I wouldn’t be here to give this order if it wasn’t for that man.” The King listened for a bit going pale as the General described the scene in the Nash Gallery. He moved away from Ianto and whispered into the phone, “I don’t care if you have to scrape him off the floor and walls, get it done.” Another pause. “Are we finished here, because really, I’d like to get out of this room?”

The King ended the call and tossed the phone back to Ianto. “Guess I can open that door now, or are you going to Taser me again if I try.”

‘No, go right ahead.’ The King walked over and turned the knob. Nothing happened. He turned and looked at Ianto in panic and saw that Ianto was walking over to one of the steel cabinets.

‘Must have slipped my mind…there’s a second switch that also has to be activated.’ Before the King could say anything Ianto continued, ‘And thanks about Aaron. I know he’s just one of many, but…’ Ianto didn’t finish the thought as he needed to put his phone down in order to turn the second knob.

The door opened.

***

Jack woke up alone on Jantorus Minor. He had no idea how long it had taken him to regenerate. He had only been blown up once before during the incident with the 456 and it had taken several days then for him to become whole. Somehow he knew that this time it had taken considerably longer.

As he looked around he realized that there were no remains of the Master in sight. The Doctor and the Master’s Tardis were missing. ‘At least he didn’t strand me without a way to get home,’ Jack thought. He smiled realizing that he had called Earth his home. ‘Well it is at least for as long as Ianto and Aaron are alive.’

He was too weak to stand but managed to crawl over to the remaining Tardis. He pulled on the door but it wouldn’t open. “Come on love, I know you’re mad that the Doctor left you, but it’s a little cold out here.” He swore he could feel the Tardis sulking. “Sweetheart, its cold, I’m naked, not a good combination.”  Slowly the door of the Tardis swung open.

He crawled inside and collapsed. Hours later he was able to find his way to his room. He dressed, found something to eat and went back to the control room. “Now no screw up this time, I don’t want to be coming back two years in the future.” He set the coordinates but the Tardis balked.

“Ok, do you have some date in mind?” The Tardis beeped and showed him a meeting in the large Torchwood London auditorium. He could see that it was a similar group to those whom he had addressed prior to the invasion. The only familiar face he caught was Mickey looking exactly as he had when Jack left. 

‘That’s good, thought Jack, it can’t be too far in the future.’ He laughed; he was only a thousand years in the future, so anytime Mickey was still alive would be considered a brilliant jump through the time/space continuum.

As the Tardis made the jump, Jack decided to shower and smarten up a bit. ‘Wouldn’t do to show up looking like something the cat dragged in.’ As he dried himself off after his shower, he glanced into the mirror hung over the sink. ‘Crap! I’ve aged!' 

As he thought about it, he realized that he had lived over a thousand years chasing the Master and while his aging process had slowed down it hadn’t completely stopped. So a few gray hairs shouldn’t surprise him. But the slight crow’s feet around his eyes and the deeper laugh lines really threw him. ‘I look almost as old as Ianto, but younger than Aaron, thank goodness. Wouldn’t want to be the senior member of the spaghetti and poker night.’

Jack sighed. He realized how much he missed the little things about Earth. Things like dinner with Aaron, Ianto and Stephen. Like teasing Owen and Tosh about Kimiyo’s four promotions in the last three years at Torchwood Osaka making her the youngest Senior Research Manager ever appointed. His weekly teleconferences with Gwen and Mickey. The smell and sounds of London. Meat Feast pizza and big band music.

The Tardis made the telltale sound of landing. “Listen,” Jack said touching the walls of the Tardis. “You need to find the Doctor. You belong with him. That other Tardis can’t be any good and I’m worried that the Master may have booby-trapped it or something. Go and find him.” He gave her a final pat and cautiously opened the door.

He looked around and saw that he was clearly inside Torchwood London. ‘Score one for our team,’ he thought. As he got his bearings he realized he was just a short walk from the conference center. He headed toward it carefully avoiding any people by ducking into washrooms or storage lockers when he heard anyone coming. One corridor over from the auditorium, he heard voices and ducked into the men’s washroom. When he heard voices at the door he quickly looked around for a place to hide. He spotted a newspaper, grabbed it and went into one of the stalls. He heard two men talking about a shortage of supplies and how medical facilities were struggling to keep up with treating all the injured people.

The date on the paper read May 15^th, 2039. ‘Score two for the team. I’m back about six weeks after the Toclafane invaded.’ Then he glanced over the front page to find that there were an estimated twenty million casualties. That governments worldwide were experiencing significant unrest. That various nations and political groups within nations were at each others throats over the placing of blame.

‘Time for Captain Jack to restore peace and order to planet Earth,’ he thought a little smugly.

One of the men sighed. “I’d hate like hell to be Captain Jack about right now. When he gets back they’re going to blame him for everything.”

The second man agreed. “You can see they are setting him up for the fall. Why didn’t he tell everyone sooner?  Why didn’t he stay around and help? Why didn’t he get the Doctor to come to Earth? Why didn’t he stand on his head and sing God Save the King?”

Another sigh. “That’s one thing about being outside the law, beyond the UN, you become the perfect scapegoat for everyone else’s incompetence.”

Jack shook his head. He shouldn’t have been surprised he thought. There were times when Jack really understood how much the Doctor hated and loved this planet. Well he wasn’t out of the game yet. Let’s see how they dealt with the new, improved, and finely aged Jack Harkness.

He opened the stall and went to wash his hands. The other two men glanced and him and then gasped.

Jack smiled his best smile. “Hey guys, sounds like you missed me. Why don’t you fill me in a little more before I go and wrestle with the crocodiles.”

***

Ianto and the King peered out to see a group of very young and very tired UK and UNIT soldiers. Everyone bowed to the King and then looked nervously at Ianto. Ianto had his professional mask back on so they couldn’t tell what he knew or not. The leader of the group, a young UNIT lieutenant, was just getting off a cell phone.

“Right,” she said. “We are going to walk up to the entrance of the tube station where escort vehicles will take you both to the UNIT medical facility.” The troops quickly lined the stairs leading up to ground level.

Ianto and the King trudged up the stairs. “Sorry, lots of stairs, we don’t have power on at the stations yet,” the lieutenant said. 

They were hustled into a black sedan with darkened windows which drove off at incredible speed. Ianto noticed that the streets were virtually disserted.

“We’re still under a 24 hour curfew. We’ll start lifting it little by little once we are certain that the Toclafane are completely destroyed and that we have control over the areas where people will be coming out. We should have radio communication up throughout London within the next eight hours so that we can provide direction for the populace.”

“We’ve already begun to set up food distribution and medical sites, a hungry and injured population can be difficult to control. And we want to avoid looting or rioting.”

They pulled up to the UNIT medical facility and walked through a cordon of troops into the building. The King was met by several members of his senior staff. Ianto was glad to see that Terrance, while wounded was alive. He recognized several others from the Palace but couldn’t put names to the faces.

As a medic took him to an examination room, Ianto wondered how the rest of his friends had fared. Just as he was entering the room, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw a familiar face. He was elated to see Stephen, until that triggered memories of Aaron’s death. The two men nodded their understanding and hugged each other tightly. And behind Stephen was Jonathan.

“Can I get in on the group hug?” Jonathan asked as he hopped over on crutches.

Ianto looked at Jonathan puzzled. “Yeah, caught some shrapnel while zapping a Toclafane. I never thought I’d see the inside of this place again.” Ianto hugged Jonathan and allowed the medic to take him into the room.

“I’m going to stay with you Ianto, unless you want me to go. Is that OK?” Stephen asked. Ianto shook his head ‘yes.’

As he said his goodbyes, Jonathan quickly told Ianto that Kelly and all the children were fine. Their home had sustained some damage but it was clear that Jonathan didn’t really care. “So many have lost so much, can’t really worry about a few shattered windows and some water damage.”

The medic gave Ianto a surprisingly thorough exam and pronounced him to be in reasonably good shape. “I’m releasing you to Mr. Hamilton’s custody; I believe there are some UNIT officers who want to have a debriefing with you.”

Ianto sighed.

Stephen helped Ianto get dressed. He was surprised that Ianto looked as well as he did. No significant injuries, just a few scrapes on his left arm from walking along the narrow walkway and a bruised knee where he fell. 

“Come on, let’s get you home. You look exhausted and frankly you stink.”

Ianto smiled. ‘Thanks. Just remember that I spent a week with the King.’

“Smelling like that? It’s a miracle you didn’t end up confined to the Tower.”

Two UNIT officials did want to speak with Ianto, but Stephen took them aside and convinced them to postpone the conversation. “He’s too tired. I know he looks fine, but I think he’s not really had a chance to process…uh…everything.”

Both officials knew about Aaron and didn’t feel that they wanted to push the matter. They agreed to contact Stephen in a day or so to set up a meeting.

Stephen and Ianto were driven back to Stephen’s home (formerly the Brigadier’s house) under armed escort. The soldiers insisted on searching the house to make sure there was nothing amiss.

After the soldiers had left, Ianto turned to Stephen in utter bewilderment. ‘What was that about?’

Stephen teared up a bit as he looked at Ianto. “You know about Aaron, right?”

Ianto nodded.

“Well so does practically everyone in the UK. He’s a bonafide hero. Oh, and so are you. But no sooner had the Toclafane been defeated than the conspiracy theories started. There are all sorts of wild rumors circulating. The Toclafane are coming back. Other aliens will be invading soon. Torchwood is behind the invasion. Jack Harkness killed the leader of the invasion. Harkness ran away and left Earth to fend for itself. Even Harkness joined with the enemy against planet Earth.”

‘That’s absolute rubbish. Jack would never help the Master.’

“I know, and by the way no one is supposed to know about the Master. Not at least until Jack and Mickey decide what UNIT and other officials let alone the general populace should know.”

Ianto suddenly felt very tired. Hearing that Aaron’s sacrifice was recognized gave him some comfort. But then hearing that Jack’s motivations were being questioned made him feel physically ill.

“So they are making sure that anyone linked to the chain of command isn’t targeted by some nutjob.”

Stephen saw Ianto go pale. “OK, let’s get you cleaned up and in bed. Did you get much sleep when you were in the safe room?”

‘Honestly, very little. I had to keep guard over the King and when it was my turn to sleep I was too nervous to leave him on guard very long. And every time I closed my eyes…’ Ianto’s voice trailed off.

Stephen helped Ianto into the shower. “I’ll be right outside the door. Yell if you need anything.” Stephen left Ianto some sweatpants and a T-shirt of his to sleep in. Once Ianto had showered and put on clean clothes, Stephen took Ianto into a spare bedroom and got him into bed.

‘Stephen, tell me what’s been happening. Is everyone else OK?’

“I will answer all your questions after you sleep. I promise. The medic gave me some sleeping pills for you,” Stephen said handing a pill and a glass of water to Ianto. Ianto took the pill.

‘Oh god, Stephen, you’re not hiding anything from me,’ Ianto said as he felt a shiver of fear pass through him.

“Of course not. But there’s a lot of stuff I want to tell you and I’m sure you’ll have questions, and I think it’ll go much better once you are reasonably coherent. It’s early evening now, and I’m not planning on waking you until tomorrow morning. My bedroom is just down the hall. If you need anything come and get me. Ok?”

Ianto nodded. He could feel his eyes already drooping. Shit he was tired.

Stephen switched off the light but left the hall light on a dimmer. “Oh, the bathroom is right across the hall, I’ll leave a light on in there for you.”

Ianto didn’t answer as he was already asleep.

‘Good thing he was too tired to do his empathic stuff on me.’ Stephen thought. Tomorrow is soon enough for him to hear the rest of the bad news.’

 Chapter 80 is here:  http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/46647.html