Discovery: Chapter 30 - Empathy

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RATING:  Chapter 30 - PG - 13 for language and sexual references
CHARACTERS: Ianto, Jack, Owen, Tosh, Gwen, Rhys, Myfanwy
WORDS: ~ 2625
SUMMARY:   Ianto meets Myfanwy and discovers the disasterous state of the Torchwood Three archives.  Owen takes care of an injured Tosh.

One who knows how to show and accept kindness will be a friend better than any possession.  Sophocles

They arrived back at the Hub to find Gwen almost hysterical. “Where have you all been? Where’s Tosh? When I saw Owen’s car, I was frantic. Is everyone OK? And Jack, a post-it note saying ‘Back at 10’ really wasn’t helpful.”

 

Jack explained about the weevil chase, Tosh’s injury and Ianto fighting off the weevil with a wheel brace. 

 

“Shit, excuse me a moment,” Owen grimaced, “I need to call the hospital and see what’s up with Tosh.”

 

“Jack, I was going to call Andy to look for all of you if you hadn’t shown up by now. As it is, I was so upset, I called Rhys. He’ll be here any moment.”

 

“Sorry, it was so crazy last night, I didn’t think about calling you and letting you know what was going on. At least you were safe with Rhys.”

 

Gwen snorted. “Safe, yeah. The big lug dropped the car keys and it took us almost an hour to find them.”

 

Owen came back into view. “Well, I just got off the phone with the hospital. They’ll be releasing Tosh later this morning. I’ll go over there now and see if she’s up to any company. Probably better to wait until I drive her home, but I’ll let you know. Uh, Jack, I’m going to need to borrow the SUV again.”

 

“Ok,” Jack said tossing him the keys, “but drive carefully. We don’t need a second vehicle out of service this week.” 

 

“Yeah, guess that means we won’t be letting Ianto near the SUV!”  Ianto frowned at that remark.

 

“Listen,” Gwen interrupted, "Rhys will be here in a few minutes with my old Honda, why don’t you take that to the hospital. That way if anything happens with the rift, we’ll have the SUV available. And we won’t need it this weekend so you can use it to take Ianto to his sister’s, OK? As long as Jack doesn’t mind Rhys coming into the Hub.”

 

Jack said it would be fine. After all, Rhys had helped them out a few times and had been in the Hub before. Owen said he’d go up to the tourist office and wait for him there. When Rhys arrived they decided that Jack should go with Owen to the hospital and Gwen and Rhys would stay at the Hub with Ianto. 

 

“And Gwen,” Jack admonished, “if anything comes through the rift, call us immediately. Don’t go pulling a Ianto on us. We’ll see you later.” Without thinking, Jack pulled Ianto into his arms and started to snog him. Rhys and Gwen were dumbstruck. 

 

Owen just shrugged. “Yeah, last night was even crazier than you can imagine. Hey you two, enough already!”

 

It suddenly dawned on Jack that everyone was watching him and Ianto. He broke off the kiss and started to joke about it. “Just a little friendly goodbye kiss…” 

 

“Oi, is that to go along with the friendly little blow jobs I saw earlier,” Owen snarked. Ianto turned away from everyone in embarrassment as Owen made a run for the cog door.

 

“You are so dead Owen!” Jack yelled after him. But instead of running after Owen he walked over to Ianto, put his arms around him and held him tight. “It’s OK,” he growled. “Captain Jack is going to make Owen walk the plank later.”

 

Jack saluted them and ran out after Owen.

 

***

 

When they arrived at the hospital they were relieved to find that Tosh was awake and feisty. “I can’t believe they haven’t released me yet; I feel fine!”

Jack went to see if he could find the attending physician while Owen reviewed her charts.

 

“What happened last night, Owen? The last thing I remember is stunning a weevil.” Tosh couldn’t believe that she had been attacked by the second weevil and that it was Ianto who had saved her life. “That’s incredible! He actually fought a weevil with a wheel brace?” Owen nodded.

 

“Yeah, but it’s a good thing that Jack is a great shot with that Webley of his, otherwise, I don’t think the results would have been so good for Ianto.”

 

“Is Ianto Ok?” 

 

“Got some bruising on his back, but Jack kissed it and made it all better. And by that, I don’t mean the bruise.”

 

Tosh was astonished. “You’re kidding me! I just knew there was something going on at dinner last night, but are you telling me…?” Owen just nodded. “Why is it that I always seem to miss the good stuff?”

 

“Don’t worry Tosh, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of opportunities to see me snog Ianto senseless,” Jack said as he stood in the doorway. “Owen, are you planning on broadcasting my and Ianto’s personal life to everyone you meet?”

 

“Not everyone, just everyone I anticipate you shocking with your behavior with Ianto.”

 

“Well, that’s a relief, at least half of Cardiff won’t need to know,” Jack snarked. “The Attending will be along shortly and we’ll get you signed out. Take you home and get you settled.”

 

“I’m really OK to go back to the Hub, Jack,” Tosh insisted.

 

The attending medic did not agree. He wanted quiet and bed rest for Tosh for the following 24 hours. Tosh was very upset that she was going to miss the rest of Ianto’s visit. “I didn’t even get to play chess with him. I haven’t even thanked him for saving my life. This isn’t right!” 

 

They decided that they would drop Jack back at the Hub and Owen would go home with Tosh. Jack and the others would come to Tosh’s later with dinner. “And if you’re up to it, we can watch that new movie, Ianto versus the Weevil. Yep, it’s all captured in living black and white on CCTV.”

 

Owen smiled wickedly. Jack knew he was in for it. “Well as long as we don’t have to watch the Harkness/Jones wrestling match, I’ll be happy.” 

 

Jack smiled back. “Well, you wouldn’t need to; apparently you had a front row seat for the live performance.”

 

“Ok, enough, both of you.” Tosh had blushed a delightful shade of pink. “Really, I don’t need the details.” 

 

When Tosh saw Gwen’s Honda she asked what happened to Owen’s Miata.

 

Owen grimaced. “Don’t ask, it was a casualty of Ianto versus the Weevil.”

 

Jack made a mental note to make some calls when he got back to the Hub to see if he couldn’t get Owen’s car fixed.

 

***

 

Once Jack and Owen had left the Hub, Gwen and Rhys looked at each other awkwardly. Ianto was still turned away from them in embarrassment.

 

“Hey, have you met Myfanwy, yet?” Rhys asked. Ianto turned around. He was still a little red-faced but managed to shake his head ‘no.’ “Come with me, you’ve got to see this.”

 

Rhys went over to the small kitchen and pulled out a package from the refrigerator. He went over to the center of the Hub and whistled. Overhead the pterodactyl began to circle. Ianto stood watching entranced. Rhys opened the package and pulled out some raw chopped meat. He rolled it into a ball and tossed it into the air. Myfanwy swooped down, caught the meat in her beak and swallowed it in one bite. 

 

Gwen noticed that Ianto had closed his eyes, and had his head cocked. Myfanwy circled again, and Rhys threw another hamburger ball to her.

 

The third time around she swooped down and landed on a railing very close to Ianto. Gwen started to reach out to protect him, but Ianto held his hand up for her to stop. The pterodactyl was observing Ianto closely. Ianto slowly reached his hand out. Rhys winced; he knew that her beak could snap off a finger in an instant. Still, he figured it was best not to do anything that might startle the creature. In a flash, Ianto moved close to the railing where Myfanwy was standing and she began clicking her beak through his hair. Ianto smiled and scratched her under the chin. Gwen and Rhys stayed absolutely still while Ianto and Myfanwy continued to groom each other. Finally with a shake, Myfanwy jumped back  on the railing away from Ianto . Rhys took the opportunity to prepare the last hamburger ball. She squawked, flew off the railing and began to circle again. Rhys threw it to her. Once she swallowed it down, she circled higher and disappeared in the upper reaches of the Hub.

 

“She’s got a nest up there. And if you’re not careful,” Rhys quipped, “you just might find yourself living in it with her.”

 

Gwen was absolutely amazed. “Ianto, were you communicating with her?” 

 

Ianto pulled his phone out. Gwen and Rhys set theirs up to receive Ianto’s IM.

 

Ianto: Sort of, not really communicating, but I could sense her feelings. She’s lonely. She’s confused about where she is. Why there’s nothing familiar to her. But she likes when she gets fed.

 

Gwen smiled. Ianto was really an amazing young man. She could see why Owen was so fond of him…not to mention Jack. 

 

“Would you like to meet Janet, our resident weevil?” Ianto stared at her. “Sorry, guess you’d probably rather skip that this time around.”

 

Ianto nodded.  

 

Ianto: Yeah, I think I met her boyfriend last night. It didn’t end well…You know, I’m starving. I…uh...lost my dinner so to speak last night and I’ve only had coffee and a roll since.

 

Gwen immediately went into full fuss mode. She had Rhys take Ianto up to the conference room while she checked out the refrigerator. She found bread and enough luncheon meat for sandwiches. She made two normal sized sandwiches and one huge one that she put in front of Ianto. Ianto looked across the table at Rhys. Rhys didn’t have to be empathic to know that the Ianto was feeling a little queasy looking at the amount of food in front of him. He quickly exchanged his sandwich with Ianto’s. “Oi, I’ll take the bigger one,” he said as he quickly took a bite from it. Gwen huffed her displeasure. Ianto nodded his thanks to Rhys.

 

Jack arrived back as they were eating lunch. “Hey, didn’t you make anything for me?” Rhys smiled and handed him half of the huge sandwich. Jack looked a little startled by the size but shrugged and began to eat it.

 

“You know, I made that sandwich for Ianto and you two just have no manners at all.” As she turned to grab a napkin, the three men grinned at each other. They quickly stopped before Gwen turned back.

 

Jack let them know that Owen had taken Tosh home and if she felt up to it they would join her for dinner. Rhys couldn’t wait to tell Jack about Ianto and Myfanwy. Jack was astounded. “You know, Ianto, I was serious about getting you some training for your abilities. Would you mind if I spoke to The Brigadier about it?” 

 

Ianto: Honestly, I’m a little nervous about letting UNIT know. I don’t want to be asked or trained to do anything harmful with it. Like you said, it’s not right to look into other people’s minds without their consent. I’d like to learn how to block out other people’s thoughts. Particularly when I’m in a crowd, it can be overwhelming. But, I’ve been thinking that it could be used for interrogation or extracting information from other people’s minds against their will, and I don’t want to be involved with anything like that.

 

Jack had to admit that Ianto had a good point. “Ok, I won’t say anything to them. But when you come back to Cardiff let’s search the archives and see if we can find out anything about controlling empathic ability. I have a little skill in that area, but I don’t think it’s going to be enough to really help you. In the meantime, maybe you can find out whether Myfanwy likes beef or lamb better.” 

 

Rhys laughed. “I think she actually likes finger food the best, fortunately for Ianto, that doesn’t seem to include his fingers.”

 

After lunch, Ianto got the grand tour of the Hub. ‘This place is a friggin’ mess’ he thought, ‘doesn’t anyone pick up after themselves?’ He asked if they could get on an IM conference call so he could talk to everyone at once.

 

When they went down to the archives, Ianto got visibly upset.

 

Ianto: How can you possibly find anything down here?   Nothing is organized properly. You actually have every unidentified mechanical object filed under “A” for “Alien Technology? And what about everything you scavenged from Torchwood One? 

 

Jack motioned Ianto over to a door. It opened into a huge room stacked floor to ceiling with boxes. There must have been several hundred boxes all labeled Torchwood One.

 

Ianto: Do you have any idea what’s in these boxes? 

 

Jack and Gwen admitted that they had no idea what the boxes contained. They explained that they did the best they could with the resources they had.

 

Ianto: That’s just not acceptable. As of the end of January, you just hired yourself a Head Archivist. This will take months to sort through. Guess I don’t have to worry what to do to keep me busy once I move back here.

 

Jack was going to object, but realized that they really could use some help. With Torchwood One gone, there really wasn’t anyone else to keep track of anything that came through the rift. Ianto would have something to do that he excelled at, and as a bonus, he could see Ianto every day. 

 

Ianto: Oh and Jack, as Head Archivist, I will want a 10% increase over what I was making at Torchwood One.

 

Jack pretended to be shocked. “Ten percent! The cost of living is much lower in Cardiff than London. And UNIT is picking up the cost of your flat. Just how can you justify such a demand?”

 

Ianto: Let’s just call it combat pay, shall we?

 

 

 

***

 

Owen called in around 4 PM and said that Tosh was more than ready for some company. Jack put him on the speakerphone in the conference room.

 

“Oi, she’s making me crazy, she is. Convinces me to play chess, then beats me in ten moves. Then she wants to watch a video, but changes her mind a dozen times while the opening credits are running.”

 

“I only changed my mind twice Owen, stop exaggerating,” Tosh yelled so Jack could hear.

 

“And her ladyship would like Indian, or was it Chinese, no maybe it was Middle Eastern for dinner.”

 

“Indian, I want a curry,” Jack heard Tosh say. “And Jack, tell Ianto he’s about to get his butt kicked at chess.” Ianto raised his eyebrows at that remark.

 

“Well, from the look on Ianto’s face, he’s not quite convinced of your chess prowess. Guess we’ll have to see about that along with watching another movie I’m going to download to your computer.”

 

“What movie?” Owen asked. 

 

Jack smirked. “Let’s just say that it’s a remake of Godzilla versus Mothra. We’ll see you around 5:30 OK…with curry.”

 

Gwen ordered everyone’s favorite along with a curry for Ianto from the Indian takeaway Tosh favored. They’d pick it up on the way to Tosh’s.

 

Gwen noticed that Ianto had been very quiet since the tour. “Ianto, are you OK, love?”

 

Ianto: I’m really tired all of a sudden. Would you mind if I took a nap on the sofa?

 

No one did, so Ianto went down to the sofa and stretched out. Jack followed him down to dim the lights in the main area of the Hub.   “Hey, I’ll wake you up a little before we leave, OK?” Ianto nodded. Knowing that Gwen and Rhys were watching he gave Ianto a quick kiss on his forehead and walked back up to the conference room.

Chapter 31 here:  http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/10599.html