Note From the Author-- This is set in Season 2, which will become very clear. Just a little vignette that popped into my head.

Disclaimer-- I don't own the characters of Torchwood and the title is from a song I'm pretty sure is performed by The Fray

"Yan, I'm sorry," Jack repeated for about the seventeenth time.

The Welshman whirled around to face his boss. "No more, Jack. I'm fine, so quit apologizing." His eye narrowed, daring Jack to see what would happen if he said it again.

"But I'm…"

"Enough!" Ianto cried, turning back around. "I'm going down to the decontamination showers and if you say another word about this Jack, so help me." The others watched as Ianto stormed out and Jack trailed slowly behind him.

"They'll fix it," Tosh said quietly. "They always seem to."

Owen nodded. "Yeah, and I really don't want to think about what's going to happen when they do." He watched Toshiko fire up her computer as he came up the stairs from his exam room. "Though we could end up hearing it." He grunted as Gwen elbowed him in the stomach. "Hey!"

"Leave it alone, Owen."

"What? I don't want to hear it from anyone, not just those two." With his only patient for the day having stormed down the stairs and no dead bodies in the bay, Owen settled down on the couch. "Although it'd be amazing if Ianto was up to it. I didn't know Tea Boy could bounce like that."

This time Gwen cuffed him on the shoulder. "He could have been hurt, you wanker."

The doctor's eyes rolled back into his head. "I checked him out, and he's fine. No internal bleeding, no broken bones; just scrapes and bruises and cuts."

"People still weren't meant to fall off the top of moving SUVs, Owen," Tosh chastised, pulling off her glasses to pinch her nose.

"It was going ten miles per hour!" Gwen moved to smack him again and he dodged swiftly out of her reach. When she and Toshiko only glared at him with their hands on their hips he sighed. "Fine, I'm going to pretend to do some non-existent work then. Wake me if those two ever show back up."

As he went he couldn't help but hear Gwen mutter under her breath. "Bloody men."

Downstairs, Ianto was having much the same thought. On the roof of the SUV, Yan. It's only a little alien, really more like a bug, Yan. Well it wasn't like any sodding bug he'd ever seen, Ianto thought as he whipped the tie from around his neck to drop it on top of his shoes and socks.

He'd never seen a 'bug' twelve inches long before. He'd never been swiped at by a 'bug' with five inch claws before; and he'd never seen a 'bug' that squealed and scuttled down a windshield when you touched it. Then he'd also never been on the roof of a car when a 'bug' had surprised Captain Jack Harkness into hitting the gas and eventually tossing Ianto from said roof to roll through gravel and mud and muck until he eventually landed face first in a pile of sludge.

With a frown, he dropped his jacket into the ever growing pile of soiled clothes. Yeah, it had been a day of bloody firsts. For a moment he struggled with the buttons on his shirt, then with a frustrated growl and a glance at the ruined silk he thought, to hell with it. Jack walked in just as Ianto seized his shirt at the collar and rent the damn thing in two.

"Impressive," he said almost sheepishly.

The younger man turned slowly to face his lover. "Jack, if you want to apologize again it would be a really good idea for you to turn around and just go back to your office."

Jack watched as Ianto turned away from him again, tossing his shirt to the ground. He didn't know what to say and it was putting him on edge. Considering Ianto was likely to either punch him or simply walk away if he said anything, he probably should have been happy that he was speechless. Still, the whole incident was nagging at him, and he couldn't decide if Yan was just frustrated or if he didn't think Jack was really sorry for what had happened. Something inside him was leaning toward the latter, and more than anything he wanted Ianto to know that he felt the responsibility for every single mark on his body. After all, if he hadn't balked, squealed like a girl and slammed his foot on the gas none of this would be an issue.

He wanted to show Ianto exactly what he was feeling, but he knew he would need to do so in silence to have any chance of getting what he was feeling across. So with a quiet breath, he reached out to put his hand gently on the other man's arm.

"Jack…" Ianto trailed off when he turned to see the look in his eyes. Every last thing Jack was feeling seemed to be living there and shining from those bright blue eyes. The touch on his cheek was gentle and warm, and despite everything he had felt that day, he leaned into the contact. His eyes drifted closed of their own accord and for a moment it seemed that would be all.

Then there was a rustling; the shifting and brushing of cloth as Jack bent to press a kiss gently to the steadily worsening bruise on Ianto's ribs. It was a combination of sensations that overwhelmed the younger man, a shock of pain blurring with tender surprise to make him gasp. Jack knew every nuance of Ianto's body, just as Yan knew every detail of his own; he had possessed and been possessed and so knew that sound that escaped his lips wasn't a plea for him to stop.

Slowly, Jack found every bruise, every scrape, cut and mark his asinine mistake had put on Ianto's body. With tender lips, he did his best to soothe away the hurt. It was a painstaking survey, as there were injuries peppered all across his skin. He lingered on the raw scrape that rode high on Ianto's left shoulder and the cut that ran along his lower back. After what seemed like years, Jack finally turned his focus to his lover's face. He brushed his mouth gingerly over the bruise blooming on his cheek, but as he shifted again, he found himself blocked.

Ianto's eyes had finally drifted open and despite himself there were tears shining in the crystal blue. Jack had seen to him with complete tenderness when he hadn't needed to do anything at all. By his own choice he had chosen to brave what had been an admittedly frosty front to assure that Ianto would know just how sorry he was, and it was one of the sweetest things Jack had ever done for him. So with a gentle smile and a shake of his head, he cradle's Jack's face in his hands and brought them together.

The kiss was as gentle as they had ever been with each other, but there was a wealth of emotion behind the gentle glide of lips. When they finally pulled apart they were both smiling contentedly. Nothing need be said.