Til' Death

By: Sophie Quinn

Twitter: Quinnzical_

R/R: I don't have a beta, so any critique is welcome.

The knocking came softly, echoing through the empty aisles of the archives and drawing Ianto's attention away from the file he had been reading. The file itself was nothing special, a case from the early 1800's when there was a sudden influx of alien technology, but Ianto found it interesting and the silence of the archives to be calming.

"Ianto?" Gwen's voice followed the faint knock, his name carrying an almost playful tone to it as it fell from her lips; like they were kids, playing hide and seek. If he stayed quiet, perhaps she would look elsewhere and leave him to his thoughts. He hoped she would just give up and forget him, but that wasn't Gwen. Gwen never gave up on anyone once she set her mind to it.

Count to twenty, ready or not. "Ianto, are you going to hide down here forever?"

"Not hiding." He muttered, standing to look over the filing cabinet he was currently going through, casting a brief glance towards Gwen before he dropped his gaze back to the aged parchment. "There is work to do."

He watched her from the corner of his eye as she began moving closer, her curious gaze laden with concern as she caught sight of the pink burns over the side of his face. She lingered, then, at the corner of the filing cabinet, with her arms lightly folded over her torso. Ianto presumed the stance was a means of preventing herself from fussing over him, something he would have balked at.

"Jack said you had a reaction to sunlight." Though the bits of scorched flesh had been healing throughout the day, they persisted and had begun to itch. He resisted scratching, busying his hands and mind within time worn pages of cases past.

"Doesn't matter." Ianto stated simply, his shoulders rolling in a shrug of indifference. They had all been injured at one time or another, and this one shouldn't have been any different. He was hurt, he would heal, and they would all move on to their daily lives of saving the world.

"Tosh has been running experiments. She thinks that there might be a clue in UV rays that could lead to a cure."

"Because it destroys the parasite." He stated, nodding a little. It made sense and he was hopeful, or as hopeful as any member of Torchwood could be at any given time. But hope was often fleeting, replaced with the cruel reality that a thirtieth birthday was a big deal for an agent of the Torchwood institute. It was an occasion often celebrated postmortem.

"Owen is helping too. He is researching mythology, he seems to think you've turned into a vampire." She offered a sympathetic smile when he rolled his eyes, the file in his hands forgotten and shoved away back in the drawer. It didn't seem prudent to say that there were no such things as vampires, not after all he had seen, but the idea was ridiculous. Not every myth had an extraterrestrial history, like Owen seemed to think.

"And you? What do you think?" He nearly snapped out the words, frustration evident in his shift of demeanor. Ianto refused to be made into a joke, to be taunted with more nicknames added onto Tea Boy. Gwen didn't flinch, her gaze merely softening as she looked him over. Carefully, she moved closer and placed a gentle hand beneath his chin, tilting up his face a little to have a better look at his slowly healing wounds.

"I think, you're sick. And scared." She paused for a moment to straighten his tie, brushing her hands over the front of his suit in a maternal way that was so very Gwen. Only she could make someone feel comforted and chastised all in the same instant. "and you're hiding from the only people in the world that can help you."

"Did Jack tell you what I did? That I killed him?" Ianto looked up at her, stepping back to avoid her hands and her persistent staring. There were things to archive, files to organize and he was certain that there was a decades worth of dust building in one of the corners.

"He mentioned it."

"I'm dangerous." Ianto turned to busy himself with another drawer, shuffling papers in and out of it as he reworked the filing system. The old ways were effective but he was working on a more efficient way of storing documents that didn't involve a numbered catalog. Anything to avoid having to look at her.

"All the more reason for you to trust us, Ianto." She was at his side, then, grabbing lightly to his arm to stop his retreat. "We can help but only if you come out of this dusty place. What is this, anyway?"

Ianto watched her glance around, following her gaze with an amused half grin of his own. He looked around, almost fondly at the rows of files tucked safely away in metal cabinets. "The archives. Where things are... archived. It's quiet."

He smiled and she smiled with him, her fingers trailing down the arm of his suit coat until her fingers entwined with his own. Gwen squeezed lightly, and Ianto squeezed back. For a moment, it was as if Rhiannon's spirit had slipped into the room unnoticed, and he was grateful for the comfort.

"You look as if you could use a coffee, we all could, and none of us want Owen getting his hands on it. Come up and we'll work on this together, as a team. Yeah?" She brushed her thumb across his knuckles, and he could feel something shift as he let out a slow breath. Hope, it seemed, was not entirely gone within Torchwood. Ianto was beginning to understand why Jack was so insistent on recruiting PC Cooper.

"Yeah..."

"Right, good lad." Gwen let go of his hand to give his backside a pat, nudging him towards the door. "Out you go."

They stepped out into the main room of the hub in time to catch sight of Owen and Tosh disappearing through the great cog doorway, Jack following a short distance behind with his coat being tugged onto his shoulders. "Gwen, with me. Ianto, you stay here and keep contact on the comms."

"What's going on?" Gwen parted from Ianto's side to close the distance between herself and Jack, glancing at the monitors in passing. There was a large red bleeping on a digital map of Cardiff, menacing did not seem to suffice. "What is that.."

"Something big. Tosh picked it up with the rift locator about five minutes ago, I need everyone in the field." He glanced at Ianto, watching the young man as he paused in his steps to linger at the monitors. It was mid-afternoon and the sun was high within the skies of Wales. Everyone would have to exclude him. "Ianto..."

"Understood, Sir. I'll keep an eye on it, and let you know where it is going." He nodded, offering a vague smile as he slipped into the desk chair and began tapping at the keys. Ianto had his back to the door, but he could hear that their leader had been lingering, watching him. "Sir?"

"You're looking good, Ianto." Jack stated, noting the improvement of the burn marks on his skin in addition to the slight improvement in his demeanor. The younger man didn't seem so desperate anymore, not as angry at the world that he had been hours before.

"Careful, Sir. That's harassment." Ianto glanced over his shoulder, smiling a little as he watched Jack turn to jog out of the hub. He turned back to the monitors and the smile faded, a vague grimace crossing his delicate features as he clutched at his stomach and fought back a groan. A pain was building, an ache that was suddenly difficult to ignore.

The hunger was supposed to be subdued for days, but it seemed the little amount of blood that had been fed to the parasite by attacking Jack was only enough to sedate it for a matter of hours. Ianto glanced towards the medical bay, eyeing the cold storage where a blood supply was kept before he glanced to the monitors and slipped the comm piece within his ear.

"I can hear you loud and clear, Sir. It's heading north, northwest."

By the time that night had fallen it was only Jack that had returned to the hub. The others were sent home, the mission of tracking, fighting, killing and disposing of the creature that threatened the earth taking the entire day. He stepped off the lift, brushing a sleeve over his forehead as he planned out a shower, a warm meal and a very heavy night of sleeping. The idle planning ceased and shoved to the back of his mind as the eerie quiet of the hub catching him off guard.

"Ianto?" Jack glanced around as he crossed the threshold of the cog door, lingering at the metal cage for just a moment as he listened for footsteps, breathing or any faint brush of fabric that would give away the younger man's location. When nothingness followed, Jack's hand fell to his pistol while the other reached for his cellphone. It rang steadily as he brought it to his ear, his eyes careful to watch the shadows.

"Yup?" Ianto's voice came over the tiny speaker, and the flicker of emotions over Jack's face brought new definition to awe at the sheer audacity. He lowered his pistol slightly before slipping it back into the holster, his gaze flicking around at the empty hub.

"Where are you?"

"I went home, Jack."

"I told you not to leave."

"I didn't listen."

"I am coming over, Ianto. You aren't safe."

Silence followed over the phone before soft footfalls from the lift echoed through the cog door. Ianto appeared a moment later, arms full of various pieces of luggage that he took to dragging the rest of the way. Jack watched him, snapping his cellphone closed before he stepped closer to take some of the bags in order to set them aside.

"I needed my things." Ianto said it softly, almost apologetically for disobeying orders so directly. He set down the rest of his luggage just inside the door as Jack stepped closer and slid a hand along the younger man's cheek. He let the pad of his thumb play across his cheek bone, cupping softly at his jaw before Jack leaned in to kiss him firmly.

There was fear in the kiss. Fear of something happening to Ianto somewhere that Jack couldn't look after him, fear of losing him to the alien that lived within him. There was also relief that he had come back, a soft breath between their lips of relief that he was safe, relief that he was home.

Ianto's hands fell against Jack's coat, his fingers gripping at the heavy fabric as he leaned into his chest, pressing against his lover and deepening the kiss with a growing ache for the warmth of comfort that only came from being this close to someone like Captain Harkness. It was those hands that started pushing it away from his shoulders, sliding it back until it fell to the ground with a soft whoosh of fabric collapsing in on itself.

There was a guttural groan at Jack's lips as he tugged at the buttons of Ianto's suit, a soft pop of threads breaking and a clattering of plastic a few feet to the side as one of the buttons gave way to the urgency. Ianto took a step forward, Jack stepped back until the railing met his thighs and the younger man pressed into him. The kiss became all teeth, desperate gasps for air as they breathed in each other, frantic hands tugging at clothing as the chill of the hub battled against the heat rising off their bodies.

Jack found himself grunting again, a soft chuckle of amusement falling from his lips as Ianto's warm kisses fell to his neck and ear; he bit lightly at the lobe. "Ianto Jones, isn't this harassment?"

"I'm sorry, Jack." He muttered, soft nibbles along Jack's throat causing breathy gasps to escape the older mans lips.

"Oh, don't you dare apologize. You do wicked things to me." He laughed, his hands gripping at Ianto's hips as he rocked into him, eliciting a grunt from the younger man. Jack could feel him still for only a moment, the kisses breaking as Ianto leaned back and nearly frowned before the cold of a knife was at his throat. The good feelings fading, he struggled to comprehend a reaction.

"I'm sorry, Jack." Ianto muttered again, twisting his wrist to slice into the flesh. The deep crimson flowed quickly and Ianto's lips were at his throat again, sucking deeply to drink in the warmth, to feed the desperately growing hunger.