Written for Classic Torchwood big bang on Livejournal. Story is complete, I will be posting a chapter per day until all 12 parts are posted.

Title: Closer Together and Further Away.

Writer: The-Silver-Sun

Rating: Teen

Word count: 34124 (according to open office)

Beta: Czarina-kitty

A/N: Thank you to Czarina-kitty for betaing this for me, Star54kar for all the great artwork and to Psithurism for help on how Owen would treat Jack's injury. .

Summary: AU from start of series 2. A routine collection of piece debris pulled through the Rift has far reaching consequences for Jack, Ianto and Owen as they find themselves stranded on a distant planet.

Part One.

A grey autumnal drizzle had settled over Cardiff and Ianto pulled up the collar on his coat before getting out of the SUV.

Parked on the edge of a sprawling area of waste ground that had once housed some kind of industrial complex, it was now a rubble strewn weed patch whatever building project that should have occupied it seemingly on indefinite hold, the SUV gleamed wetly in the glare of the solitary working street light by the entrance to the site.

Sighing, Ianto looked around. There was no sign of the rest of the team. Reaching up to his bluetooth earpiece he said, "Gwen, Tosh, how's the search over by the canal going?"

"Wet. Very wet," replied Gwen, although her spirits didn't sound dampened by the weather or task.

A moment later Tosh added, "If it's here it must have powered down. I'm not getting anything beyond base levels of Huon and Bekaran energies at the moment."

Great, Ianto thought, we'll be here all afternoon at this rate. "If you get a reading let me know and I'll bring the containment crate over."

"Have Jack or Owen called anything in?" Gwen asked after a moment.

"Not yet. I'll let you know if they do." Ianto knew that he should probably have called Jack first or at the very least call him next, but Jack had only been back two weeks and things were still weird between them. Between Jack and the whole team really, if he was honest.

Spending a cold, wet afternoon searching for a piece of debris from the engines of a Moolian lightship with minimal information was doing little to change his opinion. The fact that Jack had been vague about just what was so bad about the piece of junk and still keeping information that they needed to do their job secret from them made it feel like absolutely nothing had changed.

Only it had. They'd changed. They'd had to. With Jack gone and none of them knowing if he would ever return they'd had no choice but to get on with it. Life hadn't stopped without Jack. And although it makes him feel disloyal in some kind of way that Ianto's not able or willing to describe, he thinks that they are better team because of Jack's absence, not in spite of it.

A bitter part of him, a part that he'd rather not admit to having, thinks that it would have been easier if Jack hadn't come back. If he'd let them get on with it, to succeed or fail on their own terms. Now though they were back in his shadow.

Ianto ran a hand through his hair. Everything was a mess and that was without even taking into account the not quite relationship thing that he and Jack had almost had. There have been moments since his return when he'd been sure Jack was about to tell him something, only for something to close off between them.

He was still trying to get his thoughts in order when Owen's voice came over his bluetooth. "You'd better have that containment box ready, because I've found it, and it's started fucking glowing."

Ianto could hear the fear in Owen's voice. It was a completely justified one, if the engine part discharged the Huon energy contained within it the result would – according to Jack at least – be pretty unpleasant.

"Where are you?" Ianto asked, knowing that the time they had to get it into containment was most likely measured in a few scant minutes.

"Down by the rubble from the knocked down warehouses. Will you hurry up?"

Ianto closed his eyes and took a deep breath. There was no way he'd be able to drive the SUV there – it was on the other side of the canal – the crossing just a narrow, rickety footbridge.

"Oi, you still there?" Owen's voice was loud and fearful. "It's started making a noise now, a whistling noise and it's getting hot."

Pushing down the fear that the thing was about to blow and take out Owen and half of Cardiff, Ianto said, "You head back to the SUV with it, I'll bring the containment box and I'll meet you half way."

"You'd bloody well better."

"I will," Ianto replied, worry making him snappy. "Now get moving."

"I like a man who can give orders."

Ianto spun round to see Jack leaning again the side of the SUV.

"How long have you been there?" he asked, hiding his surprise at being sneaked up on by opening the doors to the back of the SUV.

"Not long." Jack moved round so that he could see him again.

"Right then," Ianto said, gripping a handle on one side of the containment box. "Here's another one. Owen is bringing in the unit. It's active."

Jack's flirtatiousness is gone in an instant. "How much time do we have until it blows?"

"From the little you told us earlier about two or three minutes. Five at most."

"Better get going then." Jack took the other handle lifting the heavy box out of the SUV. Then they set off as fast as they can across the uneven, rubble strewn ground.

They heard and saw the object before they caught sight of Owen. In the gathering gloom of a late autumn dusk, the light and noise were unmissable. Owen, when they saw him, was running flat out, the shoebox sized alien power cell held out in front of him.

Owen skidded to a halt, barely avoiding colliding with them in his haste to be rid of the object. He nodded breathlessly towards the crate.

With the crate placed on the ground, Ianto allowed himself a small sigh of relief, as Jack released the four heavy duty clamps that held the lid in place.

The power cell was emitting so much light that it was impossible to look at it directly as Owen placed it in the crate, pushing it down amongst the strange jelly like beads of the specially designed packing material.

Still rather breathless from the run, Jack looked at Ianto and then nodded towards the lid. Lifting it together they placed it back on the top of the crate.

Owen gave them a tired, relieved smile. "That was too f..."

Whatever else Owen was going to say was cut off as a brilliant beam of blue light shot out of the narrow gap between the lid and the crate where the final catch hadn't yet been fastened, and engulfed them all.

X0X0X0X0X

"Oi. Come on Sleeping Beauty. Time to get up."

Ianto blinked awake, suddenly aware he was cold, damp and aching. For a moment he couldn't understand why, then the memory of the Moolian power cell rushed back, and he sat up suddenly needing to know if Jack and Owen were all right.

The movement made his stomach turn and Ianto barely had time to lean over before he was sick.

"Shit," Owen said moving back so he didn't get splattered. "Don't you go picking anything up."

"He'll be fine," Jack said sounding unconcerned. "Unscheduled teleportation like that doesn't agree with everyone. First time I tried it I was sick as a dog. You get used to it though."

Jack waited a moment and then moved to stand at Ianto's side, his hand resting on his shoulder. "Just breathe for a while, don't try getting up."

Ianto closed his eyes, his stomach feeling a little easier now it was empty. Jack's hand was heavy and reassuring on his shoulder, his fingers warm where they brush against his neck.

The air was fresh and cool, and after a couple of minutes Ianto opened his eyes. Marsh land spread out in front of him as far as he could see, although far away on the horizon there was a darker smudge that could be hills or far away mountains or maybe just a bank of heavy, low lying cloud.

Wherever they were it wasn't the construction site and waste ground on the edge of Grangetown.

Ianto took a shaky breath, trying to calm his nerves. That fact the energy discharge from the Moolian power cell hadn't incinerated them was good, but it left the question where were they, as they definitely weren't in Cardiff any more. Or at least not in present day Cardiff.

Ianto reached his hand up to where Jack's hand still rested on his shoulder. "I think I'm all right to get up now."

Jack gave him an approving smile and helped him to his feet.

A small flock of creatures that looked like a cross between bats and wading birds flew low across the horizon, their iridescent feathers shimmering in the evening sunlight.

Jack watched them for a moment, then shook his head.

"You don't know what they are, do you?" Owen asked, saying aloud what Ianto was thinking.

"No." The stiff breeze blowing across the marshes caught Jack's coat and hair, and he turned away from them. "We could be anywhere or any when. The only thing I know for sure is this isn't Earth."

"But you can contact this Doctor bloke of yours, right?" Owen said hopefully, circling round so that he was almost facing Jack again. "Get us home?"

"No." Jack's shoulders slumped and he turned again so that his back was too them once more. "No, I can't."

"Can't or won't?" Owen asked, an edge of anger creeping into his voice.

Realising that the situation was only likely to get worse, Ianto moved between them. "I'm sure Jack has a good reason why he can't." He looked at Jack, hopeful for a response. "You do, don't you?"

"Yeah. This." Jack gestured at the leather cuff about his wrist. "Doesn't work. It got broken."

There was an undercurrent of hurt in his voice that was unmistakeable. It was painful to hear and Ianto only just stopped himself from taking Jack's hand – they'd barely had that sort of relationship before Jack left, now Ianto's not even sure he'd accept it.

Owen snorted and looked unimpressed.

"What do you want from me?" Jack asked wearily, a hint of desperation creeping into his voice. "Because if it's answer or a way home I'm all out."

"How about the truth. You could try being honest with us for a change," Owen said irritably, folding his arms across his chest.

"Fine." Jack glared at them both. "I went away, things happened, then I came back, because I had nowhere else to go. Now let's get moving before we lose the light."

"Moving where?" There was real anger in Owen's voice now as he glared back at Jack. "There's nowhere to go."

"We don't know that unless we actually look," Ianto pointed out, hoping that Owen wasn't about to round on him instead.

"I 'spose." Owen looked around, the fight starting drain out of him. "It all looks the same to me. How do we pick?"

"Those might be hills over there." Ianto indicated the dark smudge on the horizon off to their left. Then sounding a lot more confident than he felt, he said "Higher ground should be drier and we might be able to see some kind settlement if we get to the top."

"All right," Owen said digging his hands in to the pockets of his leather jacket. "But for the record I still bloody hate the countryside."

They walked across the wet ground in silence, water welling up around every footprint left pressed in to the moss covered mud.

Tired, cold, and hungry now that his stomach had settled down, Ianto was grateful when they finally reached a small group of trees bushes on a small area of raised ground. The remains of the daylight were fading fast, long shadows stretching out from the trees in the thick golden light.

The island, as Ianto supposed it technically was, was little more than ten metres wide by about the same in length. A couple of the trees were dead, the wood dry enough to use for a fire if only they had something to light it with, while the bushes provided a welcome break from the wind that blew across the near flat landscape.

Warmth and food would definitely be welcome, Ianto though looking out into the gathering gloom of the marsh. Although knowing their luck they'd get neither and there'd be something out in the mud and reeds that wanted to eat them and then it would start to rain.

"It'll be just like camping," Jack said, seeming unconcerned by their situation.

"Because camping went so well for us last time," Ianto muttered to himself, less than happy that Jack would mention their disastrous trip to the Brecon Beacons, even if obliquely.

"Well I hate camping," Owen grumbled. "And we don't have tents or sleeping bags, so it not proper camping anyway. It's going to be wet and cold and horrible. And I'm hungry."

"I went on a survival course once. It was part of training," Jack said ignoring Owen's complaints, as he looked around at the tall reeds that grew at one edge of the island.

"So why didn't we get it?" Owen said, irritably. "Didn't think we'd need it, I suppose?"

"It was before I worked for Torchwood." There was a finality in Jack's voice that made it clear he was not inviting questions about just where and when it had been. He crouched down by the reeds and started pushing away the leaves and moss from the base to reveal the pale lower stem.

After uprooting six of them, he stood up and said, "Either of you got any matches? Because these aren't great raw."

"No," Ianto replied wondering why Jack would think he had.

"I've got a lighter." Owen held up a nice zippo style lighter he'd taken out of his jacket pocket.
"I didn't know you smoked," Jack said, confused at how he could have missed something like that.

"I don't. I got it when I was with Diane," Owen said defensively. "I was going to give it to her, but she went, so I've still got it. Just as well, isn't it?"

It took several attempts to light the fire, none of them having any real skill it in, but eventually the fire was burning brightly, providing a small patch of light and warmth in the growing cold and dark.

A quick inspection of the island revealed a small spring that bubbled cold, clear water into the marsh, but nothing they found was likely to be edible and staying there for more than a night would use up the minimal resources in the form of roots and firewood that was there.

The spring water tasted fresh, but was so cold Ianto wished that they had some way of drinking it that wasn't just scooping it up with their hands.

"Right, it's too dark to go poking about any more," Owen said sitting down by the fire, and starting to unlace his shoes. "So get your boots off."

When, after a moment or two, Jack and Ianto hadn't followed suit, Owen added, "Look if you two want to get trench foot go right ahead and try to sleep in wet shoes."

There was something vaguely surreal, Ianto decided, about the three of them sitting around a small fire in the middle of nowhere warming their bare feet.

As the sun set the moon rose, followed shortly afterwards by a second moon. One near full and the other just a thin crescent, they hung bright and yellow in the star filled sky. There were so many more stars than Ianto was used to seeing in Cardiff, but whether that was due to where they were in space or because there was no light pollution beyond their little camp fire he didn't know.

It reminded him a little of the camping trip to France with Lisa just a few shorts month before... Ianto stopped, pushing down the thought before it could be fully realised. He had barely come to terms with the fact she was dead and that perhaps she had been for some time before the terrible day her body had finally died in the Hub. Remembering the good times and hopes and dreams that they'd shared was still too painful to attempt.

There was no attempt at conversation while the roots cooked next to the fire, placed on a couple of flat rocks Owen had found near the spring. Whether this was a good thing or not Ianto wasn't sure, but at least it spared him having to try to be positive about their chances of survival and of getting home. He just hoped that Gwen and Tosh would be all right without them. Because while they were both good at their jobs sometimes that wasn't enough, sometimes you needed back up.

Eventually, Jack prodded the roots and said that they were about as cooked and edible as they were likely to get. The roots were bland and rather fibrous even with cooking, but they were food and Ianto pushed himself to keep eating, as when they'd find anything else to eat was uncertain.

"What happened to you?" Ianto asked quietly once Owen was asleep, huddled into his leather jacket in a hollow at the base of one of the bushes.

"Time. Life," Jack replied, prodding the small fire with a stick, sending up small sparks into the dark.

"You've not been right since you got back," Ianto said moving closer, taking the chance that the rather cryptic answer might be a sign that Jack was finally willing to talk.

"I thought you were more observant than that," Jack said with a sigh as he pulled his greatcoat tighter about himself. "I've been wrong for a long time."

Reflected in the firelight, Ianto can see the sheen of unshed tears in his eyes. "You aren't to me. You never have been."

Jack stared at him, lost and disbelieving.

Ianto leant forward until their faces were mere inches apart almost before he realised what he was doing. They've not kissed since that awkward wonderful moment in front of the team just before Jack had disappeared, and Ianto wonders if perhaps if he made the first move now then maybe they'd be on even terms rather than just Jack's.

Sound of a night bird calling plaintive and shrill in the dark broke the silence between them and Jack jerked back, startled, his eyes darting back and forth, hand clenching tighter on the stick he'd use to rake over the fire.

"Jack?" Ianto asked concerned. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. It all right. You get some sleep," Jack said, turning away to look out into the dark. "We've probably got a long walk ahead of us tomorrow."

"Yes. Yes, I know," Ianto replied hurried, knowing the moment was lost and silently cursing his own hesitation and over thinking of the situation. "You should too."

Jack nodded, seemingly distracted, but didn't answer.

Sighing, Ianto copied Owen and found space under one of the bushes near the fire, seeking a little warmth against damp chill of the marshland night to try to sleep.