Ianto Jones was not just a tea boy, he was more than that, or so he kept telling himself as he balanced Owen's coffee mug on the tray. The four cups clinking against each other as he walked swiftly down to everyone's stations. Gwen smiled and patted his arm as he gave her the coffee, her eyes containing dark circles wrinkling slightly. "Thanks Ianto, dunno what I'd do without you," she then proceeded to inhale the steam from her cup, "ahhh…smells heavenly!"

"At your service ma'am," Ianto bowed slightly mockingly, which must have looked comical as Gwen let out a snort giggling. Ever since Gwen had returned from her honeymoon, she looked brighter and radiated happiness, which made Ianto feel slightly envious. He wasn't alone in his envy, Ianto saw Tosh looking forlornly at Gwen a few times. He was still happy for her; out of all of them Gwen was the only one who had a stable life outside of torchwood. He hoped it stayed that way.

"HEY!" They both looked to Owen's station, "What's the hold up tea boy, where's my coffee?"

"Coming!" Ianto shouted right back.

"You don't take him seriously Ianto," Gwen looked worried as she placed a reassuring hand on his arm, "He doesn't mean that."

"Don't worry Gwen," Ianto had to give her a wry smile, "I'm used to it, and Owen's personality doesn't leave a lot to be desired."

"Hey! I heard that!" Owen's snappy tone echoed.

They both snorted at that, even Tosh who pretended to focus on her algorithms when Owen looked at her. Ianto knew Owen didn't mean any of the derogatory comments aimed at him, they were almost like an inside joke now. Not that he let Owen push him around; he also got in a few witty barbs when given the chance.

Ianto gripped the tray and moved to Tosh's desk.

"Ianto!" Gwen shouted at him, Ianto looked back raising an eyebrow, "I almost forgot, Jack wants to talk to you." She blushed slightly at that and Ianto knew she was remembering walking in on them. Ianto tried not to blush but felt the blood move to his face anyway.

"Thanks Gwen," giving her a quick nod, Ianto placed Tosh's mug on her desk. Ianto noted fondly that she didn't even notice, being too absorbed in her newest project involving some sort of alien technology. He quickly went to Owen and gave him his coffee as well and noticed Owen writing a letter to someone. When he tried to get a closer look, Owen placed some pathology notes over it and grabbed his coffee, "well move on, move on…."

Ianto just shook his head and swiftly took the stairs, Jack never usually asks for him during the day only in the evenings when the rest of the team leave to go home. It must be something important. When he pushed open the door and walked in, Jack held up a finger. He was on the phone, "Yes….yes I know!" Ianto presumed it was with someone from UNIT; Jack always had that irate tone when talking to one of them. He placed Jack's coffee on his table and was rewarded with a brilliant smile which made his heart skip. Jack's smiles always made his heart flutter. Pretending not to be affected Ianto cleared his throat and moved around the office arranging fallen objects and tying not to look at Jack.

"….I will need more information before I agree." The confident voice argued and charismatically changed the conversation around. Jack had that effect on people, he could talk his way through anything….well mostly anything. A sudden memory of Jack being berated by a drunk Tosh came to mind. That was a whole other story for another day. "Okay, call me tomorrow and let me know….yes….bye" Jack hung up.

Ianto couldn't resist and looked at Jack meeting his eyes, at the lecherous smile he received in return, Ianto knew he wasn't successful pretending. Ianto straightened; he will not cover at Jack's antics.

"So Jones, Ianto Jones…" Jack stretched the vowels in his name unnecessarily Ianto thought, "what brings you here?"

"Sir…" Ianto sounded professional he hoped, "Gwen said you wanted to see me?"

Jack laughed, "Yes…that," he stood and moved closer to Ianto, "I have some alien tech I want you to categorize," while saying this he moved closer and closer until Ianto could feel Jack's breaths on his face, "I left them at your desk." Jack's almost cyan blue eyes looked deeply into Ianto's.

Ianto conscious of the glass walls and prying eyes of his team blushed furiously and stammered out, "Ye…yes sir! I'll get right to it…" as he fled to the archives. Jack's laugh echoing knowing he had that effect on Ianto. Ianto didn't know what was wrong with him; he usually warded off Jack's flirting with ease and carried on as usual. But ever since he realised he might harbor deeper feelings than just lust for Jack , it had been difficult to push aside Jack's advances easily like before. Ianto knows he will never reveal his feelings for Jack, feeling afraid that whatever they have right now will be tarnished or just might stop if that happened. They never even had that date Jack promised a while back. Ianto didn't want to remind Jack of it, as it seemed a simple thing since they were already having sex almost every night. Jack still gave him no answers as to what happened when he left. All Ianto knew was that he found his Doctor.

Anyway he wasn't going to think about any of that now, Ianto quickly descended to the archives not meeting anyone's eyes. His office was set up underground, as he'd chosen when he first arrived at Torchwood for easy access to Lisa. But now he moved past the rooms where Lisa used to be without looking there. Jack had offered to move his desk station once the Lisa incident had been forgiven, but Ianto had refused wanting to face up to his mistakes. He regretted that now as he remembered her dying face every time he walked past. Ianto didn't want to run to Jack at every problem he had so he forced himself to toughen up, ignored those memories and found a pile of rubbish on his desk. Technology they said but it looked like something from a junkyard. There were so many bits and pieces of alien technology, some smaller than a teacup and some shaped with such irregularity that Ianto wondered how it even existed. Ianto sighed and got to work. This was his specialty after all. He wasn't just a tea boy.

Two hours passed and Ianto diligently carried on with his task. He had to measure the object, try to identify what it was from shape and appearance alone comparing it to previously found artifacts and place them in boxes with a written description of said object. Anything he couldn't identify, he took to Jack. The mound on his desk had reduced to only four objects.

On his left was a small beautifully carved chest the size of his palm. What caught his eye was that, this object was the only one that didn't seem to be singularly made of metal. Stones like rubies adorned the opening of the box. Ianto scanned the box and the scanner didn't show any results. That was strange….

He tried again; the screen was still blank.

Ianto reached for the box and pressed the lock on the opening and with a click it opened.

Ianto moved his hand away quickly and stared. In the center of the box resting on a royal purple cushion was a jewel, or so he thought. It wasn't like any jewel he'd seen before, not that he knew much about jewels as he'd only seen his sister wear illustrative necklaces. This jewel was larger than a pearl but smaller than an egg, but it was perfectly spherical. He quickly noted down his observations on the file. The blood red stone had a black symmetrical patter that made it look like an eye.

It was the most beautiful thing Ianto had ever seen.

He wanted it, he wanted to keep it, touch it…

Ianto snapped out of it and moved his already reaching hand away in horror. He knew these weren't his thoughts. This was dangerous. He had to inform Jack straight away. As he was searching for their communication set, Ianto looked at the stone. And he was lost.

He couldn't look away. The stone called to him. "Come closer, take me….you know you want to…" The compulsion was almost like a purr.

Ianto was only human; he had no such defences against such power unlike Jack. It was calling him.

Before he knew it, his hand closed over the stone.

For a moment nothing happened.

Then a sharp searing pain rose in his palm, "AAHHHH!" Ianto screamed loudly and dropped the stone.

When the pain didn't disappear, he looked at his palm and the stone was still there, only it was entering his skin, burning away flesh.

Ianto shook his hand trying to dislodge the stone, he grabbed at it but nothing he tried stopped the slow descent of the stone. The pain caused tears to escape his eyes. He had to alert the team. He was compromised.

Ianto bellowed out loudly, "JACK! JACK!" He was deep underground; of course they weren't going to hear him.

Ianto tried to ignore the pain and sprinted to the main area of the hub, running up the stairs breaths coming in gasps. As he burst in the hub, everyone looked at him in horror. There was blood on his shirt, he felt light headed. Ianto collapsed.

"IANTO!" Gwen ran over to him, "Owen! Come here quickly. Tosh call Jack!"

Ianto faintly saw everyone crowd over him as if in slow motion, Owen checking his pulse. Jack's worried face as he asked him something Ianto couldn't work out. All sound came back for a moment, "….tell…what….Ianto….happened!" Nothing made sense. He raised his right hand slowly and they all spotted the blood red stone moving through his palm to the other side of his hand. A bright light emerged from the stone.

Ianto heard Jack, "EVERYONE! GET AWAY! NOW!"

As they all jumped away from him, a bright light emitted from his hand so blinding. The light grew in intensity and spread everywhere. Ianto's last thought was that he hoped everyone got away alive.

Then everything went dark.