Faster The Chase

A/N Right, so this is the sequel to Pain Is The Only Feeling. You Should read that one first or you'll be like 'what's going on there then?' This is set straight after, literally, straight after. Updates might be slower from now on, as I start college in a week and second year is always harder than the first. But I have planned most of this out so hopefully updates wont be that delayed.

Chapter 1

The hub, for once was silent. Jack stood, staring awkwardly at Luke; one of the few people he couldn't lie to, and he just did. They both knew the truth, yet neither had any intention of admitting it. Jack knew that they would be ready to stop whoever they needed to stop, but he knew there was a possibility that they wouldn't be ready. He knew that he would do anything in his power to protect Ianto, no one was going to hurt him; he was sure of that. But empaths were strong, powerful, collective, which only made Jack shudder. Whoever was going after them were bound to be even stronger.

Laughter broke out in the hub and the two men were pleased for the distraction, especially when the beautiful sound was coming from Ianto. The past few days had been extremely tough on him, and laughter was a rare sound in the hub on a normal day.

"What's the joke?" Jack asked. He and Luke walked further into the hub where they saw Owen, Toshiko and Ianto laughing privately with each other.

Ianto looked up at Jack and smiled warmly, making both Jack and Luke forget their problems, at least for a few moments. "Weevil sex," Ianto stated simply, sending himself, Owen and Toshiko into fits of laughter once more. Jack and Luke exchanged confused glances. "Owen has a recording of weevils participating in sexual activities," he added with a small smile. "He's picking up tips."

"I'm sure Ianto could show you a few," Jack smirked, Ianto and Owen both blushed. "I'm not even going to ask why you have..." The loud, infuriating noise of the rift alarm caused the conversation to end abruptly, as everyone hurried over to the monitor.

"What is it?" Luke asked. He knew a lot about computers, but didn't know too much about how the monitor worked.

"Picking up human signals," reported Toshiko. "Fell through the rift perhaps?"

"Soon find out," Jack grinned. "Me and Luke will go. You three be good now." Owen rolled his eyes at Jack and walked back over to his monitor, Toshiko following; Luke headed over to where he had been working and picked up his stuff.

"Make sure Janet has her boiler suit in tact by the time we get back," Jack smiled. His hand reaching out for Ianto's, the simple touch reassuring them both.

"I'll do my best." Ianto returned the smile. He could sense that there was something wrong and that wasn't entirely down to his new abilities. Though knowing Jack was currently blocking his thoughts from him was as much as a give away as the hand holding. Not that he was intentionally trying to dig into Jack's thoughts, it was normally just there acting as a silent comfort. Not having it there was nerving. The hand holding was much more obvious. Even though Jack preferred physical contact to emotional conversations; physical contact for him often came in various forms of sexual positions. Hand holding was just, different. Though having his fingers linked with Jack's definitely made it a good different.

"You'll be okay, right?" Jack's voice was dripping with concern. Making Ianto even more curious to what Jack was keeping from him.

"Always." Ianto added to his promise by giving Jack's hand a reassuring squeeze. He was pulled into a very soft kiss, which left him craving more as Jack pulled away.

"Wont be long," Jack smiled, before walking out with Luke.

A few minutes after Jack left, Ianto pondered what to do. It was getting late, if it wasn't for the sudden rift alarm he knew Jack would have sent them all home by now. His mind wondered to what he and Jack would be doing now if it wasn't for the sudden emergency. But he didn't think on it too much. He knew something was wrong, and from the way Jack had been acting, he knew it was about him. With nothing better or pressing to do, Ianto slid back over to Owen and Toshiko. He and Toshiko had always been close and he was pleased that the sudden change in him hadn't made her want to run and hide. A friend in Torchwood was always a good thing to have.

It wasn't a long drive, but the tension in the car made the distance feel longer. Both men were wound up with worry. "We're there." Jack's voice filled the silence. He was never one to show his emotions, but after everything he had been through with Luke, he knew his feelings wouldn't be judged.

Jack got out of the car first, he saw what they were looking for immediately. A shaking body, lying broken on the stoned pavement. Jack thought his first assumptions were correct, it was another lost soul which the rift thought of kindly enough to spit back out. But when he saw Luke's reaction once he had got close enough to see the body, Jack knew it wasn't just another case of dealing with the aftermath of the rifts leftovers.

"Chris..." Jack had never heard Luke speak so soft. Yes he was a very gentle man, but Jack had never seen him so delicate. "Can you hear me, Chris?" Luke crouched down next to him. After placing a hand cautiously on the man's shoulder, he became aware of the fact that he was sobbing.

Even in the darkness, Jack could see how scared and young Chris was. It was the fact that he looked close enough or maybe slightly older than Ianto which startled Jack.

Chris looked up at the sound of his name. A vaguely familiar male stood, hovering over him. Next to him was a man he did not know, but he looked scared, worried even. "Are you hurt?" His accent was American, but slightly distant. Confusion swept over Chris like a tide on a sandy beach; why was he asking if I'm hurt? he thought, and why am I on the floor crying? "Can you stand?"

"I... I think so," Chris replied shakily, and before he knew it he was being helped up by the two strangers.

"Do you know who I am?" Luke asked.

"I recognise you. But I can't... I can't place you." He shook his head dramatically as though he was trying to push the pieces together.

"My name's Luke, this is Jack." Jack, at the mention of name smiled reassuringly at Chris, who nodded in return. "We're going to help you."

Chris nodded again, he didn't know why he needed help, he just knew; it was like one of those nagging feelings in the back of his head telling him he left the cooker on; he just knew he needed help.

-x-

Ianto, Toshiko and Owen were sat at the sofas when Jack and Luke walked in, followed by a very nervous looking man. Straight away, Ianto felt his fear, his anxiety, and his confusion. Instead of letting the feelings engulf him, Ianto let his mind wonder back to when he was laughing with Owen and Tosh, even if it was a childish giggle about weevil sex, it was still a good memory. One that he was determined to hold onto.

"What's going on?" Toshiko asked.

"Luke will explain as soon as Owen has done some tests on Chris," Jack said. "We need you to see if there's been any tempering with his mind."

"Got it." Owen smiled over at Chris, who was suddenly feeling very under pressure. He looked over at Luke, not understanding his blind faith in the man.

"It's okay. He's a doctor." The words from Luke were reassuring and Chris followed Owen to the medical bay.

"Toshiko, I need you to call Gwen back in." Jack said, "Then can you see what CCTV footage of the area where Chris was found?" Toshiko nodded and walked over to the phone at her desk.

Ianto stared expectantly at Jack, obediently waiting for his orders. He was surprised when he got a comforting smile, "I could really do with a coffee," Jack smiled. "Make yourself one too, and meet me in my office?"

"Sure." Ianto headed over to the coffee machine, he still couldn't sense what was going on and it made him worry even more.

Jack sat at his desk, he knew he had to be the one to tell Ianto about the empaths, about Chris, about everything that Luke had told him about the monitor. But he wish he hadn't. He didn't want to scare Ianto, though he knew that the youngest member of his team would take it all in his pride, not letting any one know how scared he was. Jack guessed that Ianto would probably try and hide his feelings from himself and Luke, which was about just as useful as hiding a rat from a starving stray.

There was a light tapping at his door, and he looked up to see Ianto standing there, two boiling cups of coffee in his hand. Jack gestured for him to sit down on the sofa, and sat next to him. "We need to talk." Jack started, and he flinched at his own words. "Something is happening, that you need to know about."

"What?" Ianto asked, immediately alert to everything Jack was about to say.

"The man we found, Chris Smith. He's an empath." Jack started with everything that Luke had told him. "He had been dumped in an alley, with no memory. Luke knew him straight away, but he didn't know him. When Luke did a mental scan in the car, he couldn't sense his abilities. Someone had taken them. The same someone who broke into Luke's mansion and stole his empath tracking device, monitor thing." Jack knew it came out in a bit of a frantic rush, but he could tell Ianto understood what he had said.

"Does he know who?" Ianto asked. His voice a little shaken, Jack was pleased that Ianto wasn't hiding his feelings straight away. His fear was evident in his eyes.

"No," Jack sighed. He took Ianto's hand in his, both coffee mugs now forgotten on the floor. "I don't want you to the leave the hub."

"What?" Ianto's voice was loud, and full of surprise.

"You're the strongest empath on Luke's monitor. I don't want you to turn out like Chris, I don't want to find you and have you not know who I am." The words hit Ianto hard. Jack was scared, terrified, not of the thing who was hunting down the empaths but over loosing him.

"Okay. I wont leave your sight." Ianto promised.

"Good." Jack sealed the deal with a bruising kiss.

-x-

Owen had just finished the examination when Toshiko, and Luke walked down. "How is he?" Luke asked. Chris looked tired, exhausted even.

"I've given him a sedative, a mild one." Owen explained. "The tests I've done can be slightly stressful, and he was already scared and tired. He'll sleep for a couple of hours, I doubt he would have been much help now any way. Too scared."

"What have you found out?" Jack asked from the bannisters. Ianto was standing next to him, his eyes washing over Chris. The fear was still there, but slowly being covered in exhaustion.

"He's an empath." Owen said. "Or, was."

"He isn't any more?" Luke asked, though he knew the answer already. "They've taken his abilities?"

"Yes." Owen sighed. "Bloody lucky to be alive, mind."

"What do you mean?" Toshiko asked.

"Ianto, you know the shadow on your brain?" Owen asked, Ianto nodded, they all knew about the shadow on his brain. "Chris had one."

"Had?"

"Yeah, had." Owen grabbed an x-ray and placed it on the screen, it showed a perfectly healthy looking brain, next to it was an older image, one with the shadow. "Same brain, no shadow. The empath abilities must be linked to that shadow, taking that away has taken his abilities, or the other way around. I haven't got a clue, but it's gone."

"But he'll be okay?" Jack asked. He had unblocked his thoughts from Ianto, and they were now sending reassuring thoughts backwards and forwards to each other.

"He's a little disorientated, like he's had a nasty bump on the head. We'll know more when he wakes up." Owen answered. "Going to tell us what's going on?"

The cog door rolled open, and they all looked up to see Gwen standing in the middle of the hub. "Luke will explain everything. Thanks for coming in Gwen." Jack smiled, though he was still a little weary of her. But he needed his team, his whole team for this one.

"You needed me." She smiled simply.

"Luke will explain to you three. I've already explained everything to Ianto." He said to Luke who nodded, and looked over at Ianto, feeling the fear radiating from him, though he hid it well. "Toshiko did you find anything from the footage?"

"Not really. It's all on my screen, maybe you could make more sense of it." She shrugged.

"Thanks. Right, you lot go up to the board room. Me and Ianto will look through the footage."

Jack pulled Ianto close to him once they were all out of sight. "I wont let them take it away from you," Jack promised, kissing him softly on the cheek. Ianto smiled back.

"I know."