Fandom: Torchwood

Title: A Long Day's End

Author: Dreamscapemusic

Rating: All

Year written/published: 2010

Pairing (If any): slight Ianto/Jack, Ianto/Lisa

X-Posted: , Torchwood communities

Disclaimer: I don't own Torchwood

Notes/Warnings: Canon character death. And thank you to mybrokenlocket for beta-ing.

Summary: Ianto's last few minutes on Earth.

Dying wasn't as bad as he'd thought it would be. Granted, he hadn't been impaled on alien tentacles, eaten by a Weevil, knocked off one of Jack's bloody roofs, or any of the other hundreds of deaths he'd imagined over the years. He ached, definitely, but Jack's arms were warm and the darkness was soothing.

He could hear Jack's voice still, a promise to remember him in a thousand years time, then begging, pleading with him not to go. But that too, was fading. He should be sad too, or angry. Or regretful. But he really couldn't remember why. He just knew he was finished.

He took his last breath and let go.

"Come on, sweetheart."

A gentle hand was shaking his arm, but Ianto wasn't ready to wake up. He scrunched his eyes groaned, smacking the intruder away. There was a light laugh and the hand was back.

"Fine out here," he mumbled. He must've fallen asleep watching Gordon Ramsay after work again.

"You'll get a crick," Lisa said, affection clear in her voice.

"Don't care."

"Come on," she repeated, "It's time to go."

He heard the telly switch off, Ramsay's rants of ineptitude and failure silenced.

She tugged his arm and he gave in, keeping his eyes closed as she pulled him to his feet. She laughed again, her voice high and sweet and making something deep inside him ache. Her arm looped around his waist, keeping him from stumbling as they made their way down the familiar path to their bedroom.

"Don't want to go to work tomorrow," he mumbled as she helped him into bed, "Bloody Torchwood."

She didn't respond, simply curled her warm body up against his side and rested her head on his shoulder. He smiled, breathed in her coconut shampoo, and drifted off.