a/n: Season 3 Episode Tag: A Day In the Death

Blame

Owen glanced over his shoulder at Ianto, giving the cappuccino maker a rough and violent shake. "Look at you all smug," he said, his lips curled. "I guess you've finally won."

Ianto furrowed his brows slightly in confusion. "I didn't know that we were having a competition."

"Now that I'm out of the picture," Owen leaned against the counter, his shoulders slightly hunched. "You get to go out on all of the Hunts—and be with Jack. . ."

It finally dawned Ianto. "You think that—" he started, but Owen shook his head.

"You couldn't wait until I was out of the picture." Owen continued. "The instant I was, you stepped in."

Ianto glanced around the Hub—Jack in his office, Gwen and Toshiko were out—but Jack had no clue as to what was going on. He couldn't believe that Owen would think of him in that way, not after all that they had been through together. "Owen—"

"You have everything now," Owen finally turned to Ianto. "At the expense of me loosing everything."

"You really believe that I wanted this to happen to you?" Inato's expression was hurt and angry while Owen's was just plain angry. "You're my friend, Owen, and I would never want something like this to happen to you."

"I'm sure." Owen all but sneered.

"Am I slightly glad that I get to go out on the Hunt's with you guys?" he asked rhetorically. "Yes. I am happy that I no longer have to stay here in the Hub just to get everyone coffee." he was getting worked up and in a burst of anger he wasn't able to hold his true feelings in anymore, "Glad that I finally get to put myself to some real use, glad that I get to spend more time with the man that I love—even though he's in love with the only person here who *isn't available to him!"

There was complete and utter silence in the Hub as Owen looked Ianto with wide, shocked eyes. Ianto's mouth lay agape as he realized what he had said—one of Jack's most precious secrets—he clapped his hand over his mouth as if to push the words back in, but it was too late, they were out and they had been heard, quite clearly in fact.

Ianto stood—if possible—stiller than any statue Owen had ever seen. His eyes were wide and his expression was frozen with pure fear, and Owen was sure his heart was literally stopped. Owen hadn't meant for anything like this to happen, Owen was just frustrated and angry at the fact that Jack had put him on probation until further notice, and Ianto was an easy target to take that frustration out on.

"*Ianto." it was low, and the most menacing sounding anyone in the entire Hub had ever heard. Jack was on the walkway above them, leaning against the rail outside of his office; his face alit with such fury that even the Devil would cower away. "IN MY OFFICE, NOW!" his voice reverberated painfully around the Hub, causing both to jump.

Owen was sure that Ianto just wet himself and had a mini heart attack.

For a second Ianto didn't move a muscle, all of the blood draining from his face and his body. Then his heart must have kicked back in and he took an involuntary step back. Owen watched as he let out a slow breath, straightened his tie, and tried to brush nonexistent wrinkle from his suit jacket before slowly and precisely taking the steps that would take him up the stairs and into Jack's office where the Captain awaited. It was like watching a man walking to his death.

Ianto knew that the instant he had let his feeling reign over his logic, that he deserved what was coming. What Owen didn't realize about his and Jack relationship was that it wasn't all about sex, at times—such as this—where Jack would loose control. But Ianto knew that he deserved it, knew that he deserved every bruise, cut and broken bone because he had said something that he shouldn't have and he was to blame for this. He took the fist to his face with no resistance whatsoever, the force behind it causing him to stumble back and spin slightly.

Jack didn't pause in his ministrations for half an hour more.

Owen couldn't believe that he had caused this, that every grunt, gasp and yell of pain he heard coming from that office was his doing. He flinched and cringed with every flesh on flesh impact he heard, his hands clenched at his side, his finger nails digging into the flesh of his palms. He despised the situation he was in, but that didn't mean he had any right to teach Ianto the way he had. Ianto was truthful when he had said that he was upset that this had happened to Owen, Owen could see it in his clear jade eyes. And Owen could not blame Ianto for being happy to go on the Hunts with Jack, when he himself had only been on probation for a week and look what had happened.

Finally, half an hour later, the grunts stopped and there was but silence. Owen looked at his reflection in the computer screen before watching Jack's office door from the corner of his eye. Moments later the door opened and sobbing drifted through the air and into hi ears, Jack walked out and gripped the railing as he leaned against it, looking down at him with his face drawn, his knuckle torn and bloody.

"Don't you have work to do?"

note: a sequel is coming . . . "Restoration".

September 8th:
I posted this yesterday and I am already getting reviews. I am glad for that, but there was somequestions being asked. Firstly I wasn't to clarify that this type of fic is not usually my kind of style. I know that it is shocking to think that Jack would do something like this to Ianto, when I don't really believe it myself. But I wrot it-it happened. Sometimes the idea just comes from nowhere and you just have to run with it, and in this case I did. The thing is, that in a episode from season three where Toshiko get that neckolace that when she wore it, she could hear the thoughts of the other team members. I sort of asosicated the part when a snippet of Ianto thoughts were revealed, when his said something along the lines of "it hurst so bad, this place . . .". So I tied that unintentionally into A Day In the Dead, and the fact that we learn that Jack has feeling for Gwen. Jack had told this secret in confindence with Ianto-with whom he shares all of his secrets. So I tied that in, and made it seem like Ianto couldn't be in the position he was in anymore. And because he is always so calm and collected, I just let the feelings that I think that he would be feeling bubble over. Jack on the other hand thought of this as a betrayl and let his feelings take control. It is clued in that Jack had done this a few times before, and again, it was when all of the frustration of the job and his unending life just overflowed. Ianto nbelieves that it id his fault because he blurted out one of Jack's secrets in his own burst of frustration. And I know Owen probably would have ran up to Jack's office immediatly, but in this fic, he was in total shock-frozen inplace by the sheer magnatude of what was happening.

note: Please don't hate me for this fic and the sequel that I'm going to post-it has only been a day and already feel as if I'm being hit on by a mob. Don't get me wrong, I love that I'm getting review, and I'm glad that they are truthful. I just don't want to be despiesed fot his fic, and have just because you read this one and didn't like it, that you won't read any of my others. I would just hate for this fic to get in the way of you reading and review my others. So please-I beg-don't hate me for it was unintentional for anyone to think of me, or my fics in that way.