metztlimoon | Fic: This Other Darkness

Author: Metztlimoon
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, Ianto/OMC
Rating: NC17
Warnings: Blood, Vampirism, Mind control/iffy consent.
A/N: Written for

thestopwatch fic exchange
Betas: Jimmymick and

blaiyzed

Part ONE is HERE.
Part TWO is HERE
Part THREE is HERE
Part FOUR is HERE
Part FIVE is HERE

The fire-fight in the sewer is brief and messy. It ends as Jack expects it to, with seven of Thorne's 'family' cuffed in bloody piles, and Gwen out of ammo, a smear of her own blood dripping from a gash above her eye, leaning against the cellar wall. Jack rests his hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

She looks up and nods. “I'll be fine. I've had worse. Get Ianto.” She presses the knife into his hand, hilt first. He slides it into his pocket as she hugs him tightly. “You'd better come back. You'd both better come back.”

“Go back to the SUV,” he says.

“What about them?” She points at the bodies.

“I guess they stop moving when they run out of blood,” Jack says. “I'll deal with them.”

She stands up, pauses and looks back at him. “Good luck.”

He salutes, and grins. It's how I say goodbye.

Tosh is still tracking Ianto's signal to this location and tracing the energy itself. Jack knows they are still close. His only route now is into the basement of Thorne's building where his 'dungeon' is.

“I see you've come back,” Thorne says, sitting on the couch and looking across at him. Ianto is curled up on his lap, naked, shaking and bloodstained. Jack raises the shotgun, knows he should fire immediately but he's seen this before on the Valiant and it paralyses him for a moment too long. Shall I snap his neck? They're so fragile, these ordinary human bodies. Have you ever watched one of your friends die in front of your eyes? Oh yes, of course you have, I killed the pretty Japanese one last week.

Ianto moves, sits across Thorne's knees, and blocks any clear shot Jack had. Ianto turns his head, and his eyes meet Jack's. He's crying as he mouths 'Do it.'

“Ianto,” Jack says. “Move out of the way.” Don't make me do this. For the love of... just give me something.

“No,” Ianto says, and presses protectively against Thorne's chest. “You'll have to kill me too.”

Thorne smiles and runs his fingers down Ianto's back, and Ianto moves up to kiss his cheek. “You see,” Thorne says. “I always have the upper hand.”

“No,” says Jack. “You don't.” He pulls the trigger.

Thorne howls in rage as the shot mostly ploughs into the couch, but not enough to spare Ianto. Ianto cries out from the impact, recoiling and leaving Thorne exposed. Jack fires again, this time straight into Thorne, but someone jumps him from behind before he can get off another. Thorne's eighth family member, the pretty receptionist, wrestling with him for the shotgun.

Ianto whimpers, clutching his side and Jack catches sight of the mass of blood between his fingers. I have to move fast. Jack lets go of the shotgun and reaches into his pocket for the knife, driving it backwards into his assailant and then running forward, letting his momentum drag it free. Ianto lurches upright, trying to stop him, but Jack backhands him on his way past, and drives the knife straight into Thorne's chest.

For an agonisingly long moment nothing happens. It's so long a moment that Thorne actually begins to laugh, until he's cut short by the ripple of energy forming around the handle, circling in towards his body. When it contacts his skin, Thorne screams, and Jack throws himself clear, not knowing what to expect as the energy sparks its way through Thorne's twitching body.

The result is silence.

Jack pulls Ianto into his arms, holding his head against his chest as Thorne decays before his eyes, leaving only the dessicated corpse. The knife falls free, and clatters onto the floor.

“Jack?” Ianto whispers against his chest.

“Hey,” Jack says, changing his position so Ianto can look up at him. The pulse he is trying to casually feel for at the side of Ianto's neck is thready, and blood is till oozing out onto his other hand.

“You shot me.”

Jack lifts his hand from the side of his neck, and brushes his forehead. “Owen gave me the idea,” he says. “I figured you'd healed from his shot.”

Ianto smiles. “He's just trying... to get me back.”

Ianto closes his eyes, and Jack taps him on the cheek. “Ianto. Stay with me here.”

“Sorry to ruin your plan.” Ianto's spitting blood from the side of his mouth as he speaks. “I need blood... to create the energy.. to heal. I don't think I've got that much left.”

Jack presses his wrist against Ianto's lips. “I've plenty.”

“No.” Ianto looks up at him, then turns his head away. “Your blood isn't... contaminated. I'll become like them.”

“Damn it, Ianto. I don't care. We'll find a way to make it okay.” Jack turns Ianto back to face him. “I'm not watching you die again.”

Jack searches around him, finds a shard of something sharp and rakes it over his wrist, watching as the blood rises into the cut. Jack thinks in that moment that if Ianto refuses, he is going to walk away from Torchwood, walk away from everything and never come back.

Ianto latches on to his wrist and drinks.

-----------

Owen shakes his head. “I just don't know, Jack, I'm sorry.”

“There isn't anything you can do?”

“There's a lot of things I can do,” Owen says. “All or none of which might kill him. ”

Ianto swings his legs over the side of the medical table, and sits on the edge. He drops his voice into a melodramatic tone. “I'm destined to walk the Earth forever as a creature of the night.”

“It would seem so.” Owen looks at his readouts. “Regular transfusions of the fresh red stuff should keep you ticking over, and so long as you stay away from garlic and crucifixes, you'll be fine. Actually, you'll be fine even with with the garlic and crucifixes.”

“But you can still put me in storage, if you need to?”

“It won't come to that,” Jack says.

“If we have to yes,” Owen says. “Give us time to work something out. It might take a few days, it might take a few decades. Frankly I'd take the option that doesn't involve being unconscious in a drawer forever, but that's just me.”

“Right,” says Ianto, and stands up. “There's a few things I need to put in order.”

“Whoa,” says Jack, following up the steps. “You want us to freeze you?”

“Can we...”Ianto says, gesturing 'talk'.

“My office,” says Jack.

Through the doors, Jack sees Owen scoot Gwen and Tosh out of the Hub, looking back briefly over his shoulder. For the first time since they returned, he and Ianto are alone. Jack sits down. “So talk to me.”

“I don't think I can do this,” says Ianto, leaning against Jack's desk.

“Do what? You heard Owen.”

“It's not just the blood. It's what wanting it makes me feel. Vampires are predators, Jack. The spark isn't just energy... it's something old. Something alien.” Ianto picks up a pen from Jack's desk and plays with it idly. “And it's inside me.”

“You'll get through it, you're not a man who quits.”

“No.” Ianto pauses. “Not even when I'm hurting everyone else and I should really let go.”

“You do that again and I'll lock you up myself.”

“And then there's us.” The pen slips through Ianto's fingers, and onto the floor. He spends a long time picking it up. “Did you think, when you brought me back, that you were making me dependent? Trapping me alongside you forever?”

You think I would have done it if I had? “No. I just didn't want you to die.”

“If you hadn't thought I could heal, would you still have shot me, to get to Thorne?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yes. It matters. You're just protecting yourself by trying to protect everyone else.”

“Yes. I would have shot you.” This admission hurts less than it should but it still hurts. “This thing we do...” Jack gestures at the Hub. “It's worth fighting for. It's worth losing people you love for. And I'd have shot Gwen, or Tosh, or Owen if the situation had been different.”

Ianto chews his lip for a moment. “Do you love me?”

“I love all of you.” He points at the door to make it clear he means everybody. Ianto shakes his head at the answer, and Jack accuses himself. And you still can't say it. You're still keeping it back. Stand up and say it. Find a way to express that he is more than nothing- but less than everything even if it means he walks away.

Jack stands, and takes Ianto's hand, “I don't know if I love you, Ianto. Not in the way you mean, not in the way you want. I don't even know if I can. But if I'd lost you today, I don't know how I'd have been able to come back to this. I would have. I'd have to. I just don't know how. I guess, when it comes to you I don't know anything.”

Ianto looks at him, and Jack can't bear the sadness in his eyes. “Can't you just say yes or no?”

“There is no 'yes or no'.”I can't win this conversation. I can't win this. I'm losing you and that's probably the best thing for everyone concerned. “If you decide you want us to freeze you, I'll respect that. I've disregarded what you wanted in favour of myself already and I won't do it again. I'll fill out the paperwork; right now, if you want. We can have you tucked away by midnight.”

Jack lets go of Ianto's hand and opens the desk drawer, pulling out a stack of forms. Ianto catches his arm, presses his hand down on the papers and holds him still.

Jack has barely registered his own tears until Ianto's fingers catch the dampness. “You're crying? Over me?”

Just another weapon in the Harkness emotional blackmail arsenal? Maybe once, when tears and life were cheaper. Jack presses Ianto's hand against his face. “Please, Ianto. Stay.”

Ianto reaches down, pulls the papers from under Jack's hand and rips them in half, throwing them over his shoulder. “Damn.” Ianto says. “Looks like I'm staying.”

Jack drags Ianto against him and holds him, just remembering how he feels in his arms and how close he had come. Ianto responds to the embrace, his hands wrapping round Jack's waist, one hand trailing between his legs until Jack lifts it to his chest. “I need to hold you,” he says. “Just hold you for a minute.”

Ianto's other hand finds the back of his neck and gently strokes there. Then Jack tips Ianto's chin, and claims his mouth, kissing him slowly, thoroughly. It's been a long time since he's been thorough, a mistake he intends to rectify.

Jack unfastens one button of Ianto's shirt at a time, slowly revealing the skin. He pauses then to look, trailing his fingers over Ianto's ribs and down the fine line of hair at his navel, before sliding his hands up to slips the purple silk over his shoulders. Ianto is faster, pushing both hands under Jack's shirt and lifting both shirt and t-shirt over his head in one go. Then their lips are back together, and Ianto is holding him into the kiss, making a desperate noise in his throat as Jack strokes his back. The sound goes straight between Jack's thighs, followed by Ianto's hand, and Jack moans as he pulls away from the kiss to rest his cheek against Ianto's. For a moment he almost grazes his teeth along the collar bone, but he stops himself, instead making it a light kiss. Ianto does something with his fingers Jack can't remember him ever doing before, he presses into the touch, reaching down to undo his trousers and feel him against his skin.

“Bed,” Ianto says. “Bed. Please.”

They separate long enough – and the separation is almost painful-to find their way, and then Jack can't hold back any more, can't stop himself pulling at their remaining clothes, pulling Ianto naked onto the bed beside him so he can touch him everywhere, brushing his fingers over his cock, his balls, his back, his hips. Ianto moans into his mouth, whispers Jack's name, returns the touches.

Jack trails his tongue from Ianto's shoulder, down over his chest, over his stomach. When he takes Ianto's cock between his lips again, Ianto is trembling, sprawling his legs wide. Jack pulls up onto his knees – not close enough, not nearly close enough- and he realises he can't be with Ianto the way he wants, not from here. He flips them both, lying beneath Ianto and looking up, reaching up to caress his face.

“I want you,” Jack says, reaching out just long enough to find lube, pressing it into Ianto's trembling hand. “I want you inside me.”

As Ianto slides his fingers into him, Jack moans, clutching at his thighs. Ianto goes slow, preparing him until he begs - please Ianto, I need to feel you - twisting beneath Ianto's hand. With a wordless exchange, Ianto moves, pressing the tip of his cock into Jack's waiting body. Jack takes the discomfort, looks into Ianto's eyes and laces his fingers with his, tightening the grip as Ianto slowly moves inside him, filling him.

“You feel amazing,” Ianto breathes, his eyes closed. “Oh fuck, Jack.”

“Look at me.”

Ianto does, and Jack keeps looking there, looking as the pleasure builds, as Jack takes his cock in his hand and strokes in time with Ianto inside him. All there is between them now is heat, and sweat, and the constant pressure, and the brilliance of Ianto's eyes as he's panting, thrusting over and over -into me, God Ianto, don't stop- until Jack can't hold back and he comes with the words I think I love you escaping his lips. Ianto cries out, releases inside him, crying and shaking as he collapses onto Jack's chest and Jack holds him there until they both remember how to breathe.

For the first time ever, they sleep in each other's arms.

-------

Coda

Jack sits down, and for the first time in two days goes through his email. Three complaints from UNIT, four from the local constabulary (one suggesting he might know something about a massive gas explosion beneath an expensive apartment conversion), his Fortean Times subscription update, and three hundred and twenty four offers for bigger breasts, bigger penises, and discount Viagra. The research from Ianto, about the wrapping paper on the box, is also waiting unopened. Sighing, Jack opens the attachment, and sets the smart search to go through the names of the company's customers. It flags a name almost immediately, a name that unnerves him, even more than the accusation he might need a bigger penis.

Lucy Saxon

He leans back and looks at the fragment, now without it's handle and waiting to be archived.

This isn't over by a long stretch.

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Posted by

itoshii-chan.livejournal.com

This fic is just...

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DAMN! What a ride!

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Posted by

I am what I am

Fic: This Other Darkness - Jack/Ianto 6/6

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