Chapter Text
Out of the Black - Chapter 1
Ianto stared at the child in front of him, unsure of what to tell him. He wasn't very good with kids. He was alright with his niece and nephew, mostly because he didn't spend much time with them without his sister there as a buffer, but his normal response of stating things, in a manner that some might call sarcastic, was not the way to go with children. The point became moot as similarly to how Steven arrived earlier, Jack appeared next to them sleeping.
"Uncle Jack!" Steven cried out happily.
Jack sat up quickly, gasping for air. It reminded Ianto of how Jack reacted when he'd come back to life.
"Steven?" Jack shook his head in confusion. "No. You're dead, dead, my fault." Jack began to ramble, panicking.
"Jack!" Ianto cried out as Steven started backing away, scared of how his 'Uncle' was acting.
Ianto rushed over to Jack's side and reached over to pull Jack into his arms. Ianto recognized Jack's panic attack from similar ones from right after his brief disappearance and again after Gray had buried him. "It's alright Jack. I'm here, you're not alone. I'm here Jack. Calm down." Ianto started speaking softly in Welsh, knowing that his voice calmed Jack. Jack arms came up to clutch one of Ianto's, the one wrapped around his chest.
"My fault," Jack said confused. "It's all my fault, I should have gone alone. You're dead and it's my fault. You're both dead and it's all my fault."
"Uncle Jack?" Steven said cautiously, moving forward very slowly. He was so young, he just couldn't understand what was happening. Stopping as Jack faded away in a bright light that almost blinded them, Ianto's arms fell as he failed to hold onto anything.
"I bring life," a woman's voice echoed and then everything returned to nothingness.
"What's going on?" Steven asked moving slowly towards Ianto until he could sit down next to him as Ianto collapsed so he way just lying in the nothingness of the black again.
"Hel..." Ianto voice trailed off, second guessing his word choice, considering. He decided the answer to his dilemma of what to tell Steven was just to tell him the short version and hope he'll be able to tell him more if this continued on. Jack would apparently be visiting and had already stated enough in his panic. For now at least Ianto and Steven were safe, together, and he'd do what he could to keep Steven that way. "I think we both died and we're in Jack's afterlife instead of our own," he began simply.
Elsewhere Jack awakened with a gasp. He threw the gun to the side. Ianto would be upset with him for shooting himself, he always hated it when he died, hated it when he wasn't there to hold him when he came back. But Ianto didn't know that Jack had killed his own grandson. He didn't know, couldn't know, because he was gone. Jack sat up, his arms wrapped loosely around his legs. He ignored the blood stain forming on the wall behind him. Soon he would have to get up and return to Cardiff, maybe he could find a way to close the rift. Gwen would leave soon too, even if she could forgive him for what he did she'd still be having a baby before she knew it and he wasn't going to risk the baby not growing up with his or her mother. He'd be alone again.
End - Chapter 1