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It’s late on Friday afternoon.
The Rift ticks over, seemingly twiddling its metaphorical thumbs; Ianto’s dropped off a fresh round of coffee for everyone. Owen prods a male corpse with a seemingly unknown cause of death. Tosh taps away at her computer, silently congratulating herself on another infiltration of UNIT’s servers (they never learn), Gwen’s sipping her coffee and reading through some old reports at her own desk.
The team had gathered in the conference room for lunch, Jack had been quiet as he’d picked at his sandwich. Almost as soon as he’d finished eating he’d excused himself to his office and no one had seen a peep of him since - he briefly muttered something about ‘important phone calls’ as he had stood up from the table. Ianto knew better than to intrude.
The team diligently work, Ianto rattles some mugs in the sink, Owen tuts over the unknown corpse, Tosh taps on her keyboard and Gwen sifts through papers.
Then, out of the quiet, the Rift Activity Locator sounds. Tosh pivots to face another screen and her fingers fly furiously across her keyboard, Gwen’s on her feet instantly, Owen looks up from the autopsy, and Ianto sighs.
“Looks like low level Rift Activity,” Tosh says, watching as the map on the screen begins to triangulate a point of origin. Lines cross over the screen, and then zoom in.
“It’s in the city,” she says, watching as rooftops and parks come into focus.
“Nearby,” the lines cross and expand again, Gwen narrows her eyes and leans in.
“Wait, is that…?”
Before she can finish, a burst of orange tears open like a wound in the centre of the Hub, it sounds like wood splintering and sending the room into a frenzy of motion. Gwen grabs Tosh around the middle and pulls her to the floor - immediately latching onto the base of the computer bank tightly with one hand. Owen ducks behind the gantry in the autopsy room, Ianto dives into the weapons room and grabs the first thing he can get his hands on before dropping down and pressing himself into the corner - gun drawn.
Gwen looks towards Jack’s office from her position on the floor and sees that Jack’s office door is minutely open, Jack stands - gun at the ready, pointing towards the Rift flare.
The wind dies down and the tear seals itself back up the same way it had opened - the last few disrupted papers settle on the ground as Jack steps through his office door, gun trained on the spot where the energy had appeared. He quickly catches Gwen’s eye and shakes his head.
Stay down .
She nods sharply and turns her head to face Tosh, Gwen holds her hand out, fingers spread, close to the ground.
Wait.
Tosh points to the autopsy room and they spot Owen looking directly at them.
‘You okay?’ he mouths, the two women nod.
Jack continues his advance, there appears to be...nothing. He catches Ianto in his peripheral, pointing his own gun in the same area, he throws him a confused look. Ianto half shrugs but quickly averts his gaze back.
“Looks like nothing came through,” Jack says cautiously, the sound of his boots echoing around the room.
Owen rushes up the steps and towards Tosh and Gwen, he grabs his own gun from the emergency holster under his desk and Gwen follows suit with her own. Tosh reaches for her own (she likes to keep one in her waste paper bin for emergencies) and they all train their aim on the empty space in the centre of the room.
“I’ll be honest - when nothing comes through, that makes me more suspicious,” Owen says, darting to the set of stairs near the entrance and climbing the first three to get a good vantage over the room. Tosh moves to the right of her desk and she scouts the area, Gwen follows Jack.
“Maybe it was just a blip?” Ianto says, looking towards the others.
“Tosh, can you check if there’s any unknown energy being produced? Any signs of life?” Gwen asks.
Tosh is still for a second and then steps back behind her computer. The room is still thick with tension, Jack refuses to let his guard drop, Gwen’s close behind him and Owen’s holding his position on the stairs. Ianto stands, looking suspiciously at the empty air.
After a few seconds, Tosh hums, confused “I’m picking up a trace of something,”
She looks at the empty space, and then back at her computer, and then back at the empty floor.
“It’s almost negligible,” she adds “I’m going to use the PDA to trace the energy,”
Tosh picks up her PDA and flawlessly taps the screen with the stylus, the tech lets out a trill and then she makes her way towards where the energy is being picked up.
“I can’t quite get a reading on this thing, so I’m not sure whether it’s alive,” Tosh explains, descending to the metal grates over the water pool.
The rest of the team keep their weapons drawn, watching intently as Tosh gets down onto her knees and looks into the shallow pool.
“It’s coming from the water,”
“This seems like a really bad idea,” Owen says, looking at Jack.
Jack sets his jaw but Gwen speaks up.
“He’s right, this could be anything, Jack,” she says.
Tosh shakes her head “It’s coming from a stone, at the bottom,”
“Maybe I should go and get the radiation gloves?” Ianto adds, looking concerned.
Tosh shakes her head “We deal with space junk all the time, I think it’s just debris,” she reaches into the water.
Immediately, the whole room explodes into life.
Tosh recoils, the rock in her palm and it’s suddenly glowing , she yelps in pain as the water evaporates with the intensity of heat. Everyone starts shouting, guns are pointed but not one of them releases the safety.
“Drop it, Tosh!”
“Toshiko, let it go!”
“Throw it back in the water!”
Tosh cries out in pain “I...I can’t! I’m...I’m…,” she grits her teeth and then suddenly all the pain is gone, she cradles the rock and looks up at her team.
“I’m back in the UNIT facility,”
Jack’s eyes widen as he looks around “No. Tosh, you’re with us in Cardiff. Now drop the rock,”
She shakes her head “I’m sitting across from one of the officers, I don’t know his name. I’ve been awake for hours , I can barely keep my eyes open. He keeps saying ‘Who made the device? Tell me the truth,’. I tell him that I made it, but he won’t listen.”
“It’s not real, T-Tosh,” Owen says, his gun raised but he knows deep down he couldn’t pull the trigger, he crouches so they’re eye level “let go of it,” he says quietly.
Tosh turns to face him, there’s tears in her eyes “I wish I could tell you the truth, Owen. I spend my life hiding how I feel.” a few tears spill and fall down her cheeks “I’ve never felt like this towards anyone before - and it eats away at me every day because I don’t know how I’d live if we lost you,”
Owen’s breath catches in his throat and then there’s a flurry of movement. Tosh shouts as Ianto appears out of nowhere clutching a tray, smacking the rock from her grasp.
It flies into the air and Owen pulls Tosh into his arms and holds her tight as they all watch it land, seemingly innocuous, on the floor next to Ianto’s coffee machine.
Gwen, Jack and Ianto all point their guns at the rock - it spits and fizzles and the three exchange looks of suspicion.
“Tosh, you okay?” Jack calls, looking over his shoulder.
She sniffs and wipes her face with the sleeve of her cardigan “I’m fine,”
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Owen says, releasing her from his grasp and checking her hands “it doesn’t seem to have left any visible injuries,”
Gwen takes a step closer to the rock.
“Gwen,” Jack hisses, but Gwen ignores him and pokes the rock with the toe of her boot.
Nothing happens.
“You said you were back in the UNIT facility, Tosh,” Gwen says, not taking her eyes off the rock “what did you mean?”
Tosh sniffs again and gets to her feet “Owen, I’m fine.” she says “it felt like I was back there, like the rock was compelling me to tell the truth, to confess to what I’d done. But no matter how many times I told the truth, no one believed me,”
“So...it’s a truth rock?” Ianto surmises, arching an eyebrow “handy,”
Jack doesn’t look convinced “Owen, make sure Tosh hasn’t been infected with anything. We need to figure out how to deal with this thing. Tosh, you said that the PDA detected a form of life within the rock?”
Owen picks up the discarded PDA and runs it over Tosh’s hands.
“Sort of, more like something dormant, half-alive - it’s trying to get out,” Tosh says as Owen quickly taps on the screen.
“No energy transference, if Tosh was channelling something - it’s gone from her system,” Owen says.
“Something trying to get out?” Jack repeats, he lowers his gun a little, Ianto and Gwen do the same.
Ianto looks at him “Jack, what if something’s trapped in this rock? Something sentient?”
Gwen looks worried “You think that’s possible?”
Jack shrugs “It could be anything . Tosh, did you notice anything else?”
Tosh shakes her head “Just an urge to tell the truth and that I wasn’t alone, whatever’s in there, it’s hurting - constantly,”
Gwen shakes her head “We need to help,” she crouches down to inspect the rock in more detail, but Jack grabs her hand.
“You’ve just seen what it’s done to Toshiko, you really want to go touching something that could be dangerous?” he says.
There’s a beat and Gwen pulls her hand from his grip “There is something or someone trapped in this rock, this thing , which is hurting and possibly dying. It’s our job to help.”
And without another word, she leans forward and grabs the rock.
Gwen falls to her knees instantly, her eyes wide - seeing something that the others can’t.
“It’s my flat...I’m inside my flat,” she says, wincing as the rock hisses against her skin, nausea churning from her stomach at the memory “Rhys is sitting opposite me, I...I’ve just put retcon in his whisky,”
Jack kneels in front of her and grabs her shoulders “You did what ?”
“I had...I had to tell him the truth. That I...that I...with Owen. All those excuses of late running meetings, cancelled trains and early starts. I...couldn’t lie to him anymore. I had to tell him the truth.” Gwen breath catches in her throat and she squeezes her eyes shut “I wanted to tell him about everything . Torchwood. The Rift. About it all.”
She opens her eyes and looks at Jack, the rock urges her to speak “I wanted to tell him about you ,”
Jack looks back and says nothing, nearby Ianto’s hands twitch with discomfort.
“I’ve never met anyone like you, Jack. I didn’t think someone like you could possibly exist. And now I know you do, I’m not sure whether it’s fair to put Rhys through being… being my first choice, but always second best,” she groans and the rock sparks angrily, sending embers flying between them.
Gwen digs deep and feels the urge lessen.
“Quickly, quickly! Ask me something!” she shouts “I’ve confessed! Now ask me something!”
Jack looks at Ianto, who looks stressed and shrugs “What do I ask?”
“Jesus, Jack! Anything! I can’t lie while I’m holding this, I have to tell the truth!” Gwen grits out, Jack holds her upright as the rock spits and crackles.
Owen lets out a sigh in frustration “Is the rock dangerous?” he shouts.
Gwen searches for a moment, her eyes look like they’re seeing something and then she nods “Uh-yeah, yeah. Human bodies can’t withstand the energy for long periods of time,”
“Then drop it!” Jack says firmly.
“No! Just ask me something else!” Gwen protests, gripping the rock tighter.
“Is there something inside it?” Ianto says, his gun shaking in his hand.
Squinting, Gwen tries to navigate the energy inside her “Yes, it’s hiding for some reason. It’s in pain. Desperate for the truth,”
She gasps and her eyes light up orange. Jack lets go of one of her shoulders, picks up his Webley and uses the butt of his gun to whack the rock from her hands. Gwen lands on her hands, the rock skitters to the edge of the water, once again crackling with anger.
The room goes dead silent, Gwen catches her breath. She inspects her hands and finds them devoid of any cuts or bruises, she casts a weary eye to the rock.
“There’s something inside that thing,” she says darkly “I don’t know what, but it’s trapped,”
Jack looks at her with a steely gaze “And just like that, we believe it?”
“What choice do we have?” Gwen replies immediately “we can’t let this thing suffer ,”
“We still need more information,” Tosh says, moving towards the trio, Owen follows her.
“Tosh is right, we have no idea where this thing comes from, what it wants...we don’t even know what species it is!” he says “before we lock it up in the archives for God knows how long, we need to figure out whether this thing is hostile,”
Jack throws him an incredulous look “You did just see what it did to Tosh and Gwen?”
Owen bristles, holstering his gun in the back of his jeans “Gwen just said whatever it is, is in pain and trapped . We owe it the benefit of the doubt to at least try.”
“You literally just asked if it was dangerous, and it said yes ,” Ianto says flatly.
“When I want your opinion, Ianto, I’ll ask you for it. Now, both Tosh and Gwen are fine, right? Looks like there’s no lasting damage according to the PDA. Both times we’ve got more information from this thing, so if I can reverse it - maybe I can get it to tell the truth about what it really wants; why it came here,” Owen demands, striding over to the rock.
Ianto cuts in front of him, his eyes hard “Owen, stop! You have no idea what it could do to you. It could be messing with the PDA readings, for all we know Gwen and Tosh could be in serious danger! You really want to risk it?”
Owen snarls a laugh and stands toe to toe with Ianto, threateningly “Danger?! Ianto, it’s our job to deal with danger! Now get out of my way!”
He shoves Ianto aside in one clean push and scoops up the rock, the embers fire the second flesh touches stone.
Owen throws his head back and shouts in pain “This is so bloody weird,” he says, blinking hard.
Ianto’s closest to him and watches intently, Tosh cautiously edges closer.
“I’m twenty, Mum sits opposite me in a cafe. We spend most of the time in silence, I want to tell her how much of a disappointment she is. I want her to feel bad, to hurt, because she’s the one woman who’s supposed to love me, really love me, - - and she can’t bring herself to do it. Wait. It’s changed. I’m twenty-two and kicking women out of my bed every weekend - too scared to let them stay,” Owen’s eyes are wide, self-conscious “and then I met Katie. And - and I couldn’t - I couldn’t save her. I spent years training to be a doctor and I couldn’t save the one person in the world who really, truly, loved me,”
Owen’s eyes refocus and he becomes more aware of where he is.
“Okay, I’ve done it, it’s done! Ask me a question!” he barks, short nails biting into molten rock.
“Who are you?” Tosh says, taking a step so she’s next to Ianto, she looks stricken with worry.
Owen twitches like he’s trying to dispel a fly, he grits his teeth.
“Come on, you fucker !” he shouts and the rock lets out a ricochet of sparks, he yells as hands glow, sending trails of lava, winding like vines, across his skin.
“Owen!” Tosh shrieks, Ianto reluctantly wraps an arm around her and holds her back “Stop him! Someone! Jack !”
Ianto looks back at Jack, who looks at Gwen. Neither of them say anything and Ianto lets go of Tosh who runs to Owen. She claws at the rock, desperately trying to take it from him but it holds fast.
Owen looks straight at her and the physical pain momentarily stops when their hands touch “It’s not your fault.” he whispers, his heart thumping in his chest “it’s mine. It’s always mine. I see you, Tosh, I know . I just… I’m not good enough. I’ll never be good enough,”
He suddenly intakes a sharp, audibly painful breath, as if punched in the chest and falls backwards towards the water, the rock slipping free from his grasp.
Tosh grabs at his t-shirt to try to keep him upright, and Ianto is there, too, within seconds, but Owen’s body succumbs to gravity and he falls backwards into the water. The cold seeping mercilessly into the fabric of his clothes immediately. Jack and Gwen crowd around and they pull Owen onto cold concrete, Tosh hurries to the sofa and pulls the ratty blanket (that has some questionable stains) into her arms and then rushes back. Jack and Gwen pull Owen up and Tosh drapes the blanket around his shoulders and pulls it tight, Ianto presses his fingers to Owen’s neck.
“His pulse is strong,” he comments, and then puts the back of his hand under Owen’s nose “and his breathing’s fine,”
“Owen?” Tosh says, watching for any movement on his face “Owen - can you hear me?”
An eyelid twitches and a deep frown slowly appears on Owen’s face, he opens his eyes and rubs a palm down the side of his face.
“I heard it,” he mutters, his eyes shifting out of focus.
“What?” Jack says, looking at Tosh.
“I heard it,” Owen says, clearer “it’s a creature, inside the rock, it fell through a crack and ended up here.”
Owen looks at Jack, his eyes hollow “The things it saw. It’s been driven half-mad from pain. The things it showed me - an eternity of suffering. I’ve never seen anything like it.” he lets out a shaky breath and Tosh pulls the blanket around him tighter.
“Keep warm,” she says, rubbing his arms.
Owen’s body gives a near violent shiver.
Tosh looks up at Jack “What do we do?”
Jack’s at a loss for words, he turns his gaze to Gwen, and then Ianto.
“We have to find it some peace,” Ianto says in the quiet, scanning around to look for the rock.
He spots it a few seconds later, sitting on the steel bridge, feet from where it had first come through.
Ianto approaches it with a mixture of trepidation and stubbornness.
“Imagine being stuck like that - for eternity. Endless suffering, endless madness.” Ianto looks at Jack “no-one deserves to live like that,”
“What do you suggest?” Jack says, crossing his arms.
“I’ll pick it up,” Ianto says bluntly.
Jack shakes his head “ No way. After what just happened to be Owen, it could be suicide,”
“What do you suggest, Jack?” Ianto demands, as the others watch on “do you want me to go and fetch the radiation gloves? Lock it in a box? Catalogue it? Store it away in the dark? There is something alive inside that rock and it’s going to be in pain indefinitely unless we do something, and I don’t see you offering to pick it up!”
Jack’s features draw into a furious expression “You know why that is?”
Ianto matches his anger “Go on, we’re all desperate to hear more excuses,”
“Because I wouldn’t even know where to start ,” Jack bellows.
The room goes still, Jack stares at Ianto and uncrosses his arms.
“I wouldn’t know where to begin,” he says, his eyes growing red around the edges “the things I’ve done: here, my home world, my whole life . How can any of it boil down to one confession? There isn’t one truth that’s going to redeem me from spending my life conning and lying to people who I love . If I touch that rock, I have to face all of it . Do you have any idea how terrifying that is?”
By the time he finishes talking, Jack looks drained. He shakes his head.
“I’m not as brave as you.”
Ianto gives him a searching look and then reaches down and picks up the rock.
Jack lunges forward immediately and Ianto holds out his free hand in warning.
“Stay back!” he shouts, groaning as the rock lights up brighter, brighter than any of them have seen it.
‘Confess’ a voice urges, ghost-like inside the vast room, a draft picks up and the loose paperwork from their earlier disruption swirls and flutters.
Ianto yells in agony “Looking Lisa in the eye and promising her that she was going to be okay,”
‘Confess’ the voice repeats, stronger.
“Looking my friends in the eye and lying to their faces, knowing that I was putting them in danger,” he can’t believe how much pain every single nerve is in, each one, ablaze and firing wildly.
‘CONFESS,’
“Knowing that I’ll never be trusted by them; not properly,” Ianto shouts, he can feel the energy, the raw power spreading around his body.
Jack takes a tentative step closer and Ianto looks at him, terrified, his entire body taught - muscles tensed and cramping.
“Not even by you.” Ianto continues, his eyes well up “I’m so scared by how I feel about you.”
Jack holds out his hand “Give me the rock, Ianto,” he says softly.
“I feel things I’ve never felt before,” Ianto continues, tears leaving fresh tracks down his face “I told myself I wouldn’t get close, but you’re magnetic, Jack. I couldn’t stay away even if I wanted to. It’s terrifying, the way you have such a control over me. I wish I knew how to stop myself, because I know one of us going to end up getting hurt,”
Ianto’s face twists and anguish replaces his vulnerability, he looks at the rock held out in front of him “I’ve confessed, now it’s your turn,”
Ianto squeezes his eyes shut and focuses all of his mind on looking into the rock.
“CONFESS,” Ianto shouts, slamming his free hand on the rock and pushing hard, Jack watches on - stunned.
The floor of the Hub shudders, Ianto feels his throat constrict, the lights start to flicker.
‘SO MUCH GUILT,’ the voice hisses.
“I’m guilty, yes. Guilty of hurting my friends, my family, the people I love,” Ianto says, choking his words “ tell me how to end your suffering. I know what it’s like, I never want anyone to suffer like I have,”
Jack watches, powerless, as Ianto fights the torture of an unknown creatures pain.
The air in the Hub is electric, Tosh cradles Owen as Gwen stands protectively over them, Ianto’s eyes flicker around the room - as if looking at invisible occupants.
‘HELP ME,’ the voice wails.
“I’m trying!” Ianto says desperately, screwing his eyes shut “I - - I can’t give you what you need, I - I can’t do it - it’s too strong,”
Jack sees the same molten veins that had been winding up Owen’s arms begin to inch around the edge of Ianto’s face, his neck and temples.
It’s in that moment that he knows he needs to act.
Stepping forwards quickly, he clasps his own hands around the rock held tightly in Ianto’s fingers. Jack immediately feels the suffering, the pain and the loneliness emanating from the mystery being, but he also feels something familiar - and it takes him a second to realise that it’s coming from Ianto.
“Ianto, I need you to let go,” Jack says urgently, trying to pry his hands loose.
Ianto shakes his head “I have to try ,”
Jack puts on a small smile and speaks gently “You have, and you’ve done really well. But if you don’t let go - that energy’s going to kill you ,”
Wet lines stream down Ianto’s face “I don’t want someone else to hurt because of me. Because I couldn’t stop it,”
Jack takes one of his own hands and presses it to Ianto’s cheek “I’ll make sure that never happens again. I promise,”
Looking so child-like, so lost, Ianto stares at Jack and then presses their lips together. It’s like a wave of subconscious, Jack notes, as their lips meet. All the anguish and fear, misery and pain, comes streaming into his mind and he desperately tries to remember that he needs to get the rock before it kills Ianto. Jack takes on all the mental strain that Ianto channels into him and his hands pull at the stone, and Ianto’s grip relinquishes as if distracted by the kiss.
Jack pulls back as the rock comes solely into his possession and all the previous emotion churns and twists. Ianto stumbles back, heaving for breath and folds over, his hands on his knees - drained.
The first emotion that ravages Jack is heart-break, completely and utterly devastating heart-break. Being left by the Doctor, watching everyone around him grow old and die, the weight of carrying them around with him in his memories - it magnifies, intensifies and burns .
‘CONFESS,’ the voice says.
Jack twists his head to one side as his muscles protest, Ianto recovers a little and moves closer to him, wide-eyed and afraid.
“I can’t,” Jack says desperately “not here, it’s too much,”
The rock lets out a long blast of sparks and Jack howls, his skin visibly blackening with burns. The team watches, unable to help, Gwen looks at Ianto, panic stricken.
“Jack, this thing might actually kill you,” Ianto implores.
Jack shakes his head “NO. You’re right, we’ve got to help,” he bares his teeth and his body shakes with the effort.
‘NOW,’
The floor rumbles even more in anger, the computer banks blink on and off, the lights trip and the room is plunged into half-lit darkness. Red submarine lights throw the room into an eerie glow, the rock looks even more foreboding in Jack’s hands, like tangible fire encased in strong fingers. Wind swirling around them all, water from the sculpture catches in it and rains down on them all.
“Jack, you have to do something otherwise this place is going to collapse. I’m not sure how much the roof can take,” Gwen shouts, against the strong wind and the carnage swirling around them.
Jack lets out a gut-wrenching shout and Ianto closes the gap between them and grabs his shoulders.
“You can do this, Jack, I know you can.” he says, desperately “you feel it, don’t you? The suffering. You can end that thing’s suffering. If anyone can do it, I know it’s you,”
“I can’t, I can’t confess to the things I’ve done,” Jack sobs, the room shakes harder.
Ianto nods “ Yes , you can. We know that you’ve done terrible things, we all have. We all live with it. Confess, Jack.”
Jack looks at him through the dim of red lighting and he looks broken “I’m scared about the day I lose you,” he says.
“Me too. Come on, Jack, you’ve got to keep going. What else?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do after. I care about you so much, more than you know and more than I admit to myself. I should tell you to leave, but I’m too selfish because I don’t want to imagine you with anyone else,” Jack continues and the rock lets out a triumphant hiss “you only know the things that I tell you, and there’s things that I should tell you but I choose not to. Because I don’t want you to see me any different than how you see me now. I don’t want any of you to see me like that,”
The wind in the room dies a little and the rumbles under their feet simmer to a steady shaking.
“I’m jealous of you all.” Jack says, the truth spilling against his will from his lips “it’s so hard living day after day knowing that there’s no end for me, no full stop, no rest. You all go and fight, and you know you might not come back. One day you’ll all leave, and I’ll have to start again.”
Gwen shakes her head “But that day isn’t any time soon, Jack.”
Jack lets out a bitter laugh “You can’t know that for certain,”
“No, but none of us can entertain the alternative,” Ianto adds, seriously “so we treat each day like we’re on borrowed time - because none of us know what tomorrow might bring,”
“That still doesn’t change the fact that I’ve spent my life hurting people, lying to people, leaving them and never looking back,” Jack says brokenly, he looks around the ground “none of you can ever understand the kind of person I used to be,”
“But you’re the one who’s always telling me to focus on the present, Jack,” Gwen says.
Tosh gets to her feet “Jack, we don’t care about the person you were.”
“I’ve killed people,” Jack says “so many people,”
“We’ve all dealt with people dying because of us,” Ianto says, quietly.
“The lying eats away at me, like rot,”
Gwen approaches him “Lying is just part of what we do in order to help people,”
“I wish I could be the man that you think I am,”
Tosh moves next to Gwen “You are, Jack,”
“I always let you down,”
Owen gets up off the floor and shrugs the blanket from his shoulders, he joins the group and the four of them stand in front of their leader.
“Nobody’s perfect, Jack,” he says.
The four of them look at Jack, whose face is contorted with strain and upset, then share a look between themselves.
They all simultaneously cover Jack’s hand with their own.
The whole room bursts into movement, the earthquake intensifies, the Rift lights up and the alarms in the room blare louder than any of them have ever heard before.The main lights blink like strobes and the water bubbles in the pool next to them.
The sheer amount of emotion running through the stone is unlike anything any of them have felt before. None of them can open their eyes, the sheer weight of it all is nigh-on unbearable but they all feel something click at the same time. Family, love - both unrequited and full blown adoration, the warmth of happiness, the deep, cold sorrow of loss, it pushes through all of them and for less than a second, they all share the same feeling.
The rock concedes and lets out a powerful wave of energy which knocks them all backwards, off their feet, in different directions. Four of them land on hard concrete, Ianto ends up in the pool - on his back.
The second their skin disconnects with the stone, the rock falls to the ground. Burnt out. Dead.
Immediately, the room stops shaking, the lights audibly pop back on as if nothing had ever happened. The computers reset and load back up, the room is just filled with the sound of the team's heavy breathing - their energy wiped and their bodies weak.
Ianto is the first to move, hauling himself out of the shallow water and flopping like a drowned man onto the concrete. He rolls onto his back with a sigh and focuses on breathing.
“Everyone okay?” Gwen calls from her prone position on the floor.
There’s a murmur of variations on ‘yes, but not really’ and they all begin to shift. Tosh props herself up with her hands, Owen casts a worried look at her but she smiles sadly and shakes her head knowing his unspoken question. Gwen lets out a groan and holds the side of her head as she brings herself up to sitting, Jack continues to remain motionless as Ianto shifts his head to the side to look at the others.
Like a punch in the chest, Jack inhales loudly and is immediately sitting upright. Gwen’s first to unsteadily get to her feet and shuffle over to him, helping him up. Tosh gets onto all fours and then pushes herself up, Owen balances himself and gets up - still rather damp. He casts a half-sympathetic look at Ianto and then stalks over and offers a hand.
“No need to catch hypothermia,” he says hoarsely as Ianto takes his hand and allows himself to be pulled upright, letting go as soon as possible.
In the disorientation of the team gathering themselves, Tosh has ambled over to the rock new location. It sits, looking a shadow of its former self, looking completely unassuming at the bottom of the steps that lead to the gangway above. Gwen sees her bend down to look at it.
“Tosh, don’t,” she says, warningly.
Tosh shakes her head “I don’t think it’s alive,” she stands up and grabs a pen from her desk and then returns to the stone and pokes it “I think it’s dead, it doesn’t look the same,”
Jack wanders over to her and inspects it alongside her. He reaches out.
Everyone shouts “Jack!” but when Jack’s fingertips make contact, nothing happens.
He shakes his head “Looks like it’s gone.”
“We killed it?” Tosh asks.
“I think it wanted to die,” Owen says, looking between the others.
Gwen nods “Yeah, I felt that.”
“Me too,” Ianto adds.
Jack looks up from the stone and looks pensive “Driven mad by truth and falling through the Rift, desperate to die from the pain,”
“Cheery,” Owen says dryly.
Jack snorts out a small laugh, he gives Owen a half amused look and then turns to Ianto.
“Can you find something to put it in?” Jack asks, Ianto nods and then disappears in a trail of wet footsteps.
“When we were all...holding it. Do you - do you think it could feel that? The feeling of us all working together?” Gwen asks, looking sadly at the rock on the floor.
“I think so,” Tosh says reassuringly “even if it was half as powerful as what I felt, it must have felt some of it,”
Gwen seems satisfied with the answer and the four of them lull into silence, after a few beats Owen coughs.
“Well, it goes without saying that none of you are leaving until I’ve checked you’re clear of anything,” he says, clapping his hands together “we still don’t know where that bloody thing came from, or whether it transferred anything to us during our exposure to it.” he holds out a hand and gestures to the autopsy room “ladies and gentlemen please form an orderly queue,”
Gwen smiles but it doesn’t reach her eyes and then does as she’s told, Jack casts one more look at the stone and then follows her. Tosh lingers back.
“Owen, about what we said. What we both said,” she begins and Owen makes a non-committal gesture.
“Tosh - we’re both adults. Working close to people always ends up with complicated feelings. The stone forced out things we would never admit to, let’s just move on,” he says, he gives her a hopeful smile “it doesn’t have to mean anything if it’s just going to ruin our friendship,”
Tosh goes to say something and then stops herself, her confidence escaping her in the same second that she’d found it.
“Okay,” she says quietly “if that’s what you want,”
“Yeah.” he points again to the autopsy room “now get your arse in there, I’ll move out the John Doe and maybe we’ll get home in time to watch Emmerdale,”
Smiling, Tosh does as she’s told, Owen close behind.
Ianto reappears a few minutes later, just as Owen is finishing putting the body into cold storage and closing the mortuary drawer.
He’s changed into a pair of old, battered jeans and a band t-shirt, Gwen notices that Jack’s eyes nearly fall out of his head when he sees him.
“You’ll catch flies,” she mutters to him as he watches Ianto bend down with a gloved hand to deposit the rock into a containment box.
Jack looks at Gwen and smirks, Tosh sits down on the chair in front of Owen and he begins his tests.
Ianto walks by, barefoot, to Jack’s office to access the secure archives. Jack dips around Gwen and follows him.
“Ianto!”
Freezing, Ianto pauses halfway through opening the office door and turns his head.
“Yes?”
“Can we...can we talk in private for a moment?” Jack asks, Ianto looks like he absolutely doesn’t want that right now, but nods and pushes the door open properly, holding it open for Jack. Jack smiles gratefully and ducks into the office.
Ianto walks over and reaches up to the control pad for the secure archives and types in his authorisation code, the lift door opens and he slides the box inside, his back turned.
Jack sighs “What I said, Ianto - -,”
“You were under the influence of something incredibly powerful. It made us all say things that were deeply invasive. I - I understand if you want me to forget what I heard,” Ianto replies, refusing to turn around.
Jack perches on the edge of his desk “You really think I care that little about your feelings that I want you to forget the things I said?”
He waits for a reply as Ianto brings down the hatch and seals the archive back up, once it's sealed he keeps his back to Jack and looks down at the ground and his shoulders slump.
“Jack, we’ve never put a label on what we are, but if I’ve learned anything in the last hour it’s that we’re practically on the same page.” the cold against his feet is almost unbearable and he feels a shiver race up his spine.
“Ianto, come here,” Jack says softly, the younger man wordlessly moves to him.
“I want whatever you want,” he continues, slipping his fingers through the loopholes of Ianto’s jeans and pulling him closer until Ianto’s standing between his legs “I know you’re scared, and after what you’ve been through I’m not surprised. We’ve both got a lot of baggage - -,”
“ - - most people’s baggage is a cheating ex, or an overprotective parent. Ours is...a little different ,” Ianto says sarcastically and a wide smile grows on Jack’s face.
“Ianto, I wouldn’t change a thing,” he says sincerely.
“Really?”
“Not one thing,”
Ianto smiles a little and then leans down and presses a kiss to Jack’s lips, it’s short and sweet.
“I...I really do care about you,” Ianto mumbles, the words forming with a little difficulty.
“I care about you, too. I never want you to question that,” Jack looks at him in the eye and checks to make sure he understands “you know that I care, right?”
Ianto nods.
“Good,” Jack draws him into a hug and rests his head on Ianto’s chest and is rewarded with the sound of his strong heartbeat.
They stay like that for a few seconds and then Ianto leans down and presses a kiss to Jack’s hair.
When they pull apart, Jack looks at him sideways “You’ve never done that before,”
Ianto shrugs “Because I didn’t think I could,”
There’s a rude and loud rapping on the door and they spring apart “Are you two decent? Tosh and Gwen are clear. Do your flies up and get out here,” Owen shouts shamelessly.
Ianto smiles shyly at Jack and then slips back into his professional facade, Jack presses a final kiss to his cheek and then they exit the office. Owen looks less than happy about their secret meeting and points to the chair in the autopsy room.
“I don’t care who goes first,” he says bluntly.
Without any dispute, Ianto walks down the steps and hops up onto the chair. Owen checks his reflexes, takes some bloods, checks his blood pressure, gets him to put his hand on the full body scanner. When nothing untoward comes to the surface, he repeats the same with Jack, who gets the same clean bill of health (a surprise to no one).
“Right, well it looks like we’ve all been bloody lucky. Let’s hope that the last that we’ve seen of sentient rocks,” Owen says with a sense of finality.
Gwen nods, Tosh looks relieved, and Ianto visibly relaxes. Jack heads up the stairs towards the hot house.
“Jack!” Ianto calls, jogging to catch up with him.
“What’s up?”
“I was wondering, do you want to come over tonight? I was going to make curry,” he braces himself for a no.
“Sounds good.” Jack says “I’ve just got to grab something,”
Ianto looks happy “Yeah, of course. I’ll, uh, wait down here.”
Jack winks and relishes in the blush that blooms on the younger man’s cheeks before turning and heading up the stairs. He pushes open the door to the hot house and starts looking for a small pot with some flora he’d left to grow the week before. He crouches down and finds the small plant amongst a herd of others, the door opens to the hot house.
Jack chuckles, still looking at the plant “Come up for a bit of post-work fun?”
“I’m not sure how Ianto would feel about that,”
Jack looks up sharply and nearly whacks his head on the table in the middle of the room. Briefly flustered, he regains his composure.
“I’m sure he’d have a few words to say,” Jack says with a grin.
Gwen rolls her eyes “I just wanted to say...the things I said - back there. I - I don’t want things between us to be awkward. You know how important you are, to all of us. I can’t take back what I said, and I meant it. There’s just some things people should never know.”
She offers him a wry smile which he returns.
“I know. We’ve all been through worse than this, a little truth is good for the soul sometimes,” Jack says “now go home to your fiance and try not to hold so much guilt - feelings are complicated, don’t berate yourself for being able to understand them all,”
She smiles properly this time “I’ll try.”
Gwen looks through the glass down to the floor below, where Ianto, now sporting some near-ruined Converses, is picking pilled wool from a jumper he’d found in the archives.
“Maybe you should tell Ianto that,” she says, before opening the door “just an idea,”
Jack stands there for a few seconds, and then puts the flora to one side, catches the door and exits the hot house. Gwen grabs her bag and says her goodbyes to Ianto before disappearing into the lift.
Jack gets to the ground floor and Ianto gives him a knowing look as he hands him his coat.
“Is she okay?” he asks warily as Jack slides his arms into the sleeves.
“Same as the rest of us, shaken up,” Jack says, his staple coat feeling heavier than normal.
He holds out his hand “Come on, I want to eat my bodyweight in curry and fall asleep in your bed,”
Ianto grins “Fancy picking up some wine from Tesco on the way?”
“Sounds like a plan,” Jack says, tugging him towards the garage.
fin