Chapter Text
Some people, Ieuan mused, could be sat down in a room full of alien weaponry and have it operational within mere seconds. Jack could, Wendy would take a bit longer but she'd have something to arm herself with in no time. Jack's Time Lord buddy, even with his aversion to guns would have hauled out a Martian sword or a Venusian laser knife, and would be ready to take on all comers.
"But sadly," Ieuan sighed, "I am not one of them. A whole cache of weaponry and all I can do is get a splinter from the crates!"
The pounding grew louder, and for what seemed like the thousandth time Ieuan really wished Jack where there.
When he woke up and found Jack not in their shared bed, he didn't think much of it. Jack wasn't the domestic type. Maybe he found the need to go traveling to get some space, Ieuan was used to that. After the first week, he still wasn't worried. Peeved, a bit yes, but this wasn't outside Jack's normal mode of operation, not just yet.
The second week was a bit more worrying. Trying to avoid playing the jealous lover Ieuan hadn't tried Jack's mobile, but when he finally did and heard the unmistakable ring tone coming from the dresser drawer, he allowed himself to be concerned.
Then in week three, when Wendy vanished, it finally dawned on Ieuan that something was definitely not right. He rang Wendy's flat after the second day of her being a no show. Her boyfriend/lover/pet or whatever he was this week, told Ieuan that he had assumed she had gone off with Torchwood on some mission and had just forgotten to leave a note. Not wanting to share the panic he was now consumed with Ieuan agreed with the man, and rang off quickly.
The pounding sound now took on a more metallic tone, like someone was using a battering ram of steel on the hub's outer doors. Ieuan shrank back into the shadows behind one of the crates. Hoping and praying that the door would hold.
Speaking of the Time Lord, Ieuan thought, he wished he had Jack's Doctor detector, but then he remembered that the detector had grown into a living being and was off living on an alternate earth with Violet.
He smiled as he remembered one after love making conversation where Jack wondered what it would be like to have a threesome with The Doctor and the meta-crisis. Ieuan had faked jealousy at the idea but secretly wondered about that scene too. Two sets of long fingers tracing his cheek bones...
More pounding brought him back to the present. This was not to time to indulge in fantasies! he chided himself.
Trying not to let the obvious hopelessness of the situation overwhelm him Ieuan willed himself to calm down. But the insistent pounding was making it hard to think. Ieuan didn't know and was pretty sure he didn't want to know what was trying to get in. The CCTV and the external sensors all went down moments before the first knocking was heard. Obviously taken out but whomever was so determined to get inside.
Ieuan had only enough time, once the power was cut, to run back to the store rooms. His small torch glowing feebly in the darkness. He wanted to be brave, imagined coming out of the shadows a plasma gun on each hip, blazing away at the attackers. But nothing even resembling a plasma gun was in this room. Instead he was surrounded by things that looked like one needed eight arms and a million fingers to operate.
The hub should be impenetrable! Ieuan wanted to scream. Once the power was cut it should have gone into maximum lock down. The only weakness would be the tower, but whomever was trying to brute force their way in was not using that. They were going for the main doors!
The pounding was affecting the occupants of the cells now too. A weevil started the high pitched whine its kind made when distressed, the lycanthrope howled and various others joined into the din just to add to Ieuan's already frayed nerves.
"What do you want from me?" he shouted, finally losing any semblance of control.
At that the pounding stopped. The hub went completely silent. Even the cells were quiet. Then the unmistakable sound of the large cog wheel that served as a doorway being moved aside filled the hub. Without power that should be impossible Ieuan started to chant, almost like a mantra, "Jack, where are you?" he repeated over and over. He sat down and hugged his knees, and rocked slowly in place, fear taking his mind at last.