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Torchwood Fic: Lynchpin (3/7)
Title: Lynchpin (3/7)
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R/NC17
Warning: None
Spoilers: 1.04: Cyberwoman. Set after 2.09 but before series finale. Passing references to events throughout both series but nothing really that spoilery.
Summary: Torchwood Four want their lynchpin back. Just what has that got to do with Ianto Jones?
Beta:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rakina
Disclaimer: Don't own 'em – unfortunately
Links previous parts:
Chapter 1 - http://hel-bee.livejournal.com/21730.html#cutid1
Chapter 2 - http://hel-bee.livejournal.com/21983.html
Chapter Three
Snippet: “The Harkness method? And here’s me thinking it would have more to do with stopwatches than the workings of the human mind,” Ianto joked in his usual deadpan fashion.
Jack could see his team were eager to question Ianto further, but he could equally recognise that there was no way Ianto was going to be any more forthcoming than he already had been. He’d refused to answer Jack earlier, saying he'd explain things, just not yet. And seeing that Jack had more secrets than MI5 and the CIA combined he was in no position to force the issue.
Ianto pushed back from the conference table. “If you need me I’ll be in the archives.”
Owen jumped to his feet and made to stop him, only to be shoved angrily to one side. “Fuck off, Harper. I don’t answer to you.”
“Oi, watch it, Jones. You can’t just declare you’re some psychic-like freak who’s over a hundred years old without us reacting!”
Ianto grabbed Owen, his hands fisting in the other man’s t-shirt. He pushed him, hard, against the door. “I will warn you only once, Owen. This is none of your business. Consider this, I’ve stayed alive for a long time – and I don’t have any of Jack’s ‘come-back kid’ abilities. You don’t want to know the full details – trust me.”
With a final shove, Owen fell to the floor and Ianto left, not bothering to spare a cursory glance over his shoulder. Jack saw the shocked faces of his team but thought that on whole the session had gone a lot better than he had predicted. He offered Owen a hand and pulled the doctor to his feet.
“Are you gonna let him get away with that?” demanded Owen.
“With what, exactly? Ianto’s told us more than he had to.”
Owen stared incredulously at Jack. “You must be joking!”
“No,” said Jack forcefully. “I was just as shocked as you to hear Ianto’s revelation. But he could have easily concocted a story to cover his involvement with Torchwood Four. Considering how he’s managed to hide things from us previously we should be relieved that he’s being so honest.”
“You’re thinking with your cock.” Owen punctuated each word with a finger jabbed into Jack’s chest. “If he’s been so involved with Torchwood for all these years how the hell did he escape your notice? How come, if he’s so important, did he ended up here cleaning up our shit? And how the fuck does the cyberbird in the basement fit into all of this?”
Jack growled loudly, his protective hackles towards Ianto raised. It was Tosh who intervened, separating them with a gentle touch. “This is not helping,” she stated simply.
Jack could understand Owen’s reaction; he’d had to prevent himself from acting in a similar manner when he’d first heard Ianto’s confession. He took a step back and with it a deep breath. Owen, too, appeared to stand down. “I will speak to Ianto. But the rest of you are to give him some breathing space,” Jack ordered.
“Probably for the best,” agreed Gwen. “Jack’s right, Ianto could have completely hidden this from us.”
Jack and Owen retook their seats, both of them pointedly ignoring Ianto’s empty chair. Clearing his throat to make sure he had everyone’s attention, Jack continued with the meeting. “No matter what else has gone on, the fact is we have Torchwood Four arriving tomorrow morning. I know hardly anything about them, and quite frankly I don’t like it. I expect you to treat them like anyone else who enters the Hub – with extreme caution. We don’t know what these guys are capable of, and I doubt they’ll want to share their secrets anytime soon.”
It had been about an hour since he’d disbanded the meeting. Jack had deliberately left Ianto alone, left him to lick his wounds in the silence of the archives. But Ianto had yet to reappear; lunch was on the horizon and the caffeine levels in the Hub were dropping to critical point.
From past experience, Jack had come to realise that Ianto Jones should not be left to brood for long. His lover would compartmentalise his problems, pick over them and dissect his thoughts in the same way he would an alien artefact. Then he would bury them deep, but not deep enough to prevent them from festering. Jack was under no illusion that Ianto couldn’t look after himself, after all he had recently learned that Ianto had over eighty years of practice at being self-reliant. But that didn’t have to mean Jack would stand to one side and let Ianto deal with everything on his own, especially when he thought he could do something to help.
Jack found Ianto surrounded by a selection of so-far-unidentified alien objects the rift had spat out. He sat cross-legged on the floor holding a specially adapted PDA which scanned and recorded the dimensions of an artefact in his other hand. “You okay?” Jack asked.
If Ianto had been surprised by his appearance he showed no outward sign of it. He looked up, nothing in his expression giving away his internal contemplations. Usually Jack thought he could read Ianto really well, but now there seemed to be a mask in place, a barrier between them.
“Are the others frothing at the mouth?”
A question answering a question. How well you have learnt from me, thought Jack bitterly. “They’ll be all right. It’s not like they don’t have to contend with the out of the ordinary on a daily basis.”
“True, but it doesn’t tend to involve their colleagues.”
Jack laughed at that. “Oh, of course not. There wasn’t Mary or Diane, and let’s not forget Gwen letting Rhys into the Hub.”
Ianto smiled, not a face-splitting grin, but one that said he really was okay. Brushing the dirt off his trousers, he got to his feet. “And there was Lisa.”
“I...”
Ianto shook his head and smiled. He reached out and took Jack’s hand. “It’s all right. We’ve talked about this before and I can cope with saying her name and thinking about her. She’s as much a part of my past as you are my future. Besides, this involves her too.”
Jack squeezed Ianto’s hand before letting go. “What do you mean?”
Ianto leaned against the nearest wall and shoved his hands in his pockets. “She didn’t work for Torchwood One. Her telepathic skills were so impressive she was recruited directly to Torchwood Four. It was her death that left the hole in the last remaining circle of six, and if I’m right about Henshaw’s reason for visiting, they’ve finally found a suitable replacement for her.”
“Do they know?”
“About me trying to save her?” Ianto shrugged. “They probably suspect. Certainly once we link my mind will be open for them to see, if they choose to look. Though in general, it’s thought highly bad form to rummage around in a colleague’s head.”
“You can’t block them out?”
“No. I was never taught to shield.”
Jack didn’t know how take Ianto’s answer; it was said with a hint of resignation, almost wistfulness. “Y’know, I’ve learnt a hell of a lot while at Torchwood, and a few things before, I reckon I could teach you to shield if want to learn. Especially since it works better if there is an element of intimacy between teacher and student.”
Ianto smirked. “I’ve never heard that was a necessary requirement for it. And I am a bit of an expert in the theory of parapsychology.”
“It’s a special technique I’ve developed.”
“The Harkness method? And here’s me thinking that would have more to do with stopwatches than the workings of the human mind,” Ianto joked in his usual deadpan fashion.
Jack positioned himself in front of Ianto; he reached out to cup the younger man’s cheek with his hand. “In all seriousness, I want to help. I do have a unique perspective on the whole extended life premise.”
Jack felt ridiculously pleased when Ianto covered his hand with his own and smiled softly.
“I wanted to tell you before, but there’s not really been the right opportunity. It wasn’t until after Abaddon that I even knew you couldn’t die. Then you left with the Doctor, and quite frankly since you returned I didn’t want to risk what we had to mention it.”
“I understand,” said Jack gently.
“Mind you, I should have realised there was something not normal about you. It’s not like you’ve hidden away from the rest of Torchwood, but I guess I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on in Cardiff.”
“You’re not exactly pandering to my ego, Ianto. I like to think of myself of unmissable.”
“Your ego does not need any assistance from me.”
Jack leaned in and kissed Ianto, his lover responding immediately. It was a rare treat for Jack; Ianto was seldom so responsive while the others were in the Hub, preferring not to flaunt their relationship, to keep what they had between them and well away from Torchwood. Ianto made a delicious, wanton noise and Jack took that as an invitation to work open the fly on Ianto’s trousers and unbuckle his belt. Jack wormed his hand into Ianto’s underwear, feeling his lover's cock already hard and demanding attention.
“Please...” begged Ianto breathlessly. “Help me forget for a while.”
Those words echoed in Jack’s mind, taking him right back to the first time they had fucked. After Lisa and the Brecon Beacons had taken their toll on Ianto, the young man had been desperate to lose himself in someone. The warmth of another body, the mindlessness of sex and passion, and Jack had been only too happy to be of service.
Jack dropped to his knees and released Ianto’s cock from the confines of his clothing. He swallowed him whole, down in one and revelled in the glorious weight of Ianto across his tongue and filling his throat. Jack worshiped Ianto with lips and tongue, moaning and humming alongside his lover’s gasps and whimpers. His own erection strained against his trousers and he loosened his own clothing, working his cock with his hand as Ianto bucked and thrust. This was not meant to last, and Ianto came hard, his climax accompanied by a tumbling torrent of swearwords and acclamations of Jack's divine status. Jack accepted Ianto’s bitter seed readily as his own orgasm hit.
Breathing heavily, Jack got his feet. Ianto grabbed his hand and sucked enthusiastically at Jack's come-streaked fingers. They kissed again, the ferocity eventually giving way to gentle caresses; reluctantly Jack stepped back.
Ianto tucked his cock back into his trousers, zipped up his fly and buckled his belt. He grabbed Jack behind the head and pulled him down for another kiss which Jack happily allowed. “Thank you.”
“Always a pleasure,” Jack replied with a smirk.
“I didn’t mean the blowjob – though it was very much appreciated. I meant everything else.”
Jack pulled away and smiled. “Any time. I know how lonely it can be without someone to confide in.”
“Now, I have work to do” said Ianto, straightening his tie, “this alien tat won’t sort itself.”
Jack walked away with every intention of returning to his office, but something that Ianto had told him earlier barged to the forefront of his mind. “You said you had a grandfather, were you able to find him? Would he have understood?”
Ianto looked at him oddly, obviously confused at Jack’s apparent non sequitur. After a moment he replied: “He returned eventually. He wasn’t exactly happy to see his grandson in such a position. We talked, he blamed himself, and to some extent he was right to. Grandfather has one hell of a temper, and on occasion can be very protective of his family. Put it this way, my mother died at the hands of my father. And my father didn’t live long enough to regret his actions.”
Jack didn’t know what to say. There was still so much to learn about his lover and Ianto was so seldom this open. “He killed your father?”
Ianto nodded. “He once said he would end the Earth if he thought it’d make me happy. I think I inherited his sense of humour.”
“Although hopefully not his psychopathic traits. Sounds like he was one hell of a man.”
Ianto laughed. “Well, they do say genes will out. He’s like no man you’ll ever meet. And I’m not sure he’d take too kindly to you calling him a psychopath.” He dropped gracefully back to the floor, and was once again cross-legged and holding the PDA. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish this.”
“Ianto...” Jack began, not wanting to end the conservation yet.
“Not now, Jack. I’ve no desire to rake over my family’s dubious history all afternoon. Please, I promise we’ll talk later.”
Jack thought the dismissal should smart more. But he could wait; Ianto Jones had never pushed him to reveal his secrets, and for now he would return the favour.
TBC
Chapter 4 - http://hel-bee.livejournal.com/22346.html
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating: R/NC17
Warning: None
Spoilers: 1.04: Cyberwoman. Set after 2.09 but before series finale. Passing references to events throughout both series but nothing really that spoilery.
Summary: Torchwood Four want their lynchpin back. Just what has that got to do with Ianto Jones?
Beta:
rakinaDisclaimer: Don't own 'em – unfortunately
Links previous parts:
Chapter 1 - http://hel-bee.livejournal.com/21730.html#cutid1
Chapter 2 - http://hel-bee.livejournal.com/21983.html
Chapter Three
Snippet: “The Harkness method? And here’s me thinking it would have more to do with stopwatches than the workings of the human mind,” Ianto joked in his usual deadpan fashion.
Jack could see his team were eager to question Ianto further, but he could equally recognise that there was no way Ianto was going to be any more forthcoming than he already had been. He’d refused to answer Jack earlier, saying he'd explain things, just not yet. And seeing that Jack had more secrets than MI5 and the CIA combined he was in no position to force the issue.
Ianto pushed back from the conference table. “If you need me I’ll be in the archives.”
Owen jumped to his feet and made to stop him, only to be shoved angrily to one side. “Fuck off, Harper. I don’t answer to you.”
“Oi, watch it, Jones. You can’t just declare you’re some psychic-like freak who’s over a hundred years old without us reacting!”
Ianto grabbed Owen, his hands fisting in the other man’s t-shirt. He pushed him, hard, against the door. “I will warn you only once, Owen. This is none of your business. Consider this, I’ve stayed alive for a long time – and I don’t have any of Jack’s ‘come-back kid’ abilities. You don’t want to know the full details – trust me.”
With a final shove, Owen fell to the floor and Ianto left, not bothering to spare a cursory glance over his shoulder. Jack saw the shocked faces of his team but thought that on whole the session had gone a lot better than he had predicted. He offered Owen a hand and pulled the doctor to his feet.
“Are you gonna let him get away with that?” demanded Owen.
“With what, exactly? Ianto’s told us more than he had to.”
Owen stared incredulously at Jack. “You must be joking!”
“No,” said Jack forcefully. “I was just as shocked as you to hear Ianto’s revelation. But he could have easily concocted a story to cover his involvement with Torchwood Four. Considering how he’s managed to hide things from us previously we should be relieved that he’s being so honest.”
“You’re thinking with your cock.” Owen punctuated each word with a finger jabbed into Jack’s chest. “If he’s been so involved with Torchwood for all these years how the hell did he escape your notice? How come, if he’s so important, did he ended up here cleaning up our shit? And how the fuck does the cyberbird in the basement fit into all of this?”
Jack growled loudly, his protective hackles towards Ianto raised. It was Tosh who intervened, separating them with a gentle touch. “This is not helping,” she stated simply.
Jack could understand Owen’s reaction; he’d had to prevent himself from acting in a similar manner when he’d first heard Ianto’s confession. He took a step back and with it a deep breath. Owen, too, appeared to stand down. “I will speak to Ianto. But the rest of you are to give him some breathing space,” Jack ordered.
“Probably for the best,” agreed Gwen. “Jack’s right, Ianto could have completely hidden this from us.”
Jack and Owen retook their seats, both of them pointedly ignoring Ianto’s empty chair. Clearing his throat to make sure he had everyone’s attention, Jack continued with the meeting. “No matter what else has gone on, the fact is we have Torchwood Four arriving tomorrow morning. I know hardly anything about them, and quite frankly I don’t like it. I expect you to treat them like anyone else who enters the Hub – with extreme caution. We don’t know what these guys are capable of, and I doubt they’ll want to share their secrets anytime soon.”
It had been about an hour since he’d disbanded the meeting. Jack had deliberately left Ianto alone, left him to lick his wounds in the silence of the archives. But Ianto had yet to reappear; lunch was on the horizon and the caffeine levels in the Hub were dropping to critical point.
From past experience, Jack had come to realise that Ianto Jones should not be left to brood for long. His lover would compartmentalise his problems, pick over them and dissect his thoughts in the same way he would an alien artefact. Then he would bury them deep, but not deep enough to prevent them from festering. Jack was under no illusion that Ianto couldn’t look after himself, after all he had recently learned that Ianto had over eighty years of practice at being self-reliant. But that didn’t have to mean Jack would stand to one side and let Ianto deal with everything on his own, especially when he thought he could do something to help.
Jack found Ianto surrounded by a selection of so-far-unidentified alien objects the rift had spat out. He sat cross-legged on the floor holding a specially adapted PDA which scanned and recorded the dimensions of an artefact in his other hand. “You okay?” Jack asked.
If Ianto had been surprised by his appearance he showed no outward sign of it. He looked up, nothing in his expression giving away his internal contemplations. Usually Jack thought he could read Ianto really well, but now there seemed to be a mask in place, a barrier between them.
“Are the others frothing at the mouth?”
A question answering a question. How well you have learnt from me, thought Jack bitterly. “They’ll be all right. It’s not like they don’t have to contend with the out of the ordinary on a daily basis.”
“True, but it doesn’t tend to involve their colleagues.”
Jack laughed at that. “Oh, of course not. There wasn’t Mary or Diane, and let’s not forget Gwen letting Rhys into the Hub.”
Ianto smiled, not a face-splitting grin, but one that said he really was okay. Brushing the dirt off his trousers, he got to his feet. “And there was Lisa.”
“I...”
Ianto shook his head and smiled. He reached out and took Jack’s hand. “It’s all right. We’ve talked about this before and I can cope with saying her name and thinking about her. She’s as much a part of my past as you are my future. Besides, this involves her too.”
Jack squeezed Ianto’s hand before letting go. “What do you mean?”
Ianto leaned against the nearest wall and shoved his hands in his pockets. “She didn’t work for Torchwood One. Her telepathic skills were so impressive she was recruited directly to Torchwood Four. It was her death that left the hole in the last remaining circle of six, and if I’m right about Henshaw’s reason for visiting, they’ve finally found a suitable replacement for her.”
“Do they know?”
“About me trying to save her?” Ianto shrugged. “They probably suspect. Certainly once we link my mind will be open for them to see, if they choose to look. Though in general, it’s thought highly bad form to rummage around in a colleague’s head.”
“You can’t block them out?”
“No. I was never taught to shield.”
Jack didn’t know how take Ianto’s answer; it was said with a hint of resignation, almost wistfulness. “Y’know, I’ve learnt a hell of a lot while at Torchwood, and a few things before, I reckon I could teach you to shield if want to learn. Especially since it works better if there is an element of intimacy between teacher and student.”
Ianto smirked. “I’ve never heard that was a necessary requirement for it. And I am a bit of an expert in the theory of parapsychology.”
“It’s a special technique I’ve developed.”
“The Harkness method? And here’s me thinking that would have more to do with stopwatches than the workings of the human mind,” Ianto joked in his usual deadpan fashion.
Jack positioned himself in front of Ianto; he reached out to cup the younger man’s cheek with his hand. “In all seriousness, I want to help. I do have a unique perspective on the whole extended life premise.”
Jack felt ridiculously pleased when Ianto covered his hand with his own and smiled softly.
“I wanted to tell you before, but there’s not really been the right opportunity. It wasn’t until after Abaddon that I even knew you couldn’t die. Then you left with the Doctor, and quite frankly since you returned I didn’t want to risk what we had to mention it.”
“I understand,” said Jack gently.
“Mind you, I should have realised there was something not normal about you. It’s not like you’ve hidden away from the rest of Torchwood, but I guess I wasn’t paying much attention to what was going on in Cardiff.”
“You’re not exactly pandering to my ego, Ianto. I like to think of myself of unmissable.”
“Your ego does not need any assistance from me.”
Jack leaned in and kissed Ianto, his lover responding immediately. It was a rare treat for Jack; Ianto was seldom so responsive while the others were in the Hub, preferring not to flaunt their relationship, to keep what they had between them and well away from Torchwood. Ianto made a delicious, wanton noise and Jack took that as an invitation to work open the fly on Ianto’s trousers and unbuckle his belt. Jack wormed his hand into Ianto’s underwear, feeling his lover's cock already hard and demanding attention.
“Please...” begged Ianto breathlessly. “Help me forget for a while.”
Those words echoed in Jack’s mind, taking him right back to the first time they had fucked. After Lisa and the Brecon Beacons had taken their toll on Ianto, the young man had been desperate to lose himself in someone. The warmth of another body, the mindlessness of sex and passion, and Jack had been only too happy to be of service.
Jack dropped to his knees and released Ianto’s cock from the confines of his clothing. He swallowed him whole, down in one and revelled in the glorious weight of Ianto across his tongue and filling his throat. Jack worshiped Ianto with lips and tongue, moaning and humming alongside his lover’s gasps and whimpers. His own erection strained against his trousers and he loosened his own clothing, working his cock with his hand as Ianto bucked and thrust. This was not meant to last, and Ianto came hard, his climax accompanied by a tumbling torrent of swearwords and acclamations of Jack's divine status. Jack accepted Ianto’s bitter seed readily as his own orgasm hit.
Breathing heavily, Jack got his feet. Ianto grabbed his hand and sucked enthusiastically at Jack's come-streaked fingers. They kissed again, the ferocity eventually giving way to gentle caresses; reluctantly Jack stepped back.
Ianto tucked his cock back into his trousers, zipped up his fly and buckled his belt. He grabbed Jack behind the head and pulled him down for another kiss which Jack happily allowed. “Thank you.”
“Always a pleasure,” Jack replied with a smirk.
“I didn’t mean the blowjob – though it was very much appreciated. I meant everything else.”
Jack pulled away and smiled. “Any time. I know how lonely it can be without someone to confide in.”
“Now, I have work to do” said Ianto, straightening his tie, “this alien tat won’t sort itself.”
Jack walked away with every intention of returning to his office, but something that Ianto had told him earlier barged to the forefront of his mind. “You said you had a grandfather, were you able to find him? Would he have understood?”
Ianto looked at him oddly, obviously confused at Jack’s apparent non sequitur. After a moment he replied: “He returned eventually. He wasn’t exactly happy to see his grandson in such a position. We talked, he blamed himself, and to some extent he was right to. Grandfather has one hell of a temper, and on occasion can be very protective of his family. Put it this way, my mother died at the hands of my father. And my father didn’t live long enough to regret his actions.”
Jack didn’t know what to say. There was still so much to learn about his lover and Ianto was so seldom this open. “He killed your father?”
Ianto nodded. “He once said he would end the Earth if he thought it’d make me happy. I think I inherited his sense of humour.”
“Although hopefully not his psychopathic traits. Sounds like he was one hell of a man.”
Ianto laughed. “Well, they do say genes will out. He’s like no man you’ll ever meet. And I’m not sure he’d take too kindly to you calling him a psychopath.” He dropped gracefully back to the floor, and was once again cross-legged and holding the PDA. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish this.”
“Ianto...” Jack began, not wanting to end the conservation yet.
“Not now, Jack. I’ve no desire to rake over my family’s dubious history all afternoon. Please, I promise we’ll talk later.”
Jack thought the dismissal should smart more. But he could wait; Ianto Jones had never pushed him to reveal his secrets, and for now he would return the favour.
TBC
Chapter 4 - http://hel-bee.livejournal.com/22346.html