m_findlow: (Ianto sad)
m_findlow ([personal profile] m_findlow) wrote2025-01-05 09:33 pm

Challenge 846 - Bitter aftertaste

Title: Bitter aftertaste
Character: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 200 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 846 - Bitter at [community profile] torchwood100
Summary: Ianto despairs at having to find Jack's body broken. A double drabble.


There's a bitter tang in the air as soon as Ianto steps into the room. He was off duty when the call came through, and Jack, as ever, hadn't bothered to wait for backup, simply ploughing ahead without them. Jack didn't like to wait – not when it was alien and potentially dangerous. It was a trait to be admired, that selflessness of putting the safety of everyone else above oneself. It came with terrible consequences.

Jack's body was easy to find, lying there in a pool of his own blood. In the next room Ianto found the alien, also dead, shot through the head multiple times. He returned to the other room and knelt by Jack's side, taking his hand and trying not to vomit as the smell of blood filled his mouth. Jack would be okay eventually, but it wouldn't provide Ianto with the kind of consolation he needed. It would have been better if Jack hadn't had to die at all, and that he hadn't had to suffer, before being forced back into life and made to keep on going as if nothing had happened.

At least Ianto was here for him now. Being alone would be worse.

badly_knitted: (Give Ianto A Hug)

[personal profile] badly_knitted 2025-01-05 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
Poor Jack. He goes through so much to keep everyone else safe, and Ianto has to deal with the aftermath.