Torchwood: Fanfic: An ill wind

[m_findlow]

Title: An ill wind
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Gwen, Ianto, Andy
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 3,780 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, an ill wind" at fic_promptly
Summary: A wild storm has severe repercussions

'Nice night for a little trip out to the barrage, wouldn't you say?' Jack asked, pulling a hand out of his pocket and ensnaring Ianto's.

'A little on the late side if I'm honest,' he said, stifling a yawn.

Jack tapped his comms. 'Gwen, any more readings since the first bunch?'

Gwen was tucked cosily in the back of the SUV, parked several hundred meters away. She shouldn't have been here at all as far as Jack was concerned, having approved maternity leave weeks ago. Still, she stoutly refused to finish up until she reached a point where she could no longer be useful to the team, not when it was just the three of them. They'd already arranged for Martha to step in for a few months until they could get someone more permanent to help them, but that wouldn't be until after Gwen finished up. Gwen insisted she'd be back, at least part time, to which Jack had laughed. 'You're about to be a mum. You'll be amazed how your priorities will change.'

She still wasn't sure she believed him. The maternal instincts hadn't yet kicked into full gear, so she was happy to be surrounded by the banks of computer equipment until it did.

'Nothing else,' she replied, reviewing the feeds from the last twenty minutes. 'Just a few odd weather patterns, but that could just be normal around here.'

'All calm now,' Ianto replied. 'Not even a breath of wind.'

'Kinda romantic, don't you think?' Jack said, gazing across at the twinkling lights of the city over on the far side of the bay.

Ianto caught the whiff of mud and drying seaweed coming off the tidal flats on the other side of the barrage where the water was at its lowest, penned in on the other side by this marvel of engineering. It wasn't the fresh, salty smell of the ocean or the beach, just the stagnant smell of decay.

'St David's hotel is romantic. This is just on the nose,' he said, scrunching his own.

They proceeded to walk the length of the barrage, looking for any signs of their mystery quarry, but finding nothing. The readings weren't always consistent in telling them what had come through, or at least how big. Sometimes it just opened up for no reason at all, sending their computers into a frenzy, but leaving nothing at all behind. Well, at least nothing they ever found. Perhaps it had slunk away, or perhaps the rift just liked to tease them when it was bored, pulling them away from their lasagne or cosy beds.

'Whatever it was, it might have fallen into the bay,' Ianto suggested. 'We'll probably have to come back tomorrow for a proper search.'

'I think you're right,' Jack said, arcing his torch around in vain one last time.

A gust up wind skipped up off the bay, ruffling their hair and coats.

'Looks like the bad weather is about to roll in for the night,' Jack said, feeling it pick up in strength.

'It's always worse out by the water.'

The barrage light that was on top of the pylon overhead flickered and blinked.

'Huh, don't they spend any money on the city these days?' Jack noted.

'Not if they can help it.'

The one further along then also began to flicker, and the next. The wind picked up as well, tugging at their clothes.

'This is a bit sudden,' Jack said. Feeling the wind begin to knock him about.

'Maybe it's one of those mini tornadoes,' Ianto replied, pulling his coat tightly around his body to reduce resistance. He didn't want to become a human paraglider.

The wind increased in speed, whipping around them violently, throwing them hard up against the railings of the barrage, pinning them in place. The lights flickered wildly and they could barely hear each other yelling over the top of the sound of the wind.

'What's going on?' Ianto yelled.

'I don't know!' Jack yelled back. Trying to free a hand so that he could consult his vortex manipulator. As he let go of the rail, the wind knocked him flat to the ground, and the bright barrage lights flickered and blinded him in their alternating patterns.

The wind continued to buffet them, and Ianto could only just hear Jack's voice telling him to try and get back to the SUV, whilst he was still trying to hang on for dear life himself. Another bolt of bright light assailed his eyes and he threw an arm across his face to block the worst of it.

Just as quickly as it had swept up, the chaos fell away into darkness, the air still and calm, as if it had never been there. Jack felt himself go limp on the ground, like a wilted flower.

'Jack, what's going on?' he heard Gwen ask him over his comms. 'I'm getting all kinds of strange rift readings.'

'Mini storm cell,' Jack replied, still hardly believing what had just hit them.

He struggled up off the ground, looking around at the area. The thing that struck him most was the silence; the unending silence. Even the water seemed to have ceased lapping up against the barrage.

'Ianto?' he called out, looking around, not seeing his lover anywhere. Several of the large barrage lights had exploded, making it much darker than before and hard to see whole chunks of the causeway.

'Ianto,' he called out again.

'Jack, these rift readings,' Gwen began.

'Not now,' he interrupted, walking along the length of the barrage, expecting to find him perhaps unconscious or hurt in one of the patches of darkness. When that didn't turn up anything he began to worry. Perhaps he'd been knocked over the railings into the water. He might have hit his head, or worse. Jack peered over the rails, looking for any signs, still calling out his name. The waters were black and still, sending a wave of dread through him.

'Gwen, lock on to Ianto's comms signal,' he said, already stripping off his coat, preparing to clamber over the railing and into the water.

'I can't get a lock,' she replied.

'Try again. It could have been damaged. Try his phone, his PDA, anything.'

'Jack, there's no signal. These rift readings,'

'No,' he said, not wanting to hear it. He knew what she was about to say.

He continued marching up and down the length of the barrage calling out his name, leaning far over the railings to check for any sign of him. Finally he saw a figure approaching him, emerging out of the darkness.

'Ianto?'

'It's me Jack,' Gwen replied, her slightly shorter, but very pregnant stature coming into view under one of the lights.

'He's gotta be here somewhere.'

'Jack,'

'You check this side, I'll check the other. We'll check from one end to the other. Give me that torch.'

'Jack,'

'Don't just stand there, Gwen. He could be unconscious or hurt.'

'Jack!'

He stopped suddenly at the raised voice.

'It was an aftershock. I confirmed a negative spike.'

'No,'

'Jack,' she said, reaching out a hand placatingly.

'No,' he shook his head more violently this time. She reached for him with both hands and he struggled hard against her grip.

'No, no, no,' he kept repeating over and over until she was wrapped firmly around him, his legs buckling out from under him, as she held him, disbelieving.

Jack was sitting in the car, arms folded, silent and brooding as the morning was breaking bright and clear across the Cardiff sky.

Andy and Gwen watched his silent figure from afar.

'This is a waste of police resources, Gwen.'

She gripped the paper cup full of weak tea. 'I know that, and you know that, but until those dive teams come back and report that they couldn't find a body, he's not going to accept it.'

'Surely it's a better outcome that he's just nipped off somewhere else for a bit rather than being dead though, isn't it?'

She spared another glance at the car, Jack staring off into space, not even bothering to watch the four police cars, two special ops vans and the team of eight dive police that were conducting a thorough search of the bay.

'With Jack I'm not so sure. Knowing he's somewhere else might be worse.'

'But it's like that kid Jonah, yeah? Has he gone to the same place?'

'I don't know. It's unlikely though,' she said, staring out over the calm waters of the bay. 'No one knows where the rift takes people.'

'But Jonah came back. And there's those others that came back too.'

'And what about all those other people, Andy? The ones who didn't come back?'

She felt sick even saying it. And Jonah, he'd come back an old man, scarred and broken. How did you begin to console a man who'd seen first hand the damage the rift inflicted on people?

Hours later, the dive team finally packed away their gear and finished up their reports to the team coordinator. In the meantime, another officer had a police dog checking the area, but kept coming up empty, the trail ending right where Jack had last seen his lover, clinging to the barrage rail. Hospital reports for admissions to A&E turned up nothing either. With the rising weight of evidence, Jack was forced to admit that the first explanation had been the correct one. The rift had taken Ianto.

Gwen thanked Andy for his patience in staying until the search was over, and then clambered into the driver's seat of the car, sitting there for a few minutes in silence, ignoring the fact that the steering wheel was far too close to her swelling stomach.

'Jack, there's nothing more we can do,' she said, resting one hand on her stomach, and the other on Jack's knee. He barely reacted to the touch, saying nothing at all.

'Let's take you home,' she said, turning the key in the ignition at the same time as he leapt out, slamming the door.

'Jack, what are you doing?'

'I'll walk,' he replied, pulling his collar up tall and shoving his hands in his pockets, taking long strides, quickly putting distance between himself and the SUV.

Gwen sat there feeling the waves of despair rolling off him even though he was now fifty yards away.

Gwen didn't know what to expect when she arrived at the hub the next morning. She half expected that Jack might not even be there, or that if he was, he'd be broody and despondent, or just not functioning at all. Instead he was working away with a furious purpose, as if everything had to have been done yesterday. He took every phone call, accepted every boring governmental department meeting request, replied to emails, filed reports. He was an efficient administrative machine. Denial, Gwen thought sadly, watching him diligently organising food for the inmates, leaving her with little to do but scour the Internet and police chatter for anything untoward.

Even out in the field, he was sharp and focused, like he was operating on some higher level, easily dealing with whatever it was that they were after, as if he had a sixth sense guiding his actions. Gwen felt exhausted just watching him, and it had nothing to do with pregnancy. She worried that he couldn't continue functioning like this long term and feared what would happen when he finally did stop. Or break down.

The call from Andy was unexpected.

'Hi, Andy. Yes, well thank you. No, not yet. Rhys says it must be a girl because she's determined to be late like her mother. Sure, I can catch up for a cuppa. See you then.'

Andy didn't muck around once their teas were served.

'You need to tell Jack to let it go. It's been over a month now.'

Gwen frowned.' He's grieving, Andy. I can't take that away from him, and I wouldn't. If I lost Rhys, I don't know what I'd do. It'd certainly take more than a month.'

'It's not healthy, Gwen. Four police call outs in the past week.'

'What?' she said, peering over her cup. 'I don't understand.'

'You mean you don't know he's been at the barrage every night?'

'The barrage?'

'Every night,' Andy repeated. 'I went back and checked the CCTV. The police thought he was some homeless guy sleeping out there.'

Gwen felt a kick but couldn't tell if it was the baby or her conscience.

'I, I didn't know.' She knew he'd become this mindless, insistent workaholic during the day. She'd just assumed that he kept going on into the night, or else collapsed into bed from the exhaustion of it all. She had no idea he was hurting that much.

'You need to speak to him.'

'I don't know what to say. He's just gone, Andy. I don't even remember what the last thing I said to him was, or what he was wearing. He's just gone.'

She felt the tears spilling down her face and realised for the first time that she hadn't properly grieved for him herself. She'd been so caught up in Jack's manic work schedule that she'd barely had time to process it. She sat there and cried until she didn't think there were any tears left.

Jack was huddled on the barrage, arms wrapped around his knees, leant up against the post. No one had bothered to come and fix the broken lights yet, which left him a quiet spot in which he could sit under the cover of dark, listening to the water move listelessly against the barrage.

'The view from the yacht club is much nicer,' came the voice out of the darkness.

'Come to move me on again, PC Davidson?' he replied, seeing the bright reflective panels on his jacket glint in the moonlight.

'Would you, if I asked?'

'No,' he said, staring straight out into the inky black night.

'Well, glad we've sorted that out, then. No wonder I can't get a bloody promotion.' He put his hands on his hips, staring down at the half shadow of the man he remembered swanning about the city like he owned it.

'Listen, I get that you're grieving and all, but parking yourself here every night isn't going to change anything.'

'He's coming back,' Jack replied. 'He wouldn't leave me here. He'll find a way.'

'Okay,' Andy said, lowering himself to the ground next to Jack. 'If it were me then, who went missing, I mean. What would you tell my family?'

'I wouldn't tell them anything.'

'Okay, but suppose they knew about the rift and Torchwood and all, what would you tell them, then?'

'That you'd been taken.'

'And? Chances of coming back?'

'Virtually none.'

'So why don't you take some of your own advice. Look at Nikki Bevan. She wasted months of her life clinging to hope, and yes I hate saying that, because even though she was right not to give up on him, knowing what came after was far worse. She stopped living just like you are.'

'You'd honestly have me believe that you think you know better than I do?'

'You're the one calling the shots mate, I'm just telling you how it is. You've forgotten what it's like to be standing on the other side of the fence.'

'Thanks for the pep talk.'

Andy took that as his cue to leave.

'Go home. Get some sleep. It'll help you keep your head on straight.'

The next few days were uneventful back at the hub. Gwen noticed that Jack seemed more settled, which was a relief to her. She wasn't sure what had changed, but something clearly had. She was still going to keep an an eye on him though, making sure he wasn't going out to the barrage every night. In fact, he'd stopped going altogether. They hadn't spoken about it. Gwen just assumed that when Jack was good and ready he'd come and talk to her, but not before. It was pretty hard not to notice the almighty gap that Ianto's absence made around the hub, yet they persevered as best they could, though it was more like two tiny vessels flailing out at sea, neither tethered to the other for safety.

It was late one night when they were still back working trying to keep up with a backlog of rift alerts which had kept them going all day. When the alarm went off again it was almost too much to bear. Gwen reluctantly opened up the rift monitor to see what had come through.

She was surprised to find the readings emanating from the barrage again. Something had coming through. Judging by the size of the spike, it was about human size. It'd be too much to hope but perhaps the rift had returned what it had taken.

'Jack, there's a rift alert out by the barrage,' she said.

'What you want me to do about it?' he sniped.

'Your job, for a start,' she retorted, unsure where this new found bad mood had come from. She was tired and grumpy too, but at least she had an excuse. She was about ready to burst with a newborn.

'Will you at least go and check it out, Jack?' she asked. 'Unless you'd like the pregnant lady wandering along the barrage in the middle of the night?'

'Fine!' he said, shouting loudly and storming off. 'Go home. I'll deal with it.'

He couldn't explain why he was in such a foul mood. If anything he should have been moving on with his life, not getting sucked into some unending storm of emotion with Gwen. It annoyed him that he couldn't get it together. He'd lost plenty of people before, why did this have to matter any more than any of them? Of course he knew the answer that question, he just didn't want to address it, think about it, do anything with it, other than be angry.

He pulled up at the end of the barrage where the car park was, noting that they still hadn't fixed those wretched lights. He reached for the torch out of the side panel of the SUV's door before taking a look. God only knew what had come through this time.

He began making his way down the length of the causeway. On one side all he could see was low tide and the muddy sand, long puddles and straggly weeds that was the other side of the bay, drifting out towards the Bristol chanel. He could understand why they had erected the barrage in the first place, to preserve the water so that the edge of the city wouldn't be subject to looking at the tidal flats and the mud that would collect at low tide. On the other side, he could see small ships bobbing off in the distance. He felt like they did, tossed from side to side by a current, but missing the mooring that held him in place.

He'd only walked a few paces before he thought he was seeing things and hearing things.

'Where the hell have you been? You could have waited for me.'

Jack stood there stunned. Could it really be what he thought he'd seen, or was he just imagining those Welsh tones? There was Ianto standing there large as life, and looking more than a little bit irate.

'Ianto?' Jack asked, disbelieving

'Who else?' he barked back. 'I'm gone a few hours and you decide to go home without me?'

Jack staggered forward and slammed into him bodily, hugging him so tight he had to beg Jack to let him go before he passed out.

'A few hours? You've been gone for weeks!'

'What? No. I was there a few hours, tops. I was waiting for them to pick you up, or for you to come get me. One or the other.'

'Get you from where?' Jack asked, finally letting go enough that he could see Ianto's face.

'I was abducted, wasn't I?'

'Abducted?

'Yeah, you know, beam me up, Scotty? All those bright white lights on the barrage? I was stuck in a room with no one else, all blue flashing lights and no door. I figured it was a spaceship of some kind. At first I was worried they were going to come and experiment on me, but when no one turned up for ages, well, it was just boring really. Then there was another flash of light and I was back here.'

Jack squeezed him tightly again. There'd be time for proper explanations later. Now he was just happy to have him back against all hope.

'It was the rift that took you, not aliens. I-, I thought I'd never see you again.'

Ianto gripped his hand, squeezing it tight, seeing the look deep in Jack's eyes that he'd been hurting.

'Even if it did, I'd always come back for you. I'd find a way somehow, even if I had to hitchike half the galaxy.'

'I know,' Jack replied, leaning in for a kiss.

When they arrived back at the hub, Jack was surprised to find Gwen still there, though now dozing on the top of her desk. He gently shook her awake.

'What are you still doing here?'

'I wanted to be here when you got back. Make sure you were okay.'

He smiled. 'I'm way better than okay,' he said, stepping aside so that she could see who he'd brought back with him.

'Oh my God, Ianto!' she squealed, leaping up from her desk with surprising energy for a pregnant woman, wrapping arms tightly around him.

'You people are going to kill me with all the hugs,' he gasped, hugging back anyway.

She stepped back, grinning from ear to ear, matching Jack's own.

'Disappear for a few hours and people finally start to appreciate you,' Ianto quipped.

'Hey, I appreciate you,' Jack countered.

'You appreciate the coffee and the sex.'

'Those things count! I also appreciate how hot you are naked, but perhaps tonight you could remind me. It's been a little while.'

'Oh God!' Gwen cried.

'You could always join us if you want,' Jack offered, seeing the look of shock and disgust on her face.

'No, I mean, I think my water just broke.'

'Oh, that Oh God,' Jack said.

'Well, that's my five minutes in the spotlight over,' Ianto said. 'Jack, you help Gwen to the car. I'll call Rhys and tell him to meet us there.'

'Looks like you came back just in the nick of time,' Jack said, wrapping an arm around Gwen.

'Punctual, Jack. It's called punctual.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Poor Ianto, that wasn't much of a vacation! A few hours shut in a small white room, then he comes home and immediately has to deal with a crisis. What does he have to do to get a break?

I was almost as worried as Jack when Ianto got taken, but I kept teling myself that you wouldn't let anything really bad happen to him...

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Jack was certainly hurting, being so powerless to do anything.

Once the craziness of the baby is out of the way they'll finally have a chance to sit down and really appreciate just how important they are to one another. Ianto will feel truly awful that Jack has been through so much.