Fffc March Special Bingo - Praying for a miracle

[m_findlow]

Title: Praying for a miracle
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,288 words
Content notes: Miracle Day AU
Author notes: Written for fffc March Special Bingo Card - Prompt 4 - Things fall apart
Summary: Jack feels helpless and alone against a foe he can't see.

Jack felt the crushing bruise as the two heavies from PhiCorp bundled him out onto the street, letting him fall ungracefully in a heap despite the milling crowds gathering outside the television studio .

'Did you see him in there?' asked the busty red-haired woman. 'Did you see Oswald Danes? Did you touch to him?'

Jack frowned. 'Did I what?'

'Oswald!' Her eyes were all aglow with excitement and awe. 'Did you touch him?'

Jack's look was one of utter shock and perplexment as he lay there on the pavement. Not a single person offered him a hand up, all of them transfixed on the man on the televisions in the studio's front windows. What the hell was going on around here?

He slowly and gingerly picked himself up, backing away slowly from people who'd turned mad, disappearing down the same side street he'd come here by. As he looked around the street, more people appeared, white masked faces creating an eery pall. The more he looked, the more of them there were. The Soulless. He had to get away from them. The whole thing was starting to scare him, and he didn't scare easily.

As he stepped into the abandoned alley, he realised he was no longer alone.

'I did warn you coming here was a bad idea,' the voice behind him said. Ianto leant against the brickwork, watching him. Well, not Ianto. Just his overwrought mind creating an image that was pretending to be Ianto.

'What no sympathy?' Jack replied, trying to keep things light. 'You just watched them kick the crap outta me.'

'You know I would've stepped in if I could,' Ianto replied. 'It's not easy being a figment of your imagination powerless to do to anything but watch it happen.'

'You could've stayed behind with Esther and Rex,' Jack suggested.

'I'm not even sure that's possible,' he said, pondering how it would even work, being somewhere other than within the immediate vicinity of Jack's mind. 'Besides, I told you I'm here to keep an eye on you. You're the mortal one now, remember?'

Mortal and going mad, he thought bitterly. Ianto shouldn't even be here, but within a hour of him arriving back on Earth, there he was, haunting Jack's movements. Washington, Swansea, and now Los Angeles. He wasn't going to leave Jack alone, and Jack wasn't sure he wanted him to.

'Chivalrous, don't you think, that whole not going for the face part anymore,' Ianto commented. Only he'd find this post Miracle Day brutality technique charming.  

'So glad you approve,' Jack winced. It was his groin and solar plexus that were suffering instead. He'd almost prefer a broken nose, before remembering that broken bones didn't heal the way they used to anymore. He was really starting to miss those days.

'So, what have we achieved?' Ianto asked. Assuming you had a plan in mind when you took off?'

'We know that Oswald is connected to this.'

Ianto frowned at him. 'Are you sure? I mean, yes he just happened to be at PhiCorp, but if you were after a yes man to advocate the free use of drugs...' He gave a small shrug. 'He's just become the poster child for anyone and everyone that's been hurt since the Miracle happened.'

Jack shook his head. 'It's no coincidence,' he argued. 'He's set to be executed, and just minutes before it goes ahead, the Miracle changes everything. Doesn't that sound pre-planned to you? There's more to it, and PhiCorp and Danes are right at the heart of it.'

'I'm not suggesting it's okay for a child killer to be reaping the rewards of the Miracle.'

Jack spun to face him. 'Reaping the rewards?' He let out a strangled chuckle. 'The guy is a whack job psychopath and people are treating him like the next Lord and Savior.' He ran a hand over his face. 'Things are falling apart, Ianto, faster than we can figure out what's going on and why. Society is breaking down.' He looked at his former lover and despaired. He'd never felt so powerless against anything. He needed the real Ianto here. If he screwed up now, there was no going back and trying again. That was it, end of the line. Mortal. He'd wanted it for so long and now he had it when he needed it least.

'I don't know what to do, Ianto.'

'Then get your arse back to the safe house, make your peace with Rex and figure it out.' He sounded more angry than firm, which surprised Jack.

'But Danes,'

'Is a mouthpiece,' Ianto finished for him. 'He hasn't orchestrated any of this, but someone has. You need to go and find the people hiding behind the curtain. You chose to come back, so that's your job.'

Jack frowned at him, finding himself staring at that familiar face for longer than Ianto was strictly comfortable with.

'What?' Ianto asked.

'You haven't asked me.'

'Asked you what?' Ianto huffed, arms folded.

'About them. Your family.'

'Because I know you don't know anything. Because I know you never bothered to come back here. But the word Torchwood comes up and you come running, because you're shit scared they're coming for Gwen. Never mind anyone else, but don't let anyone touch Gwen.'

Jack's face twisted into a painful inability to respond. Ianto's words felt like a slap in the face. He turned away and took a few steps further down the alley before turning back and seeing Ianto still standing there. 'I couldn't face them, okay?' Jack finally yelled. 'That's the truth. I couldn't look your sister in the eye and tell her I was the reason you're gone.'

'And because you weren't here, all of this happened.'

'And why the hell are you here, just out of curiosity? You think Rex is gonna listen to anything I have to say if I tell him I've got some imaginary ex-lover following me around?'

'I didn't choose this, Jack. This is your subconscious at work, here.'

'I wanna let go, believe me.'

'Except you can't, because there's so much guilt inside you that it's eating you up.'

'Yes it is,' Jack snarled. 'Why the hell else do you think I left?'

The two of them stood there, staring each other down, not wanting to be the first to give in.

'Lucky I can't punch you,' Ianto seethed.

'Even if you could, you couldn't hit me where you want you,' Jack replied. 'That's not how it's done these days.'

Ianto let out a mirth-filled chuckle. 'This post Miracle Day world sucks, doesn't it?'

'It really does,' Jack agreed, forcing a smile. 'So, what do we do now?'

'Stick to the plan. Go back to Rex and Esther and figure this out so we can stop it.'

'Rex doesn't like me.'

'Yeah, he does. He just doesn't know you yet.'

'He called me a clown.' He said it with such an air of offense that it made Ianto laugh.

'And I like him more already', he grinned. 'Mortality, the great leveler.'

Jack began walking again, before stopping and pointing a finger at Ianto who'd fallen into step beside him. 'Just don't think this makes you right all of the time,' Jack warned.

'I'm your subconscious. If things go pear-shaped, it'll be your fault.'

Jack laughed at that, equally full of mirth. 'You and me again. The old team.'

'And the new team,' Ianto corrected.

'Well, maybe Esther. Rex I don't know if I want on my team yet.'

'I'm not sure it's your team anymore, Jack.'

'I thought you were here to back me up?'

'Just keeping things real. I can't have you falling apart at the seams just yet.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Even if he is a figment of Jack's imagination Ianto still says the tings Jack might not want to hear.