Torchwood: Fanfic: Hitting out

[m_findlow]

Title: Hitting out
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 728 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Any, any, throwing a punch" at fic_promptly
Summary: Ianto doesn't know any other way to make his feelings clear.

Ianto wasn’t usually the type to get angry. Even if he did, he always kept it neatly under wraps - perhaps a vexed little sigh here or a dirty glare there - but never properly raging angry. There was no lack of that famously fiery Welsh temper inside him, but rarely did he let it take over. He was so much like his dad in that respect. Quietly disappointed rather than angry at anyone. Most of the time time, they had no idea they'd disappointed. He and his dad didn't like to make a fuss. Perhaps he should have taken after his mum and sister instead, letting his feelings be known to all and sundry. You always knew where you stood with those two.

Not like now, though. He'd been pushed well beyond his limits, forced to endure pain and suffering and horror - more than any one person should ever have to. His whole world stood on a knife's edge and the one person he needed to stand by him had become his fiercest opponent. He'd expected support and understanding, but he'd been met with cold indifference and a hatred he'd hardly ever seen. Who knew that Jack could be so heartless.

It hurt most that this look of hatred was reserved solely for him, after everything he'd done. He'd come in here every day and put up with all the shit they'd given him, trawled around picking up after them, bending over backwards to tend to their needs, all the whilst neglecting his own, suffering in silence. When things were at their very worst, he wanted Jack to come sweeping in like the hero he always pretended to be, saving them all. If anyone could help his Lisa, surely Jack could. Jack wouldn't ever give up until he'd made things right. He was stubborn like that.

Instead he'd turned on Ianto, put his gun to his head, and called him a traitor. It was betrayal of the highest order and there was no way he could stand by and let it go. Now he really was mad. Not just mad, but angry enough that the only way he was going to get any satisfaction at all was to hit him. If hitting wasn't enough, he might just kill him, the way he'd killed any hope Ianto held for his future.

That Jack didn’t see it coming and that it looked to have hurt, judging by the shocked look on his face, made it all that much sweeter. That's right, Jack. How does it feel to betrayed by someone you thought was your friend? Monsters don't deserve loyalty. He almost completely forgot about how much it hurt his own fist, landing that right hook. All that mattered now was that he get revenge on the one person who had the ability to save his lover and who refused to.

How dare Jack tell him than there was no way of saving her. He hadn't even tried. He'd worked here long enough to know that the team never gave up on anything, yet they were all perfectly happy to hang him out to dry. They'd made it quite clear he wasn't one of them, and if he wasn't with them, then he was against them.

He could hear Lisa's screams still echoing in his head, forced to watch on as his other best friend - the most unlikely of friends, a pet dinosaur - began mauling at her body. That was Jack's doing as well. He'd baited Myfanwy to attack. That's how much he hated her.

He dared Jack to come back at him so he could take another swing. A split lip was nothing compared to what he was ready to inflict. The others held him back though, and the longer he had to wait for that second chance to really show their captain what he thought, the more that will to fight drained out of him. He could see the same desperate need to retaliate ebbing away from Jack's eyes, though they still shone brightly with life. Once he'd thought they shone for him out of affection, but now it was a much different story.

Please, why won't you help me? he wanted to ask. She's innocent. Those monsters took her and mutilated her into this... thing. I just want her back. That's all I ever wanted. Please, please help me.

Comments

[bk_forever]

Ohhhhhh! *wibbles* Poor Ianto, it's so hard for him, but Jack's not the monster he seems, and he's right. Lisa's beyond help, Ianto just loves her so much he can't see she's no longer the woman he loves. =(

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Jack really needed to set his temper aside and show Ianto that he cared and that there genuinely was nothing they could do to fix her. Getting angry only put them at odds and made anything Jack said feel like a lie.