Torchwood: Fanfic: Justice denied

[m_findlow]

Title: Justice denied
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Owen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length:1,132 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Juliet316's prompt "Any, any, a conviction overturned" at fic_promptly
Summary: Ianto receives the worst kind of news.

As Ianto read the news on his screen he was almost shaking with anger. How could this have happened? There was simply no way any sane person could have done this, not with all the evidence mounted against them. He wanted to lash out and hit something. There was no way he could just sit here and get on with his day.

He pushed up from the chair and made a beeline for the door. Sod it if someone wanted coffee. He was so mad that he didn't even notice Jack coming in the opposite direction until they'd collided, practically sending Jack tumbling to the floor. Fortunately, Jack's larger frame stopped them both from going over.

'Hey, you wanna watch where you're going!' Jack laughed.

'Get out of my way,' he said, roughly shoving Jack aside and continuing out the door.

'What the hell was that about?' Owen said, looking up from his own desk and frowning.

'I have absolutely no idea,' Jack replied.

There was no air to breathe down here, Ianto realised, as he waited the interminable thirty seconds for the lift to ascend from the lower hub all the way up to the ground level. He thought he might pass out before it got there, trying to heave in huge lungfuls of air. When the doors slid open, he practically clawed at them, jogging the entire way down the dark corridor until he could slip out through the side door, bursting through the tourist office and out into the bracing Cardiff air. He was practically doubled over as he sucked in the salty breeze, filling his lungs and clearing some of the dizziness from his head. He put his hands on his hips and just stood there, staring mindlessly out over the water.

How could this have happened? It was beyond wrong. After everything they'd all been through, and some judge somewhere had overturned the conviction for Helen Sherman. If anything, she'd been one of the worst offenders, in his opinion. She'd been the one that held the gun to his head, lead him up into that room of depraved butchery. She was wicked and evil and a hundred other things his mother had always raised him to believe didn't exist within the human condition. She'd been wrong, though. These people didn't even count as human. They were butchers and barbarians. They would have chopped him and all his friends to little pieces if Jack hadn't stopped them.

How many hours had he spent being forced to relive it all, drawing up witness statements and being interviewed by the CPS, forced to answer questions about what they'd done, or had been planning on doing. How long had he had to sit there whilst the police came and took their photos of all the injuries and the bruises? He felt like a piece of evidence rather than a victim.

The day in court had been the worst, subjected to all the same questions over and over again, and cross examined by the defence lawyers who sought to play down and discredit his testimony. They wanted to know why he was out there, how had he come to be in the village, why was he carrying a firearm, and casting aspersions that implied maybe he was one of the people who'd come to the village to kill. It incensed him, being accused like that. Even though the CPS had prepared him, it didn't help any, remembering only to keep his temper in check as instructed. It wouldn't do their case any good if he looked like anything other than a scared victim. The way the defence lawyers spoke though, you'd have thought he was the one on trial. How could anyone defend those monsters?

Torchwood never dealt with this sort of thing. Deadly aliens were captured, sent home if they could be, or killed when there was no other option. Humans didn't fall into the same category. As much as he might liked to have killed them, they couldn't. They had to face the same justice as every other human was entitled to. Only now it didn't feel like justice. It felt like another crime had been committed. He'd faced a lot of things since that terrible trip out to the Beacons, but nothing had terrified him the way it had when that enormous blade was pressed against his throat, ready to slice though his flesh and leave him dying slowly and painfully on the floor. Those cannibals had intended on bleeding him dry. Perhaps Jack should have just killed them. A whole village full of dead people and a barn full of cut up corpses. Who would ever know that the perpetrators were amongst the victims?

'You okay?' came the voice behind him, finding Jack leaning in the doorway of the tourist office, carefully watching him.

'No, I'm not,' he replied, feeling deflated.

Jack stepped forward. 'What's going on?'

He pulled out his phone and showed Jack the report he'd been looking at half an hour ago. Jack's expression went dark and angry.

'How could they?' Ianto asked. 'She was a murderer.'

Jack read the report for himself, picking out the salient details that had angered his companion so much. 'They're claiming coercion and years of mental abuse by her husband.'

Ianto snorted. 'It's all crap.'

'It's a technicality,' Jack replied, angry that some clever lawyer had swindled a way out for one of them.

'It's wrong,' he replied, feeling as if life had let him down completely.

Jack could appreciate how upsetting this was. How many hours had he spent nagging one of the prosecuting lawyers, who happened to also be an old flame. He'd promised he'd get justice for Jack and his team, and now this news had dealt them a major blow. He knew it was pointless to try and console him with empty words like "it'll be okay" and "she'll probably disappear never to be seen again". At least he hoped she would. If she ever showed her face in this town again, he'd have a bullet reserved just for her.

'Do the others know yet?' Jack asked.

Ianto let out a long breath, unable to meet Jack's gaze. 'I only just found out myself.'

Jack reached out a hand on his shoulder before pulling him into a hug, letting Ianto fall into his embrace. 'No one is ever going to hurt you ever again. You're a lot stronger than you were a year ago.'

'Not strong enough to put them behind bars where they belong,' came the muffled voice against his coat.

'You did everything right. This wasn't in your control. It wasn't in any of our control.'

'It still feels wrong.'

He reached down and cupped Ianto's cheek. 'I know.'

Ianto tried to stand tall, though Jack could tell it pained him to do so, masking his devastation. 'So long as they're never in our lives again, I guess I just have to live with that.'

Jack nodded. He'd make sure of it. He had his own brand of justice to exact.

Comments

[bk_forever]

The worst of it is that it could have happened exactly that way. My hope was that all the cannibals would have rotted in prison, but sometimes the justice system fails the victims. Poor Ianto =( Tosh too.