m_findlow

Title: Disregard for life
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 500 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Challenge 573 - Dangerous at slashthedrabble
Summary: Danger becomes irrelevant when the life of someone you love is on the line.

The time between Jack's agonising scream and Ianto leaving Gwen's side from their position of safety behind the SUV couldn't have been more than a second. She stood no chance of grabbing Ianto and stopping him. Jack's orders had been clear. Do not attempt to engage. She didn't like it, but his serious tone made her comply.

Poking her head out to look, she saw Ianto striding purposefully towards the creature. His gun boomed loudly like a drumroll as he took shot after shot, each one become more devastatingly accurate the closer he got to the creature. There was no fear in that expression, only anger and a deep-seated need to avenge the injustice done to his lover. It frightened Gwen at how cold and calculated it was, until she realised that the bullets were doing little to slow it down, and that Ianto was surely about to run out.

She leapt out from behind the protective shield of the SUV, using the bonnet to steady her shot like a sniper, aiming directly for its head, carefully not to hit Ianto, and squeezing the trigger several times. After an eternity, it finally fell forward, and Ianto was there to stand over it, putting his last round into its head execution style. He didn't give it a second glance as he fell to his knees beside Jack's body, and Gwen quickly joined him.

Jack was in a bad way. The huge bladed arm of the creature had sliced down Jack's right side, stripping his arm down to the bone from shoulder to wrist. It bled everywhere, forming a pool underneath him. It would have take a second swing and decapitated Jack's head completely had Ianto not intervened, distracting it at that crucial moment.

Gwen walked around the SUV, storming over to them, absolutely furious with Ianto. 'You bloody idiot! What the hell were you thinking?'

'It was going to kill Jack,' he said, his lap already soaked in Jack's bloody arm as it slowly began healing itself. Jack himself was insensible from the blood loss.

Gwen's rage burned inside her. 'But not you?'

Ianto didn't look up. 'Jack only had six bullets. I had thirty.'

'Yeah, and it took forty to kill it,' she said, emphasising that without her help, he'd be lying there dead alongside Jack. 'There was a reason Jack told us to stay hidden! It was stupid and dangerous, you confronting it like that.'

'This whole job is stupid and dangerous,' he retorted, too busy focusing on Jack, making shushing sounds and stroking his hair back from his face.

She grabbed him by the shoulder, turning him to face her. 'Your dying would kill him. Do you understand that?'

'And his dying kills me!' Ianto yelled back, before clutching Jack's head close in his arms and doubling over him, falling into a silent, slow rocking motion.

Gwen dropped down beside him and wrapped her arms around the pair of them, hugging them close. 'I know, sweetheart. I know.'