Fffc Bingo Card - Friends and enemies

[m_findlow]

Title: Friends and enemies 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Gwen, John Hart 
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 3 - Enemy at fffc
Summary: Ianto isn't sure whether John is their friend or their enemy. 

‘Ianto, put the gun down,’ came Gwen's command. 

No. There was no way he was going to lower his gun; not when he had John Hart exactly where he wanted him, right in his cross hairs. At this distance he couldn’t possibly miss shooting John right between the eyes. He considered aiming lower, taking away the one thing John probably prized more than anything but the thought was fleeting at best. As much as he might have enjoyed hurting John, the better part of him wanted John dead, preferably as quickly as possible. 

‘Hey, hey. Don't start. I'll make things right, Eye Candy.’

Ianto could have shot him right there and then for the comment alone. He still had vivid memories of the last time he'd been called that - John's gun stroking his jawline in a threatening manner. John had no qualms about shooting him then, why should he have any now that their roles were reversed?

Surprisingly, it had been Tosh who had taken command of the situation, rather than Gwen. Perhaps she thought Ianto would listen to her more than he would Gwen. He did, but only just. Those bullet wounds in the three weevils that had converged on the hub wouldn't impede them long. Begrudgingly, Ianto had slid open the nearest drawer, removing a spare can of weevil spray and tossing it at John who already had one weevil slumped over him. ‘Give them a spray of that in the face.’ 

‘What? So it can get pissed at me and remove my face?’ 

‘It's a sedative,’ Ianto replied, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Just because they didn't trust John didn't mean he shouldn't trust them. ‘Unless of course you want your face ripped off.’ 

John gave him the subtlest of sneers but did as he was told, before tossing him back the canister so that Ianto could dose the weevil sprawled on the ground that was his charge. 

‘Tosh, keep searching for this signal,’ Gwen instructed her, pointing at the computer screen she'd been working on. 

‘Okay.’ 

Ianto followed behind Gwen and John, each hauling their own weevil. ‘What's Tosh looking for?’

‘I gave Jack a ring that emits a very specific signal,’ John explained. ‘I figured it would make it a whole lot easier to find him later after we buried him.’ 

Ianto very nearly dropped the weevil. ‘You did what?’ 

Gwen shot him a warning glance. ‘Ianto…’

‘I didn't have a choice,’ John explained. 

Ianto angrily dumped the injured, semi-conscious weevil unceremoniously on the floor of the cell. ‘There's always a choice!’ God! He knew they never should have trusted John. Not even for a second. 

What came next was a blur. Ianto had only enough time to see Gray for the very first time, trying to pick out the physical resemblances of the man he knew so well in the face of this stranger. Why was this happening? Why was any of it happening? Why did Jack's brother want revenge? 

His confusion turned back to anger at his cell mate. ‘This is all your fault!’ He meant what he said earlier. Killing John quickly was no longer on the table. He'd make John pay for every person who'd gotten hurt because of him, and then he'd hurt John even more for every single moment Jack had been made to suffer. 

‘Ianto, perhaps now isn't the time,’ Gwen suggested, trying hard to keep the peace. She really had no idea just how much of a scumbag he was. Or perhaps she'd forgotten that clean right hook she'd given him the last time they'd crossed paths, when he'd handcuffed her to him, a human ticking time bomb. 

John heaved a sigh. ‘Oh, please. Stop with the melodrama. As if you've never screwed up with good intentions.’ 

Ianto didn't dare dignify the statement with a response. 

‘I'm not your enemy, Eye Candy.’ 

‘Bollocks, you aren't,’ Ianto swore, slumping down onto the concrete bench and keeping one eye trained on the weevil opposite him in the narrow space. 

‘You said you found him. Jack's brother’, Gwen persisted, trying to eke the full story out of John that Ianto was desperate to know but too proud to ask. 

‘I did. 

‘You wanted him to take revenge on Jack. Why?’ 

‘I didn't. He hoodwinked me and took me hostage, and you don't know how much it pains me to admit that. I wasn't expecting their reunion to be all sunshine and rainbows but I thought that Jack…’

Ianto's hands balled up into fists at his sides. He thought Jack would what? Go waltzing back into John’s arms, forever grateful? Just the thought of it made Ianto feel sick. 

‘Look, all you people need to know is that when those aliens took Gray as a little kid they messed him up. Bad. He doesn't have a forgiving bone left in his body. He wants revenge on Jack for all the years of torture and he doesn't care how many people have to die to make that happen. If burying Jack for two thousand years wasn't enough, I don't know what else he'll do. Just don't expect he won't come back for us when he's done. He knows all about you lot.’ 

‘Only because you told him,’ Ianto grumbled. 

‘That's right,’ John said. ‘So you'd better be prepared for what Gray will do to the person Jack loves more than all the rest of us put together. If he blows up a whole city of innocent strangers, imagine what he does to people Jack cares about.’ 

John's words sobered Ianto very quickly. Gray wanted revenge and the best way to hurt Jack was always going to be to hurt other people. Ianto would take it though. He wouldn't dare let Jack think he'd caused this. Maybe John wasn't the enemy right at this very moment, but he'd suffer though whatever Gray had in store for him. At the end of it, he still had an axe to grind with John.