Fffc Bingo Card - Sleepless nights

[m_findlow]

Title: Sleepless nights
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 36 - Sleepless at fffc
Summary: Both Jack and Ianto are having trouble staying asleep. 

Ianto sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a heavy sigh. There was nothing to look up at, lying flat on his back as he was. Just a blank ceiling in the dark with a little bit of light trying to sneak its way into the room at the top of the window, up and over the curtain railing. 

He shuffled over onto his side, pulling the duvet up close around his ears and shutting his eyes again. He focused on his breathing again, trying to think of nothing else at all, but the more he tried to think of nothing, the more everything wanted to be thought about all at once. That was the trouble with going to bed. Suddenly without anything else pressing, there was time for all those things that there hadn't been time to dwell on during the day. 

In and out, he thought, breathing deep and exhaling. Happy blank thoughts. 

Nope, it just wasn't happening. He wasn't tired, or overtired, or something. Whatever it was, he just couldn't get to sleep. His mind kept drifting back to work. Work was good. Work kept him from thinking about... other things. Those things were waiting for him when he eventually did fall asleep. A little bit less as each week went by, but still often enough and sharp enough that if he could convince himself that he could operate on no sleep at all, he'd do just that. Forever, if need be. 

Work was bothering him too. He'd picked up some strange meteorological data late in the day. Very localised. Barely a blip to register and in such a small spot that one might be forgive n for confusing a will o’ wisp or a stray raincloud for something it wasn't. Still it bothered him enough to want to dig a little deeper. It was that Torchwood instinct. The one all the others had that he'd largely ignored the entire time he'd been at Torchwood One, but which was beginning to tingle in the back of his mind the longer he worked here and the less of other things he had to occupy his mind. 

He tossed to his opposite side, plumping the pillow under his head even though he knew it was futile. Five minutes later he was out of bed, turning on the lamp and padding over to the cupboard to pull out clothes. He promised himself he wouldn't make a habit of this. 

Jack's pulse was racing as he blinked, realising he was no longer in Lahore, but back in the safety of his bunker. Just a dream. A nightmare. He felt wired by the experience so he dressed and abandoned hopes of sleeping. 

The petal on his desk kept his attention, but not enough that he didn't suddenly notice movement beyond his office window and the sound of gentle shoes on concrete. 

Jack poked his head out and saw Ianto, before checking his watch and noting the hour. 

‘You shouldn't be here.’ 

Ianto startled almost imperceptibly. ‘Neither should you.’ 

Jack was losing his touch if he could sleep all the way through someone coming into his hub and wandering around in it. Perhaps he'd subconsciously known it was friend rather than foe.

‘What have you got?’ It was the only thing he could think to say. He couldn't very well turn around and say “well, okay, I'm back off to bed, now. Have fun, whatever it is you're doing.” 

Ianto frowned. ‘Funny sort of weather patterns.’ It was almost a question but not quite, as if looking to Jack for confirmation that he was onto something that Jack already knew about. 

Jack paused a moment, studying him. ‘That's not the same suit you were wearing earlier.’ 

Ianto shrugged. ‘Went home. Couldn't sleep, so I took a shower and came back here.’ 

‘A bath probably would have been better if you were trying to find a way off to the land of nod.’ 

‘And you? What about you?’ 

Jack gave a similarly uncommitted shrug of his shoulders. ‘I was asleep and now I'm not.’ He was about to lie and say he didn't need much sleep. That sort of nonsense washed with Gwen but he didn't think Ianto would believe it for a second. Given everything that had happened in the last few months, he probably owed it to Ianto to be a little more honest. 

‘You ever have those nights where you get some creepy weird dream that kinda freaks you out a bit and leaves you unable to think about anything else?’ 

‘Only all the time.’

He hadn't meant it as a blunt statement, but Jack felt chastised by it all the same. He was an expert on bad dreams and the kind that must plague Ianto at night would keep any sane person awake. 

‘Definitely more creepy than weird tonight,’ Jack offered up, as if that would make it better. Let it be known that there were things that kept him awake at night too. Creepy was an understatement. He hadn't thought about that commission in Lahore for years, decades maybe. Moreover, he didn't want to think about it. He knew what he'd been dealing with back then and it scared him even now. Ianto's current project, the petal he'd found on his desk... All just coincidence. He was doing that human thing of trying to create meaning out of random chaos. Clairvoyants made fortunes off people doing that. 

‘I can make coffee, since you're up.’ 

‘Now that's guaranteed to keep me awake. And you for that matter.’ Jack picked up one of Ianto's files without really looking at it before dropping it back on the desk. ‘An hour on this and no more,’ he commanded. ‘Then you get some sleep.’ 

‘What about you?’ 

What about him indeed? Could he go back to sleep knowing that Lahore and those creatures were there waiting for him? 

‘I'll be waiting to take a look over your research when you're done.’