Fffc Bingo Card - Broken promises

[m_findlow]

Title: Broken promises 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Owen 
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 70 - Promise at fffc
Summary: Jack is finding it difficult to be mad at someone for keeping a promise. 

Jack stalked around the hub like he had a live wire attached to him - one that would send a jolt of electricity through him at any moment, sending him into a rage. His hub had been violated tonight by one of the worst creatures imaginable, capable of gaining a foothold on this world and destroying it completely. 

But worse than that was the feeling of being personally violated - the kind that was a breaking of trust and friendship. Jack expected his team to follow him, not just because he was their boss, but because he was more than their boss. He'd stuck by them through all the hard times, and each and every one of them had been given a second chance at life the moment he'd held out his hand to bring them into the fold. He knew that they deserved a second chance. 

But this? Tonight? He wasn't so sure he was up for handing out any more second chances. He wondered if he shouldn't have gone with his very first gut instinct - the one that had said anyone from Torchwood One was trouble, lucky to still be alive, and should move on with their lives, leaving Torchwood well behind them. 

You thought he was cute, Jack told himself. He was a little bit crazy, a little bit braver than he thought, and gods, that dry sense of humour! How could he have turned that away? 

Now he understood that tenacity. It had nothing to do with Jack. It was all about Ianto trying to save his girlfriend who was already way beyond saving. 

Jack might have killed him for his treason. He'd had the opportunity but he was curious to see what would happen next. Something in that gut instinct of his came back again, and he was still a little shocked as what he was witnessing - a cyberman unable to survive in its current damaged, half converted body being able to take another human body and transplant the brain. It was insane. He'd thought they were just robots but if what they did infiltrated the very neural networks inside the human mind, that made them more dangerous than ever. Who knew if one might be lurking in plain sight, just waiting for the opportunity to upgrade itself. Has there been any others at Canary Wharf that might have done the same thing and were now wandering the streets, looking for all the world like an ordinary human? The prospect was a frightening one. 

Jack stalked back down the corridor, heading towards the main hub where Owen should be, keeping an eye on their former general support officer. He slammed the door open, announcing his arrival, his anger having returned to full flight now that he was in proximity to the cause of all their troubles. 

Ianto looked a mess, sat there on the steps of the medical bay. His clothes were still covered in blood but his face was ashen and all fight had left him. 

'Where is he?' Jack demanded. 

At first Owen looked up at him, assuming Jack was speaking to him. Jack shook his head and glared down at Ianto. 

'Who?' Owen asked. 

'The guy,' Jack clarified. 'The one you brought in here to fix her. I assume he's dead.' If not, Jack had a special bullet reserved for him. 'No one's seen him since the last bit of CCTV with you and him here in Owen's medical bay. No other life signs coming up on our systems either.' 

Ianto was staring off into nothing and Jack felt incensed that he was being ignored. He grabbed a fistful of the back of Ianto's jacket and hauled him up.' You tell me where he is! Was he converted? Is he still here?' Jack's face twisted with rage. 'Are you protecting him, too?' 

Ianto's face quivered slightly and then he dropped it into his hands, a loud sob escaping as his knees buckled and he dropped to the floor. 

'I made a promise,' he blubbered between sobs. 'I brought him here to fix her.' 

'So he is dead, then,' Jack said dispassionately. 

Ianto sniffed and nodded. 'I had to take his body and hide it so you wouldn't know.' 

Jack huffed out a breath. Well at least now he could tell his team to start looking in every storage room and cupboard between here and the bottom of the hub. Dead was a good outcome. 

'I didn't mean for this to happen,' Ianto sobbed. 'I'm sorry. I promise I didn't want anyone to get hurt.' 

Jack set his hands on his hips, his anger still simmering just beneath the surface. 'Quite frankly, your promises don't amount to much, anymore.' 

Ianto could have turned his gun on them and fired. They wouldn't have hesitated in firing their own weapons, but there was a good chance he'd have managed to kill at least one of them before they did the same to him. But he hadn't. Jack had kept his eye firmly on that right hand, right up until it had dropped the gun to the floor, and even then he kept watching. A man who couldn't shoot his friends or his enemies was far more likely to turn the gun on himself instead. He'd crept in behind and confiscated it before the young man could have seconds thoughts about it. He didn't get the easy way out. None of them did. To his credit he had picked up the gun and pointed it at Lisa, or the cyberman, or whatever it had been. He hadn't had the guts to shoot the person he'd loved but he had at least raised the weapon. That told Jack a lot. Not too many people could have pulled the trigger, but he'd tried. Ultimately, that was what counted. 

'Get him cleaned up and out of my sight,' Jack instructed Owen. 

'What are you going to do to me?' came the quiet reply. 

Jack clenched his jaw. 'I haven't decided yet.'