Fffc Bingo Card - Tense relations

[m_findlow]

Title: Tense relations 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: M (language) 
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 90 - Empty at fffc
Summary: Ianto is furious with UNIT and with good reason. 

'Easy, cariad,' Ianto said, gently placing a hand on the top of Jack's head as he helped guide him into the passenger seat. Jack's hands felt around him, finding the edges of the car door and sliding down into the leather, even as Ianto was reaching over him to stretch the seat belt across his body and click it into place. He gave Jack's shoulder one last reassuring touch before getting into the car himself. The sooner they got back to Cardiff the sooner he'd start feeling better. They should blow up England, in his humble opinion. 

He started up the engine and followed Gwen's blue car out onto the motorway before sparing a brief look in the rear vision mirror at the rest of his passengers. They were the ones who'd drawn the short straw, stuck in the SUV with him and his temper. No sooner had Jack reached out to place a hand on his knee then his restraint finally boiled over. 

'I cannot believe they did this. What the fuck were they thinking?' 

He didn't get an answer from anyone in the car, nor did he expect one. They all knew him well enough that the questions were rhetorical. UNIT would have a lot more explaining to do than that paltry excuses they'd made to his face in the past few hours. 

He spared a look across at Jack who was sitting next to him. He had heavy bandaging across his eyes and wrapped around his head to protect his eyes from any further damage. The rest of his uncovered face glistened from the salve that had been applied to it to stop the burns from getting any worse. A shame that UNIT's medical research team were as good as they were, having such a highly advanced product, ironically perfect for Jack's injuries. Of course it hadn't stopped Ianto from insisting that Jack be treated by their own medic. He had his whole team out here today and nothing UNIT did was going unsupervised. Even the hand that Jack rested on his knee was still pink and raw looking, preventing him from setting his own over the top for fear of causing Jack more pain. Not that Jack appeared to be in much pain. The drugs were playing their part. Jack sat there so placidly he might have mistaken him for being asleep but for the thumb that stroked tiny movements on his leg. It only made Ianto even more angry. He gripped the wheel and clenched his teeth. 

'How dare they test their new prototypes during a joint exercise!' There was nothing defensive about a grenade that exploded with such a bright fireball of white light that it immediately blinded and burned anyone who was too close when it went off. He didn't care if the burns were an unintended consequence of making it too powerful. They'd had no right to test it out in the field against civilians, not even his team. These were meant to be amicable exercises aimed at honing all their skills. They'd risked everything by their actions, throwing any future Torchwood and UNIT working relationships into doubt. 

'This never would have happened if Kate Stewart was still in charge,' he seethed. 

'But she's not,' Jack finally said, speaking for the first time. 

'And therein lies the problem.' 

When Torchwood had been at its lowest ebb, a disparate and ruined mess in the wake of the 456 attack, it was Kate who'd thrown a lifeline to Ianto. With Torchwood and Jack both gone, he'd asked them to give him a role there in London. He didn't much care what it was just so long as it got him out of Cardiff and his mind off all of the hurt and the horror they'd suffered. 

It hadn't been all smooth sailing, but he and Kate had fostered a working relationship that saw her restore some of the respect for UNIT’s mandate, and saw him able to track down those who'd been complicit in events at Whitehall and COBRA, seeing them get the justice they deserve for agreeing to sacrifice millions of children. 

When finally Torchwood rebuilt itself and Jack returned to lead it, Ianto returned to the fold, but he backed in Kate Stewart as their most important ally. If they were ever to prevent this kind of thing from happening again, Torchwood and UNIT needed to work together and the pair of them were both in heated agreement on many things that UNIT had gotten wrong in the years since her father had retired his commission. He missed having his meetings with Kate, but he understood why she'd moved on. Now he was back to dealing with military minded generals. 

'I'll be fine, Ianto,' Jack assured him. 

'Of course you will,' he snapped back. 'But what if it had been someone else? What's to say their prototype grenade doesn't blind someone permanently? They used us as guinea pigs. Don't tell me you wouldn't feel the same if it was me out there who'd been hurt.' Fucking idiots, he silently added. 'They jeopardised our people.' He didn't expect effusive praise from his teammates in the car but he wanted them to know he backed them one hundred percent, relations with more powerful organisations be damned. 

'You're going to have to take their calls eventually,' Jack told him, knowing that Ianto would stew over this for weeks, or even months. And he would. They'd made a massive blunder and this was his way of letting them know about it. They could call all they wanted but he wouldn't answer them. Let them think he'd cut all ties with UNIT. They needed Torchwood more than was true of the reverse. Something could happen between now and forgiveness that required him to reach out for their help, because the rift was unpredictable at best. As much as he hated putting his faith in them when they'd shown none, it was a risk he'd have to take.