Post-Countrycide

[othercaptjack]

Jack is thinking about torture.

The team had mostly been silent on the way back, in varying degrees of shock or exhaustion, and Jack himself still in the eerie spaced-out calm that had followed the blinding, murderous rage that had driven him almost to the edge of a place he thought he was done with. Further, he thinks grimly, eyes steady on the road, hands gripping the steering wheel just a little too tight and for once driving strictly within the traffic laws.

A long time ago, he was pretty good at torture.

He still is, today proved that. But now that's not something good, even when it helps them. Just another day in the life of Jack Harkness, monster for humanity. Funny how that turned out.

He drops off Gwen, Owen and Tosh at their respective flats, Gwen to Rhys' unknowing presence, Tosh and Owen alone, but he brings Ianto back with him to the hub almost without thinking about it. The paramedics had gone over him at the village - nothing broken, but savagely beaten, and fairly badly concussed - and who else does he have to sit up with him? It's not as if Jack will sleep tonight in any case.

They park outside the office, and Jack goes around to open the door.

"Come on," he says, offering a hand.

Comments

[likesthecoat]

Ianto puts a hand in Jack's and braces himself on the car door. "Make the world stand still," he mutters before hauling himself out.

[othercaptjack]

"I'll do my best," he tells him solemnly, sliding his elbow under Ianto's as he gets out. He might be slim, but he's tall too, and Jack wants to be able to catch him if he collapses.

"Just get into the hub and you can sit down."

[likesthecoat]

"Okay," Ianto says faintly, all but leaning into Jack as he gets the ground under his feet.


[ooc: Sorry about the wait--we chatted for a lot longer than I expected.]

[othercaptjack]

The office is blissfully - if almost unnaturally - quiet as they head in, even the rumble of the door opening to the hub seeming somehow distant. And, thinks Jack, if he's feeling tht spaced out, it is absolutely anyone's guess what Ianto feels like.

He steers the boy to the sofa firmly, and sits him down, eyes tracking over visible bruises with inward icy anger, but without commenting.

[likesthecoat]

Ianto leans back without comment, long legs stretched out, weariness in every bone.

"Am I not supposed to sleep or am I supposed to sleep?" he mumbles, and gropes for the nearest bit of Jack he can reach for something to ground him.

Coat. That'll work.

[othercaptjack]

Jack has a fleeting image of Ianto as a kitten, and mentally smacks himself. He sits down on the edge of the couch, withing easy reach, and checks his watch.

"It's pretty late," he says. "So I think tiredness is normal. You can sleep soon; I just have to keep an eye on you. But it's probably best to stay awake for a little while and make sure no other symptoms turn up, okay?"

And make sure he wakes up in the morning.

[likesthecoat]

"Okay."

Please note: Ianto is generally not this agreeable without eyerolling.

"Talk to me?"

[othercaptjack]

It's noted.

Ordinarily, Jack might be pleased - a member of his team, doing what he asks without question or even a sidelong look? - but it's discomforting, after what he knows Ianto has been through.

"Sure," he says, and his voice is deliberately and falsely light to hide his anger and fear and the misery of leading people who trusted him into pain and nearly death. Again. "What would would you like to talk about, Ianto?"

[likesthecoat]

"I don't care." He tugs on Jack's coat. "Tell me a story."

[othercaptjack]

Jack looks down, and smiles very faintly.

"Since you ask so nicely," he says, and looks up in thought, lights of the hub reflecting in his eyes as he considers.

"Let me see. Have you even run across any Liirthuni while you've been at Torchwood? Either of them?"

[likesthecoat]

"Tell me a story please," Ianto murmurs and starts to shake his head, but immediately regrets it.

"Never met any Liirthuni."

[othercaptjack]

Jack watches him sharply out of the corner of his eye, but continues soothingly onwards.

"You should. Nice people. Peaceful, for the most part, due to this really weird queen of theirs. It was... perhaps a couple of hundred years ago, Earth time? Anyway, the monarch was largely a figurehead," Totally unlike England, then, "but she represented the whole planet. And one day, somehow, she passed a law through her council that banned war."

He tilts his head, eyes crinkling slightly in laughter. "And I'd say we shouldn't draw comparisons with such a hugely differing race and societal structure, but it really kind of is like our Queen Liz banning war in and by Great Britain."

[likesthecoat]

"In the country of the blind the one-eye man is king," which makes total sense to him.

[othercaptjack]

...Uh-huh. Jack brushes the back of Ianto's hand with vague affection for his meanderings, and continues.

"You might be right. But most of the individual leaders of the planet didn't think so. Unlike her, they had real power, if over smaller areas, and they thought her solution was oversimplistic and idealistic."

Beat.

"Also, many of them were involved in expensive wars at the time. Funny how that worked out."

[likesthecoat]

"Mm. War profiteering."

See, he's following. Really.

[othercaptjack]

He may be, for now - wait until Jack forgets himself and starts embellishing. It's only a matter of time.

"Exactly. So. Here, our intrepid band of heroes enter the story. Would you like one named after you, or shall I keep to the absolute truth?"

His tone suggests that absolute truth is sothing dull and to be avoided if at all possible.

[likesthecoat]

Ianto smiles as much as he can while moving minimal facial muscles and says, "Name one after me."

Truth has no place in bedtime stories.

[othercaptjack]

"Will do," says Jack with a grin.

"Captain... Jake, let's call him, and his dashing young associate, Ianto of the Jones regiment, had infiltrated the royal palace some weeks ago. It wasn't hard, because being the ruler of the entire planet, the Queen lived in a palace slightly larger than an average Earth city. What did confuse the issue was that the Liirthuni are usually around seven feet tall, varying shades of green, and have no concept of personal space."

Jack pauses a moment to sigh. "Good times. But really awkward for our heroes, when they were using holographic diguises."

[likesthecoat]

Ianto chuckles. And then whimpers a little, but buries it. They gave him medication for the various swellings and pains but not too much, due to the head injury.

So he's both vague and hurting. Talk about good times.

"Not seven feet tall."

[othercaptjack]

"No," Jack agrees, almost imperceptibly softening his voice, so as not to jar Ianto's aching head any more than necessary.

"As you might guess, they were caught, but not before they reached the royal quarters, and were in consequence supposed to be assassins, and were brought before the Queen. Alas, brave Ianto's well-researched cover story of being palace-to-palace salespeople was not believed. Captain Jake, meanwhile, was almost executed on the spot for complimenting her Majesty's lower supportive tentacles in the belief that this was acceptable, having accidentally researched the sister planet insead of Liirthune itself."

Some things never change.

[likesthecoat]

"They forgot the Fuller brushes."

He's still clutching Jack's coat, a little less for orientation now.

[othercaptjack]

"Yeah," Jack says, not even bothering to make sense of this now, but soldiering on.

"Things were just looking a little grim when, luckily, the door exploded."

Explosions make all stories better!

[likesthecoat]

Ianto opens one eye. "The cavalry?"

[othercaptjack]

"The real assassins," Jack corrects.

"The Royal Guards were slow. The thing about forbidding war is, how do you define war? They hadn't quite clarified that, then, so Jake and Ianto reacted first, and had the situation under control in less that a minute."

Apart from the renaming of 'Ianto' and 'Jake,' the first actual untruth.

[likesthecoat]

"Mm," sleepily. "Heroes to the rescue."

[othercaptjack]

"It was very dramatic," Jack assures him. "I believe there was even rope-swinging, at one point."

During the... one minute. Yes.


[OOC: Ahahahaha, crashing and burning. Slowtime? Will pick up tomorrow, when I'm less dizzy. &hearts]

[likesthecoat]

"Mm," again, in a positive, 'go on, please' kind of way. "Dashing heroes to the rescue."



[ooc: Good night! Feel better. *hugs*]

[othercaptjack]

"And so we were. Anyway, it convinced the Queen that they really weren't there to kill her, so she agreed to travel with the pair to their transport, where they had decided to give things a little help. They altered their disguises enough to look like exotic dancers, and began the trip back."

[likesthecoat]

Another quiet chuckle. "Rings on your fingers and bells on your toes."

[othercaptjack]

"We looked stunning. The guards on the way out certainly thought so, anyway."

[likesthecoat]

Ianto chuckles softly. "Y' always look stunning."

[othercaptjack]

Jack beams.

Yeah, he's that easy.

"I work very hard at it," he assures Ianto. "It's something I take seriously. Mind you, in this case it was very inconvenient. Flirting or saving the world? I should never have to make that choice."

[likesthecoat]

"This time you chose flirting?" He looks at Jack through half-closed eyes, a very small smile on his lips.

[othercaptjack]

"Yes."

>_>

"Fortunately Ianto was nobler than I, and got the Queen to the transport while I ah- distracted the guards. So it worked out okay."

[likesthecoat]

Ianto nudges him with his knee. "Good for you."

[othercaptjack]

Jack pats it gently.

"Thank you," he says. "Anyway, it took a while, but eventually our heroes hacked into the planetwide broadcasting network. There were gadgets and everything. And so the Queen got to broadcast her new law to the populace, despite what a few politicians wanted. She was still technically the supreme power, you see, even if she'd never really wielded it."

[likesthecoat]

"Yay," Ianto murmurs. "Happy ending."

[othercaptjack]

"It gets better," he tells him.

"The conflict of interests confused citizens so much that entire armies ended up going on strike. Governments were furious, but what could they do? The Queen was nice and safe with us on a heavily armoured stealth ship, and half their people were turning on them, so three ongoing wars basically collapsed, and another one fizzled out over the next couple of weeks."

[likesthecoat]

"Victory through confusion." He smiles deeper. "I like it."

[othercaptjack]

"I thought you might," Jack says, amused and soft.

"Fast forward a few years, and the Liirthuni were taking an oath on reaching adulthood to be utterly peaceful, except in dire need of defense. And they're still that way today. Just because one young queen made it that simple."

[likesthecoat]

Ianto smiles and softly applauds. "Hooray for Ianto and Captain Jake. And the Queen, of course."

[othercaptjack]

"Absolutely," says Jack, brushing a light hand over Ianto's hair, careful to avoid bruises.

"You can probably doze for a little while now, if you wanted. I'll have to wake you in an hour to check up, but if you're still tired..."

[likesthecoat]

"I could sleep," Ianto murmurs, getting as comfortable as he can while moving as little as possible. "Thank you, sir."

[othercaptjack]

Jack nods, slipping carefully off the couch to let Ianto have it to himself.

"I'll check on you soon," he says quietly, before leaning down to kiss his teaboy gently on the forehead.

Normal employer-employee relations have somewhat passed Jack by.

[likesthecoat]

This bothers Ianto very little.

He makes an affirmative-sounding hum and pulls up his legs so he can stretch out on the couch.

[othercaptjack]

Jack smiles to himself, and brushes Ianto's hair back, just once, then adjusts the pillow under his head, before standing up straight, regarding him, bruises and all.

Guilt he can understand in himself, and even perhaps the protectiveness is natural right now. But really, even for him, it should be a little early for fondness. But there it is.

He turns in silence, and heads off to let Ianto sleep awhile.