Torchwood Fic: They tell me it happened on a Wednesday (Chapter 6)

[marita_c]

Chapter 6 Jack isn't sure whether to be worried or relieved when Claire acknowledges him silently as he joins her on the roof. The first time he stepped onto the roof of this building only to find that it was already occupied, she'd shooed him away, telling him to go find his own roof to haunt. He'd been amused to discover that they had something in common after all, but in order to avoid an argument, he had refrained from telling her that this one was his favourite, and left her alone. Now, however, she doesn't seem too bothered by his presence. Overhead, the early afternoon sunlight is gradually blocked by dark clouds. "Looks like it's going to rain," he tells her. Claire shrugs. "I suppose we'll get wet then," she replies. She takes a step closer to the edge of the roof and looks down at the street below them. "What happened?" Jack asks. Claire shrugs, but doesn't reply. She steps back from the edge and turns to face him. "Come on, Claire, talk to me. I get a call from Martha telling me you cancelled the appointment, you don't answer the phone, and Ianto's disappeared." Jack sounds more than a little frustrated. "I don't know what happened!" she says. She pushes her sunglasses up to rest on her head, and Jack notices her red-rimmed eyes. "I couldn't go through with it. I… I touched him…" she says, her voice shaky. "And it was like closing a circuit." Jack stares at her, uncomprehending. "We were all there, connected," she tries to explain. "Me, him… and her…" her hand ghosts over her belly briefly. Jack's eyes widen, and he lets out a long breath. Claire shakes her head. "I don't know what to do." Tears well up in her eyes, and Jack has never seen her looking more lost. He wants to take her in his arms and tell her everything will be alright, but he knows Claire will never allow it, so he stays where he is. She turns away from him, and her shoulders are shaking silently. Jack curses under his breath and goes to her anyway. He wraps his arms around her and pulls her towards him, and is relived when instead of pushing him away as he was expecting, Claire buries her face in his chest and weeps. "I want my mom," he hears between hitched breaths. Jack closes his eyes and strokes her hair. "I know. I'm so sorry…" he says, not sure what he's apologizing for. After a few minutes Claire calms down, and pulls away from him. "He went to see his mother," she mumbles softly before looking up. Jack looks at her quizzically. "Ianto," she clarifies, then clears her throat. "He hasn't disappeared. He said he hasn't seen his mum in a year, so he drove to Newport to visit her." "Oh," Jack says, mildly surprised. Claire takes a tissue out of her pocket and turns around as she blows her nose. "He ran as far away as he could from Torchwood. From you. And now I'm dragging him back here." She shakes her head. "I didn't want this." Jack has to roll his eyes a little at the drama. "We'll figure this out, Claire. It's a baby, not the end of the world. Although I'm quite good at handling the latter, too." She half-turns, and Jack can see a watery smile. In the distance, they can hear thunder. "Come on," Jack says. "You don't want to stand out in the rain on this planet. It's disgusting." *** It's pouring rain by the time Ianto makes it back into town. He takes a turn that should bring him to the Marriott, where his assistant has reserved a room for him for the night, when his cell phone rings. He picks it up and flips it open. "Ianto Jones." "Ianto, it's Marilyn," says a familiar voice. "You have a moment?" Ianto smiles. "For you, I have two," he replies. "Not something I'd usually bother you with, but I heard you were in Cardiff." "What is it?" he asks, frowning a little. "The rift alarm went off at Torchwood about an hour ago. That happens about ten times a week, on average, but five minutes later their breach alarm was activated, and we can't get a response from anyone there." Ianto curses under his breath and makes a sharp left turn, changing direction. "I'm ten minutes away, Marilyn, I'll check it out," he says. There's a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.  "Okay, Ianto. According to UNIT protocol, a team is dispatched if we don't get anyone for twelve hours," Marilyn informs him.   "I know," he says. "Do me a favor though, if you don't hear from me in an hour, send backup, sod the twelve hours." "Sure thing. Just be careful, alright?" Ianto smiles grimly and thinks about the A626 crate in the boot. "I'm always careful," he replies. *** Jack gasps to life around the cloth in his mouth for the fifth time in forty five minutes, and immediately takes inventory of his surroundings. In the moments before the last time he died he remembers seeing Claire finally managing to loosen the knot binding her wrists together behind her back. The three Vapros had all been focused on him; one of them had his teeth firmly embedded in Jack's throat and was gulping his blood loudly, and the other two were raptly watching and awaiting their turn. He had hoped that Claire would manage to slip out and away while they weren't looking, but had blacked out due to blood loss while she was still struggling to completely free herself from the ropes. Now the chair Claire had been tied to is vacant. Jack frantically looks around the room. Martha and John are still on the floor to his left, both unconscious. When earlier there were three Vapros in the room, now there are only two, standing by the door. They look over at him as soon as they hear him gasp back to life, and the looks on their faces can only be described as joyful, as they begin to understand that they have stumbled upon an all-you-can-eat buffet. A sudden movement in the doorway catches Jack's eyes, and his heart sinks as he watches the third Vapro walking into the room, dragging a struggling, sick-looking Gwen by the hair. Gwen takes in John and Martha's unconscious figures on the floor, then looks at Jack. She mouths "Where's Claire?" at him, but Jack just shakes his head, eyed wide. He had been grateful, at first, that Gwen was on sick leave when the Vapros showed up, but he soon realized that, as she was automatically paged when the breach alarm was activated, it would be only a matter of time before she showed up, most likely ridiculously under-armed and unprepared to handle the situation. For once, Jack hates being right. The two other Vapros approach Gwen and start sniffing her. She lets out a shrill scream as one of them licks her throat. Jack tries to yell at them to get away from her, but his voice is muffled by the cloth in his mouth. The Vapro closest to Gwen pulls back suddenly, and turns to the other two. "This one is sick," it tells them. "Dispose of her." From the confused expression on Gwen's face, Jack realizes that she cannot understand what the Vapros are saying. In his desperation, he starts yelling and struggling against his bindings violently. The Vapros ignore him completely, and one of them raises a shiny metallic weapon shaped loosely like a gun and points it at Gwen's head. Gwen's eyes grow impossibly wide, and Jack can only shout a desperate, muffled "NO!" as he watches the Vapro's finger tightening on the trigger. There's a loud crack of a fired shot, and Jack freezes, watching in shock as the Vapro holding the weapon collapses to the floor instantly, a red circle blossoming between its eyes. After an initial shocked second, things happen very quickly. The two remaining Vapros point their weapons towards the source of the shot, the back entrance to the room. Gwen takes advantage of the distraction to run towards Jack. She pulls the cloth out of his mouth, then falls to her knees behind him and starts working on the ropes binding his hands behind the chair. Jack barely notices her, as another shot is fired towards the Vapros from the back entrance. This time, however, they're ready, and moving at inhuman speed, they evade the shot and return fire. Blue pulses shoot out of their guns almost soundlessly, and blast into the partly open back door and the wooden crates surrounding it.   From his position, Jack manages to get a glimpse of someone crawling through the door and crouching behind the crates. With a jolt, Jack realizes who it is. Gwen pauses in loosening the ropes and Jack can hear her whispering. "My God, Ianto…" He sees Ianto throwing something into the middle of the room. It's a small, black device shaped like a disk that Jack doesn't recognize. There's a red indicator light at the top that blinks several times and then turns green. The Vapros look down at the device, but when nothing else happens, they ignore it and return their focus to Ianto. Jack watches, horrified, as Ianto kicks the crates away from him, leaving him completely exposed. He's about to shout at the younger man to get the hell out of there, when Ianto looks his way briefly and winks. The Vapros waste no time; they aim their weapons at Ianto and pull the trigger. Nothing happens. They try again, but realize quickly that their weapons have been rendered useless. With a snarl, they throw the weapons aside and lunge towards Ianto, almost faster than the eye can see. Ianto is ready for them. In a sleek move, he drops to the floor, rolls sideways, and simultaneously draws two large guns from his waistband. Jack only gets a brief glimpse, but he's convinced that the guns are not of earthly origin. Jack and Gwen watch, shocked, as Ianto fires two, four, six shots mid-roll, and finally hits the far wall of the room. The Vapros crash into the wooden crates and then collapse to the floor, motionless. Ianto climbs to his feet smoothly and turns to Jack and Gwen. "Are there more of them?" he asks urgently. Jack opens his mouth to answer when a sharp scream sounds from one of the tunnels. "Claire!" Jack shouts. He tries to rise but realizes that his legs are still partially tied to the chair. He turns to Ianto. "Go!" he orders him urgently. Ianto gives a tight nod and runs out of the room. Ten seconds later, Jack's legs are finally free and he tears himself from the room and runs out as well, Gwen close on his heels. As the two start running deeper into the tunnel, they're hit by a flash of blinding light, gone in a fraction of a second and leaving both of them blinking in confusion. They run the rest of the way towards the source and come to stop at a spot where the floor is singed, and the air smells of ozone. "Claire? Ianto?" Gwen calls out, but only the echo of her words sounds in the dark tunnel. Jack keeps staring at the singed spot in the floor, his lips drawn into a thin line and his face pale and drawn. "Jack? Where the hell are they?"

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