Ficlet: Lost And Found

[bk_forever]

Title: Lost And Found

Author: badly_knitted

Characters: Ianto, Jack, mentions Gwen and Bilis Manger.

Rating: PG

Spoilers: End Of Days.

Summary: Jack helped Ianto get over losing Lisa, but who can help him get over losing Jack?

Word Count: 400

Written For: Prompt #407: Past Prompts Revisited, using #013: Lost, at slashthedrabble.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters. They belong to the BBC.

Jack’s gone and Ianto feels lost. It was Jack who’d given him a new purpose and reason for living after Lisa’s final end, Jack who’d offered new hope for the future and a warm body to cuddle up to when the nightmares were bad.

Now it’s Jack who’s lying on a cold metal tray in the morgue, with Gwen stubbornly hovering beside him like a grieving lover, keeping everyone else from saying their final goodbyes. Ianto wishes Jack was here to tell him what to do, how to deal with another loss when his heart has barely healed from the last one.

He should be the one down there, sitting beside the man he’s gradually been falling in love with over the last few months. He wants to be there, holding Jack’s cold hand, spilling his heart out to ears that can no longer hear, but Gwen won’t leave and Ianto’s not about to utter those private and personal expressions of love in front of her. They’re for Jack alone, Jack who is gone.

Ianto wonders whether he would follow Jack if he could.

The coat is a poor substitute for Jack, but it still smells of him so Ianto hugs it as he grieves. It hurts, not having the comforting warmth of Jack’s arms around him, so he puts the coat on and hugs himself, but it’s not the same and soon he returns the tear-dampened coat to its hook. There’s work to do, and he can’t let Jack down. Not again.

Perhaps he deserves this misery, punishment for betraying his leader, his lover. He’d thought he was doing the right thing, but he wasn’t, Manger had deceived them all; they’d fallen for his lies. What had it got them? They’d unleashed a demon that could have destroyed them all, forcing Jack to make the ultimate sacrifice to save them from their stupidity. They couldn’t undo what they’d done, but they could pick up the pieces as best they could and try to carry on, in Jack’s name.

When Jack appears in the doorway, pale but alive, it’s nothing short of a miracle. Ianto approaches, tentative and unsure; after what he did, his lover has every right to hate him. But Jack is a better man than that; he understands, and he forgives. Wrapped in Jack’s arms, held close, Ianto no longer feels lost; he’s found his way home.

The End

Comments

[owensheart.livejournal.com]

This was such a beautiful and heartbreaking story.

[bk_forever]

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it.

[sagrario martínez castro (from livejournal.com)]

But... I´ll never understand it, Why Gwen next to Jack? This horrible writers of the show! Your story is perfect.

[bk_forever]

I couldn't understand either, I suppose it was to show how caring Gwen was and how much Jack needed her, neither of which I believe. It should have been Ianto.

Thank you.

[teaboyfan.livejournal.com]

That reunion was one of my favorite moments between them, along with Jack's protectiveness in "Adam." Thanks for revisiting it for us; I share Ianto's annoyance with intrusive Gwen's acting so possessive.

[bk_forever]

Gwen annoyed most people with that scene. I wanted to reach through my TV screen, pick her up by her head, dump her back home with Rhys, and tenderly plonk Ianto down at Jack's side.

There reunion was so touching, it showed how deeply they care for each other.

Thank you.

[raynewton.livejournal.com]

I.m sure that's what Ianto would have done,sought comfort from coat. I never liked Gwen, but that scene made me hate her. Stupid writers. Maybe Ianto should have slipped her some drugged coffee, and gone to be with Jack when she passed out.He'd be grieving too much to think of it. LOved Jack's reaction to Ianto. He knows who really loves him

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

Gwen hog a lot of screen time even when it didn't make sense.

Kissing Jack while he is "dead". *scoffs*

[bk_forever]

I know! That annoyed me so much, all her behaviour in that episode. She's desperate to get Rhys back, and when she does she leaves him to go and sit beside someone else's lover? I wanted to slap her.

Thank you.

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

Yeah!. Make up your mind Gwen!.*bitchy*

[bk_forever]

I support your opinion 100%, but Gwen should stick to Rhys because Jack is Ianto's!

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

I don't know what kind of love triangle thing RTD was trying to pull here.

I know I get carried away with my feedback. I end up going into a rant.

Your fic's are lovely.:)

[bk_forever]

I rant about Gwen all the time *rolls eyes* I don't know why RTD even thought some kind of love triangle was needed. It just got in the way of telling good stories and often sidelined the interesting aspects of episodes for Gwen's soap opera histrionics. Honestly, sometimes she needed to be sat on the naughty step for a time out. For a grown woman, she spent an awful lot of time behaving like a spoiled brat wanting her own way in everything with never a thought to anyone else...

And there I go, ranting again, lol!

Thank you, I'm happy you like them!

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

Gwen lack qualities that female leads usually have. She was like a scary pop-up book. Sort of there but you didn't know why.

Rambling and ranting is my thing so I welcome the company.

Your fic's make me ponder...

[bk_forever]

I'm all for pondering. A lot of them come about before the prompt makes me start thinking... So I have to write, to see where my thoughts take me.

Gwen lacks all the positive qualities that I like and has all the negative ones I loathe. She didn't belong in Torchwood, she was closed-minded and too sure that she was right.

Yay! Feel free to ramble and rant ;)

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

Gwens storyline started off just like Rose. Bored and then meets a mysterious man that she becomes smitten with and takes the guy thats in her life already for granted.

No skills, no hardships, no nothing in her characterisation.

It was disappointing.

[bk_forever]

It's very one-note of RTD isn't it? Two shows, two female leads, same story. He has no imagination. I would have made Gwen an investigative journalist trying to find out the truth about the mysterious Torchwood, that would have made her inclusion in the tam make sense because she has no skills, but Jack would need to keep a close eye on her.

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

I know!. Gwen was just more aggressive. She was checking out the Tenth Doctor as well.*rolls eyes*

There was no need for her to be from the police force except to be associated with Andy.

Remember when she went back there and acted like she owned the place?

[bk_forever]

Some police liaison she was - she alienated the police even worse than Jack did, and at least Jack had good reason to make the police so mad they just stalked away from Torchwood-related scenes. Kept them away from harm.

Gwen fancied everything that moved. If she was supposed to be a female version of Jack then it backfired badly, because for all his flirting, the only person we know he sleeps with is Ianto.

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

I wish there had been more scenes between the police force and Torchwood but I can understand why that wasn't the case. Andy was the only one who questioned Gwen as far as I can remember.

Jack flirted but he never deceived anyone. Gwen attracted guys for some reason but I could never understand why? Remember Eugene, Andy, that guard in the CoE etc.

She only had an affair with Owen because Jack wouldn't.

[bk_forever]

I think she had the affair with Owen because she wanted to. She didn't like him, but he was trying to get her (in my opinion to prove that he could, because he was sic of her harping on about her perfect relationship and rubbing in in everyone's faces). Gwen is easy.

I never understood why guys were attracted to Gwen, unless it really is about big boobs for most guys.

I've written two this time around with D.I. Swanson, and I think I'll do more where she's an unofficial police liaison. She works really well, and I like writing her.

[cynthia2015.livejournal.com]

It was because of their bickering that a sex alien went on the lose. Okay mainly Gwen's fault. Jack should have had second thoughts already by then about her contribution to the team.

I disliked that whole Owen/Gwen affair it was just an excuse to make the show adult. They were both using each other so why was she crying over cold-ish pizza when he dumped her?

[bk_forever]

She wasn't, she was crying over Rhys not forgiving her for the affair after she drugged him so she could get his forgiveness without having to deal with the consequences. That disgusted me, she didn't feel ashamed for cheating on Rhys, it was all self-pity because Rhys wouldn't forgive her.

Gwen tried to show off, the alien got loose, and then Gwen kisses Jack to thank him for saving her when everything that happened was her own fault. Boy, she just started off annoying and went downhill from there!

[too-beauty.livejournal.com]

Lovely and so true, Jack does really have a big heart!

[bk_forever]

As big as the universe!

Thank you!