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silver_sun) wrote2008-01-06 10:28 pm
Fic: Closer
Title: Closer.
Rating: PG
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Summary: Jack is back and things at the Hub have returned to normal, or at least that’s what the rest of the team say. Ianto, however, knows differently.
Warnings/Spoilers: Incredibly vague spoilers for DW Last of Time Lords.
Ianto wonders how the rest of the team can be so blind. How it is that they can't see the changes in Jack since his return. Perhaps it is because they are so relieved that he is back that they don't notice how his smiles never reach his eyes anymore and his laughter is hollow. Perhaps it is because they want everything to be back to how it was that they choose not to see just how much he has changed.
They go out on more cases alone now. Jack says it’s because he trusts them, that they’ve proved themselves whilst he was away. Ianto wonders if it really is because he trusts them more or if it’s just that he no longer trusts himself.
Jack’s provided no answers and has given no indication as to where he was during the months he was missing or what happened to him whilst he was gone. All he will say is that he was travelling with an old friend and he won’t be leaving them again any time soon.
None of them are happy with his answers, but the look that Jack gives them and the tone of voice he uses when he tells them that’s all the information they are going to get, means that none of them have tried asking again. So now they pretend that everything is back just how it was, that everything is okay.
Only it’s not.
Ianto is the only one there late enough to see how Jack works far into the night. Works until he is unable to keep awake any longer and he falls asleep across his desk.
He’s the one who silently watches as Jack trains down on the firing range and on the exercise mats until he is almost too exhausted to stand. He doesn’t interrupt. He knows that isn’t something Jack would want. But afterwards he’ll go to him, take him something to drink, to sit with him just so he knows that he’s not alone.
It’s in the times when they are intimate together that Ianto can see the changes most clearly of all. How Jack's body is thinner and how he flinches if Ianto hold his wrists. It’s how sometimes he asks just to be held. It’s the way the need in his kisses has changed, how it’s no longer just the need to show Ianto how turned on he is, now it is something else, something raw and so very desperate. It's like Jack is scared that if he lets Ianto go even for a moment, everything around him might just disappear.
It’s in the still of the night after they make love, because there is no other word for it now, given the gentleness, the care with which they treat each other, when they sleep, curled so close together in Jack’s bed. Sleep until Jack’s nightmares bring him gasping awake, shaking, sweating, eyes staring wide and fearful around his room.
Ianto holds him then, lets Jack cling to him until the worst of his fear and panic is over. Ianto doesn’t ask him what it is that he dreams. He knows that pushing him for answers will only serve to drive him further away. So he waits and hopes that one day Jack will feel able to tell him and that he is strong enough to listen.
So it is in these quiet moments with Jack sleeping beside him that Ianto knows that despite everything that they have been through and the challenges that they have faced and still do face, they are closer now than they have ever been.
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It's going to annoy me a lot if Series 2 has Jack bouncing back without any consequences from the Year that Never Was - because there needs to be something like this, some reaction, in there.
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It'll annoy me as well if they completely ignore what happened in DW or (and possibly worse in my opinion) have Jack being happier because of it, just because he saw the Doctor again.
Not that I have anything against Jack being happy, it just that considering how the Doctor treated him, telling him that he abandoned him on the Satellite 5 on purpose because he was wrong and he did want to have to see him, and then treating him life he was disposable, is not something that I would have thought would make Jack happier.
I think that was one of the reasons why Jack decided not to go with the Doctor is because he thought that the Doctor would let him die repeatedly if it meant saving people, just because it wouldn't kill Jack permanantly.
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And I agree with Helenbright above. I want to see that Jack has come back affected in some way by the year that never was, and by the way the Doctor treated him, not just bouncing back like nothing happened.
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I hope that some mention of the year that never was is made, I mean I know that Jack can die, but all that dying, being kept captive and the Doctor's treatment of him, telling him that he left him behind on purpose on Satellite 5 and words to the effect of he can't stand to look at him, have to hurt.
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That was a lovely fic, thanks for sharing!
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I'm sort of hoping we get something like this in series 2 rather than Jack being totally fine with everything that has happened just because he got to see the Doctor again.
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Thanks for sharing!
Peace,
CS WhiteWolf
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As to whether they acknowledge the year that never was and the awful things the doctor said to Jack (kinda, Uh? and quite OOC for the doc IMO) I don't have a preference. Maybe they will hint at something dark and bad that has happened to Jack, but be non-specific, because they are separate series' for different audiences and they don't have to link up. But everyone has changed so there must be reference to the some reason for it, IMO that is.
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I'm not too sure how much I can say without it being a spoiler, but the whole thing of keeping the shows compeltely seperate seems to have gone somewhat out of the window, as there will be an edited version of each new episode shown at an earlier time for a younger audience.
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I really liked the subtle reference to the year that never was. 'How Jack's body is thinner and how he flinches if Ianto hold his wrists.' I'm hoping we get to see that on the show, but I fear they will just gloss over his torture (just like how they glossed over Torchwood when Jack was on Doctor Who).
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I'm still hoping for some mention of it later on in the series, although at least there was a some, if vague, acknowledgement of where he'd been in 2x01
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