silver_sun | Fic: Goodbye 2/2

Originally posted 20/12/2006

Title: Goodbye 2/2
Author;

the_silver_sun
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating pg13
Spoilers: Slightly for Cyberwoman, also for a certain well known picture said to be from episode 13.
Think that just about covers it. Now AU

I am still curled on the sofa when I feel somebody shaking my shoulder. Looking up I see Gwen’s tear stained face.

For a moment I cannot speak, cannot think, although some how I manage to sit up and try to unwrinkle my suit. Like that matters now, like anything matters.

“He’s gone, the rift it…” her voice is barely above a whisper, it’s distraught, incredulous, like she cannot believe what she has seen.

I don’t need her to say who though, I know.

She’s still speaking, but I cannot make out the words. Everything is numb, I can’t feel anything, I know I should feel something.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” Gwen is almost sobbing now, and I suppose that I should say something to her, but I can think of nothing I can say that will make things better, there is nothing anybody can say.

Then she is gone as well, running, stumbling down the steps that Jack so recently walked down.

The hub is silent now, but for the slow hum of the electrics, even Myfanwy is quiet. I don’t know where Owen and Tosh are, safe I hope.

I lie back down. I cannot find it in myself to leave, not yet.

I wake, although I didn’t realise that I had slept, the sound of an alarm, insistent yet muffled, from somewhere within the Hub.

The lights are flickering and the computers are going crazy showing an energy spike in the basement.

I know what it is, and I can feel bitter laughter bubbling up inside me.

It’s the rift. I’ve lost Jack and it was all for nothing. It’s achieved nothing, made no difference, because whatever it is, it’s still coming.

I am surprised how calm I feel as I go down to the weapon locker, take a gun and head for where the rift is reasserting itself. Perhaps it is because there is nothing left for me to lose.

What a mess, is my first thought as I open the basement door. The floor is cracked, and water is seeping in from broken service pipes, forming a pool in the centre of the room.

Electricity or something very much like it crackles across the surface of the water. So this is what the rift looks like when it is open, when it is about to let something unwanted in to our world.

The air above the water also seems to waver, and I am reminded of how heat reflects off metal or roads in hot weather.

Something is moving in the shimmering air, I cannot make it out, it is like a mirage, yet there is something familiar about it and I lower my gun. Hope however irrational starts to creep in.

Nobody who has gone through the rift has ever come back, I know I’ve read the files. But if anybody could, it would be Jack.

I stare into the crackling, arcing light, nothing is in focus, but I’m sure it’s him. It has to be him. He said he would come back, and Jack doesn’t lie to me, not about the things that matter.

The is rift faltering, struggling to stay open and I look about frantically for something, anything that might help keep it open, maybe even open it further.

Electricity is the only thing I can think of, it is was what Torchwood one used to open the other rift, the one that … I shake my head, I cannot go there right now, not and be of use to anyone.

There are cables fastened to the walls, part of the power system I put in place for… I squeeze my eyes closed for a moment. I cannot go there either. There are too many memories down here, why couldn’t it have been somewhere else? Anywhere else.

Grabbing one of the cables I wrench it loose from the wall, sparks scattering from the ragged wires that now protrude from where it has snapped from its connector.

Water and high voltage electricity – never a good mix, but I cannot not do this, or at least not try to do this. Where love is concerned I have always had a staggering lack of rational thought or judgment.

Holding the cable up as high as I can, I step in to the water, it is knee deep and icy cold but I can reach the rift now, reach out and touch it, if it wasn’t so terrifying it might actually be beautiful.

I know I am breathing too fast, my heart hammering almost painfully quick.

This better be you Jack. I close my eyes and push the cable in to the rift.

There is a sound like a bomb going off, a concussive blast, and I am dimly aware that the force of it has lifted me off my feet hurling me back against the wall.

I open my eyes with a groan. I ache all over, my head and hands are throbbing and it’s an effort to pull myself to my feet, even using the wall for support.

The room is darker than before, most of the lights probably having fused with the explosion or whatever it was.

The crackle and ozone smell of the rift is gone though, and I blink to try to focus, everything seems to spin, images doubled, overlapping, but I can still make out a figure kneeling in the water.

I could laugh, cry, shout for joy, because I know who it is.

Staggering across to the pool I drop to my knees in the water beside him.

He looks tired, soaking wet and a little bloody, but he smiles at me and I know that he’s still the same old Jack, that despite everything, it's all going to be ok.

“Miss me?” his voice is teasing, sexy in a way that only Jack is.

I cannot speak, my throat feels too tight with too many emotions, and I wrap my arms around him, burying my head against his shoulder.

“Come on,” Jacks arms are around my waist, pulling me up with him as he stands, “lets get out of here,”

He kisses me as we leave the basement, a slow, gentle kiss and he leans his forehead against mine as we stop, and he smiles, “I told you it wasn’t goodbye.”

Formating tweaked 7/1/07