Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Jack, Ianto, OCs

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 1,034 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 227 - Ring

Summary: The door was shut for a reason.

He'd been staring at the phone so hard he was sure he might burn a hole in the desk in the spot where it was sitting.

He shouldn't have yelled at Jack, but Jack made him so angry sometimes. Ianto had told Jack that under no circumstances was he to even attempt to investigate the strange stories that had been filtering out of the jungles of Bolivia. It wasn't that he doubted there was something worth looking into, but he didn't want to mobilise a team to investigate it. Things were too politically unsound, and there were rumours that militia groups and drug cartels used the jungles to hide their operations. Even for Torchwood, it was too risky to send people in. Jack didn't agree, emphasizing that something alien hiding in the jungles could be found by any of them, making the situation worse. What if it was a weapon of some kind, or a virus? It had lead to the argument that had eventually resulted in Jack storming out, threatening to go anyway, on his own if need be.

Whilst Jack was often full of bluster and threats, this time he'd made good on his promise. By the time Ianto had come home, it was clear Jack was gone, though having taken little in the way of luggage. Frustratingly, he'd left both his phone and his vortex manipulator on the bedside table. Jack never went anywhere without his vortex manipulator. It said in no uncertain terms that he didn't want Ianto tracing him, that's how much he knew Ianto would object and try to hinder his efforts. He already had the Torchwood team in Argentina briefed on Jack's disappearance and had them ready to go at the first sign of trouble, but without a location or what they might be up against, they'd been left sitting on their hands.

That had been two weeks ago. Since then, Ianto hadn't heard a word from his husband, and every day that dragged by made him even more nervous and on edge. Jack couldn't die, but that didn't mean he was safe. All Ianto could think about was the idea that Jack had been captured by one of these militia groups, being tortured and held hostage. If someone got in touch with a ransom amount he'd pay it in a heartbeat. Trying to think up other possible permutations of events was too much. Anything could be out there.

He'd had his office door shut all morning. It was against his open door policy, but since he was now trying to do Jack's job as well as his own, he felt snowed under. Cardiff's day to day operations were much more complex than they had been a few years ago when he'd been nothing more than a member of the team. Now he was trying to juggle that and running the larger global network of Torchwood offices and operations, which on a good day, was a job and a half on its own. Worrying about Jack only added to the mounting pile of concerns weighing on him.

The knock on his door didn't wait for him to look up and give permission to enter. He was too busy looking across at his phone which had lit up with an unknown number calling. Very few people had that number, and almost all of them were in his address book. For it to be ringing for any other reason was highly unusual. It could have been a wrong number, but he prayed that it was calling him for a reason, hoping beyond hope that the reason was Jack. He answered it even as the staff member opened the door and let themselves inside.

'Ianto Jones, speaking.'

'Ianto, it's me.' The voice was faint and scratchy, bad reception on the line, but it was undeniably Jack's.

'Jack? Can you hear me?' The line was full of static, or maybe it was just pelting down rain on the other end. Either way, it made it hard to hear. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the person standing by the door, waiting to speak with him. Moments later, a second came in, walking towards his desk. Did nobody knock and wait anymore, he thought, feeling annoyed. He turned away from the movement of his staffer rifling through a pile of reports, which in itself was distracting, though they seemed unperturbed and went making any moves to leave him to take the call.

'Ianto. It's a really bad line and I don't think it's gonna hold up for long but,'

Another person saw the door half ajar and decided to stop by. Having spotted the first team member, they began having a conversation.

'Yeah, okay, doesn't matter. Just tell me where you are,' Ianto said, reaching for a notepad and pen, no longer where he'd left them due to the shuffling on his desk that had just occurred. The staffer with the files clutched in her arms now went across to join the conversation with the other two, which was becoming more of an argument. Ianto tried waving at them to get them to go outside and have their discussions elsewhere. When that didn't work, he stood up and made shooing gesticulations, all the while trying desperately to hear Jack on the other end of the phone.

'They're coming,' he heard Jack say. He sounded more than worried, which made Ianto panicky in turn.

'Who? Who's coming?' More angry waving seemed to coax two of the three to leave, though still loudly arguing within earshot, but the original team member continued to loiter

'Get out!' Ianto yelled, sending the girl scurrying fearfully out through the door, taking her two teammates with her as they all sought to put distance between them and the man who'd clearly lost it.

'Jack?' He strained to hear anything on the end of the line, waiting for instructions or what he could do to send help, but the phone call had already cut out. He stood there gripping the phone hard, waiting for it to ring again, hoping the call had been disconnected only temporarily, but there was no further contact. Jack was gone.