Fandom: Torchwood

Characters: Torchwood team

Author: m_findlow

Rating: M

Length: 6,412 words

Content notes: none

Author notes: Written for Challenge 259 - Light

Summary: Jack is acting strange but there doesn't seem to be any reason why.


Owen sighed audibly as he slammed shut the door of the SUV, looking around. He surveyed the lines of cars all parked neatly in the underground carpark and heaved out another sigh. 'Great. How're we supposed to find it amongst all of these?'

Jack was already out of the driver's side, studying his vortex manipulator for traces of rift energy. 'Just be grateful that you won't have to trawl through a dumpster today,' he replied.

'Thank you, rift,' Owen muttered. He didn't like to admit that Jack had a point. Checking in between a few parked cars was nothing by comparison.

'It's somewhere on this level but I can't get a more precise location,' Jack reported, scrutinising the readings. 'It's small though.'

'How small? Smaller than a football or smaller than a matchbox?'

Jack fixed him with a look. 'The former.'

'Must be my lucky day,' Owen said to himself, beginning to inspect the gaps between a row of cars crammed in between to concrete pillars with blue paint on them, marking out the space as D3.

'You do everything east of here and I'll go west,' Jack announced.

'How do I know which way east is when we're underground?'

'Left, then,' Jack said, annoyed that he had to be more specific.

'Right o.'

Owen soon grew bored of the task, having to get down on his hands and knees to inspect the underside of each vehicle. His knees were starting to get sore from the hard concrete and his back was beginning to ache as well. He shone his torch underneath a sleek black Audi, finding something shiny glinting back at him. Unless he was incredibly unlucky, it was their missing rift item.

He gave it a quick scan, making sure it wasn't a bomb or something that might not take kindly to him touching it, confirming it was probably safe. He leaned lower to try and reach for it, but it was right in the middle, and his fingers could only brush it just barely. 'Sodding hell,' he muttered, straining to squeeze further under the chassis, pressing his shoulder up against the edge. He poked and stretched, managing to push at it, sending the item rolling away from him, but at least closer to the other side of the car where he might reach it. In doing so however, his motions managed to set off the car's security system, the loud alarms blaring and hazard lights flashing. 'Bollocks,' he grumbled, getting back to his feet. Jack was beside him moments later, flipping open the panel on his wrist strap and silencing the alarms.

'Cheers,' Owen said. 'Bloody twitchy fancy car alarms.'

'Any luck yet?' Jack asked.

In the moment of confusion with the alarms, Owen had nearly forgotten all about the thing he'd shoved over to the other side. He rounded the car and saw a large silvery ball now sat between the Audi and the bright pink little hatchback parked next to it. He bent down and picked it up, the size of a large grapefruit, or perhaps a small melon.

'Cool,' Jack said. 'What is it?'

'You tell me,' Owen said, holding it out for Jack to inspect.

Jack took the orb in his hands, running one hand over the brushed metal exterior until he found a tiny button. 'You checked it first?' he asked. He didn't want to push buttons unless he was sure it was safe to do so.

'Got donuts from it,' Owen reported.

Jack shrugged. He walked it to the middle of the road between the rows of parked cars and set it down, pressing the button and stepping back a few yards, waiting to see what it might do. The orb spliced itself in two around the middle, and a bright light shone out from the hemispherical band around its middle. Jack and Owen stood there and watched, waiting for something else to happen, but the orb simply remained lit. 'Transmitter of some kind?' Jack mused, scanning it for signs that it was emitting radiation or any other signals but there was nothing. He walked back over and pressed the button again, and the light shut off, the sphere becoming one solid ball of metal again. 'Huh,' he muttered.

'You know what it is now?'

'A really fancy alien desk lamp by the looks of things.'

'A lamp?' Owen asked, sounding skeptical.

'Yep. No electrical emissions, no radiation, other than light, no detectable activity of any kind whatsoever.'

'Great. I another price of useless junk.'

Jack picked it back up, slightly disappointed. He could have done with a bit of excitement. Things had been so quiet lately. 'Still, it's pretty enough,' he said.

'Yeah, because pretty will definitely help arm us against the future,' Owen grumbled. 'Come on, then. Let's get out of here.'



When they arrived back at the hub, Jack dumped the device on his desk. He was far more interested in brunch, knowing coffee and something sugary were unlikely to be far away.

'Anything interesting this morning?' Ianto asked, silently appearing right on schedule with a tray of coffee and croissants.

'Nothing to write home about,' Jack replied. He tapped the button on the device, showing Ianto how it glowed.

'Do you want me to get Tosh to look at it?'

'Nah. It lights up and that's basically all it does.' Jack grabbed a croissant and stuffed half in his mouth in one go, biting down and chewing with intent.

'It's very... kitsch,' Ianto observed, trying to find a polite word for it.

Jack swallowed, forcing the overly large mouthful of pastry down his throat. 'I like it,' he said admiring the way it lit up his immediate desk area. 'I think I'll keep it here.'

Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Who was he to pass judgment on what qualified as worthy of a place on Jack's desk. It was a mass of eclectic oddities, both futuristic and old fashioned, clashing and yet somehow seamless.

'Anyway,' Jack said, continuing on, grabbing his mug off the tray and bringing towards his lips, 'lots to do. I believe you've been nagging me about these,' he remarked, affectionately patting a rather tall stack files.

Ianto nodded, agreeing. He picked up his coffee and left. With luck the rest of today might be quiet enough for them all to get some work done.



As Ianto had hoped, the rest of the day was remarkably quiet. So quiet in fact that he could hear Owen's medical mutterings from half a hub away as he made mental notes during a rather tedious and unimportant autopsy. The cause of death of the alien - a long term resident of the city - had already been established at the scene as natural causes, but it was as good an opportunity as any for Owen to get his first proper detailed analysis of the anatomy of a Quixl. All the grumpiness went out of him when he was doing something he was interested in and when it was also not needing to be done in in five minutes flat because Jack needed answers, as he liked to say, "pronto Italia".

Ianto was disturbed from his own project by a loud thump as a massive pile of reports and files were dumped on his desk. He glanced upward to find Jack standing behind them. 'You know you're supposed to have signed off on those, don't you?'

Jack smiled at him, looking pleased with himself. 'I did.'

'Which ones?'

Jack gave him a look of confusion. 'All of them.'

Ianto's brow furrowed at the sight of the pile. There was no way Jack had managed all of that in a single afternoon. He hummed and hawed over doing paperwork at the best of times, often left kicking and screaming, or a desperate to to anything else to avoid the inevitable. This was weeks worth of outstanding mission reports, requisition forms, research papers and approvals, all of which would now have to be duly dealt with by Ianto, either filed away, actioned or otherwise returned to whomever the relevant persons or organisation happened to be.

Ianto set his pen down on the desk slowly and looked up at Jack with a questioning glance. 'Who are you and what have you done with Jack?'

Jack laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. 'I know, I know, it's my fault there's been a backlog, but I'm determined to get on top of it. Starting with these. Go do you magic and make them go away into whatever special filing place it is you have for them.'

'That's it?'

'Yeah. I've got a few phone calls to make this afternoon, so as much as I'd love to stay and chat, or do other things...' He let Ianto's imagination fill in the blanks, disappearing back into his office.

Ianto stared at the pile of manila folders. Never look a gift horse, he supposed.

Jack good mood and work ethic didn't last however. By the time he was finished slamming the phone down on his last call of the day, he was in a foul state. His annoyed tone had carried across the hub, even if the points he was trying to make to the person on the other end of them line weren't. He grabbed his coat and headed out without so much as an "I'll be back", leaving the rest of the team to their own devices.



Owen picked up pizzas for dinner and they ate them in the boardroom, assuming Jack would eventually return, famished, and with a few cheesy crusts and lashings of pepperoni, be laughing and telling outlandish stories like he always did. He didn't make an appearance at dinner, and by eight o'clock Ianto was about to write him of for the night. He slipped into Jack's office and tidied his desk. He reached over to switch off the old metal desk lamp that was almost always left on, before realising it wasn't. Of course, Ianto thought. He probably used the new one he'd collected today. It didn't need switching off apparently, or otherwise Jack had already done so. Just was he was about to switch off all the other lights in the hub, Jack entered. There was a smile on his face like he was happy to see Ianto, and looking like he'd vented whatever it was that had been annoying him earlier.

'We left you some pizza if you're hungry,' Ianto offered, already moving towards the kitchenette to reheat the leftovers.

'I'm good,' Jack said. 'Grabbed some chips on my way back.' He gave a loud yawn, stretching his arms wide. 'I'm beat though. What's say we call it a night?'

Ianto nodded, not wishing to disagree, though it hadn't been an overly strenuous day. Perhaps he only meant let's call it a night in the sense of changing their physical location. True to his word though, Jack was asleep soon after his head hit the pillow. Ianto curled next him, snuggling close and away from the cold concrete wall at his back, before he too drifted off to sleep.



When Ianto woke, he noticed that he had rather more space than he usually did. Jack was missing from the bed next to him the sheets were cool. He was going to go back to sleep, but curiosity got the better of him. Jack often got up early but this was early even by his standards. He crawled out from under the covers to go and find out why Jack had decided to abandon him. The opening at the top of the ladder glowed, so Jack was no doubt close by as he ascended the ladder.

Ianto rubbed his tired eyes as they slowly adjusted to the light glowing around Jack's desk. 'Jack, what are you doing?'

Jack's hands paused over the keyboard. 'What does it look like? I'm working.'

'In the middle of the night,' Ianto commented. 'In the dark,' he added.

'I'm not in the dark, I've got this on,' he said, tapping the top of the sphere with his pen.

'We do have real lights you know.'

'I didn't want to wake you.'

'And yet you did,' Ianto replied, thinking that the light emanating from the sphere was actually far brighter than the regular lighting. It was certainly brighter than his old lamp.

Jack shrugged. 'Couldn't sleep. Figured I might as well do something constructive.'

Ianto quirked an eye at him. Usually he was all for Jack working, but took it slightly the wrong way that him in bed wasn't an enticing enough prospect to keep Jack there, even if he would be asleep. 'I thought you said you were beat?'

'I was. And now I'm not. I don't need much sleep.'

He sighed. 'Feel free to come back to bed when you've had enough,' was the only reply Ianto gave, shuffling back towards the manhole on the opposite side of the room as he stifled a yawn. At least one of them was going to get a few more hours sleep.



When he was showered and dressed the next morning, he came up into Jack's office to find Jack asleep on his desk, slumped over a file in the semi darkness. So much for not being tired, Ianto thought, wishing Jack would make up his mind. He shook Jack's shoulder gently, rousing him from where his shirt cuff had left an imprint on the side of his face.

'Morning,' Ianto greeted.

Jack rubbed hand over his face. 'Morning.'

'Nice nap?'

Jack looked around, still a little confused. 'Don't even remember falling asleep.'

'Well, you must have. You turned the lamp off and everything. Must've been your subconscious at work.'

'Spose,' Jack agreed.

'Go shower and I'll get some coffee on.'

'A recipe guaranteed to wake me up if ever there was one,' Jack said, grinning. 'I've got a feeling today's gonna be a good day.'

Jack's premonition only lasted about an hour before a blowfish rolled into town. It had held up two jewelery stores and threatened patrons as a local sushi bar with a laser gun before the team caught up with it. It had also managed to take a chunk out of Jack's arm with its teeth before the team were able to subdue it.

'That's going to need stitches,' Owen declared, inspecting the wound whilst the others dragged the unconscious blowfish into the boot of the SUV.

'It'll heal on its own,' Jack insisted, annoyed at the moment's distraction that had earned him the large bite. At least they'd had an anti-toxin kit in the car which had stopped the blowfish's saliva from poisoning him to death.

'Not before you bleed all over everything,' Owen replied, tugging sharply on the bandage that would staunch the bleeding until they got back to the hub. 'That's a good few hours to heal properly so just say "thank you, Owen. I'm glad you're looking out for me".'

Jack clenched his teeth and sighed. 'Thanks, Owen. I'm glad you're looking out for me.'

'So you should be.'



The prospect of being relegated to desk duties for the rest of the day put Jack in a dark mood. Gwen piled him up with a bunch of research that would help her with some old unsolved cases she was working up in her spare time. His left arm was now securely in a sling, stitched and bandaged to Owen's satisfaction, if not Jack's.

'Don't pout,' Gwen said, watching his face as she briefed him on the files. 'You're the one who wanted me to reopen some of these cases.'

'You, being the operative word,' he replied. 'I've done this dance before and came up empty. I was looking for a fresh perspective.'

Gwen flipped open the top file. 'This one is from 1948. I'd say that's more than enough time passed for you to freshen up your perspective.'

'Gwen,' Tosh called out, leaning against the doorway. 'We've got a rift alert out near Barry Island.'

Gwen fixed Jack with a look that very clearly stated he should stay right where he was, then she smiled. 'I promise I won't let Owen or Ianto do anything brave and dashing.'

'Brave and dashing is my job, just you remember that!' he yelled after her retreating form.

Jack could smell Ianto entering his office before he even looked up. There was a pang of jealousy as he caught the scent of fairground food but looking up with hope that maybe his lover had brought him back a toffee apple or a bag of popcorn. 'Have fun, did you?'

'Exploding hotdogs and razor sharp candy floss,' Ianto replied, dropping into the chair opposite and picked a stray bit of something off the sleeve of his jacket. 'Not going to add to happy childhood memories of Barry Island fun park. How about you? Ready to crawl up the walls yet?'

'Made a bit of headway, actually,' Jack replied, pleased with his efforts. 'Got a few leads where we'd previously come up against a dead end. Don't think I need this anymore,' he added, pulling his arm out of the sling and over his head. 'Might go kick in a few doors before the day is done, just to follow up on things while they're still fresh in my mind.'

Ianto noticed Jack didn't remove the bandage, which was a sure sign that it wasn't as fully healed yet as he made out. 'Want some company? I mean, I'll still let you do all the kicking.'

'I'm good, but thanks for the offer,' Jack said, already shimmying into his coat. 'You've no doubt still got reports to file for those exploding hotdogs.' He gave Ianto a smile and a clap on the shoulder then left.



Gwen and Ianto were still working away at their computers when Jack returned around seven

'Hiya,' Gwen chirped, beaming a toothy smile at Jack. 'We were just debating curry or dumplings. Do you want to cast the deciding vote?'

'Go home,' came Jack's terse reply.

Gwen was slightly taken aback by the reply. 'I wasn't suggesting a working dinner. I was thinking more we'd go out and call it a night.'

'Go home,' Jack repeated.

'Okay, well, just let me finish up here. Shouldn't be more than fifteen minutes-'

'Now!' Jack barked, making her jump.

Her eyes went wide and she quickly reached for her coat and bag. 'Okay,' she said, keeping her voice low and stead, like she was talking to someone unstable. 'I'm going. See you tomorrow.'

Ianto caught the look of worry in her eyes though her gaze never left Jack. Similarly, Jack's eyes followed her all the way to the door until she was out of sight.

Ianto felt perplexed. He was about to say "what the hell was that all about?" when Jack came striding up towards him, grabbing his face and kissing him hard. Ah, so that was why he'd been so insistent. Jack's lips and teeth mashed hard against his own as he grabbed Ianto's lapels, pulling him upright from the chair. He felt himself being tugged and pulled across the hub, though all he could see was Jack's face pressed close.

When he finally broke away for a breath, Ianto said 'You didn't have to be so rude.' His demeanor had clearly scared Gwen, which in itself was quite an achievement.

Jack didn't reply, merely unbuckling his belt and gripping Ianto by the wrists, guiding his hands down to wrap around him. Ianto went to work, giving Jack what he obviously wanted. He'd only been at it a few minutes when Jack suddenly grabbed him hard and spun him around, forcing him up against the cold tiled wall. He had Ianto's trousers down around his ankles a moment later.

'So much for foreplay,' Ianto remarked, but the rest of his words were cut short as Jack sunk his teeth into his neck, biting down hard. He gasped at the pain as Jack twisted one arm up behind his back. Normally when they play fought it was a pretty equal exchange, but Jack at full force was more than a match for Ianto, especially pinned against the wall as he was. Jack forced himself inside, unannounced and unprepared. Ianto bit back a cry as Jack moved in sharp thrusts. Sex was often a mixture of pleasure and pain but this was anything but pleasurable. Jack's other hand went up into his hair, gripping it tight and pulling it in response to each thrust of his hips.

'Jack, stop,' Ianto gasped, but he didn't. He pushed Ianto to the wall harder, driving himself in with a staccato rhythm, interspersed with grunts and moans, seemingly oblivious to any pain he was causing his lover.

'Please,' Ianto begged. 'It hurts. Cornflakes,' he said, thinking what a stupid word it was to have as a safe word, but also having never had to use it until now. 'Cornflakes! Cornflakes!' he cried out as Jack ignored him, lost in his own pleasure, or perhaps it was pain. Tears were beginning to well at the edges of his eyes, uncertain how much more he could take.

Eventually Jack cried out, stiffening behind him as he climaxed, then pulling away, releasing Ianto from the wall. 'I need a shower,' Jack said in a husky breathlessness. He left and Ianto slumped down to the floor, unable to move, and unable to make sense of what had just happened.

If Jack had been expecting Ianto to join him in bed, he didn't come and find him. Ianto managed just to redress himself and crawl towards the sofa, curling up on it with a blanket pulled up tight around him. He was too sore to move any further than that, even though he knew he should have gone home. He eventually drifted off to sleep, only to wake an hour later and see light emanating from Jack's office. It seemed he was going to work through the night again. Ianto pulled blanket up over his head, blocking out the lit and hopefully Jack's view of him in case he decided he wanted to come back for more.



Ianto was half asleep, staring straight through his computer screen later the next day when Owen dumped a box on his desk, startling him out of his stupor.

'Are you two having a row?' Owen demanded.

Ianto blinked and frowned. 'Not that I'm aware of.'

'Well, he's been been right narky all day. I assumed it's because he's pissed off about something, which usually means you're not giving him any.'

Ianto didn't like to admit to, but Jack had been like that for days, though his mood had swung from one end of the spectrum to the other. Sometimes he'd been dark and snippy, other times it was like he was running on Red Bull. Ianto had put it down to Jack just being Jack. His mood could turn on a dime at the best of times. Last night was something else; an anomaly. He didn't want to mention it, least of all to Owen. Jack hadn't apologised this morning. In fact, he hadn't even acted as if anything was wrong.

'I wouldn't worry too much about it,' he said, putting on a smile and brave face. 'Probably just on account of his getting up and working through the night lately. He's not getting enough sleep, that's all.'

'Well, chain him to the bloody bed if you have to,' Owen warned him, 'or the next head that gets bitten off will be his.'



As if merely voicing the matter had exorcised it from the hub, Jack was back at his best, happy and smiling. He was doing his utmost to wind Owen up, telling him he was too sensitive and to lighten up. Perhaps that was all it was - just all of them getting a little bit burnt out and edgy with one another. It happened to all of them sometimes, but just like a cloudy day in Cardiff, it so often swept itself away on an invisible breeze, leaving behind a bright blue sky.



'Ianto, can I get you to fix me one of those amazing coffees of yours?' came the request as Ianto came in to drop off laundry, fresh from the dry cleaners.

'You've had four already and it's only three in the afternoon.'

'Well, I need a caffeine hit. Nobody said there was a daily limit.'

'Maybe a few hours sleep would be better,' Ianto suggested, carefully hanging the clean shirts and removing the plastic cover.

'I don't need sleep I just need a coffee.'

Ianto scrunched up the plastic and binned it. 'Come on, Jack. You have to go to bed and get some sleep. This not sleeping properly is wearing you down.'

'I feel fine Ianto, honestly. I'm not tired.'

'No, you're just moody and obnoxious during the following day. Except now it's every day.'

Jack heaved a sigh. 'Look, I'm sorry if I was a little rough the other night.'

'A little?' Ianto could hardly believe his ears.

'I was just tired and didn't feel like going through all the rigmarole.'

Ianto held his tongue. Ten minutes alone in the bathroom could have achieved the same result without needing to involve him. 'You ignored a safe word.'

'I know, l know,' Jack said, standing up and coming over to him. He went to wrap his arms around Ianto's waist but Ianto flinched away from the embrace. Jack took him by the hands instead. 'And I'm deeply sorry about that. It was wrong. I wasn't thinking straight.' He sighed. 'Maybe be I could do with some sleep.'

There was a knock on the door and Tosh popped her head in. 'Oh, sorry. Didn't mean to interrupt. I was just wondering if you had a moment to discuss these proposals from UNIT.'

Jack pulled his hands away and sighed, his expression hardening. 'Why is everyone always nagging me and telling me what to do?' Jack asked.

'It's just that I need to get back to them by five this afternoon,' she added.

'Still with the nagging!' Jack said, raising his voice louder. 'I'm the boss around here! I tell you what to do!'

'Please, Jack,' Tosh said, stepping forward. 'I'm not nagging, I promise. I'm just trying to keep UNIT off our backs and I know how much you-'

'Enough!' he yelled, grabbing his webley from the desk and clicking back the safety, pointing the gun at Tosh.

'Jack, what the hell are you doing?' she said, incredulous, though slowly raising her hands despite. 'Put the gun down, Jack. Please.'

He stepped closer. 'You and Owen and Gwen and Ianto. Always thinking you know what's best.'

'Jack,' she beseeched.

'Shut up!'

The sounding of Owen and Gwen's heavy footfalls came to a halt at the door, their own guns raised at hearing the commotion. 'Drop the gun, Jack,' Owen demanded.

'Oh, so this is how it's going to be?' Jack asked, keeping his gun raised but redirecting it in Gwen and Owen's direction. 'You think you can shoot me before I shoot you?'

'You might get one of us,' Owen replied, 'but then you'll be dead.'

Jack sneered at him. 'Can't die, Owen. I'll just come back and finish the job.'

'Only you won't, cause whilst you're dead, whoever is left alive it's going to make sure you wake up in a cell,' Owen threatened.

Jack grinned. 'Or maybe I'll just shoot Tosh.' He turned and pointed the gun back at her.

There was a fizz of electricity as Jack's back arched and his eyes rolled up into his head before crumpling to the ground. His webley skittered across the floor as it slipped from his hand. Inches behind where Jack had been stood was Ianto, armed with his own weapon.

'Where the hell did you get a stun gun from?' Gwen asked, shocked at the sudden turn of events.

'Had it on me already,' he replied.

'Why?' she asked.

'Just a hunch. Little things in his behaviour that weren't adding up. I didn't think he'd...' He didn't finish the sentence. Jack trying to kill one of them seemed unthinkable. 'We should get him restrained. That charge was a low dose and won't last very long.'

'Could've warned us, Owen complained, shoving his gun down the back of his belt. 'At least then we all could have been armed.'

'He very nearly got close enough to discover I was armed,' Ianto argued. 'God only knew what he'd do if he did.'

'That's very risky, Ianto,' Gwen said, giving him a disapproving look.

'I know. That's why I also took the liberty of replacing all the bullets in Jack's gun with blanks.'

'Well, I'm glad you did,' Tosh said, still looking a little shaken. 'What do you suppose is wrong with him? Why would he suddenly turn on us like that?'

'I don't know but I have my suspicions.' He glanced across at Jack's desk, trying to avoid looking down as his lover in a tangled mess on the floor. 'Tosh, I want that lamp thing analysed.'

'Jack said it wasn't anything dangerous.'

'And the rest of us don't seemed to have been affected, I know,' Ianto argued. 'Owen's no moodier than any other day, but this all feels like it started the day you two brought that thing back to the hub.'

Gwen nodded. 'Agreed, but Tosh? Standard protocols. Jack may have done to it that triggered it. Handle it with care.' Tosh nodded and wiped her slightly sweaty palms down the sides of her jeans and left to start gathering the equipment she'd need.

Gwen tucked her own gun away. 'Okay. Let's get him downstairs. I'll feel better knowing he's somewhere he can't hurt us.'

'Or himself,' Ianto added.



Owen rubbed his neck as he returned upstairs, glad to be out of there. Jack had woken up not long after they'd gotten him settled in one of their cells and saying he was unhappy about it was the understatement of the century. Even knowing that the cell door was strong enough to stop a weevil didn't stop him from throwing his fists at it and spraying them with vitriolic curses, not all of them in English. He'd had to be sedated again so that Owen could go inside and get blood samples and was now sleeping off the rather generous dose Owen had administered. Jack was a bad patient at the best of times and his blood work so far had come up empty.

'Any luck, Tosh?' he asked. 'Jack reckoned it was harmless and I can't find anything physically wrong with him.'

She tugged off her glasses and set them on the desk. 'He was right. It's not emitting any kind of signal we can detect. The only thing is the light. But that's the problem.'

Owen narrowed his eyes at her. 'I don't get it.'

She turned her screen so that he could see it better. 'I filmed it whilst I was running tests on it, in case I wanted to review any of the results. It wasn't until I ran through footage frame by frame that I found it. I only meant to slow it to twenty frames a second but I hit the key too many times and ended up running it at two hundred frames a second. Take a look what I found.'

She played the footage and Owen saw the lamp begin not to glow, but to blink on and off.

'What the? Why's it doing that?'

'It's pulsing at a very specific rhythm. Every six minutes it starts the same pattern all over again. Completely invisible to the naked eye but the visual cortex of the human eye would still technically register it.'

'You weren't staring at it, were you?' Owen asked, sounding worried.

'Of course not. I had a spectral scanner measure the pulses, but even so, we've all been exposed to it.'

Owen grimaced, the pieces starting to fall into place. 'We should tell the others.'

'Tell us what?' Gwen said, coming by to check on things. Ianto trailing was trailing in her wake with a plate of sandwiches.

'You were right, Teaboy,' Owen said. 'That lamp thing is emitting a series of light pulses.'

Ianto set the plate down. 'And what does that mean?'

Owen grabbed hand a sandwich, taking a large bite and swallow it before continuing. 'You know how light pulsing at a certain speed can cause people to have seizures? I think this is the same kind of thing. The neural pathways are being interrupted by the pulsations, causing the brain to react to them.'

'React how?'

'And why not the rest of us?' Gwen asked. 'Ianto, you've been in there more than any of us, and you don't seem to be having any mood swings.'

'With him, how would you ever know,' Owen teased. He shook his head. 'I can't tell you exactly why. Maybe it's Jack's neural network. He's three thousand years more genetically advanced than us. Who knows what impact evolution has had on his DNA and brain chemistry. He must be more sensitive to it than us.'

Ianto folded his arms. 'But what it is doing? This light pulse thing. Why is it making him act like he is? You said seizures. He hasn't had any seizures.'

'Because I don't think it's meant to be turned off. I think once you start using it, you're meant to keep using it. You said he's been working at night, right?'

'He's so up to date with everything it's not even funny.'

'And then during the day he oscillates from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other.'

'So, what are you saying, Owen?' Tosh asked. 'He's addicted to it?'

'And the down swings are the effect of withdrawal,' Owen finished for her. 'You see it in A and E all the time. The junkies are more volatile when they're off the drugs than when they're on them.'

'So, what do we do?' Gwen asked.

Owen swallowed another bite. 'I wouldn't want to risk him going cold turkey. We've seen what he's like between hits. God only knows what it would do to him to cut him off completely.'

'We have to let him be exposed to it?' Ianto didn't sound at all pleased with the suggestion.

'We have to wean him off it. Even then it's a long shot, but it's all we can try.'

Jack denied it at first, but in the end he didn't have much of a say in the matter. After three hours of having the lamp on, situated just outside his cell, he was much calmer, almost himself again. Only then did he accept that his own behaviour didn't feel right and that he never would have drawn a gun on one of them in anger for no good reason.

'I'm addicted to this thing?'

'We're going to get you off it,' Owen promised, 'but I won't lie, it's not going to be pleasant.'

Jack sagged down onto the stone bench. 'I've done drug rehab before. I know the drill. Just do what you have to.'

The team took it in shifts, setting the lamp on and off and increments and keeping a watchful eye over Jack. Owen monitored it closely, looking for signs that they could reduce Jack's exposure. He'd tried reducing it too fast at first, which had left Jack restless and wild, begging to be let out. He increased the lamp's frequency, trying to ease Jack's withdrawal. It was a tricky thing, finally finding just the right amount of time they could have it on and off. Now it was just a waiting game.



Ianto entered the cells as quietly as he could, beginning his shift. It wasn't strictly necessary perhaps to keep Jack locked up, but Jack himself had insisted they keep him down here until he was finally clean. He couldn't promise that the lure of having up the lamp within reach wouldn't make him want to turn it back on. He understood now just how much better he'd felt when it was on.

Ianto's quiet footfalls were to prevent Jack from being woken up. Sleep had been hard to come by even now that he was virtually cured of any residual effects. He didn't want to disrupt what little he might be getting, having been forewarned by Gwen coming off shift that he'd finally drifted off to sleep about an a hour ago. Despite his best efforts, he heard Jack moan, still lying on the bench with his blanket and pillow scrunched up around him.

'Morning,' Ianto greeted in a soft voice. 'How are you feeling?'

'Feel like I'm gonna throw up,' Jack replied, resting his forearm over his eyes to shield them from the light.

Ianto unlocked the cell and stepped inside. 'You haven't eaten for three days. There's nothing to throw up.'

'Thank the goddesses for small mercies.' He groaned and then slowly tried to sit up. Ianto came in and helped him, taking a seat beside him and offering up a bottle of water.

Jack took it gratefully and snapped off the screw top, taking a few measured sips. 'Never thought I'd turn down a plate of greasy bacon and eggs.'

'Nor did I,' Ianto replied, rubbing a hand across his back.

'I've done rehab before but this had been excruciating. If I'd had any idea what that thing was doing I'd have had it locked away.'

'Not your fault. You can't know what everything alien in the universe does. Owen says another twenty four hours and he's ready to clear you. In the meantime, a nice hot bath might make you feel better. You've got a few hours reprieve. Owen says you're down to thirty seconds every four hours.'

'Right now I'll take anything.' He set the water bottle back down. 'I'm sorry about what I did.'

'You weren't yourself.'

'I was myself enough to know that it was wrong and I did it anyway.' He rested a hand on Ianto's knee. 'I would never hurt you. You know that, don't you?'

Ianto reached up a hand and kissed him softly. 'I know.'

'If I ever do that again, you have my permission to break both my kneecaps.'

'How about I just prevent you from decorating your desk with anything that doesn't come from Ikea?'

'Deal.'