‘Now, stay here and try not to get arrested,’ Gwen said, leaning her head in through the driver’s side door before pulling back and shutting it. Her tone was firm like she was addressing a pair of 3 year olds and not two fully grown man

‘I still don’t see why we have to stay here,’ Jack sulked.

‘Because a nicely dressed couple is not going to rouse any kind of suspicion walking into a convenience store for food,’ Ianto replied. ‘Add two more people who look like they’ve just barely survived a bomb exploding and someone is going to notice.’

Jack harrumphed and folded his arms, giving the tracksuit pants and loose fitting t-shirt a disparaging look. At least the shoes had thankfully been the right size. ‘So…’ Jack said, trying to fill the awkward silence left by Gwen and Rhys’ absence. ‘Thanks for the rescue. How did you know where to find me?’

Ianto didn’t really think Jack wanted the details of how they’d tracked him down, it was just something to say. Ianto knew him well enough to know that they’d have to play pretend through this conversation for a while before Jack said what he really wanted. ‘I found their van. They were trying to pick up your body from the bomb site.’ Ianto cringed at the memory. ‘They didn't find much. I think I saw them carry out an arm but you probably don't want to hear that. To be honest I don't really want to talk about it either. Watching the people who tried to kill you come back to pick up the body parts isn't exactly my idea of a fun day.’

‘It wasn't exactly my idea of fun either,’ Jack replied. ‘So what, you followed them?’

‘Yep,’ Ianto replied. ‘And they let me to Porton Down. Probably should have guessed that'd be where they take you. Just another biological experiment for them. I thought…’ He paused and chewed his lip. ‘I thought maybe you wouldn't survive this time.’

‘Me too,’ Jack replied quietly. ‘But you didn't give up on me, ' he added, knowing Ianto never would. ‘How did you know I was still alive?’

‘I didn't,’ Ianto replied. ‘I really did think maybe this time…’ He shuddered. ‘Then there was the screaming.’ He averted his eyes and began staring out the car window at nothing but a boring blue sedan parked right next to them. ‘I don't even want to imagine what that must have been like.’

‘I'm not sure I remember much of it,’ Jack confessed. Judging by the expression on his face, he was glad of that fact. No one should have to suffer through that kind of agony. ‘I'm ok now, though. That's what matters.’

Ianto shook his head. That wasn't what only mattered. All of it was important. They’d treated Jack like he was just an animal or a thing that didn't have feelings or emotions or any shred of humanity. It wasn't fair in the slightest. They’d known exactly what and who they were dealing with and they hadn’t shown any remorse for it. When this was over, Ianto would make them pay for every last bit of Jack's suffering.

‘These clothes are awful,’ Jack said, changing the subject on him.

‘Of course they are,’ Ianto agreed. ‘They’re just op shop clothes picked up in a hurry. They weren’t even meant for you.’

Jack’s eyebrows knitted in confusion. ‘What do you mean? Whose clothes are they?’

‘They were meant for me,’ he replied. ‘You know, in case I had to hide, or at least try to blend in with the usual crowd.’ He knew they were three sizes too big for him, making them at least a size and a half too big for Jack as well, but it was all they’d had and he hadn’t been fussy at the time. It was lucky for Rhys he’d had them stowed in the boot at all, sparing Rhys from Jack’s complete lack of modesty.

Jack’s face held for a moment before it split in two as he burst out laughing, incensing Ianto with its unexpected insult. ‘That’s hilarious. You, wearing these? Ha!’ He laughed again and Ianto felt his cheeks grow warm.

‘Yeah, yeah. Shut your face,’ he sulked. ‘I was in a hurry and didn’t have a lot of cash on me. That ten quid I gave Gwen just now was the last I had. We always pay for everything on plastic.’ Or had done before they’d been forced to go on the run and make their movements totally untraceable.

Jack heaved a sigh and leaned his arm on the edge of the back passenger window, showing his restlessness at being left behind, even if all Gwen and Rhys were doing was finding them something to eat and drink since none of them had had a bite to eat or a minute of sleep in the past forty eight hours.

Ianto was less hungry than he had been, and it was the wave of wariness that descended on him now that the adrenaline had stopped pumping, and having Jack back there at his side.

Ianto waited in less than companionable silence for Jack to say something. He needed Jack to acknowledge the dire situation they were in now that he didn’t have to save face for Gwen and Rhys’ sake. More than that, he wanted Jack to acknowledge them. To say something about the fear they’d both held for their lives when someone had tried to take them from one another. There’d been no guarantees that either of them would survive the bombing. But Jack was just as aloof as always. That parting kiss as the seconds to explosion were ticking down in the single digits was as much love as he was prepared to demonstrate.

‘How’re your wrists?’ Ianto asked, trying to find a way back into the conversation.

Jack flexed them both. ‘Better now that they’re not cuffed,’ he replied, giving them each a massage with his fingers. ‘Nobody told them that there’s different sizes and that mine were way too small. Thanks for picking them off.’ Jack forced a smirk onto his face. ‘Not our usual game when it involves cuffs.’

‘Anytime,’ Ianto said. He didn’t have much on him, but his lockpicking set never left his wallet. He was glad of that now. It was one thing to free Jack from his concrete prison. It was another to find he was still tightly handcuffed despite everything. The government certainly had no intention of ever letting him go. God alone knows what they planned to do with himself and Gwen if they were ever caught. Shot and killed, he assumed.

‘How’re you?’

‘Hmm?’ Ianto had been distracted by his thoughts and didn't really register Jack's words.

Jack’s hand reached out across the narrow space between them and a finger brushed his cheek, tracing itself along the cut that lined his face. Ianto instinctively swiped his hand away. ‘It’s just a scratch. I’ve had worse.’ It was nothing compared to what Jack had been through.

Jack said nothing, but suddenly his arms were all around Ianto, gently pulling him close against Jack’s own body. He felt Jack’s lips bury themselves in his hair, pressing against his scalp in an unexpected moment of tenderness. ‘I really did think I was going to lose you this time.’

‘Me too,’ Ianto said, relaxing back into the embrace as it strengthened around him. The scent of Jack’s pheromones overrode the stale smell of the hand me down clothes and concrete dust, sweat and blood. He’d held back so much of his own feelings since they’d rescued Jack, barely able to do more than squeeze into the back seat with him on the auspices that Gwen would want to drive, and that someone needed to help Jack with his cuffs. Not to mention that Rhys was already looking exceedingly uncomfortable at the prospect of a naked Jack sharing a car with him in any capacity. On another day it would be hilarious, but all of Ianto’s amusement at the situation had died seconds after they’d gotten into the car. They were still in danger, still on the run, and still needed to figure out what the hell was going on. Even just worrying about how Jack must be coping with it all was too much energy to waste when they had none to spare. What did it cost a man to be blown up into tiny shreds, to reconstitute himself from bone fragments and bits of flesh, to be halfway cognizant of the fact that it was happening and how painful that would be, and then to have people come in and kill you again? It upset him more than he ever wanted Jack to know, and yet here was Jack being worried about him.

Ianto’s arm snaked around Jack's familiar curvature, pulling their bodies even closer. He wasn't always very good at showing Jack how he felt, but if nothing else, he needed the touch just to prove that he wasn’t imagining Jack being here; that they hadn’t been blown up and died back in Cardiff, with Ianto simply somehow imagining this in the afterlife. He didn’t think any kind of heaven or afterlife would be as cruel and vicious as the one he was living right now. There were so many thoughts in his head right now that he didn’t think he’d be able to sleep no matter how many days it had been.

He turned his head sideways so that it was leaning against Jack’s chest, where he could feel that pulsing heartbeat against his ear through the thin fabric of the t-shirt, beating reassuringly and strong. He wanted Jack to know that he wouldn’t even abandon him, no matter how dire things seemed. That he would stay by Jack’s side until the bitter end, no matter what. He wouldn’t ever leave Jack to suffer like that again. He’d rather die by his side. ‘Can I just tell you something?’ he murmured.

‘I’m all yours,’ Jack replied, one hand resting on his shoulder, and the other draped around his waist.

Ianto moved his head back up so that he could look Jack in the eye, their noses just inches apart. ‘I want you to know that-’

‘Oi!’ came the warning from outside the car as Gwen’s knuckles rapped loudly on the window, startling them both. ‘None of that, thank you very much,’ she added as she and Rhys slid back into the car, the rustling of small plastic carry bags and a heavenly aroma announcing the arrival of still warm bread rolls.

‘We weren't doing anything. More’s pity,’ Jack said as Ianto reluctantly loosened his hold on Jack, propping himself back upright and over onto his side of the car. His features were carefully schooled back into place, the moment between them extinguished like a brief candle.

Gwen’s attention was diverted to the shopping bags as she pulled out water bottles and passed them back between the seats.’ Yeah… right,’ she said, passing back two bread rolls to go with the water. ‘Shove that in your mouth instead. End of discussion. You can go back to your hanky panky ways when this is all over and not before.’

Ianto took the bread, feeling anything but hungry until a hand snaked its way across the back seat when Gwen’s gaze was averted, resting over the top of his.

‘Raincheck?’ Jack said.

Ianto turned his hand over, allowing it to give Jack's hand the tiniest of squeezes. ‘Raincheck,’ he promised.