Title: Just a dream

Author: m_findlow

Rating: PG

Length: 2,048 words

Content notes: None

Author notes: Written for Challenge 388 - Chase

Summary: Ianto wishes he knew what he could do to help Jack survive his nightmares.

Ianto woke up in an awkward tangle of limbs. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened although it was the first time he was on the floor of his bedroom, and rather sore in areas that he wouldn't normally count as part of his extracurricular activities. In particular his neck was aching like he was suffering from a terrible whiplash. It was only as he moved to massage it that he felt the painfully tender bruises all over it. It woke him fully from his earlier groggy state to remember just how he'd not only ended up on the floor, but also sporting injuries that would take an awful lot of explaining when Owen saw him.

As he moved from his current position, he managed to stir awake Jack, who like him, was caught up in a mess of duvet and body parts. He took one look at Ianto and at the bruising that must have graced his neck and recoiled, even though there was nowhere for him to go, pressed up against the wall as he already was. Ianto acted instinctively, reaching for him before he could scramble away. He knew Jack would be feeling ten kinds of guilt for what had happened, but he needed to know that it wasn’t intentional.

To say that Ianto had gotten the fright of his life when Jack had attacked him in the night was an understatement. One moment he’d been trying to cuddle closer to Jack’s slumbering body as he was in the throes of some bad dream and the next moment Jack had thrown them both from the bed, onto the floor and had his hands very tightly grasped around Ianto’s neck, trying to cut off his breathing. He’d almost succeeded but then his grip had loosened and instead Ianto imagined he was readying to twist Iatnto’s head sideways, snapping the neck and surely killing him instantly. Only a surge of adrenaline had woken Jack up sufficiently from his nightmare to realise that he was in fact acting out what he imagined in his mind, only that the person he meant to do harm to clearly wasn’t Ianto. Ianto knew just how lucky he’d been, though he couldn’t be mad at Jack. He only knew that this had something to do with that time Jack had been away with his doctor, and though he’d not pressed Jack for information, now he was going to have to insist. If not for his own personal safety, then for Jack’s own wellbeing.

'Don't come any closer,' Jack said, trying to get away from him but far too tangled in bedclothes and duvet to make a proper go of it.

'Don't be ridiculous,' Ianto scolded, wishing he hadn’t used such a harsh tone. Jack hadn’t killed him – not in the first instance, and not in the time since he'd been sobbing uncontrollably in the night until both of them had finally succumbed to exhaustion, falling asleep where they were. 'It’s okay.'

Jack shook his head, anxiety written all over his face at the realisation of what he’d very nearly done. 'It’s not okay.'

'So we make it okay,' Ianto insisted. He'd seen Jack angry plenty of times, and even close to causing physical harm, but he’d never seen him actually do it. Not until last night, but then he’d been trapped in some kind of night terror. Who knew what a person was capable of if you pushed them to their limits. 'This isn’t the first time,' Ianto said.

Jack's head twisted at his words. 'What?'

'Not full blown like last night, but you’ve had nightmares before,' Ianto told him. 'Since you came back,' he clarified. He’d never brought it up before because he feared Jack would be embarrassed by it, or simply shut him out. 'You just thrash around a little, sometimes whimper in your sleep. Usually you calm down after a little while. I just talk to you, tell you it’ll be alright and you usually just settle. I only grabbed hold of you last night because I thought all your flailing and thrashing might give me a black eye. I think I would have settled for that all things considered.'

Jack let out a shuddering breath, pulling his knees up and grabbing the duvet, trying to cocoon himself in it.

Ianto shuffled closer to him. 'What happened to you when you went away?' Before Jack could make excuses, Ianto cut him off. 'I know that’s why you’ve suddenly started having night terrors. What's so bad that you can’t tell me?' He moved closer still, pulling away part of the duvet so that he could pull it around himself as he leaned against Jack's chest. He tucked his head in under Jack's chin, leaning it on his shoulder so that Jack didn't feel like he had to look Ianto in the eye.

'It was meant to be brilliant,' Jack murmured. 'For just a few moments it was everything I'd hoped for. Me and the Doctor back together again. For the first time in such a long time it wasn't all up to me. When you're with the Doctor he's in charge. You just go along for the ride, knowing he'll look after you and that you don't have to be responsible for anyone. I didn't have to be anyone's captain. I could just be me.'

Ianto sat there and quietly listened as Jack finally opened up about his tales of adventure, travelling to a planet billions of years into the future, about the Futurekind savages that threatened the last vestiges of the human race. He described Chan Do, an alien scientist, and her mentor, Professor Yana, and how he and the Doctor helped them to get the rocket carrying all of humanity up into space and on their way to Utopia. It all sounded fascinating and not at all something that would give you bad dreams. Jack was putting off telling him the truth.

'We thought we were saving humanity, Ianto. Instead we unleashed the worst possible creature imaginable.'

Ianto couldn't even fathom it. Surely the worst thing they'd unleashed was Abaddon. Nothing could be worse than that. He tugged the duvet tighter around them. 'Tell me.'

'Professor Yana wasn't who we thought he was. He wasn't even who he thought he was.' That earned him a frown from Ianto as he lifted his head to look at Jack in confusion. 'He altered his memories and stowed them away in a battered old pocket watch. Time Lords can do that.'

'Time Lords? But I thought you said your doctor was the last of the Time Lords.'

'We were both wrong. Not only was he a Time Lord, he was the worst of them. He called himself The Master. Some kind of enemy of the Doctor from a long, long time ago. He stole the TARDIS and left us stranded.' Jack chuckled briefly. 'If it hadn't been for my busted vortex manipulator, we'd have been stuck there forever. The Doctor fixed it so we could follow after him, but he thought he was also fixing the TARDIS so it could only go one place. I just wish he hadn't picked Earth.'

'Earth? You came back?'

'It wasn't like that,' Jack explained. 'The Master messed everything up. He used the TARDIS to go back in time and set himself up here as Harold Saxon.'

'The politician? Wasn't he meant to be running for Prime Minister?' If he recalled correctly, he’d been touted as the next big thing, and then just faded into obscurity. To be fair, Ianto hadn’t kept up to date with it all. Having Jack absent from the team had put more on his plate than he ever could have imagined. There simply wasn’t time to keep up with trivial things like politics.

'He was and he did. He used the Archangel phone network to send subliminal messages to people to make them vote for him. It worked. Only he didn't just want to be Prime Minister. He wanted to run the whole world.'

'What for?' Ianto knew some people had big egos but running the whole world didn't interest him in the slightest. It sounded more like a colossal headache. Jack did his best to explain the paradox The Master had created by bringing the converted remnants of the human race back to Earth in the present day, using the TARDIS to power the paradox machine that was making it possible for the Toclafane to invade the planet and start killing en masse.

'Your nightmares are about the Toclafane?'

Jack shook his head. 'They were just the start. The Doctor and I were captured, held on board the UNIT ship Valiant. A whole year I was shackled up there, hoping that Martha would save us. Every day I prayed she'd come through for us and that today would be the last time he…' Jack's voice faltered. ‘It was The Master. Every day he'd come and torture me. After he captured you and the team and made me watch him killing you all…' Jack's voice broke this time and Ianto hugged him tightly.

'We're still here. He didn't kill us,' Ianto tried to tell him.

Jack's hand moved to trace along Ianto's arm. 'He did. And then every day after that, he'd come for me. Sometimes it was fast, sometimes slow, but he delighted in finding new ways to kill me. I swore that if I ever got the chance to get out of there I'd keep my promise to break his neck for what he'd done.'

Ianto felt himself begin to shake, either from shock at Jack's words or from sheer anger. How could anyone dare to do that to another person? He couldn't even bring himself to imagine what Jack must have suffered. A whole year of torture. He wanted revenge himself for what Jack had been put through. Small wonder his nightmares terrified him so much. He appreciated now just how hard Jack had had his hands around his neck, trying to kill him. Had any of it been real he didn't think he would have intervened. He'd have wanted The Master dead as well.

His arms tightened around Jack and he lifted his head just enough to be able to lean it against Jack's cheek. 'Everything is okay now. I'm here.'

'I wish you didn't have to be afraid of me,' Jack said.

‘I'm not. I'll do anything to help chase away your nightmares. You know that I'm here for you, right?’ He cupped a hand to Jack's cheek to make sure he looked Ianto in the eye as he said it. ‘You don’t have to suffer through this on your own.’

‘I nearly killed you. I didn't even know I was doing it. That makes me dangerous.’

Ianto shook his head, even though it brought him a painful reminder of just how much it hurt. ‘No, you nearly got your vengeance, and deservedly so. Except you realised you had the wrong person.’ Ianto had another thought. ‘The Master. Is he?’

Jack nodded. ‘He's dead. He can't hurt us anymore. It’s only me that can still hurt you.’

‘Then don’t walk away from me now. That would hurt more than anything.’ He genuinely didn’t think he could cope with Jack leaving him again. ‘I’m not going anywhere. I’m here for you, whatever you need.’

‘I need to know I'm not going to lose it in my sleep,’ Jack said, with no small amount of sardonic bitterness. ‘Next time don't grab me,’ Jack asked. ‘I can't promise I won't do it again. Gods knows I would never hurt you, but we've just proved that I'm a danger to anyone. I’m broken.’

‘You're healing,’ Ianto argued. ‘And I'll try to remember to keep my hands to myself when you're asleep.’

Jack couldn't resist breaking into a small smile at Ianto’s words. ‘So long as it's only when I'm asleep. I quite like your hands when I'm awake.’

Ianto rolled his eyes. ‘I noticed. I'll keep a glass of water by the bed from now on. Next time you’re having a bad dream you'll just imagine you've been dumped by a rogue wave. Having to launder the sheets more often is a price I'm willing to pay.’