Title: Feeling flat
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 980 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 452 - Bounce
Summary: Jack has miscalculated how much rest he actually needs to get by..


Ianto returned to the hub after a rather dull and uneventful meeting with the mayor. Either he was getting the hang of this job or Cardiff was getting in the habit of installing less cantankerous mayors. That or they’d just stopped electing alien ones. The humans were much easier to placate. Or retcon.

Jack was lying on the sofa with his eyes closed. He looked exhausted which was enough to make Ianto go over to check on him. Jack was almost never caught napping on the sofa, let alone in the middle of the afternoon, even if it was a Sunday and technically neither of them should be at work.

‘Jack?’ Ianto called out quietly just in case he was going to wake Jack from much needed sleep. Unlikely since Jack scarcely slept, but there was a first for everything.

Jack cracked open an eye at him. ‘Hey,’ he croaked out before being wracked by a sudden fit of coughing. He hadn’t been coughing yesterday but Ianto had left early this morning and hadn’t taken much notice of whether Jack had come down with something, and whether it might be contagious.

Ianto cleared away a couple of abandoned pizza boxes and a few stray magazines from the coffee table and perched himself carefully down onto it across from. ‘Jack? Honey, are you okay?’

Jack finished his coughing and flopped back down on the sofa. ‘You never called me honey when we’re at work.’

‘And you never lie on the sofa looking like death warmed up.’

Jack sunk back a little deeper into the worn cushions. ‘I was just trying to grab a quick nap but I can't even fall asleep. I've just been lying here for ages.’

‘That cough sounded nasty.’ Ianto reached forward and brushed Jack's hair away from his forehead, resting his hand there for a few moments. ‘You don't have a temperature. Are you sure you're okay?’

Jack waved a hand, though it was half-hearted. ‘I'm sure it's nothing,’ he said, sounding as if he was trying to convince himself more than his lover. ‘I just can't figure out why I feel so tired.’

‘Sleepy tired or achy tired?’

Jack winced as he attempted to roll over onto his side. ‘Achy.’

‘Any sore throat, runny nose?’

‘Nope.’

Ianto hummed, thinking it over. ‘You're probably just run down.’

Jack snorted at that. ‘I don't get run down. I'm Jack Harkness. I bounce back from everything.’

Ianto eased back on the coffee table, taking in the slightly haggard look his lover was sporting and wondering why he hadn't noticed it sooner. ‘Everything?’

‘Can't die, Ianto. Remember?’

Like he needed reminding. It did however give him pause for thought. ‘And when exactly was the last time you just bounced back from death, Jack?’ He couldn't recall himself and he was certain that it happened more often than he was aware of, Jack just neglecting to mention it.

Jack frowned, trying to search his memories. ‘You know, I honestly can't remember.’

Thank god for small mercies. Jack died far too often for Ianto’s liking as it was. There had to be a way to be less cavalier about it and still get the job done. ‘So, it could have been a while?’

‘Maybe.’

Ianto nodded. ‘And do you suppose that perhaps the reason that you've gotten away with all the long hours and lack of sleep for so many years is simply because every time you've died your entire body simply resets itself?’

‘I guess that's possible.’

‘And that by not having gone through that for a while, all the long hours and stress have caught up with you?’

Jack cast a mildly annoyed look at him. ‘I don't get stressed.’

Ianto curved an eyebrow at him. ‘Uh huh?’

‘Okay, maybe a little.’

Ianto folded his arms and cocked his head, playing makeshift doctor. ‘I think maybe you've just run yourself into the ground. That's why you feel sick but not properly sick. Just enough that your body is trying to tell you that you need to take it easy for a while and rest.’

There was a lazy roll of the eyes. ‘Who's got time for rest?’

‘You do, apparently,’ Ianto challenged. ‘We can handle things here for a few days.’

‘Ianto, I don't need to–’

‘What? Take care of yourself? Just throw yourself in front of the number six bus to Bridgend instead and everything goes back to you being a picture of fifty-first century health and vitality?’ Ianto rolled his eyes back at his lover. ‘Honestly Jack. I do wonder about you sometimes. You have a very inflated sense of your own indestructibility. Turns out you've just been using your dying and resurrecting to hide the fact that you're as human as the rest of us when it comes to needing some proper down time. I’ve been trying to tell you for years that you need to sleep more than you do.’

‘And I'd be years behind on that paperwork you love so much if I wasn't doing it at three in the morning.’ Jack began coughing again, forced to sit up as the coughing took over. Once it was over he leaned forwards trying to catch his breath, head clearly spinning from the effort. ‘Can you just be right later?’ he asked, seeming to finally be convinced that Ianto had diagnosed him perfectly.

‘Of course. Just as soon as I take you home where you can sleep in a real bed for a few days.’

Jack's head flew up. ‘You're going to be in charge?’

Ianto grinned. ‘You forget that I already am. Letting you pretend you're running things is just to spare your ego.’

Jack pouted. ‘Hate you.’

‘Yep. But do it with fervour once you're feeling better. Thinking about putting me back in my place should help you bounce back in no time at all.’