Title: False trail
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 915 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 509 - Plant
Summary: Jack knew there was a reason why everything felt slightly off.


There were only two things in the universe that really scared Jack. One was the invasion he could see coming, and the other was the invasion he couldn't see coming.

Jack had already been feeling off. There was something inherently wrong about mental images of his father turning up out of nowhere, in the middle of a dark ,weevil-infested sewer. He hadn't even been on Jack's mind and yet there he suddenly was, as if his memories had been upended and reshuffled out of place. He couldn't explain to Adam what he'd seen down there or why it had frightened him so much. He could barely remember leaving Adam to wait by the car for him. He didn't know how it had all come spilling out of him. He didn't share those memories with anyone. They'd been buried deep, where they couldn't haunt him. That was where they belonged – not hiding around every street corner, waiting to accost him.

He expected the hub to be empty when he came back. He planned on pouring himself a stiff drink and doing his best to dispel those long forgotten times. He hadn't expected Ianto to still be lurking in the shadows, almost jumping out of his skin at the thought that his father was back again, waiting for him in those dark corners of the hub. Realising it was only Ianto – sweet, dependable Ianto – was such a relief that Jack couldn’t help but smile. Perhaps some company wouldn't be so bad after all.

What confronted Jack was anything but a relief. Ianto wasn't just out of sorts, he was utterly distraught. That was alarming in and of itself. Ianto was the one steadying presence in the team. When he promised to do something, it was done. If everyone else was falling apart or losing their tempers, Ianto stayed calm and present. Importantly, if he said something, he meant it. Ianto simply did not appear out of nowhere and confess to murdering three girls. Ianto was a gun-wielding, alien butt-kicking machine, but to put his bare hands around the throat of someone he didn't even know and strangle the life out of them? No, he wasn't capable of it. Jack knew that down in his very bones. Ianto Jones was not built that way. He was gentle and caring and funny and brave and smart. He'd killed, yes, in the line of duty, but he wasn't a murderer.

Red flags were going off all over the place. It wasn't until Jack reviewed the CCTV that all the missing puzzle pieces began to fall into place. Adam. He'd done that to Ianto. Somehow messed with his memories and, if Jack wasn't mistaken, he'd messed with all of their memories. That accounted for his sudden presence the moment Jack had returned to the SUV. He was confident that Adam hadn't come with him, despite what he'd said. Jack wouldn't have left him to wait behind. If he'd been there – really, truly been there – he would have been down in that sewer alongside Jack. In the same way that Gwen had suddenly forgotten Rhys the other night, Jack had forgotten something he simply wouldn't have forgotten.

The deepest, most unsettling realisation hit Jack. Adam wasn't one of them. He was a plant.

The question was, who and why. How long had Adam been a part of the team? Had it been days, weeks, months? Jack couldn't remember. Could he even trust his own memories? If he could so easily plant a convincing memory of multiple murders in Ianto's mind in just a few moments, what else had he implanted? Worse, what information might he have extracted from them – extracted from Jack – without his consent? He'd considered Adam his virtual second in command. He was a friend, confidante, someone Jack could count on. Now it was becoming clear that all of that was a lie.

It infuriated Jack, not least because of the personal betrayal, but because of the hurt he'd now inflicted on Ianto. He wasn't a killer. This proved what Jack had deep down known all along, but nevertheless those memories remained to haunt and terrify. In the same way that memories of his father, and the day he couldn't change, darkened every step of his long, immortal life, the thought of having killed in cold blood would be sickeningly dizzying to someone who'd never harmed an innocent soul.

There were ways to erase those painful memories from Ianto's mind, but that would have to wait for now. Jack first needed to determine just how deeply they'd been compromised and Ianto was the only other person who knew that truth for now. The knowledge alone was dangerous until they could figure out the true extent of matters. They needed to tread carefully.

Jack caught the sight of Ianto trying his best to regain his composure as they both heard the cogwheel door alarms sound, announcing a brand new day when they now knew there was an enemy amongst them with unknown motives. In came Tosh and Owen, then Gwen and Adam. As soon as Jack saw Adam trying to console Gwen, and then the way Ianto flinched away from Adam’s touch, something in Jack snapped.

To hell with it. Adam had gone too far messing with Ianto and Jack was all out of patience. There was one very simple way to deal with Adam. All he needed was a weapon. Held at gunpoint Adam was going to tell him everything.