Title: Somewhere only we know
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Characters: Jack, The Master
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,077 words
Content notes: None
Author notes: Written for Challenge 528 - Spot
Summary: Jack has a place his mind can go when things get tough.



Jack had lost track of how long he'd been chained up in the bowels of the Valiant. Days had melded into weeks and weeks had melded into months. There was no way to delineate or mark the days passing except to know that three days rarely passed by in succession without a visit from the Master. He wasn't there to elicit information from Jack. He didn't care what Jack knew. He came down only so that he could torment him, physically and mentally.

The Master quickly learned, perhaps even before Jack had been captured, that his weakness was his team. The Torchwood hub and its collection of technology didn't interest the Master; he wanted only the pleasure of breaking Jack. He would come down when Jack was at his weakest, hungry and tired from standing for days, unable to reach the floor to sit or have any kind of real sleep. Jack had lived a century on little sleep but even this was beyond anything he'd had to endure. He napped upright, and only a few minutes at a time, or maybe simply imagined he was napping. It was a welcome relief from the endless thoughts that frightened him about what had become of the world below..

Jack was certain it had been less than a day since the polished footfalls of the Master could be heard coming for him once more. Jack dreaded the reason for it. Lately the Master had taken joy in updating him on a wild goose chase he'd set Jack's team on, high in the mountains of the Himalayas. Jack knew that nothing good could come of it. It wasn't just a way to keep Torchwood distracted, it was a way to have them meet, as the Master phrased it, an unfortunate accident.

Jack couldn't bear it; the thought of his team dying – that this was somehow his fault. He wished he had no news of them, leaving him the hope that they might be okay, gone to ground somewhere but still managing to put up a fight. He didn't know how he'd cope with news that they were dead. He couldn't bear the thought of Ianto dying alone without him, just when things between them had been starting to come good.

When the Master arrived for Jack's scheduled suffering, Jack did the only thing he could and shut his mind off from the words that were spoken and the pain that would be inflicted thereafter. Jack would focus on the spot on the wall. He didn't know how it had come to be there, noticing it weeks ago. Perhaps it was his own blood that had spattered and left a mark. God knew he'd been killed enough times. Shot, stabbed, electrocuted… The Master liked to keep it varied. Some poor soul would have to clean up afterwards. Whilst most of Jack's blood would find its way back to him, there were always stains left behind. Traces of the horror that had been perpetrated, whilst the mental scars remained hidden from view.

He focused on the spot and let his mind empty of everything. He let the Master's voice fade away and instead he focused on a different voice. He pictured Ianto in his mind, standing in the kitchen at the hub, making coffee. Sometimes when he thought no one was around, he'd hum while he made it. Jack had heard that tune dozens of times, sneaking up from behind, or lurking just far enough away that Ianto was convinced that he was alone. Ianto didn't sing – not even in the shower – but he had a decent enough voice. He only hummed when he was alone and lost in what he was doing. Jack enjoyed those unguarded moments the most.

Jack had tried to place the tune but had never managed to pin it down. He knew lots of tunes, but this one was unfamiliar to him. Perhaps it wasn't even a proper song at all. It might have just been a made up tune of some kind. Maybe something his mum or his nan might have hummed in the kitchen when they were cooking or washing up. It didn't really matter; to Jack it was just Ianto's tune.

‘Are you humming?’

Jack's conscious mind snapped sharply back into place like a rubber band pulled so far it had snapped and broken. Gone was the pleasant space of hub with its reassuring sounds and the heart-warming presence on the man Jack had fallen in love with. He was back there, on the Valiant, the Master's cold blue eyes piercing him. He'd stopped what he was doing, confused by Jack's reaction to whatever psychological torture was slated for today.

Jack stared back at the Master in absolute silence. He wouldn't let this animal have even a fragment of the one precious thing that was keeping him going.

‘Has this become boring for you?’

Jack shrugged nonchalantly. He knew that the Master enjoyed having his ego stroked by open defiance and harsh words, so he gave him nothing. Nothing would infuriate him in a way that words couldn't. He tried to reassemble the tune in his head without making the sound but found that it had drifted away, leaving him alone to face the creature he despised more than any other.

‘I think I need to teach you a lesson,’ the Master warned him. ‘Toclofane!’ he yelled. ‘Come!’

The small globular object hovered towards them, coming to rest just over the Master's shoulder. ‘Jack here seems to have become disillusioned. I think you should give him a little something different to think about.’

‘Do we get to kill, Master?’ the childlike voice asked, sounding excited at the prospect.

‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘But not too quickly. Jack needs to learn that I'm never boring.’

‘We can teach him!’ it replied with joy, long thin blades beginning to unfurl from beneath its outer metal shell. ‘Anything for our Master!’

The Master reached up and patted Jack's chin, before cocking his sideways and pouting at Jack. ‘Sorry, I have to go now. I do so hate to watch gratuitous violence.’ Then he smiled. ‘Just kidding!’ He stepped back and the Toclofane immediately sprung forward, blades whipping as they met flesh for the first time

Jack didn't know if he screamed. He just found that spot on the wall and prayed for the man he hoped was still alive somewhere as he descended into a world of pain.