A Torchwood Jack/Ianto Origin Fic

Vizzini's Rule: Chapter One


When a job went wrong, go back to the beginning.  

Good advice, Ianto had always thought.  And no job had ever gone as wrong as completely and as spectacularly as Torchwood.  How many last days at a job were filled with destruction, tears and blood?  But how to go back to the beginning, he had wondered.  Torchwood was gone, burned, might as well salt the earth and walk away.  

But Ianto hadn’t been able to let go for the simplest and most dangerous of reasons – love.  Lisa was still alive and he had sworn to save her.  

When Ianto finally got Lisa back to their flat after that long, terrifying day, he realized that she was a hairsbreadth away from death.  Whatever the Cybermen had done to her, she couldn’t survive long on her own.  First and foremost, after he staunched the bleeding around her upgrades (he shuddered at the word) was her breathing.  Ianto didn’t know if it was something they had done to her lungs or simply the weight of the heavy metal breast plate that had been fused to her chest, but every breath was a struggle.

Not knowing where else to find what he needed to help her, Ianto returned to the burned out husk of Torchwood Tower.  That first night he had crept back in and found a ventilator, a monitor and all the painkillers he could lay his hands on.  Once he had her stable and in as little pain as possible, she started to tell him what they would need from the wreckage to keep her alive.  At the end of it all, when the Cybermen had started upgrading whole bodies, they created the conversion units from any materials at hand, so large pieces of the equipment were still in the rubble of the Tower.  Ignoring the nagging question of how Lisa knew which pieces would work, Ianto just paid attention and took good notes.

Every night Ianto would skulk through Torchwood Tower, avoiding the police on the outside and the members of Torchwood Three and UNIT on the inside, searching for the pieces of conversion units that Lisa had described, bringing home whatever he could scavenge.  Every day, he would work on the life support system, Lisa guiding him when she could stand to talk through the pain.  Exhausted and miserable, but determined to keep Lisa alive and find some way to cure her, Ianto existed in a haze of agony day after day.  Unable to eat or sleep, he worked himself to the brink of collapse.

One afternoon, he awoke to Lisa’s frantic cries.  He had passed out cold while working with the soldering iron and just about managed to set himself on fire.  Cursing as he cut the power to the tool and stamped out the smoldering embers in the carpet, he turned on Lisa in a rage.

“How could you let me fall asleep?  Why didn’t you wake me?  Do you know what could have happened?” he yelled stupidly.  He regretted his harsh words instantly as Lisa’s brown eyes filled with tears and she stuttered apologies.

He stood for a moment, tears filling his own eyes, slumped in defeat.  He crossed the room to Lisa and reached for her hand, pressing his lips to her palm.  “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he murmured over and over. Allowing himself a moment of weakness, he let the tears fall as he clutched her hand.  “I can’t do it, Lisa.  I don’t know what I’m doing.  We don’t have enough power here, the right equipment, I don’t know what to do,” he sobbed brokenly.

Lisa didn’t say anything, just squeezed his hand.  After a few more minutes of anguished weeping, Ianto rubbed his eyes and sat up.  He wiped his face and leaned down to place a soft kiss on her lips.  “It’s okay, I’ll think of something.  I just need…I just need to sleep for a few hours.”  Lisa nodded, trying to smile at him.  He smiled back.  “It’ll be okay, love.  Do you need anything?”

She shook her head and told Ianto in her soft voice, “I’m fine, Ianto.  I love you.  Please go rest.”

After another kiss, Ianto obeyed.  He collapsed on their bed and was unconscious in seconds.  

He dreamed…

This time not of fire and blood, but of Lisa sleeping next to him, Lisa on a camping trip, Lisa waking him with coffee and kisses.  He woke with tears running down his cheeks again.  Lying there, unable to summon the strength to get back to work, he let his mind wander.  What to do, where to go, who to trust, how to find help…  And then Vizzini’s rule crept into his mind.  Go back to the beginning…Torchwood…the beginning… And Ianto knew what he had to do.

Torchwood.  That meant Torchwood Three.  That meant Cardiff…and Captain Jack Harkness.


TBC…