Addict for Dramatics

Chapter Three

The clock struck six and Gwen was already half way through breakfast. She gulped down the last of her tea, grabbed her coat and headed out of the door towards the Hub. Playing the sympathy card should work. It was hardly out of character and he actually needed someone there otherwise he’d end up bottling it all up and that wouldn’t be good for anyone.

She pulled into a local coffee shop and picked them up two cups knowing it would take a good two decades for anyone to get the coffee machine working as good as Ianto. Ianto. It’d been three and a half weeks and his state hadn’t changed, no signs of brain activity. She was to be alerted if anything changed, hoping she’d never receive it.

At nearly six-thirty five she entered the Hub, cog door opening with a ferocious clang. A surprisingly almost conscious Jack sprawled out across the couch. He said he couldn’t take sleeping in that little hole he called a room anymore. Too many memories for him.

She padded over to him softly and handed him his cup.

“Thanks,” he muttered in a voice just as broken as his appearance.

Gwen nodded and pulled up a chair opposite him and took a sip of her own. Too sweet, Ianto made it better. She sighed and shut her eyes, thinking about him wouldn’t do her any good. She went to ask Jack if he’d gotten any rift spikes that night when her mobile rang.

The hospital. She excused herself to a pair of ears that wouldn’t have registered a ship passing and made her way to the kitchenette and out of earshot.

“Yes, hello?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“Hello, Miss Cooper?”

“Yes, yes. Is this about Ianto?”

“Yes, he’s woken up. Keeps asking for a man named Jack but your name is all we have listed.”

“Oh, yes, sorry. His granddad, really close. Died a month ago. If he’s excepting visitors I could..”

“You can visit anytime between seven and five.”

“Thank you. I’ll see if I can get off work and come down now.”

“Have a good day, Miss Cooper.”

“And you.”

She quickly hung up her phone and shut her eyes tight. So, he’s awake. Ianto Jones was awake and her entire plan has gone to shit. She silently cursed herself and peaked over the coffee machine to Jack, staring across the Hub at nothing in particular.

She hoped that even if he had awakened it would have been later, she would have at least gotten Jack to open up to her. He’d been barren of all emotions for the past month. She was pretty sure that if Janet got loose and started to maul him he’d simply remark about the floor being dirty.

She shoved her phone in her jeans pocket and walked back over to Jack, standing directly in front of his vacant gaze, hoping that might snap him out of his void. He looked up at her after thirty seconds with dark, blank eyes.

“Have we had any rift spikes during the night? Any we might be expecting in the next hour or so?”

Jack shook his head, running a hand across his cheek and chin, noticing his severe amount of stubble no doubt.

“Alright, there’s some business I have to take care of. My Mum’s visiting this weekend and she needed me to sort out a few things before she arrives. I should be back soon.”

He said nothing, just nodded and went back to focusing on the desk in front of him, lost in memories.



Pain coursed throughout Ianto Jones’ pale, lean frame. Most of it from the large wound in his chest, the rest from being completely and utterly alone. He remembered the rift alarm going off, getting in the SUV with Jack and Gwen and the rest was less of a memory and more of a Polaroid image in his mind. Rain, lots of rain, getting into his eyes and making it hard to see. Mud and dirt caking easily to his favourite shoes. The colour purple, he couldn’t think why it was important but it was the shade that stuck out the most. Pain, more pain than the rain that continues to pour all around him and then silence. Silence and a haze of red, a deep scarlet that soaked through the silence, taking everything he should remember and leaving space for nothing else.

He awoke with a scream, finally managing to overcome the thick haze of scarlet to see nothing but white. Sparkling white, devoid of human contact and the stale taste of recycled air. A nurses’ aide must have heard his scream because within a minute he was poked and prodded with needles and machines and wires and it felt like his head was spinning. He didn’t want this, the room, the strange people. He had to get back to Jack, make sure he was alright. He hadn’t been stable and it was his responsibility to be there for him.

“J-Jack…I need to see him,” was all he could manage to say and it seemed as if they weren’t listening. They heard him though, he was sure. The sympathetic look in their gaze gave it away.

Another nurse patted is hand gently, the one without an IV going through it. If it were under another circumstance he’d probably thought her kind. Thick, coarse ginger hair flecked with gray and a significant amount of laugh lines gave her character.

“You’re expecting a visitor, love. Gwen Cooper? Is it alright if I let her in? She really wants to see you.”

He closed his eyes tight, that definitely wasn’t the visitor he was expecting. Where is he? Is he alright? Did something happen? Why can’t I remember anything? He clenched his fist tight in the crisp sheets and nodded weakly. Maybe she’d tell him what’s going on.