Torchwood Is My Home (A Janto Fanfic)

Chapter 50 - October

Jack’s POV

~

I take Ianto’s hand. It’s the first time the doctors let me see him or Martha, and he’s in pretty rough shape. It’s been two weeks since the... Accident.

There’s medical gauze all over the side of his neck and his face is littered with small scratches, but the most noticeable is a sideways ‘v’ shape on his cheek. It’s been cleaned and it’s small enough that it doesn’t need stitches, but it still stands out red and angry against his pale face. I’ve seen a scar like that before...

I shake my head. Now is not the time to think of that. I squeeze his hand gently, but get no response. His eyes are closed so it looks like he’s just sleeping, but the doctors have told me that he has a small bruise in his brain and that they don’t know how long it will take to heal.

To distract myself, I think of just a few weeks ago, when we stayed up all night watching crap TV. I wrapped my arms around him and called him my little spoon and he laughed, telling me not to be so silly, and that obviously he was the big spoon.

No, I definitely felt a squeeze on my hand. I look up, torn from my thoughts and see Ianto’s eyes flutter open.

“Hey Ianto,” I smile, keeping my voice quiet “How’s my little spoon?”

A look of confusion passes across his face.

“I’m so sorry,” he says quietly, not looking at me. I notice how beautiful his Welsh accent is. “I recognise your face, but I don’t know who you are.”

I feel like I’ve been kicked in the stomach. I sit down and try to stop the tears, but they sting my eyes and overflow anyway.

“Do you know who you are?” I ask him in a loud whisper “Can you remember anything at all?”

His eyes cloud for a moment, and he’s lost in thought.

“My name is... Ianto? I’m in love with someone...” he looks at me “You.” He smiles weakly.

I lift my hand and he mirrors my action, lifting his.

“We’re engaged, Ianto. Two months ‘till our wedding.” My voice cracks again and I sink into the chair, feeling my world dissolve beneath my feet.

A doctor strides into the room and tells me to leave. I do my best to hide my tears from them; the doctors don’t care about me. And they can never know that I’m immortal, or I’ll be a lab-rat for the rest of my life. If my life will ever end, that is.

 “I’ll be back tomorrow.” I whisper against the skin as I kiss Ianto’s hand.

~

Martha sits up in bed as soon as I turn the door handle to her room.

“How is he?” she asks, before gulping as she notices my tear-stained cheeks.

“He has no memory. Of anything. No Torchwood, no family, no us. He has traumatic amnesia, and there’s no knowing how long it will last.” I start to cry and Martha awkwardly pats my shoulder, about the best she can do with a broken left arm and dislocated right shoulder. Her ailments are all physical, but it was Ianto’s mind that really took a pounding.

There are flowers on her bedside table, so obviously Owen’s passed through in the two weeks since the mission went wrong.

~

“I went to get some drinks, because we’d been working all day. I shouldn’t have left them. Two weevils, bigger than we’ve ever seen before, appeared out of nowhere. There was quite a fight.” A sob racks my body so I have to pause “Ianto was trying to protect Martha, but one picked him up and bit a chunk out of his neck before it threw him against a tree. I’ve never seen them be so vicious as they were with Martha. They were scratching at her and kicking at her. The ambulance personnel thought she was dead at first.”

John nods. He’s never encountered Weevils before, but out in the field we used to get some horrific injuries if we were fighting aliens. Creatures are very protective of their planets, y’know.

“Ianto has brain damage. He has traumatic amnesia, and they don’t know if he will ever recover his memory. And Martha is black and blue, constantly in and out of surgery for this and that.”

I curl into the foetal position and flop sideways so my head is resting on John’s lap. His hand absentmindedly wanders through my hair while I cry.

Not even immortality can heal a broken heart.