Title: 3 AM Eternal
By: angstytimelord
Pairing: Ianto Jones/Tenth Doctor
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Rating: PG-13
Table: 1, 50scenes
Prompt: 32, Eternal
Disclaimer: This is entirely a product of my imagination, and I make no profit from it. I do not own Ianto Jones or the Tenth Doctor. Please do not sue.

***

It was the middle of the night, and he still couldn't sleep.

The Doctor sighed, sitting up in bed, careful not to wake Ianto as he pushed the covers back. He got out of their bed quietly, pulling the covers back up over his young lover's bare shoulders, looking down at the face he loved with a small smile on his lips.

How many more nights would they have to spend like this, wondering what was going to happen and when? He felt a little more secure now that they had outlined everything that had been happening to Jack and the Torchwood team, but he knew that they were by no means safe.

This was all coming to a point of no return, and he was fully aware of that, the Doctor thought, reaching for his dressing gown and pulling it on. Not being able to sleep was only one component of all the worries that they were all now dealing with.

Silently, the Doctor made his way to the window, pulling back the curtain and staring down at the city of Cardiff, the buildings silhouetted in the moonlight. How peaceful it looked at this moment -- but that peace could be shattered in the blink of an eye.

No one sleeping in any of those thousands of homes in this city knew about the menace that threatened them. No one other than the few people who worked for Torchwood had any idea of what havoc the Master could wreak, how he could destroy not only this city, but the entire planet.

Three o'clock in the morning, he thought, a small smile curving his lips for just a moment. The hour of greatest mercy, it was sometimes called. Though it could just as easily be called the dead of night, or the wee small hours before the dawn.

If the Master had his way, the night sky over Cardiff would be exactly like this from now on, the Doctor told himself, looking up at the black velvet of the sky that had barely any twinkling stars spread across the stark darkness. It would be dark forever, void of any kind of light.

Were they to fail to defeat his enemy, it could seem as though it was 3 a.m. eternally, the Doctor thought with a shudder. It was very possible that light would never return to Earth if the Master was allowed to have his way. That was something that couldn't come to pass.

It was impossible to know just what the Master was planning, what kind of ultimate confrontation he was herding them towards. But it was very obvious to the Doctor that it was happening, slowly but surely, and that he and his friends were woefully unprepared.

He didn't want to live in a universe where the planet that the man he loved called home was forced into a state of eternal night, a universe that could very well be controlled by one of the most evil individuals he'd ever known, an individual who was capable any act of madness.

Of course, if that actually did happen, there was very little chance that he himself would be allowed to live, the Doctor reflected wryly, leaning his forehead against the smooth pane of glass and closing his eyes. He might never know what the outcome of all this was.

At one time, he would have said that he wasn't afraid of death. He'd had nothing to lose then -- he'd been much younger the first time he'd said those words, and he'd known that he had numerous lives ahead of him. He hadn't really grasped the finality of death.

And now .... now, he had so much to live for. He had bonded with the man he'd searched for all of his life, the man who he was sure he'd been intended for from the moment of his birth, even though they had been born centuries apart, on different planets in different worlds.

He could lose Ianto -- and the Master would more than likely make sure that he did, unless the Doctor could somehow keep his lover out of this battle. The Master knew how he felt about Ianto; he knew that losing his lover would destroy the Doctor in every way.

Without Ianto, he could still live -- but it would be merely an existence that he didn't want to be in. There was no reason to tell himself that he couldn't base his existence on one person; it was already far too late to pull himself back from becoming so deeply involved.

Jack had told him once when the two of them were involved that loving someone could prove to be his greatest weakness, his undoing. The Doctor had understood what he meant, but he'd argued that loving in that way was never a weakness, but a strength.

Still, he had to admit that maybe Jack had been right in some ways. His love for Ianto made him vulnerable, and the Master had already found a way to strike at that very vulnerability, aiming directly at the Time Lord's hearts and pulling no punches.

The Master had dragged Ianto into this purposely, striking at him through the Doctor's dreams in order to give the Doctor another layer of worry on top of what he was already dealing with. He was faced with not only having to protect Earth -- but to protect the person he held most dear.

The Doctor's mouth compressed into a thin line as he opened his eyes and looked down at the twinkling lights of the city of Cardiff again. He would be forced to make a choice between Ianto and this planet. He was sure of that; there was no doubt in his mind.

He had to somehow manage to keep Ianto in the background of this. It was possible that he would need all the help he could get to fight the Master this time around, but he refused to let the man he loved place himself in danger. He simply wouldn't allow it.

If Ianto protested -- and the Doctor was sure that he would -- he would stand firm. Ianto might not be happy with being relegated to a background position in this fight while the Doctor willingly put himself into the thick of it, but he would have to live with that decision.

Was it wrong for Ianto to be his most important priority in all of this? The Doctor sighed, knowing that the answer to that question rested solely with him. He couldn't ask Jack, or anyone else; he knew that their answer would be something he didn't want to hear.

He didn't want to spend the rest of his life without Ianto if something were to happen that he didn't expect. It was as simple as that. He didn't want to go through the rest of his lives before he could free himself to be with his lover in a life beyond the one he knew.

Without the man he loved in his arms and in his heart, he would have a very lonely life -- and if something were to happen that kept them parted past this life, he would exist in an eternal hell. He would rather disappear into oblivion than live like that.

Until now, he'd always thought that even when he and Ianto had to be parted in this life, he would at least have the comfort of knowing that the love of his life would be waiting for him when he left this life for the final time. That would be enough to get him through what remained.

But he couldn't shake the feeling that the Master wanted them parted for eternity, to be sure that the Doctor would never find the happiness that he'd known so briefly with Ianto. It would fit the Master's warped sense of justice, his need to control the Doctor in every way.

No. He wasn't going to let that happen. He was a Time Lord; he could see the turn of the universe, sense all of time stretching out in all directions. He would find a way to defeat this monster, and to keep the man he loved safe. He wouldn't be defeated by doubts before the battle had even started.

Three o'clock in the morning. The hour of greatest mercy. The Doctor almost wanted to smile at that, to send up some sort of prayer to any deity that might happen to be listening. But prayers wouldn't help them now; they had to depend on themselves.

He would do his best to keep the world he loved from being turned into a wasteland by an enemy that he had led to them. He knew that the Master's interest in this planet was largely due to the fact that he himself was so fiercely protective of it; he'd led their nightmare to them.

He wouldn't let this planet that he loved be condemned to an eternal night under the rule of the Master. He wouldn't let it be destroyed, either, no matter what sacrifice he might have to make of himself. But he also wouldn't let anyone close to him make that sacrifice.

The Doctor took a deep breath, letting it out again slowly as he looked once more up into the dark night sky. Three a.m. for the rest of eternity. Maybe that didn't sound like such a bad prospect to others, but he couldn't let it happen. Not if he had the power to prevent it.

Moving back to the bed, he let the dressing gown fall to the floor, sliding back under the covers and curling up next to Ianto. He almost didn't want to go to sleep; tomorrow would get here far too quickly, and there would be less time for trying to plan a line of attack.

Maybe having it stay three a.m. eternally wasn't such a bad idea, after all.

***