Title: Misfiled
Author: Jigot
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Gwen, Owen and Tosh
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine. Never have been, never will be.
Summary: Ianto asks Jack for some help identifying a few misfiled objects.

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"So what have you got for me, Ianto?"

Ianto looked up from the box of artefacts that he had collected together from around the Archives, smiling softly in response to Jack's broad grin.

"These, Sir."

"And what exactly are they?" Jack walked over to the table and peered into the box.

"I was rather hoping you would tell me." Ianto pulled a silver ball from the box. Approximately 8 centimetres in diameter, it was intricately decorated with swirling patterns and stars. "This, for instance, was filed as ‘ball, silver'. Not particularly illuminating."

Jack took the ball from Ianto's hand and turned it over slowly. After a few seconds, he pressed on a point where several of the swirling lines met. Soft music filled the room until Jack pressed the same spot again and the music stopped. He handed it back to Ianto.

"It's for lulling small children to sleep. I haven't seen one of those for years." He sighed wistfully, then grinned again. "What else have you got in there?"

Ianto pulled out the next object. This one was cylindrical in shape and shone a brilliant green as Ianto moved it under the lights.

"Don't tell me, it was filed as ‘cylinder, green'."

Ianto nodded. "You're getting the hang of this remarkably quickly, Sir."

He handed the object to Jack who peered at it, mystified. He examined it closely before handing it back to Ianto. "Sorry, not a clue. We could get Tosh to take a look if you like."

"She's next on my list, Sir."

Ianto placed the cylinder down on the table and reached into the box for the next object. He held it up for Jack to see.

"Care to take a guess?"

Jack grinned. "I'd be prepared to put money on ‘box, red'."

"And you'd be correct. Can you supply anything more helpful?"

Jack took the box and examined it closely. It was about the size of a small music box and was surprisingly heavy. It was cold to the touch, metallic maybe. There was writing on the lid in a language which Jack was sure he had seen somewhere before, but couldn't quite place. When he turned the box upside down, he found more writing. Numbers, perhaps? As he turned it once more to look at the back, his fingers brushed over two small matching indentations on opposite sides of the box. The lid flew open and a cloud of purple gas quickly enveloped the two men.

Almost immediately, Ianto started coughing, fighting for breath. Jack grabbed his arm and tried to pull him towards the exit but they managed no more than a couple of steps before Ianto stumbled, falling to his knees. Jack tried to haul him back to his feet, but by now he was struggling to breathe just as much as Ianto was.

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"What the hell is that noise?" Owen stormed up the stairs from the autopsy room and marched over to Toshiko's desk. "How am I supposed to work with that racket going on? I nearly sliced my hand open."

Gwen shrugged her shoulders but Tosh didn't even look up. She continued tapping at her keyboard whilst watching her screen. "That ‘noise' would be an alarm. The Archives have been sealed off. Some sort of gas leak."

Gwen jogged over from her own desk. "Is Ianto down there?"

"Yes. Jack too. I'm trying to locate them on the scanners. Wait a minute... There - I've got them!"

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Jack opened his eyes slowly. His head was pounding and his throat felt raw. He tried to sit up, but the effort brought on a coughing fit that left him gasping for breath and close to passing out again. Turning his head to his right, he saw Ianto lying a few feet away from him. He didn't appear to be breathing. Jack groaned. He tapped his Bluetooth but heard nothing but static in response. He looked again at Ianto, knowing that he couldn't reach him in the state he was currently in. Slowly and carefully, he reached for his gun.

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"What's he doing?"

Tosh, Owen and Gwen watched in horror as Jack put his gun to his head and pulled the trigger.

Gwen shivered. "I am never going to get used to seeing that."

Owen grimaced. "I hope he knows what he's doing," he muttered.

Tosh turned to Gwen. "The internal comms are down. If we can't get into the Archives then we'll need to be able to talk to Jack when he..." She paused. "... when he comes back. Can you get on it?"

Gwen nodded and moved back to her own desk.

"Owen?"

Owen was still staring at the image of Jack on the screen. He jumped when Tosh gently touched his arm.

"Owen, the gas is being pumped out of the Archives but they're huge and that could take hours. They won't be automatically unsealed until the air is safe to breathe. I'm going to try to override the locks, but we'll need to know what's down there before we go in."

"Yep, I'm on it."

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Jack gasped and sat up. His body had rid itself of the gas but now he was breathing more in. He got unsteadily to his feet and staggered over to Ianto. Kneeling down beside him, he felt for a pulse. It was slow and weak, but it was there. Ianto's breathing was shallow and ragged.

Jack's head was already starting to throb and his vision was swimming. He moved Ianto carefully into the recovery position before lying down beside him and losing consciousness once more.

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"Shit!"

Tosh turned from her screen to Owen. "What is it?"

Owen slumped back in his chair. "I've identified the gas, or at least I've matched it to one in the records. According to this, it's fatal within 30 minutes of exposure. But there IS an antidote. The only problem is that it's stored in the Archives."

Tosh shook her head. "30 minutes? They've had 10 already. There's no way I'll be able to override the locks in under 20 minutes. There are at least 7 security protocols and I've barely made a start on the first."

Suddenly, Gwen shrieked. "I've got comms!"

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Jack coughed and slowly opened his eyes. Someone was shouting his name. But looking around, he could only see Ianto and he didn't look as though he would be shouting anything for a while. The voice was getting more insistent. Owen. It was Owen.

"Jack? Jack! Can you hear me?"

"I hear you. Keep the noise down, OK? My head is killing me."

"OK, OK, I'm sorry. But you need to listen to me. Can you get up?"

Jack rolled over onto his hands and knees and then got carefully to his feet. Why was it such hard work?

"I'm up."

"I know - I can see you on the CCTV. Do you remember what happened?"

Jack nodded, and immediately wished he hadn't. His head was throbbing. "The purple gas. What is it?"

"KB634."

"Whatever that is," Jack muttered.

"Well whatever it is, you need to get the antidote to Ianto in the next 17 minutes or he's dead."

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Owen turned to the other screen on which he had displayed a schematic of the Archives. "There's a corridor to your left. Go to the door at the end."

Jack shot one final glance at Ianto, then set off towards the corridor. This wasn't turning out to be the quiet afternoon he had hoped for.

"OK, I've reached the corridor. You're going to have to help me out here - this stuff's making my eyes water so much I can hardly see."

"It's fine Jack. The corridor is straight and has no doors on the left hand side. Just put your hand on the wall and keep walking."

Jack staggered on. Ianto was always telling him how stuffy the Archives were - next time he would listen.

"How much further?" Jack's head was spinning and breathing had suddenly become much harder.

"About 50 feet. Can you make it?"

"Don't go away - I'll be back in a minute."

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Tosh and Gwen turned away from the screen as Jack put the gun to his chest and fired. Owen simply closed his eyes, waiting for the gasp that would indicate Jack's return to life. It came less than a minute later.

"Jack? Are you with me?"

Owen saw Jack struggle to his feet and walk slowly on towards the door, but he didn't respond.

"Jack!"

"Yeah, I'm here. Ianto's gonna kill me for making all this mess." He opened the door and entered the next room.

"Very funny, Jack. Now can you see the cabinet? Number 18. It should be on the left, about half way along the wall. You're out of range of the CCTV, so you're on your own now."

They listened to the sound of Jack's laboured breathing as he worked his way slowly along the row of cabinets. It took about 20 seconds for him to reach the right one.

"Number 18. Found it. Now what?"

"Open the third drawer down. You're looking for a black case, the size of a small paperback book."

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Jack opened the drawer and looked inside. It was full of small, black cases. He groaned.

"Owen? You're going to have to be a bit more specific. Does it have a number or anything?"

"Umm... hang on a minute. Yes. It should say KB634, the same as the gas."

"Figures..."

Jack rubbed at his eyes, trying to regain more of his vision. Then he pulled out case after case, discarding them all on the floor until he found the one he was looking for.

"I've got it. Do I open it?"

"Yes. Tell me what's inside."

Jack unzipped the case. "It looks like an auto-injector."

"Just the one?"

"Yeah."

"OK, zip the case back up and head back to Ianto. You've got 8 minutes."

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Owen, Tosh and Gwen watched Jack reappear on the screen. Keeping his hand on the right hand wall, he walked slowly back along the corridor, each footstep seemingly taking more effort than the last. Twice he stopped to lean against the wall and catch his breath for a few seconds before moving on.

It took Jack 3 long minutes to emerge from the corridor back into the room where Ianto lay, still some 30 feet away. They saw Jack stop and stare in Ianto's direction before turning towards the CCTV camera. Clearly exhausted, he was visibly swaying.

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Jack had seen how far he still had to go to reach Ianto and he knew he wasn't going to make it. 30 feet. 30 measly feet and he didn't have the strength to take another step. His chest was burning from the effort of breathing and he could barely see through his streaming eyes. He reached for his gun.

"How long have I got?" He directed his words in the general direction of the camera. He couldn't make it out, but he knew roughly where it was. It was a few seconds before he got his reply.

"Less than 5 minutes," said Owen quietly. "Is that long enough?"

"It'll have to be."

Jack dropped to his knees, held the gun to his chest once more and fired.

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"Why is it taking so long?" Gwen was staring, almost transfixed, at the image of Jack on the screen.

Owen shrugged. "That's the third time in less than 20 minutes. I guess it just sort of mounts up."

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Jack gasped and raised his head and shoulders from the floor. He rolled on to his side and struggled to sit up.

"Owen? Talk to me."

"You've got about 2 minutes. Most of the gas has gone, so just take it steady and you'll get to him in time."

Jack tried to stand, but his legs wouldn't hold him on their own. He had to settle for crawling the final stretch to Ianto. At least he could see where he was going now. Of course that meant that he could also see the evidence of his first self-inflicted death of the afternoon splattered on the floor as he neared his goal.

"I promise you won't be cleaning that up, Ianto," he thought.

Finally, he reached Ianto's side. With an unsteady hand, he felt for a pulse. It was still there - just.

"Hang on Yan, just a little longer."

Jack reached into his pocket, withdrew the black case and opened it. Taking out the auto-injector, he paused. He'd used these before, injecting injured fellow soldiers with morphine, but his head was getting fuzzy again and he had to get this right.

"Owen, I could use some help here."

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"OK Jack. First you need to find a good injection site. You want to go for the front of his thigh, about half way between his hip and his knee."

Owen watched the screen as Jack's free hand found a suitable site.

"That's fine. Just check that there are no buttons or seams that'll get in the way."

"There's nothing." Jack's voice was wavering. Owen knew they had to hurry, but rushing wasn't going to help Ianto now.

"OK now pull the cap off the top and then hold the injector in your fist."

Again, Owen watched the screen as Jack carried out his instructions.

"That's it. Now you're going to jab it against his thigh and hold it there until I say to stop. OK?"

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Jack pushed the injector against Ianto's thigh as hard as he could. He heard it click as the mechanism activated and he held it in place, waiting for Owen's word. As he waited, he counted. One, two, three... His head was swimming again. Four, five, six... Was that long enough? He couldn't hold it much longer. Seven, eight, nine... Black spots were dancing across his vision. Ten, eleven, twelve...

Jack fell to the floor beside Ianto.

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Nearly an hour later, as Tosh worked on the 9th and, she hoped, final security protocol, a message flashed across her screen.

THREAT ELIMINATED -
ARCHIVE ACCESS RESTORED

Tosh, Owen and Gwen dashed towards the entrance to the Archives.

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Jack awoke to find Owen checking his pulse. Struggling to sit up, he reached out and grabbed Ianto's hand.

"Is he OK?"

Owen nodded. "He's alive - you got the antidote to him in time. He'll be out for a few more hours, and I need to get him upstairs to check him out properly, but he should be fine."

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Three hours later, Ianto finally opened his eyes to find Jack sitting by his bed, holding his hand, and Owen hovering nearby.

Jack smiled warmly. "Welcome back."

"What happened?" Ianto's voice was hoarse and he sounded exhausted.

Owen stepped forward. "You and Jack had a little run in with some poisonous gas. Jack managed to get the antidote to you in time." He busied himself for a few minutes, checking Ianto's pulse and breathing, then left the room.

Ianto looked carefully at Jack. "You look almost as bad as I feel."

Jack conceded that that was probably true.

Ianto moved his gaze down to Jack's bloodied shirt. "How many times?" he asked quietly.

"Three, I think. It's all a bit hazy."

Ianto squeezed Jack's hand. "Thank you," he murmured. His eyes fluttered shut as he fell back into a light sleep.

Jack leant forward and kissed him gently on the forehead.

"Any time, Yan. Any time."


END

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