Ficlet: Stay With Me
Apr. 16th, 2026 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
badly_knittedTitle: Stay With Me
Author:
badly_knittedCharacters: Jack, Ianto.
Rating: PG
Word Count: 500
Spoilers: Children of Earth Fix-it.
Summary: Jack can’t lose Ianto; there has to be some way to save him!
Written For: The prompt ‘Any, any, stay alive for me’, at
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threesentenceficathon.Disclaimer: I don’t own Torchwood, or the characters.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to end! It wasn’t supposed to end at all, not if Jack had any say in the matter. At the very least, Ianto was supposed to grow old disgracefully, because how else could he with Jack as his lover? He deserved to have a long and happy life, kept on his toes by trying to keep Jack in line. He should live long enough to get grey and wrinkly and cantankerous, poking Jack with his walking stick when he didn’t get his paperwork finished in time. They were supposed to have a few decades together, and Jack knew even that would never be enough, but it would be better than this…
He'd wanted to take Ianto out into space, show him the wonders of the universe! It shouldn’t, couldn’t end this way, not now, and not here! It was wrong, it wasn’t fair, and Jack couldn’t, wouldn’t let it happen!
He clung to his young lover, cradling Ianto in his arms, panic, guilt and despair warring against each other in his mind as he realised at last what a stupid thing he’d done by letting Ianto, fragile, mortal Ianto, follow him into Thames House. What had he hoped to gain by trying to confront a monster known to be skilled with viruses, without even bothering to obtain protective gear? At the very least Ianto should have had a breathing mask and an oxygen supply… If his lover died here, on the floor in front of the glass tank where the emissary of the 456 thrashed and spat and mocked their attempts to defy it, the fault would be his alone. He should have ordered Ianto to remain at the warehouse, where he would have been safe, or at least safer than here, but he hadn’t, and now…
Now he could be losing the man he loved through foolish pride and the even more foolish belief that defying the 456 would have even the faintest hope of succeeding… What had he even been thinking, or had he been thinking at all?
“Ianto! Ianto, stay with me, stay with me, Ianto…” As if begging could have any effect against whatever unknown, fast-acting virus the 456 had released. It was already rapidly spreading through his lover’s body, shutting down his organs, killing him inch by inch… and Jack knew that was what was happening to Ianto, because it was happening to him too, just marginally slower as his body’s self-healing abilities fought back, trying to cure him faster than the infection could spread. It wasn’t working, he was dying anyway, but it brought him, perhaps, precious seconds to try something else, to breathe some of his own surplus life force into Ianto in the hopes of sustaining him just long enough, because losing Ianto simply wasn’t an option… “This is all my fault, but I’ll fix it, I swear I will! Just, please, Ianto, stay alive for me… Stay alive long enough for me to save you!”
The End
He'd wanted to take Ianto out into space, show him the wonders of the universe! It shouldn’t, couldn’t end this way, not now, and not here! It was wrong, it wasn’t fair, and Jack couldn’t, wouldn’t let it happen!
He clung to his young lover, cradling Ianto in his arms, panic, guilt and despair warring against each other in his mind as he realised at last what a stupid thing he’d done by letting Ianto, fragile, mortal Ianto, follow him into Thames House. What had he hoped to gain by trying to confront a monster known to be skilled with viruses, without even bothering to obtain protective gear? At the very least Ianto should have had a breathing mask and an oxygen supply… If his lover died here, on the floor in front of the glass tank where the emissary of the 456 thrashed and spat and mocked their attempts to defy it, the fault would be his alone. He should have ordered Ianto to remain at the warehouse, where he would have been safe, or at least safer than here, but he hadn’t, and now…
Now he could be losing the man he loved through foolish pride and the even more foolish belief that defying the 456 would have even the faintest hope of succeeding… What had he even been thinking, or had he been thinking at all?
“Ianto! Ianto, stay with me, stay with me, Ianto…” As if begging could have any effect against whatever unknown, fast-acting virus the 456 had released. It was already rapidly spreading through his lover’s body, shutting down his organs, killing him inch by inch… and Jack knew that was what was happening to Ianto, because it was happening to him too, just marginally slower as his body’s self-healing abilities fought back, trying to cure him faster than the infection could spread. It wasn’t working, he was dying anyway, but it brought him, perhaps, precious seconds to try something else, to breathe some of his own surplus life force into Ianto in the hopes of sustaining him just long enough, because losing Ianto simply wasn’t an option… “This is all my fault, but I’ll fix it, I swear I will! Just, please, Ianto, stay alive for me… Stay alive long enough for me to save you!”
The End
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Date: 2026-04-17 12:15 am (UTC)