The Value of a Moment (Torchwood)

[Seeker]

22 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

maybe slightly annoyed that Ianto was ignoring him..

He needs attention!   

And now my phone won't let me quote. Ah technology. At least it's not sending me in a loop so I can confidently look forward to another part  

[quietsucker]

On 7/24/2018 at 5:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

And how difficult could that be, really?

 

Hoping not very difficult.  But it has been a few weeks already....

Very excited to see how this ends up!

 

-QS

[AngelEyes]

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Trouble had been that he needed more data, and it seemed his day reset each time before he could fully gather the necessary sample. Still, he was making some progress, if not as rapidly as he would have liked.

Frustrating!

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Some loops, she would hesitate, embarrassed by her lack of control, and Ianto’s proximity, as she sniffled, sneezed and coughed, until Ianto would take her hand, press a chaste kiss into her hair and remind her in a low whisper that he had a lot more intimate contact with Jack, who had also fallen victim to this cold, and was far less careful with his sneezes.

Aww, LOL

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Ianto nodded, and was surprised when Jack embraced him, and said “Come home to me.”

“I’m trying, Jack,” Ianto said with feeling.

Awwww!😪

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Jack sniffed at the irritation in his sinuses, annoyed at his tickly nose, and just maybe slightly annoyed that Ianto was ignoring him.

LOL

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

And how difficult could that be, really?

Oh dear.

This is so exciting!

[AngelEyes]

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Trouble had been that he needed more data, and it seemed his day reset each time before he could fully gather the necessary sample. Still, he was making some progress, if not as rapidly as he would have liked.

Frustrating!

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Some loops, she would hesitate, embarrassed by her lack of control, and Ianto’s proximity, as she sniffled, sneezed and coughed, until Ianto would take her hand, press a chaste kiss into her hair and remind her in a low whisper that he had a lot more intimate contact with Jack, who had also fallen victim to this cold, and was far less careful with his sneezes.

Aww, LOL

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Ianto nodded, and was surprised when Jack embraced him, and said “Come home to me.”

“I’m trying, Jack,” Ianto said with feeling.

Awwww!😪

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

Jack sniffed at the irritation in his sinuses, annoyed at his tickly nose, and just maybe slightly annoyed that Ianto was ignoring him.

LOL

 

On 7/24/2018 at 4:47 PM, Jelloicious said:

And how difficult could that be, really?

Oh dear.

This is so exciting!

[Jelloicious]

Thank you @ReidSeeker,  @quietsucker, and @AngelEyes

Hopefully, we are getting close!  (somehow, I always write the end before the middle).   Still, it's been a bit of fun torturing Jack.  In a time loop.  Because it's Torchwood, and things like that happen sometimes.  And Jack never actually believes he is vulnerable.  

TWTWTWTWTW

“Dammit, Jack, you have to listen to me!!” Ianto practically shouted. Jack managed a bewildered look at his bedmate in the moment before the irritation in his sinuses overwhelmed him for the second time in as many minutes and he sneezed again, fairly spectacularly.  Jack had always enjoyed a good sneeze, and this morning, he'd been blessed with two of them.

Unfortunately, his ability to enjoy them properly had been disrupted as Ianto had shaken him roughly,  desperately.  There was an awful song on the radio.

Jack rubbed roughly at his irritated nose and blinked at Ianto, feeling just a little beset.

Ianto closed his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath, before opening them. “Sorry. It’s just…a lot.” He almost laughed, nervously, scrubbed at his face and then grinned at Jack. “I think today is the day!”

If Ianto wanted Jack’s attention, he had it fully, now. Jack had rarely seen Ianto this flustered, this keyed up. Something was wrong.

Before Jack could ask what, he sneezed again.  Clearly, Ianto hadn't been keeping up the housekeeping at his flat, properly.  Jack made a mental note to make sure Ianto had time to visit his own home on a more regular basis.

“Bless. Look. We’re in a time loop. Have been for weeks and weeks.” Ianto laughed nervously, again. “We may… I hope...we can break out today. You’re going to have to trust me.”

Jack thought to himself as he closed his eyes to sneeze yet again, (just dust, he was sure. He never got sick.) that there were few people he trusted more.

With desperate hope evident in his voice, Ianto explained everything. Thoroughly. Methodically. In a way that gave Jack the unsettling feeling that he’d done so repeatedly before.

 

TWTWTWTW

Toshiko’s monitor was tuned exactly as Ianto had directed, and she stood by, safe,  and far away from the bay in the Hub. Gwen and Owen waited on the docks,  warm, dry and secure in the SUV, monitoring Jack and Ianto.

Ianto had tried to convince Jack to stay with Gwen and Owen, but Jack wasn’t having it. He may not have Ianto’s memories of the previous weeks of time loops, but he could plainly see that Ianto was haggard and very near the unraveled ends of frayed nerves, and he wasn’t about to let the young man go out on the bay by himself on that basis alone. Never mind that the weather was such that no sane person would be on a boat in the bay at all. He hoped the wet weather would wash whatever was tickling his nose out of the air, though, as he steadfastly refused to believe Ianto’s assurances that he was in fact starting in on a right proper bear of a head cold. Ianto gave him the exasperated look of a man who had carefully cataloged all of the (mounting) evidence too many times before. Instead, he rolled his eyes and gestured for Jack to join him on the boat, offering no sympathy for Jack when he sneezed yet again. HehSHOOO!!!……...Heh…….HehYASHoooOO!! Of course, Jack didn’t need any sympathy. He never got sick. ASHOOOO!!! Well, hardly ever, anyway.

Jack’s resolve in this respect might have begun to flag a bit, as he pulled the collar of his great coat higher, and shivered in the stiff wet wind as Ianto plowed their small boat ahead into the bay, searching for the particular spot selected by the rift to drop its glowing, round, time-loop causing orb. Annoyingly, the chill wind had set Jack’s nose to running, and suddenly, he was grateful for Ianto’s insistence on extra napkins from the young woman who prepared their coffee (long gone cold) this morning. He was less grateful for Ianto’s insistence that they both wear bulky life vests, as it hampered Jack’s movements and kept him from being able to fully pull is heavy coat closed against the wind and wet.

HAHHShooo!!!…..HehYASHooo!!!!…..HAAHHHHSHOOOO!!!!!!!  Jack sniffed, with wet resignation.  Of course, he’d have to be out on the bay in the middle of a winter storm on the one day his 51^st Century Immortal Immune system decided to give in to the common cold. HAHHRASHOOOO!!!!   The pleasantly satisfying sneezes from this morning had become insistent, and almost painful as his body tried desperately to expel the irritation in his sinuses. He’d forgotten how miserable HASHOOO!!!!!  coming down with a cold actually was. He might have been letting his mind drift to the prospect of Ianto’s warm bed, a cup of Ianto’s hot tea and a warm and naked Ianto, when Tosh’s voice crackled over his earpiece, and he signaled Ianto to slow their skiff.

Ianto handled their small craft expertly. Jack wondered for a moment how he’d managed to not know that Ianto was this comfortably skilled on watercraft, then realized that Ianto had been practicing daily for….well, he wasn’t even sure how long, now.

The small boat was fast and maneuverable, but perhaps not as stable in the churning bay as Jack might have preferred, and the motion seemed to add to Jack’s increasing misery. Ianto, on the other hand, was fairly coiled with excitement and anticipation, and managed the rolling deck with practiced ease as he worked to hold the boat steady on the waters, hoping to be close enough to make sure no one else (no other idiots out on the bay, on a dreadfully miserable November day) came in contact with it. Maybe it would sink, harmlessly. Maybe if they could just keep today from resetting...maybe the rift would take the object back (as it sometimes did). For now, all they could do was hang on to the boat, wait, watch and (in Jack’s case, at least) sneeze. Wetly, repeatedly, miserably.

He must have looked fairly pathetic, because at one point, Ianto turned his attention momentarily from the rolling waves, and drew Jack close. Brushing Jack’s damp locks from his eyes. “I really told you to go monitor from the hub. You’ll catch your death out here.”

Jack sniffed wetly and shrugged, “If the loop resets, I’ll be just fine.”

“If it doesn’t, you may have pneumonia!” Ianto scolded.

Jack smiled. “I know a very handsome fellow who makes the best tea!”

“Oh?"

"And, Jack murmured, almost conspiratorially,  "I think he has a thing for how hot I look in this coat!”  He sneezed, again.

 " Let's just hope he also has a thing for hot you're going to look in bed with a raging fever and pneumonia!"

Jack sniffed again, and managed a smile. “I certainly…..hope so!!” HESHHHooo!!!!!    HESHHHooo!!!!   HESHHHOOOOO!!!!!!!!!   “Sorry.  I don't mean to share my cold with you.”

Ianto looked at Jack. “Don’t be, Jack. I’m sure I’ve seen you sneeze about a thousand times by now. I’ve certainly blessed you so many times in this time loop, you’re almost a saint!”  Jack laughed at this, but Ianto's tone was serious. "Trust me, I would gladly catch your cold if it meant I could get out of this loop!"

Jack sniffed, and took Ianto's hand. "We will get there, Ianto,  I promise!" Jack said, fervently.

Ianto gave him the sort of pained smile, that Jack took to mean that he had been making this promise for some time now. 

They felt the shockwave, almost before they heard it, and the rolling deck upended abruptly and violently. Ianto grasped desperately for some sort of handhold, for Jack, even as his brain processed the idea that their small boat was going to capsize. The deck dropped from under his feet, unpleasantly, disorientingly, and he automatically braced his grip. Somewhere in the tumble, he felt his shoulder wrench and dislocate, felt his head strike something (Jack?) hard enough to dim his vision, and then he was in the bay, choking on icy water, grasping for Jack, screaming for Jack, breathlessly. Frantically, he tried to swim, rolling waves, life jacket and wholly uncooperative left arm making this impossible. He couldn’t see through the blinding salt water, couldn’t breath as another waved crashed over him. Even if he could sort out where the orb was now in the churning water, he was too far, too far from the rift object to reach it, to reset, and Jack, he couldn't see Jack, and now, after all these weeks, all these attempts, he was going to break the loop just to drown in the bay. He choked, again, unable to even call Jack’s name, kicking desperately, numbly, inadequately, until darkness closed in fully on his vision.

[AngelEyes]

16 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

Jack rubbed roughly at his irritated nose and blinked at Ianto, feeling just a little beset.

For some reason I just love this line!

 

16 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

Jack thought to himself as he closed his eyes to sneeze yet again, (just dust, he was sure. He never got sick.) that there were few people he trusted more.

Awwww

 

16 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

He might have been letting his mind drift to the prospect of Ianto’s warm bed, a cup of Ianto’s hot tea and a warm and naked Ianto, when Tosh’s voice crackled over his earpiece, and he signaled Ianto to slow their skiff.

LOL

 

16 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

For now, all they could do was hang on to the boat, wait, watch and (in Jack’s case, at least) sneeze. Wetly, repeatedly, miserably.

Poor baby.

 

16 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

"Trust me, I would gladly catch your cold if it meant I could get out of this loop!"

Mmmm

 

16 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

He choked, again, unable to even call Jack’s name, kicking desperately, numbly, inadequately, until darkness closed in fully on his vision.

Oh no!!!

[Jelloicious]

 

12 hours ago, AngelEyes said:

For some reason I just love this line!

For some reason, I just love when Jack's not all-knowing, all-powerful and invincible.  And that he feels like that's just not fair, when that happens. 

 

TWTWTWTWTW

 

It must have been still fully dark outside when Ianto found himself awake, a throbbing ache in his left shoulder, keeping time with the beat of a headache, drumming him unpleasantly out of sleep. The room was dimly lit, by the bedside lamp,set to low. He squinted at the alarm clock, which informed him it was just past half two. Jack was propped, snoring softly in a chair from the lounge pulled up close to Ianto’s bed. A book lay spread across his lap, as if he’d intended to watch over Ianto, but had instead fallen asleep reading.

Ianto swallowed, his throat dry, trying to recall what had happened, to sort out why his head hurt and his shoulder hurt and why Jack was draped across a chair, instead of curled up next to him. Something seemed out of place, missing. He sat up, gingerly, and sniffed against a painful tickle deep in his sinuses. The movement caused his headache to intensify, and he closed his eyes against the pain, base of his palm pressed firmly to his temple, as the intensity of the pain gradually lessened enough to be manageable. Ianto drew in a deep breath and let it back out slowly, and remembered, that this loop had ended differently, and suddenly he was flooded with the wild hope that the time loop was actually broken.

“Jack...” his voice cracked, rougher than he’d expected. He swallowed painfully, and almost laughed, and then tried again.”

“JACK”

Jack awoke with a startled snort, and was instantly alert.

“Hey, there….you’re awake!” A smile split Jack’s face, the sort of smile Ianto lived for,….and Ianto couldn’t help but smile back.

Jack moved to sit on the edge of Ianto’s bed. “You scared the hell out of me,” Jack scolded. “How are you feeling? You’ve been out for hours!”

Ianto took stock, while still trying to sort out what had happened. The last thing her remembered was standing on a rolling boat deck with Jack, monitoring the rift object from a distance. He felt ….like he’d been run over by the SUV. And...chewed on by a weevil or two for good measure. He thought everything hurt, most particularly his shoulder. And his head. And…...”chhh!! tcsh...Shuuuh!!!” Itcsch...CHUUUUU!!!”he’d finally managed to come down with the office cold.

“Sounds like you caught my cold,” Jack said.

HitchCHUUU!!! was Ianto’s succinct answer.

Jack frowned. “Your little swim in the bay couldn’t have helped,” he noted with concern. He offered Ianto a box of tissues, and Ianto blew his nose. And then blew it again. Ugh.

“Well, I clearly wrenched my shoulder, and…….. Isheww! I’ve definitely caught your cold.” HitcschSheww!!

“I’m sorry about that,” Jack said with a sympathetic frown.

Something was off, Ianto thought, with a sniff. He blew his nose again, to buy himself a bit more time to coax his sluggish and protesting brain into motion.

“Hey….I notice you’re not sneezing, and sniffling at all," Ianto said, with suspicion.

Jack shrugged. “The concussion wave from the rift….we were probably too close to it, when the rift collected the orb back.”

“So, what, you died in the explosion, then revived…..?”

“It seems so,” Jack agreed.

“….Without your cold.” Ianto’s tone might have been accusing.

Jack shrugged, again.

Whatever Ianto intended to say about that was lost to a fit of harsh sneezes.. itsh...Shuuuh!!!” Itcsch...CHUUUUU!!!” HnxtchCHUUU!!! HitchCHUUU!!! HatchCHIEW!!! When the fit was finished with him, he blew his nose, then lay back on the pillows and sniffled wetly.

“I think I hate you,” Ianto said, thickly, sullenly.

Jack moved to slip beneath the covers and draw Ianto close.. “You don’t hate me.”

“No, I don’t,” Ianto confessed, “But Itchsuuu!! That doesn’t mean I don’t resent you just a tiny bit.”  

Ianto snuggled in to Jack’s warm body as Jack drew him in to a careful, but tight embrace, refusing to release Ianto, even as he sneezed yet again.

”Honestly, Jack, Do you want to catch this cold back?”

“You can’t catch a cold a second time,” Jack declared with confidence. “I’m immune.” Smug confidence.

“In that case, I definitely hate you,” Ianto said, sniffling wetly as he burrowed close to Jack..

 

[AngelEyes]

5 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

For some reason, I just love when Jack's not all-knowing, all-powerful and invincible.  And that he feels like that's just not fair, when that happens. 

Totally agree!

 

5 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

He felt ….like he’d been run over by the SUV. And...chewed on by a weevil or two for good measure.

Oh. Poor baby!

 

5 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

“So, what, you died in the explosion, then revived…..?”

“It seems so,” Jack agreed.

“….Without your cold.” Ianto’s tone might have been accusing.

Lucky Jack.

 

5 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

“I think I hate you,” Ianto said, thickly, sullenly.

Awww, lol.

 

5 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

“No, I don’t,” Ianto confessed, “But Itchsuuu!! That doesn’t mean I don’t resent you just a tiny bit.”  

Truth.

 

5 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

“In that case, I definitely hate you,” Ianto said, sniffling wetly as he burrowed close to Jack.

But that just means he can take care of you!

Love the way this played out!

[Seeker]

7 hours ago, Jelloicious said:

Ianto snuggled in to Jack’s warm body as Jack drew him in to a careful, but tight embrace, refusing to release Ianto, even as he sneezed yet again.

Ooo yay, snuggly boys!

nicely done!

[MaiMai]

I only found this story today, and I read it all, and I love it so much!!! Torchwood has long been one of my favourite shows (and one I really need to rewatch, lol) and finding such great fic for it is just I love the whole concept of the time loop, poor Ianto! (He's such a sweet bub <3) And you captured Jack's stubborn sass so well. Also, the whole thing with Neville is SO him!

Basically, I love Torchwood, I love this, I love you for sharing this. :inlove:

[ellwren]

Just found this. So good!

[Jelloicious]

On 7/31/2018 at 7:35 PM, AngelEyes said:

Love the way this played out!

Thank you!  I am happier with it than I thought I was going to be, when I was trying to work out the timey-wimey stuff!!

On 7/31/2018 at 9:10 PM, ReidSeeker said:

Ooo yay, snuggly boys!

Isn't that the way we end all the Torchwood Sneezefic?  Jack and Ianto, in bed somewhere, snuggling?  That's practically canon by now!

On 8/2/2018 at 2:39 PM, MaiMai said:

Torchwood has long been one of my favourite shows (and one I really need to rewatch, lol) and finding such great fic for it is just

Thank you!!  I am glad you liked it!!

 

22 hours ago, ellwren said:

Just found this. So good!

  (We have a small colony of ardent Torchwood fans trying to increase the stash of festish fic here...please join in on the fun!!)

Thank you!!  Glad you enjoyed the read!!  Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!