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Haunted
by Lilithangel
It had seemed so innocuous, just a strange rock, shaped like a heart that Gwen found near where they were investigating a Rift spike. They were all tired from trying to cope with two members down and maybe that was why Jack didn't think anything of it.
The rock sat on Gwen's desk for two hours before she picked it up again when she was ready to go home.
"Why are you still here, Gwen?" Jack called out from his office doorway, "I thought Rhys was cooking you dinner for Valentines?"
"He is and I'm just going," Gwen replied. "Are you sure you'll be able to handle anything that comes up?"
"Quite sure," Jack said, raising his eyebrows at Ianto, "anything that comes up I'm more than ready to handle."
"Jack!" Gwen said in a scandalised voice.
"He's very handy is Jack," Ianto replied with a smirk.
"I'm still scarred from the last time I walked in on you two you know," she said.
"Is that why you took so long to alert us to your presence?" Jack replied, making her blush. "Go home to your husband and celebrate properly," he ordered.
Gwen squeezed the rock and smiled at the thought, when the Hub alarm blared.
"No," she said in frustration, "why now?" She turned back to her computer as Ianto reached his.
"No Rift activity," Ianto said and Jack dashed to another computer. "We're going into lockdown," he added.
"No sign of intruders," Gwen said.
"Something triggered the contamination protocols," Jack said grimly.
"We have those?" Gwen said in surprise.
"We have protocols for everything," Ianto said, trying to override the lockdown.
Jack scanned the Hub sensors. "Nothing but an unspecified threat," he said with frustration.
"What does that mean?" Gwen said.
"That we have to wait for the mainframe to do a full diagnostic and set up a decontamination time frame," Ianto said.
"Rhys is going to kill me," Gwen said, "he's been cooking all day."
"He should be used to being abandoned by you," a voice said.
Gwen spun around, "what was that?" she demanded.
"What was what?" Jack said.
"Rhys understands," she said hotly.
"Understands what?" Jack said with confusion.
"Understands that you'd rather be with the dashing captain than him," the voice said, "understands that you'd rather fuck around with your work colleagues than him?"
"You don't know what you're talking about," Gwen said.
"Who are you talking to, Gwen?" Ianto said carefully.
"Whichever of you two thinks it's funny to comment on my private life," she said accusingly.
"Nobody's said anything," Jack said, looking at her with concern.
"Because you're the master of not saying anything," another voice said, "keeper of secrets, teller of lies."
Jack spun around and looked at Ianto with a surprised look. Ianto looked at him in confusion.
"You didn't speak then did you," Jack said, "Nor you Gwen?"
"What's going on Jack?" Gwen said.
"Justice, retribution, guilt," the voice said, "take your pick."
"It's easy to lie when you're always running away," the second voice said to Jack.
"Easy to forget, so easy to spread your legs like a whore," a third voice added.
"What do you mean?" Ianto said in horror.
"How long did you wait, a week a month, or was it before?" the voice continued.
"Lisa?" Ianto said weakly and the other two looked at him in shock.
"Nothing was true was it?" the second voice said. "Say anything to get them into bed then come back and laugh when they got old and you never changed. How many Jack, how many have believed your lies over the decades?"
"Estelle?" Jack whispered.
Gwen was looking around wildly. "Owen," she frowned, "what's going on, why are you saying these things?"
"Didn't you realise I was thinking them?" Owen's voice said, "Everyone was thinking them."
"I saw it in your mind," a fourth voice added, "always bragging about your real life, your real boyfriend while you were fucking a team mate and making cow eyes at Jack. Is that normal, Gwen?" Tosh's voice was hard and malicious and Gwen couldn't stop the tears from welling up.
"It wasn't like that," she insisted.
"What was it like then?" Owen's voice said, "First time alright, but all the other times, were you thinking about Rhys when you were fucking me? You only told him the truth when he wouldn't remember."
"You promised me forever Ianto," Lisa's voice said from behind him, "were you fucking him while I was tucked away out of sight out of mind? Did you really try to save me?"
"I died alone, Jack," Estelle's voice said mournfully. "Terrified and alone, just like I was when they told me you'd died. I waited anyway and what did it get me?" her voice hardened.
"You promised you'd help me," another voice joined in, "then watched them torture me and you didn't even stop them from killing me. What use are your words Gwen?"
"Beth, I'm sorry Beth," Gwen said, tears now streaming down her face.
"It's alright, I was just an alien in the end," Beth's voice continued, "just something to stuff in a freezer and forget about."
"You stole my name James..." Jack started at the new voice. "A conman let my family believe I was a deserter. Then you dared to dance with me, seduce me with lies about understanding, then
kissed me and left me to face my men. You had to know what they would do, or what they wouldn't do."
"But you could just leave couldn't you?" Estelle's voice added, "Walk away never to die or grow old."
Jack had drawn his gun and was searching the area for the voices. The room was heavy with their emotion, dragging their movements down, making it hard to think.
Ianto was backed against the wall, looking around wildly and he flinched when another voice spoke to him.
"Sixty/forty cyber I said. Then you left me with your monster. You didn't even care that I was dead, only that I could inconvenience your plans. Were my family told what happened or my staff? Or was I just another clean up for you?"
"Mr Tanizaki, I'm sorry, so sorry," Ianto begged.
"Why are you sorry, while you're alive and I'm not?"
"I loved her, I will always love her," Ianto yelled out, "nothing mattered but you Lisa." He didn't notice the look of betrayal on Jack's face.
"Always trying to inspire that sort of love, aren't you Jack?" Jack's voice was cold. "But you can only get it through lies, through pretending to be someone you're not. We didn't mean anything to you did we? Because we weren't your precious doctor."
"Of course you did, I loved you both," Jack said desperately, "I just love the Doctor more, you have to understand." He didn't see the despair in Gwen and Ianto's eyes.
"I love Rhys," Gwen insisted.
"Not enough to tell him the truth," Tosh's voice said.
"Not enough that you wouldn't have thrown your engagement ring away if Jack had asked, fucked him no matter who he was seeing," Owen's voice sneered.
"It was just sex," Gwen said, "with you it was just sex."
"Would it have just been sex with Jack?" Beth said, "Was that why you let him kill me?"
"Jack told me never to let go of Rhys, he wasn't interested once the ring was there."
"You trapped me in this place," Tosh's voice turned on Jack, "bought me from UNIT for your own purposes."
"I was saving you," Jack said.
"That's what you call it is it? What were you doing while I bled to death Jack, why didn't you save me then?" Tosh's voice broke.
"You knew I was going to die Jack," Jack's voice joined hers; "you could have taken me with you. Why didn't you save me?"
"Why did you leave me?" Estelle's voice said, "Why did you charm me in the first place knowing you would leave me to grow old?"
"You didn't love me enough, Ianto," Lisa's voice said sadly, "you could have saved me if you'd tried harder."
"You let her kill me," Mr Tanizaki's voice growled, "and all you cared about was not getting caught."
"You wouldn't even share Jack with us when he was dead," Owen's voice turned on Gwen, "it was all about Gwen bloody Cooper, mourning for a man she'd only met months before."
"You took Owen from me," Tosh's voice added, "you tried to take Jack. Greedy little Gwen, wanting all the toys and none of the responsibility, but you sure jumped into Jack's shoes quickly when he was gone."
"Did you really think he came back for you?" Jack's voice pinned Ianto against the wall. "Did you really believe you were something special because you were going to execute your girlfriend for him? He leaves us all."
"You failed Ianto," Lisa's voice accused.
"Your selfishness cost me my life and all you wanted to do was hide my body," Mr Tanizaki's voice said.
"You thought he was yours while he was kissing me," Jack's voice laughed at Ianto.
"Nothing more than a convenience for Jack, he didn't come back for you, he came back because his precious Doctor didn't even want him," Owen's voice sneered.
"He could never love you," Estelle's voice added, "what could you ever offer him?"
"You cheated on him again and again and you loved it," Owen's voice mocked Gwen.
"Will you mourn Rhys as much next time you get him killed because of your job?" Tosh's voice demanded.
"What kind of woman lies to her husband over a man who will never love her back?" Estelle's voice said.
"I loved Ianto enough to want to be with him forever," Lisa said, "you only loved Rhys enough to drug him and confess your sins."
"You let me kill my husband," Beth added, "You should have stopped me. You know what it's like to feel a blade sink through flesh; did you like it the first time, when you killed that old man?"
"You can't save anyone," Tosh's voice accused Jack, "you only save yourself. It's easy to die when you come back. You left me in the dark."
"You left me alone to die," Estelle's voice said.
"You as good as killed me," Jack's voice said.
"You condemned me to living death," Owen's voice added to the cacophony around Jack.
"Your team, Jack," Mr Tanizaki's voice said, "you let them kill hundreds and then you left them without a second thought."
"You failed, Ianto."
"You destroyed us."
"You destroy everything you touch, Gwen."
"There is no humanity in you."
"You failed, Jack."
"Destroyer."
"You're wrong, Jack."
"Jack..."
"No!" Jack cried out, bringing his gun up and firing as Ianto lunged forward trying to escape the voices.
Gwen screamed and threw the strange rock she was still clutching in her hand. It struck Jack in the face and he spun around, gun pointing right at her. Then he dropped the muzzle and fired off a round, shattering the rock and silencing the voices.
"Ianto..." Jack dropped his gun and knelt beside the fallen man.
"Luckily you were a crap shot this time," Ianto gasped, holding onto his arm and not looking at Jack.
"Oh god," Gwen said, "what happened, what was it?"
"An emotion bomb," Jack said his voice hollow. "By the end it got so strong it had an almost complete feedback loop going between us. It pulled feelings and memories out of our minds to weaken us for invasion. The stupid thing is that the species that built them destroyed those centuries ago by order of the Shadow Proclamation. Once again the Rift finds the dross of the universe and drops it in our lap."
"What stopped it?" Gwen asked.
"Me shooting Ianto and realising that the voices were saying things they couldn't possibly know anything about," Jack replied, "then you hitting me in the head with it broke the feedback. I'm so sorry, Ianto," he added.
"Nothing to be sorry about, Jack," Ianto replied, getting to his feet shakily. "I should get this sorted." He moved away from Jack's arms.
"What do we do now?" Gwen said.
"You go home," Jack said to her, "have your Valentine dinner with Rhys."
"How can I, after everything that happened?"
"You have to," Jack said firmly, "otherwise it won."
He headed to the autopsy bay where Ianto was attempting to clean the graze from the bullet.
Ianto let him take over, but still didn't meet his gaze.
"I'm going home," Ianto said after the wound was bandaged, "can we not talk about it until tomorrow, please?"
Jack watched him go and knew they wouldn't talk about it. That the things the emotion bomb had pulled out of all of their minds were their own guilt and their own niggling fears. That talking about it would only bring up that guilt and fear again without resolving anything.
Ianto would reach out to him another day and he would accept the comfort offered, because in the end it was the only thing that could muffle the voices.
END