Work Text:
It brought him back
by Lilithangel
He sat silently in the small dark room. He hadn’t spoken since they had found his unconscious form lying on the wharf after a Rift spike. He wasn’t wearing the clothing he’d disappeared in, but since that had happened five years ago it wasn’t surprising. Although they didn’t know how long he’d been gone for and he wasn’t telling them.
He wasn’t telling them anything. He remained silent through their medic’s once over, watching them with an almost puzzled expression. The expression changed to rapture when they put him under the shower. He was thinner than ever but Jack couldn’t see any new or recent scars on his body. The gunshot wound on his shoulder from Ianto was silvered with age so some time had passed for him, but there was nothing to suggest torture or imprisonment except his complete lack of speech.
“He’s a few years older as far as Steven can establish,” Ianto said to Jack who was watching Owen on the CCTV, “the blood work says it’s him,” he added.
“Shame nothing else does,” Jack said, “he was never still like that.”
“What are we going to do with him?” Ianto said.
“I don’t know,” Jack admitted. “We can’t just Retcon him; he’ll end up in an institution.”
“There’s always the Island,” Ianto said and Jack looked at him sharply.
“Maybe,” Jack said reluctantly.
It was certainly a better place than it had been after hurricane Gwen had finished with them, but Ianto understood what Jack was thinking. He was the only one left of Jack’s original, individually picked, team. So having Owen back was a gift both of them were loath to give away.
“Could it be amnesia?” Ianto said.
“No,” Jack shook his head, “He definitely recognised us despite trying to scrabble into the harbour to start with.”
“So it could be post traumatic shock, like Simon suggested?” Ianto said and Jack shrugged.
“Maybe,” Jack said, “maybe we’ll just wait a bit longer and see if anything changes.”
Owen ate the food Ianto brought him, took showers without caring who was watching always in silence. Ianto took to talking to him anyway, filling him in on little things that had happened without going into details. Jack visited when circumstances allowed and chatted in his usual way, as if Owen was not a pale shadow haunting the lower levels of the Hub. Slowly Ianto could see questions forming in Owen’s eyes and he asked Jack if they could let Owen into the main area of the Hub.
Jack agreed but sent the rest of the team home. They were all curious about the stranger in the cells but Jack wouldn’t give them answers so they left in a chorus of complaints.
Curled up on the ratty sofa that Jack refused to get rid of, Owen wrapped his hands around a mug of Ianto’s coffee and stared at the Hub as if he’d never seen it before.
“I forgot,” a scratchy voice almost whispered. Jack and Ianto spun around to look at Owen. “I forgot,” he said again, “how to talk. There wasn’t anyone to talk to so I forgot.”
Jack knelt in front of him, “welcome back,” he said with a relieved smile.
“I forgot so much,” Owen said. It was his voice but it wasn’t and Jack ached for what had been lost.
“Where were you?” Jack said. “How long was it for you?”
“Don’t know,” Owen said, “it was a city but it was empty. I couldn’t get more than a mile away without being turned around and I was alone.” Owen stopped talking and took another sip of coffee.
Jack rested his hands on Owen’s knees. “We missed you,” he said, “we looked when the Rift took you, but we didn’t know where to start.”
“How long,” Owen asked, “since then?”
“Two years, three months and one day,” Ianto said, coming over to join them. They’d deliberately steered clear of details like that uncertain of Owen’s mental state.
“Felt longer,” Owen said. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Smells better.”
“That’s not a good recommendation,” Ianto said. Despite all his best efforts the Hub always smelt of damp Weevil.
“I found enough to survive,” Owen continued, “but there was no running water or power in the city. There were things… in the dark but they stayed away from the fire. I nearly burned the city to the ground to keep them away then everything tasted of ashes. I couldn’t find out what happened to the city, there were mentions of plagues in the papers I read before I burned them, but then everything stopped.”
Ianto sat down next to Owen letting their thighs touch for the comfort of them both without making Owen feel trapped.
“Who’s left?” Owen asked suddenly.
“Me,” Ianto said, “and Jack.”
“And now you again,” Jack said.
“Everyone else is new,” Ianto continued. “Gwen was going to be married but there was an accident with an alien vampire. Tosh was shot.”
Owen’s hands were shaking so Ianto took the coffee mug from him and put it aside safely.
“We never thought we’d see you again,” Jack said. He took Owen’s shaking hands in his and brought them up to his lips to kiss away the tremors. It was testament to this strange new Owen that he didn’t pull away from Jack’s touch.
“My stuff?” Owen said.
“Boxed away safely in storage,” Ianto said. “We put your apartment up for let. Jack wasn’t ready to sell it.”
Owen looked at Jack in surprise. “Thank you,” he said, “I thought everything would be gone.”
“Torchwood regulations,” Jack said with a nod, “we keep everything and anyway the apartment’s nice.”
“I don’t know if I can go back there,” Owen said.
“Who said you had to?” Jack said.
“You can stay with us,” Ianto said.
“Us?” Owen looked at them quizzically, showing more animation in his face than they’d seen before.
“Jack was spending so much time at my flat I gave him the spare room,” Ianto said, “we can bunk up for a while.”
“We take turns with the rooms anyway,” Jack said.
“You’re a couple?”
“No,” Ianto said.
“Yes,” Jack said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed.
“We are,” Jack insisted, “as much as anyone else would see.”
“Without being something we’re not,” Ianto added. “We’re not picking out curtains or registering at the courthouse.”
“Ianto doesn’t think he can do domestic,” Jack said with a laugh.
“You two are weird,” Owen said with a short laugh of his own.
“Well I wanted a nice brocade but Ianto went all manly on me,” Jack said with a flutter of his eyelids.
“Torchwood doesn’t do domestic,” Ianto said, “it’s too dangerous.” Jack had Owen’s hands in his but he released one so he could rest it on Ianto’s knee.
Owen moved into Jack’s room in Ianto’s flat. He showered a lot and he cooked for the three of them whenever Jack and Ianto made it home. Jack established that he went out each day and sat in a park watching people go by. Ianto followed him to a pub but he only stayed for one drink and then went back to the flat.
He showed no interest in his old pursuits and no interest in going back to Torchwood.
“It’s like he’s waiting for something,” Ianto said to Jack as they lay in bed.
“But what?” Jack said.
They’d hear his nightmares occasionally, but when either of them went in he’d be awake and calm instantly, denying there was anything wrong.
Finally one night when they heard the familiar sounds of muted distress Jack looked at Ianto with apology.
“Just do it,” Ianto said. Whatever Jack was planning had to be better than hearing Owen slowly fall to pieces so soon after they found him again.
Ianto followed Jack into Owen’s room. As always Owen was lying on his back staring blankly at the ceiling, achingly familiar to how he had been when they first got him back.
This time, instead of asking Owen how he was, Jack simply climbed onto the bed and pulled Owen’s unresisting body to him. Owen lay stiff against Jack while Jack petted him like a frightened animal murmuring nonsense into his hair. Slowly Owen began to relax and to be more aware of his surroundings.
“I keep thinking I’m back there, that I’ll close my eyes and open them to the greyness again. I hate being so weak,” Owen said shakily.
“You’re not weak,” Jack said and Owen snorted.
“Jack still has nightmares about being buried under Cardiff for two thousand years,” Ianto said, perching on the side of the bed.
“You were what?” Owen said to Jack.
“Long story involving jealous ex-boyfriends and disturbed family members,” Jack said.
“I’m not going back to sleep,” Owen said.
Jack took a deep breath and filled Owen in on all the things that had happened that they hadn’t told him about. Ianto moved in beside Jack when things got too painful and continued the story.
“I missed a lot,” Owen said when Ianto finished.
“A bit,” Jack said with a shaky laugh.
“I miss them, the girls,” Owen said “and being a part of something. Did you tell my mother anything?”
“No,” Ianto said, “you had that note in your file so we respected that.”
“Did she?”
“No,” Ianto looked uncomfortable. He’d always wanted to ask why Owen had stated that she was only to be told if she rang to ask but even now he couldn’t his relationship with his own family was shaky enough so he had to respect Owen’s reticence. Owen simply nodded as if he’d expected that.
“Think you can sleep now?” Jack said still holding onto Owen.
“No,” Owen admitted.
“Then lets have some of those delicious waffles you make and some of Ianto’s coffee,” Jack said, “and maybe we can talk about you coming back to work.”
“You’ve got a medic,” Owen said.
“He’s not you,” Jack said, “Anyway we’ve got more than enough work for two. Steven’s more of a xenobiologist anyway, I’d rather have you patching me up.”
“You know I don’t like live patients,” Owen said.
“I know you’re a liar,” Jack said, “and you need live patients to remind you of what you are.”
“A doctor and a damn fine one,” Ianto added at Owen’s sceptical look.
“You don’t even like me,” Owen said.
“I could say the same,” Ianto said, “but we’re all we’ve got now and Torchwood is as good a place as any to help save the world.”
Owen nodded and extricated himself from their embrace. “Can I think about it?” he said to Jack who nodded. “Waffles you say.”
“Waffles,” Jack agreed and jumped from the bed, “with coffee.”
“Always with coffee,” Ianto grumbled, “I do make a nice cup of tea too you know. I’m just saying,” he added at the twin looks of disbelief.
Two days later Doctor Owen Harper returned to work. It was tentative at first and he didn’t handle crowds well but Steven gladly handed over the doctoring and retreated to the autopsy bay. He welcomed Owen’s input though, despite their early personality clashes and adaption to having two geniuses in the space.
“He’s a lot like you,” Ianto said after an early rant from Owen about Steven’s behaviour.
“Don’t tell me Jack hired another me,” Owen said, “and I was never that much of a wanker, was I?”
“You were worse,” Ianto said, “but you’ve always cared and that’s what Jack saw in Steven.”
“That and a nice arse,” Owen said and they laughed.
“You haven’t been out on the pull since you got back,” Ianto said.
“Haven’t felt like it,” Owen said.
“You sure you’re one hundred percent?” Ianto joked.
“It’s hard you know, to connect,” Owen admitted, “I don’t know what I want anymore, or how to find it if I did. Anyway you said it, Torchwood’s too dangerous and I’m out of the habit of one night stands.”
“If you need to connect,” Ianto said carefully, not looking at Owen, “Jack and I have talked and he’s willing to help if you want him to.”
“Are you offering me your boyfriend?” Owen demanded.
“He’s not, I mean,” Ianto began, “yes I am offering you my boyfriend if it would help,” he finished.
“What makes you think I want him?” Owen said curiously.
“You don’t?” Ianto looked at him in surprise, “I always thought…”
“Not saying I don’t,” Owen said, “but I’ve had my lot with stepping in between couples.”
“What if it was in the middle?” Jack said from his position by the door. “Or either side if you’d prefer.”
“Are you suggesting a threesome?” Owen said in surprise.
“It’s only a suggestion,” Ianto said glaring at Jack, “one we weren’t going to bring up unless you seemed interested.”
“Which you seem to be as far as I can see,” Jack said with a cocky smirk.
“You’ve talked about this then?” Owen said. He looked quite taken aback. “I don’t…”
“Think about it,” Jack interrupted him, “nothing has to happen right away. Just know that if you need something you can come to us and we would welcome you.”
“Both of you?” Owen looked at Ianto who nodded. “Huh,” he said, “alright I’ll think about it.”
“Excellent,” Jack clapped his hands together, “now it’s time to get you back into the field. It’s why I came up actually, Weevil sighting near a mall.”
Owen had been waiting for something and it was the family Jack had tried to build, the comfort of friends who would listen and fight back if he needed it, the knowledge that when he woke in the night there would be someone there and heartbeats to ease him back to sleep.
There once was a man who was lost, first in his own rage and then in a grey world where he was alone. He found his way back, found his purpose again and found love where he would never have expected it. If he’d read it in a fortune cookie he’d have laughed, but this was his life and it was a good one.
end