| Date: 15 December 2007
Characters: Lisa Hallett, Ianto Jones Location: hotel lobby, outside, a shop Link to IJ: thread #8617 |
 Lisa crawled through the debris, the smell of hot metal and melted plastic filled her nose. She choked and tasted blood, pain shot through her arm as she gasped. "Ianto?" Lisa made it a few more feet, he had to be here. There was a crack and debris fell from the ceiling, pinning her legs.
She cried out and tried to push up, but failed as darkness overcame her. She turned over and jerked awake. The air was cool, clean, she was in a large overstuffed armchair in what looked like the lobby of a rather swanky hotel. Very at odds with the dirt and blood and scorch marks on her clothing. Where were they? This was not Torchwood. Lisa stood up quickly, looked around in confusion and promptly passed out. |
 Ianto closed his eyes a moment, then opened them again. He pinched the bridge of his nose when he realized he had seen what he thought he'd seen. He was beginning to think that the next time he found the door to come here, he should just pass it up.
Three days of reindexing the archive after an intern had crashed the system, and all he'd wanted was to escape for a few hours for a drink and a nice meal in a place where he wouldn't have to run the risk of running into his interns or Emma. Not to have Lisa passed out at his feet looking like she'd just been through hell. He crouched down next to her, reaching a hand to rest it on her shoulder. "Lisa?" he murmured, tensed to pull back if she startled badly. |
| Her eyes opened and she gasped, clutching at his arm. "Ianto...where are they? How'd I get here?" She looked around wildly and started getting to her feet. |
| "You're safe." He steadied her as she stood, keeping one hand on her arm. "It's all right, Lisa." He rubbed her shoulder, trying to soothe her. "What's the last thing you remember?"
He suspected he wasn't dealing with his Lisa, after the conversations with Jack and his other self, but he wanted to confirm that before he told her what he suspected. She looked frightened enough already. |
| Lisa trusted Ianto and took a slow breath before exhaling completely. Ianto would need her report if thy were gong to act quickly. She leaned into him and thought back, "We were at Torchwood. The Daleks and Cybermen were invading. The Cybermen had grabbed all of us and were dragging us to cyber conversion frames. Something exploded and we were cut off from the others by a lot of debris. The ceiling fell in an I was trying to reach you and now I'm here." |
| Ianto nodded. "You didn't notice a light, or a door between being at the Tower and being here?"
He hoped that using the term he usually did for Torchwood One wouldn't tip her off too quickly that she wasn't talking to the Ianto she'd been looking for before she came here. Though the thought of Daleks invading was enough to send his blood running cold. He could only imagine what Cybermen were, but the name, combined with the context, and other information he'd gleaned from his previous conversations, made the thought of them only a little less disturbing than the thought of Daleks. |
| She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his chest. "I. Maybe. There was something. I was reaching for it. It might have been a door or maybe a cabinet, but I don't remember opening it."
Lisa had no idea that this wasn't "her" Ianto. "We have to report that Torchwood has been taken over." |
| "Easier said than done, Lisa." He wrapped an arm around her, stroking her hair. "I don't think we're on Earth any longer." He knew he should tell her that he wasn't her Ianto sooner rather than later, but for now, he wanted to make sure she was all right, and calmed down. "Are you all right?" |
| "I'm a little sore, but not injured, which is strange as this is your and my blood on my clothes." Her arms slid around his waist. "How long have you been here? Where are we if we aren't on Earth?" |
| "I'm not entirely certain." Ianto chose to answer her second question first. "It looks like the twentieth or twenty-first century at first glance, but... there are things here that are impossible if this were Earth." And in a normal time-stream, he added silently, careful not to voice that to Lisa.
"I've been here a few hours, I think." Again, not telling her the whole of the truth. Or in this case, much of it. He'd only been here a few minutes this time. Sometimes he did spend hours here, or days, though usually not more than a week, and that... that was the first time, trying to figure out where he was, and how to get back home. |
| Lisa nodded, lifted her head and looked at him. "Guess we've got our work cut out for us then, don't we? All we have to do is find out where and when we are, tell them about Torchwood so they can go take that back before the Cybermen have too many forces to overcome and then defeat them. " She gave him a slight smile, "Think I can spare some time to change my clothes first?" |
| Ianto nodded, returning her smile with a reassuring one of his own. "I believe I've seen a small shop which should have some suitable clothing."
He kept an arm around her shoulders lightly as he steered her towards the door to the street. He knew where there should be a shop in the town with clothing he knew his Lisa would like, and he would surmise, then, that the Lisa with him would appreciate as well. "They also don't appear to require money, so you can get whatever you need." |
| Lisa was still feeling a little shaky, but she had a direction and she had Ianto and that was enough to steady her. She fell into step beside him, her arm around his waist. "How do they get by without money?"
She was looking around curiously, it did indeed appear to be twenty first century Earth, but how had she time traveled? |
| "I haven't figured that out yet."
He turned left as they stepped outside, trying to remember how far a walk it was to the shop. Not too far, but not too close either. Far enough that he'd had to replace the much-abused Cthulu slippers he'd been wearing at the time. A few blocks, at most, then. |
| It was far enough that Lisa was feeling a little winded, perhaps whatever had brought her here hadn't healed her injuries completely. Inside the shop, she move decisively, this wasn't a fun trip, just necessary. She found a serviceable shirt and pants that allowed her to move freely, but didn't look like anything she'd seen before and the sizing was odd, so she went for what she thought might fit . Pausing at the door to the fitting room with a few things over her arm, she looked at Ianto, "Are you coming?" |
| Ianto froze for a second. She'd caught him off-guard with the question, having expected that he'd simply wait out here until she had changed. It hadn't crossed his mind, though she'd been pressed into his side, an arm around his waist, the entire walk, that she and her Ianto would be close enough that... He mentally shook his head, giving her a gentle smile. "If you'd like me to." |
| "Does make things a bit easier than me having to come out to ask your opinion." Which she wouldn't have done often with Ianto really, but she wasn't quite ready to let him get out of sight again yet. Lisa held the door open with one hand as she hung the clothes on the hook with the other. |
| Ianto stepped into the dressing room, settling onto the bench there, watching Lisa. "You always know what catches my attention anyway." He let one corner of his mouth quirk up in a smirk. "And you'll look lovely whatever you chose to dress in." |
| "Such a flatterer," Lisa teased as she took her shirt off then bent to kiss him lightly. "Right though, I did catch you after all. Took me long enough." She smiled and stripped off the filthy pants she was wearing before turning to the hangers and choosing something to put on. |
| Ianto's gaze wandered over Lisa's body as she stripped out of her clothing, searching for any sign of injury with a practiced eye. He kept his attention focused on the clinical, comparing her with his mental image of his Lisa for a moment. Nothing he could see that would suggest she'd been in the middle of a battle before her arrival here. Which suggested that not only did time not pass here, but it was possible that physically, they never even actually came here, just a mental impression of themselves. Ianto frowned, making note to add that observation to the archive when he had the chance. |
| Lisa glanced over her shoulder at him as he watched her, a bit of a smile on her lips. She pulled the jeans up and buttoned them then pulled on a top that was a little tighter than she'd normally have worn. "Too bad we have so much to do," she sad in a soft voice, "I've never had sex in a fitting room." |
| Ianto stomped on the automatic response that yes she had, because this wasn't his Lisa. "Perhaps later?" He smiled, reaching out for her hand, and bringing it to his lips, holding her gaze as he did so. "We don't have to leave as soon as we figure out how to." |
| Lisa drew her thumb over his mouth, tracing his lips. "Ianto, we have to get that report out. As lovely and addictive as your mouth can be, we do have a job to do first." |
| Ianto watched her for a long moment more, his smile fading into an unreadable expression. "There's nowhere to report to, Lisa. Not... not that we can reach from here. And from what I've learned in the last few trips here, you never will get a report to anyone."
He kept a hold on her hand, stroking his thumb across her knuckles. "I'm not the Ianto you were looking for as the Tower fell. In my world, that never happened. Never will happen." |
| "That's not funny," she retorted immediately then bent and kissed him, squeezing his hand gently. "I love you, but your insane you know that? Torchwood falling down around us and you want to shag in the dressing room." |
| "So I've heard. But that isn't the point." Ianto reached up with his free had to stroke Lisa's cheek. "I really am not who you think I am. I come from a world where the Tower is just one of three fully functioning Torchwoods, where I work in Glasgow, and you're a field coordinator who has a habit of scolding me over the phone for bad habits." He paused, holding her gaze, hoping she wouldn't brush it off again as a really bad joke. |
| Lisa didn't pull away, but she could tell now that Ianto wasn't playing jokes. She caught his hand and pressed it against her cheek. "We need to get you the the hospital. I think you've hit your head on something. Besides, I would never scold you on the phone, only in person. The make up sex is too good."
She left her dirty clothes where they were and decided to just take the ones they had on. If Ianto had a concussion bad enough that he was hallucinating? That was not good. She slipped an arm around his waist. "Are you dizzy?" His pupils didn't look dilated. |
| "I didn't hit my head, though the concept of pounding it against a wall is tempting on occassion." Such as when he'd found out an intern crashed the computerized archives. "This isn't a joke, and isn't some injury-induced insanity, Lisa. Where we are, we can't contact Torchwood from here, and I haven't seen a hospital here yet. Not in all the times I've visited." |
| "Ianto," she said calmly, her hands cupping his face, "listen to me. Head injuries can produce some very lucid feeling hallucinations." The idea that Ianto was telling the truth was simply too crushing for Lisa to contemplate. If it was true, then the Ianto she loved was gone and so was the Torchwood she knew and all of her friends. Her entire life had been in that office. "Please, come with me to get checked out. I don't know how to get back without you. I need you clear headed." |
| Ianto frowned, frustrated. He knew this was his own fault that she didn't believe him, but it didn't make it any less irritating.
"Lisa, I am clear-headed, and I'm not hallucinating. I know how to get back to where I came from, that's a simple enough matter. I just have to find the right door. But it's not the same place you came from. Just, it's a hallway off the hotel lobby, I'll show you." |