The Hunt

Chapter Eleven

Andy stayed with her until he couldn’t, until he was pushed away in the hospital by a swarm of doctors and nurses, pushed back while her frightened eyes sought his across the crowded curtained cubicle.

It felt like hours after that, and the time passed slowly, the way it did in all hospitals. It was hours. Hours of giving the same statement again and again to CID, knowing that in a little room somewhere else, Charlie was going through the same thing. Knowing that even now, Laura was being asked to remember – and he wanted to stop them, because what possible good could it serve to make her relive it?

Something must have changed in his demeanour when he retold how Laura had said it was a monster, because the interviewer returned to that again and again, but there was nothing he was hiding or forgetting. There was nothing, and for a moment, he almost believed it himself.

If he had been asked, he might have said that he’d have imagined in this moment to feel slightly superior, smug or privileged. He didn’t feel any of those. All he wanted was to return to her side, and sit with her while they waited. He itched to call Ianto and find out what was happening – what had happened – but he couldn’t, yet.

As it turned out, the injury to Laura’s neck wasn’t as bad as it had appeared in the alley, and she stabilised after the transfusion, became comfortable enough that she was moved to a private room in a quieter part of ICU, and there Andy sat with her while she slept. Well, she was unconscious at least. Eventually, he got up and walked out of the room, heading out into the corridor.

As he got a coffee, he thought about Ianto, out there somewhere. His hand rested on his phone, as he considered nipping out of the hospital for a minute, but then someone joined him at the machine. Now, the only people still present were hospital staff and police officers. Andy took in the plain clothes, and met the man’s gaze levelly.

“Monsters!” the CID man said with a frustrated bang of his hand against the side of the machine, and Andy just watched, saying nothing. “Not again!” There was something about his hopeless attitude that made Andy think of the list he and Ianto were working on. He almost wished he could say it. Belatedly, he realised he was holding two coffees, and didn’t know who he’d got the other one for.

“That’s what she said,” Andy noted, feeling awkward and not superior at all. He looked into the other man’s eyes, and knew that even if he were told the truth, he wouldn’t believe it. Might not believe it even if it was shown to him. Andy didn’t feel privileged. He felt alone. And when it was all over, now, when all there was to do was wait, he realised who the coffee was for, and headed off down the corridor with a single nod of his head.

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“I can’t drink it,” said a croaky but feminine voice from the bed as he quietly re-entered the room, and Andy smiled, shrugged a little. He took a deliberately deep swallow from his own cup and grimaced.

“Don’t worry. I think they only put it here to even the misery out a bit.” She laughed at that, and then moaned. Andy put a hand out, rested it over hers. A while ago, someone had come to intensive care and was waiting outside the room even now, waiting to be granted access.

Rob was in his late-thirties, but he was the kind of bloke who’d always be a boy. He had that look about him. And now, when his world seemed to be falling apart, he seemed young and old all at the same time.

“Are you sure you won’t see him?” Andy asked, encouraging. “You could always make him drink the coffee for you.” Laura laughed again, more gently, and shifted under the sheets.

“Is it that bad?” she asked.

“I know someone who wouldn’t even warm his hands with it,” he confided, and she smiled, then her face became serious.

“Why should I see him? He left us there!” She shuddered suddenly, and the monitor picking up her heartbeat increased in tempo a fraction. “It was a monster,” she said slowly, with certainty, surely for the hundredth time, and Andy was caught by the look she gave him.

She had several broken ribs, and bruising to her back and chest. He knew how that had happened, and couldn’t imagine the horror of it. Pulled into the embrace of one of those things, crushed close and helpless, feeling it bite into flesh. She must have seen her own death for an instant.

She wasn’t going to be remembering this. Andy knew that Jack would come along, or someone else, and as soon as Laura could drink coffee, she’d forget the previous night. He knew it to be a mercy when he looked at her now.

It was a monster, as she said. Her eyes demanded something. Andy looked at her, and they were alone. He was alone, and he dropped his eyes, unable to face her. She didn’t have any need to be alone, not right now, not when she was going to forget anyway. What difference could it make to show a little kindness? “I know,” he said softly after some consideration, and her eyes widened when he looked back at her.

“You saw it,” she breathed in a kind of horror. “Andy.” His name sounded strange from her lips, but it made her next question so personal that he almost wished he had seen something. “Did it have him?”

“No,” Andy said, holding his hand up to ward off the questioning. “I didn’t see it, but I know…” It was the most difficult confession of his life. He hoped he wasn’t about to make things worse. “I know they’re real.”

He waited, for Laura to make a scene, to necessitate him withdrawing the truth in favour of ‘humouring’ her, and then she surprised him by speaking so quietly he almost didn’t catch the words. “Last night, I told Evan that monsters weren’t real. He’s always been so scared of the dark.” She laughed shakily. “Silly! I hugged him and I told him that the only real monsters were bad people.” Andy swallowed some more of the coffee. It didn’t help. “He believed me,” Laura whispered. “He believed me and I was wrong. And now, no one believes me… and I’m right!”

“Laura –” he began, and she cut him off before he could say anything further.

“No!” she said forcefully, her eyes burning so that he looked away again. “You know, so you can save him! You’re not like them,” she insisted, tilting her head to indicate the other officers who’d been sat with her tonight. He shook his head in a kind of alarmed hurt. “Please,” she intoned seriously, the voice of the mother. “Don’t leave him out there alone.” Suddenly he wanted to shiver. They shared something between them that was made of fear and all the things that might be in the dark.

“I can’t,” he said in the end, hating it that he was stuck here, when he needed to know what was happening out there.

“Please!” He could admit to knowing about what had attacked her, but he couldn’t breathe a word about Torchwood. They were out there now, and he knew he needed to find out what was happening. He drew in a breath and stood up, hating the way she trusted him because he really feared the worst.

“Give me ten minutes,” he said, giving her an earnest look. “Don’t say anything.”

“I think I’ve said enough,” Laura said with a little bitterness, her voice soft and tired. Andy sighed, closed his eyes for a second, and then left the main hospital to go outside.

Even in the dead of night, hospitals were busy places. They were busier than police stations, and he drew more than one look in his police uniform as he walked outside, already turning the mobile back on. His radio he had, and he’d been able to keep it on whilst inside, but his radio wouldn’t give him what he needed.

Andy walked a little away from the crowd of smokers gathered at the outside doors and brought up the number on speed dial. He held the phone to his ear and prayed for it to be picked up. It was, on the third ring.

“Andy,” Ianto’s voice said, a little breathless. There was Jack shouting in the background, and a horribly familiar growling.

“I need to know,” Andy said straight away, hoping Ianto would know what he meant. Like he had to be worried.

“He’s fine,” Ianto said immediately. “He’s on his way to you right now, he should be there already, actually. Jack sent him with a policewoman. Chatty little kid, though he can’t remember anything.”

“Jack’s doing?”

“No. He’s got a slight concussion. A bang on the head, and we think he’s probably blocked it all out. He keeps asking for his mother. Is she…?”

“Waiting for him. Thank you,” he said, and again there was that moment where he wanted to say so much more.

“Yep,” Ianto said, distracted as Andy heard Jack shouting in the background. “Got to go!”

“Later,” he answered with a faint smile, and he almost ended the call when Ianto answered him, that hint of teasing in his voice.

“Sooner than that.”

Andy grinned. “I’ll try,” he said, and then ended the call, turning around to go back into the hospital and realising something incredible. Evan was on his way. He was safe!

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By the time he made it back to ICU, it was to be greeted with a sight that would stay with him for weeks. A thankful Rob was on his knees in the corridor outside Laura’s room, clinging to a small, dark-haired child as if he would never let him go.

“Shall we go and see Mummy?” Rob asked in a husky voice, and Evan bobbed his head happily. Really, the man looked like he’d aged twenty years in one night, with his eyes red-rimmed and his face pale. Andy watched them walk into the room, and heard the glee that followed as he tried to squash the smile on his face. Almost casually, he walked past the door, glancing in to see them all together. Laura seemed to sense him, and her eyes sought his from inside, peering past her son to where Andy stood at the door.

“Thank you,” she mouthed silently at him, and Andy nodded.

He’d thought it was over then, but when they left her to her rest, there was a sudden commotion, and the hospital came to life again as doctors rushed into the room. She didn’t make it. Internal injuries, they said, and he knew she had waited. He was glad that at the very least, she hadn’t waited in vain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He stopped the car somewhere he could hear the cascading water, and leaned forward, still holding onto the steering wheel, keys jangling slightly in his grip as he rested his head against his hands. His breath moved in and out of his lungs easily in the stillness, accompanied by the muted sound of the waterfall through the windows. It made the air he breathed taste cool and fresh, but that was probably just in his mind.

It wasn’t his tragedy, and it wasn’t his miracle that had brought Evan back like that. He was just an observer. Hard to be impartial, though, because he was human, and he sighed once as he tried to sort out the jumble in his head. In a few weeks or months, it would fade into the background, and he’d get more careless about it. Cold, maybe. But not now. Now, he sighed.

Eventually, he remembered where he was, and got out of the car, slamming the door and turning on the alarm without a second thought as he looked about him. Belatedly, he remembered he was still in uniform, but that didn’t matter. His eyes drifted back to the car, and he saw his yellow jacket on the backseat. It wasn’t needed. He wouldn’t be out in the cold for long.

He stared out towards the bay for a long moment, and then his eyes drifted eastward, where the black of the night sky was tinged with a deep blue. A reminder that dawn would come. A new day. Andy walked towards the one door that he could knock on now; never giving a thought to what was concealed behind it or the secrets it kept. That didn’t matter. It was who was there. That was what mattered to him.

He reached it without incident, the cool breeze playing with his hair as it moved around the wide-open space in front of the centre. With another heartfelt sigh, he leaned against the door, and pressed his fingers wearily to the button on the intercom. There was a buzz, and then a crackling that meant the line was open, though surely whoever was inside could see him.

“Let me in,” he said simply, and there was another buzz. This time it meant that the door was unlocked, and he grasped the handle, turning it and letting himself inside. When he made it in, his body registered the welcoming warmth of the office, that scent of something that reminded him of a library, and he closed his eyes as he closed the door, leaning back against it for a moment before looking across the office.

Ianto.

He still stood on the other side of the desk, gazing back, immaculately dressed, which meant he must have changed since he and Jack returned from… well… One of his hands was still casually hovering over the desk where Andy knew there was the button to release the door. He felt the smile on his face before he was really aware he was doing it. Just smiling at Ianto, remembering that moment when they’d brought Evan in – unharmed, seeing the reunion and their happiness all again.

There was an answering smile from Ianto. Not an obvious one. Just a kind of twinkle in his eye as he stared back at Andy across the distance between them. Victory; and quite suddenly there couldn’t be any distance at all.

They moved at the same time, meeting up with each other in the middle of the office, surrounded by pictures and brochures of beautiful places to visit. Amazing. There wasn’t anything more beautiful in all of Cardiff at that moment but Ianto. He was a marvel. A masterpiece. Andy appreciated the suit, even though it made him aware of his own uniform again. He reached out, just to touch, cupping Ianto’s face in his hands, and God! He could have this!

He’d called, and Ianto had answered. Ianto. Who had then gone out and rescued a child from a monster like a hero in some kind of story. A little of his jubilation shone through, sparkling in his mind, and it made him smile again. It felt too good.

“I just…” he came out with eventually, and then couldn’t continue. He didn’t know what to say. How could he even begin? Ianto just looked at him, composed and cool before his regard. He could feel the warmth of Ianto’s skin under his fingertips, could surely feel the rush of his pulse and he knew the steady gaze was a trick, because Ianto’s heart was racing – as was his.

Ianto was his. It was a wondrous thought. He cottoned on to that and it still felt too good as he began a kiss. But it wasn’t his kiss alone. Ianto held him close, kissed him back, answered the desire with some of his own, and Andy laughed at the feeling of power that swept through him. Together, it felt like they could achieve anything – make things right, and tonight for the shortest of moments, between them they had.

It had been bittersweet until now, until he’d come here to say… what? To say thank you for the help? There was a life that would be lived because of Ianto and what he had done.

“I wanted to…” Andy began and again he didn’t know how he’d intended to finish the sentence. He felt Ianto’s lips dragging on the side of his neck as they embraced each other.

“I know what you want,” Ianto said into his ear secretly, as if in reassurance, and there was a suggestion in it that couldn’t be ignored. They hadn’t done it the way Ianto was suggesting, in all this time. But then, everything, changed around and reordered, because it could be. Do it! Andy actually felt his heart miss a beat as he imagined it, thrilled to the thought of it. And then he knew Ianto was right.

“Yes!” he said, truly longing for it. “Oh, God, yes!”

Ianto chuckled and drew back far enough for them to take each other in, a look to him that Andy had seen a hundred times before, only now he understood. Ianto was capable and confident, and he could let go, because Ianto could handle the responsibility. It would be good, after the long night, to let it rest with someone else. And he saw something else in Ianto that Jack already knew all about.

“So,” Ianto said, teasing. “That’s a yes then, is it?”

For a second, Andy felt far too vulnerable, and he drew in a deep, shaky breath, still wanting to give all of that terrible responsibility away. “It’s a please, if you want it,” he said, quite serious, and something in Ianto’s eyes darkened as the teasing disappeared.

“All right,” he said, nodding a little, and it felt good to be in his arms. Just to be with him. To be held, and to be known, and to trust so much that he couldn’t be afraid.

He knew Jack was there before he said anything, moving close in behind him, putting him in the middle when usually it was Ianto who ended up between them. Ianto looked past him to Jack as Andy leaned his head back, letting Jack kiss him, and feeling a return of that surge of power. The victory was his as much as it was Ianto’s. It was theirs.

“We don’t have time for this,” Jack said, quiet but sure, and there was a moment of icy foreboding before he continued. “At least not here. We’ll go straight to Ianto’s. Everything is powered down already.”

“I’ll drive,” Andy said. “The car needs to be moved.” If it was seen and recognised, then there’d be questions. Questions none of them wanted or needed.