Day one:

“On a catamaran,” said Tosh, “sailing the Seto Inland Sea. It’s a gorgeous day, perfect for sunbathing, which I am, while the boat is being navigated by---“

“Owen?” Even in the gloom, Tosh couldn’t miss Ianto’s cheeky grin.

“No, not Owen.” She could feel herself blushing. “I was going to say that man from that Joseph thing?”

“Any Dream Will Do? Tosh, you are full of surprises! You mean Lee Mead?” Ianto coughed quietly a couple of times and Tosh put a hand to his shoulder to steady him.

“No, not the winner, the other one—Daniel Boys.”

Another smile from Ianto, this one softer. “He looks a bit like Tommy,” he said. They were both quiet for a moment, lost in memory.

“All right, Ianto, your turn,” Tosh shook herself briskly. “Anywhere But Here.”

Ianto closed his eyes briefly, took a deep breath and coughed again. Something shifted painfully in his chest and he shuddered. But when he spoke, his voice was clear.

“Drinking coffee, on the couch, with Jack.”

“Well, there’s a surprise,” Tosh replied dryly.

Day two:

“Go on, finish it, Tosh, I’ve had plenty,” Ianto lied, handing the nearly empty water bottle back to Toshiko.

“Are you sure?” Tosh eyed the bottle desperately, and then looked closer at the man sitting next to her on the dirty floor. He nodded emphatically, and she took the water.

“Now, tell me,” Ianto said after she’d drained the plastic container. “Anywhere But Here?”

Tosh grinned and thought a moment, then replied “Top of the London Eye…”

“Did you know the circumference of the wheel is 1392 feet? If it were unraveled, it would be 1.75 times longer than the tallest building in the UK - One Canada Square in Canary Wharf.”

“You really do know everything, don’t you?” Tosh reached over and gave his hand a brief squeeze, receiving a grateful look in return.

“Okay, so no unraveling—top of the London Eye…?” he prompted her.

“Right, and its night, so you can see all the lights of the city, and the stars, too. And it’s autumn, so I’m wearing a jumper and drinking Cadburys.” Her eyes grew cloudy as they focused inward.

Ianto coughed wetly and wiped his hand across his mouth, ignoring the blood. “Cadburys. Attention to detail is important. What colour jumper?”

“Purple.”

“Good colour for you.” He took a deep breath and bit back a groan. “With Owen?”

Tosh shook her head, making dust motes in the air shimmer around her head. “No. With my parents.”

“That’s really nice, Tosh.”

“Right, now you,” she replied. “Anywhere But Here.”

Without hesitation, and sounding stronger than he had all day, Ianto replied, “Drinking coffee on the couch with Jack.”

“At least you’re consistent.”

Day Three:

“Have you ever been to Yates's Wine Lodge?” Tosh asked. There was a pause long enough that she didn’t think that Ianto was going to reply, but just as she was sliding along the floor to get closer to him, thinking he might be asleep, she heard him take a deep breath and say “No, but I know it. One of the hazards of working in a tourist shop.”

There was another silence then, as Tosh watched dust motes dance in the sunbeams from the hole in the ceiling far above them and listened to Ianto painfully pulling air into his damaged chest. She thought about the Yate’s Wine Lodge and about sparkling glasses of Cariad Rose from Llanerch vineyard. She pictured a tall vodka with diet tonic, choked with ice and felt her taste buds cramp painfully. Even a glass of water right now….

“It’s beautiful, lots of wood décor but not heavy, you know,” she said. Ianto made a non-committal noise that might have been “I’m a born interior designer” or could have been “Get on with it, can’t you see I’m dying here?”

Tosh licked dry lips and continued, “So, I’m in the Lodge, playing a pub quiz—“

“Pub quiz? Really?”

“I love pub quizzes,” Tosh assured him. “Winner gets a free bottle of wine, courtesy of the landlord. It’s five pounds in the kitty if I get it wrong but all the money goes to charity, so that’s all right. And it’s down to the final question to win—“

“What are you drinking?” Ianto asked. Tosh shuddered and didn’t want to answer, and then didn’t have to when Ianto answered for her. “Brains? I hear its four pints for a fiver.” For some reason this made him laugh and the laughter turned into harsh barking coughs that didn’t abate for several minutes, not even when Tosh scooted forward to sit beside him and rub his back as he doubled over, groaning as much as he was coughing.

When at last he settled, his breathing was still raspy and laboured but he managed to speak. “Sorry, go on. Yates, pub quiz….Owen, maybe?”

Tosh smiled and felt tears pricking her eyelids and was glad his back was to her. She kept smoothing her hand over his back as she picked up the narrative. “No. Vodka, diet tonic, slice of lime,” she said.

“That sounds brilliant,” he replied.

“And the final question is ‘What Bond girl appeared in two different films played by two different actresses?’”

“I know that one,” said Ianto.

“Of course you do,” Tosh smiled and gave his shoulder a tiny squeeze. “But I draw a blank, totally, and have to ask my teammate—“

“Daniel Craig!” they announced in unison, and shared a laugh. Their good humour settled slowly along with a fresh coat of dust and then it was quiet again except for the occasional creaking of wood above them. Something small and rodenty scuttled across the floor near enough to be heard, not close enough to scare them. Once again, Tosh wondered if Ianto was asleep—although the more practical side of her mind used the word ‘unconscious’—when he spoke:

“Did he know the answer? It’s Domino Vitali, played by Claudine Auger in Thunderball and Kim Basinger in Never Say Never Again.”

“Of course he knew; he’s Daniel Craig. Did I mention he was sitting there in his bathing trunks?”

“Awesome.” Ianto turned to face her then, one arm clutched protectively around his midsection. Tosh knew she probably looked just as tired and bruised as he did, but she also knew for a fact that she wasn’t so pale, that her face didn’t have that pinched and pained look, and while she had hit her head when they fell hard enough to leave a good sized bump on her forehead, there was no blood around her mouth the way there was around Ianto’s lips. Small flecks that this close to him she could see clearly even in the chancy half-light coming in from above them. Just enough blood to indicate something very wrong inside of him. “It’s my go then?” he asked her softly.

She nodded and noticed two of the buttons on his waistcoat were missing.

“Drinking coffee on the couch with Jack,” he said, and then, in a smaller voice, “I think I need to sleep a little.”

Tosh waited until his breathing evened out before replying softly, “Awesome.”

Day Six

They’d gone through Spaghetti Arrabbiata at Giovanni’s with Jensen Ackles and discussing Bernoulli's principle with Venky Harinarayan in Cairo, and of course, Ianto’s unwavering “Drinking coffee on the couch with Jack.”, and now….

Tosh roused herself from a soupy half-conscious stupor that couldn’t rightly be called sleep. A stretch, and a groan, and she felt her dry lips crack a little.

“Ianto?”

No response.

“Ianto!” Her voice sounded strident in her own ears. There was no movement from the man lying next to her. Suddenly terrified, Tosh pushed at Ianto’s shoulder, and then pulled him over on his back and for one awful moment she knew he was dead.

With a whooping gasp, Ianto’s body shuddered, his eyes opened wide and then shut again immediately as he struggled to breathe. Despite not knowing the extent of his injuries, Tosh pulled him into his arms, making him cry out shrilly.

“I’ve got you. It’s all right…” Ridiculous statements both, but somehow they made Tosh feel better. She rocked gently without realizing it, and Ianto’s heartbeat galloped unsteadily in his chest. The air whistled in and out of him, then stuttered into something slower and calmer, but with dangerous little hitches in it. Tosh sobbed without tears as she held him, but even as his breathing slowed, so did her hysterics. She didn’t let up her hold on him, didn’t stop rocking, but she did sniff dryly and try his name again.

“Ianto?” The lack of response produced no surprise in her, or deterrent. “Technically, I suppose it’s your turn, but let me go first, since I already know what you’re going to say.” She rolled her eyes and tried to smile. Instead, she just felt dizzy and her stomach cramped. It was a long time before she continued, and she thought she might have even fainted a little. If she had, Ianto hadn’t noticed.

“Okay, Anywhere But Here, and don’t you dare laugh. Eli Jenkins, on a Saturday night. No Rift activity, no Weevils, no aliens of unknown origin to chuck us through a hole in a two story building into a cellar with no doors. And I’m playing pool.” Another pause, nap, swoon. “…with Owen…”

She heard a noise that wasn’t rats or falling plaster, and thought she ought to get her gun out of her purse. Whatever had done this to them might be coming back. If only she wasn’t so tired. If only she could have just a little drink of water….

Rather than relinquish her hold on Ianto, she reached out with her foot and snagged the strap of her purse, pulling it slowly towards her. Even that slight exertion caused her to start panting and made her vision swim. The purse seemed to weigh a thousand kilos, Ianto even more.

“Come on, just a little more, come on….”

Ianto cried out again weakly as she jostled him.

“Shhh, it’s all right,” she insisted. “Hang on. I’ve almost got it. Each inch closer seemed to take a lifetime and she found herself babbling. “Well, go on, then, I’m waiting. Ugh….it’s your turn….oh, Anywhere But, ah, Here… Let me guess…coffee….ohhh….sofa….” The strap was teasingly close to her hand now. “and Jack bloody Harkness!” She pulled the purse into her hand and Ianto tried to slide bonelessly out of her grip. She didn’t let him.

When Jack found her draped protectively over Ianto, gun inches from her hand, a few minutes later, he looked back at the hole they had blown in the cellar wall and screamed for Owen.

***********************

Jack watched from the couch behind Toshiko’s workstation as Tosh sipped from a bottle of water and then typed furiously for a moment. Screens flashed and numbers scrolled at varying speeds across them. Another burst of energy over the keyboard and then she reached for the water again. Jack sighed and Toshiko turned and gave him a small smile.

“That should take care of all the monitors while I’m away, as well as keep all the CCTV coverage clear in the known areas of rift activity. Anything else shows up, you can access it all manually of course, but it will take longer.”

“Brilliant, Tosh, thank you.”

She gave him a bigger smile this time, knowing it wasn’t just a computer program he was grateful for. “London here I come,” she announced brightly.

Ianto came up behind her and set a thick white envelope down on her desk. “Train tickets, reservation at the Strand Palace and—“ he added a second, smaller envelope, “Tickets for the Friday night performance of Avenue Q at the Noel Coward Theater.”
Finally he placed a new bottle of water on her station to replace the one she’d emptied. “Daniel Boys is playing Princeton,” he told her.

Jack didn’t know what made Tosh jump up and give Ianto a sharp hug, but he did notice the careful way she did it. And even though he returned the hug and smile, Jack noticed the brief discomfort that passed over Ianto’s face, and he knew that, despite the time already passed and the excellent care Owen had provided, the broken ribs that had caused the punctured lung would be a while healing yet. But he *was* healing. And that was the important part. The *vital* part.

Caught up in his musing, Jack didn’t notice Ianto until he was standing right in front of him, holding out a cup of coffee. Jack took it from him with a grin and sipped at it as Ianto picked up his own cup from the tray he’d set down on the small table in front of the couch, and then sat down beside him. He held his own cup carefully with both hands.

“I love you,” Jack declared, more to the coffee than to Ianto. Holding his cup away from himself to avoid spilling, he put an arm around Ianto’s shoulders and pulled him in close to his body, not missing the tiny hitch in Ianto’s breathing, or the sigh of relief as he settled, slumped next to Jack, head on his shoulder.

“Maybe Tosh has the right idea,” said Jack. “Maybe you need a few days R&R, too. Swansea, maybe? Or Newport?”

Ianto smiled and pressed in a little closer. A sip of his coffee, a sigh, and he said, “Jack, I wouldn’t be anywhere but here.”