Title: Fallout, Part Twentieth

Author: Emma

Characters: A whole bunch of folk.

Rating: Starts PG, but hey, it’s got Jack in it!

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?
Author's Note: This fic is CoE compliant

Part One is here; Part Two is here; Part Three is here; Part Four is here; Part Five is here; Part Six is here; Part Seven is here; Part Eight is here; Part Nine is here; Part Ten is here; Part Eleven is here; Part Twelve is here; Part Thirteen is here; Part Fourteen is here; Part Fifteen is here; Part Sixteen is here; Part Seventeen is here; Part Eighteen is here; Part nineteen is here

            “Jack.”

            “Hello, Ianto.”

            “Something… wrong.”

            “I know.” Jack lifted the hand he was holding to his lips. “I know.”

            “No! Not… death. Mind. Something’s stopping… us.”

            Martha stroked Yan’s sweat-damp hair back from his forehead. “Stopping you from what, Ianto?”

            “Yan and I… we tried to… merge.” The voice – Yan but not Yan – was getting stronger. “Should be one. They stopped us. Made Yan forget. Block.”

            “Do you know why?” Jack asked.

            “Yan is… not whole. Even if I try to stay out of his way… I am here. Things bleed through.” He sipped at the glass Martha held to his lips. “He spends his life trying to juggle… us. Sooner or later he will lose the fight. But Yan… we… whole… scared her to death. She wanted to make sure we ended up sectioned. Or worse.”

            “Ianto,” Martha said, “Yan wants to…”

            “I know. It might be a good idea at that.”

            Jack rubbed the back of Yan’s hand against his cheek. “Why, Ianto?”

            “What she did to Yan… it wasn’t technology. It was psychical manipulation using Gallifreyan techniques. If Yan can access the Doctor’s knowledge he can reverse whatever was done to us. Him. Duw, now I’m doing it too.”

            But what if…” Jack groped for the right words. “If Yan has difficulties integrating two personalities, what will happen when he has to integrate three? The Doc can be pretty overwhelming.”

            “I know, but… he’s not the Master. He would know it would be wrong to just take over. Besides… Something she said… she’d been watching Donna for a long time. Studying her. The regeneration energy in the Doctor’s hand borrowed cellular material from Donna to create the second Doctor. What Donna got was… blowback.”

            “So she might be carrying the Doctor’s knowledge and his memories but not his personality?”

            “Could be. Not certain. But nothing is certain, is it?” Yan sighed. “Jack… we need to do this. Please.”

            “All right. But before you go…” He leaned close and pressed his lips to Yan’s. “I love you, Ianto Jones.”

            “Did you think I don’t know that?” He gave the Captain a smirk and an eye-roll. “Enough guilt, Jack. Whatever happens in the future, we had a fantastic time, you and I. You should celebrate it, not mourn it.”