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Disclaimer: I do not own Torchwood or the characters within and am not making any profit from this story.

Wednesday

"I didn't go to medical school to end up as an extra in Giant Slugs from Outer Space!" grumbled Owen, nevertheless edging closer to one of the slimy green blobs they'd come to collect.

This was one of the rare occasions when Ianto actually agreed with the other man. He couldn't recall alien slug catching as being listed in his job description. There was no point in complaining, though - no doubt Jack would say it came under the 'any other duties' section of his contract if he ever brought the subject up.

"Stop whining, Owen!" Jack retorted cheerfully. "Just get on with it. It's all in the wrist action!"

Ianto shook his head in silent amusement. Only Jack could pull off flirtation and innuendo as a management style. He glanced over at his lover, who rather than approaching cautiously like the rest of them, had just demonstrated his perfect wrist action and scooped up a green slug with complete insouciance. The alien creature didn't react to its capture, lying motionless in the plastic tub, looking just like a fat watersnake toy.

Ianto looked back cautiously at the inert-looking blob he himself was after. It looked harmless enough but he was still rather wary to be going after an alien life form armed with nothing more than tupperware. He wasn't fond of slugs at the best of times, let alone virulent green, foot long ones. Give him a weevil any day over slime. The only reason he was anywhere near the thing was he trusted Jack when he said the slugs weren't, yet, dangerous.

It was the 'yet' that was rather giving him pause.

"Got one!" called Gwen, returning to the SUV with a container held at arm's length in front of her.

Ianto and Owen scooped up the last two blobs almost simultaneously, and soon all four containers were stowed carefully in the back of the car. Ianto checked all the lids were on tight - he knew just who'd been cleaning the upholstery if one of them got tipped up. Which reminded him ....

"Keys, please," he said, holding out his hand. "I'll drive us back." There was no way he was going to risk Jack's - erm - exciting style of driving with four tubs of slime in the boot. Even if they would get back in half the time.

Jack surrendered the keys without argument, going round to the passenger seat with an amused smirk that said that he knew just what was going through Ianto's mind.

"Better safe than sorry, Sir," Ianto replied to the unspoken comment in a deadpan tone of voice but a twinkle in his own eye he knew the other man would pick up on, even if Gwen and Owen in the back seat wouldn't notice.

He smiled to himself as he drove back at a fast but smooth pace; one thing about working for Torchwood, there was certainly variety. He couldn't wait for his holiday, though. Thank God there were only two more days to go. Just him and Jack, an expensive hotel room with room service, and his trusty stopwatch. What more could anybody want?

***

Thursday

Ianto repressed a yawn and looked at his watch again - 3.30 p.m, time for another brew. He thankfully pushed away from the computer, stretching as he headed for the small kitchen area. He filled the kettle with fresh water and put it on to boil, then set up the coffee maker. He got out the mugs and teaspoons and leaned against the kitchen worktop to wait, smothering another yawn. He didn't normally clockwatch, but today had been supremely boring. It would have been stupid to start a new research project just before going away, and for once there hadn't been any emergencies or callouts, so he'd spent his time tying up all the mundane but essential jobs that often got put to one side during more hectic times.

He'd done inventory and sent the equipment and stationery order in to head office - they were running low on toilet rolls and bandages, and Jack was always going through bullets like nobody's business. He'd double checked all the emergency protocols and instructions were up-to-date and in idiot proof English. He did *not* want to be recalled from holiday because one of the team couldn't work out what to feed the pterodactyl. He'd checked on the new slugs, they had been installed in a nice moist cell and were still showing no activity. He still had more of the endless filing to do, and the dry cleaning to fetch - Jack would be thankful to get his coat back - but that could safely wait until tomorrow.

Normally Ianto liked a quiet day where he could just get on with things without constant interruptions, but he felt supremely unmotivated today. He just couldn't wait for work to be over. It had been *way* too long since his and Jack's last proper break from Torchwood, a snatched weekend in Aberystwyth, the memories of which made him flush and finger his suddenly too-tight collar and tie even now.

Ianto was dragged from his thoughts when the kettle boiled, and he quickly made Tosh and Owen's tea while the water was still piping hot. By the time he'd finished, the last of the coffee had dripped though the filter and he poured out three mugs. Gwen liked milk and sugar in her coffee, almost sacrilege to Ianto's mind with these beans, but he and Jack both had theirs strong and black. He set a few biscuits on a china plate - Owen might sniff about it being posh, but Ianto was determined to maintain *some* standards in this place - then gathered up the loaded tray to take the drinks round to the team as usual. Hopefully Jack would be just as bored as he was and would be willing to pause for a chat.

Thank goodness there were less than two hours left until the end of the day. He really couldn't wait for the weekend and the start of their holiday.

***

Friday

Ianto had been glad to get out of the Hub for an hour to complete his errands. Although there was a strong and bitter wind the Spring sun was bright and cheery, making him smile at the thought that he would soon be free to enjoy it as much as he wanted instead of being stuck inside a building without a single window. Sometimes he was sure he was going to come down with Vitamin D deficiency, the amount of hours he spent there, and Jack was just as much of a workaholic.

Ianto got back to find a hive of frantic activity. Typical for Torchwood - just turn your back for one moment, and another crisis would appear when you least expected it. Ianto quickly dumped the plastic bag of biscuits and teabags in the nearest chair, draping the dry cleaning more carefully over the chair back before hurrying to see what had happened. There would be time enough to put everything away after the emergency, whatever it was.

Tosh was rapidly scrolling through screens of CCTV footage of the now very empty looking Slug Cell, and Ianto's heart sank. It would have to be those bloody slugs.

Jack was bringing up all the different camera views of the Hub one after another. He didn't look up from his screens but he obviously knew Ianto was back as he spoke tersely before Ianto could even comment. "The slugs have escaped."

Suddenly Tosh exclaimed; as they all turned to look she pressed a few keys and replayed the footage at high speed. Ianto watched in amazement as all the slugs in the cell merged into one giant mass, which oozed up the clear perspex door and then slowly squeezed through an airhole. The creature dropped slowly to the floor on the others side and slithered off, disappearing into a vent shortly afterwards.

"Shit," said Jack, looking tense in a way that told Ianto that the situation was serious. The Captain pushed his computer chair away from the desk with some force and got to his feet, heading for the nearest weapons store.

"This slimeball is now officially dangerous," Jack continued, his voice rather muffled while he rummaged for his weapon of choice. "It's a Krawlfax; it's silent, deadly and will eat every organic thing it comes across, slowly suffocating them and sucking all the nutrients out."

"And you didn't think to warn us about this before?!" Owen protested shrilly.

"I didn't know exactly what it was until now," Jack said impatiently, emerging from the weapons store with a clutch of flamethrowers. "The larvae are harmless on their own, and Krawlfax larvae are completely indistinguishable from Krawlfarn, which are far more common and stay harmless even as adults." He checked the power level on the weapons before tossing one each to Gwen and Owen, keeping one for himself.

"It leaves a trail of slime we can try to track, but you've seen how it'll suddenly disappear. This might take some time. Tosh, Ianto, you stay here and look out for it on the monitors. Keep us updated. If it appears here, call us and then get the hell out. Don't try to stop it. Fire is one of the few things that will kill it." Jack held Ianto's gaze for a moment, the complete Alpha male, and Ianto nodded solemnly in agreement. There was no way in hell he was going to disobey that order. You wouldn't get him anywhere near one of those things.

Jack gave a flicker of a smile at Ianto's agreement, then headed off with Gwen and Owen. Ianto had to steel himself to be his normal professional, calm self - Jack knew what he was doing, but Ianto still worried each time he had to watch him leave like this. One deep breath and he locked the emotions away, they were inappropriate at the moment. Tosh was already flicking through screens - Ianto sat down in Jack's vacant seat and began to do his job.

"We're at the cell," Jack's voice came through on the communicator. "The trail of slime just vanishes, we're working on guesswork unless you've found any sign."

"No sign here," Ianto reported, and Tosh confirmed the same.

"Okay, we're splitting up. Keep alert, everybody."

The great Slug Hunt continued for the next hour or so with no success; every so often Gwen, Owen or Jack would report that they'd found a trail (a small part of Ianto mentally shuddered at the thought of all the cleaning at the end of this) but it always filtered out. Through it all, Ianto sat tense, flicking through all the different images and deliberately resisting the urge to keep on checking on Jack with the cameras.

It was pure coincidence that led Ianto to finding the Krawlfax. His eyes were blurring, so he'd rubbed them and glanced away from the screen for a moment - to do a double take when he saw a large, green slimy mass only a few metres away.

With a strangled yell, Ianto jumped up from his chair and backed away. "Tosh! Get away from there - it's over to the right," he yelled.

"Ianto?" Jack's voice came sharply over the radio in response to his yell.

"Yes, Sir, everything's okay," he replied rather breathlessly, keeping both eyes on the Krawlfax which was lucklily heading in the other direction. "I've found the Krawlfax - or rather, it's found us."

"It's there? You two, get out of there now! I'm on the way. Gwen, Owen -"

"On the way," Gwen interrupted before he could continue, and Owen piped up with his confirmation.

Tosh was already backing away towards the exit, taking her favourite laptop with her. "Come on, Ianto!"

"I'm coming," Ianto said rather absently, a little calmer now he knew exactly where the creature was and could avoid it. He was focussed on the disgusting brown/green trail which the alien was extruding as it slowly rolled along. It looked horrendously sticky and would no doubt be hell to clean. Maybe lots of bicarb? He only hope the Krawlfax stuck to the hard surfaces of the floor and the walls, if it went on the chairs they'd have to have them re-upholstered. And it probably wouldn't come out of clothes.

Without thinking about the danger, or Jack's order, Ianto hurried to the pile of dry cleaning, which was straight in the Krawlfax's path. He snatched up Jack's long coat, leaving his own suits. He could replace those easily but Jack's coat was a one-off and almost part of the other man. He might look sexy in his shirt sleeves and braces, but the swirling coat was even sexier.

Ianto turned to hurry out; there was no harm done, despite Tosh having kittens by the door. But even though he had only taken his eyes off it for a second, suddenly the Krawlfax was right in front of him. It reared up, seeming to look straight at him even though it had no eyes. Ianto swallowed convulsively, clutching the coat protectively. He was deathly scared; what had originally seemed almost a joke monster, inconvenient for sure but soon sorted out by Jack, now seemed silently menacing. He backed away a couple of steps, until his trembling legs hit something and with a startled cry he found himself tumbling backwards over another chair.

Before he could move or scramble up, a roar filled the air. "Ianto!" yelled Jack, and suddenly there was heat and stench and smoke as the Krawlfax burned in front of him.

Then Jack was there, hauling him up into a firm embrace, holding him so tight he almost couldn't breathe, but that was okay, because he didn't want Jack to let him go, ever. They kissed, fiercely, until Ianto pulled away, gasping. He was only vaguely aware of voices in the background as Tosh, Gwen and Owen talked excitedly, but all his concentration was taken up with Jack. He locked eyes with his lover, and his heart clenched at the love and the fear in the other man's eyes - fear that he had put there. Ianto dropped his head, unable to face Jack or the shame he felt at the moment. Jack's large hand, firm but comforting, pressing his head into Jack's shoulder and giving him the privacy to shed a few secret tears of terror and shock, told him that as ever the other man understood and was there for him.

***

Friday Evening

Basic cleanup was done, although Ianto still wanted to give the floors and walls another going over. The others had long since written their reports and gone, and he and Jack had been alone in the hub for a while. Ianto had had plenty of time to think while on his knees scrubbing. He bitterly regretted what he'd done that afternoon. Why did he have to be so stupid? He only hoped his lover could forgive him for it.

"Ianto." Jack appeared in front of him, looking uncharacteristically serious and stern. "Let's take this to my office."

Even though he'd been expecting the summons, expecting it and dreading it and wanting it all to be over with, the reality of it happening *now* still came as a horrible shock to Ianto and he swallowed nervously.

"I've got to finish cleaning..." he gestured feebly with a rubber-gloved hand, still too ashamed with himself to look at Jack..

"It's clean enough. Come on now."

"But..." Ianto's voice trailed off into silence and he swallowed thickly again. He didn't think he could do this. What if Jack wanted him to leave?

"Ianto." Jack's voice this time was different, warm and tender. He crouched in front of Ianto and pushed his chin up until their eyes met.

"It'll be okay, Ianto." Jack's voice and his eyes were both certain, and as ever Ianto gave himself over to that certainty, trusting that maybe things weren't as black as he'd been dreading, trusting that Jack would make it all okay. He let the other man pull him to his feet, and, abandoning the cleaning paraphernalia, he followed Jack to his office.

Jack sprawled in his chair, fingers steepled together, staring at Ianto with a serious expression. Ianto stood in front of him, his hands clenched tight; he was keeping his head high with difficulty - it was one of the rules when they were in this situation that Ianto had to look at Jack rather than trying to hide away from facing their emotions. It was the one thing that Ianto invariably found hardest to do.

"Sorry, Ianto." Jack finally broke the uncomfortable silence. "I don't like to delay talking when we have a problem. I know you just wind yourself up. But today I had to calm down before we did this. I was angry at what you did this afternoon."

"I'm sorry for disobeying you, Sir," Ianto whispered.

"Damnit, Ianto!" Jack snapped, making a visible effort to lower his voice when Ianto jumped and paled even further. "Do you even know why I'm so mad? Not because you broke an order, though I'm not happy about that, but because you put yourself in danger over a damned coat. You're worth more than any coat to me, Ianto, and if you don't know that by now we've got a lot of work to do."

"I'm sorry, Sir. I didn't think there was any danger, I just didn't realise that thing could move so fast."

"I reckon you just didn't think at all," Jack sighed. "You wrote the fire drill, you should know what to do in case of fire."

"Sir?" Ianto was puzzled.

"Just tell me what the procedure is."

"To evacuate at once." Ianto paused and then continued in a quieter voice. "Not stopping to collect any personal belongings."

"Because our lives are more important than our possesions."

"I do know that, Sir, I wasn't doing it deliberately. It just sort of happened." Ianto bit his lip. Now he just sounded stupid instead of suicidal.

"So we're back to obeying my orders. What's Rule 1, Ianto?"

"I must not put myself in any unnecessary danger."

"How many times have we gone over this, Ianto? That rule is there for a reason. Sure, working for Torchwood is dangerous, but if you follow my orders when we're in the field, you'll be safer. When I tell you something is dangerous, I expect you to listen."

"Sorry, Sir," was all Ianto could say. "I don't mean to be so stupid-"

Jack cut him off before he could say any more. "You're not stupid, Ianto. You're probably the most intelligent of the lot of us. It's just every so often you forget about the danger. It's my job to keep on reminding you." He smiled ruefully at Ianto before continuing. "Okay, I think we're on the same page here. You know you did wrong, you know why it was wrong, and you're sorry. I know you won't do it again."

Ianto nodded his head dumbly even though Jack's words were more of a statement than a question. He never wanted to put that look of fear in Jack's eyes again.

"I'm done talking, then. Come on over." Jack held out his hand, and Ianto reluctantly took a couple of steps nearer to Jack. His lover gave him a brief half-hug before unfastening his trousers and pulling both them and his briefs down.

Ianto closed his eyes as Jack pulled him down into position over his knees, lifting his shirt up out of the way and stroking a soothing hand over his tense back. He'd agreed to this a long time ago and he knew rationally that it helped him, but it never made it easier to bear.

The first smack made him jump, but Jack's left hand held him in place. Jack didn't pause, briskly and firmly spanking all over Ianto's backside until the other man could focus on nothing but the rising heat and pain. Finally he could stand it no longer and started openly sobbing. "Jack!" he cried out, whether in apology or appeal he didn't know.

Immediately the spanking stopped and he was being held tight in comfort by his lover, both of them kneeling on the floor.

"It's okay, Ianto, it's okay to feel," Jack was whispering as Ianto cried out his feelings of regret and shame. "I'm here. I won't let you go."

"Sorry, Jack, I'm so sorry," Ianto tried to say, the words garbled by his sobs.

"Hush. Remember Rule 2? You're not allowed to brood. After punishment, it's over."

And Ianto allowed himself to believe.

***

Saturday evening

"Jack, where are you?" Ianto asked, enjoying the feeling of the luxury hotel carpet on his bare feet.

"In here!" the cheerful voice called from the bathroom. Ianto went to the door and peered round it, gasping at the amazing sight in front of him.. A naked Jack, lounging in the spa bath, red rose petals floating in the water, which wasn't doing much to hide Jack's excitement. A couple of wine glasses and a bottle stood on the tile ledge beside the bath, and a dish of what looked like Ianto's secret weakness, chocolate covered cherries. Even as Ianto watched, Jack popped one in his mouth and seemed to be doing something obscene with it.

"Happy vacation," Jack gave his slow, seductive smile, holding out a welcoming hand.

Ianto grinned back. Looked like this holiday would be just as memorable as the weekend in Aberystwyth.