After sending John off, Jack sat down for a moment and sighed, letting his head drop back. He felt exhausted, almost certainly the second-hand effect of the somnabomb up on his desk. He still needed to contain that, though it was nothing but a shell now. Then he needed to get back to Ianto.

Jack had to hope that a person couldn't really be driven mad by ODing on bad dreams as Adam suggested. He couldn't show Ianto the CCTV video this time, because that could lead to him remembering Adam. Jack supposed he could retcon the dreams away, but the thought of giving Ianto retcon at any time made Jack queasy. He didn't want to admit that, deep down, he wanted Ianto to keep all the memories of whatever time they had together, just as Jack always would.

Finally, Jack forced himself up off the couch and took his shop-made, marginally passable coffee to the nearest workstation to delete CCTV footage and alter the timestamps to make it look clean (Ianto would see the time gap immediately otherwise, and he would investigate very thoroughly any aberration). Then Jack contained the bomb shell on his desk and left a note for Ianto to catalogue it as unknown but apparently innocuous.

Jack went down to his bunker where Ianto was whimpering and curled up foetal, as if trying to protect himself.

"It's ok," Jack murmured, sitting beside him, "it's gonna be ok. I just need you to wake up and realise it was all dreams. None of it was real."

Ianto groaned and pulled back in his sleep.

"He'll never hurt you again," Jack whispered. "I've made sure of it this time." Jack just watched sadly as Ianto continued looking like he was trying to hide. All Jack wanted to do was pull Ianto into his arms and hold him, but he knew that could make it worse if Ianto woke up afraid. Jack sat back against the wall, keeping close but not crowding, and waited.

It was nearly an hour later when Ianto shifted suddenly out of a sounder sleep than he'd had all night. Jack knew that panicky look and shifted away a bit to give Ianto some more space.

"No…," Ianto rasped, his voice strained and thick with sleep.

"It's ok," Jack said softly.

"Get away!" Ianto demanded. "Don't you dare touch me again!"

The pure fear… no, terror, in Ianto's voice and eyes struck Jack deeply. "It's ok, Yan," Jack promised. "It was a dream. You just had some bad dreams. Everything is ok now."

"No. Get away. I won't let you!"

"You're awake now, Ianto. It's over. It's ok, really."

"I said no! I know what you think – lie to me, drug me, make me think it was a dream…. Get away! I know what happened! I know what you did!"

Jack slowly backed off a little more. "Ok. Ok, I'm staying clear. See? But please listen, I promise I didn't do anything."

"Of course you say that now. Get away from me and don't ever come near me again. I'll tell them all if you so much as look at me."

"Ianto, please."

"NO!"

Jack felt crushed and moved further toward the ladder leading up to his office. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "for whatever you think happened. I swear to you that it didn't happen. I wouldn't hurt you."

Ianto glared from the bed, the sheets pulled up to his shoulders. "All you ever do is hurt those around you," Ianto accused venomously.

"Not you…."

"Especially me!"

Jack sighed. "I'm going, ok? I'll be up there if you want to talk. There's some coffee for you, if you want it."

Jack stumbled slightly, emerging from the manhole in his office. He was fighting off tears and a certain frustration that was potentially dangerous to the structural and technological integrity of the Hub. He decided it was a good time to find a rooftop where he could think of a way to prove Ianto's dreams weren't real without making him remember Adam.

Jack hadn't bargained for Adam somehow turning Ianto against him. And if he'd made Ianto believe what it sounded like…. The wisp-trace of 'Adam' that existed in that little mental file was about to face all of Jack's many bad memories at once, he decided.