Discalimer: I own none of the characters mentioned in the below and following chapters. They are the property of RTD and the BBC.

Feedback and reviews are great, as it lets me know whether or not I should continued with this fic. Enjoy. :D

Chapter One: Death and Life

"IANTO!" Jack's scream echoed through his mind as the bullet ripped into his heart.

Ianto was dead before he hit the ground.

"You're next!" Jack growled; his voice deadly, shooting the Professor through the head. He, too, collapsed onto the ground.

Jack kneeled down beside Ianto and checked his neck for a pulse. There was none. His vision turned bleary as he looked up at Owen.

"OWEN!" Jack yelled in his pain, "You have to bring him back. Tell me you can bring Ianto back. Tell me he's not gone." Jack was begging, the tears running down his face.

"Jack, I..." Owen paused and swallowed the lump in his throat. He looked down, and glimpsed Martha, beside Jack, bending over Ianto's broken body, attempting to resuscitate him. Owen blinked back his own tears and turned back to Jack, his doctors training taking over.

"I'm sorry, Jack. There's nothing we can do. He was probably dead before he hit the ground. He's gone."

"No..."

Jack shut his eyes tight and silently wished it would all go away. Why him? Was the world trying to pull him to pieces? Was the world trying to make him suffer? After everything he'd already been though, didn't he deserve some happiness?

His happiness was gone, now. His Ianto was gone. He'd never even told him how much he loved him.

Never got around to saying it.

The next few hours passed too slowly, the pain crept up on him, growing more and more strong.

Too strong.

He had a brief memory of the trip back to the Hub and afterwards. He sat in the back, cradling Ianto's cold dead body in his arms.

No one spoke to him during that long trip. He recalled Gwen sitting beside him, holding Ianto's hand. She was no longer crying, but the paths the tears carved into her cheek were still visible.

Owen was driving, somewhat slower than usual and so much more careful. He was driving as one might drive a hearse.

Tosh and Martha had taken the other car. He caught glimpses of their parting conversation.

"...he loved...take care...tell him it'll...nice...not the end..."

Jack had then blocked it all out. Encased himself in his own little shell, not wanting to let anyone in. Never.

"Jack," Owen's voice was strangely warm and comforting. It had never been like that before. "C'mon, Jack. You've got to let go of Ianto, now, ok?"

"No!"

"Jack, please." It was Gwen this time, her Welsh accent reminding him of Ianto's. The hole in his heart tore wider.

"Jack, we've got to get him inside. It'll be nicer and warmer inside the Hub, yeah."

"Ianto would want you to take him inside, mate." Owen said his voice still strangely soothing.

Jack finally nodded and emerged from the SUV, carrying Ianto in his arms. He looked peaceful, as though sleeping.

Jack remembered glimpses of the next few hours. As though he was a bystander in someone else's dream.

* * * * *

He sat in his office, concentrating on not tearing the hole in his heart any bigger.

Downstairs, he knew Owen and Martha were preparing for Ianto's autopsy, knowing that it had to be done.

He hated having them cut up their friend. He probably should have offered Owen to stand down if he wanted too; stop it getting too personal. Martha had only known Ianto for less than a day, which still didn't make it right.

Jack sighed, glad that the tears had stopped coming. But knowing that it would not last long. Deep down, Jack knew that something as simple as a cup of coffee would set him off again. Something as simple as the Tourist Information Office. Ianto's Office.

The stopwatch he'd always carry around. "Always at the ready" he had said once. The catchy names he'd think of. The Life Knife. The Risen Mitten...

The Risen Mitten.

A Resurrection Glove.

Ianto said himself they came in pairs! He'd bring him back.

Jack was going to bring Ianto back!

* * * * *

"Stop!" Jack yelled, running out of his office and down to the autopsy room, where Martha had just picked up a large surgical knife. His breath caught in his throat as he saw the naked upper half of his lover. He felt his gut lurch and Jack suddenly felt slightly queasy.

Tosh and Gwen were looking up at him, shock on their wet faces. He tried to smile reassuringly to them, but it probably came out twisted, like a grimace.

"Don't touch him. Nobody is to touch him until I get back!" Jack managed to croak out, hoping he sounded convincing. And with that, Jack ran out of the Hub; the cog door closing noisily in his wake.

"What the bloody hell?" Owen said, annoyed and ignoring the tears still silently flowing.

"Let him be." Martha said, the only one with dry cheeks. "He needs to get over this."

"I understand that, but procrastinating, is not going to make this easier." Owen retorted.

"He has a point," Gwen whispered.

No one else spoke for a while.

They silently decided together to head up to the conference room. Gwen made everyone coffees, nothing compared to Ianto's brilliance, mind.

They waited.

And waited.

Gwen went home to Rhys.

Waiting.

Hour passed.

Tosh left not long after Owen had.

Waiting.

Martha fell asleep on the couch.

Tosh, Owen and Gwen were back when she awoke.

Jack was not.

"Where do you reckon he's gone?" Owen voiced the question everyone wanted to know.

"No idea." Gwen admitted.

"Maybe he's just gone out to mourn." Martha suggested, "Ianto and him were really close weren't they?"

"Yeah"

"Do you think he's coming back?" Gwen asked, sounding slightly worried.

"Course he will, he won't leave, not after this."

"Surely not."

At that precise moment the sirens on the cog door started and Jack ran in.

"Jack!" was the general cry of joy from everyone. Except maybe Owen.

He ignored them and continued running down to the autopsy room. His shirt was covered in blood and in him arms was a very plain looking box.

"Where have you been, Jack?" Gwen asked. Jack shushed her with a small gesture, before proceeding to open the box. God he hoped this would work.

"Oh my god!" Tosh took a step back, as Jack held up what was in the box.

"You can't use that, Jack!" Gwen protested, "Not after Suzie."

"She has a point, Jack." Owen agreed.

"It's a different glove; maybe it'll do different things." Jack countered.

"Like not bring him back?" Owen said.

"It's still a resurrection glove, that part is still the same.' Jack replied, his voice strangely calm.

"Whatever." Owen gave in, shaking his head.

Jack waited for no more protests, and fitted the glove to his own hand and placed it on the back of Ianto's head.

"Jack are you sure about this?" Gwen asked again.

Jack merely nodded and closed his eyes, silently calling Ianto back into the world of the living.

"Ianto? Come on, you can do it."

"Jack...?"

"He's coming. Yes, he's coming."

Jack grinned, opened his eyes and looked down to see Ianto gasping his way back into life.