Decisions We Abide By

Summary: Ianto Jones wakes up from a coma in the hospital to his boyfriend Jack Harkness. Problems arise, such as Ianto doesn't remember ever being interested in men, let alone who Jack is.

Characters: Ianto Jones and Jack Harkness focus.

Rating: T

Warnings: Language and mild violence

Disclaimer: All characters are property of bbc Wales and RTD I just play with them.

AN: Just for anyone reading my other fics, sorry I have trouble focusing on one project at a time, but don't worry I haven't abandoned my other projects. But since I now have five or more projects in the works I'll try and focus on the more popular ones first. So if you're liking a certain story make sure to review or put on alert and I'll try focusing on the popular ones first.

Prologue - Unforgivable Decisions

Jack sat patiently at Ianto's bedside, holding the young man's hand in his giving it a gentle supportive squeeze while his other hand softly pushed the dark locks off Ianto's forehead. He watched him sleep peacefully in his private room in the hospital. To anyone looking in on the couple it would be a serene sight, the worried lover holding their beloveds hand in support, praying for them to awaken from a coma. They would not suspect the storm raging within the confines of Jack's mind. Thoughts and emotions battling it out, morality versus longing.

Jack looked at the sleeping form before him and couldn't help thinking how young Ianto looked with the mask which was his suits stripped away. All that remained was the defenceless 19 year old who would be trapped in a 23 year old body.

The battle raged on and he was worried, so much could go wrong with what he was doing, not to mention the morality of it. He didn't exactly have a lot of time to plan everything out, it was a split second decision he had made and then spent the next few hours frantically preparing every detail.

Not twelve hours ago Jack and his team had had to shoot Ianto Jones' partially converted cyber girlfriend, Lisa Hallett dead. Jack had been furious, Ianto had fought him at every turn, refused to execute the threat he had brought into the Hub and outright said to Jack "you're the biggest monster of all." At the time Jack had been livid, but now he couldn't help but feel Ianto may have been right, especially with what he was about to do.

With the lose of Lisa, Ianto had been devastated, but for whatever reason he still begged Jack to let him cling to what little life he still held. To remain at Torchwood and keep Lisa's memory alive, the memory of who she use to be before Canary Wharf.

"Please Jack, I know I deserve death or Retcon, but please," Ianto had begged Jack desperately. "Please just let me remember her, she was my life."

"Ianto, I…" Jack whispered quietly as he reached out gently trying to offer the devastated man some comfort, with every intention to tell the young man he could never do such a thing to him.

"Don't you fuckin touch me!" Ianto had snapped all of a sudden causing Jack to visibly flinch retracting his hand.

Jack stood there in complete bewilderment at the change that came over Ianto within that split second when he noticed Jack reaching out to try and comfort him. The pleading, begging Ianto desperately wanting Jack to not kill or take his memories away was gone and replaced with an angry bitter man that seethed hatred for Jack with every fibre of his being. Ianto let loose a bombardment of insults and spiteful taunts that Jack never imagined Ianto capable of.

"Don't you ever fuckin touch me! Just looking at you makes my skin crawl, I wanted to puke every time I had to listen to one of your passes. Scrub the my skin raw whenever you touched me, just the idea of you makes me nauseous!" Ianto had spat.

Jack clenched his hands into fists and clutched them vigorously tight so that the knuckles began to turn white. Clutched them so tight at his side using every bit of strength he had not to reach for his Webley and silence the volley of insults. They made Jack cringe, he thought him and Ianto had shared something, no he was sure of it. But hearing the fury of Ianto shout otherwise and to claim all Ianto's flirty banter and suggestive touches were a ploy to distract him was too much.

"Then you have nothing to worry about, because you won't even remember in the morning!" Jack retorted full of venom as he yanked Ianto by his arm gripping tightly. He dragged him across the Hub, ignoring the pleas that once again started to escape Ianto's lips, claiming he was sorry and didn't mean it. When they arrived at the medical bay he whipped Ianto around and forced him onto the autopsy bay table. Jack immediately bypassed the lower level bottles and went straight to the most potent and dropped four of them into his palm.

"Take them," Jack ordered firmly as he held them out to Ianto.

"Four?" Ianto asked weakly as he accepted the pills. "Please Jack, there will be nothing left of her." Ianto begged fruitlessly.

"Cant trust you anymore and can't risk you remembering any of Torchwood," Jack replied coldly as placed a bottle of water on the table beside Ianto. Crossing his arms he waited for Ianto to down the pills.

Ianto resigned himself to his fate and popped back the four pills one at a time chasing them with a swig of warm liquid from the bottled water. He waited a moment for the drowsy feeling to start kicking in before saying anything more.

"I'm sorry, Jack," Ianto said lazily as he lay down onto the table embracing his fate. "It wasn't all a lie and if things had been different, I think we might've been good, yeah?" It was the last words Ianto managed before slipping into a deep sleep.

It took Jack a moment to process what Ianto had said and as quickly as he made his decision to take away a large chunk of Ianto's life he regretted it. Questions he'll never have answered invaded his mind, did Ianto truly care about Jack or was it simply a last chance at vengeance? It was Ianto's final words that struck something deep within Jack and gave him an idea. 'If things had been different,' Ianto had said. Things really could be different now, Ianto wouldn't remember their sordid past and Jack wanted nothing more than to forget it and move on. So, he thought, why couldn't they?

Jack had been falling for the adorably shy secretive Welshman ever since that moment they tumbled about in the warehouse after catching Myfanwy, their Pterodactyl. It had been a bit of an obsession of Jack's, too seduce Ianto. Originally Jack thought the young mans refusal was due to 21st century fear of exploring ones sexuality, but now it was clear that that had not been the case. And as angry as Jack was for Ianto's betrayal he coveted the blind love and loyalty he held for Lisa even more.

That was where Jack's dilemma lay, he wanted Ianto, but how would he ever obtain the young man with the level of hatred he would've held for executing the love of his life?

That was where his unspeakable plan came into action. Against Ianto's wishes he forced the heartbroken man to take enough Retcon to erase everything to do with Torchwood. Now Jack had a blank slate to work with. Ianto would not remember him and all he's done, Jack wouldn't have to deal with all the trauma Ianto had clearly gone through since joining Torchwood, best of all he'd have no memory of Lisa to compete against.

With the little amount of time he held to set everything up he was surprised he managed to pull it off. After dosing Ianto with the Retcon and the young man passing out, he'd be out for at least 12 hours, Jack took his diabolical plan one step further. He collected his personal items from the manhole beneath his office and loaded them into the SUV. He spent a couple of hours on the computer cropping and editing photo's of himself and Ianto before making a pit stop at Tesco for some frames. He drove to Ianto's flat and went about placing his things and the photo's throughout and removing any evidence that Lisa had existed from the flat.

That done he took Ianto's car and drove it head on into a tree, narrowly jumping out before the collision. It wouldn't do having his blood in the vehicle. He quickly made sure the car wasn't going to explode and placed Ianto in the drivers seat, it took some work with the extensive damage the car took. He hacked the medical database and insured his name was listed as the next of kin and called 999 informing them of the accident. There would be some baffled Doctors curious as to how Ianto came out unscathed from such a crash, even more to how he obtained amnesia without so much as a hint to head trauma, but like most Doctors did when faced with the unexplainable they'd find some way to write it off, such as a simple miracle.

When Ianto wakes with four years of his life missing Jack would be their to fill him in. Fill him in on how they had been dating the past three years and currently share a flat. He'd be the supportive boyfriend who waits patiently while Ianto once again comes to terms with his sexuality.

As long as Jack could keep his life and work separate everything would be fine.

He'd be Captain Jack Harkness, complete bastard, but some things in life were worth such a title. Jack held no illusions to what he was doing was right, or for the good of anyone but himself, but after more than a century of saving the world deserved a bit of happiness, didn't he?