Ianto yawned and stretched, tipping back slightly in Jack’s desk chair. There was a tower of paperwork stacked neatly in the outbox, and from a corner of the large desk a laptop hummed away happily, searching various databases for egg shaped artifacts with tendencies to knock people on their asses.

He glanced up at the clock and groaned. The numbers wavered in the gray area between really, really late, and obscenely early. He hadn’t planned to stay this long, and certainly not in Jack’s office. He had skulked about the hub, not being able to sleep; until he was sure Jack and Owen were tucked safely away in Jack’s sorry excuse for private quarters. Then he had come back up, intending only to straighten the room some and gather up the dirty coffee cups.

There had been just one document left unfinished on the desk, So Ianto sat down to finish it for Jack. The one below that had only needed a signature, and the next down just a few calculations. Four hours later he was still there and had decided that as long as he was working, the computer system could do its part.

Ianto stood up, wincing as his back cracked. He was tired, and his head ached. But the flashes of pain that had been plaguing him had disappeared soon after he had started in on the paperwork. He left the laptop running, and stumbled down into main hub, throwing himself down on the couch. With any luck he could still snag a few hours of sleep. There was an extra suit down in the archives, and in Jack’s closet too if it hadn’t been thrown out yet, and he was sure he could wake himself up in time to grab a shower before Gwen and Tosh arrived.

Ianto shut his eyes, and let out a breath, trying to relax, instead of thinking about what his office mates probably did on the couch after hours. Hell, he had done it often enough himself. Young healthy male and all that. He snorted and threw an arm over his eyes, drifting off.

He blinked as he found himself looking down into Jack’s room, the world was tinted an unsettling shade of blue, and he felt a muddled vertigo. Jack was lying in bed, Owen beside him. The covers had been kicked down, tangling around their legs. It was too still. Ianto felt his blood turn to ice. They looked unreal. Eyes wide and staring up at him, chests barely rising. Ianto felt his own chest tighten, lungs burning as they breathed so slowly. The air was thick, and everything was wrong. Ianto stumbled as the vertigo rose up again, pulling him off his feet. He fell.

Ianto shot up, nearly overbalancing off the narrow couch as he gasped for air.

He felt adrenalin coursing though his body, and was nearly shaking with tension. The pain in his chest was back, throbbing against his ribs, spreading through his body.

He could still feel it, the thickness of the air, the uneasiness that had his mind screaming at him. He stumbled off the couch to Tosh’s computer, bringing up the Hub’s defense program. No alarms tripped. Three bodies, not counting their guests in the cellblock. Everything was fine. He brought up the readings on Rift activity, gasping as pain shot through his side. Nothing. There was nothing.

He frowned as he turned back to the hub. Nothing. His eyes skittered over the egg shaped alien device. Could that be it? He inched closer and studied it.

He closed his eyes and found himself looking down into the captain’s room again.

Another course of worry, fear, panic and more emotions than he could work out flashed though him, yanking him back. His eyes jumped to Jack's office.

Jack. Owen. Something was wrong. Everything was wrong. He rushed to the office, yanking open the round door that had been embedded into the floor.

He froze. They lay there, with the sheets tangled around their thighs, staring up at him. Their chests barely moved. They looked dead. Unreal. Just like before.

He flew down the ladder hitting the bed as he landed and jarring the two men. Neither moved.

Ianto crawled forward in the awkward space, until he was kneeling between Jack and Owen on the bed.

Ianto turned to Jack first, shaking him. Not even a flinch. He remembered clearly from his time with Jack, Jack hardly slept, and when he did he'd wake at the drop of a pin, well nearly. He’d dropped one once to see what would happen. It took the whole box. But Jack was still a light sleeper.

He shook him harder, and then shook Owen. Neither reacted. "Owen? Jack? Wake up! Wake up!"

"Shit shit shit." He leaned back and ran his hands though his hair.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes trying to calm him self. He reached down and pressed his fingers against Owen’s throat, and then Jack’s, relieved to find slow, steady pluses. "Okay. Okay, they're alive. What do I do now?"

He closed his eyes again, thinking desperately, and thought about what to do. He took a deep breath and let it out, and suddenly he knew, like someone had written the answer behind his eyelids in glowing letters. He didn’t know how he knew, but that didn’t matter. Ianto followed his instincts.

“Owen,” he said quietly, leaning down and brushing his fingers through the short dark hair. He closed Owen’s eyes with a sweep of his other hand. Light was bad. Lights and smells.

“Owen,” he repeated. “Coc oen, it’s time to wake up.” Ianto commanded softly, using the teasing name he had once given the man.

Owen’s breathing grew more shallow, but Ianto refused to panic. He leaned forward further, lips brushing Owen’s ear, hands stroking and soothing the other man’s body. “Owen, listen to me. I need you to focus on me. Just me. I need you here, now. Please, you’re safe. I promise.”

Owen’s chest stilled beneath his hand.

“I swear to you, Owen. You’re safe.” Ianto fought the panic that tried to enter his voice. “I’m here and you’re safe, and I swear to you Coc oen, that if you don’t come back within five seconds, you make your own goddamn coffee from now on.”

Suddenly Owen gasped for breath, and buried his face against Ianto’s neck inhaling deeply. Beneath him Ianto could feel the man shaking.

Ianto let out a laugh that he would later admit was tinged with more than a little hysteria. “You’re fine, Owen, you’re fine.” Ianto bit his lip as the pain returned, and he pushed it down as far as he could. It blossomed in his chest, turning his lungs to ice.

He pressed a brief, reassuring kiss to the top of Owen’s head and turned his attention to Jack.

Jack still lay as Ianto found him, chest still rising and falling too slowly, eyes still open, staring at nothing. Ianto shut his own eyes briefly, hoping for more inspiration.

He could feel Owen behind him, still shaking and gasping. Terrified. Another wave of pain swept through Ianto and he cried out.

Touch. His clothes had bothered him. Taste, the coffee that made him sick. What else? What else? Think. Hearing! That was it.

Ianto leaned down, bumping his forehead gently against Jack’s.

“Jack, come on, love. Your turn.” He trailed his fingers over Jack’s face, stroked them over Jack’s throat. “I need to see some life in those eyes of yours, Jack. Come back now, follow my voice, those Welsh vowels you love so much, follow them back to me.” Ianto teased Jack, gently. “You’re scaring Owen, Jack, you need to come back now, from wherever you went.” He could taste blood in his mouth, from where he had bitten down against the pain in his chest. Ianto’s head started to swim as the pain continued. “Love, please!” Panic cracked into his voice, and he pressed his lips against Jack’s.

Jack's return, like the man him self, was more dramatic. He surged forward, pushing Ianto back and kissing him deeply, before pulling away in shock, and smacking himself on the brickwork. Without his support Ianto fell over, landing against Owen.

Owen, Ianto noticed blearily, wasn’t shaking any more. Though it looked like Ianto had picked them up. The pain was gone, though his body ached with the memory of it, and he felt little prickles of sweat on the back of his neck.

Owen struggled to sit up, but Ianto refused to be budged. Finally the other man settled for propping up on one elbow "God. What was that?"

“Dunno” Ianto answered, wishing his arms would move so the he could rub at his temples.

"Ianto? What...did I die?" Jack had joined them again, rubbing his own head where it had hit the wall. ‘Bastard’ Ianto thought, temples beginning to throb in earnest.

"Possibly." Ianto muttered.

"Ianto,” Jack was leaning over him, looking concerned. “Are you okay? Your heart’s racing again."

"You’re not even touching me." Ianto stared up at his captain, trying to sound reasonable. Jack laid a hand to Ianto’s chest, as if to confirm that he’d said, and his frown deepened

"Your heartbeat’s so loud, I can hear- I can hear it! How can I hear it?" Jack voice raised in pitch as his eyes widened and he stared up.

Ianto turned his head, hoping for an explanation from Owen, only to see the other man mirroring Jack’s frown. Owen reached out to stroke Ianto’s neck. “I can see it.” He said quietly, running his fingertips across the pulse at Ianto’s throat. “Like it’s about to jump out of your skin.”

Owen’s eyes widened, and Ianto felt another ripple of pain, and what might have been concern. He gasped and squeezed his eye’s shut. He was tired, and wrung out, and scared, and it hurt.

“Right.” Owen said suddenly, too loudly. “That’s it.” He pulled away from Ianto and Jack, scrambling for his jeans at the foot of the bed. “Autopsy bay now. I'm running more tests.”

Jack continued to kneel beside Ianto, one hand stroking his chest, and Ianto wasn’t quite clear who he was reassuring.

“You know,” Jack grinned playfully, his eyes still worried, as he caught the pair of pajama bottoms Owen threw at his face. “This wasn’t exactly how I planned to get you back into bed.”