Jack was waiting in the tourist office when Tosh came in. He's been keeping an eye on the CCTV and wanted to meet her quickly before she could wake up Ianto. She was carrying a tray of take out coffees, one marked “H/C”. Ianto refused to drink any coffee but his own, but the man had a particular fondness for peppermint hot chocolates.

"Tosh." He welcomed her, fighting back a yawn as he opened the hidden door.

"Morning Jack. Is something wrong? You look like hell." She handed him the tray and shrugged out of her coat.

"Haven’t slept much. Uh you know that device yesterday? It seems to have done... something to us. It’s a long, strange story so lets wait till Gwen gets in so I can fill you both in at once. Just, um, Ianto is sleeping on the couch, don't wake him up. He had a really awful night."

Tosh gave a concerned frown, but nodded, and continued into the hub, being careful to move quietly as she caught sight of Owen and Ianto.

Owen was kneeling on the floor beside the couch, the coffee table having been pushed out of the way. Paperwork was scattered on the floor around him in large, somewhat organized semi-circle, and Owen looked like he was recovering from an all night bender. He looked up briefly before returning back to studying the papers, muttering a ‘hello’ around the pen dangling from his mouth.

Ianto shifted in his sleep, burrowing deeper into the couch, and despite her concern, Tosh smiled at the sleeping man. Jack couldn’t blame her. He looked so young, and frankly, adorable snuggled up under the greatcoat, one arm curled around a pillow, tucking it up against his chest.

Ianto winced, gasping slightly in his sleep, and Tosh’s smile disappeared.

Jack came up to her, keeping his voice soft. "Uh try to avoid having feelings. Once again, long story, but Ianto's being affected by everyone's feelings. It seems to hurt him. So...don't feel. Or at least try not to feel near him.”

Tosh gave him a wide-eyed look, but backed off.

“He doesn’t seem to mind Owen.” She noticed.

“Evidently he’s good at not feeling anything.” Jack snickered at the upraised finger from the doctor, who didn’t look up from his work.

“Or just hiding them. As long as it works. And I’ve been working on shielding Ianto. A little bit rusty though, so things are leaking through. Don’t suppose you know anything about shielding?”

Tosh shook her head. “Just what I learned from some meditation classes.”

For the first time Jack regretted his less than professional hiring practices. Though psychic testing was mandatory, Jack had never bothered making any of his employees go through training after they got their results back, and Gwen had come at a time when testing wasn’t exactly Torchwood’s top priority. Ianto was the only one with any sort of experience, though the younger man hated to admit it.

“It helps if you try to wrap your emotions up in something good. Try picturing…” Jack waved his hand, trying to think of an example. “A burrito. Concern. Anger. Annoyance. Those are the beef filling. Good, yummy, and completely necessary, but you need to wrap it up in a tortilla of warm squishy feelings, or things are going to get messy. Messy in this situation means pain for Ianto. So nice strong tortillas okay?”

Tosh smiled again, nodding, but Owen snorted. “I think you’re reaching a bit.”

“I’m hungry!” Jack defended his metaphor with a grin.

"Well, I'm not leaking anything warm or squishy...that sounds absolutely unhygienic." Owen accepted a coffee from Tosh, who had edged closer to the couch, testing Jack’s burrito theory.

“You’re an angel.” Owen offered up a genuine smile, taking a deep swallow of the bitter drink, before turning back to the papers.

Tosh leaned over, catching the greatcoat as it started to slide off Ianto when the younger man shifted again.

“Not your feelings.” Jack reassured. “He does that anyway.”

She tucked the coat back around Ianto gently, brushing his hair away from his face.

“Anything I can help with?” Tosh turned and asked quietly. Owen nodded, scooting over a little to make room. “You can start with these papers.”

Jack watched from his commandeered position at Tosh’s desk, all screens filled with the information they had managed to gather. Owen was explaining his rather sketchy organization system to Tosh, and soon the two were deep in their work, while behind them Ianto slept silently.

Jack turned back to the monitors, taking an experimental sip of his coffee, then shuddered. It tasted like burnt toast. He flicked his eyes to the tray, and then towards Ianto, before grabbing the cup of hot chocolate. Hesitantly he took a sip and grinned. Peppermint syrup. Ianto used to taste like that, all warmth and cool flavor on his lips and in his smile. Jack had never really liked peppermint until the Welshman had started working for him.

Jack set back to work, taking another sip with a pleased hum.

---

Someone was watching him. Ianto didn’t liked being watched so he ignored it for the moment, stretching, his back popping as he rolled over. His body ached and he felt like he could still sleep for days, but the pain was gone. He winced as a tiny pang hit his chest. Mostly. Not too bad though. Nice. He relaxed back down into the couch and started to drift off.

“Oh no you don’t!”

Ianto yelped as Jack’s coat was yanked away. He made a grab for it and would have fallen face first into the concrete if Owen hadn’t grabbed him, pushing him back upright. Ianto finally opened his eyes, looking up at the doctor leaning over him, grinning.

"Morning, Luv. “ Owen plopped down beside him and set a Styrofoam take out box in Ianto’s lap, before turning to his own.

“Gwen finally got in, and Jack ordered breakfast for us all. God it’s been ages since I’ve had a real sit down breakfast. Eggs are as greasy as I remembered." Owen happily dug in.

Ianto looked down at his own plate doubtfully, feeling slightly queasy as he saw the contents for the first time.

“What?” Owen asked, glancing down as well. “Oh right. Sorry." He plucked the sausage links off the plate the stuffed them in his mouth. "Better?" he mumbled around the food.

Ianto smiled. "Yes. Thank you."

“More for me. We tried to get a vegetarian plate, but they kept arguing about the eggs.”

“It’s okay.” Ianto take a small bite of the eggs. He wasn’t sure when his last real breakfast was either. Before Torchwood 3 certainly. Their line of work wasn’t exactly conducive to steady meals. “It’s good.” He decided, trying a little more.

“Feel like getting up so we can tell the girls about the bizarre new talents?"

“Not really, No.” Ianto flicked his eyes up to the conference room, and three sets of eyes suddenly looked elsewhere. He sighed and turned back to the man beside him on the couch.

Owen was eying him critically. He transferred his plastic fork to the plate and slid his fingers around Ianto's wrist and looked relieved. "Pulse is fine. You look better. See what happens when you actually listen to your doctor?"

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Yes I feel better. But I was fine. I'm very used to going long stretches running on nothing but coffee." he ran a hand though his hair and winced. He felt rather disgusting, not having showered since yesterday.

“So the alien egg that had nothing to do with the fact that you were doubled over in phantom pain the whole night?”

“Well there is that.” Ianto consented, and gave out a small laugh at Owen’s look of disbelief.

Owen never believed him when he said he was fine. Granted, the man had seen him bruised, bleeding, concussed, and nibbled upon by cannibals, all the while insisting he was perfectly healthy. He couldn’t blame Owen for not listening to him in that regard.

"Well we're not letting you run on coffee any more. You're going to eat and sleep...as much as any of us do with this job.”

“I was sleeping.” Ianto pointed out.

Owen ignored him

“And we'll get you a shower and change after the meeting.”

“Are you saying I stink?” Ianto teased, wishing at least that his shirt wasn’t so wrinkled. He looked around for his shoes, before
remembering that they were still in Jack’s room.

“Well I wasn’t going to say anything…” Owen grinned, before standing up, and taking both their trays, stacking them.

“Come on, I can see Jack making faces at us. We can finish up in there." Owen held his hand out to Ianto.

Ianto let him self be pulled to his feet and followed Owen up the stairs to the conference room, trying to smooth his crumpled pants.