Helpless
Ianto whimpered and tightened his grip on Jack's arm. "It hurts, Ja…" he gasped as another sharp pain lanced through his body. "Help…" This time the pain was so great that it forced a scream from his throat. "AAAAHHHH!" When it finally passed, he collapsed against Jack's chest, sucking great gasps of air into his lungs.
"Owen!" Jack shouted even though the medic was standing less than three feet away from him. "Do something!"
"I'm doing everything I can, Jack!" Owen dashed over to the autopsy table and ran the Bekaran scanner over Ianto's chest and abdomen and then compared the results to information on his computer screen.
"Aaahhhh!" His body wracked by another pain, Ianto arched his back, flinging his head back and knocking into Jack's chin with a bone-jarring thud. "Make it stop, Jack, please make it stop!" Tears were running unchecked down his cheeks as he fisted his hands in the front of Jack's shirt. "Plea…" This time his body jerked so violently that only Jack frantically grabbing him around the waist kept him on the table.
"Owen, please," Jack whispered. "Do something!" It was breaking the immortal's heart to see his lover in such unrelenting pain.
The doctor stared at his computer, unable to meet Jack's eyes. He'd never felt so helpless, so completely useless, in his entire life. There was nothing he could do, nothing anyone could do. It was the worst feeling a doctor could ever experience.
Ianto's body was rejecting its foetus.
Logically, Owen knew that a man's body wasn't prepared to carry a baby; there was no womb, no birth canal, nothing to support a pregnancy. Nature simply never intended for the male of the human species to give birth.
Emotionally, however, Owen's heart was breaking for Ianto. The young man didn't even know he was pregnant with Jack's baby; Owen had only just found out when he'd used the Bekaran scanner a few minutes ago. 'Ianto doesn't need to know! I could just tell him it's appendicitis or a kidney stone or…' Even as he argued with himself, Owen knew he couldn't lie to Ianto or to Jack about what was happening; he… they… deserved to know so that they could say good-bye and then mourn properly.
Honesty was the only thing Owen had left to offer them.
End