It looks like you guys are in luck! I decided to post this straight away becuase I love this story too much not to... I was fully planning on making you wait a few days, but my heart won out! You guys really made me smile! I came back from school to a torrent of emails and found a surprising number of them to be in rpely to yesterday's ending chapter :D
This song is a really REALLY beautiful song and I would advise EVERYONE reading to go away and listen to it. The lyrics tie in quite heavily in some places just becasue the song means so much to me - it'd be delighted if you could give it at least a play through.
~Sky Blue and Black by Jackson Browne
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fanfic, they belong to Russel T. Davies and their performers. Lyrics belong to Jackson Browne.
Sky Blue and Black
Chapter 1
In the calling out to one another
Of the lovers up and down the strand
In the sound of the waves and the cries
Of the seagulls circling the sand
Jack's heart was gripped by a huge iron fist as he slowly turned on the spot, dreading to see what had happened. The shot had rung out, scattering his senses. He couldn't speak, couldn't breath, couldn't concentrate on anything. The only thing that mattered was finding where the bullet had hit home.
Time slowed right down and it seemed to take a lifetime for him to blink and open his eyes on the scene behind him.
He took in Tosh and Gwen kneeling down and Owen hurriedly searching for something in the SUV. In the middle of them all was the sight that he'd never wanted to see. Since he'd first looked into those eyes, this was the one possibility that had chilled him to the bone.
In the middle of them was Ianto, lying on his back, gripping at his stomach, his breathing laboured as he coughed blood - the harsh, gurgling of blood in his throat and mouth made Jack's hair stand on end. The young man gritted his teeth, groaning and crying in pain as he clutched at his stomach, blood bubbling and streaming through his fingers and across his skin.
In a flash - after no more than a split second - time caught up and Owen was yelling at him to move his arse. Without thinking, Jack skidded over to Ianto and knelt beside him, pulling his hands from the wound and lifting up his shirt. He felt bile rise up in his throat as he saw the wound and realised that John, true to form, had used a particularly lethal variety of bullet.
"It's shredded his insides, he needs to get to a hospital." Jack murmured as Owen joined him. Owen opened his mouth and was about to protest when Jack's face contorted in fear and anger and he snarled. "Now!"
Jack hoisted Ianto into his arms, unable to stop himself from making Ianto cry out in pain. Jack gritted his teeth as his mind snarled like a wild animal - fury, horror and fear tangling viciously in his stomach. Fifty first century humans were barbaric, they really were. It was times like this when Jack didn't see the point in saving humanity if they would end up producing weapons of war and soldiers like John Hart.
The team fell into a flawless pattern, Gwen and Tosh in the front, Gwen driving, and Owen sitting in the back with Jack, Ianto draped across them. His breathing was getting shallower and his movements grew sluggish, his hands feebly trying to grip onto Jack every time they were jostled.
"I'll kill him…" He croaked, eyes closed and his face screwed up in pain. He breathed shallowly and Jack heard the air crackle and splatter through the blood collecting in his mouth once more. "If he ever comes back, I'll kill him…"
"Not if I get to him first." Jack said with a growl, brushing Ianto's hair off his forehead. He felt the young man chuckle weakly, but the sound died away long before it should and Owen swore loudly again.
"Gwen, step on it!" He snapped as he pushed Ianto's hands back and inspected the wound. "There's nothing I can do from here, it's massive internal bleeding. Jack, you have to prepare yourself for it to go bad."
"I'm not losing him, not like this." Jack said quietly, a steely determination in his voice, his eyes fixed on Ianto's bloodless face. He was silent for a long time before he spoke again, his voice still menacingly calm. "He'll have bruises in the morning…"
"What do you mean?" Owen asked in alarm as Jack continued to stare unseeingly at the broken man.
"That bullet… They ricochet around, tearing up everything in their paths and spreading general mayhem." Jack muttered bitterly. "He'll have a bruise around the wound."
"Jack, he has an exit wound as well, but you obviously understand the damage it did in the mean time." Owen was doing his best to make sure Jack understood, to draw him out of his seeming denial.
Jack didn't say another word until they got to the hospital a few minutes later, he carried Ianto inside and with a few harsh words and orders, the staff took the wounded man immediately to a trauma room.
Jack followed to stand outside the doors, hands splayed out in front of him, palms up. He'd been fully intending on staying with Ianto, but something refused to let him walk through those doors, to get any closer to the erratic beeping of the monitors and the technical yells and murmuring as the doctors worked.
He heard a jagged noise and the world started to tremor, but it was the hand that rested on his shoulder that snapped him out of his trance. He turned his head to see Owen looking at him in concern and it was then that he realised he was shaking, his entire being juddering.
"Jack, sit down." Owen said carefully, fully aware that no matter what orders he gave as a doctor, Jack would ignore them if he felt like it.
"There was so much blood, Owen… Too much blood." Jack muttered viciously, jerking away from Gwen's touch, looking back through the windows of the doors to catch a glimpse of Ianto. There were tubes and wires running all over him and a ventilator breathing for him. Gauze and blood alreayd littered the floor, dark and bright and menacing. Jack's stomach churned again. There was too much of it. There was just too much.
He shook his head and clenched his hands, ignoring the feeling of the thick blood on his skin, staining his clothes. He'd never been one to be this startled by pain and death, but something about it being Ianto made him snap. He turned and walked silently from the hospital, the crowds parting at the sight of him.
He walked slowly, as if through a dream, exiting the large glass doors and walking down the street. He had no destination in his mind but to get away from there – from the blood and Ianto's pale, broken body.
He didn't know how long he walked for, but at some point, he had the sense to wipe most of the blood on his hands off on his shirt, wrapping his coat a little tighter around him as he did so. He heard his mobile buzzing at some point as well, but he let it ring through to the answer phone.
Somehow, he found himself on the pier, walking along the wooden planks, passing several happy couples, curled up together in the cool evening and watching the sun set over the water. He glanced around as he approached the end and saw seagulls eyeing the people eating chips, the people surrounding him laughing and chatting happily, enjoying the perfectly mundane evening.
He felt his heart throb painfully and he suddenly ached to see Ianto laughing at him for doing something wrong in the archives, or scolding him for trying to use his coffee machine. He would settle for anything as long as it meant he said something.
With a sigh, he pulled out his mobile as it started to ring again. He check the caller ID and his throat tightened at the name: 'Owen'.
"Yes?" He said harshly, trying to hear any tell-tale sounds in the background.
"He's in surgery." Owen said wearily. "I think you should get back here."
Before Jack could say anything else, Owen cut the call and he could only stare at the handset, ignoring the screaming in the back of his head and trying to settle it down into submission. For a moment, he debated about stopping back at the Hub to get a change of clothes, but his heart decided it had had enough. It needed to be near Ianto, so that's what Jack did.
He ran.
