"Not tonight, Jack" Ianto muttered as he climbed into bed and promptly curled up in a ball, facing away from his boss. Jack frowned. "You okay, Yan?" he said, wrapping his arms around his lover, and kissing the back of his head. "I'm fine, Jack. Just a stomach ache." He muttered. Jack hummed sympathetically. "Okay, I'll leave you be for tonight, but you owe me tomorrow," he joked. Ianto didn't respond.
Ianto jolted awake when Jack's alarm went off and he felt a pang of guilt at not meeting him with his morning coffee like he usually did. Jack fumbled with the clock until he got the shrill alarm to cut out and he rolled over and put his arms around Ianto, "How're you feeling now, Yan?" he murmured into Ianto's hair. Ianto's eyes were screwed shut as he shook his head. Jack rubbed his bicep soothingly, "Okay, you stay here, we can certainly manage without you for now-"
"But-" Ianto protested.
"No 'buts,' you stay here, feel better, and I'll check in on you around lunch." Jack said, pulling on his clothes. Ianto sighed and rolled over, wrapping his arms around his stomach and closing his eyes. Jack bent over and kissed Ianto's head. "Talk to you later," he said as he climbed the stairs to his office. Ianto didn't respond.
Jack sat at his desk trying to make sense of Owen's autopsy reports, the hatch to the bunker left propped open so he could hear Ianto's quiet snores. Jack stopped when he heard Ianto cough and splutter, and frowned when he noticed it didn't stop. "You okay down there, Yan?" Ianto continued to sound like he was trying to hack his lungs up. Jack stood up and made his way over to the open hatch leading down to his bunker, frustrated that he couldn't see his lover in the darkness of the small room.
"Ianto? Yan, are you okay?" Ianto continued to bark and retch, and Jack was beginning to get concerned at the small pauses between each cough, wondering what could cause it. As Jack began to climb down the stairs, he heard Ianto stop, and for a moment he was relieved, until he heard Ianto retch. Jack quickly switched on the light and to his horror he found Ianto sitting up, not covered in vomit, but blood. Ianto coughed into his hands once more, both palms coming up coated in red and blood dripping from his lips. Jack froze as Ianto looked up at him with pain in his eyes, pale faced and sweating, and his eyes rolled back in his head as he slumped backwards, hitting himself on the headboard.
Seeing Ianto's lifeless form hit the bed made Jack burst into action. "OWEN!" he screamed, pulling Ianto into his arms, not caring about the blood staining his clothes, and carrying him up the stairs to his office where he met Owen, "What the fuck did you do to him, Jack?" Owen asked, astonished at the amount of blood covering the pair. "Bring him down to the Medical Bay," Jack just stood, staring at his lover and watching the blood drip from the corner of his mouth. "NOW, JACK."
Jack jolted and carried Ianto down to Owen's mini doctor's office and laid him gently on the table. "Jack, you have to leave, I can't work with you under my feet. I promise I'll call you as soon as I know what's going on." Jack looked torn. "JACK. LEAVE. NOW."
"Jack, I'm sure he'll be fine, you shouldn't worry so much." Gwen said, watching him pace back and forth in his office. "I just- I just don't know what could have caused this. I mean- it was just a stomach ache. I thought it was just something he ate." Jack said, sitting down and putting his head in his hands. "Like, what if it was something to do with the Rift? If it is then it's my fault... and if he-" his voice catches, "-oh god, Gwen I wouldn't be able to live with myself if-" Gwen crossed the room and sat down beside Jack, rubbing his arm sympathetically. "Jack, Owen is a great doctor, if it does happen to be something to do with the Rift, he'll be able to handle it."
Jack sighed, "I just hope you're right."
Ianto Jones winced as he caught himself on one of the fangs of the Weevil he was tying in place in the SUV. He licked his thumb and placed it on the small gash on his hip, wiping away the small trickle of blood.
"You okay back there, Yan?" Jack called from where he was wiping the CCTV. "Yeah, I'm fine." Ianto replied, ignoring the slight burn of the cut.
"I think this Weevil is infected with something, it certainly isn't healthy, I'll bring it to Owen when we get back. So just be careful around it, okay?" Jack called, voice obstructed by the wire in his mouth.
"Kay," Ianto called, already forgetting about the small gash on his hip.
The Beast was dead by the time they got back to the Hub.
Tosh stood in the doorway and stared on in horror as Owen struggled to hold Ianto upright and keep a bowl under his chin, in which Ianto was coughing blood into. When Ianto stopped gagging and vomiting blood Owen lowered him back down onto the table and Tosh realised that Ianto hadn't even been awake.
"Is he okay?" she whispered. It was then that she finally took a look at the pair of them. Ianto lay unconscious on the cold metal table, still dressed in his blood-soaked undershirt and pyjama bottoms from the night before. Owen was dressed in his bloodstained doctor scrubs, sweat glistening on his face.
"I just- I don't know how this could have happened. I've never seen this in humans before." Owen said, pulling off his rubber gloves.
"What is it doing to him?" she asked quietly.
Owen wiped some blood from the corner of Ianto's red stained mouth. "It's embedded itself in his stomach lining. It's eating him from the inside out."
Jack sat in the meeting room, staring into space, white as a sheet. "Is there any chance?" he asked no one in particular.
"I've put him on antibiotics a lot of stuff from the Boeshane Peninsula we have. We should know soon if it's working." Owen said, still in doctor mode.
"And if it doesn't?
Gwen interrupted him. "Don't talk like that, Jack. He'll be-"
She was interrupted by screaming coming from downstairs. Ianto screaming. Jack winced as he heard the agonising screams of his best friends. The screams of his lover lying downstairs writhing in agony.
"Can't you do anything for the pain?"
"He's on a steady stream of morphine, and he's allergic to penicillin, one dose of that could kill him, so I can't give him that. The lack of penicillin will slow down the process but it should still work. There's nothing more I can do for him right now."
Jack sighed and tried to ignore the screams from downstairs.
Jack sat and held Ianto's hand. Owen and Jack had moved the young Welshman into a spare bunker near Jack's when they realised there was nothing more they could do for him. Jack sat and held his hand as he screamed and writhed in pain, his face scrunched up in agony. He pulled his hands away when he tried to claw at the source of pain in his stomach. He changed his pyjamas when he sweated through them. He held him upright as blood was forced from his mouth and wiped his face afterwards.
"Jack, it's been two days, you need to go and get some sleep. There's nothing we can do for him right now. Just go, I'll stay with him. I'll take care of him. I promise."
Jack sighed. "Is he going to wake up, Owen?"
"He hasn't gotten worse, I'll give him that. He certainly wants to hold on."
"I don't need to be told that he's strong. I know that. I want to know if he's going to pull through this." Jack said, never taking his eyes off of Ianto.
Owen sighed. "I don't know, Jack, I just don't know."
Eleven days later, as Jack sat holding his best friend's hand, Owen walked in, "Jack, we have to be realistic here, you can't spend all your time down here with him. It's not good for you."
Jack didn't look at the doctor. "I love him so much, Owen. And I never told him. How can I let him die without knowing that he's loved?"
"I think you should tell him that. Say what you want to say now. And if he wakes up you can tell him again, and if he- if he doesn't wake up, then you'll have told him, regardless of whether or not he heard you."
When Jack didn't respond, Owen stood up, fixed Ianto's IV and left without saying another word.
10 days later, as Owen made yet another cup of coffee, he heard screaming, but not the painful screaming the team had become somewhat accustomed to. This was happy, joyful screaming, emanating from Jack.
"HE'S AWAKE! OWEN, COME HERE! HE'S AWAKE, OH GOD, HE'S AWAKE!"
Owen abandoned his coffee and followed Gwen and Tosh down to the bunker, where Ianto was lying with his eyes open, listening to Jack natter on about nonsense, hardly making sense at all, just so happy to see Ianto awake.
After a half hour of Ianto nearly falling asleep during conversations, Owen recommended more sleep and left, quickly followed by Tosh and Gwen. Jack stayed behind and grabbed his hand. "Ianto, I just wanted to say, I-"
"I know, Jack," he whispered hoarsely, "I heard you."