AN: Sorry about the long wait, but RL has been a little hectic lately and I just haven't had much of a chance to do anything at all :o( Hopefully things have calmed down again! There will be one more part after this one...and again I just have to get it written! So please R&R, and thanks so much to all of you who have taken the time to send me a review! It totally makes my day when I get one :oD


As far as Owen was concerned the couldn't get back to Cardiff soon enough, this whole trip had been a nightmare from the moment Jack had told them where they were going. But even then he didn't think it could have been as bad as it was. Some of the things he'd seen and done since he'd been with Torchwood were enough to make him shudder, but this trip would give him nightmares for years to come.

And he knew it.

He could only imagine what it would do to Gwen, Ianto and Tosh. Jack had a haunted look about him that even Owen couldn't miss. That was probably part of the reason why their trip back was so quiet.

It had taken them nearly all day to actually get out of there, what with them having to help clean up the mess, waiting for the police and the ambulances to arrive, and the questioning which Gwen had demanded she be allowed to do. Not that he could blame her need to know, hell he wanted to know what could possibly drive one person to willingly kill and butcher another person to eat. But it had taken time, which had, if he was honest with himself, flew by. He'd been busy treating the villagers, making sure that they didn't bleed to death, not that that hadn't been tempting either, but he was a doctor. He'd also been kept busy keeping an eye on Gwen, making sure her wounds stayed clean and didn't start bleeding again, and Tosh who had a headache, probably a slight concussion as well and some bruising, and Ianto who was by far the worst off and the most worrying out of all of them.

Owen would have dearly loved to have Ianto back at the hub where he could keep a close eye on him, with all the medical equipment, earth and alien, at hand incase of any emergancies. And hadn't he had to fight to make sure that the paramedics hadn't just hauled Ianto and Gwen off with them, even if he hadn't been against it in the first place, he sure as hell would have been once he'd seen the look on Jack's face when the medic treating Ianto had started making noises about taking him to the hospital. Oh boy was that not happening!

Owen couldn't blame Jack for his reaction though, he'd had the same one, he wanted them all out of this hell hole as soon as possible, and hell, he had better facilities to treat the team than any hospital had. Especially around here. And especially after the influx of gun shot wounds that they were presently dealing with. He had to smirk at the memory of that. The first police and paramedics had all had the same reaction. "What the fuck had happened here?"

So here they were about an hour away from the hub, traffic permitting. Jack was driving, scaring the hell out of any animal that even dared to come near the road. Tosh in the front passenger seat, quietly staring out her window, but she answered when ever he asked her anything to make sure her concussion wasn't worse than he thought. Gwen was in the back directly behind Jack, she'd fallen asleep as soon as they'd helped her into the seat and was now gently slumped against him. He was content to let her sleep throughout the trip, was better if she did. He sat in the middle of the back seat and had Ianto on his other side, behind Tosh. Owen had half wondered if Jack hadn't deliberatley put Ianto on that side of the SVU so that he could keep an eye on him via the rear view mirror, and again Owen couldn't blame Jack for his protectiveness.

It scared him how close they had come to loosing first Gwen and then Ianto. As much as he teased and picked on the Welshman he also liked and had come to admire him for his strength and courage. Not many people could face and survive what he had and still function. Hell he'd survived the destruction of Torchwood One, then he'd tried to save his converted girlfriend, only to then have to face one extremely pissed off and angry Captain Jack Harkness, and not just face him, but to stand up for what he believed and then to attack Jack, well that just took guts in his book. But Ianto had done it, and had chosen not to ask for the easy way out, had not asked for a dose of retcon, and had worked hard to try and make it up to the rest of them. And this was how he was repayed? Owen just didn't think it was fair, man could only take so much before he broke.

So Owen had found himself going from a patient to Ianto to another patient and back to Ianto, while making sure that someone was with him at all times. Just in case. They'd only been on the road for half an hour now and he'd already done two checks with Ianto, and neither of those had eased his mind any. Ianto had been sluggish to respond, a little confused and very unfocused. Owen was about to check him again when he noticed that Ianto had started shaking, he turned to look at him and swore. He reached over and turned Ianto's face to him so that he could get a better look at him and immediately felt the clammy skin under his hand, then he noticed the continual swollowing and this time he swore out loud.

"Shit! Jack pull over!" He said as he undid his seatbelt and then reached down to release Ianto's as well. This was not good, he didn't want to spend the rest of the trip stuck in a vehicle that smelled of vomit, and he could see that Ianto was in no fit state to realise that he was about to be sick. "NOW!"

The SVU skidded to a halt, just making it to the side of the road. Owen had the door open and was helping Ianto out before he through up. He tried to catch Ianto as he stumbled from the vehicle and blindly made his way forward before collapsing, still gulping for air.

"What's wrong?" Jack shouted.

"Ah bloody hell, a hand Jack?"

Ianto had collapsed on the ground face down, without the strength to even hold his own weight up, heaving. Owen wanted to get him up so that he didn't choke on his own vomit, but knew that he wasn't strong enough to support Ianto's almost dead weight on his own.

Jack's heart nearly stopped when he heard Owen telling him to stop the SVU, knowing that something was wrong, and knowing without even looking in the mirror that it was Ianto. He'd slammed the breaks on and steared the vehicle to the side of the road, and was surprised when the back door was opened before the vehicle had fully stopped moving. He heard Gwen and Tosh moan at the sudden stop, but he was out of the car and following Owen and Ianto as soon as he'd put the SVU in park. Owen's request for help only made him move that much faster to reach them. He could see Ianto heaving on the ground and knelt behind him to gently support his weight, with his arms gently under his shoulders, so that he wasn't lying on the ground. He watched as Owen moved to raise Ianto's head so that it wasn't slumped against his chest just in time. He could hear Owen whispering soothingly into Ianto's ear as vomited the entire contents of his stomach onto the ground, and then continued for a few minutes, dry heaving as the events of the past 24 hours and his injuries caught up with him. Jack could feel the tremors that ran through Ianto's body, almost strong enough to make him loose his grip at times, but he held on, supporting all of Ianto's body weight. He gently pulled Ianto back to rest against him when the heaving stopped and Owen laid Ianto's head back on Jack's shoulder as he moved to check him out.

Tosh appeared at their side with Owen's medical bag and a damp towel to clean Ianto up. Jack smiled grimly and thanked her before she headed back to where Gwen was now trying to get out of the SVU.

"Ok mate," Owen said, "better out than in I say."

Ianto groaned.

"How are you feeling now?" Owen asked as he grabbed his stethescope out of his medical bag, Jack having claimed the towel to start cleaning Ianto's face. Owen started checking Ianto over again, not moving much further from checking Ianto's eyes which were glassy and unfocused. "Come on mate I need you to answer me."

Ianto tried to focus, but it was just to hard and it hurt to much. He knew that he should be concerend, the voice that was talking to him sounded concerned, but he just couldn't bring himself to care.

"Come on Yan," Jack said softly into his ear while gently soothing his forehead with the cool towel, "we can't help you if you don't tell us how you feel."

"H-hurtss."

"What hurts mate?" Owen questioned, almost absently. He had moved on to check out some of Ianto's other injuries, still worried that the concussion seemed to be getting worse, but he'd also noted that he was starting to have trouble breathing, which with his cracked ribs was not a good sign. The fact that Ianto's mouth had started turning blue and he was weakly clawing at his chest were also not good.

"h-hrts." Ianto slurred as he gasped for breathe. "Br'th"

"Ah shit." Owen swore. "I need you to hold him still Jack, this is gonna hurt."

Jack watched as Owen reached into his bag, searching for something. He could feel Ianto fighting for every breath he took now, and the struggle to simply breath was getting harder, and his speach was becoming even more incoherent by the moment. When he saw the syringe that Owen pulled out of his medical case he suspected what had happened. He adjusted his grip on Ianto so that he held his shoulders tightly with one arm, and his waist with the other, which illicted a groan from Ianto.

"What's wrong? What's happening?" Gwen called from the SVU where she was waiting with Tosh.

They couldn't see what was happening, Jack's back was blocking their view. But she saw the look on Owen's face as he searched his medical bag for something. Whatever was happening wasn't good. She almost jumped from the back seat when she saw Owen retreive the huge needle from his kit to use on Ianto. The fact that he had a needle wasn't what had her worried, it was the fact that the syringe was empty. It looked like Owen was going to attack Ianto with it, sure they had their differences and Owen liked to tease Ianto whenever he could, but surely he wouldn't do anything to hurt him. Would he?

"No! Don't!" Gwen screamed as she watched Owen move the needle closer, getting ready to stab him with it.

Tosh had been watching and listening to what Owen had been saying and realised what had happened. She thanked any god that there was that Owen was there to help Ianto, because she knew that if he wasn't then Ianto would have been in trouble.

"It's all right Gwen, Owen knows what he's doing." Tosh said, holding Gwen back. It didn't take much effort as Gwen was still weak from the blood loose and shock from her own injuries.

She saw Gwen go a little pailer and knew that Owen must have inserted the needle. She turned her attention back to the men and watched as Owen used his stethescope to listen to Ianto's lungs. She relaxed a little when she saw the look of releif on Owen's face as he nodded to her to let her know that Ianto was all right. It had worked.

"It's all right Gwen, Ianto's going to be all right." Tosh said quietly with a small smile.

Owen listened to the breath sounds on both sides of Ianto's chest again to make sure that the pressure was being releived. He was greatful for the time he'd spent in the E.R.'s during his residency, they'd prepared him well for a lot of what they dealt with in Torchwood. He'd learned to expect the unexpected and to deal with whatever was thrown at him. If he hadn't, he'd have never have passed his final exams, and he would never have realised what was happening as quickly as he had. After all it wasn't every day that you were faced with a pneumothorax, ok so he'd seen a few assult victims develop the problem, and after the first couple he'd learned what to look out for, he'd also learned that the quicker the patient got treatment the better, but that was a memory that he didn't want to dwell on. Right here and right now he had to concentrate on making sure that Ianto was comfortable, and on getting him and Gwen back to the hub where he could take better care of them.

He checked Ianto over once more, before looking at Jack. He was please to see that even though Ianto was unconscious he was breathing easier, and the blue tinge around his mouth had gone.

"Well?"

If Owen didn't know better he would have sworn that Jack sounded scared. But this was Captain Jack Harkness that he was talking about, and he just didn't do scared.

"One of his cracked ribs broke while he was thowing up. The rib then punctured his lung, which let the air in his lung escape into his chest cavity which caused his lung to start to collapse. I've releived the pressure, and he's breathing easier again. His lung has reinflated and is working normally. I'll leave the syringe in until we get back to the hub where I can use our equipment to check him over properly." Owen said as he busied himself with securing the syringe that he'd inserted into Ianto's side. "He should be fine, but we need to get him home."

"Ok, good." Jack said as he relaxed his tight grip on Ianto a little. "So how are we gonna do this?"

"Back of the SVU. We'll have to move some of the stuff into the back seat to make room, but he'll be more comfortable lying down that sitting, and I'll be able to keep a closer eye on him, and the syringe that way as well."

Jack nodded. "There's not much left in the back. Most of the stuff was a write off so I just left it there."

Owen looked at Jack a little sceptically, but didn't say a word. After all, they were all dealing with this any way they could, and if Jack didn't want the physical reminders of some of their equipment then who was he to call him on it.

"Ok you stay here with Ianto and I'll go and make sure there's room in the back for us both."

Owen moved quickly back to the vehicle and stopped breifly to check on Gwen. He wasn't happy about how pale she looked, but other than that she seemed ok for now.

"Want a hand?"

"Thanks Tosh."

They moved to the back and Owen was surprised by how little was now there. He knew that when they'd arrived at Breacon Beacons that back had been almost full with supplies and equipment. Now only the alien tech and their personal belongings remained.

"There's not much left, Jack didn't want it brought back, didn't want Ianto to have to worry about unpacking it, or any of." Tosh said quietly. "How are you holding up?"

Owen was surprised at the question and simply looked at her for a moment before shrugging. Truth be known, he wasn't sure what he was feeling at the moment, he still had to much to do and worry about. He crawled into the back of the SVU and rearranged some things to make a little more room, and grabbed some stuff to make the floor a little more comfortable for Ianto.

"Owen?"

He took another moment to make a pillow before he answered.

"I'll be fine." He said simply, and he knew he would be once he was sure that the rest of the were safe.

With the back of the SUV arranged he went back to help Jack carry Ianto. It didn't take them long to get him settled and then they were back on the road again and headed back to the hub. Owen knew that he would be able to relax again before he had a chance to give them all a thorough exam with all of his equipment to make sure that they were all ok.