Ianto sluggishly tried to open his eyes. For some reason he could only see out of one. His head pounded far worse than any hangover. In the background he could hear Owen talking but couldn't quite make out the words. He tried to sit up but sharp pains shot throughout his entire body. His breathing caused his chest to ache and he couldn't even wiggle his toes. He heard a heart monitor start to beep rapidly.
Owen heard the monitor change and turned around to see Ianto moving, "Shit, he's awake!" Owen rushed over to his side quickly joined by Jack. Jack delicately held Ianto's hand and gazed into his confused face.
"What's going on? What happened? Why am I here?" Ianto spilled his questions despite his throat aching.
Jack tried to rub his hand reassuringly, "Ianto, you're at the Hub. This is important: what is the last thing you remember?"
"I . . . I was going home . . . it was early morning. Jack, I'm in so much pain."
"Owen, can you give him something?" Owen turned around and prepared a syringe.
Jack pressed on, "Ianto, what had happened that day?"
Ianto, clearly starting to panic, concentrated on answering, "Suzy. Suzy had died . . . again. What's happened?"
"Ianto calm down. You're going to hurt yourself."
"Jack, what's happened?"
Jack nervously looked at Owen and then turned back to Ianto, "Suzy dying . . . that happened over six weeks ago."
Ianto's eye widened in shock as he stammered, "Six weeks . . . how . . . what happened to me?"
"You were kidnapped and held. We don't know by whom. You were just returned an hour ago. Someone left you on the plass."
Ianto went silent as he tried to process the information. The aching was starting to ease so he tried moving his legs. This caused extreme pain to shoot through his body. Combined with his confusion, Ianto started to panic and flail. Jack put his hands on Ianto's shoulders trying to hold him down.
Before Jack could say anything, Owen sprang into action and injected Ianto with a strong sedative. The thrashing slowed and then stopped as Ianto lost consciousness.
Jack brushed Ianto's hair back and gently caressed his face as Owen checked his vitals.
"Damn it, Owen. He doesn't remember anything."
Gwen, soaked through, entered through the cog door and approached Tosh. Gwen could see every muscle on Tosh's body was tense as she worked furiously at her computer.
Suddenly Tosh spoke, "Any luck Gwen?"
"Uh . . . no. No one saw anything. The police haven't heard of anything suspicious in the area. You find anything?"
"No. There's nothing. It's like he appeared out of thin air." Gwen could see Tosh was shaking in frustration, "They're just too good."
"How's Ianto?" Gwen asked as she entered the med bay.
"He has several broken bones in his legs, his feet are basically crushed, countless contusions and burns, head trauma, two broken ribs, all the finger nails are missing on his left hand, and he's severely malnourished. What's more is that his entire memory of the past six weeks has been wiped."
"Was it retcon?"
"Not that I can tell, but judging from the track marks they've been shooting him up for weeks."
"How's Jack?"
"Hasn't left his side."
"He's so protective of us." Gwen looks dreamily toward Jack watching Ianto, "I should go talk to him."
Owen stepped in front of her and held out his hands, "It's getting late, you should get home to Rhys." He knew the last thing Jack needed was Gwen fussing at him. Gwen took another look at Jack and headed to gather her things.
Owen checked over Ianto's vitals content that with the sedative and pain killers he should sleep for several more hours. Owen had stitched up the multiple cuts and gashes that littered his body. The deepest were on his back with what looked like whip marks. He bandaged his fingers, set the bones in his legs, and started him on antibiotics. He knew though that Ianto would need extensive surgery on his feet.
While tending to Ianto, Owen had forgotten all about the bizarre package with his name on it. He cautiously lifted and began to open it. As an afterthought, he supposed he should have had Tosh scan it for anything alien but he was too curious. To his surprise, all that was inside was a binder full of papers. As he began to read, Owen's jaw fell open in shock.
Jack lost track of time as he sat and watched Ianto sleep. He kept thinking that if he left his side, Ianto would vanish again. He finally summoned up his self control and stood looking around for the team. It appeared as if Gwen had left, but Tosh was still at her station working. Jack walked up behind her and put a gentle hand on her shoulder.
"Find anything?"
Tosh sighed resignedly, "No, there's nothing."
Jack could tell how devastated Tosh was at not being able to help her colleague and friend, "It's alright. I don't think we're going to find much. Go home for the night; we'll all have a meeting tomorrow to discuss things."
Tosh made no move to leave so Jack pressed on, "Really Tosh. There's nothing more to do tonight. I know you've done the best you can."
Tosh looked up at Jack and squeezed his hand. She then stood, grabbed her bag, and headed for the door. Jack went back down to the med bay to look for Owen. Sitting at his desk, Owen was engrossed reading through paperwork; however, his face had gone completely pale.
Jack pulled up a chair next to him and asked what was wrong. Owen hesitated for a moment and then answered, "This package was sitting next to Ianto and it was addressed to me. It is a detailed account of every single one of his injuries as he was tortured every day. It doesn't mention what he was being asked but it rates his level of cooperation. Jack, he didn't talk for seven days. Even when he did start cooperating, he was rated as being vague and untruthful."
Jack put his head in his hands trying to take in what he was hearing. Owen just continued, "Jack, it gets worse. After two weeks the sexual torture began. Soon after, they started in with the drugs. Even when he did start cooperating he was still raped and beaten every day. I don't know how he is still alive." Owen's hands were shaking as he continued to pour over the documents.
Jack stood and took the binder away from Owen, "We'll fix him. You're an incredible doctor and I promise you will be able to save him. I can't guarantee we'll find out who did this, but it will never happen again. I want you to go home, but I won't make you. At the very least get some sleep on the sofa. I'll watch over Ianto."
Jack went back to sit by Ianto's side. He leaned over and gently kissed his lips. Seven days, Jack thought, what have I done to deserve such loyalty?
The next morning, the team gathered in the conference room. Ianto was awake but pumped full of painkillers. Owen was able to pull Jack away by putting a video feed of Ianto up on the monitor. While Jack was used to going for days without sleep, Owen was looking visibly drained. Although desperately wanting Ianto's coffee, he made do with instant and the occasional energy drink. Tosh looked almost just as tired making Jack suspect she had continued working at home.
There was a nervous air hanging about with the knowledge that some secret enemy was running circles around them. Finally Jack cleared his throat and spoke, "I know we are all on edge and I wish I had something to reassure you with, but I need to be honest that we have no idea who took Ianto and who returned him."
After an uncomfortable silence Jack continued, "Owen has been working all night and eventually Ianto is going to be fine. He's obviously pretty shaken up but he doesn't remember anything. He's comfortable since Owen has him on some strong pain killers. In the next-"
An agitated Gwen cut Jack off, "What are we going to do with him?"
"Owen is going to do his best to treat him and he should recover although his legs will take some time to heal."
"No. I mean what are we going to do with him? Like you said, we don't know who took him or returned him, he could have been sent in as a mole."
Jack did not like where she was going with this and replied, "What exactly are you suggesting, Gwen?"
"We hand him over to UNIT."
"Jack, you can't!" Tosh shouted as she recalled her horrendous time held by them.
Before Jack could answer, Owen stood and glowered at Gwen, "Ianto is my patient. I'm not just handing him over to those bastards after what he's been through."
Jack inwardly smiled as he remembered why he had hired the doctor in the first place, "Owen's right. Ianto is one of us and we will protect him. That starts with you, Tosh. I want a complete security overhaul. This Hub needs to be impenetrable that includes finishing up with that alien life form detection device."
Tosh nodded and started making notes on what she wanted done. Gwen, not content with being brushed off, pressed on, "Him being here puts us all at risk not to mention our families. Unit has better facilities to guard him. We don't even know if it were humans doing this."
"Gwen, if we handed him over to UNIT they would just interrogate him and then throw him in a cell. He stays here. That is not up for discussion."
"Well can you do anything to restore his memories? What about a lie detector or that mind probe you mentioned?"
Jack briefly glanced at Owen and saw the doctor's eyes briefly panic at the idea. The last thing they wanted at this point was Ianto remembering his torture. Owen finally answered, "He suffered some bad head injuries so I don't want to risk anything for a while. What I'm most concerned about at the moment are his feet. I can heal his fractures with the bone knitter but first he's going to need surgery to set the bones in his feet. I could try doing the surgery myself, but I would rather a specialist do it. That means taking him out of the Hub. I'm going to schedule with the local hospital and I want you to arrange for a police escort and guards posted at his room."
Gwen frowned and turned to Jack but he interrupted before she could speak, "Good idea Owen. Are you going to be able to handle that Gwen?"
She thought about protesting further but finally sighed and replied, "Yes."
"Good. I also want to set up a bedroom for Ianto in that spare room near the med bay. I want you to arrange for picking out the furniture. The clothes and personal items from Ianto's flat are in storage. I'll get them out once the room is set up."
Gwen pouted even more at this menial task but she just nodded her head and stood, "I guess I should get started." She then marched out of the room.
