7
Jack and Owen work diligently to ensure Ianto is comfortable and he is soon sleeping with obvious pain in his face, Jack rising to take some air and clear his head. The red haze of rage lifting as Ianto breathes a little easier.
He knows Owen will not leave their friend alone.
Jack then finds a huddle, several men arguing about something and he approaches, hoping it is not an argument about whether to leave Ianto or not. It is too late and he is too tired to kill them all.
Plus Ianto will hate the paperwork, ya know?
He stands and listens, his heart growing heavy as he realises they are arguing about the pup, still hiding in the bushes.
"It is still there, it won't leave without the mama. She's dead, it will die!" Wally points out and Stubbs disagrees.
"Papa must be out there, think he is gonna be pleased to find her gone? Think taking the pup will help that?" Sully asks, his hands wringing together as Stubbs fingers the Pulse Rifle's trigger nervously, "I say we bug out and leave them to it, the longer we are here, the more likely we get the next mauling when the rest of them find this."
"Is that right?" Jack speaks loudly, making them jump and swing to face him, Stubbs cries out with fear... starts to pull the trigger, when Jack's hand flashes out, grabbing the barrel, and shoving the butt back into Stubbs's face... THWACK.
The force of the blow knocks Stubbs back to the ground, but Jack holds his grip on the rifle barrel... flips it around to aim it at the boy. Blood drips down Stubbs's head as he stares up at his own rifle pointed down towards him.
Jack's finger tightens on the trigger. "So that there is the answer to your question."
And Jack pills the trigger ... Stubbs squeezes his eyes shut as he cries out... then CLICK. Stubbs opens his eyes... sees Jack sneering down at him.
"And the next time you aim to kill somebody, best remember your gun won't fire without a prime." Jack tosses the rifle back at Stubbs, and turns away. Stubbs's face flushes with rage and humiliation... he charges Jack from behind... tackles him to the ground... starts pounding him with punches.
A few of them land, but it's only a moment before Jack is back in control... head butting Stubbs off of him... tossing him away, then kicking him in the gut...
AGAIN.
He grabs his knife from his boot... is ready to finish Stubbs off...
"Jack"
Jack spins and heads for the shelter as Ianto calls weakly, struggling against Owen as he tries to see what the hell is going in.
"Hey, hey" Jack soothes, helping Ianto lay back on his side as Owen goes back to healing his back, "It's OK. Just an argument about the pup. They want to kill it."
"She's dead. We both know the males will not take a pup to raise, they don't like offspring." Ianto moans softly and Owen apologises, "It will die."
"Nobody is dying on my watch, ok?" Owen said softly, "If we have some sort of intergalactic problem best we sort it now. Killing the baby will only make it worse. We need to make contact and sort this shit out."
"Later" Jack says with a solemn stare, "Ianto comes first."
"I killed her" Ianto croaked, "She was protecting her pup, saw me as a threat. Right or wrong it is not that little one's fault."
"No" Owen sits back in his heels and looks at Jack, "We can't leave it. You know we can't. We need to leave a message about what happened so we don't start a fucking war. Then we need to get out of Dodge."
"Yee-haw motherfucker" Ianto giggles as the painkillers finally kick in and Owen grins as he remembers how funny the Welshman is when uninhibited.
Jack pats his shoulder as he looks at Owen again, "Catch?"
"Yeah. Catch, unharmed" Owen nods back, then resumes his work, Ianto's eyelids growing heavy.
"fugger drugged me"
"Yep. That's me. A real Fugger" Owen croons as his friend drifted off.
Jack rises to tell the others.
Whether they like it or not.
He had just promised Ianto.