Jack tapped his Bluetooth off disconnecting himself from the hub.
He had spent the last moments with one eye on Ianto, and one on the road, while on the phone with Gwen and Tosh. He hated being leader sometimes, when it meant he had to deal with annoying details. No matter what else happened there was still a dead weevil laying out in the open, and equipment scattered about the countryside, some if it branded with Torchwood's logo. Ianto usually took care of those details, cleaning up and erasing evidence. And he was damn good at it. There had been times when Jack had come back from a field mission to find that, for all intents and purposes, it had never happened. Tosh was nearly as good though and had some good ideas, already putting out an alert about highly toxic fumes at the site, with Torchwood, of course, responding. No one would go within miles.
He heard Owen shift in the back, stretching as much as he could in the cramped space, and sigh tiredly. Owen had been cleaning the blood off Ianto's face as the younger man slept, using the tail of his shirt and some water from a bottle that had been rolling around the back.
"How's he doing?"
"Still breathing." Owen didn't elaborate.
"I should have known. I should have seen this coming somehow." Jack muttered.
"Well yeah, you are sleeping with him." Owen shot back.
Jack scowled, but Owen did have a point. He didn't answer, letting the other man continue
"How the fuck could this happen? I thought we all agreed to keep a closer eye on him after that whole apocalypse-in-the-basement thing! How could we all miss this? How could I miss this? How could not one of us notice that he was this fucked up?" Jack watched in the rear view mirror as Owen pressed his head against his knees. He sounded like he was in physical pain.
"At least," Jack began, trying to find some sort of positive side to the whole mess. "At least he was trying to get help, even if he did it badly. That's something right?"
"Shut up Jack. He didn't even know what the fuck he was taking!"
"Well I did say he was doing it badly..."
Owen sighed and continued to watch Ianto, and Jack didn't miss the small touches he continued to leave on the younger man.
"I fucked him once you know. Over your desk. While you were pissing about with your Doctor. ...And my desk. And Tosh's. And Gwen's. I tried for the autopsy table but he wasn't having it."
Jack blinked and stared at the road for a minute. That was… surprising.
"How long have you two been-"
"It was just that one night. We never mentioned it again. Pretended it didn't happen. For all I know he washed it down with retcon."
"So you really..."
"Yeah."
"And you're telling me that why...?"
"To annoy you. But more importantly, so that you don't start beating yourself up over the fact that you didn't know about this."
Jack tried to protest, but Owen silenced him with a knowing look.
"Casual sex doesn't automatically mean you know everything about a person."
"It's not casual."
Owen looked skeptical. "Well the theory still holds. It's not your fault Jack."
"I should have known." Jack persisted.
"Can you think of anything? Any hint or signs that there was something wrong?"
Jack made a frustrated noise. "I don't know. I- maybe he's been a little...colder. More distant?"
"You mean that failed attempt at a snog earlier? You're lucky he didn't go for the balls, you insensitive bastard." Owen's tone was more amused than angry.
"Yeah I know. It was a stupid thing to say, but he used to call me on stuff like that. And give me instant coffee as punishment."
Owen winced in sympathy. "Right before that he zoned out. We were bickering and he just...disappeared into his head for a few minutes, then put down my coffee cup and walked away. I should have checked him out then. Maybe I would have noticed the pupils, or his pulse, or something and this wouldn't have happened. He wasn't all there, and I just let him walk off. What the hell kind of doctor am I?"
"I'm the one who should have noticed." The captain countered. "Like you said, I'm sleeping with him, I knew something wasn't right but I just let it go. I didn't want to bring it up, so I decided he could handle it himself" Jack gripped the steering wheel, and rephrased Owen's own question "What the hell kind of lover am I?"
Owen shook his head sharply and glared at the sleeping Welshman. "We shouldn't be blaming ourselves. We should be blaming this idiot, who wouldn't talk to anyone, went to some quack who would fling pills at him, and didn't even Google the goddamn things!"
"Owen he's dy- He's sick. We shouldn't be blaming him."
"Oh yes we bloody well should be! He wouldn't be dying, if he had come to me, so I could give him something that would've actually helped. He didn't talk to his lover, or his doctor, or his friends or his co-workers! He didn't. He didn't come to any of us, and we weren't there for him. " Owen slammed a free hand on his medical kit and heard the rattle of pills. As if remind of their presence, he pulled the bottle from his bag and checked the refill date before spilling them in his hand, counting them quickly. "He had it filled two days ago and six fucking pills are gone! Idiot!" Owen let out a harsh laugh. "Better an overdose than dealing with an addict later though, yeah? No one gets shot trying to save an OD." The pills were scooped back into the bottle, and thrown to one corner. "He could've fucking told us."
"We know now." Jack tried to keep his voice as calm as possible, beating back the panic that the sight of Ianto's still body created. "We know, and we're helping. It's all we can do."
He turned back to the road as Owen began checking Ianto's vitals, becoming focused solely on the younger man once more. Jack kept his eyes ahead, and tried not to think about anything other than getting them home.
