Chapter 14

"John – I could do with some help up here, now!"

"Now you want my help? You wait until the place becomes a bloodbath and then you ask for my help!" John called up from the autopsy bay where he'd helped Owen carry Toshiko. He'd wanted to give Jack a few moments to pull himself together, although he wasn't sure why he'd become so understanding all of a sudden.

"Shut up – because at the end of the day somebody is going to pay for all this and right now it's a toss up as to who gets the bill." Despite self recriminations, Jack was still angry with John for bringing this crashing down upon them, literally.

Jack had gently let go of Gray, who now lay flat on the ground, his face no longer distorted by hatred, he almost looked at peace with the world. After removing his wrist strap Jack had removed his scabbard and sword, and then started to search his pockets for weapons, placing them on the ground as he discovered them.

"What are you going to do with him?" John asked, standing above the two brothers, knowing that if it was him, he'd out a bullet in the poor sod's skull while he was still unconscious.

"We're going patch him up and lock him in a cell until I figure out a way to make this better." Jack stood up and wandered over towards the autopsy bay where Owen was frantically working on Tosh. "Owen – I need some-"

"Jack, personally I'd happily let that bastard suffer, even though he is your brother. But as a doctor I guess I'm obliged to at least give you what you need to fix him up, here take this - emergency suture kit."

Jack caught the sealed bag that Owen hurled in his direction and tossed it to John.

"With me – now."

Jack took Gray by the shoulders as John took his feet and they carefully manoeuvred him down the stairs towards the cells.

Ianto was roused from a semi conscious state when he was lifted from the back of the horse and carried over to be placed onto a pile of sheepskins and rugs. He was surprised to find that he was being handled carefully, almost gently. Vaguely aware of crackling sounds and the smell of burning wood, he realised that he was being held from behind, pressed back into the broad chest of one of the clan, a fierce grip holding his arms to his sides. Someone else took hold of his ankles, pulling his legs out straight before sitting on his legs to keep him in place. Confused and beginning to panic he struggled, anxious to get free, but the words he heard muttered into his ear were trying to reassure him, telling him all would be well. He wasn't convinced.

The torn, woollen tunic, stuck to his body with semi dried blood, was then ripped away from the wound in his side, causing him to scream out involuntarily. Gasping for breath, he could feel the renewed flow of warm blood trickling from just below the ribs on his left hand side and down across the cold skin of his stomach. He wanted nothing more than to curl up in agony, but he was being held in a vice like grip that made movement impossible.

A familiar bearded face appeared in front of him and grinned, told him he was lucky and then jammed a wad of worn leather into his mouth, between his teeth. Although his first reaction was to spit it out, the sight of the glowing iron rod that the man lifted from the fire persuaded him that it had been given to him for good reason. He sank his teeth into it and bit down hard.

As soon as the red hot metal touched his flesh, hissing as it entered and cauterised the wound, the pain was excruciating and Ianto didn't fight to remain conscious. His screams of agony died away as he collapsed, limp limbed, into the arms of his fellow warriors.

The laser scalpel hummed gently as Owen reversed the setting to heal the incisions he'd made to repair the damage to Tosh's abdomen wall. The bullet had fortunately missed any major organs and he'd been able to seal the ruptured blood vessels neatly and efficiently, before irradiating the entire area with a sterilising beam from the modified singularity scalpel. It had proved to have a number of surgical applications and Owen was grateful to be able to put them into good use. He hadn't wanted to waste time getting Tosh to St Helens, especially as they were still functioning with emergency power generators only.

He stroked her forehead gently, she'd been mostly conscious through the procedure as he'd relied on a local anaesthetic to numb the pain. She'd not wanted to be knocked out completely. He could understand that. The Hub no longer felt like a safe place to be, what with escaped weevils, psychotic time agents and murderous estranged family members on the loose.

Owen heard footsteps and sighed. He'd thrown the emergency suture kit at Jack and told him he could fix up his own brother. What had made him feel particularly bad about it had been the fact that Jack had just accepted it without passing any comment whatsoever. He'd looked beaten and down. It occurred to Owen that Jack's past, being as long as it apparently was, had a whole store of horrors and skeletons just waiting to leap out and try to kill them.

Jack appeared at the balcony of the autopsy bay first, adjusting the leather strap about his wrist. John Hart was following behind, looking sheepish and much smaller now he wasn't strutting about pumped up with arrogance and braggadocio.

"Owen? How's she doing?" Jack ran down the steps, pointing at Tosh and looking worried. She had two lines set up – one steadily dripping the contents of a suspended bag of fluid into her veins and another replacing the blood she'd lost.

"Not too bad considering your kid brother tried to murder her-"

"Shh… Owen, it's not Jack's fault-" Tosh murmured, squeezing Owen's hand.

"But it is my fault, Tosh. He could have killed you-"

"I know, but he didn't – if Owen hadn't been with me it would have been a different story, but luckily for me he was and I'm going to be alright. Aren't I, Owen?"

"Yeah – once that IV antibiotic as done its job and you've finished the blood transfusion -"

"Owen, there's too much to do – I need to -" Tosh began to protest.

Jack had moved to Tosh's side and taking hold of her free hand in one of his he held a finger to her lips, stopping her mid speech.

"Tosh – I am ordering you to follow doctor's orders. Owen, your priority as of now is taking care of Tosh. I've locked up Gray in one of the maximum security cells. He's got water and food in there for when he wakes up and we've removed every single weapon and gadget he had on him. They're secured – don't worry about them."

"Are you OK, Jack?" It hadn't evaded Tosh's attention that his eyes were red rimmed as if from recent tears.

"Not really. I'm just glad that the situation was contained – thanks to you two. We could be dealing with city wide disasters by now." Jack swallowed hard as it dawned on him just how devastating Gray's actions could have been. "God knows what could have happened."

"But it didn't, Jack, we're still here and apart from a controlled shut down at the power station and the weevil attack on the police station, Cardiff is still standing."

"I know – but I also know that I am to blame, for all of this. In the meantime, I don't want anyone to go anywhere near Gray. He's mine to deal with when we get Ianto and Gwen back. Is that clear? Both of you?"

"Crystal – trust me, Jack, if I never saw your bloody brother ever again it would be too fucking soon." Owen shrugged apologetically as he saw the way in which Jack winced at his words. "Sorry…"

"It's OK, Owen, I understand … it's just that I have to …" Jack ran a hand through his hair as he made the effort to focus on immediate concerns, "… that first aid kit bag, did you finish putting it together?"

"Hang on – I just need to put in some bottled water and inflatable splints, just in case and then it's ready to go. I see you've got his wrist strap thing." Owen pointed at Jack's wrist. "You going back on your own to find them?"

"Nope – I'm taking John with me. He knows where they were left… and if either or both of them are injured it'll take two of us to bring them back."

"Can you trust him?" Tosh asked.

"As much as he can trust me to make his life a living hell if we don't find them."

"He's even given me a pretty bracelet," John held up his arm to show a simple metal circlet. "Delivers several thousand volts if I stray too far from him."

Owen and Tosh nodded as one, glad that Jack had taken some precautions with his ex partner. Neither of them trusted John Hart not to double cross Jack again.

"Good – it suits you. I hope you've checked the bastard for concealed weapons, Jack. He'd better not be lying about knowing where Gwen and Ianto are, or I might forget my Hippocratic Oath."

"I've checked him, Owen – he's clean for now. He said he put a tracker on Ianto, which should help us find them. John - what frequency is it set to? How are we going to trace it?"

"We need to be able to detect an etheric particle signal, NME, transmitting at 200 betacycles." John explained, relieved that Jack had believed him and actually pleased that he might be able to do something to redeem himself in his eyes. "I could fix up a portable device if you point me in the direction of the right kit-"

"My work station – there are some scanners –"

"Those bleepy boxes with the blue lights, Tosh? Thanks, I'll see what I can do – if that's alright with you, Jack?"

"Get the scanner and you can work on it in my office. There's something I need to do before we leave."

"What's that?" John frowned, looking curious.

"I need to get changed," Jack gestured at his bloodstained, tattered shirt and allowed a half hearted smile to crease his lips. "I can't let Ianto see me like this."