35

Ianto had an appointment in Cornwall that he could not escape. His specialist was meeting him at the Royal Cornwall Hospital. Flying in especially for it so he could not shake it off. After all … he had to maintain the impression that everything was fine and routine, right?

He swung the vehicle into the parking garage and waved to the attendants, chose a park and then into the hospital.

Ianto crossed the lobby, stepping into an elevator. Just as the doors were closing, a woman and two men duck in alongside him. Silence, the uncomfortableness of an elevator ride magnified tenfold. Ianto can feel the eyes of his fellow passengers upon him. Finally succumbing to paranoia, he hazards a glance - would he be able to tell if these people weren't safe? The woman turns to Ianto, smiles – Ianto smiles back as he fingers the blade in his pocket, a switch knife that was both illegal and familiar. In the other pocket is a little can of mace. Just in case.

The elevator doors open. Ianto hurries out, heads left, and finds himself in a deserted hallway. He looks back - then skips a heartbeat as the trio also step out! As Ianto pulls the blade out to hide at his side …. the trio turn and head down to the right. Ianto breathes a sigh of relief, shakes his head.

Ianto opens the door to the small private reception area. He steps in to a murder scene complete with dead doctor sprawled on the floor. The door swings behind him as he gapes.

"Hello there … I am Gideon. I will be your doctor today, I will cure all your ills" a man hisses as he comes at Ianto with a pistol in his hand.

Ianto GASPS. He has a half-second to act - in which he triggers the spray of mace into Gideon's face. Gideon stumbles back, blinded, cursing, rubbing the heel of his palm against his eyes – Ianto moves away to look down at his doctor.

Yep.

Pretty damned dead.

Gideon bursts out laughing. "Mace? What … think I'm a grizzly?"

Gideon shakes his head, still sniggering. He forces Ianto against the wall, "Thanks for the laugh. You can shut your eyes if you want to."

Gideon tries to bring his pistol up - but Ianto grips the man's hand and squeezes with that small twist he was taught. Gideon SCREAMS as his bones snap like kindling. The pistol falls from his grasp - Ianto fires his fist into Gideon's gut again and again, then flings the man across the room, sending him SMASHING into a glass-cased cabinet full of plastic body parts. Bleeding, battered, Gideon struggles to stand -Ianto is all over him, kicking the shit out of the arsehole until he sinks to the floor in a half-conscious haze.

Ianto stands over Gideon's limp form, fists clenched, breathing heavily, touching down after his adrenaline high. Finally, he looks at his hands and sees a slight tremor.

Ianto kneels next to Gideon. He turns the man's head, inspects the neck, the skin behind the ear - Ianto pushes aside Gideon's hair, revealing a tiny, cryptic symbol tattooed into the man's scalp. "What the fuck? Is that … what?"

Pentagrams, all forming a single letter.

Ianto suddenly finds himself wrestling with a feral-faced six-foot-something nightmare named Quinn. The man rears back his head, a grin stretching wide.

Ianto forces an elbow against Quinn's throat, trying to keep him at bay. With his other hand he reaches to his pocket, pulls out the knife - CRUNCH! Ianto shoves the knife through the man's larynx. Quinn gurgles, clutches at his throat.

Ianto rolls out from under, un-holsters the second blade secured to his leg. With a flick of a wrist the -SNAP!- - The knife hits Quinn in the shoulder, throwing him backwards and nailing him to the wall. As Quinn reaches over with his other hand to pull out the knife - Ianto strikes AGAIN. A second ankle means a second ankle holster….right?

The knife slams into Quinn's other arm, effectively pinning him like a butterfly to a board.

Ianto is torn between raising the alarm and getting answers so he quickly pats the dying man down and then his accomplice, removing their wallets before he opens the door to call for help.

Then after consideration, he removes the knife from the arsehole's neck and flicks it closed before sliding it into his pocket.

He is kinda attached to that one.

Felt good to be back at full capacity.

Hell of a trial by fire though.