Doomsday
a Torchwood story
by RoadrunnerGER
Dislaimer: Oh, really! They're the BBC's.
Suspense/hurt/comfort – T – Ianto Jones & Jack Harkness
Chapter 38 – Reversals
Torchwood Tower
When Ianto woke up he felt rather groggy which was not surprising after the long hours he had spent trapped in the conversion unit. And his martyrdom was not over yet. His aching muscles only were part of it. Ianto's head also hurt. Together with fluids and nutrients the IV line supplied him with painkillers, but those did little to alleviate his pain.
Where's Owen?
Rolling his eyes Ianto tried to determine where the medic was but he could not see him in his immediate proximity. Unable to move the only way Ianto could find his doctor was by calling out.
"I'm here," Owen answered from somewhere near the entrance to the cubicle. "I thought you were still asleep."
"I was," Ianto replied. "Just woke up."
"You all right?"
Ianto snorted. "As all right as I can possibly be. Any progress in getting me out?"
At that Owen hesitated for a moment before he said, "I'm deliberating with a colleague on what we can do."
"I see. And which options do we have?" Renewed anxiety made Ianto's heart thump in his chest. For no particular reason his throat corded up. The tension in the room was palpable. Ianto just sensed that something was about to go wrong.
"Well, we have tried everything we could think of," Owen said. "But right now I see no other way than to…" he hesitated for a second, "amputate."
"Ampu…"
The word caught in his throat.
"Yes," Owen confirmed. "We already prepared the procedure. All we need now is your approval."
"My approval?" Ianto rasped. "You actually expect me to consent to amputating my hands and feet? What then? I'll be useless! I won't be able to do a thing!"
"It's the only option that's left," Owen calmly replied.
"What's life without hands and feet?!" Ianto all but shrieked, his voice threatening to break. "I could as well be dead!"
"Don't say that, Ianto," Owen said. "You won't be useless."
"What am I supposed to do?" Ianto spat.
"There'll be something. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. There'll be medical possibilities as well."
"Possibilities," Ianto huffed.
"Yeah. Artificial replacements. There are some really good ones lately. Researchers are making progress every day. And we're Torchwood, right? There'll be a way."
Ianto felt tears sting his eyes. He still could not wrap his head around the fact that this was his only way to get out of the ruddy conversion unit.
Losing my feet, that would work somehow, he thought. There was this boy at university who lost his lower leg to cancer and he could even jog again with his artificial limb. But my hands? What am I supposed to do without hands?
Finally tears rolled down his face.
If we don't do it I'll be stuck in here forever! Oh, God! What's worse? I don't want to slowly waste away in this thing! Trapped like I am now I can do even less than I could without hands. One way or the other I'll be dependent on others, but with artificial limbs I even have a chance to return to a more or less independent life.
Never would he have thought that he would have to make a decision like this. For a second he wished for his heart to just stop and relieve him of his suffering.
There's no other way. Accept it, Ianto. Your life won't ever be the same, but you'll at least be alive.
Gathering what little courage he had left he told Owen that he agreed. The medic nodded with grim understanding and reassured Ianto that everything would be all right in the end. Another man had arrived while Ianto had been thinking about his decision. Owen introduced the man as Dr. Fairstein, a surgeon who would support the Torchwood doctor. Both men prepared the surgery with silent efficiency.
At last they informed Ianto that they were ready, asking his permission.
Knowing that he had no choice left Ianto nodded.
With trepidation Ianto watched how Owen injected the anaesthetic in his IV line. Almost instantly he felt the effect. Panicked he wanted to call out and tell Owen that he had changed his mind, but the drug did what it was supposed to do and everything went black.
xXx
Cardiff
Toshiko could not stand idly sitting around. After a few hours rest she was up again, checking on Mainframe first and then turning to the more prominent problem of them being stuck inside their own Hub. The base had been forced into lockdown by the lightning's impact. Now she wanted to try and see if she could not find a way to reverse it.
Working on the problem kept her mind busy for a while, until she figured out that she could forget about overriding the lockdown without an autonomous source of energy. With a deep sigh she grabbed her laptop and sat down on the sofa.
Did I put the backup file of the translation program on it? I hope so. Then I could at least work on something useful.
A moment later she groaned with frustration. Yes, she did have the backup file, but not with the latest updates.
"Bugger! Stupid me. What now?"
For another ten minutes she occupied herself with playing Solitaire, then the game could not capture her interest any longer. Being unable to get on the internet she could not check on any news either, see what the media said about the Cybermen and the strange occurrences in Cardiff. She still could not contact her team mates in London which made her rather anxious as she knew that they could still get in dangerous situations.
Nobody knows what's inside the tower, she thought. I hope Suzie and Owen are all right and are making progress.
Have they even noticed that we've gone silent? If they did they must be worried about us. Well, Owen probably isn't. Guess he'll be too busy examining what they find at Torchwood One.
On second thought, Suzie might be as well. Once she's focused on a task she's impossible to divert. Usually a good thing. I know, though, that Jack wasn't happy when they didn't call earlier.
Well, now they can't call. Lucky them. At least they have something to do while I'm stuck here being useless.
I can't even monitor the Rift. Now of all times! I hope it finally calms down again and that the crack over the Plass was a last flare-up.
Being unable to find something productive to do she put her laptop on the coffee table and sat back on the couch. She could not find rest either, though. Obviously she was too wound up by the latest events.
I'm surprised that the constables can sleep. She chuckled lowly to herself. Maybe they're simply too exhausted. They've worked hard and they really did good work. Don't know what we'd have done without them. Especially with the octopus. Jack probably would be dead now and Ydris as well. He was lucky to survive the dive in the bay. Thank Got for Andy doing CPR. I need to thank Gwen for helping Jack, even though she won't remember anything of their mission once Jack cuts them loose.
She scowled at her next thought.
Jack won't be happy about having to retcon Ydris. He didn't even pretend he wasn't interested, not that Jack would. And Ydris sure seemed curious about Torchwood. He was pretty insistent about applying for a job. He might even fit in, but we'll never know.
I wonder what they're doing down there right now. She mulled that over for a moment. On second thought I probably don't want to know.
She was startled by the awakening Hub, realizing that she must have fallen asleep in the end. Eagerly she hurried over to her workstation to supervise the reboot of the system. First thing she did then was to check on the rift activity.
Thank God. Everything seems to be quiet now.
Her fingers flew over the keyboard, navigating through the monitoring program. It seemed to be running smoothly and did not show any Rift spike. For all Toshiko could tell there was no fluctuation in time or space at all.
Do us the favour and stay that calm.
Once she made sure that the city was safe for now Toshiko put on her ear comm. and called for Suzie.
"Tosh! You're back! What happened?" her co-worker's excited voice echoed in her ear.
"The Hub went into lockdown," Toshiko explained.
"And you were completely cut off communication," Suzie reasoned. "Wow. Why did it lockdown?"
"We had an intruder and were struck by lightning simultaneously. I need to run a diagnosis to be sure, but I think it was the massive discharge."
"I see."
"What's up in London? Are you making progress?"
"Yes and no," Suzie said. "We're finished going through the tower in search of possible threats. We had a short look at the top storey and we found a huge sphere. I collected a few files Jack asked me to get. I'm about to go and have a second look at Hartman's computer. Unless you want to do it yourself."
"I can hack into it," Toshiko told her. "Where's Owen?"
"Conversion chambers. He's not to be moved from there."
"Why?"
"He found a survivor."
"Jack didn't send him to London to play doctor."
Suzie chuckled at her way of phrasing. "Owen won't abandon his patient, Tosh. He's in full-blown doctor-mode. He won't go anywhere."
"Jack won't be happy," Toshiko mused aloud. "What about the paramedics? Can't they take care of the victim?"
"They probably could," Suzie replied. "Are you going to tell Owen?"
xXx
London
conversion chamber
Waking with a start all Owen knew was that a horrible scream echoed in his ears. For just a second he did not even know where he was before memory set in and he recognized the conversion chamber.
With the recollection came the realization of who was screaming.
Ianto!
Frantically Owen scrambled to his feet. What he found made his insides constrict. It looked like the young man in the conversion unit tried to thrash about in sheer panic, screaming at the top of his lungs, his features contorted in utter agony. Any movement was prevented by the restraints on the metal frame, though. Owen just knew that Ianto had to be in agony, bruising himself wherever his body was pushing against the frame and his muscles cramping painfully as they pushed and pulled against immobile limbs.
"Ianto?" Owen queried with urgent concern. "Ianto, what's wrong?"
His patient did not react to him, though. His eyes pressed firmly shut he just kept screaming.
"Ianto!"
Even when Owen called out more insistently he triggered no reaction in the panicked man.
"Damn, Ianto! Answer me. C'mon. Look at me."
Still Ianto did not respond.
For lack of other options Owen took hold of Ianto's shoulders, shaking him as much as the unit allowed. When that did not work he patted his cheek.
"Ianto! C'mon! Focus. Look at me. Ianto! Look at me!" Gradually he raised his voice with frustration. How should he get through to him? "Ianto! Hey! Open your ruddy eyes! C'mon!"
Finally Ianto stopped in need for air. He took a shuddering breath.
"Ianto? Do you hear me? Look at me, mate. C'mon."
Ianto's eyelids fluttered open. His blue eyes were bright with impending panic. Then renewed cramps hit his limbs and Owen knew that he had to do something. Reaching for his bag he went through his supplies until he found a muscle relaxant. As quickly as he could with the necessary care he filled a syringe to inject Ianto's IV with it.
Carefully Owen took hold on the young man's left leg to massage the hurting limb. Feeling how hard the muscles were he cursed himself for not thinking of it earlier. Immobilized as Ianto was it was only a matter of time until his muscles cramped. While he worked Owen murmured reassurances.
"That's it," Owen said, forcing himself to speak low and calm again. "Listen to me. Everything's all right. You're safe. Nothing bad has happened. Okay?"
"Y-y-yeah," the reply shuddered over Ianto's lips.
"Do you hurt?"
It took Ianto a moment to process the question and answer adequately. "Not worse than before." Tears rolled down his cheeks and his features crumbled. "Did you really have to do that?"
"Do what?" Owen queried, puzzled.
"A-amputate…"
His answer came so choked that Owen had trouble understanding him. A moment of shock passed before he realized what Ianto meant.
"You think I amputated your appendages in order to get you out?" he asked with clear disbelief. His heart ached with sympathy when he saw Ianto's features contort with confusion and hurt. "Ianto! I didn't do anything! It was a dream, Ianto. A nightmare. You had a bad dream. That's it. Only a nightmare."
"A-a n-nightmare?" Ianto stuttered.
"Yes."
"You d-didn't…?"
"I wouldn't even think of it," Owen affirmed. "Well, maybe I would. But I'd have to be really desperate by then and I can assure you that I'm far from desperate now."
"But you…"
Ianto fell silent when he reflexively tensed his muscles to gesture and felt the resistance of the metal restraints. It was painfully obvious that he was unable to move at all and realization dawned on him.
"It's as real as if it really happened," he sobbed. "We were talking about it. You stood right there and injected the anaesthetic to knock me out for the surgery. I remember it."
Owen did not know what to say. His insides were knotted up hard with compassion. Carefully he placed his hand on Ianto's dark curls and ruffled his hair affectionately. He saw tears roll down the young man's pale face.
"God, I still think it happened," Ianto whined. "How can it feel that real? It's so weird."
"How would amputation get you out anyway?" Owen asked in a teasing tone. "Should I amputate your head as well?"
"Um…" For a second Ianto was at a loss for words. "No, not really. I still need it."
Owen chuckled. "That's what I thought."
The medic checked on the IV and palpated Ianto's limbs.
"Okay, Ianto. Don't play the hero; tell me honestly how much you hurt."
"I'm not playing the hero," Ianto grumbled. "And I don't hurt."
Owen scowled. "Your muscles are hard. You're about to cramp again. So don't waste my time and tell me the truth."
Rolling his eyes Ianto groaned. "All right! I hurt. But it's bearable."
"Define bearable."
"Am I the doctor or are you?" Ianto huffed.
A sigh escaped Owen. "On a scale of one to ten with ten being the worst, what is it?"
"Hm… maybe a four," Ianto suggested. "But you don't want to give me more painkillers, do you? Don't kill me with them."
"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing," Owen grumbled. "There's no need for you to suffer when you don't have to, though."
"As long as it hurts I'm still alive."
"Oh, Ianto!" Owen growled. "Stop being so cynical."
"Cynical? What's cynical about the truth?" Ianto sounded choked and it was obvious that he was fighting with his tears. "I'd be dead by now if it wasn't for you."
Partially Owen was touched by this admission, the part in him that was proud of his medical proficiency and yearned for appreciation. At the same time, though, Owen felt anger. It was a strange mix of irritation caused by Ianto's admission and annoyance at his obvious inability to make his patient feel safe and cared for, to reassure him and to alleviate his fears.
"What's wrong with what I said?" Ianto asked meekly.
If possible that irritated Owen even more.
"Nothing," he snapped, mentally slapping himself when he heard how the single word came over his lips. What the hell did I do to make him ask that? Can't I even control my expression? What kind of a doctor am I? Consciously softening his tone he said, "There was nothing wrong with what you said, Ianto. I guess I'm mad at myself."
"Why?"
"Hm, I think because I feel like I have ballsed up."
Now Ianto was genuinely confused.
"Why would you feel as if you have messed up?"
"Because it's my job to help you."
"I don't get it," Ianto said. "You helped me the whole time since you found me. Why do you feel like you failed?"
"You were in pain," Owen argued. "I should've realized that your muscles threatened to cramp. In your position it's too obvious not to be noticed. I should've acted earlier."
"Bollocks," Ianto firmly replied.
"Excuse me! I am the doctor!"
"Great," Ianto huffed. "Because I wasn't sure for a moment."
It was then that Ianto noticed that Owen appeared to be distracted. He seemed to be listening to something.
"Your partner?" Ianto asked lowly.
The medic nodded and mouthed and Cardiff.
Ianto smiled with relief and murmured, "That's good."
Owen scowled at what he heard next, the discussion about paramedics assuming the care of his patient triggering his professional territoriality as well as his protective instincts.
"You do realize that I can hear both of you, right, ladies?" Owen cut in sarcastically. "Nice to hear your voice again, Tosh. Jack? Are you there, too?"
"Not yet," Toshiko said.
"Now where is ruddy Captain Jack?" Owen grumbled. "Gotta talk to him."
xXx
Jack did not need long to figure out that Ydris was indeed a quick learner. In addition he was adventurous and flexible. Two qualities that Jack appreciated.
Right now the young Welshman was sprawled prone on the covers, his hands clawing at the pillow. He was breathing hard and groaning with pleasure.
A smirk cracked Jack's features as he heard Ydris gasp. It filled him with pride that he was the reason for the young man's delight. He felt the passion build up inside him and pushed the sense of urgency aside.
His impeccable sense of time had told Jack that the six hours were over and the lockdown about to be reversed.
Jack was not interested in returning to work, though.
At the moment he was more interested in making his newfound partner scream with blissful agony. So he allowed himself the luxury of ignoring his internal clock, knowing that Toshiko would call him in case the Rift monitor issued another alarm.
A shudder rippled through Ydris and subsequently through Jack, pushing his pleasure up a notch. He was about to reach the crest of his joy and judging by the sounds coming from Ydris he was close to it as well.
Jack wanted it to be perfect for both of them and held back in order to control the right moment…
…only to feel his passion evaporate with the hard knock on the door.
A Welsh curse was muffled by the pillow when Ydris buried his head in it. Jack's cursing would have been easier to understand if it had not been in a language Earth did not yet know.
"Jack, I'm sorry to interrupt…"
You have no idea, the captain thought bitterly.
"…but I got in touch with Suzie and Owen, and Owen asked for you, saying, quote Now where's ruddy Captain Jack? Gotta talk to him. We have a situation here and he has to move his sorry arse to London as soon as Cardiff's safe end of quote."
Jack tensed at that.
Last time I checked I was giving the orders, he thought and leaned down to kiss Ydris's cheek before he climbed off the bed and picked up his ear comm.
tbc…