How in the hell have I reached chapter 50? *is baffled*
I really wanted to do something special for this chapter, but I couldn't quite manage it, so it's really more like just a normal chapter. But I've been so stressed and busy that I didn't want to put this off any longer. Apologies for the delay.
Enjoy!
Chapter 50
(17th November 2008)
Owen could not believe his ears when Ianto came running to him and started tugging him by the arm, babbling anxiously. A gun? Organ theft? What the fuck had been going on inside that woman's head?
Upon entering the room Owen was a little tempted to raise his eyes to the heavens and demand of a god he didn't believe in if he had anymore crap-soap drama to throw at them. Jack was calling for Michaela to wake up while Dubhtach stood in his way of reaching her. Archie was standing next to Jack, looking more composed but no less worried.
"What happened?" asked Owen patiently.
"She just… she just stopped moving." said Archie quietly. Owen nodded and strode forward. He shoved Jack aside and glared at the dog. But Dubhtach moved at once out of the way and allowed him to crouch down and check Michaela's pulse. It was there, weak but there. Owen rolled his eyes.
"She's just gone unconscious again, she wasn't recovered enough to be getting up, and all the adrenaline she experienced would have drained her. Ianto, lift her to the bed and I'll put a sedative into her drip to allow her body to get all of the bag into her system."
Ianto did as Owen bid and gently lifted Michaela back onto the bed. Owen quickly dug into his bag and replaced the IV needle in her other arm, glad that she hadn't done much damage to the vein when she'd ripped it out. He then found a mild sedative and injected that into her system to keep her under for the 24-hour drip to get into her body.
"We need to get that marker off her." said Ianto out of nowhere.
"Figured out what it means then?" asked Owen turning to his brother. Ianto shivered.
"Blaine was going to sell her organs when he got tired of her."
Owen blinked hard at his brother, then turned back to the unconscious woman. "You are far more together than you ought to be." he said to her, shaking his head in utter disgust.
"She never told me." said Ianto quietly. "If I'd known… maybe I'd have tried harder to get her help."
"Yeah well this pity fest isn't for you Ianto. So don't try to make it." said Owen shortly. He winced at how angry he sounded. "Sorry."
"It's ok. You're right. I should be focused on her… except I don't know what to do." said Ianto, "I mean, being there for her… doesn't sound like enough, doesn't seem like it'll be any help."
"It will be." said Jack. "Much of this happened because we weren't there and she was alone. Just being there, it will help. But we all have to remember that she can't force us away. It doesn't matter what she says, what she does, we can't abandon her. It'll prove to her that she was right not to trust us."
Ianto clenched and unclenched his hands uselessly at his sides. "Is there nothing else we can do?"
"We need to get her real help, maybe we should consider putting her in a place like Providence Park." said Owen reluctantly.
"She'll hate it." said Ianto.
"Doesn't matter if it's in her best interest. What she thinks she wants is probably something not good for her."
"Owen, look, I'm starting to see I don't know her as well as I thought, but I do know she'll get nowhere if you lock her up. Blaine locked her up, she'll just think we're as bad."
"She'll definitely need a shrink." said Owen, deciding not to argue at the moment. "Might be worth looking at the one UNIT suggested for you. If they know about aliens and shit, it'll be easier for Michaela to open up."
"And I suppose if the doctor knows us both… they'll at least know the whole story."
"I assume this shrink is coming to Cardiff, to be easy access, right?" said Jack quickly.
"I'll sort it." said Ianto, "Set them up with a place."
"Good."
Archie, meanwhile, picked up the gun and checked the cartridge.
"Fully loaded. She really did expect to use this." he said quietly. "And she's never shot a thing in her life. Hates guns."
"She hates guns and works for Torchwood?"
"She joined as an archivist. I had her trained, but she's never like them."
"Lets be glad she's not trigger happy." said Jack firmly, "Anyway, we can't stay here much longer, the Rift is completely unguarded. We need to bring her up to Cardiff. But should we wait until the 24 hours are up, or do it today?"
"If we move her we could disturb her. I didn't give her a very strong sedative. Just enough to make her sleepy." said Owen, shaking his head.
"I can stay, bring her up with me tomorrow." said Archie.
"Much as I'd like to Archie, I think we'd better have someone like Owen around just in case."
"Well… I can stay too. I can drive us back up in Gwen's car, if you guys wanna take the SUV's." said Ianto hesitantly.
"Nah, take Two's car, it's a better one than Cooper's."
"Is it a good idea to leave you with her though Ianto?" Jack asked bluntly. He'd no desire to see either of the youths hurt the other by carelessness.
"I can sedate her again for the car ride and we can drive up to Cardiff." said Owen.
"And then what? Where will you bring her? The hospital? The Hub?"
"My house. At least until she's woken up and we can see what state she's in after some sleep and the nutrients." said Ianto.
"It is better than a hotel room or the Hub." conceded Owen.
"I don't want her anywhere near Torchwood until she's better." said Jack. "She needs a break from it."
"Ha! Good luck getting her to see that." said Archie with a snort. "She'll scratch your eyes out if you take away the one thing she's worked so hard to prove herself at."
"Yeah, well, I'll just grow them back." said Jack shortly.
"So it's settled, you lot get back up to Cardiff today, Ianto and I will bring her up tomorrow." said Owen decidedly.
Jack nodded, "Good, I will get in touch with this shrink, see about getting them to take Michaela on as well as Ianto. So, aside from packing there's only one thing I need to do."
"What's that?" asked Ianto, noting Jack's narrowing eyes.
"I'm gonna have a private chat with Lieutenant Connors."
No one said a thing.
~*~
Jack strode into the Foyer where he found Connors talking with General Oduya again. He squared his shoulders and made straight for the soldier.
"Excuse me, may I speak with you Lieutenant?" he asked in a silky voice.
"Of course." said Connors, nodding his head. The General excused himself, leaving Jack alone with Connors. Connors smiled at Jack. "Listen Captain, no hard feelings, right, about the trial? Just doin' my job, you know." He gave a fake chuckle and Jack smiled and nodded,
"Oh yeah, of course, I totally understand." They both chuckled quietly and then Jack said, "Y'know, speaking of jobs… I heard you, uh, got a bit of action off of Michaela."
Connors' smile faltered as he stared at Jack uncertainly, then he said, "Maybe I did. Not one for kissin' and tellin'."
"Oh really, damn. 'Cause, ah…" Jack glanced around, scratching behind his ear with a smirk on his lips, "You're not the only one."
Connors eyebrows rose, "Oh yeah?"
"Yup. This hotel too."
"No kidding." laughed Connors, his shoulders relaxing. Jack nodded, keeping a broad smile on his face.
"Oh yeah, a whole week with her in bed. Wasn't too shabby actually."
"Nice, a week long fuck fest."
"Something like that. And a week is a nice length of time, y'know what I mean?" Jack clapped Connors on the shoulder and Connors chuckled again, nodding.
"Oh yeah, I know."
"It's long enough for you to get to know how a girl likes to be touch isn't it?" laughed Jack, "Long enough for you to know completely that there's absolutely no fucking way a girl like Michaela would ever willing have anything to do with a bastard like you." The smile was gone and Jack's fingers were now digging into Connors' shoulder. Connors' smile fell. Jack stared at him with barely repressed fury. "What'd you do Connors? Drug her? Force her on her knees?"
"No! Nothing like that." said Connors, his smarmy confidence vanishing rapidly. "L-look, I admit I was a bit pushy, but it was her idea."
"I don't believe that for a second." snapped Jack.
"Honestly, it was. She, she said if I'd just leave her alone she'd give me the blowjob. I'm not dumb enough to say no to that, c'mon. Those pretty pink lips-"
Jack dragged him closer so he could spit, "You listen to me, if I so much as hear a peep of you ever again in any way, shape or form I swear on my life you will be beyond sorry. And if I ever catch you near Michaela again, I will make you disappear, and not even UNIT will question it, you hear me?"
Connors nodded, eyes huge in alarm. Jack released him and turned away, striding into the tea room to get Tosh. He didn't look back, he knew he'd made himself perfectly clear.
~*~
(18th November 2008)
Ianto yawned as he gathered the last of Michaela's things. Not that much was salvageable after her tearing through most of what she owned. He found a two books and glanced at the titles curiously.
"We good to go?"
Ianto stuffed the books into the suitcase as Owen came inside.
"Yeah. Just about."
"Ok, now here comes something a little awkward."
Ianto gave him a bland look, "Because so far everything's been peaches and cream."
"Har, har." drawled Owen before sighing, "The drip is done, she's had it in all night. That's a lot of fluid."
"So…"
"So, we should probably make sure she doesn't have an accident." said Owen raising his eyebrows. Ianto frowned, then blushed.
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"So… what do we do? Or what do you do?"
"Best thing is to wake her up and let her go herself."
"Do you really think that's a good idea?"
"Well… we'll wake her up but she'll still be out of it. But one of us will have to make sure she goes."
"… you mean me, don't you?"
"I do."
Ianto sighed.
Despite giving her a tiny amount of adrenaline to wake her, Michaela was very slow to revive and when she did open her eyes, she was alarmingly docile as Ianto half carried her into the bathroom. Ianto hoped and prayed to every God imaginable that she never ever remembered the experience.
She was still like this as Ianto tried to lift her off the loo, allowing him to steer her back to the bedroom.
"There's a back way out, so none of UNIT's lot see her like this." said Owen, gesturing to the phone he was hanging up as Ianto entered.
"Good thinking." he said. He took his hand experimentally off of Michaela's shoulder and she just stood there, staring into space, completely motionless. Ianto shared a frown with Owen and he gently pushed on her shoulder. At once her knees bent and he guided her to sit on the bed. "Erm… Owen?"
Owen took out his penlight and quickly checked her pupils. He was being overcautious, but without a proper blood test, he'd no idea if there was anything in her system that they'd missed. Her paranoia had been so strong it made him wonder if he'd been too quick to dismiss drugs of some sort. He wondered if he should have brought her to the hospital, but decided if there really was something seriously wrong with her physically, he'd have spotted it. He was a damn good doctor after all. He was good enough to recognise what he was seeing as Michaela tried to look away from his face but otherwise did not react to the light.
"Shit, she's gone into a stupor."
"A what?" asked Ianto in alarm.
"You'd probably call it catatonia. But this type, avoiding looking at people, but otherwise unresponsive-" Owen demonstrated by taking Michaela's chin and trying to turn her eyes to look at him. Every time she looked away, but her expression did not shift nor did she try to stop him. If it weren't for her moving eyes, it would have appeared that she was completely unaware of it. When Owen let go she continued to stare in the direction he'd tilted her head in. "See?"
"Jesus!" Ianto looked horrified.
"Well right now it's a good thing. As long as she stays like this she'll be easy to move."
"But… why is she like this?"
"Well… used to be it was thought only to be a symptom of schizophrenia. But now there's a new thought that it's actually a symptom of different things, including depression."
"But you don't know?"
"Well… I'd rather have her examined before I make a definitive diagnosis."
Ianto pinched his lips together and nodded. Owen gave a shrug, feeling helpless. "Let's wrap her up in a blanket and get her down to the SUV."
Most of the UNIT personnel were already gone as Ianto carried Michaela down to the car and gently lay her across the back seat, strapping her in carefully. Ianto then dug into his pocket and found Michaela's mp3 player. He was hoping hearing her own choice of music would help her. As he hooked it into the car, and selected a song, Owen came down with their stuff and put it in the boot. Just as Owen climbed into the passenger seat, Ianto pressed play and music began to play,
"You swear you recall nothing at all
That could make you come back down
You made up your mind to leave it all behind
Now you're forced to fight it out…"
Owen groaned, "The Fray? Really?"
"It's not too depressing, but it's not happy either… what else was I meant to pick? The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song?"
"Well –wait, she's really got that theme song?"
"Yup."
"… she's a nerd."
Ianto smiled affectionately. "Yup."
"You fall away from your past
But it's following you…"
Ianto squirmed in his seat and glanced over the back of the seat to check on Michaela. "She's not really blinking, Owen."
"She's ok. I'll keep an eye on her. It's why you're driving."
Ianto nodded, twisting back around and starting the engine. It took a while to get out of London, but after that it was a pretty smooth drive. The air was heavy in the car, because Ianto felt like there was a dead body behind him and it disturbed him. Owen kept glancing back to make sure she was ok, but he never looked anymore reassured when he looked back. After a while, it was Owen who broke the silence.
"Y'know… I was thinking maybe… maybe I could get someone to clean up mum's grave. And dad's. And maybe, we could go to see his together some time. I'd been thinking about suggesting it this weekend, barring sudden imprisonment-"
Ianto chuckled. Owen gave a wry smile, continuing,
"Obviously stuff came up… but what do you think?"
Ianto swallowed and his fingers dug into the steering wheel for a moment. Then he nodded, saying quietly,
"Yeah, sounds… right."
Owen nodded, smiling a little shyly. They were quiet for another while, listening to another song that came on,
"A fragile heart was broken before…"
"She's got nothing more cheerful?" asked Owen. Ianto rolled his eyes.
"It's on shuffle, I'm sure something will come up for you to hate even more. I'm pretty sure there's Labyrinth music on this thing."
"Christ, no thanks!"
Ianto grinned.
"Y'know I saw an offer in a shop for all the Thunderbirds episodes. I was thinking of buying it." said Ianto casually.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yup." Ianto shrugged. "Maybe… if you wanted you could come over and see if they're any good sometime. If you want."
Owen shrugged, "Have to talk to the boss about time off I think, if I was gonna give it my full attention."
"I can chat to him, he's got a soft spot for me." said Ianto, quirking an eyebrow.
"Oh, I always thought the soft spot was in your head."
"Then you're not a very good doctor."
"Oi!"
They stopped just long enough to get a drink and let Owen give Michaela a check over. As far as he could tell, she hadn't moved a muscle, literally, which confirmed a catatonic stupor. People often thoughtsuch things meant limp limbs, but in reality sufferers held themselves stiff and still, and the tension in Michaela's body confirmed this. Owen had no doubt whatsoever that she was listening to them, but had no real desire to have any interactions with them or anyone else. Not that Owen could blame her considering she thought they were out to get her.
Ianto gave him a coffee, and they climbed back into the car and continued on, just as the mp3 player switched to,
"You remind me of the baby
What baby? The baby with the power…"
Owen groaned and covered his ears, "Change it!"
Ianto laughed, and feigned deafness. Owen growled and grabbed the player, changing the song.
"Bet you fancied Bowie in that film." he mumbled.
"God no! He looks like a girl with a dildo stuck down her trousers." said Ianto in horror. Owen laughed. "Besides," added Ianto, quieter now, "I don't really… never mind."
Owen looked at him curiously, "What?"
Ianto heaved a sigh, "You wouldn't believe me."
"Try me." dared Owen. Ianto glanced at him, then said quietly,
"It's only ever been Jack. I never… I never fancied another guy before and not since. It's just Jack because he's… Jack."
Once upon a time, Owen would have tortured Ianto for saying that. Actually, once upon a time, Ianto would have died before confessing that to him. But things were different now, so all Owen said was,
"Huh." and left it at that.
Hope you enjoyed that, and I'll try to get more up soon. But if I can't update real soon, I may take a brief break to recharge my brain. We'll have to see, with my exams coming up, my plotbunnies tend to get really busy upon exam time.
Night's Darkness
