Thank you for reviewing the story...Jann.

This is a short up date as the next one is quite long and very angsty.

"Winter trees and woe. For I live and yet am dead."

PARADOXOSIS PT 4

One soul, and the path no one should walk alone.

Owen wiped at his brow and sighed as he then proceeded to pull off the bloodied latex gloves. He dumped them on the tray of used dressings and bandages that were soaked with Ianto's blood. Tosh helped him clean up the mess as Gwen set up a chair next to the exam couch to sit on and watch over an anaethetised Ianto. His injuries though extensive were not life threatening, the scarring would not be too pretty though. Thankfully the boy's face was undamaged, small mercies really.

"Tosh would you mind doing us a coffee?"

Owen welcomed her faint smile as she the left the autopsy bay and he turned his attention back to his patient and double checked all the dressings. With Gwen's assistance they got Ianto settled onto his right side (The least damaged) and Owen did a final check on the IV and the oxygen. He yawned, the adrenalin in his system finally failing him. It had been a long night. Gwen was looking at him with big, kind eyes.

"Go and get some rest. I'll stay with him."

Owen hesitated.

"Go on. Don't worry. Go home and get Tosh to drive you. You look shattered."

"Shouldn't you be getting home to Rhys?"

"Yes, but he can wait. He hasn't just been mauled by the weevil from hell or spent the last two hours stitching up the damage. You need to rest Owen. I'll go home tonight and make it up to him."

Owen finally relaxed enough to smile.

"Thank you Miss Cooper you are a princess among men."

Her smile widened as she absently petted Ianto's hair. "Have a good sleep and tell Tosh to go home too."

Gwen thought it was strange the way the dynamic had changed within the group as a result of Jack's leaving them. Yes, he had left them, willingly and without even looking back, a broken heart and three lost souls in his wake. The extra work been hard, finding direction harder still and coping yet more so. Somehow they had risen above their anger, somehow they had buried their disappointment, well everyone except Ianto that is. It wasn't fair, they had all loved Jack in their own way, looked up to him like a father, brother or mentor. But Ianto had given the immortal man his mortal soul. Gwen loved the young Welshman so much. The younger brother she had yearned for in childhood, the one she could coddle and protect when things went wrong. Somewhere along the line she'd let him down. He'd vanished into his own little shell and hid what was left of his soul away for no one to ever see again and it was all because of Jack.

She had half hoped that when Ianto's headaches had mysteriously stopped that he would start to shine again. For a brief while he did, the stress of the pain having lifted from him. His eyes regained some of their light and he had even managed the faintest of smiles to grace his smooth pale face. Owen had declared him 'fit for purpose' so Gwen had got him out on field assignments, Ianto was more than capable after all. It worried her that the young man had become reckless, had taken risks with his own life. Gwen had asked him why and he had told her that he longer cared enough to consider the risks. It was then she realised that he had finally given up on ever seeing Jack again. It wasn't fair. Ianto was just a child with a world of too much experience and horror dumped into his short life. Gwen had seen enough of it herself, but she knew Ianto's past was far, far darker than her own.

Her father had once told her that some people attracted their own suffering, she had believed it too, for many years. Then she had met Jack, the man cursed with never being able to die and Ianto who had seen everything he had ever loved die, right in front of his own eyes. Death was so final for one and unattainable for the other. She finally understood why Ianto loved Jack so much. He was the young man's only universal constant, the only person that would never die, just run out him she thought bitterly. Thank God for Rhys. Gwen knew that he was her anchor and that she had treated him so badly. She looked at the ring on her finger. Yes, she should marry him no matter what, she loved him, needed him so much to keep her grounded in the real world which she so often lost sight of, especially when looking into Jack's eyes.

She looked down at Ianto, peaceful in sleep. All the worries of the world wiped away by slumber. It made her shudder to think how young he was, how young they all were. Gwen gently ran her fingers through his soft hair, feeling the need to mother him and keep the nightmares away.

Ianto was always yawning these days. His body was still sore with the weevil wounds that seemed to be taking forever to heal and well, he was just fed up with it really. Three weeks of having bandages wrapped securely round his torso every morning first thing and Owen bemoaning the fact that even with his super stitching the wounds were flatly refusing to knit together even though they were clean and no longer bleeding. The discomfort was annoying, but Ianto reflected it could be worse, he wasn't actually in pain, even though Owen was sure that he should be. Most puzzling was the lack of any infection, but Owen still insisted on giving him antibiotics anyway, 'just in case'. Owen had even started looking into the possibility of some kind of skin graft to repair the wounds. Ianto didn't much care, he was tired, irritable and yes fed up. He yawned again, not understanding the extreme tiredness. He'd recently been sleeping so deeply and so well that twice he'd slept through his alarm. Shit his mind was wandering again as he passed around the coffee for the gang. That was something else. Ianto couldn't stand to drink the stuff anymore, couldn't stand to eat and drink anything much.

The alarms went off. A blowfish in a sports car apparently. That should be fun.