Okay, here's chapter 3. I wrote this in pain, as I fell over and hit my head on a fire extinguisher. It hurt. I'm a klutz.
Anyway, Please R&R, I love getting feedback.
Happy Reading!!!
Jack leapt from his desk, moving towards the noise as quickly as his legs would allow him.
The Autopsy room loomed closer.
Jack came to an abrupt halt when he reached the railings, looking down on to the scene in front of him.
Martha's face was crumpled in pain as she slumped against one of the tiled walls, holding her jaw, and blood trickling down her chin.
Ianto was thrashing on the table, covered in sweat, and in visible pain. He was going to hurt himself if he kept this up, thought Jack.
He hovered, not knowing which person to go to. A quick thudding told him that Gwen was rushing up behind him. On seeing the scene, she didn't stop, and ran straight for Martha.
Jack ran to Ianto and straddled his hips, pinning him down as he thrashed like a wild animal, imprisoned in a cage.
Suddenly, the movement stopped, and Ianto was still.
Jack was just about to get up when Ianto's back arched, and a blood-curdling scream erupted from his chest. Jack tightened his grip again, and tried to ignore the panic that was slowly spreading through his body.
Ianto collapsed again, his head lolling to one side, and a small river of blood ran from his mouth.
Once Jack was sure that Ianto was once again unconscious, he carefully picked himself of the body, and went to see to Martha.
She was gingerly picking herself up from the floor, still clutching her jaw.
"He punched me," Martha explained, though her voice was somewhat muffled by her hand. "He didn't mean to, he's in so much pain, it was just a reaction..."
Martha trailed off, wincing into her palm.
"Jack, I have something I need to show you, about Ianto. I'm going to get some ice. I'll meet you in the Boardroom in five, yeah?"
Jack just nodded, and looked over his shoulder at his near dead lover.
***
Martha entered the Boardroom with a bag of ice clutched to her jaw. However, she seemed more intent on flicking through her files.
Jack was growing impatient, and was drumming his fingers atop the desk.
"Okay, Martha, what have you got?"
Martha placed the bag of ice carefully on the table, and pressed a button on the screen, causing it to flare to life. On it was complicated diagrams and graphs that confused Jack sober, God knows what it would have been like if he was drunk.
"I took some blood samples to try and identify the poison Ianto's been infected by," Martha began. "But the results didn't match any poison I've come across ever before. And I have the Torchwood and Unit logs of all new alien poisons they've ever found."
Jack blanched. "So, what does that mean?"
"Well, I tried to bleed the body of the alien of its poison. But it had been dead for too long, I couldn't get anything. But then my scans came up with something... unexpected."
"What?" Jack prompted.
"The creature isn't poisonous."
Puzzlement crossed Jack's face. "What?" he repeated.
"It's not poisonous. Instead..."
There was a pause, and Martha cleared her throat.
"It's passed something on to Ianto. It passed a kind of virus."
Jack's confused face creased further. "Hold on. You're trying to tell me that whatever's wrong with Ianto is just ... some kind of virus? Bullshit."
"An alien virus, Jack. Nothing from Earth."
"Okay, say this is a virus. How's it causing him so much pain?"
Martha took a deep breath, and continued. "It's causing him pain because it's a flesh eating virus. It's eating him from the inside."
***
The little colour that Jack's face had in it left. "Oh, bloody hell, no... Ianto."
Martha gave him a small smile of reassurance, and continued. "Well, at the minute, the virus is just incubating, developing. The virus is making a home for itself, in Ianto's stomach, that is what's causing him pain. It's literally rooted itself to his stomach walls. It still hasn't come out properly, thank God."
Jack stood up quickly. "So how do we cure it?"
Martha winced; as if that was the question she was dreading the most. "... It can't be cured." Seeing Jacks look of horror, she went on. "I searched through medical files going through all of Torchwood history, and most of Units. Only one record of an attack like this appears. It was 46 years ago. And that person... died."
Gwen's voice came through the speakerphone that lay on the table. "Oh, my... But we can still cure him, right? I mean, you said it was still incubating. That gives us time, yeah... We can do something..."
By now, Gwen was becoming slightly hysterical. So Jack took action, and lent very calmly over the desk and snapped the speakerphone shut, cutting Gwen's ramblings off.
"What do we do, Martha?"
Martha looked at the table, as if it held all of the answers they were seeking. "I... I don't know, Jack. I'm so sorry."
Jack sighed, and the fiery determination that flared in his eyes not so long ago died. And that scared Martha the most.
***
Jack sat next to the Autopsy table in a chair. He held Ianto's hade, stroking the back of it softly, his mind unfocused, just staring at his lover on the table.
Ianto was more pare now that ever, his eyelids turning a soft violet, and his mouth was tinged blue. And yet he was still beautiful. In Jack's eyes anyway.
Martha was sitting at Gwen's desk, looking desperately through information that may help Ianto in any way. It was proving fruitless.
Gwen had appeared through the Cog door mere minutes ago, took one look at Ianto and burst into tears, leaving to sit on the beaten sofa.
An alarm sounded, making Jack jump, jerking Ianto's arm as he did so. Gwen jumped out of her seat, and ran towards what had been Tosh's desk and scanned the computer readings.
"Jack?!" Gwen called, her voice wavering uncertainly.
"What?" his voice called.
"... You need to see these readings."
Jack left his seat next to the young man and ran towards Gwen and the screens.
"What?" he repeated.
"These readings make no sense. It says..." her voice trailed off.
"What does it say?"
"... It says there's an energy spike developing... here. In the Hub."
Jack looked at her, confusion clear on his face.
"Is that even possible?" Gwen asked.
Jack considered it, and nodded slowly. "If you think about it, even underground, we still are directly on the Rift."
Gwen's eyes widened in fear and understanding.
A thundering crack rang through the air.
Jack, Gwen and Martha threw their hands over their ears in a pointless attempt to block the sound.
Jack opened his eyes. And they kept widening and widening until they were the size of dinner plates. On his left, Gwen's face bore a similar expression.
A cloud of orange light opened in the centre of the Hub, getting brighter and brighter until a dark shape stepped out of it.
"Well, well, well. You could have redecorated," said Captain John Hart as he swung his sword idly over his shoulder.
Three cheers, John lovers!!!!
Anyway, PLEASE R&R, its muchly appreciated. Thank you!!!