Alright, sorry about this being slightly later than I wanted it to be, but my next update should be quicker.
Ianto groaned as he opened his eyes. He tried to pull himself up, but a dull aching pain in his ribs stopped him. The light of a torch shown across from where it lay on the ground, illuminating him and the leaves that had fallen on the ground.
Using the wall Ianto managed to pull himself up into a sitting position. Reaching across with his left hand he managed to grab the torch and turn it around, so that it was facing the other way, where he, Jack and Owen had previously been sat. The first aid kit still sat on the ground beside it was a giant collection of rocks that had fallen in on top of them.
He could hear Gwen and Tosh's voice shouting from above them. His slightly blurred vision began to clear and he could see everything a lot clearer.
"Jack? Owen?" Ianto questioned the air. He looked around the place and then up at the opening where more leaves and small rocks were falling down. For a moment Ianto thought that he was the only one awake until he saw something move out of the corner of his eye in the same direction that Owen and Jack were in.
"Ianto?" The voice was obviously Owen's and not Jack's, which saddened Ianto slightly, but still it was good to know that he wasn't the only one awake, "Are you alright?"
"Yeah I think so."
"Good." The Doctor managed to climb to his feet seeming to be relatively unscathed from the rock fall.
"You're alright?"
"Yeah I got lucky." Owen replied as he made his way to the first aid kit. It was only then that Ianto noticed that he was cradling his right arm. He too could hear Gwen and Tosh's voices, but he was choosing to ignore them for a moment, "Ianto can you try and shuffle over here, I'd like to have you in my line of sight."
The Welshman shuffled towards Owen as well as he could. Once he'd reached the Doctor Owen seemed a lot happier and turned around to face the direction that he had just come from.
"Jack? You alright mate?" Silence was the only thing that reached the pairs ears for a moment and Ianto felt worry winding up inside of him.
"Yeah, but I could be better." Ianto felt relieved to hear the Captain's American accent. While Jack had been talking Owen had been making his way towards where his voice was coming from. When Jack was silent it was easy to hear Owen gasp. Ianto tried to shuffle closer, but Owen's hand stopped him.
But from over the Doctor's shoulder he could see the problem.
Owen rose quickly and moved towards the entrance allowing Ianto to shuffle closer to Jack. "Tosh, Gwen, you there?"
"Yes, Owen are you alright what's happened?" Tosh called down. Her voice sounded desperate and filled with worry. Gwen was sat next to her listening with Andy stood beside her.
"Well massive rock fall, massive disaster and to put it in short words, we're gonna need another doctor down here."
"Why what's-"
"No I'm sorry I can't send someone else down there," Andy interrupted, "You told me it was safe, when it obviously isn't."
"Tosh said it would be safe for a while not permanently, which is why we need to get them out of there Andy," Gwen rose to her feet, so that she was staring him in the face, "Which is why you need to get Owen another doctor."
"Fine." Andy gave in while at the same time Toshiko was calling down to Owen.
"Who shall we call?"
"Call Rockwood Hospital and ask for a Doctor Bob Strong. Tell him my name, he'll know who I am."
While Tosh, Gwen and Andy tried to sort that out, Owen went back to focussing on the two injured people that he had down there with him. Ianto sat down by Jack as Owen made his way over he could see the pain on Jack's face. He went to speak, however Ianto spoke first.
"Owen, what's happened?"
"Well that rock has fallen on Jack and I need another doctor down here before I can attempt to move it and see the full extent of its damage." Ianto just looked down at the Captain, "But you can help me." Owen added seeing the down hearted look on the Welshman's face. Ianto looked at him in confusion as the Doctor moved to grab his first aid kit and bring it closer.
"How can I help?" Ianto asked curiously as Owen sat back down, looking through the first aid kit.
"Talk to him. I want to hear both of your voices."
So Ianto did.
Doctor Bob Strong was a man who had met Owen a long time ago, when his marriage was breaking up and Owen was working for that short amount of time at Rockwood. The pair had gotten along well and had always had a reason for conversation, even if it was on how they had been late for school, university lectures and other important things.
Now arriving at the scene of the accident he felt nervous about seeing Owen again, but at least he could say that this was one thing that he hadn't been late for. He'd left as soon as he received the phone call.
He met Gwen and Tosh, who were both quick on their feet to hand him a hard hat, harness and the other things that he needed. Eventually he was ready to go down and the girls called out to Owen to let him know. When he reached the bottom he was greeted by Owen, but even that was cut short, but Owen said that they would have to meet up at a later date.
Ianto was busy talking to a man that Bob had been told was called Jack. The rock lay on Jack's chest and from what Bob could see it looked like it was lying quite heavily on the area of his abdomen. Owen was fiddling around with his medical kit, preparing what he could recognise to be morphine.
"Okay then Bob, what are we looking at exactly?" Owen asked, because his friend was an expert with internal bleeding, which he hadn't mentioned to Ianto as the poor boy seemed to be shaken enough by the events already. He didn't need to know until it was definite.
Jack and Ianto seemed happy in their current conversation and Owen was satisfied that he could hear both of their voices. Bob was surprised at how well Owen was reacting to this situation as he kneeled down to get a better look at the position of the rock on top of Jack.
"W…what about your Dad?" Jack asked as he groaned really wanting to move off of his back.
"My Dad worked in Debenhams," Jack couldn't help but laugh slightly, "Hey, it wasn't the best job, but it paid the bills."
"What about in his free t…time?"
"He took me to the cinema a lot. He enjoyed doing that." Ianto didn't seem to certain about that fact as he spoke, but by studying his face for a while Jack decided that if he was lying then he was doing it extremely well.
"Mother?" Jack asked as he found himself short for breath suddenly, not being able to ask the whole question.
"She spent a lot of her time drunk, wasted a lot of our money on drinks or things for herself. She didn't worry about buying food one time which didn't go down to well." Jack was about to ask another question when Owen's voice entered the picture.
"Jack, I'm gonna give you some morphine, hopefully it will help with the pain of having a rock on top of you."
"W..why? What-" Jack's sentence ended abruptly as he started coughing. When he began coughing up blood, Ianto started to panic. Owen stopped his action and tried to calm him and also keep his eye on Jack. Doctor Strong moved towards Jack's head, knowing that he was right when the Captain stopped coughing and his head fell against the floor, his eyes rolling back inside of his head.
"Ianto talk to him." Owen spoke quickly moving towards the first aid kit with his right hand, despite the pain that was shooting through his arm. He knew that it was very likely to be broken, but his friends came first. Ianto was silent, which Owen was putting down to him being shocked at these events and not exactly knowing what was happening.
"Wh..what's happening?" Doctor Strong looked to Owen and Owen looked back. Neither of them wanted to answer the question, but in the end Owen decided that he would, seen as he knew Ianto better.
"Ianto, me and Bob think that Jack is bleeding internally from the area around his abdomen as the rock is sitting directly on top of that area and he's coughing up blood. He's obviously in pain, but we all know that Jack's good at hiding that. Now look I can help him, but I need you to talk to him."
"Why me?"
"Because-" Owen stopped and thought quickly before starting to speak again, "Because he listens to you, Ianto. What you talk about is important to him. He wants to hear about your family, so if it's keeping him focused then I am happy to continue with that option, so please Ianto help us help him and talk."
The Welshman turned his attention back to his boss and Owen couldn't help, but sigh with relief when Ianto started talking.
"You we..re sayi..ng."Jack asked after Ianto had finished his sentence, but it was easy to tell that he was struggling to say that let alone stay awake.
"I ended up shop lifting." Jack's slowly closing eyes opened again and he looked up into Ianto's eyes with the faint hints of a smile. While he had been speaking Ianto had been putting certain puzzle pieces together and he thought that he now that a picture that he was satisfied to be working with. He let his small smile drop.
"Why did you do it?"
"Do w..what?" The Captain asked while Owen and Bob looked around the rock, partly listening to Ianto and Jack's conversation in case something vital was said that they might have missed.
"Push me out of the way, you shouldn't have done that."
"Well dear Ianto that is w..where you are w..wrong." The Captain couldn't say anymore as he once again broke into a coughing fit. Doctor Strong pulled out a radio from his harness and turned it on, allowing him to speak to Gwen, Tosh and the police without having to shout. He handed the radio to Owen who took it with a small thank you.
"Gwen, how's cave rescue coming along?"
"About five minutes." Gwen's Welsh voice replied coming through the radio system.
"Good, because we really need it." Owen told her before turning the radio off and putting it down with the first aid kit. More debris fell on his head and he could see Ianto's worried eyes watching his every move. Bob was knelt beside Jack and after checking ABC – airways open, patient is breathing and there's adequate circulation – he could conclude that Jack had an uncontrolled internal bleed and was suffering now from organ failure and Bob knew what followed that.
Shock was sometimes quick to follow or sometimes you wouldn't get that and the patient would have the next effect – death.
Owen looked back over at jack and picked up the morphine that he had planned to give his boss earlier. More and more debris was falling and Owen forced himself to move over slightly. Doctor Strong came over to grab something and more rocks fell. Owen quickly grabbed the radio off of the floor and stepped back towards the wall as the rocks broke off their only pathway to Ianto and Jack.
Five more minutes. Owen kept repeating it in his mind. Five minutes and they could all get out of here, but he wasn't exactly sure if they had five minutes. He could hear Ianto coughing on the other side and Jack's bad breathing, however he had no way of seeing them.
Ianto looked at the fallen rocks that now blocked his view of Owen and Doctor Strong. He leaned over towards Jack and tapped him on the arm, struggling to breathe with all of the dust that the rocks had brought up from the ground. He could hear Owen and Doctor Strong on the other side, talking and he was extremely aware of how Jack wasn't responding to him.
"Ianto, move over to be by Jack." Owen's voice shouted. The Welshman didn't even question the doctor and shuffled out of the way of the rocks, "You clear?"
"Yeah." There was a shuffling noise and then one of the rocks moved falling forward and Owen's head could be seen through the newly created hole. "Jack's not breathing properly, Owen."
"Ianto we need you to give Jack this." Owen told the Welshman as he passed him a needle with some form of liquid in, that Ianto had no idea what it was called, "What do I do?"
"Top of his arm, either it doesn't really matter, then you just – well you know the rest." Ianto did as Owen instructed before passing the needle back to him. "Thanks Ianto."
There was silence as Owen and Doctor Strong works on getting the other rocks out of the way. They managed to move one more, but that was it. However by moving those two a few smaller rocks and leaves to fall out onto the floor.
Gwen and Tosh looked around as an ambulance and a little cave rescue car pulled up. Gwen sighed with relief and Tosh turned on the hand held radio.
"Owen, cave rescue's here now. They'll be on their way down soon."
"It's about time, we need to get out of here." Tosh turned the radio off and looked to Gwen. Both of them smiled with relief. Soon they could all go back to the hub and rest and maybe get some more of their paperwork done, but little did they know of how much danger the four men were in down there or just how close Jack was to his death.
Sorry about the shortish chapter, but I hope to update again on Saturday and publish a new story as well. Thanks for reading, please review and thanks for all of the favourites and alerts.