Jack froze as he saw White Coat press the blade against the Doctor's exposed throat, and gestured for the others who had arrived seconds later to stop.
"I see one drop of his blood and you won't make out of here," Jack said in a low calm voice.
White Coat smiled. "Really, I don't think you will risk losing this," he said, pulling the Doctor's head back further.
"And I think you won't damage your own property. He's worth more to you alive than dead," Jack replied, never taking his eyes of White Coat, trying to gauge his reaction.
White Coat smiled again and pressed the blade closer to the Doctor's throat.
"Perhaps, but it is my property, so..."
It happened so quickly, that neither Jack nor the others had chance to react.
A trail of blood appeared on the Doctor's throat and White Coat shoved him away as the guards opened fire.
Jack watched in helpless horror as the blood appeared on the Doctor's skin. He was frozen to the spot, even when the firing began.
He didn't even notice when he was pushed to the ground by someone.
Then everything around him seemed to shrink into one small place, and that place was overcome by rage.
The gunfight was short and deadly, but the one person Jack wanted dead was gone.
But at the moment he didn't care.
He rushed over to the Doctor, whose life blood was staining the floor.
"No, no, no," Jack said, his voice taut with panic and fear as he tried to stem the flow of blood, but it was welling through his fingers.
He then heard a calm voice beside him...it was Martha
"Jack, let me...Gwen can you...thanks. Ianto I need you to..."
The voices faded into whispers as he felt himself being pulled away.
"Don't look sweetheart," Gwen said and pulled Jack away.
She held the still in shock Jack as she watched Martha work on the Doctor, her voice sounding like a thousand other doctors in life and death situations...calm, efficient, without emotion.
Jack tried to turn his head towards the sounds, but Gwen held him tightly against her.
"No Jack, don't look," she said softly.
Ianto tried not to feel the warmth of the blood that was staining his fingers, trying to listen instead to the instructions Martha was giving to him.
"Keep the pressure steady, I don't think...no...thank god...it didn't. I need something to bandage."
She took off her bloodstained jacket. "I need a knife."
Ianto had a knife, but he couldn't reach it. "I've got one, but I can't..."
"Use mine," a hoarse voice came from behind Martha.
Both of them looked up...it was Jack, the hilt of his knife and his shirt held out toward Martha.
"Did he...?" Jack began.
"Not now Jack," Martha said, being deliberately cold, and turned back to tend to the Doctor.
Ianto looked up and saw the plea to know in Jack's eyes. "Martha, tell him."
"He missed the main artery, but it's deep. I can't do anything here, Gwen please."
"Come away Jack. Let them work, you have to help me find a way out of here."
"White Coat...I'm going to kill him," Jack growled.
"Jack!" Gwen said sharply. "We need to get out of here, White Coat can wait. We have to get past the Cynrog. They still want the
Doctor."
Jack blinked, and looked over at Martha and Ianto, who were still shielding the Doctor from his gaze.
"Yeah, but I can't leave..."
Gwen grabbed hold of his shoulders and shook him none too gently.
"You can't help them or him if we run into the Cynrog...he'll die for sure!"
Gwen's words seemed to have the desired effect on Jack, who in the blink of an eye went into Torchwood mode.
"Right, let's check out that shuttle, if White Coat was going to use, so can we," he said and without waiting for Gwen, he climbed into the shuttle.
He settled in the pilot's seat and looked at the array of blinking lights and then at the readout on the screen.
"Dammit!" he yelled and smacked the steering column hard, just as Gwen entered the cabin.
"Is there a problem?" she asked.
"The engines are fried, this shuttle is going nowhere," he growled.
"How about the main hangar, there must be shuttles there?"
"Sure, but isn't there a whole lot of Cynrog up there, all itching to get their claws on the Doctor," Jack replied.
"Yes, but if it's the only way out, it's the only way out. If it means a fight, then so be it," Gwen said, as they left the shuttle.
They found Ianto leaning with his back against the shuttle, his hands and the front of his clothes covered in blood.
"Yan?" Jack said, fear rising in his gut.
"We managed to stop the bleeding, there was so much blood..."Ianto stopped for a second, looked at his bloodied hands.
Jack sat down beside him.
"It's having two hearts Martha said...oh god...so much blood," he sobbed.
"I'll go help Martha," Gwen said.
Jack nodded and drew Ianto closer to him, putting a protective arm around him.
"It's alright, you know the Doctor, he's tough. If it didn't kill him, he'll fight all the way. But we have to get out of here. Do you still have the plans of this place?"
Ianto straightened and took the small device out of his pocket.
Jack took it and scrolled through the contents.
"There's a way out that avoids the Cynrog, but it's not going to be easy."
White Coat could not believe that he had been forced to damage his property...oh he hadn't cut his throat to kill him, that would be foolish. But he'd realised his escape would be hampered by having to haul his property along with him.
Plus he'd noticed that the virus inside his property was failing, and that troubled him. No-one should have been able to do that, not even the superior biology of his property...unless?
Dr. Michaels...traitorous bitch!
So he'd cut his property, not deep enough to kill...he hoped, but deep enough to distract Captain Harkness and his team.
He would have to leave his property for now, he could always retrieve it.
However, escaping the now doomed base and finding and dealing with Dr Michaels were foremost in his mind.
"We will meet again Captain Harkness, he won't belong to you for long," he said as he powered up his private transmit and disappeared once more.
Jack and Ianto moved back to where Gwen and Martha were carefully wiping away what blood they could from the Doctor's skin.
They looked up when they approached.
"How are we going to get out Jack, we needed that shuttle," Martha said.
"We found another way out, but it's not easy. It's a maintenance shaft, goes right to the surface."
"There's no way we can't carry him up that, it'll..."
A voice cut across Martha.
"Do it Jack," the Doctor said.