PART SEVEN

Jack quickly gathered up Ianto's limp form in his arms and carried him through the Hub to the autopsy bay with Owen hot on his heels and Gwen and Tosh trailing behind. He carefully set the unconscious man down onto the exam table and Owen got to work straight away, shooing his teammates out of the way. Jack turned ushering Gwen and Tosh up the steps.

"Tosh, run a full scan and compare it to the last set of readings taken from the interrogation cell."

"Right." Tosh went straight to her terminal. Gwen waited, watching Jack apprehensively. He avoided her gaze and turned to see what Owen was up to. The medic was busy with various pieces of monitoring equipment, cursing and grumbling as he worked. Jack decided it was best to leave him to get on in peace.

"Let me know as soon as you have anything Owen."

"Yes, boss."

Jack sighed and reluctantly moved away from Owen's domain and in the direction of the kitchenette, he needed coffee...... he needed Ianto's coffee along with the sarcastic, dry wit and faint smile that always came with it. Gwen was still following him.

"Jack." She hissed out a whisper. "How could you do that? How could you do that to Ianto?"

He faced her trying not to feel anger, and hoping beyond hope that he hadn't in fact just condemned Ianto to eternity in a comatose state. He narrowed his eyes, taking in her distrustful look.

"Jack!"

"Leave it."

"No I will not. You shot him in cold blood."

He closed himself off completely at that and went into 'Captain' mode because he wasn't sure that she was entirely wrong.

"I said leave it!" His tone was dangerous and Gwen recognised the fine line she was walking.

"I want my protest on record, because if by some miracle Ianto does in fact come back to us......"

"What? You want him to know that you had no part in trying to bring him back?"

"If it means resorting to murder Jack."

"I didn't murder anyone. O'Rourke was already dead, in case you'd forgotten."

"Was he though?"

Jack winced, that was the question really when all was said and done.

"You've made your opinion quite clear Gwen, duly noted." He shook his head and moved away, coffee didn't seem like such a good idea after all.

An hour later they had reconvened in the boardroom. Gwen and Tosh were sat opposite Jack and Owen.

"Ok, can I start?" Owen was getting impatient and wanted to get back to the autopsy bay. The team all nodded and Tosh smiled at him as well.

"Right then. Tea Boy is alive and well, his automatic responses are all working, irises, reflexes, etc. His hearing and eyesight are working, he is aware of touch and I suspect that if he was capable of language he'd be able to speak. He is breathing independently, his pulse, blood pressure and heart rhythm are all excellent. The lights are all on and no one is home." He sat back in his chair and Tosh took that as her cue to continue.

"Ok before Jack..... Well before you shot him I was getting two sets of readings from Ianto. I am now getting only one. He is still is some state of flux which indicates that his body is still trying to heal itself, but the 'ghosting' has gone so I think it safe to say that O'Rourke is where he should be now. My readings pretty much concur with Owen's in terms of Ianto's physical functions. He's like an empty husk." It was not a description she felt comfortable with using.

"So what are we going to do with him?" Gwen looked to each of her colleagues in turn, saving a final glare for Jack. "We can't just keep him like that indefinitely, killing him obviously didn't work."

"Maybe he wasn't dead for long enough." Tosh suggested.

Owen groused at her. "Nah, it can't be that. He must have been dead longer when he fell from the building."

Gwen was nodding.

"So maybe the other guy got in there first?"

Owen and Tosh gave Gwen sceptical looks, but they couldn't come up with anything better themselves.

"Maybe we're not looking at this from the right perspective."

They all looked at Jack who clasped his hands and rested them on the table top.

"Maybe it's different for him, on the other side. When I die, I don't have a choice, I have to come back..... maybe Ianto 'does' have a choice, or maybe he just doesn't know how to make himself come back?"

Owen just looked incredulous. "So what.... I mean if that's the case then there's bugger all we can do."

"Maybe not." Tosh was thinking hard now. "Well, maybe Jack can communicate with him."

Owen and Gwen both shot her concerned looks, but Jack was nodding.

"Yeah, you know Tosh, that might just work. I mean in theory he goes to the same place that I go when I die. If I died and stayed that way for long enough I may be able to find him and help him."

"That's insane!" Gwen couldn't believe her ears. "I mean it is, isn't it?"

Owen didn't know what to think. "No maybe not. What have got to lose from trying?" If he were honest with himself, the chance to have an excuse to kill Jack was a rather pleasing one.

"Jack could end up in the state that Ianto is in, for all we know he could be trapped there for entirely different reasons and we'd never know." Gwen retorted liking the idea less and less.

Jack couldn't help but feel slightly confused and relieved at the same time over Gwen's reaction, at least it meant she cared about her friends and made them think before jumping in.

"There's no way of us finding out until we try. Let's be realistic, if Ianto is reachable, then I am likely the only one in existence who can get to him. We can't leave him the way he is without at least trying to restore his...... him."

Tosh was nodding her approval, but she was worried all the same.

Owen got to his feet. "I guess I need to set up a second bed in the autopsy bay then, Tosh can you give me a hand?"

The decision was obviously made then.

"Yes of course."

The two of them left the room and Gwen anxiously fingered her engagement ring.

"If this doesn't work, what are we going to do with Ianto? I mean if he is immortal, will he be like that forever?"

Jack didn't want to contemplate it. "I don't know. I guess we put his body in cryo, at least then his functions will be suspended so that no one has to nurse him. God Ianto would hate anyone having to do that."

"But what will happen to him Jack? When all this is gone, a thousand years time, he'll just be a body that doesn't change or die..... I can't think of anything worse."

Jack couldn't either, except.

"If he has a choice and he doesn't want to come back, which is worse being trapped in a body you can never escape from or being..... Where ever it is he is."

Gwen sighed at the distant expression on Jack's face.

"How do you not go mad Jack?"

"Maybe one day I will. I was kinda hoping that Ianto would be around to stop me, if anyone can it's him."

Gwen's gut tightened with jealousy, but she quashed it, this was neither the time nor place for such indulgences.

"You'd better get him back then."

Owen held up a syringe in Jack's line of sight.

"You've always reckoned that poison takes the longest. Judging from my studies of you this should give you approximately an hour of 'dead' time. We're only doing this the once Jack. If it doesn't work, then Ianto goes in the freezer, doctor's orders."

Jack nodded. He settled himself down on the cot and took a glance across at Ianto who was lying prone beside him.

"You kill us both, but I need Ianto's hand, tie our hands together first."

Owen frowned. "You think it will make a difference?"

"I don't know, just humour me Owen."

Tosh, did the honours as Jack held the hand that was placed in his and entwined their fingers, Ianto's were complete pliable and unresponsive and Tosh wrapped a bandage around the joined hands to keep them together. Jack watched as she and Gwen retreated to the gallery level to observe.

"If neither of us revives put us both into cryo."

Owen nodded as he injected poison into Jack's and then Ianto's IV lines.

Jack focussed his gaze on Owen as he felt pain grip at his body, dragging him under, he vaguely heard something about powerful sedatives and then he sank peacefully into the black.