I'm thinking, one or two more chapters before I finish this completely since I have other fics to write – and, unfortunately, lots of summer-time coursework to complete... evil teachers!

Okay. Ianto's thoughts are italic, Jack's are bold/italic and Owen's are bold. And my guest character's thoughts are in italic. I do hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Hmm... it seems I've decided to do multiple POVs for this one.... interesting!

Chapter 12

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"Ianto..."

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"Is he awake?"

"I don't know, that's why I've just said his name!"

"Oh..."

"Ianto? Can you hear me?"

'Of course I can hear you!' He groaned in confirmation as he didn't seem to have enough energy to form words. He opened his eyes as his sluggish mind tried to find the energy required to make sounds other than groans... or croaking since his throat was parched.

Almost as if someone knew that fact an ice chip was gently placed between his slightly chapped lips and he happy let it moisten his bone-dry throat before attempting to speak. His mind was becoming more coherent with it's thoughts and he found he had enough strength to speak.

"Yes." His voice sounded strange to him, it sounded raspy – as though it hadn't been used in a while, which in all likelihood it probably hadn't. He listened to the people around him, at least three, gasp in relief and make comments of a positive nature but he only really heard one comment.

"Oh thank the gods of Gallifrey!"

His heart stuttered in it's rhythmic beating and his mind became flooded with thoughts and memories of things he'd thought long-since-forgotten.

It seemed that the others noticed that there was a problem – probably because of the heart monitor that was currently taking head-staggers – and shepherded around him, one of them asking him what was wrong, another holding his right hand tightly and another standing to his left.

After what felt like an eternity – of course he couldn't be sure if a mere 3 minutes 10 seconds could feel like eternity since he had no experience with such matters – his heart finally regained it rhythmic beating and his mind's fast-flowing of thoughts reseeded to a trickle. He listened to himself breathe and blocked out the sounds of the others around him, he focused solely on his breathing. 'In... out... in... out... constant, a rhythm'. He fell into a dreamless sleep listening to himself breathe.

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"Jack!" Owen said, his voice an unnerving calm, "What the fuck just happened?!" without bothering to glance at Jack, who held onto Ianto's right hand with a fierce death-grip, Owen checked the IV going into the crook of Ianto's right arm and quickly glanced at the heart monitor to see that Ianto's heart was beating normally.

"I don't know Owen. Something must have freaked him out." Jack said, his eyes focused intently on Ianto's face – the pale skin, paler than usual, and the lips red and slightly chapped.

"Really? You think!" Owen said, his earlier calmness washed away as his sarcastic nature took point. "I never would've guessed, honest!" slipping past Jack and down towards the end of the bed Owen grabbed the file holding Ianto's medical treatments and noted down one or two things before replacing it back where it belonged. After he did that he turned and observed Jack holding onto Ianto like he was the most important thing alive 'which to Jack,he probably is'.

After a few minutes watching Jack, Owen turned his attention to the third occupant in the room. The Doctor. The Doctor stood on the other side of Ianto's bed and, like Owen had been only moments ago, observed Jack's interaction with the silent Ianto. Owen was sure he could see something more in the Doctor's gaze but he just couldn't quite decipher it.

Shrugging his shoulders and writing off what he thought he could see as his sleep-deprived mind's way of saying 'get-to-fucking-bed-you-idiot!' Owen said, his voice quiet and softer than normal, "Jack. I'm going to go and catch-up on some sleep. Ianto's going to be okay but if anything happens all the nurses and doctor's know to call me. Okay?" Seeing Jack's replying nod Owen grabbed his jacket from off the back of one of the chairs in the private room and left, heading towards one of the rooms doctors-on-call snatched brief dozes in at the end of the corridor.

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Jack found he couldn't get his vocal-chords to respond to his minds commands as he stared intently at Ianto's face when Owen told him he was going for some shut-eye. Instead he nodded his head and listened to Owen vacating the room before focusing every fibre of his being on watching Ianto's angelic features and committing them to memory.

'I'm so sorry Ianto. I never knew that it wasn't you... oh god! I'm so, so sorry' Jack felt disgusted with himself. He hadn't even realised that, that thing wasn't his lover! No, he was too stupid and thick and blind and...

"Jack. Are you alright Jack?"

Jack's eyes snapped away from Ianto's face and honed-in on the Doctor. He'd completely forgotten that the Doctor was still in the room! It took his mind a moment to realise that the Doctor had asked him a question. He willed his vocal-chords to constrict and relax so as to make sounds and replied, his answer honest and his voice filled with anguish, "No. I'm not alright Doctor but I'm better than Ianto right now!"

He turned his attention back to Ianto and felt an over-whelming surge of guilt and self-disgust. Leaning in close to Ianto's face, Jack whispered into his ear whilst tears began to fall from his oceanic eyes, "I'm sorry Ianto... please forgive me... please."

He couldn't deal with how he felt, he couldn't deal with the fact that he'd been blind and stupid and his lover had been hurt because of his blindness... he had to go. He had to leave, to get out.

He had to think.

Without another word Jack stood and relinquished his hold on Ianto's right hand. Then, with tears still rolling down his cheeks and with pain seen clearly in his eyes, he left the room.

He left the hospital.

And he found the highest building he could... and he gazed sky-wards, with tears upon his cheeks and anguish within his soul.

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More than a little surprised at Jack's confession, the Doctor stood motionless as Jack leaned forwards and whispered something into the ear of the sleeping form of one Ianto Jones. He was even more surprised when Jack stood and left the room moments later looking like the most defeated and broken man that the Doctor had ever seen in all his centuries of living.

He was so surprised that it took him more than a minute to actually move, from where he was standing, to sitting in one of the empty chairs on the left-hand side of the bed.

Once he was seated he looked at the sleeping form of the Ianto Jones that had stolen the Captain's heart. 'He so young to have gone through this... what else has he seen? What other horrors of Torchwood are there that haunt him that show themselves in his dreams?' He sat silently, taking in every detail that he could of the resting man, no boy, lying before him oblivious to the world around him in his blissful sleep. 'He looks so peaceful when he sleeps... I doubt he looks that vulnerable when awake...'

For hours the Doctor sat in that chair and listened to the constant beep of the heart monitor and the steady breathing, he ignored the occasional presence of the nurses doing their rounds. He focused himself entirely on the child of time...

TBC...

OHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! SUCH A CLIFFIE IF I EVER DID SEE ONE!!

I want reviews on this people!! No reviews means no-more chapters and no-more chapters means no-more answers and I'll let you all go crazy trying to survive without the completion of this!!