Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who.
Jack and Ianto managed to get Rory's unconscious frame onto a stretcher and then loaded into their van. Once they got him settled enough to where he wouldn't slide around, Gwen and Mickey sat beside him and began tending to his wounds as best as they could.
Jack made certain to drive slowly. "How bad are his injuries?"
"The bullet went straight through, so we don't need to worry about trying to dig it out. The knife wound is also not too bad - I think both wounds have been left to bleed for too long though. He may need a blood transfusion." Gwen bent close to Rory's side to examine the strange burn that crept around his whole left ribcage and waist. "I have no idea what this burn is. I hope Martha can identify what caused it."
"She's one of the best - I'm sure she'll at least be able to treat it even if she can't heal it completely," Mickey said.
"I'm more concerned about the state of his mind." Jack glanced back in the rearview mirror. He still couldn't get Rory's scream out of his mind when the man had ceased to listen to him and got trapped under the pressure of his own thoughts. "Who knows what those empaths did."
"The Doctor will be able to help. The Doctor always helps." Mickey stared at the nearly catatonic man.
None of them were brave enough to say that they thought Rory was too far gone for the Doctor to be of any use.
Amy could tell the Doctor was trying to keep her distracted. She knew that he and Martha decided that it would be beneficial if she were not present when her husband arrived since he was probably injured. But despite the Doctor's valiant attempts to keep her away from Martha, Amy stuck close to the woman. She was tired of other people deciding what was good for her and even if Daleks tried to stage an invasion right now, nothing was going to keep her from her husband.
"Amy!" The Doctor grinned at her. "Don't you want to see UNIT's collection of Cyclops stones from Mantes? They're the most brilliant shade of blue that you have ever seen. Isn't that right, Martha?"
"Oh yes, Doctor, of course!" Martha nervously agreed. Her eyes kept darting from the entrance to UNIT's headquarters back to the Doctor and Amy as if to say, Hurry up and get her out of here.
Amy settled further into her chair. Rory must be close. "I'm not going anywhere. Do you honestly think I want to see baubles from other planets now when Rory could be gravely hurt?"
The Doctor looked at Martha and sighed, dropping all pretenses. "I suppose you're right. It's no use, Martha. I could no more keep her from Rory than I could keep you from Mickey were your positions reversed."
Martha's phone beeped. She glanced at it. "Well, if you put it that way, I can't help but agree. Jack's pulling up now. Just try not to get in the way, alright?"
"I won't hinder my husband from receiving medical care." Amy followed Martha to the front of the large UNIT parking area, where a team of medical staff were already waiting. The entrance opened out onto the back streets of an isolated part of the town, out of sight from the public eye.
A van sped towards them, only slowing down as it reached the threshold and then screeched to a stop. The medical team swarmed to the back of the van and Amy allowed herself to be carried along with the general push.
A man wearing a trenchcoat jumped out of the driver's seat and joined them at the back. "Allow me, ladies and gents. This door gets stuck sometimes and needs some gentle loving."
He hit the door in a couple of places before he twisted the handle and jerked it open. Another man and a woman waited inside with a stretcher. The woman glanced at them. "I think he's coming around. You might want to prepare a sedative."
Amy's heart pounded as she stood on tiptoes, trying to catch a glimpse of her husband. The two people inside the van pushed the stretcher out into the waiting hands of the medical staff. As they extended the wheels underneath the stretcher, she got her first look at Rory's pale, bruised face.
His eyelashes fluttered as he started to come around. Soft blue eyes shot open and stared at the faces surrounding him. A stream of increasingly panicked words left his mouth, "I don't know what you want, I never did! The box is in my keeping, get back, get back, get BACK!"
Martha was already preparing a syringe.
"Wait!" Amy laid a hand on her arm. "Can I try talking to him? It might calm him down."
The other woman looked unsure, but she nodded and motioned for her staff to back up to give them room.
Amy stepped up next to the stretcher. Rory's eyes wandered all over the place, not focusing on anything in particular. His breathing grew more labored and she had to fight back tears when she saw his injuries. Slowly and gently, so as not to startle him, she put her hands on either side of his face and directed his gaze to her. "Rory, look at me. It's me, it's your Amy. You're alright. We got you out."
He blinked rapidly, as if her couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. But the stream of words ceased.
"That's it. You're alright. I'm here and I'm not going to leave you."
"Amy," he breathed. His hands jerked at the ties holding him down to the stretcher. The motion caused another flare of panic to cross his face.
"It's okay." She brushed his hair back from his forehead. "You're on a stretcher - you know what that is. You can't move because you're secured to the stretcher."
"Amy," he said again, his eyes filling with tears. "You...River..."
"She's not here. I can have the Doctor track her down if you'd like."
He shook his head as best as he could. "No, no. River. You're not here. You're not real."
"Of course I'm real, Rory. You're safe. We got you out. I'm right here."
"No, no, no! You're not real, you're not here, you're fooling me again! I will not give in!" The last few words were loud enough to be a scream.
Amy flinched, but did not back away, even as the UNIT staff stirred, ready with their syringes. "Listen to me, Mr. Pond, you are the man who waited 2,000 years for me, I tore time apart for you, we have a daughter who is currently older than we are at the moment, and you should know by now when I'm real and when I'm not, considering I have been a flesh copy of myself before."
Who knew what she sounded like at the moment? For anyone who had not traveled with the Doctor before, that probably made no sense, but glancing up at Martha, she saw the other woman give an encouraging nod.
More importantly, Rory stilled under her touch. "What did you call me?"
She smiled. "I know you don't like it, but sometimes I can't help but call you Mr. Pond."
"Amy," he sighed, eyes shining with relief. "They never...never used that one."
Amy bit her lip. She didn't know who they were, but she got the impression that they had been using her against her husband. If they were still alive, she was going to have a little talk with them. For now she focused on the trembling man beneath her hands. "It's alright, Rory, I'm here. You're safe. We're going to get you help."
"Amy." His eyes scrunched close, this time in pain. "There's too much in my head...I can't...I can't focus...there's so many people...so much pain."
"I know." But she didn't know. She couldn't imagine how much he'd seen and how long he'd hidden it away from her. Sometimes you catch him staring, the Doctor's words, spoken what seemed so long ago, came back to her. "Oh Rory, why didn't you let me know? I could have helped you, you know I could have."
"S-Sorry," he stuttered. His hands clenched down painfully on the stretcher, back arching as much as it could. "I c-can't...Amy!"
"What's wrong?"
He twisted his face out of her hands. Sweat ran down his temples as his breathing increased. Teeth tore at his lips to prevent himself from screaming, but it did no good. A hoarse cry escaped him, followed by a deafening scream. "Get back! Get back! I won't...give you...what you want!"
Martha jumped into action, emptying a syringe into his neck. "I'm sorry, Amy, but he's going to injure himself if we let him go on like this."
She nodded, eyes locked on her gasping husband, who was starting to lose consciousness. His eyes drifted to her one last time before they closed. "I'm so sorry, Rory."
"Doctor?" Martha called.
Warm hands descended on her shoulders, long fingers she recognized. As the UNIT staff wheeled her husband away to a medical facility, she turned and buried her face in the Doctor's shoulder. "Why is it always him, Doctor? Why does he have to suffer so much?"
"I don't know." He tightened his hold on her and kissed her forehead. "I don't know."