"Jack" said Gwen gently taking his hand and pulling away from the lifeless form on the table in front of them, she was puzzled by his actions over the last few hours but then again Jack was never easy to interpret. At first he resisted but slowly she managed to back him away enough to be able to stand in front of him and look him directly in the eye.
"Come on Jack lets go and get you a change of shirt and these guys some coffee." She tugged slightly at his arm to make him move as he was transfixed by Owen.
"I have it easy don't I?" said Jack quietly as Owen manoeuvred the laryngoscope into Jennys mouth and squinted as he placed a tube in her throat, Jack swallowed convulsively as Gwen pulled a little harder. Ianto gave him a quick smile as he reverently turned down the blanket and cleared the ice away from her chest and placed the heel of his hand on her sternum and started to press down counting lightly under his breath. Tosh squeezed the bulb of the resuscitation bag and Owen seemed pleased.
"God and providence now" said Owen rubbing his forehead to relieve a little of the tension.
"Gwen you couldn't find a pair of gloves could you?" asked Ianto already feeling the heat leaching from his fingers.
"20 minutes max and I have the stopwatch." Said Owen grinning when he saw Ianto purse his lips realizing he had left it on the side in anticipation earlier. "This is hard and thirsty work, well for you mere mortals" he looked at Jack "and the immortals amongst us. Did you mention coffee and perhaps pizza?" He said looking back at Gwen.
She tugged at Jack with more success this time and managed to guide him across the floor and up the steps. Jack was sweating which was something Gwen couldn't recall ever seeing before, she guided him into the nearest chair and picked up a half drunk glass of water. Jack took it gratefully and swallowed the contents in one before pulling a face,
"Tosh and her flower remedies." He said pulling a face. "I need coffee to get rid of the taste." Gwen smiled at him
"It'll have to be mine, unless you want to make some?" Jack pulled a face, his coffee was legendary only for its taste, sort of metallic, over boiled and possibly caustic. Ianto had banned him from the kitchen when he was creating blaming his presence for curdling the milk, when in fact it was sheer impatience which meant he used water too hot and too many coffee beans, even reusing the old grounds when particularly hasty.
"Pizza and gloves then." He said quietly "Gwen, I need you to do something for me, I know we all have a lot on our plates at the moment but…"
Gwen reached out and took his hand,
"Name it Jack"
"I need you to piece together her life, I want, no I need to know all the people she has been."
"Thought you would never ask." She said picking up a small file, "For public or private viewing?"
"Use the boardroom you all deserve to know too."
He flashed a grin and jumped up, a little too brightly as if he had to convince himself that everything was aright. Gwen watched him nearly crash the door as he ran up to the Tourist Office, she knew if she went up there she would find him stood staring into the Bay until the pizza turned up. Then she remembered his shirt looked like he had just run through an charnel house and they didn't need get blacklisted from another pizza delivery service, not this one anyway as they did brilliant vegetarian, with extra chicken.
"Twenty minutes" said Owen clicking the top of the watch twice and watching as Gwen mounted the small step at the side of the bed and Ianto moved Tosh out of the way and started pushing air into reluctant lungs. Tosh flexed her fingers as Jack stretched his wrists, this was one of the best work outs ever and he got to touch a girls chest without getting his face slapped. Trust his brain to take him down that path. To be honest he was revelling in the monotony of what they were doing five hours now and according to Owen they weren't going anywhere fast. Test after test had revealed the reaction against the additional iron had just about stopped and with it the constant trickles of blood down her face but her body wasn't fighting back like it had done just a few nights before. Owen sat twiddling his pen through his fingers and occasionally clicking the top, which sounded loud in the quiet of the autopsy bay. Tosh sat listlessly against the cold white tiles, a spare blanket wrapped round her shoulders and over her knees that were pulled up close to her chest, she was dog tired but to mention it seemed churlish.
"Take a rest Tosh" said Jack helping her to her feet and propelling her towards the Hub and the semi comfort of the sofa, one of these days we should replace it with something more relaxing he thought. He padded after her and peeled off up the stairs to brave making coffee, instant only with the milk and sugar left in their original containers on the tray. He passed the board room where Gwen had been at work, she had started on a time line in breaks between work downstairs. Jack was amazed at how far it had gone back, starting by the tv monitor was the date 1492, there were a few sparse images of tombs and grainy family trees moving across the windows where there were a few Wikipedia entries and more information as the photos previously printed out by Tosh made tracing her slightly easier. He paused by the photo that had brought it all flooding back, all this time she had been out there if only he had known. Finding someone who he didn't have to say goodbye to was his holy grail, he thought the Doctor would have been able to help with that one but instead it had helped him realise that he should hold onto what he had in the here and now.
Jack placed the coffee mug in Gwens frozen fingers and carried on where she had left off wincing as he pressed down and felt the grating crack as another rib broke under the relentless pressure. Owen looked over and held up a hand to silence the question.
"Inevitable outcome of what we are doing, anyway my old Professor used to say that if you didn't break a rib or six you weren't doing it right."
"Well that takes it up to eight I believe." said Ianto to Owens back as he skimmed though the latest figures that the computer had thrown at them. The plan wasn't working like he hoped and of course it would be girly to admit that but he was lost for what to do next.
It was Gwen that spoke first, annoying sometimes and when she wanted to be completely vacant but it was just a defence mechanism because at times Owen believed she was psychic.
"This isn't working is it?" She asked quietly watching Owens face intently so he couldn't hide anything.
"Someone is only dead when they are warm and dead, do you think that would make a good greeting card?" he said not answering the question but making the meaning clear. "I think the cold might now be working against us."
"So what are you going to do?" asked Jack quietly
Owen spun his chair round "Normal protocol would be slowly re-warming the core using a combination of heated fluids and thermal insulation." He pulled his hands thorough his hair and sighed "But it's a one shot option, if it doesn't work we're screwed."
"She's screwed." Said Jack under his breath
"Bit like supermarket chicken then, do not refreeze." Said Ianto and gained a dirty look from everyone including Owen who he thought might appreciate the humour in the situation. "Sorry couldn't help myself" he mumbled.
"Other options" said Jack, Owen wasn't sure if it was a statement or a question.
Owen shook his head and quietly put the file down. "Anyone any ideas?" asked Jack with more than a hint of despair.
"I go with the medic, that is what we pay him for." Said Ianto, Gwen nodded her head heavy on her shoulders.
Jack rolled his head back and closed his eyes to contemplate all the options and was greeted with haunting images of his past, sometimes you had to roll the hard six, whatever the hell that meant. He shook his head to clear it slightly and realised that everyone, including Tosh bundled in a duvet on the higher level was looking at him for an answer, though for it to be a question it would need to have options.
"Lets give it our best shot." He said resignedly, Ianto reached out and touched his hand the one touch sending sparks through his soul and reminding him to look forward not backwards.
Owen had set on sweeping the ice away with almost too much gusto and Tosh had skittered across the ice on the floor when she returned the duvet earning him a rebuke about health and safety from Ianto. Owen just scowled and muttered something about whose job it was to clear up while Gwen clucked with dry clothing and blankets. It had taken time Jack mused, as well as the odd disaster, but Torchwood Three was a well oiled machine, all the parts working together rubbing together with the odd spark but mainly just being efficient. Except when they lost a cog, when he had run away, when Owen had died, when one of them lost someone they loved the wheels fell off and they had to start all over again. One, two, three, four, five, stop wait for the count of two, one, two, three, four, five.
"Jack" it was Gwens voice breaking into his thoughts, "Earth to Jack can you even hear me?" to put emphasis on the words she touched his shoulder, his skin had gone numb as he had spent his time locked away sifting all the thoughts that had recently escaped.
"Jack you need to take a rest." The stop watch had turned and each time Jack had resisted swapping places insisting that the rest of the team take a rest so for three more hours he had worked constantly as if that could wipe the slate clear.
Ianto was worried again, he had seen Jack like this before, he worked himself into exhaustion and it ended one of two ways either he upset everyone to the point where they wanted to or even did murder him or he ran away and came back after finding himself as if nothing had happened. In three hours he hadn't stopped to take a drink, to say anything out loud more than count constantly under his breath, he had even stopped looking up at the stats on the wall. If he had he would have noticed that her core temperature was creeping back towards a more normal level and in a eureka moment about half an hour ago Owen had realised her oxygen saturation was going up slightly and was at least nearing the point that she had last clung to consciousness with. The moment of truth was fast approaching.
Gwen and Ianto moved either side of Jack, beneath the slightly crumpled shirt his arms were starting to wobble with the exertion of his work. Any normal human would have folded long before now but that was the thing about having the energy from the heart of the TARDIS poured into you, you didn't sleep and you thought you could carry on for ever. They gently pulled him back and Ianto surreptitiously put a supporting arm round his waist while Gwen started doing the hard work until Owen was completely ready. He had done this so many times in his previous career and it wasn't half as successful as they would make you think on ER, sometimes the body just didn't have the energy to start again, sometimes it was just not supposed to be. But then again the worlds only know exceptions to this rule were now gathered in a slightly damp cavern under the heart of regenerated Cardiff, the immortal dashing hero, the angsty unfilled zombie and an alien with at least half a millennium of memories, oh how he wished he could write a book on this, no one would believe him though.
"Ready?" Asked Owen. They all knew what happened next and none of them really had much more part in it than doing what they were told. Ianto had retrieved his stop watch, and was ready to help Owen while Jack just stood out of the way strangely helpless. The doctor pushed the first set of drugs in through the IV port, a goodly mix of adrenalin, atropine and a few other helpful substances and hoped that she would react in a human fashion. Ianto flicked the charge button on the defibrillator and gave a silent prayer to whatever was out there.