It was torture. No, literally, it sounded like they were torturing the Doctor. His gritted teeth had long ago turned into whimpers which had long ago turned into screams. Jack tried to comfort him, tried to make him think of something—anything—else, tried to distract him from the pain. "C'mon, Doc, this isn't even that bad! You know we've been through worse, right?" And at that the Doctor actually laughed. Laughed. It started as a simple scoff, then a grin, then a soft chuckle, then real laughter that honestly bordered the line of hysteria. "Second best painkiller: distraction," he whispered to Owen, in the same moment the Doctor gasped at Owen's touch.

Owen rolled his eyes at him, "Just try to make him lay straight."

They had been at it for hours—or so it felt—but they were almost done; Owen had finished digging out the smaller pieces of metal from his head and abdomen and was finally working on the last and largest of them all.

Jack spread out his left hand over the Time Lord's chest so that his pinkie just barely covered one heart while his thumb just barely covered the other, and gently pulled the Doctor's arm straight, holding it against his own heart. "Look at me. Doctor you have to relax; struggling just makes it hurt worse. Come on, breath with me." But another gut-wrenching scream came from the Doctor a second later as Owen finally managed to pull the last piece of metal out.

Jack just pushed the Doctor down harder against the table to keep him from moving, and let him grip Jack's right hand as tight as he could. (Which was remarkably tight for a hum—oh. Right. Time Lord.)

"Okay, okay, that's it, I'm done. I just have to stitch it and I'm done."

With his words the Doctor's hand went limp in Jack's, his whole body following suit, taking both men by surprise. "Doctor? Doc, can you hear me?"

"Jack, leave him alone."

"But—"

"No. It's like he said, he can heal himself from here; leave him alone." He had to practically push him away from the Time Lord, "He'll be fine, Jack. I'm going to stitch the wounds closed, but he has a better chance of healing himself than I do."

Jack turned to leave, but stopped, "Do me a favor?"

"What?"

"Don't tell Ianto."

"Don't tell Ianto what? That he's the reason we have jobs;" he said, pointing towards the Doctor, "that he's the one who inadvertently killed his girlfriend; that he's the one you left us for; or that you love him?—yeah, I see the way you act around him. So you'll have to be more specific about what I shouldn't say."

"Thanks for that. Any of it. Look, I'm going to tell him, honestly, but I don't want him killing the Doctor immediately after we just saved him."

"Fine. You'd better tell him as soon as he gets here, though, he'll figure it out soon enough."

"I know. That's what I get for recruiting people who're clever."

"I won't say a word; now, go lay down, I don't even want to know how long you've been up, and everyone else is gonna be in soon."

Jack knew there was nothing he could do, so he reluctantly climbed back up to his office to do as Owen suggested.

It felt like he had barely closed his eyes before there was a knock on his door. Jack startled awake and looked at the clock: 9:03am and Ianto was already standing in his office. "Morning," he said tiredly.

"Good morning. Everything okay? I was a little worried when you disappeared last night—and did you know Owen's here already? He told me to come talk to you."

"Ha, yeah, I called him in early for his help. Sorry to worry you."

For a split-second Ianto almost looked hurt, "Oh. Something medical, I suppose?"

Jack nodded, stretching, "I had a friend who was pretty beat up and I couldn't treat him on my own. Look, about that, can I talk to you alone for a minute?"

Ianto looked at him wearily, "Sure. Coffee first?"

"Yeah, sorry, of course; I could never deprive you of your coffee machine. Thanks, Ianto."

"It's my job," he said with a small smile as he turned and walked toward the kitchen.

He came back a few minutes later with two coffee cups in hand and placed one on Jack's desk next to his empty glass.

"Bit early, don't you think?" He commented as he gestured to the half-empty bottle of liqueur on the table.

Jack shrugged, "Technically I started late."

"...Okay. So, what are we talking about?" His voice was cautious, like he was steeling himself for bad news but he didn't know how bad it would be.

"I love you, you know that, right?"

Ianto blinked at him—it wasn't what he was expecting. "What?"

"The reason I came back was for you."

"So you said."

Jack chewed the inside of his bottom lip. This shouldn't be that hard. "The man downstairs—the one who Owen and I helped... It's the Doctor."

Ianto visibly stiffened, everything from his posture to his facial expression tense, "Really."

Jack looked at the floor, "...Ianto, I'm not leaving again."

"Never said you were. Sir."

Jack winced at the address. "I just wanted you to know what was going on."

"Thoughtful of you. Now, since I assume you didn't get to finish the rift reports last night, I suppose I'll just complete and file them for you." He swiftly picked up the stack of papers from off of Jack's desk and disappeared before Jack could even think up a reply.

He stood there stunned for a little while longer before picking up his coffee and heading down to the med bay; Owen looked up as he descended the staircase, "How is he?"

"No change really."

"Have you scanned his body for internal damage?"

"No, not yet. Sorry, but I didn't know if you wanted records of that, and I didn't want to bug you earlier." (Irritate you, agitate you, be the one to wake you up...)

"Thanks."

"Course. So, how'd it go with Ianto?"

"I'm actually not sure; he kinda just...walked out. But the Doctor doesn't have any more wounds that I can see, so that's a good sign, I suppose."

He scoffed, "Yeah, I guess so. Jack, I'll look out for him. I'm on your side... I think."

"Wow. Well, your vote of confidence is overwhelming.* But thanks, Owen. I think."

Owen grinned back at him, pleased with himself, "They'll take a few hours, but I'll let you know if I find anything on the scans."

Toshiko entered the hub a little after 9, only to find it eerily silent (even for this time in the morning). But as she walked in further she heard faint noises—mostly various swear words occasionally interrupted by a coherent sentence—and found herself at the top of the railing watching Owen pacing around his lab looking at a stack of papers and muttering to himself. "Owen? Since when do you show up to work on time? I thought it'd be at least another hour 'till we saw you," she said smiling.

He glared at her with a foul expression, "Ha. Ha. Ha. You're hilarious, Tosh. I was woken up at the crack of dawn to help Jack."

She smirked down at him and pointed to the Doctor, still laying still on the table. "Who's that?"

"Friend of Jack's."

"And where is Jack?"

"Office probably." He looked up at her then, "Leave him alone, though. Unless you need something from him personally, find Ianto—he'd probably be more useful for whatever you need anyway," he added with a smirk.

She smiled, then hesitated for a moment, but didn't say anything else as she headed towards her desk.

Gwen entered the hub a little after 9:30, spilling apologies to a mostly empty room before stopping and realizing how quiet it was. She spotted Tosh and walked over, unsure about the rest of the team. "Hey, sorry, I overslept, what did I miss?"

Toshiko didn't even look up from her work, "Not much. Nothing's really happened. Yet."

"Then where is everybody?"

Tosh spun in her chair to make sure nobody else was around, before looking up at Gwen. "Owen's in his lab—supposedly treating one of Jack's friends; Ianto I haven't seen, but he's probably in the archives; and Jack keeps walking around the hub like he doesn't quite know what to do."

Gwen stared at her confused, then scoffed, "Why? Doesn't he have paperwork or something?"

She shook her head, "Ianto's probably doing it—Jack sure isn't." She paused for a moment, seeming to gather her thoughts, "I wouldn't bother him, Gwen. Honestly, I would just stay out of his way right now."

"...Why?"

"Because, for whatever reason, he's already wound so tight that he'll probably snap if you try to stand in his way."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks, Tosh."

She just nodded and turned back to her work.

Sure enough, about an hour later Jack came out of his office and headed directly to the med bay, not even acknowledging Toshiko and Gwen. They shared a look across their work stations but neither dared to stop him.

"How's it going, Owen?" He asked, walking down the stairs.

"Okay, I guess; nothing's really changed yet. I just got the preliminary scans back but I haven't had time to completely look them over." It wasn't a complete lie… Yes, he got the report back over an hour ago… but he hadn't gone through every page in that much detail yet.

"Yeah, got it. You did say it would be a few hours. Sorry."

Owen nodded and looked over Jack's head to make sure nobody else was listening. "...Jack, who is he, really?"

"An alien," he offered sarcastically.

"I figured that out, thanks; I mean who is he to you?"

Jack looked at the ground, at the Doctor, at the stairs (really anywhere but at Owen) as he answered, "A friend. A really old, really good, really...unique friend. He's one of a kind," Jack added with a fond smile, half-joking; but his face fell almost immediately when he realized exactly what he had said and how true the words were. Owen eyed him strangely. "Sorry, it's nothing. Let me know what you find?"

Like he needed to ask. "Of course."

"Thanks."

Owen tracked him until he was completely out of sight, then turned around and picked his report back up, running a hand down his face.

TBC

*Gasp* What does he know?! ;p The cliffhanger is for you, Meggles :) thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!

*The Princess Bride (1987); the grandfather, in the opening scene