After his rounds with Nurse Richards, Ianto was sent to the day room to help the other nurses distribute the daily doses of medication for the patients.
Thorazine was still a new therapeutic method that made it possible to treat a wide range of behavioural disorders. It helped calm unruly behaviour without the need to use physical restraints. Only the most severe cases still needed bed-bound treatment.
The medication solved many problems, which is probably why the side effects were often overlooked. Drowsiness, confusion, dizziness, and occasional fevers were just a few of the symptoms. When Ianto looked around, he noticed that the patients were suffering from confusion and drowsiness in particular.
The nurses used small paper cups and slipped one or two pills into each, depending on the dosage needed. The patients obediently waited in queue until everyone had a paper cup.
"This is what we do every morning," Lynn Hopkins explained to Ianto, who helped her fill glasses of water. "The pills are a godsend; they make our work so much easier. The patients are a lot calmer and have a real chance to improve their health."
Ianto questioned the ability of a single pill to solve so many issues, at least not without additional therapy. Then he noticed how the drug began to work and realised it wasn't meant to cure them but to calm them down. And it certainly worked for that purpose.
Ianto stayed in the day room for the rest of the afternoon, watching the patients. A group of older men sat playing cards, others hunched over board games, and some patients simply sat in their chairs and stared out the windows.
The patients' illnesses ranged from simple old age to depression, anxiety and schizophrenia. To Ianto's dismay, a young man was being treated for homosexuality. Danny sat alone in a corner, his eyes red-rimmed and unresponsive. When Ianto discovered him in this state, he tried to console him but only made him feel worse. Lynn had to yank him away with a reprimand.
"Don't console him; Danny is perfectly fine. All of this is part of his recovery process."
"He doesn't look fine to me," Ianto responded, irritated.
She explained to him that Danny was undergoing aversion therapy, three sessions per day. Aversion therapy was a type of treatment in which the patient was subjected to unpleasant stimulation. This conditioning aimed to get the patient to associate their sexual lust for men with unpleasant sensations like nausea to stop the so-called compulsive behaviour.
Ianto shuddered just thinking about Danny's ordeal during these sessions.
"Did his family submit him to the hospital?" Ianto was curious.
"What, Danny?" asked Lynn, confused. "Oh no, he admitted himself. It was his own decision. That's what most patients do, actually. They want to get better. I mean, nobody wants to be a burden on their family, right?"
Most came here of their own volition?
Ianto felt compelled to seize Danny and shake him, to tell him that there was nothing wrong with him. Of course, that was impossible for far too many reasons. He'd probably worsen his pain due to the therapy, but Ianto also had to be cautious for his own sake.
Perhaps the possibility of being trapped in the 1950s was more dreadful than initially imagined.
For the time being, he should focus on Jack and the people from his own time. He'd seen one of them earlier in the day, restrained to his bed. Ianto could tell the other two were struggling, too, when he discovered them in the day room.
The younger woman spent her time rocking back and forth, clutching a stuffed animal and asking the same question repeatedly.
"Where is my dog? Has anyone seen my dog?"
The woman, Erin Davies was her name, was here because she was suffering from severe anxiety, as Lynn told him. Anxiety after stepping through a time anomaly wasn't surprising, Ianto thought wryly. To his dismay, Lynn told him also that Ms Davies had undergone electroconvulsive therapy the day before. Lynn cheerfully informed him that the session had gone well. Ms Davies had been screaming and crying and refusing to take her medicine until yesterday, causing distress and chaos among the group. She was much quieter today.
Ianto also found the older woman who had first disappeared. He remembered her name as Rhonda Whittaker. Ianto was relieved to see her, but she seemed entirely out of it, sitting in a wheelchair and oblivious to her surroundings. He led her into the garden, but she didn't notice the sunshine or the fresh air. He tried to comfort her and reassure her that everything would be all right when she suddenly grabbed his hand and whispered. "I want to go home." Then she fell silent again.
"I know," Ianto said softly, lightly squeezing her shoulder.
Ianto discovered later that not everything was going swimmingly just by handing out pills in the morning. Florence Reece, who suffered from depression, began to complain of dizziness. She vomited all over the floor after a bout of nausea overtook her.
"Can you take care of the mess, Ianto?" Lynn asked him while filling a glass with water.
"Yes, of course," Ianto nodded. "What happened?"
"She doesn't tolerate the medication so well," Lynn explained. "It happens from time to time."
Keris spoke soothingly to the woman, who had begun sobbing when she realised her faux pas. The faster Ianto got everything cleaned up, the quicker she'd calm down.
When Ianto was looking for a broom and a bucket in the maintenance room, he noticed something unusual on the top shelf. A green dog leash with a silver bone-shaped tag. Engraved was a telephone number and the name Lizzy.
It was the leash from Erin Davies' missing dog. Ianto stared at the dog tag for a moment.
What had happened to Lizzy?
Fearing the worst, he put the leash back on the shelf, grabbed the broom and bucket, and returned to the day room for his cleaning duties. Later, he went looking for Lynn to question her about the missing dog.
Lynn gave him an uneasy smile, obviously searching for the right words. "Well…," she said, "dogs are not allowed in this facility. Apart from Bruno, but he's a trained security guard. We had no choice but to put her down."
"And you didn't tell Erin?" Ianto asked incredulously.
"Doctor Winslow said it would impede Ms Davies's recovery. He ordered us not to tell her! So, we didn't," Lynn shrugged.
"What did you do with the dog?" Ianto asked, trying to suppress his anger.
"I don't know. It's not my responsibility," Lynn said defensively. "I think there is a crematory in the basement. That's usually where the deceased are sent. I suppose the dog followed suit."
"They burn the deceased?"
She shrugged. "I'm not sure, I've never been down there. Evan and Dean are usually on basement duty. Well, Dean used to be."
Ianto stared at her. "Dean?"
"Um..." Lynn stumbled over her words and looked uncomfortable. "I don't like talking about him. He worked here for a while as a nurse. Like you."
"Why did he quit?" Ianto dug deeper.
"I don't know. We had an argument the last time we spoke. And then he was gone," Lynn said, a sad shadow passing over her eyes. "Like I said, I don't want to talk about him."
Ianto had spent most of the day working closely with Lynn, and now Keris was showing him their music cabinet, which included a couple of well-played vinyl records. Ianto flipped through the discs, as she had told him to choose one for tea time.
"Where is Nurse Edwards?" Ianto looked around. He couldn't see the older nurse anywhere in the day room, even though he'd been told she oversaw the ward.
"She has a special assignment and won't be around much for a while. There is this new patient who needs special attention," Keris explained. "I guess she was chosen because she has been here the longest and has the most experience. They say the man requires constant observation and medication. As if I wasn't qualified for the job as well." Keris didn't sound pleased with the way Nurse Edwards had pulled ranks.
Ianto nodded and pulled out a Glenn Miller record. Moments later, the first notes of "Chattanooga Choo Choo" rang out through the room.
"Fab choice, the patients love that one!" Keris smiled fondly as the mood in the room instantly brightened.
Ianto found it comforting to listen to music that Jack might have liked, which is why he chose the record. It didn't calm his restlessness. He began to worry that his window of opportunity had passed. Maybe he should've acted immediately when he found Jack. Jack had been awake; they could have tried to flee.
He hated the idea of leaving the others behind, but he didn't see another way right now. Everything would become more difficult as he waited. Ianto decided to sneak out after curfew. If he was lucky, his sedation would wear off during the night. He would carry him if necessary, but they had to try to escape.
He had no idea what they had in store for Jack, but he had no intention of finding out.