WARNING: Some swearing. Sorry. Angelwood.
Getting Her Straight.
Everyone had gone home and there was only Jack, the Doctor and Phoenix left in the hub. Jack stood at the top of the autopsy room stairs looking down at her. Gwen had taken Phoenix's boots off and sat them on the floor next to the table for when she woke up. Gwen had also gotten her a pillow and put it under her head and put a blanket over her to keep her warm. Owen had bagged her hands so Phoenix didn't get anything caught in her skin as it healed, the burns on her hands from absorbing the hub's electrical supply from the mains. Phoenix had been asleep all day. As Jack stood and watched her, he thought to himself.
"She looks so weak and helpless. The strongest woman in the universe and she looks so weak and helpless. Have I done this to her? Why didn't she eat, look after herself? How do I help her?" he thinks as he watches her sleep.
"Jack. I need to go but I will be back. I'm working on something in the TARDIS but I can't get what I need here," the Doctor tells Jack standing behind him.
"Ok. You going to be long?" Jack asks him not taking his eyes off of Phoenix.
"As long as it takes Jack but I will be back in plenty of time. When she wakes up, don't push her or pressure her or she will run and we need her to stay here," the Doctor almost orders Jack and Jack simply nodded.
After a minute, the blue light flashed, the wind kicked up again and the familiar sound of the TARDIS echoed through the hub and then nothing, silence. He moved from the top of the stairs where he had been stood for over an hour and made his way down the autopsy room stairs. He paused before he got to the table side and looked at her hands. They were almost healed but he couldn't touch them, he couldn't hold her hand.
He made the few final steps to the table and he looked at her face. She looked so peaceful, no fear, no hate, no hurt, peaceful. He stroked her forehead as she slept and then the phone went in the hub so Jack went over to the phone in the autopsy room and picked up the receiver.
"Hello," he answered quietly.
"Jack. It's Ianto," came the Welsh voice on the other end.
"Is everything ok Yan?" Jack asks him thinking something was wrong as he had called the hub.
"Nothing's wrong Jack. I just called to see how Phoenix is doing?" Ianto asks him as he looks round at Phoenix who hadn't move.
"She's still asleep but hopefully she will wake up soon. Her hands are healing though so it looks good," Jack tells him looking back at the phone.
"There's some Chinese in the fridge for when she wakes up. Just take the lids off of the boxes, put them in the microwave and put them on for 5 minutes on full. Have you got that?" Ianto asks Jack knowing that he never used the microwave, ever!
"Chinese in the fridge, remove lids and put on full for 5 minutes. Got it," Jack replies writing it down so he didn't forget.
"The microwave is that big silver box with a window in the door in the far corner Jack," Ianto tells him half joking and half being serious.
"I know what a microwave is Yan even if I don't use it," Jack tells him a little annoyed at Ianto for assuming that he didn't know what a microwave was.
"Just making sure. Right, I will leave you to it but give me a call when she wakes up and I will see you in the hub at 7am," Ianto tells Jack giving him final instructions.
"I will Yan and I'll see you in the morning. Sweet dreams," Jack tells him and then realised how soppy that sounded.
"I'll let that one go Jack but I'll see you in the morning," Ianto tells him and hangs up the phone.
Jack puts the receiver down and takes a breath as he was embarrassed at what he had said to Ianto. He walked back over to Phoenix and her eyes were wide open.
"Your awake," he tells her stating the obvious.
"No, I sleep with my eyes open Jack," she tells him looking at the ceiling, her voice ripe with sarcasm.
"Ok. I asked for that. How do you feel?" he asks her stuffing his hands in his pockets, helping him to resist the urge to touch her.
"Like I've just been electrocuted, wait, I was. How do you think I feel?" she tells him, the sarcasm very evident in her voice and words.
"Phoenix. Quit the sarcasm. This is serious," he tells her trying to get her attention as she was still looking at the ceiling.
"You think you really need to tell me how serious this is Jack? I know more than anyone how serious this," she tells him raising her hands and seeing the bags over them so she takes them off, looking her hands over.
"What is going on Phoenix? I need a little help here. You tell me about what happened with our son, you blow hot and cold, you disappear for hours and days on end, you tell the Doctor how you feel but you don't tell me and then you turn up to the meeting, do your thing and start haemorrhaging. We need to get this sorted and now," Jack tells her forgetting everything that the Doctor had told him.
"Chinese Ianto said didn't he?" Phoenix asks as though she hadn't heard what Jack had said as she gets off of the table, moving the blanket off of herself.
She looks down at her feet as she feels the cold, concrete floor under her feet, not realising at first that she didn't have her boots on until she sees them on the floor next to the table. She slides her feet in but doesn't do them up.
"Phoenix. Will you stop ignoring the issue. We need to talk openly," Jack tells her, forgetting now annoyed she made him feel sometimes.
"Openly? That's rich coming from you Harkness. I need to eat unless you want a repeat performance of earlier?" she asks him climbing the autopsy room stairs and going into the main hub, Jack following her.
"You can talk while you eat you know. It's just us here and no-one is going to bust in here," Jack tells her, following her with his hands in his pockets as he walked.
"What do you want? A medal?" she asks him as she reaches the kitchenette.
"Will you drop the sarcasm for a second please and bloody be serious. I have never seen you so weak that you haemorrhaged. That scared the hell out of me never mind everyone else," Jack tells her as she reaches the fridge and starts rummaging through it, finding the Chinese.
"Such is my life Jack. Oh, Chicken Chow Mein, Prawn curry and rice and spring rolls. I love you Ianto Jones," Phoenix says out loud as she takes the boxes out of the fridge and puts them on the side.
Jack grabs hold of her arm and turns her around so she faces him.
"This is tearing me apart Phoenix," Jack tells her as he looks in her eyes that were usually shining bright but they were dull.
"I'm not finding this easy either Jack. I didn't want all this," Phoenix tells him pulling her arm away from him and turning back to the Chinese, putting it in the microwave and turning it on.
"I know your not finding this easy either, this morning being enough evidence of that but we can't keep going around in circles Phoenix. If we don't get this sorted, you can't get strong enough for The Devourer," he tells her as she turns around, almost in a flash.
"Is that what this little talk is about Jack? Getting me strong enough to do my thing and vanish again?" she asks him, a small fire in her eyes.
"You know that's not it Phoenix. God you make me so angry," Jack tells her and turns away from her.
"You used to love that about me," she tells him as she turns to get a plate out of the cupboard.
"Love about you," he corrects her turning to her.
"No Jack. Don't say that. This is hard enough without you throwing words like that around," Phoenix tells him slamming the plate down almost breaking it.
"That's why we need to talk Phoenix. I need to know how you feel and you need to know how I feel and we need to be totally honest we each other before we tear each other apart," Jack almost pleads with her.
"You know this isn't going to be easy don't you?" she asks him, no sarcasm, no anger.
"I know it isn't going be easy and I know that we could both end up getting hurt but we need to talk about this and deep in your heart, you know it too," Jack tells her putting his hand on her arm and she closes her eyes feeling his touch.