Chapter Thirty-Two

Sorry about the delay... REALLY busy time at school at the moment. :-(

Dedications to: GreyWolf15, EriinR, Galadriel1010, KaYlAhEe (feel better soon! :-D), hpets, janto-gal, WickedTorchwoodFan, Peregrin Ionad, HaruhiXHikaru, Cara 'ch cariad, Candi-apple-Red, appleseed08, Flabagash, CelticHeiressFiona, toobeauty, Candybree, Green-Lemon-Pie, BlueDragon007, bbmcowgirl, blaise sl, Flareon200 and Kymii. (I think I got all of you!)

I know, I know... I said that I would only dedicate it to the first six – but I couldn't remember who the first six were! Sorry! :-P

Ring, ring. Ring, ring. "Hello, this is Jack Harkness' mobile. If you're hearing this, then my mobile must be off at the moment, but if you leave a message I might get back to you. Though if it's a proposition, I'm sorry to inform you that I have a boyfriend." A laugh. "Maybe another time?"

Gwen growled under her breath and cancelled the call, instead scrolling down to Toshiko's name and trying her mobile.

"Gwen?" Tosh sounded slightly irritated, though she hid it well. "What is it?"

Gwen hesitated. "I think that I've discovered something about the aliens," she said.

"Yes?"

"Mrs Applegate was saying about her daughter, Clara, who was talking to mermaids..."

Toshiko was silent for a moment after Gwen finished her story, mulling it over in her mind.

"Tosh?" Gwen sounded anxious.

"I'm just thinking," Tosh said slowly, "that it might be better to tell them this together, when Ianto's awake."

"That could be hours," Gwen argued.

Toshiko sighed mentally, and switched the phone over to her other ear so that she could grip her PDA with her other hand and check the scans. "There's nothing any of us can do until Ianto's awake," she pointed out.

"Jack still ought to know," Gwen replied, stubborn as ever. "He wouldn't like us keeping it from him."

"With Ianto still out, then I think that Jack might instead go on a furious rampage," Toshiko said. "He's pretty upset – and we haven't even told him that Ianto was trying to kill himself."

"What does he think happened, then?"

Tosh shrugged, even though she knew that Gwen couldn't see her. "He thinks that Ianto was just taking a walk with the Doctor, then slipped and fell. The Doctor then jumped in after him to try and rescue him, but only ended up needing rescuing himself."

"Are you going to tell him?" Gwen said disapprovingly. "I know how angry I'd be if somebody lied to me about how Rhys got hurt."

"Of course!" Tosh said sharply. "We wouldn't keep it from him when there's no reason not to tell him. At the moment, if we told him, it might break him."

"He's Jack. He doesn't break."

Toshiko could have throttled Gwen. "He's only human, and he's been through a lot recently. Of course he can break."

Gwen was quiet. "I still think he should know the truth, about the mermaids at least," she said, ending the call before Tosh could say anything.

Toshiko glared at the droning phone for a moment, before closing it and turning back to her PDA. There wasn't anything she could do to stop her colleague— no, her ex-colleague – it hurt to think of Gwen like that – and there was a small, traitorous part of her that privately agreed with Gwen.

-T-

Gwen pushed open the door to Ianto's room and looked in, biting her lip. "Jack?" she whispered.

Jack looked up, a dark expression clouding his face when he realised who she was. "I thought I told you to go."

"I had to try and help." Gwen fiddled with the zipper on her jacket, desperately hoping that Jack would at least listen to her.

"Haven't you done enough?" Jack said harshly.

'Oh God, he's going to be unreasonable.' "I have to try and put things right, Jack. Give me that, at least."

Jack clenched his jaw and met her gaze with icy eyes. "Time and time again I've let you get away with things—"

"Like what?" Gwen asked before she could stop herself, stung by Jack's accusation. "What have I ever done?"

"You disobeyed the rules by letting Rhys into Torchwood, and then refusing to RetCon him. Why you want to expose somebody you love to what we deal with, I don't know." Jack closed his eyes briefly and took a deep, steadying breath. "If I could, I would send all of you away to have normal lives. I wouldn't wish Torchwood on anybody who hasn't got to know."

"Rhys had to know. I was sick and tired of lying! Every night, I had to make up some bloody awful excuse as to why I was late, and every night our relationship died a little more." Gwen spread her arms, imploring Jack to understand.

Jack stared at her for a moment. He let go of Ianto's hand, gently tucking it back against the Welshman's side, so that he could stand up and face her.

"You yourself told me not to let it drift! It was drifting, and there wasn't anything else I could do." She caught Jack's eyes with her own and held them. "Could you stand by and just let somebody you love walk away and leave you when there's something you can do to keep them with you?"

Jack ripped his eyes away and stared at Ianto's face. "Maybe, maybe not," he said, his voice tight. "You still disobeyed my orders."

Gwen growled under her breath, feeling like yelling. She clenched her fists. "Look, just listen to what I found out – it might be important. Even if I can't be a member of the team, I'm still a police officer and I'm only trying to do my job. Ianto is my friend, I care about him too, so just consider me an assisting officer. Just listen to me."

Jack crossed his arms and nodded at her. "Go on, then, PC Cooper."

Gwen had to bite her tongue to control her temper. "I was talking to Mrs Applegate earlier, and she was talking about her daughter, Clara."

Jack raised a disdainful eyebrow. "Just how is this relevant?"

"I'm getting there – anyway, Clara died of leukaemia six months ago—"

Gwen was interrupted by an alarm going off, loud and clamouring. A flood of nurses and doctors came rushing in, a couple of attendants wheeling a trolley.

"Out the way, please!"

"Quickly – we need to get him to the theatre—"

"Looks like internal bleeding – why didn't the scans pick up on that?"

One nurse started fussing as they started to move him onto the trolley. "Careful of his arm – we haven't set it yet—"

"F—k the arm – the bleeding's more important," the doctor snapped as they rushed out the door with the trolley. "Deal with the relatives!"

The nurse, Jack and Gwen gaped after them.

"What just happened?" Gwen asked, reeling.

The nurse turned a pitying look on her. "You family?"

"No, no – just a friend." Gwen tried to smile. "We were on holiday together when Ianto... fell."

Jack had a dazed expression on his face. "I'm his boyfriend," he managed. "Where are they taking him?"

The nurse patted his arm. "I'm sorry. They've taken him into surgery – it looks like internal bleeding. His heart stuttered."

"Is he going to be OK?" Jack's voice was small, his eyes large in his ashen face.

"We'll just have to hope and pray," the nurse said softly, her round face glowing with sympathy. "The Lord knows best."

"I'm an atheist," Jack said, still numb. "So's Ianto."

"Then I hope you have something strong that you can believe in." The nurse took his arm and guided him to the chair. "You may want to sit down – it'll be a long wait."

-whispers- I haven't a clue about any medical stuff, so please forgive all the inaccuracies! I've tried to use the internet, but I don't know any more than that. :-S

A small request to some of you people... I've got a friend, kitty-808, who's new to FF. She doesn't do Torchwood or Doctor Who fanfiction, but I was wondering if you could stop by her profile (you can find her in my f-list) and drop a PM to say hi. I would really appreciate it – I'm trying to convince her about the awesomeness that is FF!

Reviews are loved, people! Do any of you think that it could be possible for us to reach 400 reviews by the end of the story? I'm not sure, but I'd love it to happen! :-D