Pain
Entering the day room Jack saw Ianto standing in the same place as he was the day before. Owen had briefly shared the contents of the folder as they had sat in the grounds. It was sober reading. Ianto had been on the Valiant for god knows how long. Jack knew from bitter experience how evil the Master was. Whatever he had endured had been profound; the man at the window was a shattered remnant of the man he once was, trapped in the nightmare of his own mind.
"Hello Ianto," Jack said kindly as he approached Ianto who did not acknowledge him.
"I've come a long way to see you," he added after a few minutes.
"Tosh, Owen, and Gwen all send their love," he tried again.
"It's a warm day out there today," he offered as Ianto continued to ignore him.
"The grounds are lovely. Owen and I had a walk earlier," he stood there trying to find something anything to say.
"Ianto I love you. I am so sorry this has happened to you," he said as Jack stood for a while longer then turned away. Ianto did not react to his leaving any more than he had to his arrival.
Walking out he went to the corridor and broke down. Owen put his arms around him and led him off to the same office they were in earlier.
Several long moments passed before Doctor Green joined them.
"Why does he spend so much time looking out the window?" Owen asked as Jack composed himself.
"Ianto loves being outdoors. The problem is once he is outside he will not come back in. As dark approaches the stress of having to come back inside and the darkness trigger him into an episode. Aside from that when he is outside he wants to get higher, he will climb trees, ladders, anything for a better view, or he attempts to escape, any approach and he becomes incredibly difficult," Doctor Green told them.
"Why has he so many bruises and he so thin?" Jack asked as he now recovered.
"Ianto is terrified of the dark, and locked rooms, but for his safety he has to be put into a secure room at night. We try and sedate him but it is always a fight, if it's a very bad night we have to restrain him," he told them sadly.
"Like last night?" Owen asked.
"Yes he had a terrible night, screaming, nightmares, nothing would calm him down. Eventually we were left no choice but to restrain him," he told them.
"Why does he need a secure room?" Jack asked thinking the Ianto he knew was never violent.
"Late at night he wanders around and starts looking for something. We have never ascertained what he is looking for and to be truthful I don't think he does either. Once he starts he becomes more and more agitated, then he starts pulling things apart. We only have limited night staff so he has to be locked up for the night," the doctor told him.
"Can I see where he sleeps if that's okay?" Jack asked barely able to speak as he used a handkerchief to wipe his face.
"Certainly, but before I do that, I was hoping you could give me any insight into these," he handed over several drawings all of blue grey blobs.
"He does several a day, they are clearly they are something of great importance," he told them.
"Sometimes they have a small blue shape," he added as he saw them shake their heads and hand them back.
"Is this all he draws?" Owen asked.
"Every day. We've counted over 700 of them, all different shades of grey," he told them.
He stood up and let them out as he indicated to Carl to give them a tour.
Jack was silent as he was shown the bleak world Ianto now lived in. He had two rooms, one he used during the day; it held a few jigsaws and books people had brought in for him mostly of how things worked. An easy chair with a small table and a blackboard with some maths on it. Carl explained that Ianto seemed to have an enjoyment of number puzzles and they wrote at least one a day to give him a challenge. He was very good, you could leave a complex maths problem on the board and Ianto would scrawl up an answer after only a quick glance.
His night room was very austere being only a mattress on the floor, Jack shuddered as a cold chill ran down his back because it reminded him of his own incarceration on the Valiant. It was not surprising Ianto did not spend any time there let alone at night. Terrified of the dark and being locked away it didn't take much imagination to work out that Ianto might believe he was still on board. Nodding quietly they saw Ianto heading for his afternoon tea.
"It will be juice and two chocolate biscuits today," Carl told them as if that explained everything.
Dr Green stood with Carl as they watched their visitors exit the main building and head for the parked SUV in the distance.
"Do you think they will be back?" Carl asked
"I think they went a lot of trouble to fake a union. Never seen anything so good, so he is clearly someone of great importance to them and yes I think they will," he told him.
"Good. I think they really care about him and he could do with someone giving a damn," Carl said reminding them both that of all the residents here Ianto was the only one without any support.
"I agree. For all his bluster I believe Captain Harkness loves Ianto very much," Dr Green said as he headed back inside.
The full horror
Jack sat on the edge of the bed in their hotel room and took a large whiskey from Owen.
"Tell me?" he asked.
"Ok I scanned him and it confirmed the medical reports," he put his hand on Jack's shoulder
"You sure you want to hear this?" He saw Jack nod.
" What they did to him was terrible," Owen told him "He was found with a severe skull fracture, broken jaw, right wrist broken along with every finger on his left hand, dislocated elbow, partially dislocated shoulder. He had 4 broken ribs, punctured lung, three fractured vertebra." He put his fingers to Jack's spine to indicate which ones. "He had evidence of multiple healed fractures; he has multiple contusions old and new across his back, buttocks, and backs of his legs consistent with use of a bull whip. He has multiple small burn marks around his genitals which look like cigarette burns and," he took a deep breath," he has damage consistent with severe and prolonged rape." He saw Jack go pale and drink the whiskey in his glass in one gulp. Owen took a breath.
"Right now, he has several medical matters that are due to his condition are on-going. He is underweight, and anaemic. His worst issue is a bowel rupture caused by the rapes. I concur with the assessment that this was most likely caused by objects or pack rape of some kind. This was patched up when he was first hospitalised however at some time in the future he will need further surgery to repair the damage permanently. His teeth are in terrible shape evidence of being smashed in the mouth, but in light of his mental state the staff here have been loath to address them until they have too. From the notes they are hoping he will improve enough so they can get these attended to without triggering him to into an episode." Jack took a deep breath.
"Then there's the mental aspect of all this. From my scan it would indicate that some kind of mind probe was used on him; best guess it has scattered his mind. You were there Jack have you any idea what it could have been?" Owen asked.
"I was kinda in the same situation Owen, I really wasn't paying much attention being the Master's personal stress release," he replied.
Owen continued. "I would say his mental state is a complex mix of damage from the probe and the torture. The notes say that Ianto is triggered into flashback situations where he experiences an event as if he was back on the Valiant. It's the most severe form of PTSD, whilst it is happening he will be feeling all the physical reminders of the stress he felt at the time."
"So when we rushed up to him yesterday he believed we were going to drag him off and…" Jack said grimly as he took another gulp of whiskey.
Owen nodded. "On top of that there is memory damage. It's extensive; he may not know who he is, where he is, or why he is there, for all he knows this is just a continuation of his imprisonment. From his stress levels and reactions he is living moment to moment with the expectation he could be taken and tortured at any moment. His nightmares are an indication that every night he is reliving his worst memories repeatedly. Whatever the Master did to him totally fucked his mind, and I will add one final thing: I think the mental breakdown of this most likely had one more element." Jack looked at him trying to think how this could be any worse.
"When he was first brought in his blood tests all showed a high level of a number of drugs used to break down resistance, and some compounds no one recognised. The drugs combined with the torture and the probe, reduced him to what we saw today."
'There has to be something we can do," Jack looking at Owen as he tried to come to terms with what Ianto had endured.
"Jack I have no idea, no idea at all," Owen told him.
"There has to be," Jack said. "There just has to be." Standing he moved across the table and refilled his glass with whiskey.
"Should we move him? Get him into private care? I mean, restraints, sedation…" he struggled with the day and all its implications.
"I've made some calls," Owen told him. "Everyone I spoke to told me Geoff Green is a world expert on the treatment and care for victims of torture. Ianto is in the best hands he could be, if he was somewhere else the place to bring him would he here."
"I just can't bear the thought of him being in there, dragged into that room every night," Jack said as he threw the whiskey down his throat on one gulp.
"It's hard Jack but for right now Ianto is in the right place," Owen said putting his hand on Jack's shoulder.