Torchwood: Divergence
Book Two: Adferiad
Chapter 58
Turlough had broken speed records and tonnes of traffic laws to turn the normal eighty-minute drive into thirty-three, and if PC Davidson hadn't gotten the help of fellow constables as well as two crews from UNIT enroute to the "church" to open a straight shot along the roads, they likely would have been in a catastrophic accident early on. Ianto had made it back from death by the time they'd hit the base, and though the Scieron indicated to Jack that the more dangerous aspects of the incurred brain damage had been repaired, there was still a lot to work on and the rest of the injuries remained nearly untouched… which meant they would need serious mitigation while the Shadows continued to heal their Changeling normally as well as during the planned periods of time in the Dark.
Martha had everything up and running in the Autopsy Lab when they arrived, helped get Ianto's coat off from around his shaking body and his clothing cut away so that he could go onto the anti-microbial sheet covered exam table. Then she removed the makeshift bandages and did an iodine wipe down of all pertinent areas, carefully placing sterile packing in the gaping wounds even as Gwen came running into the Hub.
"Jack, I need you to keep his head still," the young doctor directed briskly. "Turlough, get a shirt on and scrub in. I've packed the main wounds, and I'm putting saline-soaked gauze over the burns, then you'll need to help me get inside the areas of joint damage and try to reattach what we can, repair the vascular tears if nothing else. Gwen, pull an IV rig, two ports and tubing. Grab a unit of lactated ringers, another of saline. I'll get them going when I'm done here. Ianto, I'm sure you can hear me, sweetie. And I'm really sorry, but I'm going to have to put you in full restraints. Without pain killers, the surgery is going to be beyond traumatic but you cannot struggle or move about, yeah? Gwen's going to get some oxygen on you and Jack's right here holding your head still, okay?"
A slight choked moan was all the injured Changeling could manage, but his partner nodded permission for him. Cooper rolled the stool over for the American to sit on after she'd doused her hands in surgical spirits and pulled the IV supplies, then she helped him out of his coat, held surgical gloves for him to put on, and went over to collect the big trolley-bound oxygen concentrator. Once she got the cannula fitted on their friend and the valve open per Turlough's quick instructions, she snagged a big gauze pad and the bottle of spirits she'd used earlier, so she could wash the dirt, blood and tears from their Captain's face and neck where he sat trying to comfort the injured Welshman on the table. Finally, she bolted up to the office, came back with one of the older man's button-up shirts and draped it over his shoulders.
"I'll wait to check all of you when we have him stable," Martha told her teammates, busily inserting the IV ports into Ianto's right internal jugular vein via the image on the Bekaran Scanner she had Jack holding with one hand while his other kept his lover's head and neck in the proper position, getting the ports taped down and fluids started before locking the swivelling arm rests out and starting to strap her patient to the table. "Obviously you all took some damage from that device by the blood on your faces."
"Minimal," Turlough put in as he reappeared in a tee shirt to don an apron and surgical gloves, quickly slipping a seizure bit into their patient's mouth. "Ianto was at war with the device, which likely mitigated the damage it did to us, plus he shut it down not long after the alien used it to try controlling us. All we got were some minor capillary rupturing and headaches."
"I'd still like to make sure," Martha insisted, snugging the restraints across her patient's upper chest and lower abdomen, adding a huge dose of antibiotics to the saline, then pulling the surgical tray close. "Let's start at the hips and knees, make sure any damage to the femoral arteries get repaired first."
She cut away the twenty-six-year-old's boxer type briefs, carefully removed the packing from the crease of his left leg and took up a scalpel.
"Be ready with the suction, Turlough," the young physician called, turning Ianto's leg slightly so she could make a clean incision from the ripped flesh of the groin area down past his knee, so she could retract the muscles and get a closer look at what had been damaged inside.
The Changeling under the knife let out a choked cry past the gag, which turned into a clench-jawed moan, his partner keeping his head still while whispering words of comfort and apology as his shivering turned to a steady uncontrollable shaking. Martha and Turlough worked as quickly as they could and still be thorough; repairing the torn vasculature, reconnecting muscles, tendons, and ligaments, getting broken bones back in position, and setting joints into their proper sockets once more. Then they started closing the incisions as well as the torn skin in the crease of their friend's leg before moving on to the right side to repeat the whole process.
Between both legs and arms, it took the pair nearly three hours to do what they could to mitigate the extensive damage. The half open wound in Ianto's chest required another twenty minutes as they cleared out a large haemothorax pressing against his lungs, and they hadn't even addressed the head trauma yet. Jack was trying not to let the fact that he was crying show in his voice as he continued to whisper words of love to his Welshman, who was sobbing in agony and had bitten through the inside of his bottom lip trying to muffle his own screams after nearly destroying the rubber bit he'd been given, forcing them to remove it as a choking hazard.
"I'm not sure what to do about the burns or the penetration wounds to his eyes and cranium," Martha admitted, carefully easing the damp gauze away from their wounded Archivist's face. "The gouges I can clean up but they aren't deep enough to suture. We should really debride the burns, but he's in so much pain already."
"Jack…" Ianto hissed brokenly, his partner leaning close. "Kiss… me…"
"Get ready," Harkness told the others, knowing what the younger man meant. "Gwen, turn off the sound on the vitals monitor."
"Oh, God," Cooper breathed, doing as she was told even though it forcibly reminded her of sitting vigil by her father's bed before he died.
Jack rose, moved around to the side of the table where he could better reach Ianto's ravaged face as he slid his arms into the sleeves of his button up.
"I'm right here waiting," the American reassured, his voice catching slightly.
Then he engaged his lover in an intense kiss, tasted the blood on the young Welshman's lips as it mixed with his own tears. Ianto's body briefly tensed against the restraints, the reading on the vitals monitor silently going to a flatline as the older man drew away to stumble back to his seat and once more place a hand on either side of the Changeling's head.
"Work on is face now," Jack grated tightly. "While he can't feel anything. I don't know how long they'll keep him in the Dark."
"Shit," Martha swore softly, reaching for the drawer behind her. "Turlough, get towels under his head and start irrigating with saline. Let me change my gloves and get to scrubbing the char off."
Harkness closed his eyes, hardly able to bear seeing the horrific burns that covered the twenty-six-year-old he loved from nose tip to hairline, and knowing he'd lose it completely if he watched the damage being abraded down to raw flesh.
"Gods," Turlough breathed after a moment. "Full bone exposure across the mid-line of his forehead, the bridge of his nose, and upper edge of both cheeks. And though his eyelids are intact, the portal light makes it clear that he has three cauterized punctures in each eye and the surface of both orbs had been seared. That device must have had his eyes pinned open. We can't debride the corneas and sclera. And the Bekaran shows total optic nerve disconnection… shredded, not severed. He's blind regardless until that's sorted."
"Some things we'll just have to wait for the Scieron to take care of," the team medic decided, though she didn't' sound happy about the fact. "Let's get the rest of this cleaned up and silver-nitrate coated. We'll use antibiotic drops and heavy moisture ointment in his eyes, gel pad them, then bandage everything with two layers of non-stick burn mesh and three-ply gauze on top of that. We can relocate the IVs to his right hand before we move him, now that the arm's stitched up."
"I'm… going to go put on a shirt," Gwen murmured, sounding like she was trying not to gag. "Be right back."
The former PC gave Jack a comforting squeeze on the shoulder as she went by, the sound of her footsteps receding up the stairs and across the Hub. The Captain just kept his eyes closed and waited, carefully raised his partner's head, and shifted his grip when asked so the bandages could go on.
"Okay," Martha said at last. "Let's get all the blood and iodine washed off. Then the three of us will get him, the IVs and oxygen into your room, Jack. We'll try to make him as comfortable as possible and just see what happens with his Shadows."
"Gwen!" the American called, finally opening his eyes once more. "Get an old set of sheets and the original duvet from our wardrobe, and change the bedding so we can move Ianto when he's cleaned up!"
"Already done, Captain!" Lois' voice replied from somewhere near the work stations. "Lights are all on in there and I secured a second hook in the wall so both IVs will hang up. I'm heading back to the kiosk. Please just call if you need me to help with anything else."
Cooper appeared at the top of the medical bay stairs, all the blood scrubbed from her face and neck, wearing the jumper she'd had in her locker.
"She wants to help but she's embarrassed to see Ianto naked," she half smiled. "Obviously not a married woman. Strange thing is, I don't have any trouble being around him stripped to the skin with everything in plain view. But I bloody blush every time I see him with just his shirt off. How mad is that?"
"Pretty messed up," Jack breathed, trying to get himself fully under control for moving his lover, so he'd be able to comfort the young Welshman when the Scieron returned him to life. "I usually just stare in unabashed appreciation either way."
"And he's the one who ends up blushing," Turlough commented, helping the team medic get the rest of their patient's injuries bandaged after removing all the restraints. "Though I'll say it's good that Tegan's never had reason to meet either of you, let alone see Ianto in a state of even partial undress. Rather demoralizing really."
"I've done your team physical," Martha chuckled. "You have nothing to worry about. Okay… you wrangle the IVs; I'll get the oxygen. Jack, careful as you can picking him up, and really mind his head."
Gwen hurried ahead, slipping into the bedroom to pull the covers down to the end of the bed and arrange all the pillows but one so her friend could be settled with his upper body slightly inclined over on the side toward the wall. The others arrived, Jack gently positioning the eternal twenty-six-year-old on the mattress and easing his heavily bandaged head against the pillows. Then he accepted the miniature oxygen concentrator from Martha, placed it on top of the wide headboard and blocked it in place with the big H.G. Wells book he'd gotten for Christmas. Turlough slipped into the narrow gap between the bed and the wall to hang both IV bags from the waiting picture hooks, and made sure they were currently off to avoid fluid build-up while their friend's blood flow was suspended, looked to see that the tubing wasn't tangled or overstretched, checked the ports in the back of the young Guardian's right hand. Once he'd extracted himself, Harkness carefully raised Ianto's right arm just enough to get the covers up to bundle the rest of his body, then settled his arm in place atop the duvet. He quietly asked Gwen for the chenille throw draped over the nearby chair, placed the folded blanket on his Welshman's exposed arm from shoulder to wrist, then gingerly sat on the mattress beside him.
They'd done what they could to mitigate the horrific amount of damage Ianto had suffered, and the Scieron were working on the rest. Now all they could do was wait.
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AN: Yep… now it's a waiting game…
Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM