Torchwood: Divergence
Book Two: Adferiad
Chapter 63
What a horrible day this was shaping up to be.
"Okay," Gwen began as she entered the room. "I've got your coffee and a bottle of water for later if you need it. Do you want the cup straight off, or should I leave it on the night table?"
"Table's fine, thanks," Ianto replied, not quite able to manage one of his usual smiles as he shifted uncomfortably beneath the covers. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, Gwen."
"Thanks for that," Cooper said earnestly, placing the cup on the drinks mat near the bedside corner of the table and sitting the bottle behind it. "But you were right. None of us have any idea what you've been dealing with the past couple of weeks. I tried to find your mug on the counter with my eyes closed, and thought I'd pull my hair out before I finally ran across it. I can't imagine trying to navigate around the Hub without being able to see where I'm going, let alone make coffee and use the computers. You've been doing brilliantly. So well, that I don't think the rest of us thought twice about how much you've actually been struggling. A long time ago, you told me that for being the supposedly sensitive, people person on the team, sometimes I 'don't half talk crap'. I think I was doing that today… and you were pretty upset back then too."
"Heading into Tretarri to find Bilis," her friend grimaced, remembering exactly what she was referring to. "I think it's just me though. You do great with everyone else. I'm the only one who ever back-talks your reassurances. Must be another of my less socially acceptable traits."
"No," the former constable half-smiled. "You're just more of a realist than most and not willing to believe every glimmer of sunshine blown up your arse. Not a bad thing. It helps keep the rest of us grounded."
"What did you do to get grounded?" Jack asked as he returned with an armload of gadgets. "Wow, can't even leave you alone for two minutes, young man. Where did you touch that you shouldn't have?"
"Ha, ha," Ianto responded dryly. "Stop, please, my sides will split if I laugh any harder."
"Not up to that kind of joke yet," the older man surmised, giving Cooper a wink. "I'll just have to stick to more basic humour. You know; bathroom jokes, bodily function puns…"
"So, Gwen, how would you like a possibly long-term house guest?" Ianto asked with a tiny, wintry smile. "Just till I can get a flat leased. I'm not so good with cleaning at the moment, but I can make coffee."
"I'm wounded," Harkness protested, getting the laptop plugged into the UPS protection strip set into the floor just under the end of the bed and laying the device on the mattress. "You don't like my horrific jokes? I'm just devastated. Gwen, tell him no… he absolutely cannot move in with you. Especially if he's going to make you coffee and I don't get any."
"Oh, no," the raven-haired woman laughed, rubbing her lower back to relieve the ache she'd developed there. "I'm not getting in the middle of this one. You two are on your own."
"Hey," the Captain called as she started to retreat. "Since you're tuck-tailing it out that way, would you get the TV stand from the Hothouse for me? I didn't have enough hands to snag it with the rest of this."
"I suppose I can," Cooper nodded, making her escape.
"I'm gonna set this up down here by the end of the bed, so you don't have to navigate around it when nature calls," Jack explained. "I'll get it booted up, let you log on, and put it in sleep mode till you need it. Your mobile will be on the left side of it, headset on the right… once I have the stand to sit it on, that is."
"That'll be great, thanks," the injured Archivist acknowledged, unconsciously rubbing the back of his neck again to ease the ache in his head even as he wished the pain and pressure in his lower abdomen would go away.
Suddenly there were two more hands against his neck, gently patting his aside so they could lightly massage the area then carefully work up the back of his head and behind his ears. They tracked back down after a moment to kneed the bunched muscles between nape and shoulder, before traveling up once more to repeat the pattern.
"Tell me if it hurts or makes it worse," his Captain requested quietly, hoping the rub was helping. "Think a hot pack would make it feel any better?"
"I'm generating plenty of heat trying to heal," Ianto breathed. "I appreciate the offer though. This is the kind of thing that really makes me wish painkillers still worked on me. The worst part right now is the headache, and there's no way to massage where it hurts. But what you're doing is definitely making my shoulders feel less sore."
"Well, partial success is better than total failure," Harkness chuckled, walking his hands up the young Welshman's neck again and continuing on to rub his temples, bandages and all. "Think a kiss would help?"
"Never hurts to try," the Changeling beneath the covers encouraged quietly.
Jack briefly abandoned the massage and moved to sit on the mattress so he could lay a gentle hand on either side of his partner's face and pull him close. He first brushed his lips atop the bandages over each of the twenty-six-year-old's eyes, then engaged him in a long, deep kiss. When he finally eased back, the younger immortal sighed appreciatively and managed an actual smile.
"Not quite 800 milligram Ibuprofen," Ianto whispered. "But surprisingly effective."
"Nice to know I haven't lost my touch," his lover smiled. "Speaking of which, if your hips still hurt…"
"You can work on those when you don't have an audience, yeah?" Gwen interrupted, having come in with the snap together TV table from the Hothouse, her tone both amused and irritated. "Where do you want this?"
"Right by the end there is fine," Harkness pointed, then turned back to the young Guardian he was trying to make more comfortable, and carefully resumed massaging his neck from under his ears down to the slowly relaxing muscles near his shoulders. "We'll see about those hips once Mom's gone."
"Shut it," Cooper growled, only half joking as she positioned the collapsible table and settled the laptop on it, noticing the nearby Archivist wince and shift as though it was hurting more than just his hips to stay sitting the way he was. "Ready for action. You two behave yourselves. There's a fine line between healing and harming with your injuries, Ianto. Give me a call on the comms if you need anything else."
She pulled the door closed as she exited, leaving the pair alone for a while.
"Help me up?" Ianto asked quietly. "I need to pay a visit now that Grumpy's gone."
The American beside him dutifully rose to fold the covers back, then steadied his lover as he got out of bed. He lent a supportive arm for the younger man to balance with as he gritted his teeth and limped painfully toward the ensuite, saw him safely past the pocket door of the water closet and to the commode.
"I'm so tired of feeling dizzy and even more tired of having to sit for everything," Ianto complained, shakily pulling down his boxer-briefs and using the bog-roll storage cabinet to gauge where to sit, obviously in a lot of pain again.
"I could help with that too," his partner grinned.
Rather than smile at the suggestion, the young Welshman blushed and shook his head, regretting the motion instantly as his temples pounded and his balance faltered dangerously. Jack saved him from falling sideways, kept a hand on his shoulder as he finished his business. Then he helped the twenty-six-year-old to stand and get his pants back in place, but stopped him from flushing.
"Does it hurt when you urinate?" he asked bluntly.
"It hurts when I do anything," Ianto replied tightly, starting to shake more and more the longer he stood upright. "Why?"
"There's a scary amount of blood in the bowl," Jack explained, his concern obvious. "I think Martha should take a closer look at your bladder with the Bekaran, see if there's damage that got missed somehow."
"I… need to lie down," Ianto breathed unsteadily, his balance skewing once more and pitching him against his partner when he tried to take a step.
"You're furnace hot again," Harkness observed, carefully helping the distressed Changeling back out to the bed. "And… do you still feel like you need to use the loo?"
"No," his companion whispered miserably, fear icing through his veins. "But my pants feel wet."
"That's because there's blood front and back," the Captain frowned. "Can you stand for just a minute while I get some towels to put on the bed?"
"Yeah," Ianto hedged, his breathing becoming fast and shallow, an all too familiar ache settling in his chest as the other man stepped away. "No… wait… Jack…"
He was down before he could reach for the undying American, his air choking to painful gasps as he felt his spine stiffen and the world disappeared in a void filled with nothing but pain. Slowly sound returned as his lover tried to comfort and reassure him, then the touch of the older man's arms holding him filtered through.
"I'm gonna have Gwen send Martha in," Harkness stated as soon as he was sure the seizure was over. "The haemorrhaging's worse now, and…"
"No…" the Welshman in his arms choked, grasping his partner's nearest hand in and unintentionally bruising grip. "Shower… take me to the shower, please…"
"Ianto, you could be bleeding to death," Jack warned, his voice strained.
"Good…" Ianto nearly sobbed, shocking the older man with the strength of that one word. "I.. I want this to stop… I can't deal with it anymore, Jack… the constant pain, the risk of reinjury, being blind… I've tried to be brave and strong… but it's too much now… Honestly, if it wouldn't set off the fire suppression system like Tosh did… I've been thinking of putting a fork in the bloody toaster… stop my heart, have the Scieron finish the job all at once this time with an external portal…"
"You're serious," Harkness breathed uncomfortably.
"Very," his partner grated, his desperation extremely apparent. "Please, Jack… help me to the shower. It can take the heat of a full portal… just get me there, unbandage my eyes and walk away… please…"
"If…" the Captain began hesitantly. "If I put you in the shower, turn on the water and use the Energy Field Manipulator on my VM to electrify the stall… one big jolt to stop your heart like you said. They will send you back, won't they?"
*We hear our Chosen's plea and understand his suffering,* a Scieron voice whispered in both men's minds. *Speed him on his way, Eternal, we will do what must be done and wake him whole as quickly as possible. Just as when the beast pierced his heart while he protected the green-eyed babe.*
"Good enough," Jack nodded, taking the grim reassurance at face value. "I didn't realise how much you've been suffering and I don't want you miserable anymore. If this is the way to fix things, let's do it."
He divested the twenty-six-year-old of his pyjama shirt, picked him up and carried him to the shower to carefully settle him on the tiled floor so he could lean back into the far corner. Then he peeled up the surgical tape holding together the gauze wrapped over the shivering Changeling's eyes, got all of it along with the gel coated pads off to expose the still terribly bruised lids. Fresh blood on the padding as well as the Archivist's lashes was proof that the nose bleed hadn't been the only damage in the area from the fall.
"Give me one second to lock the door," the American murmured, turning on the water at a warm, gentle spray and angling the showerhead so that the flow cascaded over his lover before striding out into the bedroom.
Then he was back, calculating the precise field and voltage that would be needed to stop his beloved Welshman's heart with minimal peripheral damage.
"Ready?" Harkness asked reluctantly, his own heart pounding as he watched the water beneath the younger man turn a dark, ominous red before swirling down the drain. "Ianto?"
"See you soon…" Ianto promised weakly, simply waiting to die.
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AN: Time to get things done and dusted… no matter how hard it might be.
Coming up on the end of Book Two soon… Hoping to have enough of Book Three typed up to start it for Ianto's Birthday in August.
Yep… they still don't have things with the internet fixed… so much for it being an "upgrade". Again, if I don't respond to a review right away, that's why.
Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM