Torchwood: Divergence
Book Three: Rheoleiddiad
Chapter 35
Jack had helped Ianto strip down to his pants, got the younger man tucked into bed then settled atop the covers beside him. The eternal twenty-six-year-old had told his partner that though there was nothing he could have done, losing his niece felt like yet another failure as a Guardian… that his death two years before had protected her and his family more than he ever could in life. Then he'd shivered and cried himself into a restless sleep as his lover had tried to soothe him with his presence and an occasional gentle caress.
After about an hour however, Harkness was starting to worry over how terribly still the young Welshman now was and the shallowness of his breathing, combined with how much heat he was currently radiating.
"Ianto?" the Captain called evenly, reaching over to check the Changeling's carotid pulse and immediately feeling alarm surge through his body as he felt how scorchingly hot his partner's skin had grown. "You okay, buddy?"
There was no reply, the younger immortal not even twitching in response. Becoming increasingly concerned, the American rose to go wet a small towel in cold water, returned to fold back the covers and start sponging off his Archivist's chest, right arm, neck, and face. Still the Welshman didn't move, his breathing and weak pulse unchanged.
"Come on, Ianto," Jack urged, gently shaking the fevered Guardian in the hope of rousing him. "You need to wake up for me now."
He went to rewet the already overly warm towel when nothing happened, trying not to let panic set in.
Out in the Hub, Gwen was reading the information Martha had sent to her computer regarding possible treatments for her serious hormonal imbalance. Turlough as reassembling the RPG launcher he'd taken apart to clean because it had jammed the last time it was used in the field. And Martha was finishing up loading the samples into the analyser from the Omicron 12 alien that had caused havoc that morning, preparing the rest of the remains for transport to one of UNIT's disposal sites.
"The rest of City Council is demanding Buel be charged to the full extent of the law for what he did this morning," the red-haired Time specialist informed his teammates from his station. "Too little, too late if you ask me."
[Martha,] Jack's voice called quietly in the young black woman's ear before she could comment. [Can you come do a quick check on Ianto? He's not waking up even when I shake him or do a sternal rub, his breathing's really shallow, and his temperature is way higher than it's ever been before. It's starting to kind of scare me.]
"I'll be right there," the young doctor replied, grabbing her travel kit and starting up the stairs. "Turlough, I need a bag of D5W, tubing and a port, and toss a bag of saline in to rapid chill. Gwen, see if there's any ice up in the kitchenette, grab as much aa we've got. Sounds like Ianto 's going into a hyper-pyretic crisis, and Shadows or no, we need to cool him down before they have brain damage to repair again as well."
She hurried through the office into the room beyond, found their leader using a damp towel to bathe his partner's face, neck, and chest. He moved back to give her space as she brought out her stethoscope, penlight, temporal thermometer, and automated blood pressure wrist cuff.
"Lungs are clear," Martha pronounced. "Heartbeat's a little irregular, blood pressure's on the low side, pulse is bit slow and weak but not dangerously so yet."
The thermometer beeped as she rolled it over her friend's left temple, and she checked the reading.
"He's at 42.2°," she frowned as she turned on her penlight to do a pupil reaction test and pushed up one of the young Welshman's upper eyelids, only to snatch her hand back in surprise. "Red Light. The Scieron already know he's in trouble and have an internal portal active. We need to help them out and try to reduce this monster fever."
"Why is this happening?" Harkness demanded; his blue eyes clouded with worry. "Is it because of his arm, like an infection?"
"No," Martha shook her head, stripping back the covers to the end of the bed. "Sometimes people would come into the A&E with barely a mark on them, but they'd suffered a severe emotional or psychological trauma of some sort. Plane crash survivors, witnesses to a murder or horrific motor accident, mugging or armed robbery victims, someone who'd nearly been raped. They'd suddenly go into a physical crisis, experience a total collapse, spike a high fever, have nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, the whole deal. It was like their body was rebelling against what they'd been through, trying to purge and burn the bad memories away. But I've never seen it this intense before. Ianto was already mentally and emotionally vulnerable after the café, physically drained from all that happened during your argument at the flat because of Gwen, so this added trauma from his niece dying hit him super hard. He's so deep in shock he's pretty much comatose."
"He believes he did more to protect his niece by dying in London, than he ever has in that life or this new one," the Captain informed her, a slight hitch in his voice and his expression bordering on despair. "That it's just one more failure to prove he shouldn't be a Scieron Guardian, even though there's absolutely nothing he could have done to save her. That he isn't good enough to do his duty to me or the Scieron and shouldn't have been Chosen."
"Incredibly not good," Martha groaned, meeting the American's gaze. "No wonder he's running so hot. Guilt stokes a hyper-pyretic crisis like coke in a blast furnace. We need to try to mitigate from our side of things, and hope he can come to terms with the mental side on his own. First step, is to get him into the shower so we can ice him down."
"I have a better idea," Turlough stated from the doorway. "Less messy and doesn't require ice, which we apparently have very little of ready to hand at the moment. Why don't we take him to medical, put him in the cryo unit there but only engage the initial cool down. Once his core temperature reaches slightly below normal, we pull him out and start the IV to rehydrate him. Quicker, more efficient, easier to control, and less likely to saddle him with pneumonia as a side-effect."
"Start it up," Jack ordered without hesitation. "I'll bring him down to the Lab."
The redhead immediately disappeared with his armload of IV supplies, Martha right on his heels. That left Cooper standing in the office with three cold packs and a serving bowl half full of ice, not sure what she could do to help.
"Gwen," the Captain called without even looking her way. "Go get a morgue gown from medical, fast as you can."
The raven-haired woman bolted back out into the Hub without question, returned on the run with the requested item and moved to help get their youngest team member into it. Then Harkness gathered his partner into his arms, striding out through the office, across the decking and down into the medical bay where the others were waiting.
"I've got the oxygen attached so he'll be able to breathe better when the panel closes," Martha stated helpfully, adjusting the valve for the flow on the concentrator in question. "The chamber is already geared up, so we just need to put him in and let it work. I'm glad Turlough thinks outside the box constantly. This is actually a brilliant solution."
The named Trion prince half-smiled as he helped their leader ease the young Welshman into the cryogenic unit, set about placing all the proper sensors and monitor pads as the immortal American whispered to his unresponsive partner.
"We'll fix this, Ianto," Jack breathed shakily, hating to see his beloved Archivist prepped like a body for the Vaults. "Get you feeling better so you can say goodbye to your niece properly, yeah? I know that's bothering you. Don't worry… I'll find a way, I promise. What happened to her isn't something you could have protected her from, buddy. You have to believe that and let it go… please."
The Captain gave the twenty-six-year-old a gently kiss on the lips, felt the tiniest return of pressure against his own in response. His lover was actually still conscious, but his body had betrayed him as he struggled to deal with the overwhelming trauma of the loss he'd suffered. Somehow that made the older man's heart ache even more as he stepped back and let his team seal the top panel of the coffin-like box. It felt too much like he was interring the Changeling alive. The unit started to cycle, steadily lowering the temperature inside of it, and Harkness had to keep telling himself that in a little while they'd open the panel and the one loved would be okay… not frozen forever and sealed in the Vaults with so many others he'd had to lose over the years.
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AN: This is not going to be a quick or simple fix…
Thank you to those reading the story. And thank you to those who have followed, favourited, and reviewed. NM