donutsweeper (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
donutsweeper) wrote2007-07-12 11:38 pm
donutsweeper) wrote2007-07-12 11:38 pm
Painful Lessons
Title: Painful Lessons
Pairing/Rating/Warning: none, rated PG, vague spoilers for TW S1
Summary: The team debated what to do about an injured Jack
Word count: 1700
Author's Notes: Another unbeta-ed fic, sorry. Comments and critique welcome
Pairing/Rating/Warning: none, rated PG, vague spoilers for TW S1
Summary: The team debated what to do about an injured Jack
Word count: 1700
Author's Notes: Another unbeta-ed fic, sorry. Comments and critique welcome
Jack was furious at his team for not taking this alien hunt seriously. He waited at the north end of the alley for the scanner to finish calibrating before following them after the creature. He could hear them laughing and shouting, acting like this was a game of chase. It shouldn’t matter that this thing, whatever it was, was only a meter tall, with cute cherub wings and a mop of blonde curls. Looks were deceiving, distractions deadly. He shook his head in disgust, they should know better by now. The scanner beeped and he looked down for second, but it was a second too long.... and then there was a flash of fiery pain and world tilted terribly. He stumbled, his legs no longer able to support his weight, careened against a wall and slowly sank to the ground.
“Hey, it’s getting away!” Owen yelled as he turned the corner. “And you said you’d beat me to the alley,” he said over his shoulder to Gwen who was a few paces behind him. “You owe me a...” his voice trailed off as he saw Jack. “Damn!” He pulled his gun, spinning around in search of an enemy that had long since fled. “Get the medical kit! Hurry!” Owen threw himself on the ground next to his fallen Captain and grasped for a pulse. “Jack, can you hear me? Jack, look at me. Come on, talk to me.” Despite his pleadings Jack just lay there, unresponsive.
Gwen followed orders without question for once, took off to get the kit out of the SUV while Tosh ran to the end of the alley and grabbed the scanner Jack had dropped. “Nothing’s showing up. Whatever it was, it’s gone now. How is he?”
He paused, shaking his head. “It’s bad.”
“That’s a lot of blood... Look there’s a bit of a trail, like he was attacked over here, and then dragged himself all they way over there. How long... how long do think he’s been lying here?”
Owen shrugged, unwilling to speculate or admit how long it had been since they’d followed procedure and checked in. Carefully, and with uncharacteristic gentleness, he pried the blood soaked greatcoat away from Jack’s thigh. The wound was horrific, oozing blood and pus and bits of leftover poison from the claws that were still embedded deep in the muscle tissue. Suddenly Jack began to shake and convulse.
“We gotta get him back to the Hub. Tosh! Help me hold him!”
Into his earpiece he said, “Gwen, forget the medkit, get the SUV here, NOW.”
“It’s okay, shh, it’s okay,” Tosh murmured over and over. “It’s okay, we’re here now. It’s okay, shh...” They held him tight until the seizure subsided. “Please Jack,” she begged, stroking the hair out of his eyes. Eyes that were open, but unfocused and unaware.
“Nothing to worry about Jack,” Owen said, the bravado in his voice betrayed by a tremor of fear. “We’ll have you patched up in no time.”
Somehow they managed to get him onto the stretcher and sped back to the Hub without drawing attention from anyone passing by. Ianto was waiting for them in the garage.
“What happened?”
“We don’t know.” Owen snarled, jumping out of the SUV. “Grab the other end of the stretcher and help me carry him into autopsy so I can get a better look.”
“You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know? Weren’t you with him?”
They looked guiltily at each other. Ianto could barely hear their muddled replies of “Yes.” “Well, no." and “Not so much.”
Owen didn’t continue so Ianto looked expectantly at Gwen and Tosh but found they couldn’t quite meet his eyes.
“What happened?” he repeated, with steel in his voice.
In dribs and drabs the story started to emerge as they carried Jack in. How the readings on the scanner had led them to the maze of alleyways. How they caught a glimpse of the cute little alien creature. How they laughed as it clumsily waddled away. How Jack yelled at them to wait. How they didn’t listen. How they hadn’t notice Jack had stayed behind. How they didn’t realize the thing had led them in a circle. How they had turned the corner into that alley and saw Jack lying there. How stupid they felt. And how sorry they were.
Owen told him about the tourniquet he applied in the field to slow the blood loss, but explained that the poison had probably already spread through Jack’s system. Then in gruesome detail he began to describe the seizure Jack suffered until Tosh begged him to stop.
They carefully, oh so carefully, transferred Jack from the stretcher to the table in the autopsy room. “Did it get him on his hands too?” Ianto asked, his own hand hovering just above one of Jack’s bloodied ones.
“Errr... no.” Owen admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “That’s from, well, see, he dragged himself along the alley trying to find us.”
“Look, his hands aren’t important!” Gwen said quickly. “We need to figure out how to fix him up. What about those claws, why haven’t you pulled them out yet?”
“I can’t remove them without doing major damage to the muscle, not with they way they’re curved. And there’s probably residual poison still in them, I can’t risk even more getting into Jack’s bloodstream until we know more about it.”
“How serious a risk would it be? It could kill him?”
“Wait, Ianto might be onto something. Jack can’t die. So, if it kills him he’d heal, right?”
“Gwen! That’s not what I meant! ” Ianto protested.
“Besides,” Tosh added, “we don’t know enough about how Jack’s power works. What if he’ll only heal after a violent death? Or he’s only got a certain number of lives...”
“What, like a cat? Don’t be daft,” Gwen scoffed.
“No, Tosh is right,” Owen said. “It’s not like we know anything about it, do we? Like how it works, or why. But it doesn’t matter, we are not killing him!”
“Again, you mean,” Gwen muttered under her breath. “He survived when you and Suzie shot him.”
“Suzie shot him?” Tosh couldn’t quite keep the shock out of her voice.
“Yeah, that’s how I knew he couldn’t die. She shot him in the head. He was dead, and then he got up.”
“So we know he survives being shot in the head and life-sucking aliens, I don’t see how that helps us here. I am NOT shooting him again.”
“And there’s electrocution,” Gwen said matter-of-factly, “ Lisa killed him that way. Twice.”
“She did? But, he never said...”
“You were already unconscious by the time she attacked him, Ianto.”
‘But that’s still violent death,” Tosh interrupted. “And besides, I agree with Owen, killing him to heal him just seems wrong.”
“See!” Owen yelled at Gwen, throwing his hands up in disgust. “Can I please try to heal my patient before you all kill him?”
There was a moment of stunned silence as they all watched Owen begin his administrations before Ianto spoke up. “We can’t just stand here. We need information. The more Owen knows, the better chance he has of helping Jack, right?” Owen nodded. “Gwen, go over the CCTV footage. I know there aren’t a lot of cameras in that area but see if any of them captured that thing. Tosh, dive into the records. You got a brief glimpse of it, and we certainly know what the claws look like and some of the symptoms of being attacked, see what you can find. Owen, are there any supplies you need?” There was a momentary pause before the shocked team accepted their orders from their current, if unexpected, leader.
It was less than an hour later that Ianto called them together in the autopsy room, where they could exchange information while Owen kept an eye on Jack. The others, however, averted their eyes, trying to find anything to look at other than Jack lying there on the table. But they couldn’t avoid listening to the erratic beeping of the heart monitor, or notice how his breaths came in jagged gasps.
“So,” Ianto sighed after they had all presented their findings, “we still have no idea what it was or why it attacked Jack...”
“Or what the poison is, or how it’s causing the fever or the seizures. I can’t even get it to register on these bloody scanners!”
“We know you’re doing your best Owen,” Tosh reassured him, with a light touch to his shoulder. “You’ll figure it out.”
Owen tried everything, but in the end it was simply time that healed Jack. Two hours after the attack the claws unclenched and fell out on their own. The intermittent seizures stopped soon after that. With a proper dressing on the wound and between the plasma, the blood transfusion, and the broad-spectrum antibiotics the fever soon stopped climbing, and finally broke.
The team stayed by his side, talking to him as he faded in and out of consciousness. One by one they talked about how they hadn’t taken the threat seriously, and how it was Jack paying the price, and how they wished they could do it all over again. They wouldn’t make a mistake like that again, they’d happily show him how well they could do, if only he would wake up.
The words jumbled together, barely making any sense. He recognized the voices though, and he intuitively knew he could trust them. Thoughts slipped and swirled as he tried to recall who the voices belonged to... they were his team, but which team? He’d had so many, so many good soldiers under his command. So many friends, so many comrades in so many places and so many times... his brain was so muddled, he couldn’t think.
“It’s all right. You’re safe. We’ve got you, sir.” That voice stood out. There was something he recognized about it. The vowels? Welsh vowels. Ahh.. That’s right...
“Ianto?” It was barely above a whisper. His eyes fluttered as he tried to focus on the world around him, on the team around him. Suddenly they were all there, smiling at him, relief on their faces. This is what he’d come back for, his team, his Torchwood.
“Hey, it’s getting away!” Owen yelled as he turned the corner. “And you said you’d beat me to the alley,” he said over his shoulder to Gwen who was a few paces behind him. “You owe me a...” his voice trailed off as he saw Jack. “Damn!” He pulled his gun, spinning around in search of an enemy that had long since fled. “Get the medical kit! Hurry!” Owen threw himself on the ground next to his fallen Captain and grasped for a pulse. “Jack, can you hear me? Jack, look at me. Come on, talk to me.” Despite his pleadings Jack just lay there, unresponsive.
Gwen followed orders without question for once, took off to get the kit out of the SUV while Tosh ran to the end of the alley and grabbed the scanner Jack had dropped. “Nothing’s showing up. Whatever it was, it’s gone now. How is he?”
He paused, shaking his head. “It’s bad.”
“That’s a lot of blood... Look there’s a bit of a trail, like he was attacked over here, and then dragged himself all they way over there. How long... how long do think he’s been lying here?”
Owen shrugged, unwilling to speculate or admit how long it had been since they’d followed procedure and checked in. Carefully, and with uncharacteristic gentleness, he pried the blood soaked greatcoat away from Jack’s thigh. The wound was horrific, oozing blood and pus and bits of leftover poison from the claws that were still embedded deep in the muscle tissue. Suddenly Jack began to shake and convulse.
“We gotta get him back to the Hub. Tosh! Help me hold him!”
Into his earpiece he said, “Gwen, forget the medkit, get the SUV here, NOW.”
“It’s okay, shh, it’s okay,” Tosh murmured over and over. “It’s okay, we’re here now. It’s okay, shh...” They held him tight until the seizure subsided. “Please Jack,” she begged, stroking the hair out of his eyes. Eyes that were open, but unfocused and unaware.
“Nothing to worry about Jack,” Owen said, the bravado in his voice betrayed by a tremor of fear. “We’ll have you patched up in no time.”
Somehow they managed to get him onto the stretcher and sped back to the Hub without drawing attention from anyone passing by. Ianto was waiting for them in the garage.
“What happened?”
“We don’t know.” Owen snarled, jumping out of the SUV. “Grab the other end of the stretcher and help me carry him into autopsy so I can get a better look.”
“You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know? Weren’t you with him?”
They looked guiltily at each other. Ianto could barely hear their muddled replies of “Yes.” “Well, no." and “Not so much.”
Owen didn’t continue so Ianto looked expectantly at Gwen and Tosh but found they couldn’t quite meet his eyes.
“What happened?” he repeated, with steel in his voice.
In dribs and drabs the story started to emerge as they carried Jack in. How the readings on the scanner had led them to the maze of alleyways. How they caught a glimpse of the cute little alien creature. How they laughed as it clumsily waddled away. How Jack yelled at them to wait. How they didn’t listen. How they hadn’t notice Jack had stayed behind. How they didn’t realize the thing had led them in a circle. How they had turned the corner into that alley and saw Jack lying there. How stupid they felt. And how sorry they were.
Owen told him about the tourniquet he applied in the field to slow the blood loss, but explained that the poison had probably already spread through Jack’s system. Then in gruesome detail he began to describe the seizure Jack suffered until Tosh begged him to stop.
They carefully, oh so carefully, transferred Jack from the stretcher to the table in the autopsy room. “Did it get him on his hands too?” Ianto asked, his own hand hovering just above one of Jack’s bloodied ones.
“Errr... no.” Owen admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. “That’s from, well, see, he dragged himself along the alley trying to find us.”
“Look, his hands aren’t important!” Gwen said quickly. “We need to figure out how to fix him up. What about those claws, why haven’t you pulled them out yet?”
“I can’t remove them without doing major damage to the muscle, not with they way they’re curved. And there’s probably residual poison still in them, I can’t risk even more getting into Jack’s bloodstream until we know more about it.”
“How serious a risk would it be? It could kill him?”
“Wait, Ianto might be onto something. Jack can’t die. So, if it kills him he’d heal, right?”
“Gwen! That’s not what I meant! ” Ianto protested.
“Besides,” Tosh added, “we don’t know enough about how Jack’s power works. What if he’ll only heal after a violent death? Or he’s only got a certain number of lives...”
“What, like a cat? Don’t be daft,” Gwen scoffed.
“No, Tosh is right,” Owen said. “It’s not like we know anything about it, do we? Like how it works, or why. But it doesn’t matter, we are not killing him!”
“Again, you mean,” Gwen muttered under her breath. “He survived when you and Suzie shot him.”
“Suzie shot him?” Tosh couldn’t quite keep the shock out of her voice.
“Yeah, that’s how I knew he couldn’t die. She shot him in the head. He was dead, and then he got up.”
“So we know he survives being shot in the head and life-sucking aliens, I don’t see how that helps us here. I am NOT shooting him again.”
“And there’s electrocution,” Gwen said matter-of-factly, “ Lisa killed him that way. Twice.”
“She did? But, he never said...”
“You were already unconscious by the time she attacked him, Ianto.”
‘But that’s still violent death,” Tosh interrupted. “And besides, I agree with Owen, killing him to heal him just seems wrong.”
“See!” Owen yelled at Gwen, throwing his hands up in disgust. “Can I please try to heal my patient before you all kill him?”
There was a moment of stunned silence as they all watched Owen begin his administrations before Ianto spoke up. “We can’t just stand here. We need information. The more Owen knows, the better chance he has of helping Jack, right?” Owen nodded. “Gwen, go over the CCTV footage. I know there aren’t a lot of cameras in that area but see if any of them captured that thing. Tosh, dive into the records. You got a brief glimpse of it, and we certainly know what the claws look like and some of the symptoms of being attacked, see what you can find. Owen, are there any supplies you need?” There was a momentary pause before the shocked team accepted their orders from their current, if unexpected, leader.
It was less than an hour later that Ianto called them together in the autopsy room, where they could exchange information while Owen kept an eye on Jack. The others, however, averted their eyes, trying to find anything to look at other than Jack lying there on the table. But they couldn’t avoid listening to the erratic beeping of the heart monitor, or notice how his breaths came in jagged gasps.
“So,” Ianto sighed after they had all presented their findings, “we still have no idea what it was or why it attacked Jack...”
“Or what the poison is, or how it’s causing the fever or the seizures. I can’t even get it to register on these bloody scanners!”
“We know you’re doing your best Owen,” Tosh reassured him, with a light touch to his shoulder. “You’ll figure it out.”
Owen tried everything, but in the end it was simply time that healed Jack. Two hours after the attack the claws unclenched and fell out on their own. The intermittent seizures stopped soon after that. With a proper dressing on the wound and between the plasma, the blood transfusion, and the broad-spectrum antibiotics the fever soon stopped climbing, and finally broke.
The team stayed by his side, talking to him as he faded in and out of consciousness. One by one they talked about how they hadn’t taken the threat seriously, and how it was Jack paying the price, and how they wished they could do it all over again. They wouldn’t make a mistake like that again, they’d happily show him how well they could do, if only he would wake up.
The words jumbled together, barely making any sense. He recognized the voices though, and he intuitively knew he could trust them. Thoughts slipped and swirled as he tried to recall who the voices belonged to... they were his team, but which team? He’d had so many, so many good soldiers under his command. So many friends, so many comrades in so many places and so many times... his brain was so muddled, he couldn’t think.
“It’s all right. You’re safe. We’ve got you, sir.” That voice stood out. There was something he recognized about it. The vowels? Welsh vowels. Ahh.. That’s right...
“Ianto?” It was barely above a whisper. His eyes fluttered as he tried to focus on the world around him, on the team around him. Suddenly they were all there, smiling at him, relief on their faces. This is what he’d come back for, his team, his Torchwood.
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would it be rude of me to demand politly for a sequal? :D
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:D
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http://donutsweeper.livejournal.com/3282.html