FIC: WHAT WILL BE.
Title: What Will Be.
Author: zorell
Chapter: 26/?
Rating: PG
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Tosh, Owen, Martha, Gwen.
Pairings: Jack/Ianto.
Summary: The team discovers something about Ianto.
Disclaimer: Torchwood belongs to BBC and RTD
A/N: Usual apologies for mistakes, bad grammar, dodgy plot etc.
A/N2: This seemed to take ages to write, and not sure how well it transferred from thought to paper. I’m hoping it makes sense, but apologise if it doesn’t. Thanks for continuing to read and for the comments.
Story starts here:
http://jackxianto.livejournal.com/5294840.html#cutid1
previous chapter:
http://jackxianto.livejournal.com/5618634.html
Chapter 26.
Without further ado Martha looked at Ianto’s left hand, before removing the plaster covering the cut, revealing the healed flesh beneath.
“ Shit !” Came Owen’s typical response.
There was a gasp from Tosh, who had, along with Gwen, moved down to join them in the autopsy bay.
Martha had the pleased look of someone who had just confirmed a theory.
While Gwen let out a despondent and disbelieving “ No.”
Jack stared at his lover’s hand, moving his own towards it and ghosting a finger reverently over where the wound had been.
“ You knew.” Jack’s voice was quietly calm as he spoke the statement aimed at Martha.
“ Educated guess. Put two and two together. Tosh mentioned the irritation, the readings from the scans...”
“ Why now ? He hasn’t shown any sign of rapid healing before when he’s been injured, and it took the extreme cold of the cryogenics chamber to heal the wounds that ...” Tosh couldn’t bring herself to say the word, but the others all knew what she was referring to. “ It has something to do with the anomaly, doesn’t it ?” she finished.
Jack smiled to himself, ‘Of course Tosh picked up on that,’ he thought. The immortal noticed the fleeting glance that Martha sent his way before she answered the young Japanese woman’s question.
“ The anomaly is certainly a contributing factor...” Martha repeated the phrase that had been said to Jack and Ianto previously.
“ Anomaly ? What exactly is it ?” Gwen asked, her gaze still focused on Ianto’s healed hand, and a sense of denial permeating through her.
Martha wondered if Gwen wanted to know what an anomaly was in general, or if she was asking what this particular one was. Giving the Welshwoman the benefit of the doubt and assuming she knew what an anomaly was, Martha proceeded to explain about this one.
“ The majority of the ‘energy’ within Ianto is from the orb...”
“ We know that.” Gwen cut in.
Ignoring the interruption Martha carried on “...but there is a small amount of another energy mixed in with it, and that is vortex energy.”
Tosh gave a small gasp as the relevance of what Martha had said sunk in, while Gwen looked blankly at her colleagues, trying to pick up on what the big deal was and why Tosh had reacted as she did.
“ It was only a small amount and just seemed to be there...” Martha continued.
“ What do you mean ‘was only a small amount’ ?” Jack queried, having picked up on the exact words Martha had said.
“ There seems to be slightly more of the vortex energy than before. I think it’s because it’s now active and not just lying dormant within Ianto’s body.”
“ I’d go with that.” Owen chipped in, as he continued to check the readings still coming from the wriststrap attached to Ianto.
“ So what’s happening now ? Why’s he burning up and unconscious ? ”
“ I think what’s happened is that the orb energy lay dormant within Ianto since the incident at Torchwood One, at some point vortex energy was introduced to his system and seemed to settle within the dormant orb energy. As we now know, when Ianto’s body was stored in the cryogenic chamber the energy activated, healed and brought him back, with the vortex energy contributing to Ianto waking up once the cryo was turned off. I don’t think the vortex energy was totally integrated with the orbs though, not until there was an injury to heal after the initial revival. When Ianto cut his hand, the vortex energy began to heal the wound and also to integrate properly with the orb energy, causing the temperature and unconsciousness as his body at first tried to fight it like a virus, and then adjusted to it and his cells new makeup.”
“ So as his body adjusts, his temperature will come down and he will regain consciousness ?” Jack checked.
“ I don’t see any reason why not.” Martha reassured.
“ And the effects of the energy becoming totally active and it integrating with his cells ?” Jack needed to know if the thoughts currently crossing his mind were correct.
“ We can’t be a hundred percent certain until a situation occurs, but I’m pretty sure that the healing isn’t a one off, as for...” Martha didn’t get to finish the sentence as a beeping came from the ‘blanket’ that enveloped Ianto.
“ His temperature is coming down. It’s still high but it’s better than it was.” Owen confirmed after checking the data coming up on the screen. “ It looks like his body is still adjusting, but the area around the ‘wound’ seems to be stabilising.”
Martha went to move nearer to Owen at the workstation to check on the data herself, but Jack’s voice stopped her.
“ You didn’t finish Martha. You think Ianto will be able to heal but if he dies will he be able to come back ?” Jack’s intense gaze didn’t waver from Martha’s face. He needed the truth, not what she thought he wanted to hear.
The medic paused, looked at her Torchwood counterpart and then back to her friend.
“ The truth is I don’t know, and I doubt we will until he dies again. This is unknown territory Jack. If it was just vortex energy that was involved, we would have you as a bench mark, we’d have some idea of what we were dealing with and have more chance of finding the answer without waiting for the inevitable to happen. But it’s not just vortex energy, it’s a mixture of two, one of which we have virtually no information on at the moment....Yes, from what we are seeing now it seems as though Ianto can heal, and yes the cryo brought him back, but there is no way of knowing, until put in that situation again, if it was a onetime only deal or not....Then there are also the changes going on in his body with the two energies merging and becoming one complete and active ‘force’, until he stabilises and the changes are complete we won’t be able to run final scans, and even those are unlikely to tell us if he will be able to come back from dying.... I’m sorry Jack, as much as I wish I could give you a definitive answer I can’t, because I honestly don’t know.” The look on Martha’s face was apologetic as she finished speaking.
Jack acknowledged Martha’s words with the faintest of nods and then returning his gaze to the peaceful looking face of his still unconscious lover asked,“ How long do you think it will be before Ianto comes round ?”
“ Not sure but it will be a good few hours yet.” Owen answered, “ It’s going to be very much like sitting out a fever. There’s not much we can do at the moment other than monitor him and keep his temperature down. The rest is up to him.”
As much as Jack wanted to remain by Ianto’s side he knew he couldn’t, there was still Torchwood business to attend to, as the rift debris still had to be unloaded and dealt with. Reluctantly turning away from Ianto Jack looked towards where Tosh and Gwen were standing just to the left of Owen and Martha.
“ Right kids we still have work to do,” Jack tried to lighten the atmosphere alittle with the tone of his voice. “ Don’t want Ianto coming round and withholding coffee due to the backlog of work do we, so Tosh, Gwen you can head down to the garage with me and we’ll deal with the rift debris. Owen, Martha I leave Ianto in your capable hands let me know of any changes straight away.” The look Jack gave the two medics spoke volumes leaving them in no doubt that he wanted notifying if even the slightest change occurred in his lover.
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It had taken just over half an hour for Jack, Tosh and Gwen to return from garage, bringing with them the boxes containing both the remains of the Oyslakkan ship and the bodies of its occupants. Placing the boxes containing the ship pieces near and on Tosh’s workstation, Jack turned and addressed the resident tech.
“ Tosh could you do the usual checks and analysis on the remains of the ship please ?”
“ Of course Jack, but what about the stones ? They’re still set out in your office and there is alot of work still to be done on them.” Tosh looked hopefully in Jack’s direction. As much as the analysis on the recovered ship needed doing, Tosh couldn’t wait to get back to work accessing the stones and discovering the information they held.
Noticing the look on Tosh’s face Jack couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm with regard to the stones.
“I’ll sort out the stones...” Jack noticed the change in Tosh’s expression, “...Don’t worry Tosh, I’m only going to put them away for now, and you can get your hands back on them tomorrow, rift permitting of course.”
“ Thanks for tempting fate Jack !” Tosh gave the captain a small smile as she gently shook her head at his words.
“ Oh ye of little faith.” Jack smiled back.
“ This is Torchwood we’re talking about, what do you expect ?” Tosh responded, still smiling as she turned her attention to the containment box on the workstation in front of her. Not expecting an answer, nor waiting for one, the tech continued, “ I’ll get started on analysing the remains of the Oyslakkan ship. Could you give me a hand removing it from the box please ?”
“ Sure.” Jack began helping Tosh, while addressing his words to Gwen who was hovering nearby. “ Gwen, could you run a check on the system for any previous encounters with the Oyslakkan’s, or any of their equipment please. Check with Archie as well. I know not all of their archives are on the system yet so you’ll have to speak to him directly.”
“ Oh, joy.” Gwen remarked sarcastically at the thought of having to deal with the rather brusque Scot.
Jack wondered to himself who he should feel more sorry for with regard to that upcoming conversation ! Allowing himself a small smile at the thought, the immortal then brought his attention back to the matters at hand, namely delivering the last containment box to Owen, and most importantly (to his mind at least) physically checking on Ianto. With this in mind Jack left Tosh and Gwen to their work and headed down to the autopsy bay.
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“ Are those the remains of the Oyslakkan’s ?” Owen motioned towards the box Jack was carrying.
“ Yes.” Jack confirmed.
“ You best put it over here...” Owen moved over to the cold storage chambers, “... I’ll reorganise abit and take a look later. Somehow I don’t think Jonesy would appreciate coming round while I’m in the middle of cutting up one of them by the side of him !... Mind you it could prove interesting...” a small, devilish grin began to creep across Owen’s face as he envisioned what would likely be Ianto’s reaction if faced with that scenario.
“ Don’t even think about it !” Jack said sternly, noticing the look crossing the doctor’s face.
“ Would I ?!” In that moment Jack decided that Owen really couldn’t pull off the innocent look !
“ You really want me to answer that ?” The immortal looked straight at Owen and raised an eyebrow that Ianto would have been proud of.
“ Probably best not to.” Owen decided with a wry grin.
After securely storing the containment box, both men moved back towards the still unconscious form lying on the autopsy table.
“ How’s he doing ?” Jack asked as he stood by his lover’s side looking down at the feverishly looking face.
“ His temperature is still coming down. Although that is mainly due to the ‘blanket’ there is some natural reduction as well.” Owen answered.
“ So his body is accepting the changes and beginning to stabilise ?” Jack queried, hoping that the lowering of Ianto’s temperature meant things were beginning to improve for his lover.
“ There’s a way to go yet, but it’s looking that way.” Owen confirmed.
“ Any idea how long ?”
“ The process seems to be speeding up a little, but it’s still going to be a while.”
“ Hours ? Days ?” Jack prompted.
“ Honestly can’t put a time limit on it.” Owen replied, hoping Jack would leave it at that. He didn’t.
“ Try.”
“ A day... maybe...but don’t hold me to that.” Owen reluctantly stated.
Jack nodded, accepting the answer. Of course he knew asking for a definitive timeline was an impossible question for the doctor to answer, as Martha had said, this was unknown territory, but he needed some sort of idea, something to hold on to, to focus on, so as not to succumb to the flicker of fear that sat deep within him.
“ Jack...” Tosh’s voice came over the Hubs internal coms drawing the Captain from his thoughts.
“ Yes Tosh ?”
“ There’s a Phillip Smythe from the Palace on the phone asking to speak to Ianto.”
“ Thanks Tosh. Could you ask him to hold for a moment and I’ll speak to him in a minute.” Jack was just about to direct his next words to Owen and Martha, but the UNIT doctor got in first.
“ Don’t worry we’ll let you know if there are any changes.” Martha’s small reassuring smile was acknowledged by Jack, who then looked down at his fiancé, gently cupping his cheek and silently willing him to come back to him, before leaving for his office and a phone conversation that Ianto usually dealt with.
next chapter: http://jackxianto.livejournal.com/5643139.html#cutid1