timetoblog | [LOG] Resurrection Blues

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[LOG] Resurrection Blues

There were a few things about this endeavor that John Watson thought to be nothing short of mad. For one - oh, Lord, who was he trying to kid? This entire thing was absolutely insane. Jack Harkness couldn't die. John had seen that, when he'd gone back into the community's archives to find the videos that Jack had mentioned the night before, and had seen it himself; Jack couldn't die. Okay. He had proof of that.

But this magic thing. This crazy idea that you could transfer one life to another? John was not, by any means, sure of that. But... at the same time, he couldn't help but want to go with it. Ianto had been a great guy. Honestly, probably one of the few actually, honestly nice people there were. He couldn't bring himself to watch that video - he needed to keep himself as professional as possible for this particular thing, and that sort of visual image would not help. And he figured, at the very least, he could be there to help Jack and this Sulu guy through what he was mostly expecting to be an utter failure of a resurrection.

He'd arrived almost forty minutes earlier than he'd been asked, and, after explaining himself to the desk of the ICU - in as vague terms as possible, mentioning Jack's name to three different receptionists before he got anywhere - he was given the chance to go over the ICU room that Jack had reserved for them, familiarizing himself with everything that he needed or might need. After checking everything over and, well, syncing himself up with the hospital, the feel of it and the announcements he heard, he wandered back to the ICU's desk to wait for Jack and get this underway. The sooner, the better, he figured, though he couldn't imagine why.

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Around exactly the time that Jack had said that he would meet with John, Jack came walking into the ICU desk area from the back entrance side. He'd helped Sulu get the gurney as far as the correct hallway, but they'd been running a bit behind, so he'd had to leave him to go and meet with the doctor out in the front. Shouldn't have been too hard to find the room, and really all Sulu had to do was just wheel the cart in and then stay there, covering if anyone came by asking about what was going on by saying that it was Torchwood business, and they should just move along.

Jack looked...well, better than he had for the rest of the week before, but. He still looked like he'd lost someone very dear to him, even with the glimmer of hope and determination beneath it all. He stepped up to where John was standing, and reached out to shake hands. No flirting or joking around this time, he meant straight business. They were here for Ianto, and that was Jack's number one priority, Sulu being his second, and everything else coming after that. "John," he said, in greeting. "Good to see you again. I... I wish it could be under different circumstances, but." Jack trailed off, shrugging. "Sulu went to take him on ahead. If...if you're set, we could head off to join Sulu there. I take it you've already visited the room, then? Does it work? We can always have them move us somewhere more appropriate, all I have to do is ask."

John took in Jack's appearance with one quick look and knew immediately just how badly this situation had hit him. It was part of being in this profession, really, as was the direct and to the point sort of conversation. "Of course, it's fine," he said, nodding down the hall that would take them to the room.

"Everything in the room seemed fine - honestly, though," he started moving forward, deciding that if they were going to be straightforward, they might as well go now. "I'm not sure what I'm going to need, exactly. We should be all right, though; if for any reason we need something not available, I can call for a nurse. Throwing around your name and Torchwood seems to get you nearly everything around here."

John held the door for Jack before following him in once they reached the room, taking in the two new additions. The man who had to be Sulu, dressed in jeans and a tee shirt, probably had some trouble getting the gurney into the room, which Ianto was lying on. God, he looked... very dead. John supposed that was the point, though.

"All right," he said, gesturing, "First thing's first. We'll need Ianto on the bed, not the gurney. And then... I'm afraid until this works," which it would... hopefully, "You'll both be on your own. I'm not exactly used to the resurrection idea, yet."

Sulu nodded and looked to Jack. His hand was on Ianto's arm, and had been the whole time he'd been there, from the moment they'd gotten him out of the ambulance. "You ready?" he asked, and it was clear from his tone that he didn't just mean moving Ianto from one surface to another.

Jack took in a breath, letting it out slowly as he shrugged and quirked an eyebrow. "As ready as I'll ever be," he said, stepping forward to stand by the gurney. God, Ianto... Every time Jack looked at him, he kept expecting him to wake up, and yet at the same time, he just looked so...wrong. Like. It was Ianto, but it wasn't really Ianto there with them, and that was unnerving. Shaking himself, he stepped up to Ianto's legs. "Okay, you get that side, I'll get this side, and we'll do this on the count of three, alright?" Jack waited until Sulu was in position, counting off until the pair of them lifted him up and onto the bed. It wasn't exactly graceful, but graceful wasn't really possible in that moment.

"Alright," Jack said, looking down at Ianto and smoothing down the hospital gown that he had on. The standard hospital gown that every body in cryogenics was put into, for modesty's sake. If this actually worked, one of them was going to have to stop by Ianto's flat for some actual clothes for him. "I... You're sure of all the details to this?" he asked Sulu. "There really isn't going to be any room for mistakes, here. I'm not sure if this amulet is a one-time deal or not, so. We're going to have to be sure to get it right in one try. Do you remember everything that Merlin told you about it?"

Sulu felt terrible for it, but he simply couldn't look at Ianto's face too long like this. He didn't want to break down, not now, not when they were so close to fixing this. He followed Jack's instructions with the ease of someone used to following orders, and once they had Ianto on the bed, he stepped back.

John stepped up to the side of the bed, methodically and quickly hooking Ianto's body up to the various monitors of the ICU. He gave them an apologetic smile; he had no idea which of them, if any, would actually be useful, but he didn't want to take a chance with this. Sulu was watching him when Jack spoke up.

"I'm positive," Sulu said to Jack, looking over at him. "Once you're down, all that I have to do is take the amulet from you and put it around Ianto's neck. And then..." He trailed off, uncertainly, because nobody - not even Merlin - knew what was supposed to happen then. He added, mostly for John's benefit than anything, "This kind of thing hasn't been used in Merlin's universe for a long time, as far as he knows, so there's no way of knowing exactly what's going to happen, except that it will work, and that Ianto should be fine." Physically, at least. He hoped. (John's expression of calm indifference - with a tinge of doubt - wasn't exactly helping Sulu here, though.)

"Okay," Jack said, nodding, and smoothing out Ianto's gown one more time before sighing and stepping back from the bed. "Okay," he repeated. "Basically," he said, turning to John to go over the procedure, "I'm going to put on this amulet, and then Sulu here," he said, motioning to the other man, "is going to shoot me. From what he says, it should really be a quick job, so don't worry about me at all, I should be back in a matter of minutes. But while I'm down for the count, he's going to take the amulet and put it on Ianto, and from there, the amulet's magic should do the rest of the work for us."

"Is everything ready, then? Are you two ready?" he asked, looking from Sulu to John. He hoped that they knew their respective jobs, there. Sulu would have to shoot him, and then do the amulet thing. And then John would step in and do the doctor thing, if it worked (and it it had to work, he didn't know what he would do if it didn't, didn't know what either of them would do). He didn't want to rush into this, he wanted to make sure that they had everything set, make sure that the pair of them were ready beyond a shadow of a doubt, and yet. He didn't think he could take hesitating this late in the game.

Sulu glanced at John, noting with some discomfort at the slightly off-put look the other man had; he knew it sounded insane, beyond insane, and more than a little heartless, that he was going to shoot Jack without any real reservation, but it was going to be fine. It had to be. "Yeah," he said after a moment, "But... I know it's going to be fine, and it should be quick and relatively painless, but I still want you sitting down so you don't crack your head when you go down." He was surprised at how smooth and calm his voice sounded, compared to the twisting anticipation and anxiety in his stomach.

John cast a glance to the futuristic gun Sulu pulled out, then tore his eyes away to double check all of the monitors. The moment there was a reaction - if there was one, there would be one, John would be optimistic damn it - he would know about it.

Checking his phaser briefly, Sulu reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out the amulet, unwrapping it from the towel he'd kept it in and holding it out to Jack. "Here you go." He gave the other man a look - this will work.

Sitting down? Jack supposed that made sense. Wouldn't really matter to him all that much, whether he did hurt himself going down, seeing as how he'd be dead and all, but. He supposed that having one less thing to have to deal with wouldn't be a bad idea, though. "Okay," he said, taking the amulet from Sulu and casting a look around the room before finding a chair. He pulled it up to the bedside, out of the way enough so that John could move around and do his work when the time came, but close enough so that Sulu wouldn't be crossing the room with the amulet after the fact. Speaking of the amulet...

Jack paused for the briefest of moments, before reaching up and sliding the leather chord over his head, grateful that they wouldn't have to be fastening or unfastening any clasps or knots or anything to make this work. He sure as hell wouldn't have hands steady enough to do that, if he were in Sulu's position. He looked down at the amulet. All of their hope, going into such a small piece of jewelry... Jack hoped against all hopes that the thing would work, sending a silent prayer up to whatever deities cared to listen, before letting it fall against his chest, and moving to sit in the chair.

He couldn't really get comfortable in the seat, but he did his best to be leaning in a direction that wouldn't leave him toppling to the floor after the fact, and if he was gripping the arms a little tighter than normal, well. He was about to get shot and killed, and despite the fact that he would come back from it in a matter of minutes, that didn't mean that he wouldn't feel it. He let out a breath, and then nodded at Sulu and John. "I'm ready when you are," he said, his voice a lot steadier than he'd honestly expected it to sound.

Edited 2010-11-07 02:36 (UTC)

Sulu should probably check his phaser again. He should probably ask Jack if he was really ready, should make sure John wouldn't call out instinctively, should make sure nobody could see what they were doing -

"See you in a few minutes," he said, his expression cool and calm, and before he could think twice, before he could let his hands start shaking or his mind start doubting, he raised the phaser, set to kill, and fired directly at Jack's chest. There was barely any recoil, only a soft sound and a hiss as the laser blast singed Jack's shirt, and only when Jack went limp did Sulu realize he'd never actually used a phaser to kill someone before. At least he knew how it felt.

John made a faint noise of protest as the shot was fired but was otherwise the picture of professionalism, moving forward to check for a pulse, nodding to Sulu when there wasn't one. He watched as Sulu came forward, the phaser forgotten on the tray at the foot of the bed, carefully leaning Jack back a bit so that he could pull the amulet over his head. It was glowing gold, shapes swirling in the glow, and in that moment the two of them suddenly realized, as if it hadn't been real before, this was really working. It had to be.

Sulu turned to Ianto, keeping a calm face as he gently looped an arm over his shoulders, pulling his dead weight forward and slipping the cord over his head and resting the amulet carefully against his collar. He paused for just a moment - wondering, was it going to be instant, was there going to be a gasp and then color flooding back into Ianto's cheeks, and wouldn't that be amazing, to see him blush again - but there was no immediate reaction, and so Sulu set him back down gently and stepped back.

"What now?" John asked, having instinctively checked Jack over, knowing he was dead but not completely believing it, "What do we do now?"

"...Wait, I guess," Sulu responded after a minute had passed, realizing there was still no change, the swirling dying down but still... nothing. He slumped against the wall and forcefully pushed back any feelings of helplessness that might rise, and began to do just that: wait.

Sulu hadn't been kidding when he'd explained to Jack that of all the options out there, the phaser would probably be the best choice. It'd done the job quickly, and hadn't left too much damage for whatever it was that kept bringing Jack back to repair. No more than five minutes after the initial shot, there was that tug again, and Jack felt himself being dragged back into life, his eyes flying open as he sucked in a huge gasp of air. It took him all of a few seconds to get his bearings, before he took in the situation in front of him.

Standing up, Jack stumbled a little, catching himself on the edge of the bed as he looked down at Ianto. ...nothing. There was the amulet, around Ianto's neck like it should be, and yet. There was no pulse, no heartbeat, no breathing. Ianto looked just the same as he had before. Jack turned to Sulu, his breath catching in his chest. "...what--?" he asked, not even sure what he was going to say, only that his heart was in his throat, and he felt like throwing up or breaking down or possibly both at the same time, because he was still dizzy from coming back to life and why wasn't it working?

John had been moving between Jack and Ianto, checking both periodically; when Jack gasped and lurched, John spun and stared at him. So. He really could come back - that was something at least. He stepped away from the bed as Jack stood, letting him see for himself that nothing had changed. Nothing at all.

Sulu, on the other hand, had barely given Jack a glance, his eyes still fixed on Ianto. When Jack turned to him, asking that single question, he looked up at him and felt like he might cry. "...It's. Only been five minutes," he offered weakly. "It... We don't know how long it will take." He could hear his desperation in his tone and hated it; he sounded so weak, so naive. He should have known this was a stupid idea. But he wasn't going to give up. He trusted Merlin and he trusted his gut, and this would work. "It just needs more time."

...oh. Oh no. He shut his eyes for a moment. If Jack's heart had been in his throat a second earlier, it had now sunk into the bottom of his stomach. Opening his eyes again, Jack's jaw clenched, his face going awfully blank and neutral, because it was either that or break down completely. He bit his lip, looking back over at Ianto, and he felt so incredibly old and tired in that moment, before he forced himself to turn his back on the body on the bed and walk over to Sulu.

"...it's been five minutes, Sulu," Jack said softly. "How much more time could it need? It. If it works, then it should've done the job already. But nothing happened. You. I'm sure you did everything you were supposed to, and there was nothing." He had tried to believe in all of this, to believe that Sulu could be right, but. He had been right all along, that it was pointless and hopeless to ask for more time. And he hated himself for it. "Maybe. Maybe...he really is gone for good."

Sulu wasn't listening. He kept his eyes off of Jack, looking around the room, anywhere but at the two men who both looked grim and sorrowful and Ianto who was just... lying there, when he was supposed to be alive, damn it, it was going to work, he just needed... needed time. He'd been gone for a week, of course it would take a while, of course things would need to be... slower.

He knew he was trying too hard to justify the wait. He knew there was no point in it, that it was just. It was over. But he couldn't, couldn't believe that. He looked at John, the monitors, all the medical equipment there for when Ianto needed it, but John didn't make eye contact and the monitors were silent.

"Sometimes it takes you ten minutes," he said quietly, desperately, not looking. "It's been a while, it just needs more time..."

Jack shook his head, and he couldn't keep his lower lip from trembling a little bit. "Not from something like this, it doesn't..." he said softly, sadly. He took a step closer to Sulu, holding a hand out towards him but not touching him, as though he were some wild animal that would startle if he moved too quickly. He could tell that Sulu's mood was fragile, and any sort of wrong step might be too much for him, but. "It was just a virus. It... On the scale of things, it shouldn't be that hard to fix."

Jack was sorry that he was basically ignoring John. He hoped the other man understood why he was paying more attention to Sulu there. The man was obviously more than a little distraught, after all. "I'm sorry, Sulu," he said, continuing on in the same, sad, soft tone. "We did everything that we could, here. ...maybe. Maybe it's time to say goodbye..."

Edited 2010-11-07 06:20 (UTC)

Shaking his head, Sulu hunched his shoulders, bringing himself even closer to the wall than before. Jack wasn't listening to him. It didn't matter, the body, it didn't really matter, because what they needed was the person who it held, and that was what was taking so long, it just needed. A little longer. They'd had him frozen, he needed to just wait, they all needed to just wait and -

"No." His voice was shredded, honest terror welling up in his chest because he'd made promises, and he said he'd help keep Ianto safe, that was the reason they even started to really get to know each other and he couldn't, couldn't be wrong here, he couldn't have miscalculated and all of Merlin's warnings, they had to mean something, because he hadn't warned them that it wouldn't work!

And how stupid had he been, how completely ridiculous was it to trust some tiny little trinket that glowed, like that meant anything, this was a different world and there were different mechanics, and none of it was ever going to work, and he absolutely couldn't comprehend the fact that he'd failed so miserably, and that Ianto was really, honestly gone.

And John - he understood perfectly well why Jack was focusing on Sulu. He could see it in the younger man's eyes, just how much this disappointment was crushing him, and it was really... just a terrible thing. God, he couldn't begin to imagine what either of them were going through. He'd met Ianto, yeah, of course, and he'd been a good, nice guy, and it was terrible to know that this was how he died - and that he was so much younger than John himself, that was even worse, it was always worse - but he didn't have the same sort of terrible feeling of loss. He felt bad for that, too, but he just hadn't known the other man that well.

He wondered if he should leave the two of them alone with Ianto, to come to terms with this. He probably should; this was a private moment, and it wasn't his place to stand there like an idiot. Sighing internally, he moved to begin removing Ianto from the monitors that he'd hoped (though not expected) to start picking up some signals. It had been better than nothing, he supposed. He wondered if Sherlock would go through something like this for him - probably not, that bastard.

It was just a whim when, after removing he last of the monitors, he reached up to feel under Ianto's jaw. He wasn't expecting anything, but the misery from the other two men and the earlier optimism Sulu had shown - it made him want to try. And that was when he felt -

"Holy Christ," he hissed, his free hand dropping to Ianto's chest - to feel nothing, and when he tilted Ianto's head back he felt no air coming from his lungs. The pulse was barely anything, but now he was sliding into movement on pure, trained instinct. The bed was dropping before he'd even fully comprehended what was actually happening, but he didn't need to comprehend the nuances of the situation to know what he needed to do.

The tone in Sulu's voice cut through Jack like a knife, and he couldn't stand it. He stepped closer, putting a hand on Sulu's shoulder, hoping that he could stay strong for the other man. He had known it wouldn't work, he had known that this would only end in tears, and yet he'd been foolish enough to be led into thinking that there was still a chance. "I'm sorry," he said, brokenly. "I'm so sorry... I know how much you wanted this to work out. How we both wanted this to work out..." He stepped forward even closer, pulling Sulu away from the wall and into his arms, because god knew, Sulu probably wouldn't have made the move himself.

He brought up a hand to thread through Sulu's hair, comforting, he hoped, and gently rubbed his back with the other hand, as he'd done the first day he'd come to stay with Sulu, when he'd gotten upset then. "I'm sorry," he repeated again, not knowing what else there was to say, what else he could say. Nothing he could say would make it better, he knew. Nothing would really ever make it better again.

Sulu let Jack pull him into a hug, unable to find it in him to pull away even though every fiber of his being wanted to be away, away from Jack and Ianto and Cardiff, this entire universe. He didn't know how he was going to handle it when his leave was up and he had to return to the helm, how could he do his job, how could anything end well after this? He was suddenly afraid that he would fly them into a black hole, a supernova, a moment of real insanity and they could never have accounted for this happening in his psych evaluations. He knew he wouldn't, but. But.

He sobbed, just once, and his hands gripped Jack's coat, eyes sliding shut, "This can't be it," he said, his voice a whine, and even though he heard the sounds of things moving in the room, a low sound from the doctor who they'd dragged out there for nothing (he'd killed a man for nothing, how did that feel?), he didn't look up. He couldn't bring himself to catch either man's eyes.

Jack pulled Sulu closer go himself at that sob, rubbing his hand in bigger motions on his back, rocking him gently. It shouldn't be it... If there was anything fair in the universe, it couldn't end like this, and yet... Jack was so preoccupied with his grief, with the man falling apart in his arms that he almost didn't hear John's exclamation. Almost. He hadn't been paying enough attention to make out what the man had said, but he turned his head to glance over at him. If John was talking to them, then he should at least try to listen. He'd called him out there for nothing, as it was. Except.

John was hitting the switch on the bed, lowering it, before leaning over Ianto, tilting his chin up, his head back, a hand on Ianto's throat as he felt for breathing, watched for the rising of Ianto's obviously quite still chest. Jack was about to open his mouth to call out to John that it was alright, whatever he was doing, he didn't have to, it was no use, but then John was covering Ianto's nose with one hand, the other tilting Ianto's chin back, breathing into his mouth once, two times, before turning his head to check for breathing again, his hand moving back to Ianto's neck. And then he started the mouth-to-mouth again.

Jack's hand froze in its motions on Sulu's back, his hand sliding from Sulu's hair to rest on his shoulder, temporarily preoccupied. "...John?" he asked, uncertainly, but the man didn't respond, continuing to force breaths of air into Ianto's lungs. "John, what...?"

Sulu's fists tightened against Jack's jacket as the man rocked him, knowing it wasn't going to help any more that Jack was there, but relying on his precense desperately anyway. He felt the man turn his head, the motion moving through his shoulders, but Sulu didn't even consider it until he felt his hand still and heard him call the doctor's name questioningly. With a few blinks, Sulu found himself raising his eyes to look at John -

Who was close to Ianto's mouth, expression much like McCoy's when he found something he didn't understand but knew how to deal with, fingers touching Ianto's neck, a beat passing before he started giving mouth-to-mouth again. And when he pulled away, this time there was a faint noise and Ianto's chest - "Oh," Sulu said, quietly.

Once he felt Ianto take a shallow breath, John moved to take an oxygen mask placed by the bed, moving Ianto gently but quickly to put it over his nose and mouth before turning on the oxygen and sitting, quite suddenly, in one of the chairs near the bed. Leaning back, John stared at Ianto, at the fact that his chest - Jesus Christ, he was breathing. He was breathing.

John cast a rather dumb look up at the other two men, blinked, and then said, "Sorry, was a bit busy." He paused, then shook his head, "Right," and then stood to connect Ianto to the monitors once again, mind fuzzy with the sheer impossibility of the day. Torchwood seemed to consistently boggle his mind in a way not even Sherlock else could.

Jack didn't let go of Sulu, but he did pull back from the hug, keeping an arm around his shoulders, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. Ianto...was alive? He was breathing and actually alive again? Jack blinked, hard, trying to make sure that he hadn't lost his mind and was just hallucinating what he so obviously wanted to be true, more than anything.

Squeezing Sulu tight once more, Jack let his arm drop away, as he stepped up to the bed. He was vaguely aware that he was probably in the way at the moment, but he didn't really care all that much, reaching out to put a hand on the back of Ianto's hand. It was warm. Ianto hadn't been warm a few minutes ago. He'd been cold and stiff and dead, but now.

"...Ianto?" Jack asked, tentatively. Ianto's eyebrows furrowed above the oxygen mask, and he let out a very soft moan from beneath it, his hand twitching underneath Jack's.

Sulu sort of stood there, just staring at the scene before him. It felt like things had just leapt from terrifying and wrong to something... still so fearsome but so much better. Sulu moved to Jack's side, staying close in case this really wasn't real, in case something went wrong and he needed to grab hold of him. His eyes widened as he took in Ianto's chest, rising and falling, the sound of electronics beeping somewhere behind them, wherever John was, who cared, and that pale, wrong shell that had been there before was actually alive. And he looked like Ianto. Still pale, all right, but.

He brushed a few fingers along Ianto's jaw, mindful of the oxygen mask, and let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "It." He looked at Jack, his vision blurring slightly just barely, and grinned in stunned disbelief. "It - it worked."

John, meanwhile, couldn't help but make a disapproving face as the two men got directly in his way from checking Ianto over, but. He decided it could wait, and he could rely on the monitors for a moment. His pulse was strengthening - everything looked... "...Everything looks all right," he said slowly, "Granted, his blood pressure is a little low, but. He's very much alive."

In the darkness, there had been nothing. Nothing but the knowledge that that's all there was. So much nothing that Ianto had started to forget who he was anymore. Started to forget that anything was anymore. Anything but whatever it was that was lurking in the distance, waiting for him, coming to get him but never quite close enough, familiar enough to recognize, to know what it was that he was trying to avoid.

There had been no concept of time, either. It seemed to stretch on for forever, and yet last barely a second at all. As if time itself didn't matter anymore. As if nothing really mattered anymore. Certainly not him. Whoever he was anyway.

And so it came as rather a bit of a shock when suddenly, rather than the dark nothing that he was getting used to, really, Ianto was suddenly overwhelmed with life. Everything was too bright, too loud, too solid, too painful, and if he could get his vocal chords working right, he'd probably be screaming, but even that seemed impossible at the moment. His heart rate accelerated, and he tried to turn his head away from the brightness, but it was seeping through even through his eyelids, and there was nothing he could do to make it all just stop.

As Jack and Sulu took in the fact that their friend was actually, physically alive, John took a moment to gather his thoughts. This was... unprecedented. Not only Ianto's resurrection, but Jack's inability to stay dead... He knew that it was different, here. Things didn't add up like they did in his world, and he'd have to accept that. For now, he could safely put away his surprise and curiosity and focus on doing what he was brought here to do.

It was good that Ianto was reacting - or, at least, John had thought so at first, but as he watched him begin to shift, restless and uncomfortable, he started to realize that this might not be just be a gasp and realization, like it was for Jack. He heard the heart-rate monitor begin to beep in quicker succession, and when he looked at it, he realized that Ianto was not just waking up from a coma. He cleared his throat and moved to the other side of the bed, his eyes fixed on the monitors all the while.

"I'm going to need a few minutes," he told the both of them, giving Sulu an understanding look when he saw how put out he seemed by the thought of moving from Ianto's bedside. "At the very least, let me have this side of the bed. I'm..." He saw, now that he was closer, that Ianto was struggling and twisting his head, eyes shut tight. Oh, this... this was about to go wrong, wasn't it? "You might want to be prepared to move back," he told the two of them. Sulu gave him a look of disbelief, but John was certain that would change once Ianto regained more cognitive function.

Jack shot John a look at his last statement. What did he mean, they might need to move back? Ianto was alive. His vital systems were, as far as Jack could tell, not being a doctor himself, all in working condition. What could...?

Jack's train of thought was cut off rather quickly as Ianto let out another quiet moan, shifting more and more as his body struggled to drag itself into consciousness, his breathing starting to pick up as well as his heartbeat. He managed to finally get his head turned, trying to get away from the light, but it was no use and even though his eyes were shut everything swam around in his brain, and his head was too full of information, too full of everything, everything was too real. His body's natural reaction to that was to try and move, to get away, but how were you supposed to get away from reality?

He felt someone's hands on him, on his hand, brushing on his cheek. Something was covering his face, and all his mind could think of was that someone was smothering him, that that thing in the darkness had found him and now the torture would never end. He cried out, hoarsely, looking as though he were in the throes of a rather vivid nightmare, trying to twist and get away, but only succeeding in thrashing a little more, his muscles still trying to remember how they were supposed to function.

Jack leaned forward, his hand on Ianto's arm, as he stroked Ianto's face, patting his cheek gently. "Ianto?" he asked. "Ianto, it's alright. You... You're safe now..." Only his attempts to calm the man seemed to have the opposite effect. "John," Jack said, looking up to the doctor. "What's happening? Something... Something's wrong. Something's wrong, John...!" He glanced down at Ianto as the man on the bed sucked in an audible breath through the oxygen mask, crying out louder and more noticeably tossing his head away from Jack's hand. "Oh, god. Ianto? C'mon, Ianto, don't do this to us. Please. Not now."

Sulu moved his hand to Ianto's shoulder and neck, resting his hand there while he watched with a sort of flat, blank expression on his face that was the only thing holding back any sort of shout or exclamation of his growing unease. Seeing Ianto breathing and moving at the sounds of their voices had been amazing, but now it was clear he was - there was something wrong here, and now Jack was sounding worried and dismayed, and what was Sulu supposed to do now?

"Both of you," John said suddenly, in an even and professional tone, "I need the both of you to let go. I -" He blinked as he came to understand at least partially what was going on here. "Of course," he sighed, "I should have - this is bound to come as something of a shock." He'd been dead for a week, after all. John just hoped it didn't get too much worse than this - not that this was by any means good. Ianto looked terrified, pulling away as much as he could from the two men touching him - "Now, both of you, and I mean it. Let him have some space."

Sulu was looking at him as though he were insane, but John just kept his eyes with on him until the other man reluctantly moved his hands away from Ianto's skin. Leaning in slightly, though by no means very close to Ianto, he started to talk directly to him in slow, measured words, unsure if they would register but trying anyway. "It's all right. I want you to take deep breaths, now, but don't panic. I promise, everything will be all right."

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