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aviv_b_artworkTITLE: Chapter 63 - Crisis
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 63 - PG
CHARACTERS: Ianto, Aaron. Jack, The Brigadier, Jonathan, and the cavelry, so to speak
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 2220
SUMMARY: Aaron's life hangs by a thread and Ianto senses foul play from an unexpected source.
Authors Note: Angst on full throttle for this chapter. Tissue may be required.
Title is from: Every little thing counts in a crisis. Jawaharlal Nehru
When the attending physician finally came to speak to Ianto and Jack, the news wasn’t as bad as they had feared. Aaron had experienced a heart attack due to a single blocked artery and needed surgery to correct the problem.
Jack called Owen who agreed with the diagnosis and proposed treatment.
“It’s a relatively straightforward operation really,” Owen told Ianto trying to reassure him.
The only thing that concerned Owen was that a brain scan hadn’t been done to see if there were any impaired vessels there as well. The attending explained that an MRI or CT scan wasn’t considered necessary if the blockage was to a single artery with only a simple angioplasty required to fix the problem.
Aaron was stabilized and surgery was scheduled for first thing in the morning. Ianto was allowed to look in on Aaron for just a few minutes. As he watched his partner sleep, Ianto silently prayed to every god he had heard of that Aaron would survive the surgery.
Ianto wanted to stay over at the hospital, but Jack insisted that he go home and try to get a few hours rest. Jack drove Ianto home and when he saw how exhausted Ianto was helped him into the house. Ianto stood just inside the doorway for a moment before bursting into tears.
‘Oh god, if something happens to Aaron, I don’t think I’ll be able to go on,’ Ianto thought.
Jack hesitated only for a moment before taking Ianto into his arms. “Shh, everything’s going to be fine. Aaron will have his surgery tomorrow and he’ll be home before you know it. Let’s get you to bed.”
Before he could stop himself, Ianto asked, ‘Can you be there for the surgery tomorrow?’
“I’m driving you to the hospital, so yes, I’ll be there.” Ianto began to object but Jack made it clear that he wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer. Ianto was so exhausted that he didn’t object when Jack helped him undress and tucked him into bed.
“I’ll be by at 7 AM for you; I’ll call you at 6 and make sure you’re awake, OK?” Ianto nodded. “I better get home, I’m sure Alonso has a pile of documents for me to sign…oh, I almost forgot, he wanted me to tell you that he’s thinking about you and Aaron.”
Ianto looked at Jack incredulously. “No, I’m not kidding; he’s very worried about you.”
Ianto snorted and held back a laugh. Jack felt a little miffed at Ianto’s reaction. ‘No, its not that, it’s just…well tell Tiger Pants I appreciate the thought.'
"If you ever tell him you heard me call him that, you are going to suffer,” Jack said laughing as well.
As Jack drove home, he thought about how life had so many strange twists and turns. When he first heard about Aaron more than ten years ago, he had actually wished that something would happen to remove Aaron from Ianto’s side. Not Aaron’s death, but that Ianto and Aaron would have a falling out or Aaron would find someone else, anything that would allow Jack to rekindle his relationship with Ianto. Now, he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than for Aaron to live, so Ianto wouldn’t have to experience any more heartache in his life.
***
Jack picked up Ianto promptly at 7 AM. He could see the dark circles under Ianto’s eyes and knew he hadn’t slept much or well.
‘Get everything signed?’ Ianto asked just to make conversation.
Jack sighed. “Yeah, Alonso left all the papers for me, and he can pick them up today on his way into work.” Ianto looked at Jack with confusion.
“We have a very open relationship. But I think he was a little irked that I stayed so long at the hospital. So he left me a note that he was going out clubbing. How he can stay out all night and be so awake the next day is beyond me, but…” Jack’s voice trailed off not knowing what he wanted to say.
As they entered the surgical waiting area, Ianto was surprised to see Stephen there. ‘Shit’, Ianto texted, ‘I forgot the call The Brigadier and tell him about the surgery this morning. How does Stephen know?’
“I called The Brigadier last night when I got home, I’m sure he called Stephen,” Jack offered.
They went over to where Stephen was sitting. If Stephen was surprised to see Jack he didn’t give any indication. “Father’s in with Aaron, they are only letting one visitor at a time see him.”
A few minutes later, The Brigadier came out and embraced Ianto then shook Jack’s hand. “Hiking thirty miles in eight hours with a 20 pound pack. That boy is daft.”
As Stephen stood up, The Brigadier hugged him as well and kissed him on cheek. “All my boys are a little crazy, and I love them all. Ianto, you can go now and see Aaron,” The Brigadier offered.
‘Stephen, have you seen Aaron yet?’ When Stephen said he hadn’t, Ianto insisted that he go next to see him. Jack, the Brigadier and Ianto sat in silence in the surgical waiting area.
After a bit, The Brigadier broke the silence. “I heard there was a major problem with some of the UNIT operatives in Mexico.” Jack was surprised how quickly word had spread. The Brigadier had retired from UNIT six years prior and Jack knew that neither he nor Ianto had mentioned anything about the Mexico debacle to him. Yet, here he was, at age seventy-six talking about highly classified information like it was on the second page of the Daily Mirror.
Jack sighed. “Don’t worry old man,” The Brigadier continued affectionately, “you’ll get it sorted out.” Jack smiled to himself. Seems that The Brigadier’s sources hadn’t mentioned UNIT’s complete capitulation.
Stephen came out from ICU, and Ianto went in to see Aaron. He almost gasped when he saw Aaron. Aaron was deathly pale. And there were so many tubes and machines hooked up to Aaron that Ianto’s mind flashed back to the Cybermen at Canary Wharf. ‘Don’t go there, Ianto,’ he admonished himself. He leaned over and kissed Aaron on the forehead moments before a nurse came in to tell him it was time for Aaron to go to surgery.
The four men sat around the surgical waiting area for hours. Ianto tried to tap into Aaron’s thoughts, but was unable to do so. Whether it was the equipment or Aaron’s sedated state that was prevented the connection, Ianto became increasingly worried as the hours passed. Several times Jack and The Brigadier tried to get updates but nobody had anything to tell them.
Five hours later, they saw the surgeon walking towards them. Ianto took one look at his face and knew the news wasn’t good.
The surgeon sat down with them and sighed. “The bypass surgery itself went fine. Unfortunately, Mr. Hamilton suffered a brain hemorrhage just as we were finishing the procedure. He’s alive, but comatose. I honestly don’t know if he’ll survive or if he does how bad the damage will be. I’m so sorry. I want to look at a few readings and then I’ll be back.’
Ianto and The Brigadier were allowed to see Aaron for just a few minutes. The Brigadier shook his head, sighed, and wiped a tear from his face. When he motioned for Ianto to leave the room with him, Ianto shook his head ‘no.’ Ianto didn’t know how long he stood there trying to connect with Aaron. When he finally left Aaron’s room in ICU, he had tears in his eyes, but a small smile on his face.
‘He’s there; I felt it,’ he told the others.
Jack, Stephen and The Brigadier glanced at each other with concern. While Ianto had been in with Aaron, the surgeon had come back with a social worker to talk to the family about turning off the ventilator. The brain waves they were getting were very small indicating that the damage to Aaron’s brain was severe. If Aaron survived he would most likely be totally incapacitated.
The Brigadier tried to explain to Ianto what the physician had told them, but Ianto wouldn’t listen. He got up from the group and walked away. Stephen followed him, but Ianto glared at him until he retreated. Jack suggested that Stephen and The Brigadier go home and he would stay and try to speak with Ianto.
Jack went down the hall, to talk to Ianto. ‘If you’re going to ask me to kill Aaron, you can just leave.’
“Ianto, I’m not going to ask you to do anything. He’s your partner; it’s your decision to make.”
‘But you don’t believe he’s still there cognitively, do you?’
“Honestly, I don’t know what to think, Ianto. Let’s go back to your house and we’ll call Owen.”
‘I’m not leaving.’
“Oh come on Ianto, you can’t stay all night.”
‘Yes I can, and I’m going to. The minute I leave, they’re going to pull the plug on him.’ Jack started to speak, but saw the anger in Ianto’s face.
‘Yeah, I’ve been sensing everyone’s emotions, and that’s what’s going to happen. The surgeon is angry and he keeps visualizing Aaron’s alarms going off and him standing by doing nothing…’
“Ok, I’m calling Owen right now.” Jack and Ianto explained everything to Owen and waited to hear what he had to say. “Ianto, tell me what you sense.”
‘He’s fighting to live Owen; he’s asking me not to give up on him. I can feel it clearly, Owen. I’m not delusional or making it up, I can feel it as clearly as I can hear you talking to me on the phone.’
“Ianto, Jack, don’t leave that hospital tonight. Stay by Aaron’s room. I’ll be down there no later than 8 AM tomorrow. I’ll be bringing some equipment with me from Torchwood, so be ready to pull your big guns out tomorrow.”
“I’ll do better than that,” Jack told him.
Once the call ended, Ianto went back to stand guard by Aaron’s room while Jack called The Brigadier and told him what Ianto had overheard.
“Are you sure Ianto’s not imagining it?” The Brigadier asked, worried that Ianto might be mistaken.
“My abilities are no where near Ianto’s, but I can tell you that there’s no deception in Ianto’s remarks. He may be mistaken, but he believes he heard Aaron communicate with him. And I don’t think the hospital is intentionally doing anything wrong either; they don’t believe there’s anything left of Aaron so they’ll just let nature take its course.”
“What do we do Jack?” They decided that if Owen judged him stable tomorrow morning, they would move Aaron to the UNIT medical facility. In the meantime, The Brigadier was going to make a few calls and cash in some remaining favors due him from still active UNIT officers.
It was almost midnight when Jack got a signal on his cell phone. He told Ianto to stay by Aaron’s room as he was going to get ‘reinforcements.’
“Don’t leave there no matter what you hear, Ianto. Trust me, I won’t let you down.”
A few minutes later, Ianto heard a bit of a commotion down the hallway toward the main area of the hospital.
“You can’t do that,” once voice yelled.
“On who’s authority are you here…stop right now.” It sounded like an actual fight was beginning.
He heard the sound of ammunition clips being loaded into weapons. Jack stormed into the area followed by four armed UNIT soldiers. Jack pointed out Aaron’s room and two guards immediately flanked the doorway while the other guards stood across from the door. Behind the soldiers was Dr. Martha Jones.
She walked over to Ianto and hugged him tightly. “The cavalry’s here, and just in the nick of time.’
The on-call physician had been paged and he ran down to the room to see what was happening. “Gentlemen, this is highly irregular. Is this man some type of criminal? We can’t have armed soldiers in ICU. Who authorized this?”
Jack gave the doctor his thousand watt smile. “The Prime Minister has approved this,” he smirked as he handed an official letter to the physician.
“How do I know this isn’t some kind of joke…?”
“Do those guns look like jokes to you?” Jack growled.
Martha, ever the diplomat, took the young physician by the arm. She spoke softly to him as he nodded. Finally, he said gave up saying, “fine, fine, you can take the case over…if you think you’re going to have anything left but a vegetable… well, you’ll see.” He departed from the area shaking his head in disbelief.
Martha focused on Ianto. “Let’s go have a look at Aaron. You know he is gravely ill. But once Owen gets here we’ll have a better idea of what, if anything, we can do.”
As Martha went into Aaron’s room, Ianto turned and looked at Jack.
‘I don’t know how to thank you Jack. I can’t understand why you would do this for Aaron.’
“You don’t? You really don’t, do you? It’s because…” Jack just couldn’t bring himself to say it. “I just want you to be happy.” Jack excused himself and went and found a quiet corner of the hospital where he could cry his heart out in private.
Chapter 64 is here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/34059.html
