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aviv_b_artworkTITLE: Chapter 67 - Payoff
AUTHOR: Aviv_b
RATING: Chapter 67 - PG
CHARACTERS: Ianto, Aaron, Owen, Jack, Martha, Alonso, and a surprise visitor!
DISCLAIMER: Not mine; Aunty B's and RTD's
WORDS: ~ 1410
SUMMARY: Aaron's life hangs in the balance. What will happen if the plans to help him don't work?
Title is from: Sometimes life doesn't always pay off to those who are most insistent, Max Lerner
The intervention to save Aaron’s life began in total silence. Everyone knew what they had to do and they had practiced their routines extensively over the last several days.
Martha had Ianto sit in a reclining lounge chair that had been brought into the room weeks prior when Ianto had been staying overnight with Aaron. She attached her field monitors to Ianto so she could track any changes in his status. It wasn’t ideal when compared to hospital equipment, but there was no way they could discretely move a second monitoring set up into Aaron’s room. She inserted a peripheral IV line in case Ianto required fluids or pain relief over the course of the procedure. She also had syringes of sedatives and heart stimulating medicine if something more serious occurred with Ianto. When she finished her preparations, she had Ianto close his eyes and establish a link with Aaron. He nodded once when the connection was made.
Owen suctioned around Aaron’s breathing tube in preparation for its removal. He checked Aaron’s vitals for a final time and looked at Jack. Jack nodded to indicate his readiness. Owen quickly removed the endotracheal tube and looked to see if Aaron was breathing on his own. He wasn’t. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Aaron’s stats begin to deteriorate.
On the other side of the room, Ianto felt like his throat had been ripped out. He sat up and choked a bit; Martha eased him back into the chair. Jack began to breathe his life force into Aaron until both of them were practically glowing. Aaron’s vitals improved a bit but not beyond where he was before he was extubated.
Ianto shook his head indicating that he wasn’t getting any increased feedback from Aaron.
“We’ve got to go to our back-up plan, there’s no way he’s going to survive without it,” Owen hissed. They all knew the risks involved but Owen glanced at Jack, Martha and Ianto to get their consent. They all nodded yes. He stepped out of the way so that John Hart could stand next to Aaron. Jack once again breathed his life force into Aaron. He quickly stepped away so John could breathe his entire supply of healing nanogenes into Aaron’s airway.
Now all they could do was wait.
Nothing changed. Everyone except Ianto had their eyes glued to Aaron’s monitors waiting for something to happen. Thirty minutes passed before they began to see any signs that something was going on in Aaron’s body. Ianto began to twitch a little, but Aaron’s vitals held steady. Suddenly Ianto’s eyes opened and he sat up rapidly gasping for breath.
“He’s seizing," Jack said.
“No, he’s reacting the way you do when you come back to life,” Owen observed. Owen saw that Aaron’s vitals were improving just a bit. “John does it normally take this long to see any change?”
John was depleted from releasing his nanogenes and had sat down in a small chair facing Ianto on the opposite side of the recliner from Martha. With his elbows on his knees and his hands holding his head, John shrugged. “Can’t really be certain, but I know I’ve been unconscious for several hours while the nanogenes did their repairs following a serious injury. And remember, they were calibrated for my physiology, so it’ll take longer for them to reconfigure Aaron’s damage.”
Ianto was laying back in the chair once again twitching. John sat up and reached out a hand to Ianto’s forehead to sense what Ianto was experiencing. Suddenly Ianto began to thrash around and tried to sit up. Martha tried to push him back into the chair but he was flailing wildly almost striking her. She and John could barely keep Ianto in the chair.
“Alonso, give me your belt…you too Owen,” John commanded. They hesitated just a moment before they realized what John intended. John used the belts to secure Ianto’s hand to the chair arms. This helped some, but Ianto was still thrashing, his legs kicking out randomly.
“Braces, Jack.” Jack hesitated. “Now would be a good time before he kicks one of us in the face.” Jack took off his braces and handed them to John who quickly knotted them together and secured Ianto’s legs to the chair.
“Son of a bitch.” In their efforts to secure Ianto, everyone but Owen had turned their attention away from Aaron. Owen was looking at the monitors his eyes wide. “He’s coming back, I wouldn’t have believed it, but there is definite improvement.”
Martha came over to look. “He’s right but there’s still a long way to go.”
Jack hadn’t left Aaron’s side. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining it, but he thought Aaron’s color looked a little better. The deathly pallor seemed to be fading.
John was having difficulty in getting images from Ianto. He had never tried to see secondary images; he didn’t even know if it was possible. All he could feel was Ianto’s helplessness to ward off the pain.
“Ianto, focus on Aaron. Do you feel him …” Ianto nodded. “Push out to me what you can.”
John could feel Ianto to struggle to transfer out what he was picking up from Aaron. Then John sensed it. The softest whisper touched his mind. “Don’t give up Ianto; I’m coming back…coming backcomingbackcomingback. Don’t give up…” And he could hear Ianto’s mind chanting over and over, “Aaron I need you…don’t leave me…keep fighting…I need youIneedyouIneedyou.”
Their voices were call and response, looping over and over like a glorious duet. It was so beautiful and heartbreaking; John couldn’t help but tear up and smile all at the same time. ‘So this is what they meant in those texts that said that true pair-bonds could literally make beautiful music together. I never would have imagined.’
“What...what’s going on,” Jack said seeing John smiling.
“Aaron’s there. And he sounds quite sound mentally.”
Martha burst into tears. Jack sniffled and wiped his eyes. Alonso startled everyone by turning away from the rest of them sobbing.
“Oi! That’s enough, all of you” Owen hissed, as he wiped his own eyes. “Aaron’s vitals are still far from normal so let’s keep focused please. And let’s keep in mind that we don’t know what the end result will be.”
Over several more hours they watched cycles of Aaron stabilizing followed by Ianto thrashing in pain followed by a positive jump in Aaron’s readings. Ianto was obviously in great discomfort throughout the process but refused to take any pain relief.
‘Got to stay connected, can’t afford to drift,’ he pushed out to John. Alonso had come over to stand by Ianto wiping his face and giving him sips of water.
“This reminds me of my rotation in obstetrics,” Martha snarked as she watched Ianto carefully.
John cocked his head and then barked out a laugh. He realized that everyone was staring at him. “Ianto just pushed out that giving birth to an almost 200 pound baby is a lot more than he bargaining for when he agreed to this.”
An hour later Ianto’s eyes came open and he looked at John who nodded and began to loosen his restraints. “He said Aaron’s coming awake and he wants to be by his bed when he does.” Martha quickly unhooked the small monitors from Ianto but left the peripheral line intact. “Just in case,” she whispered to Ianto who nodded his agreement.
Ianto was exhausted and needed Alonso’s and Martha’s help to stand up. Owen signaled John that he needed his chair and Jack moved away from Aaron’s bedside to assist John into the recliner. Owen moved the small chair next to Aaron and maneuvered Ianto into it. Martha was monitoring Aaron’s vitals which were near normal. The nanogenes had not returned to John’s body and it was 6:30 AM. It was a race against the clock now. Would Aaron come awake and would they be able to access his condition and cover their tracks before the new nursing shift came on?
Aaron’s eyelids fluttered.
There was a loud knock at the door following by someone attempting to turn the handle. Alonso and Jack pushed against the door to keep it closed.
“Open up in there! We need to see Mr. Hamilton immediately.” No one said a word.
“This is Colonel Danjerri, head of UNIT Medical London and if you don’t open this door, I’ll have my men out here shoot it open.”
Chapter 68 here: http://aviv-b.livejournal.com/37770.html)
