BTBD Challenge 34 - Off road

[m_findlow]

Title: Off road
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Torchwood team
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 3,007 words
Content notes: Written for Challenge 34 - Spin
Summary: Foul weather causes havoc on the road

Rain was to be expected in Cardiff, but a downpour like this was a once a year type event. The rain was pelting down in thick sheets, pounding on the roof of the SUV and sending the windscreen wipers into overdrive, trying to flick the rain from their vision. It was a poor effort though as the rain continued to come down heavily, barely cleared from their view for even a second before they were blinded once again, visibility a mere few yards in front of them.

'Man this rain is bad,' Jack said, trying to peer through the windscreen at the road ahead. 'Of all the days to have to drive across town to check out a rift alert.'

'Everyone else is staying inside today,' Ianto agreed.

'Yeah,' Jack chuckled. 'We finally get all those people off the road, and instead we have to battle with this.'

'Perhaps you should slow down a bit,' Ianto suggested, feeling the tires slipping along the road, unable to properly grip the bitumen underneath them, a thick layer of water impeding their grip.

'We're okay,' Jack assured him.

'We're not all invincible like you, remember?'

Jack took his hand off the steering wheel, placing it on Ianto's leg. 'Trust me, if I thought I was putting you in danger, well, I wouldn't. It's just a bit of rain, and there's no one else out on the road. We'll be fine.'

Ianto looked across at Jack, giving him a brief smile. It was true that for all his recklessness, he'd never willingly put them in harm's way if he could help it. He was waiting for that brief smile to be returned when he caught the glimpse of something out of Jack's side window. He barely had time to register the bright yellow hue,  let alone recongise it as a large lorry truck before it slammed into the back of the SUV.

The SUV had been hit side on, the lorry clipping the tail end, sending it into a dangerous spin. Jack's hand on the wheel gripped tight, but it was no use. The momentum of the impact and the water on the road spun the car round and round, like some out of control carnival ride. It careened out of control down the road, like a mad spinning top, before finally the curvature of the road arrested its movement, the driver's side slamming into the brick facade of a factory wall. Everything after that was silent except for the continuing downpour of rain.

 

Everything was blurry when Ianto opened his eyes, feeling a stinging sensation that made his head pound. Where was he? What had happened? He tried to focus but everything kept moving, as if the car were still spinning, and the noise of the rain battled with the ringing in his ears. When everything finally came into a hazy view he saw that the car had indeed stopped, and was crumpled up against a large wall, its side buckled in and bent awkwardly around Jack's body.

Jack, Ianto's mind screamed. He was badly injured, and there seemed to be blood everywhere, running down his face, staining his torso, ebbing from his thigh. He was covered in shattered glass and bits of broken metal, the side window smashed in and the roof of the car bent downwards, straining underneath the weight of the broken brick wall.  

Bleeding meant he was still alive, but Ianto had no hope of waking him or getting him out of the crumpled mess. He needed help. Ianto fumbled for his phone, his hands refusing to cooperate with the dexterous movement required, until finally he pulled it from his pocket. The front was smashed into a thousand pieces, making it completely useless.

Help. He had to get help.

He struggled with the door. It was damaged in the impact, making the lock mechanism stick. He tugged and pulled back and forth, his head spinning from the effort, and realising for the first time that there was a thick red stream of blood running down his own face. Finally freeing the door he managed to push it out. Moving to get out of the car, a sharp pain shot up and down his right leg. Something was broken, or at the very least badly sprained. He clambered ungracefully out, head stinging painfully as the rain beat against the laceration, soaking him to the skin in seconds.

He looked around, seeing very little in the driving rain. Where was everyone? Someone must have seen the crash, even if they couldn't hear it over the sound of the rain. He didn't look back at the crushed SUV, knowing only that he had to get help. His head swam in circles, and the world kept spinning as the rain kept coming down in a thick grey wall of water. A few yards from the car his leg buckled underneath him, sending him tumbling to the ground, and the water pelted his face as blackness enveloped him.

 

He was lucky not to be run over by the paramedics when they arrived. The rain was beating down just as hard as ever, and they could hardly see the large black car come into view, let alone the man lying in the middle of the road, as three inches of water sluiced down the street, almost hiding him from view, the paramedic unit stopping just metres away from his body. The two paramedics split up, one checking over Ianto, the other going off to inspect the passengers in the car. The first paramedic assumed that the man on the road must have been hit by the car, causing it to swerve and crash. It wasn't until the paramedics called for the RTC unit and the police, that the car's registration number was clocked up on a database somewhere, immediately flagging an alert back at the hub.

 

When the team arrived, the scene was already busy with emergency workers, battling against the heavy rain. The SUV was badly damaged, and it looked as if they were trying to cut apart the wreckage to get to the people inside.

'Oh my God,' Gwen gasped, taking in the scene.

Owen went straight into doctor mode, spying two paramedics gently rolling someone onto a back board, whilst a police officer held a large umbrella over the top of them, trying to help keep the water off whilst they treated  the man. Owen marched over and breathed a sigh of relief to find that the patient was Ianto, fearing he had been trapped in the wrecked car.

'I'm a doctor,' Owen announced. 'What are his stats?'

Owen listened patiently as the medics reeled off a series of numbers and acronyms that meant nothing to anyone else, but told him an entire story about Ianto's current condition. Fortunately most of it was minor, and what wasn't, was easily treated.

'He was on the road when we got here. Must've been hit.'

'He was in the car,' Owen replied, 'probably going for help,' he corrected them.

Ianto had been just barely conscious, but seemed to become more lucid at the sound of the familiar voice.

'Owen,' he croaked.

'I'm here, mate. You're gonna be fine. Just relax.'

'Jack,' he coughed out.

'Where's the driver?' Owen asked.

'Still trying to cut him out.'

Owen looked back over his shoulder at the crumpled SUV.

'Okay, take him, but leave me a portable kit,' he ordered. 'And send another unit down here.'

As they lifted Ianto up onto a gurney inside the van, Ianto called out to Owen.

'Where's Jack?'

'They're still trying to get to him. I'm going to go and check on him now, but they need to take you to hospital.'

'No,' he protested feebly. 'Wanna stay.'

Owen fixed him with a firm stare.

'Ianto, how many fingers am I holding up?'

Ianto squinted, his head beginning to spin again with the effort of concentrating. 'Twelve?'

'Exactly. You've got a nasty laceration on your head, concussion and a fractured tibia. Add to that a mild dose of hypothermia from lying out in the rain. They're going to patch you up at the hospital, and that's that. Tosh, go with him,' Owen suggested, bundling her into the paramedics van before anyone could argue.

'Jack's going to be fine,' he heard her say, before the doors were slammed shut and the engine started up, leaving Owen back out in the driving rain, watching their flashing lights disappear into the blanket of water.

 

Owen saw the RTC unit with sledgehammers and bolt cutters, trying to cut through the front windscreen. It was the only part they could access with the whole right hand side crushed into the wall, some of the large cinder blocks having tumbled down on top where the SUV had broken through. Owen saw another trying to attach a tow rope to the front of the car hoping to prise it out of the wall.

He jogged over and crawled through the passenger side door, trying to get to Jack. The inside of the car was equally crumpled and he felt disappointed that the car was so badly damaged. The SUV was like a member of the team and they relied on it every day. Seeing it mangled now, Owen knew that they must have been going at some speed to cause this much damage. The car was built like a tank, and now it looked like it had been hit by a bomb. There wasn't time to fathom the why or how of what had happened.

Jack was slumped unconscious against the crushed side paneling. A quick pulse check told Owen that he was still alive, and that a lot of the blood might have been from superficial cuts only. He lifted up Jack's head which hung down over his chest, leaning it back against the head rest, trying to clear his airway and help his breathing. He spotted the heavy gash in Jack's leg, brushing away some of the broken debris, and putting pressure on it with his hand. The pain caused by his actions was enough to earn a semiconscious groan.

'It's okay, Jack. I'm here,' he said, pulling a wad of guaze out of his jacket pocket and pressing it over the bleeding, earning another pained cry.

'Ianto,' he wheezed, before coughing hard, and emitting a gurgling sound that Owen surmised could only be a collapsed lung.

'He's alright. Few cuts and bruises and a bum leg. They've taken him to the hospital to get patched up. Right now I'm more worried about you.'

He saw now that Jack's other leg was crushed between the steering wheel and the framing, pinning him in place, and that his right arm was equally jammed awkwardly against his side.

'Just let me die,' he puffed out with some effort.

'Not happening Jack. I'm a doctor, not an executioner. We're gonna get you out of here, and then if you still want to put a bullet through your brain, you can help yourself.'

He focused on wrapping a compression bandage around Jack's good leg to staunch the bleeding so he could work on his other injuries. The shattered front windscreen was beginning to leak heavily into the car and the emergency workers had sparks flying despite the rain, trying to cut away enough of the car frame so that they could pull Jack free. All the while Jack declined anything to ease the pain, until Owen couldn't put him off any longer, hearing his breathing become even more laboured.

'I've gotta give you something.'

'No.'

'Listen, I'm about to stick a tube into your chest to help you breathe and it's going to hurt like buggery.'

'I've done buggery,' Jack wheezed. 'Painful isn't a word I'd used to describe it.'

'Well it will be when I do it,' he said, trying to keep things serious. He was going to have to lean over the top of Jack to get the right spot. Doing this in a trauma room with the patient lying flat was hard enough some days. Doing it out in the field was another matter entirely.

He delivered a shot of morphine and watched as Jack visibly eased, before leaning over to remove the clothing that was impeding his access.

'Usually like someone to wine and dine me first,' Jack replied, woozy.

'Yeah,  well you can explain it to Teaboy why I had to ruin your coat.'

It was tricky work, given the positioning, the lack of light, and the distraction of everything else going on around him, but he eventually managed to get his scalpel where he wanted it, making the incision,  and slowly wedging the tubing into the correct position with a gloved finger.

'Better?' he asked.

'Mmm,' Jack replied, before slumping forward.

'Shit,' Owen cursed. Whilst he'd been working on one problem another had lain hidden from sight. There must have been internal bleeding somewhere.

'Oh no. You don't get to die on me, Harkness,' he ordered, even though he knew Jack couldn't hear him.

'How much longer?' Owen screamed at the workers outside.

'Almost there,' he heard one yell back,

He kept one hand on Jack's pulse, monitoring it, as the car shuddered around them, the heavy cinder blocks threatening to shift and crush the car's roof in right on top of them.

The car was tugged sideways violently, letting the brick wall fall away to the side before two more men leapt in to cut away the final pieces of metal. Owen leapt out of the passenger side and ran to join them on the other side with the backup paramedic team who'd been awaiting to all clear to go in and assist. With the metal stripped away, they were able to release Jack's body and get it on a gurney. Owen stayed with them the entire way to the hospital, leaving Gwen to liaise with the police and emergency workers to understand just what had happened. Ten minutes later, they were wheeling him through the emergency department doors and straight into surgery.

 

When Jack woke up, everything felt fuzzy and warm. That wasn't the usual way things went. He expected darkness and the unavoidable dread of that place he always found himself. He wasn't sure where it was that he went when he died, but he was always alone there, yet with that awful feeling that something was watching him from the edges of darkness, just waiting to sink its claws into him and drag him away.

He drew in a long breath, letting it fill his chest, relishing the feeling of being alive. For the first time in ages it felt like the world had stopped spinning around him, and had settled into a peaceful lull. He opened his eyes and surveyed the room. Everything was clean and white, the walls, the sheets on the bed, the pillows beneath his head, and the thick cast wrapped around his right arm. He wanted to laugh at it. In a week it would be good as new, his own healing abilities making a mockery of modern medicine. It wasn't instantaneous, but it was a lot quicker than regular healing.

In his other hand he found a warm sensation, a hand. He slowly turned his head and found Ianto seated in a wheelchair, a bandage wrapped around his head, head resting on his arm, asleep. He squeezed the hand, waking his lover.

'Ianto.'

He slowly lifted his head, that slightly confused look on his face that he always had when he'd only just gotten to sleep, only to be woken moments later by a rift alert.

'Jack.'

'Are you okay?'

He smiled weakly. 'I am now.'

Jack tried to sit up, finding a pain in his abdomen.

'Easy. You've just come out of surgery.'

'Surgery?'

'I didn't catch the details,' he replied, trying to adjust Jack's pillows but finding it hard since he couldn't stand up from the wheelchair. 'Owen threw a whole lot of medical jargon at me.'

'What about you?'

'Concussion, hairline fracture in my leg. Apart from that I'm just dandy. Back to chasing weevils in three weeks.'

Jack groaned trying to sit up again. 'What the hell happened?'

'Gwen said a lorry driver reported in to the police about an hour after the crash. Said he thought he might have clipped a car when he ran the red. He swears he couldn't see the light on account of the rain. He panicked and kept driving, then felt guilty and turned himself into police. She's already told the police we won't be pressing charges. Owen says I'm mad, so that must mean I'm okay.'

Jack tried to remember the moments before everything had been turned upside down, but was coming up blank.

'I swear I didn't see it,' Jack said, knowing he would have done everything to prevent being hit.

'Neither did I. I caught a blur of yellow, and then everything got crazy. There was no way of seeing anything out in that weather.'

Jack turned his head and stared at the opposite wall. 'All the dangers of Torchwood, and I nearly kill you in a stupid car accident.'

Ianto squeezed his hand. 'You didn't even come close to killing me. And it wasn't your fault. Could've happened to anyone. It could have easily been me driving.' He reached over and stroked Jack's face. 'I'm just glad you're okay.'

'I'm invincible. And now I'm stuck recuperating for a week. Owen should've let me go.'

'You know he wouldn't. Something about the hippocratic oath. I wouldn't have let him either. I'd rather have you home for a week waiting on you hand and foot.'

'Well I don't know about foot,' he said, indicating the cast on Ianto's leg.

'No, maybe not. But I suspect being stuck at the home in bed for a week has never had been quite so tempting.'

'Mmm,' Jack hummed. 'So long as we're staying in the same bed, maybe it's not so bad after all.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

Nasty, nasty accident. Jack needs to remember that while he may be able to drive perfectly safely at speed in all kinds of weather, it's the other idiots on the road who could kill them. In bad weather, go slow, because it gives you a better chance of stopping or getting out of the way of dangerous idiots.

Glad they'll both be okay, but they should have pressed charges. The lorry driver doesn't deserve to get away with running a red light then leaving the scene of an accident. I don't care that he turned himself in an hour later - that just means Ianto and Jack were lying there injured for an hour!