Torchwood: Fanfic: Giving blood

[m_findlow]

Title: Giving blood
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Esther
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,493 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for m_findlow's prompt "Torchwood, Jack, the power of blood" at fic_promptly
Summary: Esther has a plan that is both mad and brilliant.

'I'm still, not convinced this is going to help us,' Jack said, watching as Esther carefully tied the rubber tourniquet around his arm. She already had the needle prepared and was swabbing his arm with an alcohol wipe before he could say anything more.

'I didn't make the rules, Jack,' she replied, deftly holding the needle tip between her slender fingers and poising over the skin, ready to slip it in. She'd become an expert by now, having first had to stop him from dying from his gunshot wound, and now to go one step further. It was one thing to do all she could to stop him from bleeding out - since he could now die from that sort of blood loss - but having her now wanting to take his blood was something else entirely. 'You said it yourself, Jack, there's something connecting you with the Miracle. If Rhys is right, then there's something controlling it at both ends of the globe. This is us hedging our bets.'

'A word of advice, don't ever tell Rhys he's right,' Jack replied, thinking how smug the Welshman would be. He felt the cold needle pierce the crook of his elbow, a thick ribbon of red blood quickly filling the tube attached, slowly filling the bag at the other end. No matter how many times they did this, he found himself morbidly fascinated at watching his life force literally draining out of him. It really didn't have the same effect when he'd been immortal.

He shook his head, still feeling uncertain. Nothing about the miracle made any sense to him, least of all how it could be connected to him. He'd never been so unsure about anything Torchwood related in all his life, but this one thing scared him in a way that nothing else did. If they didn't figure it out and a way to stop it, well, it didn't bear thinking about. Humans incinerating humans as a method of eliminating those people they decided should be dead, was heinous. The civil unrest that had followed in its wake was going to force the world to either confront this terrifying new reality, or otherwise to collapse completely under the weight of it. Both courses of action left Jack feeling anxious. Nine of this should have been happening in the first place.

'How are you feeling?' Esther asked, a mask of concern on her face as she watched over him. She'd done nothing but fuss over him since they'd been forced to go on the run, their roles reversed completely as Jack came to depend on her for their survival.

'I'm back in Wales, under the roof of the one person I trust more than anyone in the whole universe, he replied. Couldn't be better.' Gwen's home even smelled like home. He never thought he'd hanker so much for one place.

'Really, though,' Esther pressed. She spent enough time alone with him now to know when he was putting on a good front.

He sighed, watching the bag of deep red liquid slowly filling. 'Tired. Sore. And you know, if I'm honest, this daily bloodletting ritual isn't all that much fun.' He never used to feel this lightheaded when he'd lost blood back in the old days. Now it was lucky he was practically lying down on the sofa or he might have hit the deck.

Esther smiled at that. 'What can I say? Everybody wants a piece of you. We've got bags of essence du Jack all over the house now. Just don't tell Gwen that's how you feel.'

Jack gave a wry smirk. 'Oh, I know. Gwen takes mothering to a whole new level these days. She's worse than you. It's me on her knee getting a spanking instead of the other way around - and not in the fun kinky way, either.'

Esther leaned forward on her hand. 'I'd like to see her try and give Rex a spanking.'

Jack laughed at that, even though it hurt. When the hell was this wound going to heal properly? He could hardly bend over without being in pain. 'I'd pay anything for front row seats to that. And let's face it, if anyone needs a spanking it's probably Rex.'

Esther studied the bag, determining it was sufficiently filled and removing the needle from Jack's arm, quickly pressing a gauze offer the spot and letting him do the rest. Becoming an old hand at this now, Jack said, bending his arm back on itself, adding further pressure to staunch the bleeding.

'I was thinking,' Esther began, removing the IV line from the bag and sealing it up, before adding a date and time to the bag with a black marker pen.

'You know you're dangerous when you do that,' Jack joked.

Esther smiled as she capped the pen. 'It's just... We're taking this with us to Buenos Aires but...'

Jack's brow furrowed as he looked at her, trying to read her thoughts. 'But what?'

'It feels, I don't know... like we're taking a risk. It's not like you can hide a case full of blood.'

'Not easily,' Jack replied, inspecting his arm to see if it had coagulated. It was taking longer each time, Esther having made him into a human pincushion.

'Right. So, she leaned forward until their heads were only inches apart, I had this idea.'

Jack didn't know who they were keeping secrets from but he leaned in closer anyway. 'Yeah?'

'Well, and stop me at any point if I've got this wrong, but a blood transfusion only works when two people have the same blood type, right?'

'Unless you want to destroy your kidneys and kill yourself.'

'Right. But with the Miracle, that wouldn't happen. I mean, the killing part.'

Jack kept his voice low as his blue eyes penetrated her. 'Esther, what exactly is it you're suggesting?'

'Rex. What if we transfused this blood into his body? No one would ever know. If someone came after us and tried to steal your blood. If they thought that it had the power to fix the Miracle...'

Jack paused for a moment, trying to understand what Esther was suggesting. 'You want Rex to swap his blood for mine?'

'It's the perfect place to hide it. Who would ever think of it being inside one of us?'

Jack sucked in a breath. 'I mean, that's not a bad idea, but it's not gonna be pleasant. It might not kill him, but I don't think it's gonna be a walk in the park either. It won't stop my blood damaging his kidneys. It just won't kill him anymore.'

Esther gave him a fierce, determined look. 'If your blood is part of the solution to ending the miracle, the Three Families are not gong to just let us walk around with it. If they were to come after us, steal the case of blood, or destroy it somehow...'

'Ah, I see where you're going. Bluff them unto thinking they've eliminated it. Fill it full of fake blood.'

'Or any blood. I don't think they'd test it. Just seeing us carry it around would be proof enough. It's not too crazy, is it? I'm not overreacting?'

'Can any of us claim to know what they might do?' He picked up the bag and stared at it, feeling the blood moving around inside it, still warm from when it had left his body. 'Is it a risk? Yes. Is there any harm in trying to mitigate it, apart from Rex whining? No. But we keep this between us. The less people that know the better. Just you, me and Rex.'

'Okay, so we're agreed. Only more more problem I can see.'

'What's that?'

'Well, I was reading up on transfusions. Since you and Rex are different blood-types and trying to transfuse your blood into his body would result in his blood's antibodies rejecting your blood, were going to have to do a full body transfusion.'

Jack eased back on the sofa. 'Yeah, how about I leave you to explain to Rex that you're going to want to drain his blood completely?' He could only imagine how that conversation was going to go down. Rex would no doubt accuse him of dreaming up this plan.

'It also means I'm going to need more of your blood,' Esther qualified. 'By my calculations we're still about two litres short. We can probably draw about half a litre a day without affecting you. Standard blood donor amounts are about half that, but we've only got a few days to get it out of you and into Rex before we fly out. We'll just have to make sure you keep your fluids up. Can't have you passing out on us.'

Jack groaned. 'Awesome.' He shove out his other arm, offering it up. 'No time like that present. If Rex finds out about your little plan before you've got enough, he may just kill me.'

Comments

[bk_forever]

I feel bad for poor Jack, he's going through so much.

The whole blood thing still doesn't make sense to me. He was injured, lost a lot of blood, now he's having ,ore taken daily and he's not immortal anymore. Losing so much so often should kill him in his already weakened state. Plus if Jack is no longer immortal how does his blood make Rex immortal?