Torchwood: Fanfic: Following orders

[m_findlow]

Title: Following orders
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack, Gwen
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 513 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for sincere's prompt "any, any, exposed bone" at fic_promptly
Summary: Following orders sucks sometimes

Jack tumbled ungracefully down the wooded embankment. He had been in hot pursuit of a vicious alien. Had, being the operative word. As best he could guess, his coat must have caught on a low hanging branch, throwing him off balance as he continued to propel himself forward while the branch had other ideas. He didn't even have time to process the concept of falling. One second he was upright and running like the clappers, in the next the world around him was spinning wildly.

When inertia finally gave up its hold on him, he was sprawled on the ground with all his limbs at odd angles to his body and to one another. His left leg in particular seemed to have borne the brunt of his collision down the rocky hillside, having snapped cleanly in two, but with the lower half of his shin bone having bent so far that it had pierced the skin and was protruding violently skyward.

Gwen and Ianto struggled down the hillside, nearly breaking a few ankles of their own to get to Jack's position.

Gwen took one look and winced, turning away before she sent something violently skyward herself.

Ianto gingerly touched his leg, sending a guttural scream though the woods.

'It's bad.'

'You think?' he replied, the sarcasm cutting through the gasps of pain.

'We'll have to carry you out of here'.

'Leave me,' Jack ordered. 'That thing is still out there. That's our priority.'

'And if it finds you, it'll tear you to shreds,' Gwen argued.

'Better me than you.'

'We're not leaving you,' Ianto confirmed.

'Fine, shoot me then.'

'What?'

'Quickest way to fix a broken leg.'

'We are not shooting you. I can't believe we're even having this conversation.'

'Leave me or shoot me. That's an order.'

'No!'

'Maybe he's right, Ianto,' Gwen conceded.

'No, he's not!'

'Gwen?' Jack looked askance at her.

'You're sure that killing you is the best way?'

'Just do it,' he grunted through the pain.

'Okay, okay,' Gwen said hurriedly.

'Gwen, no, you can't!' Ianto beseeched her, looking pale and panicked.

Gwen went and stood behind Jack's head. 'I don't want to look you in the eye,' she explained.

'That's okay,' Jack said, managing a small smile despite the pain.

She pressed the gun to the back of his head and Jack closed his eyes, not wanting to see the distraught expression on Ianto's face.

'Okay, on three.'

'Mmm hmm,' Gwen agreed.

'One. Two. Three.'

On three Gwen cracked her gun as hard over the back of his head as she could, knocking him unconscious.

Ianto had squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the gunshot. He reopened them at the sound of the dull thud.

'You didn't shoot him!'

'Of course not! Don't be such a bloody idiot! Now help me get him up and out of here.'

'He's not going to be happy when he wakes up. Or for the next six weeks while that heals.'

'We'll tell him we used him as bait. Shoot him. Honestly! I don't know which of you is more daft!'