m_findlow

Title: National health service
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 86 - Pain at fffc
Summary: Jack doesn't expect his teammate to feel much sympathy for a weevil in need.

Jack killed the engine on the SUV as it reached the approximate location of their alert. He turned around in the driver seat and studied his passenger with an air of concern. 'You can stay here in the car if you want,' Jack told him.

Ianto unclipped his seat belt and faced Jack. 'It's fine, really. I'm not going to just sit here and play solitaire on my phone whilst you're out there being all heroic.'

Jack reached it to put a hand on his knee. 'You really don't have to. We weren't on duty.' He wanted to make it abundantly clear to Ianto that he wasn't obligated to join Jack on this impromptu call. If anything Ianto was meant to be taking it easy, still recovering from some serious injuries from an incident with a terribly vicious weevil a few weeks back.

Jack had him on the lightest duties he could convince Ianto to stick to, all the while being nagged by Owen to stop trying to do more as his stitches and deeper wounds tried to heal themselves back together. The whole memory of the evening played through Jack's head like a horror film. He wasn't even sure he could pinpoint the exact moment when they'd gone from being completely in control of the situation to being in deadly danger.

That weevil had been a big one, and had lashed out violently at their attempts to subdue it, resulting in the subsequent scuffle that had left Ianto bleeding and in agony on the ground. With more time on his hands Jack might have put a bullet in that weevil and killed it, but he was working on instinct alone and soon had it stunned to a point where it could be sedated. It gave Jack that time he needed to tend to his higher priority, calling an ambulance for Ianto straight away. He didn't care what cockamamie story they had to come up with, Ianto needed doctors and nurses and painkillers asap.

It was one of those awful nights when Jack was forced to reevaluate just how dangerous this job was and whether he should let Ianto be out in the field with him when so much was at stake. Ianto of course wouldn't have had it any other way. Injuries weren't about to make him shirk his responsibilities. Having to face yet another rogue weevil just weeks after their last deadly encounter was not how Jack had planned their evening. A curry and a trip to the cinema, followed by an early night, all ruined of course, by the city’s weevils having other ideas.

'I'm coming with you,' Ianto forcefully told him. 'You know it takes two people to handle a weevil.' He already had the stun gun from the glove box in his hand.

'Just stay behind me,' Jack ordered. 'You're kidding yourself if you think you're a hundred percent.' It only took a split second for things to go wrong and Jack wasn't sure what kind of blow the earlier incident had done to Ianto's confidence.

'Fine.' Jack could tell from the tone of voice that Ianto wasn't happy about it, but he would try his best to comply.

Jack approached the alleyway with more caution than usual. A cornered weevil was a desperate one, and might be prepared to fight its way out if confronted by them. He paused at the corner, peering around the brickwork. The weevil was on the ground and not moving. Jack kept his gun raised as he switched around into the alley, keeping it trained on the prostrate creature until it came properly into view. Up close, he could see why it was just lying there. Its boiler suit was torn in several places and large patches of blood soaked through the fabric. If it was conscious, it was only just barely.

'It's hurt,' Ianto said, his voice strangely disembodied.

Jack nodded. 'Yeah. Someone must have found it before we did.' Those weren't defensive wounds. Whoever it had been had come here fixing to inflict maximum damage. They'd almost killed it but not quite.

'It must be in a lot of pain. We should get it back to the hub for Owen treat,' Ianto said. He knelt down next to it and gently checked it over for the worse of its injuries. Jack found it curious that someone who'd nearly been killed by one could suddenly be so sympathetic. Jack had considered giving it a triple dose of morphine and letting it die a painless death. It's what he might have done if he'd been here on his own.

'Jack!' Ianto's voice cut sharply through his consciousness. 'Don't just stand there. Give me a hand.'

Jack knelt opposite him, hands working their way under the weevil’s body, feeling that warm blood seeping between them. The weevil groaned in agony but didn't fight them.

'Careful lifting it,' Jack warned. He was less concerned about the weevil than he was the deep gash in Ianto's rib cage that was only just starting to close up. He did not want Ianto rupturing that trying to lift a three hundred and fifty pound beast. It wailed mournfully as they lifted it.

'It's in pretty bad shape,' Jack said, finally hefting it upright and trying to take as much of its weight as possible. 'I don't know if it'll make it.

'We can at least try,' Ianto replied, having picked up on the reluctance in Jack's words. 'I'm not holding a grudge against one weevil just because another one decided to take a piece of me, so you don't either.'

'Yes, sir,' Jack said as they began slowly carrying it back towards the SUV. Jack took all of its weight again as Ianto opened not the boot but the back passenger door, implying Jack should lay it down on the nice leather seats, blood and all. 'You twenty first century humans always surprise me with your compassion.'

Ianto shrugged. 'It's what we do best.'