Torchwood: Fanfic: Unnecessary burden

[m_findlow]

Title: Unnecessary burden
Fandom: Torchwood
Prompt: Unexpected/DifficultPregnancy  at hc_bingo
Wordcount: 2,867 words
Rating: M
Warnings: Medical procedures
Summary: Ianto finds himself on the receiving end of alien technology

It had been one of those mornings when not everything they'd done had gone to plan. They'd managed to track down the secret lab to a disused warehouse near the docks, but by the time they'd gotten there, their would be prisoners had already made their escape.  

Worse than that, they'd left the place fully of booby traps that caused several small explosions, breaking vials of dangerous chemicals, and damaging all of the alien equipment collected there. They'd all been lucky to dodge the worse of it, but were all covered in various minor cuts and burns, Jack bearing the brunt of it as he'd dived over the top of them to shelter them from a few well aimed laser strikes from one particular device.

They'd spent hours doing what they could to clean up the place, scavenging what they could and carefully disposing of the rest. Some of it still sparked and spat dangerously, catching them unawares. Tosh was now sporting a finger which was an unnatural shade of blue, and Owen's jacket was missing an entire arm, though he seemed fortunate that it was only the sleeve missing and not his actual arm.

As they piled back into the SUV, wounded and weary, Ianto noticed a slight tightness around his middle when he clicked the seat belt into place. He needed to stop feeding them all junk food, he decided, now annoyed by the muffin top he seemed to have going on. High carbs and high sugar might help them save the world in the short term, but it would be no use to them if they all died from heart disease by age thirty.

The next few hours back at the hub were busy as they tried to catalogue the remnants from the morning. Owen was trying to fix Tosh's finger which seemed otherwise okay except for the colour, and had patched up various other minor injuries sustained by each of them in turn.

It wasn't until Ianto bent down to lift up another box of debris that his belt dug uncomfortably into him. He stood up and inspected his stomach. Was it his overtired brain or had it gotten bigger? He went to the bathroom, undoing his pants and pulling his shirt out to inspect it more clearly. There was a definite bump which he was fairly sure hadn't been there before. After ten minutes inspection he still wasn't entirely convinced. He tucked his shirt back in and made to button up his trousers. Only he couldn't.  

Oh dear.

There was less shame in admitting to Owen that there was a problem. After working for Torchwood for a certain period, you just got used to having to explain the bizarre and unexplainable.

Owen stayed professional, poking and prodding, taking blood samples and scans. By the time he'd finished all of that, it was clear that whatever it was, it was growing and now showed prominently. Ianto had to switch his suit for a pair of low cut jeans and loose hooded sweater, because his shirt could no longer contain the swelling bump of his stomach. At least it wasn't causing him any pain, though he had piqued everyone's curiosity, much to his displeasure. He also felt out of place without his suit, but was glad for the spare sets of casual clothes kept on hand for just such contingencies, usually blood, dirt and slime, not expecting to have need of them because he'd outgrown them.

Owen confirmed for them that there was definitely something inside, and that it must have been as a result of being hit by something at the warehouse. What, he couldn't say. Everything had been so crazy that there was really no way of knowing.

'Excellent, so how do we get it out?' Jack had beaten him to the question, but only just.

Owen had suggested using the singularity scalpel but Jack had quickly vetoed the idea. It wasn't that he didn't trust Owen, it was more that they had no idea what was inside him, and he wasn't prepared to kill it until they knew for sure what it was. If they couldn't get it out without harming it, it would stay there until they figured out a way.

It didn't quite put Ianto at ease, but he knew that he trusted both Owen and Jack, and that neither of them would willingly put him in danger.

Owen put him on bed rest for the remainder of the day, despite his arguments that there was still a huge amount of work to do, and that he felt fine, all things considered. A firm word from Jack and a stern look had settled the matter. He could make one last round of coffee and that was it.

Doing nothing all afternoon drove him mad. The only thing that broke up the hours was Owen checking on him every now and then. It annoyed him not being able to do anything but bear witness to his ever expanding stomach, which by dinner time looked like he'd swallowed a soccer ball.

He'd had to make another wardrobe change, trading his jeans for elastic waisted track pants. If this was a pregnancy, it was happening very fast. On account of that, Owen didn't go home that night, and Ianto barely slept despite Jack's reassurances, as his stomach continued to grow. Now he could actually feel something moving inside of him. Whatever it was, it was definitely alive.

'I don't mind telling you that I'm scared,' he confessed to Jack as he was stroking his hair and trying to get him to sleep.

'Everything's going to be fine,' he said, though with the tiniest bit of hesitation.

Further scans in the morning revealed a reasonably humanoid shape inhabiting his body. At least by morning he'd almost completely stopped growing, his stomach already far larger than any normal pregnancy, and forcing him to lie on his side because the weight of it was putting considerable strain on his internal organs and major arteries. And still the creature squirmed and writhed inside him, reminding him constantly that it was there.

Owen's tests became more thorough and more frequent over the next few days. Ianto’s stomach was now only growing slightly larger and at a much slower rate, which was fortunate as it was now enormous. If the creature had reached full size then there was no way of knowing what would happen next and how quickly it might happen. None of them had found anything from the rubble in the lab that could be used to reverse the process or understand how it had happened in the first place.  

Still Jack refused to use the scalpel and still he kept a wary eye on it, not prepared to kill just yet. Owen had suggested a traditional surgical extraction but without knowing what was inside, there was no telling if it might not rebel and try killing it's host in the process. They were convinced that surely something would happen soon.

Then days became a week. A week became two, then three. The team were forced to go back to their regular duties as much as possible, leaving Ianto alone for long stretches in between medical checkups. Jack would have stayed there all day and all night, and did so as often as he could, but the rift had other ideas, forcing him to put aside his own feelings and remain focused on protecting the lives of others. And still the creature remained just the same, wriggling inside the huge expanse of his stomach.

The only other consequence seemed to be that the creature was leaching all of the energy and nutrients from Ianto's body, leaving him constantly tired and weak. Owen insisted he eat more, but he found himself too tired even for that.

Owen was doing as much as he could, but Jack could sense the strain from watching his teammate bedridden and now strung up to several monitors and IV lines, just to sustain him from one day to the next.

And still Jack was torn about what to do. Perhaps if it hadn't been so human like, it might have made things easier, but he'd been a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Just because it didn't look human didn't mean it didn't deserve life. It didn't make it any easier watching his best friend and lover suffering for it though. A few more days, he promised himself. If nothing happens then I'll decide what we do next.

In the end the decision was taken out of Jack's hands. He'd been seated near Ianto's bed, reading over some reports late into the night, and watching the young man sleeping when he suddenly cried out in pain. It lasted only a moment but the sound sent chills running up and down his spine.

'Ianto?' Jack reached over grabbing his hand. 'What's wrong?

Ianto squirmed and tried to force his eyes open.

'It's stopped.'

'What? What's stopped?'

'I can't feel it anymore.'

Jack finally caught Ianto's meaning, pressing a hand gently to his swollen abdomen. He'd avoided touching it up until now as it seemed only to upset the young man. In truth, he'd wanted to curl up in the bed with him, just as he'd wanted every night since this had happened, but Ianto had recoiled everytime his touch went anywhere near his stomach. He only put up with it from Owen because it was necessary. He was exhausted, but not enough so that he wasn't still embarrassed and horrified by what was happening to him. Jack wished he could make Ianto understand that it didn't matter to him. He almost wished he was too tired to care.

'Let me get Owen,' Jack responded.

Half an hour later, Owen had run scans and confirmed that the creature inside Ianto was no longer moving and all indications were that it was no longer alive. Despite that, it was now causing intermittent stabs of pain. Then Ianto began to feel nauseous, his head spinning even though he was already lying down, just as he had been for weeks.

'Ianto!' Jack cried out worriedly, as he watched his lover slipping into unconsciousness.  

Owen quickly had Ianto prepped for surgery, intending to have creature carefully extracted from his body immediately. Given the sudden decline in his health, Owen opted for surgery by hand. The singularity scalpel might have done the job, but he preferred to see it for himself, his natural medical abilities shining through. Operating by hand was something Owen was familiar with, and given the circumstances, he needed all the professional experience he had.

It took hours, the creature having intertwined itself with several organs and major tissues, in order to grow and survive. There was no telling what damage the singularity scalpel might have done if he'd used it, given what he could see.

Jack had stood by the whole time, even though watching his lover being sliced open made him want to be sick. Gwen and Tosh had been sent away to wait elsewhere. He didn't want them to witness what was happening, and he didn't want them to see him falling apart as Ianto lay there helpless. Owen didn't look much better, being forced to cut parts of the bloodied creature out and repair the young man's body as best he could, hoping that the rest would heal itself in time.

Neither of them had rarely seen so much blood, and it was difficult to tell who the blood belonged to, Ianto or the creature, as it spilled over the gurney and spattered onto the floor below. A proper autopsy on the creature could be done later, but whatever had happened it was in bad shape. Owen's motions became more frantic as he tried to stem the bleeding, having removed enough of the creature to know that it was Ianto's blood now pouring out, and being suctioned out of Owen's line of vision as he best he could by Jack, who was nearly white himself.

Jack worried that he'd left his decision too late, and regretted the indecisiveness that had put his lover's life in peril, as he stroked his pale waxy face. What guarantee did he have that acting earlier could have prevented this? He vowed never to make the same mistake again. He loved the young man too much to lose him.

More and more the bleeding wouldn't stop, no matter how many places Owen found damaged and stitched them back together, more would appear from nowhere.

'He needs blood,' Owen stated. 'Call the hospital and get them to transport six units of A positive ASAP.'

'No need.'

Jack was already ignoring Owen's instructions, rummaging through one of the cupboards and pulling out a length of tubing and a very nasty looking needle.  

'What are you doing?' Owen asked, watching as he was attaching one to the other, and holding his forearm out whilst he pressed the needle into the crook of his arm.

'Old trick they used in the war. I'm O negative, universal donor.'

Immediately a thick red line began travelling down the tubing from its outlet in his arm, and when it reached the end, he clipped it directly into Ianto's own IV line.

Jack began flexing his arm and squeezing his fist to get the blood flowing faster.

It seemed to be doing the trick as Ianto's pressure came back up whilst Owen continued to work. It would buy Owen the time he needed to complete the surgery.

Forty minutes in and Jack began to feel very lightheaded, the blood loss starting to have a profound affect on him. He pulled up a nearby stool and dropped down heavily onto it, next to Ianto.

'You should stop,' Owen advised, his own gaze never leaving what he was doing, but still well aware of the toll it was taking on Jack.

'Keep going,' Jack ordered, still determinedly squeezing his fist open and shut, forcing the blood out of his body. He lay his other arm on the table next to Ianto's head and rested his head on it, eyelids drooping.

'Don't stop,' he instructed quietly as he felt his consciousness fading away.

 

 

When Ianto woke hours later and the foggy sensations slowly lifted from his consciousness, he wasn't sure where he was or what had happened. He was lying on his back. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been able to do that. When he looked down, he expected to see the enormous girth of his belly and nothing further beyond it. It was there, but much smaller than before and heavily bandaged, though he couldn't feel it. Painkillers, he surmised. Then the memories of the last few hours came rolling back. The creature dying, the pain, then nothing.

He looked around the room and found Jack resting comfortably beside him in a chair, still hooked to his own IV of fluids that Owen had put him on just as soon as Ianto was out of danger. He'd been dozing on and off ever since. Once the bag was finished, so long as he kept up his fluid and sodium levels on his own, Owen had advised, he should be back to normal in about twenty four hours.

'Hey,' Jack called softly.

'Hey,' Ianto replied. 'What happened to you?'

'Emergency blood donor,' Jack stated, grinning tiredly.

Ianto lay there quietly. He should have been feeling relieved to be back to normal. Instead he felt strangely bereft, like something was missing, like some piece of him had died.

It wasn't as if he'd been carrying a human child or even a child of his own. He hadn't ever believed that wanting children was something he could experience, though Jack had mentioned it was possible. Perhaps it had been an instinctual need to protect life, regardless. Whatever it was, it left him feeling sad and empty.

Jack slowly pushed himself up and out of the chair. The last thing he wanted was to drop into a dead faint, as he perched himself on the edge of the bed.

'You okay?' Jack asked quietly, slipping a warm hand into Ianto’s own.

'Not sure,' he replied honestly. He paused for a moment before saying anything more, his head still a jumble of emotions. 'What was that thing?'

'We still don't know.'

'Why did it die?' His voice was so small and childlike.

Jack frowned. 'We don't know that either.'

Ianto suddenly felt filled with sadness that brimmed over and spilled out over his face.

'I'm sorry,' he sobbed.

'What for?'

'I couldn't save it.'

'Oh Ianto,' Jack sighed, feeling his heart breaking and wrapping him in a huge hug. 'None of what happened is your fault. If anyone is to blame, it should be me. I shouldn't have risked your life like that. Nothing in this whole universe is worth losing you. Nothing,' he confirmed. 'I'm just so glad that you're okay,' he said, burying his own head deeply against Ianto's, feeling their warm, wet cheeks pressed together.

The pair of them continued to hold onto one another as if the world had ended around them.

Comments

[jo02]

I really liked this, it had a bit of a dreamlike quality to it.

And I liked how you kept the creature itself deliberately vague, so attention wasn't diverted from the real topic - what defines 'life' and what quantifies 'right to live' and who makes that choice.

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think it's the lack of dialogue that gives it that feel. Most of my fics rely heavily on dialogue, so it makes for a nice change.

Intentionally vague was probably more laziness on my part admittedly, but I agree, 'what it was' wasn't as important as 'what was to be done'.

[bk_forever]

Oh, sad! Ianto's 'baby' didn't make it. I know it wasn't human, but it grew in Ianto for a long time, he was bound to feel the loss.

The surgery was terrifying, I was worried Ianto might not survive!

[m-findlow.livejournal.com]

It was pretty awful and scary, but Owen is a very good doctor and Jack would risk everything to save Ianto.