Slipping Through -- Exit Wounds Revisited (Part 1)

[gracie_musica]

Book cover by et_muse.


Title: Slipping Through
Chapter Nineteen A: Exit Wounds Revisited (Part 1)
dwtwprompts prompt: Destruction
Date Written: 10/15/08
Rating: PG-13/T
Word Count: 2,199
Fandom: Torchwood/FAKE
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Ryo/Dee, Gwen/Rhys, Tosh, Owen, PC Andy, John Hart, Gray
Spoilers: Up through Torchwood 02
Warnings: Spoilers for Exit Wounds.
Author's Notes: I'm back, and I drew Exit Wounds. Second part in a few days, I'm looking at Thursday.


Slipping Through master list found here.


It took three tries to finally lift the girder off Toshiko. Jack was still loose-limbed and reviving, and with Ianto's dislocated shoulder it meant that most of the heavy lifting fell to Ryo and Rhys. Finally, they managed to lift it just enough for them to pull Toshiko out, their hearts breaking at her cry of pain when Jack grabbed her arm to haul her up.

As soon as she was out, Ianto, Rhys and Ryo dropped the girder. It fell with a horrible crash, sending up plumes of cinder dust. Jack was carefully feeling Tosh's arm through her jacket. "It's broken," he finally announced. "Probably a bit more than a hairline fracture, but not a big one. We'll get Owen to look you over, right?" She nodded and he gave her a soft, reassuring smile.

It was raining when they made it outside, Dee and Owen and Gwen running up to them. "The SUV's gone," Dee said, pulling Ryo aside.

"I didn't see it here when we pulled up," Ryo replied. "But now we have two cars, and the first aid kit's still in the trunk of ours," he added before the beep of Jack's wrist strap stopped him from continuing. Then there he was, John Hart himself in all his hologram glory, with Jack's brother Gray. He looked over at Dee, noting he was wearing what their son called his 'cop face' -- hard and impassive and professional, but Ryo knew better. He reached over and took Dee's hand, squeezing it a little. It was one thing to watch it on a show, or to sit and calmly plan about how they were going to act; being there, with the chemicals flowing and the drowning fear and doubt was sheer agony.

Jack visibly pulled himself together when the message clicked off. He then whirled around on Ryo and Dee. "You knew." Two words, conveyed with such simmering anger.

"Not the time," Dee snapped. "Neesan needs to get that wrist looked at."

"What do you propose we do?" Owen asked. "That bastard John's taken our SUV!"

"We've got a kit in our car," Ryo replied, staring to walk towards where they'd parked. The entire group started trudging along towards the car, poor Toshiko wincing at every step.

It wasn't until Toshiko started rattling off Rift activity readings that anyone noticed both Tosh and Ianto had their PDAs out. "That has to be alien tech," Dee finally said. "To survive that blast."

Gwen's mobile went off as Owen and Ryo were leading Tosh to the car. Owen sat her down in the backseat as Ryo popped the boot and pulled out the first-aid kit. He handed over a splint and some tape, moving to brush Toshiko's hair carefully as Owen taped up her arm. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to her forehead, and Owen caught something that sounded like goal-men knee-scythe*. "You and Dee seem pretty calm about all this," he said, looking up from his work.

Ryo let out a huff of amusement. "We have experience pulling people out of bombed buildings," he replied. "At least this one won't collapse in on itself."

Owen raised his eyebrows as he dug in his coat pocket. He shook a vial of painkillers at Toshiko. "Industrial strength pain killers. You'll have to take them dry," he warned, putting two into her palm.

Jack's voice cut through as Tosh popped them both in her mouth, rattling out orders. "Right. Ianto, Tosh, cover the Central Server Building. Owen, you've got the hospital. Rhys, you take Gwen to the police station. I'm going to Torchwood."

"We'll go with Gwen and Rhys," Dee said.

Ryo tossed the keys at Ianto, but Jack grabbed them first. "I'll drop you off."

-----

Gwen burst through the doors of Cardiff HQ, Rhys hot on her heels. Dee and Ryo followed at a more subdued pace.

Andy was confronting Rhys when they caught up. "This is a crime scene and a confidential one at that."

"He's with us," Ryo said, looking down at one of the murdered senior officers. Bite to the neck. Classic Weevil, even if he and Dee hadn't taken a peek at the answer sheet.

"Guessing you're not really Interpol then," Andy replied.

"Nope, NYPD," Dee replied, flashing his badge. "Exchange program."

"Oh, not now boys," Gwen admonished, brushing past the four of them to the holding cells. Dee paused over the body of the nearest officer and quickly rossed himself. Ryo squeezed his shoulder. You didn't have to be Catholic to feel the guilt. Four officers dead, and they didn't even try to stop it. That stung. They were supposed to protect their brothers-in-arms, not send them to the slaughter.

"They killed the four most senior officers?" Gwen's voice demanded as they turned to the holding cells.

"Almost like it was targeted," Andy agreed.

Gwen spied Ryo and Dee over Andy's shoulder and stormed up to them. Dee was closest, so he received a fierce shove that almost knocked him on his ass. "You knew!" she hissed.

"Yes," Ryo replied, steadying Dee.

"You bastards."

"Yes," they both agreed.

"What else is going to happen?" she demanded.

"We can't -- " Ryo started.

"Oh don't start with that paradox bullshit!" she shouted. "You're police officers, first and foremost. You have an obligation to these people, you're supposed to protect them!" She fixed her gaze on Ryo, green eyes boring into him. "You said once that you thought the two of you were here for a reason. Isn't this reason enough?"

Dee looked over his shoulder at Ryo. The older detective had his jaw set, glaring back just as fiercely. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence.

"Andy!" he finally said. "I need a map of Cardiff. Now."

-----

Owen got dropped off at the hospital first. Tosh was in the backseat working on her PDA while Ianto and Jack sat in the front.

Jack's knuckles were white on the steering wheel. He hadn't said a word since getting in the car, and he hadn't taken his eyes off the road.

Ianto's shoulder was throbbing and his head was spinning. He hadn't liked the way Ryo and Dee had looked at Jack, like he was about to disappear off the face of the planet.

And maybe he would. They'd said he'd gone off with the Doctor at the end of the last season. Maybe the Doctor would come back to save the day like he had when Torchwood One had gotten in over its head, and then whisk Jack off to see the wonders of the universe.

Ianto just might forgive him again if they got rid of Hart first.

The tyres squealed as Jack lurched them to a stop in front of the Central Server Building. Tosh unbuckled herself with one hand and climbed out, wobbling just a little from the painkillers.

"Jack?" he ventured after a moment.

The Captain's eyes left the road and he fixed Ianto with his intense stare. It almost scared him to see the sheer fury in the blue depths. Then again, if a psychopath had any member of his family, Ianto would be tearing Cardiff apart piece by piece.

"Be careful," he cautioned before leaning over and kissing him. Short and chaste and not very affectionate, but Ianto knew -- he just knew -- that Jack needed it.

And frankly, so did he.

One last kiss.

-----

"My memory is shit," Ryo swore in Japanese, frowning as he studied the map. He was trying to remember where the bombs had been set, but he was panicky and couldn't think straight. There had been a cluster at the west end of the city, a line straight through the middle and a smattering to the east.

"Fuck this, I need a smoke," Dee declared, patting down his coat. In his haste to get out the door that morning he'd grabbed the wrong coat -- the jacket he'd been wearing when he and Ryo stumbled through the Rift instead of the heavier coat he'd bought to combat the cooler Cardiff weather. The coat that had his cigarettes.

There was a weight in the inside pocket, a sort of square shape. He reached inside, expecting to find a pack of cigarettes, and frowned when his fingers closed around something slick and much thinner. He hauled it out of his pocket and stared in disbelief.

"Ryo."

Ryo looked up at Dee. Dee held out what had been in his pocket and the half-Japanese man's jaw fell open.

It was an iPod. One Dee had loaded with Torchwood episodes for the plane ride over.

Five minutes later, Ryo was shoving a map at Gwen. Fifteen places were marked with big red circles. "And there are bombs here?" Andy asked, sounding amazed.

"You have under an hour," Dee said, hauling on a yellow and white reflective police vest. "Call in cops, get as many people out of those areas as you can."

"And where are you two going?" Rhys asked.

"We're going to help evacuate people," Ryo replied. He was pulling on a vest as well, a pilfered hat perched on his head. "Feel like I'm back in my blues," he told Dee.

Gwen nodded. "Be careful.

Both New Yorkers threw her a sharp salute before running out the doors, already shouting at people.

"Bloody Yankees," Andy swore. "Palm's supposed to be facing out."

-----

"Attention, Torchwood employees."

Both Dee and Ryo tensed when they heard John Hart's voice in their comms. They were helping the last of their section's occupants, getting them back to an acceptable radius around the blast.

They both started screaming for people to move faster. Dee even went so far as to physically pick up an old woman with glasses and a cane and carry her behind the line.

Hart's voice was so suave, so... evil. James Marsters was a great actor, but the real thing was terrifying. It was hard to remember Gray had him monitored, probably even scripted, too.

"Take a good look. Remember this, 'cause it all goes so quickly."

Dee and Ryo held their breaths.

There were explosions, rocking the ground beneath their feet. The civilians around them screamed and threw themselves onto the ground.

-----

John frowned and shook his remote control. "Piece of junk," he swore, smacking at it with his hand. Gray would be pissed.

"You destroyed the city!" Jack yelled, staring at the explosions.

"No, I only blew it up a little," John replied, tucking the control in his pocket. "Three out of twelve bombs isn't destroying."

Jack whirled around on him. "What?!" he asked, frantic before turning back to see his city ablaze.

"Hold me..."

-----

The Laytner-MacLeans whooped, the noise drowned out in the sound of millions of alarms going off and hugged each other tight.

"Ryo? Dee?" Gwen's voice was insistent in their ears. She wanted an update right that moment.

Dee tapped his ear. "We're fine," he said, breathless. "Bomb squads got most of it, I see."

"Thank God," Ryo agreed, pulling away from Dee. He slipped into his Scottish accent -- it seemed to work better than the New York one here sometimes -- and turned to the crowd. "Everyone! Thank you for your patience! I realize that this has been a complete inconvenience and I'm sorry, but we'd like you to return to your homes and please stay there until further notice!"

The crowd gathered up their things and moved back to their houses, quite a few grumbling about inept police. Ryo wanted to bash them in the face, but he knew it was just a reflex. It easily could have turned into something on the scale of 9/11 -- it had on the show. Thousands dead, a city crippled.

Instead he just smiled and tipped his hat at a passing surly teen and missed his son.

-----

"Okay," Toshiko soothed in as calm a voice she could manage. "I don't want you to panic, but the reactor's already hit the critical point." She took her glasses off to get a better look at her screen. Shit.

"Okay, you're telling me it's going to go into meltdown, aren't you?" Owen asked in her ear. He sounded shockingly calm. "And I'm in the eye of the storm."

"Yeah, sorry." She knew it sounded half-arsed, but she was concentrating.

Accepting. "Right." Then, a bit more concerned: "Can you fix it?"

Inspiration hit her. "Of course I can, I'm brilliant!" she declared, tapping in figures.

"Yeah."

"I'm going to try and divert power from an auxiliary source back to Turnmill," she told him, typing slower because of the splint. She was saying it as much for his benefit as hers. If she could keep him talking, she could keep him calm. "If that works -- " Damn it, she needed the PDA! She walked over to the second console, picking it up. " -- I can talk you through restoring the coolant system."

The information was already running through the PDA, getting ready to trigger the power exchange. It looked like it was going work!

"Right, now..."

She stopped dead when she heard a gunshot ring through the Hub.

-----

* gomennasai = I'm sorry

Comments

[ldycat1170.livejournal.com]

wow. Great additions to the story. I am so glad that Ryo and Dee were able to help Cardiff. Now can they help Tosh?

[gracie-musica.livejournal.com]

Dunno... we'll have to wait and see.