Cursed

Time seemed to slow down as three shots rang out in rapid succession, sounding more like canon fire in the enclosed space.  Ianto’s body jolted with each impact, but he gritted his teeth and stayed on his feet, straining to keep the spell intact.

“Ianto!” Jack screamed, dashing towards his lover.  He resumed his place behind Ianto and wrapped his arms around him, taking on as much of the younger man’s weight as he could as Ianto fought to stay conscious.  He braced himself as Gwen adjusted her grip so she could hold the gun in both hands and take more careful aim.

“Go on, you vicious, traitorous bitch!” Ianto shouted, all the old resentments bubbling to the surface as he allowed the heat of his anger to energize him and help him keep the magic flowing.  He was relying on Jack to hold him up, now.

“Last chance, Jack,” Gwen called out.

Several things happened, in the next moment.  Hermione had sat up, holding her head but looking around, quickly regaining her bearings.  She looked up and watched as the last of the memory of Adam flared and burned out.

“Now!” she shouted, and everyone besides Ianto broke formation.  Jack lowered Ianto to the floor as the younger man’s legs gave way.  Gwen adjusted her aim, but before she could fire, six voices rang out as one.

“Avada Kedavra!”

Gwen dropped like a stone just as Tosh and Owen ran in, weapons drawn.  Ron rushed towards Hermione, kneeling beside her and asking her to stay still for a moment while he checked her over.

“What the fuck?” Owen shouted, holstering his weapon and running to where Jack was cradling Ianto on the floor.

“She shot him,” Jack said, clearly in shock.  “She… shot him.”

“Jack,” Ianto coughed, and blood stained his lips.  He took a rattling breath as Jack held him closer.

“I’ll go find Susan,” Harry said, but Luna stopped him.

“No, George or Ginny,” she said.  “One of you go.  Harry’s the best here at the accio spell.”

“What?” Harry asked as George and Ginny consulted and then disapparated – one to Susan’s home, and the other to St. Mungo’s.

“I’ll help you,” Luna said.  She looked to Owen.  “We can take care of the wounds, but some painkillers will be needed.”  Owen nodded and ran back up to the main level of the hub to retrieve his kit from the med-bay.  “Harry, come here.”

Luna knelt beside Ianto.  “Hold on, Smoke.  Help is on the way.”  She had Jack lay Ianto down, and she shifted so she was kneeling at his head.  Jack’s left hand carded through Ianto’s sweat-soaked hair as his right hand held Ianto’s hand.  The younger man’s grip told him he was in a great deal of pain.

“Hold on, Love,” Jack whispered.

“Jack,” Ianto croaked.  He looked terrified.

“Shhh,” Jack hushed him.  “Save your breath.  Try to calm your breathing.”

“Hurts,” Ianto cried out as Luna cast some sort of spell that made his t-shirt disappear. 

Three bullet holes marred his pale chest, bleeding profusely.  One was high up on Ianto’s left pectoral, close to the shoulder.  It looked to be a through-and-through wound, if the blood on Jack’s shirt was any indication.  One was lower, just below his left nipple.  A deep bruise was spreading across Ianto’s chest from where the bullet had struck a rib on its way to puncturing the lung.  The wound was making an unpleasant, sucking sound.  The third was just below Ianto’s ribcage on the right side of his abdomen.

Blood was everywhere, and Ianto was trying not to scream.  “Jack!”

“I’m here,” Jack whispered, his eyes filling with tears.  He was terrified.  What if Bill had been wrong, and Ianto was still mortal?  “I’m here,” he repeated.  “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Harry,” Luna caught her friend’s eye.  “One of the bullets went straight through.  The other two are still in there.  I’ll help you focus and make sure your spell gets each one out following the same path it took getting in, so no further damage is done.”

“Luna,” Harry was chalk-white.

“You can do this, Harry.  It’s just the accio spell.  I’ll help you make sure the path is right, and you pull the bullet out.”

“We usually use bullets that fragment on impact,” Jack pointed out. 

Luna’s expression turned abstract.  “I’m not getting that,” she said.  “Each bullet is intact.  Just one object to extract from each location.”

Jack frowned.  How could that be?  Those bullets were designed to…

“Tried to shield,” Ianto said, letting out a loud groan despite his best efforts.

Luna stared as Harry’s eyebrows skyrocketed.  “You cast a second spell while you and your wand were running a hexagram spell?”

“I could tell she was going to shoot me,” Ianto gave a jerky nod.  Harry whistled, and Luna shook her head.

“We’ll talk about that later,” she said, and looked at Harry, who nodded that he was ready.  Then she looked back at Ianto.  “Are you okay if I put you in a body bind while we do this?”

Ianto’s eyes flew wide.  He really did not want to be immobilized.  He turned panicked eyes to Jack, who held his hand more tightly and gave him a nod.

“Can you just immobilize his torso?” Jack asked.  He looked back to Ianto, who looked relieved that Jack had understood.

Luna blinked, then nodded.  Soon the spell was cast, and she took Harry’s left hand and guided it to the correct place above the wound on Ianto’s right side.  With his wand in his right hand, he incanted, “Accio bullet!”

There was a wet, slurping sound, and a hunk of metal smacked into Harry’s hand.  He managed to catch it as Ianto screamed in pain.

“What the hell are you doing?” Owen shouted as he ran back into the room.  He crashed to his knees next to Jack and pulled out a syringe.  “Alright, wizard boy.  This will help with the pain.”

Ianto was taking short, ragged breaths, each causing a wet rattle.

“We must do this quickly,” Luna said.

Tosh arrived with Owen’s scanner.  Luna guided Harry’s hand to the next wound.  He held it steady and performed the accio spell again.  Ianto howled in pain, drowning out the two pops that indicated Ginny and George arriving with Susan.

George had found Susan at her home.  When Ginny realized Susan wasn’t at St. Mungo’s, she recruited Freesia Turnbull to help pull together a kit that would help heal a muggle gunshot wound, as well as other injuries.  It was not really such a foreign concept – they did live in London, after all, where gun violence was unfortunately on the rise.  It was only wise that the wizarding world know how to deal with such injuries, should they happen to one of their own.  By the time George and Susan arrived, the kit was ready, and they were able to get right back to the hub, once they altered Freesia’s memory so she would only remember helping Susan with the kit.

“Okay, Harry,” Susan said briskly.  “Well done.  Now let me…  Oh, Ianto,” she shook her head when she saw the damage.  She waved her wand and did a quick assessment of his injuries.  “Ginny, hand me the brown bottle, first,” she said.

Over the next quarter hour, Susan administered potions and did spells that healed the internal damage, including the broken rib and torn lung.  More spells and potions helped to heal the wounds until only the bruise and four angry red scars were left.  Even they would heal within a few days. 

“Blimey,” Owen breathed, in awe of what he was seeing.  Then he gave himself a shake and checked in with Ianto on his pain levels before administering a bit more of the painkiller.  “Jack,” he instructed.  “I’ll take care of Gwen.  You get Ianto up to the hub and start a transfusion.  We’re going to have to rethink our cover story.”

“I’ll help you get him upstairs,” Luna said.  She wrapped her arms around Jack and Ianto and disapparated.

“Transfusion?” Susan asked.  As Owen described it to her, her expression became increasingly horrified.  “Don’t you dare!” she said.  “Take me up there before…”

“Luna will explain,” Ginny said, putting a hand on Susan’s arm, to calm her.  “Let’s all head up there, now.  Harry, why don’t you help Owen get Gwen upstairs,” she suggested, knowing that having a task would help settle Harry’s nerves.  She had only seen part of the process, but she knew it would have unsettled her husband.  Nerves of steel, unless it involved one of his friends being hurt.  “C’mon, you lot,” she spoke to the rest and then gestured for Toshiko to lead the way.  Ron gathered Hermione into his arms and disapparated as the rest of them walked.  A few moments later, Harry disapparated with Gwen’s body and Owen.

They arrived in the med-bay amongst a quiet pop and a loud string of Cockney curses.  “Don’t you ever bloody fucking do that to me again!” Owen concluded before retching into the nearest bin.  Harry gave him a wicked grin before gently arranging Gwen’s body on the autopsy table and ascending the stairs. 

Hermione was sat on Toshiko’s chair, Ron behind her with his hands on her shoulders.  Susan had the Auror’s head in her hands, checking her eyes and assessing the damage.  Finally, she turned to her kit, only to have Ginny hand her a potion bottle with a smile.  She was well-familiar with the potion she and her teammates called ‘concussion juice’.  Susan nodded her thanks to Ginny and conscientiously checked the label before turning back to Hermione and administering the dose.

Next she turned back to Ianto.  Luna had helped Jack to clean him up and put fresh clothes on him before the others had arrived.  Jack had refrained from starting the transfusion per Luna’s instruction, and now Susan administered a blood-replenishing potion that would help restore the lost blood.

There was no potion for the exhaustion caused by Ianto overtaxing himself, and Susan was in full flow with an impressive arse-chewing when she made the tactical error of turning her ire towards Jack.  To everyone’s surprise, Ianto, who had been slumped on the sofa taking the lecture as his due, stood up and said in a gruff but steady voice, “Enough.”

It was just the one word, and yet everyone in the room was silenced.  Susan stared, unused to having her authority as a Healer challenged.

“Susan, I appreciate your help, but that does not mean you get to speak to my… to Jack in that manner.  A lot of unusual things happened all at once this evening, and it was my choice to participate in the hexagram.  Time was of the essence,” he raised his voice slightly as Susan tried to interrupt, “and we all did what we thought was best.  Jack actually tried to send me home, but other factors were in play.”

Susan let out a huff, but then nodded.  She turned away and began rearranging her kit, muttering about bloody-minded Welshmen.  Ianto grinned as he collapsed back onto the sofa.  Jack wrapped his arm around his lover and kissed his cheek.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“What?” Ianto looked at him, frowning.

“Defend me,” Jack replied, looking down at his hands.  “I don’t…”

“If you try to say you don’t deserve it, I swear by all that’s holy that I will give you a smack,” Ianto growled.

Jack’s mouth snapped shut and Toshiko, who was sitting on the arm of the sofa next to Ianto, giggled.  Jack gave her a mock glare as a groan escaped Ianto.

“How’s the pain level?” Owen asked, then looked to Susan.  “Unless you can magic that away, as well?”

“I’m afraid not,” she replied.

“Well, I’m not sure how much of tonight we’ll be remembering, but I would like to sit down with you and discuss what I might need to know, with a wizard under my care,” Owen said.  “Is there a way to contact you?  I can make a note to myself to reach out next week.”

“I think we’ll all have to remember that I was here.  It is obvious that Ianto has been magically mended, but it will take time for him to fully heal, and it will be obvious what his injuries were.  It would raise more questions to erase that memory, for me.  I can give you my mobile number, and we can set up a meeting now, or you can call me next week.”

Owen took her number but deferred setting up a meeting, not wanting to pull up his calendar and figure that out when so much else was going on.  He focused instead on Ianto’s pain level, noting that the two doses of regular painkillers had done little to dampen the wizard’s pain, which had to be considerable, considering his high pain tolerance.  He retrieved some of the alien painkiller he had developed that seemed to help when Jack needed something, and he quickly gave Ianto a dose of that.

***