Ianto's Journey - Chapter 7
Title: Ianto’s Journey - Chapter 7
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallet, Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper
Series Rating: 15
Words: 2147 / 25351
Spoilers: S1E4, S2E12, DW-S2E12, DW-S2E13
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo prompt "Hypoglycaemia/Low Blood Sugar".
Start at the Prologue
Previous chapter - Chapter 6
Ianto’s first day was rather daunting. He had kissed Lisa goodbye that morning, but she had had a bad night so he had upped her morphine. He wasn’t sure if she registered what he was saying as he talked to her about the new job whilst getting dressed in his best suit.
When he arrived at the tourist office, Harkness was already there waiting for him. He pressed a button behind the counter and a secret door opened into the bowels of the Hub.
Ianto was impressed with the set up. Even with his experience at One and knowing what Torchwood did it still took his breath away when the cog doors rolled open. He could only imagine what the normal new recruits felt like, unaware, or in denial of, the existence of aliens and totally unprepared for all of the future and off-world tech that was evident. Not to mention the giant pteradon swooping down to check out the new arrival. It was only yesterday that Ianto had been the one to catch her and assist the Captain in getting her back here as his guard dog, but it still took him by surprise.
Jack placed his hand in the small of Ianto’s back, guiding him into the cavernous space.
“Okay, introductions,” Jack said as they approached the workstations. “This is Suzie Costello, she’s our second in command.”
Suzie raised a hand in greeting and nodded as she said “hi.”
Before Ianto had chance to answer Jack was on to the next person. “And this is our technical genius Toshiko Sato.”
Toshiko beamed at him, her smile somehow both friendly and welcoming and also shy, “nice to meet you,” she said. Ianto smiled in return before Jack turned him towards the other man in the room.
“And that is Doctor Owen Harper, the team’s medic and chief alien autopsy-er.”
Owen raised a hand and grunted in Ianto’s direction.
“And this, everybody, is Ianto Jones. Ianto is here as general support and will be tasked specifically with sorting out the archives. His job will be to keep us fed and watered and to keep us stocked with essential supplies, general day to day running of stuff; the things we often forget. Ianto, I want you to spend some time with Toshiko learning about our computer systems so that you can help with routine maintenance and run comms when we are out on missions. Ianto basically you are going to have to become a Jack of all trades. The rest of you, if you have any jobs you think are suited to general support which I have forgotten, let Ianto know.” Jack turned and pointed at doctor Harper, “Owen don’t take the piss with that.”
Ianto tried not to look as stunned as he felt. There was a lot to take in, and it seemed, a lot to do. For all Jack’s protesting that there wasn’t a job vacancy and he didn’t need anyone he had certainly managed to find a lot of tasks for his newest employee.
“Thank you Sir. Toshiko, if you have some time this afternoon you can start showing me what I need to know? After I’ve had a look around this morning and got my bearings and seen how bad the archives are. I’m sure they can’t be as bad as all that.”
Jack laughed, “Oh they are. First things first though. Your first job is to make us all a coffee. I’ve been telling them all how good your coffee is.”
“Of course Sir. If you could just point me in the direction of the kitchen….”
“This way,” Jack said guiding Ianto forward, “there’s a pretty decent coffee press which none of us have ever bothered to learn to use. We just make instant.”
Ianto supressed a shudder.
“There are some beans but feel free to buy whatever you need. I’ll give you a company credit card later today.”
Once in the kitchen, Ianto set to work as Jack looked on. “Actually these beans aren’t bad sir.”
“I got them yesterday. They’re what the lady in Tesco recommended.”
They fell into silence as Ianto finished setting up the machine and waited for it to brew the best cup of coffee any of the team had had in a long while. Ianto was grateful for the silence. His head was spinning and his vision blurred and he leaned heavily on the countertop as he waited. He had been feeling like that a lot lately but chalked it down to stress or fatigue. Today he assumed it was because he was just overwhelmed with everything.
“You ok? You look a bit pale…”
“I’m Welsh,” Ianto deflected, “I’m always pale.”
When the coffee was ready Ianto poured two cups and watched over the rim of his own as Jack took his first sip. The Captain’s eyes closed in bliss and after he swallowed he looked up at Ianto and his face split into a grin. Ianto took that as his cue to take a restorative sip of his own drink. Coffee never failed to calm his nerves and make him feel better.
Ianto added a spoonful of sugar to his own drink, not something he would usually do but he felt like he needed the energy boost, then he poured the rest of the drinks and the two men carried them out to the team to an enthusiastic welcome.
“Oh Ianto, this is wonderful!” Tosh exclaimed.
“You can keep those coming.” Suzie added.
Even Owen was impressed, “not bad,” he conceded.
After they finished their drinks, Jack spoke up again. “Right Ianto, I believe our good doctor wants to borrow you for a few minutes, and then I’ll show you down to the archives. Owen he’s all yours. Give me a shout when you’re done.”
Ianto watched the Captain depart and then followed Owen down to the medical bay.
“Nothing to worry about,” Owen said. “Just a few routine scans and blood tests etc. Need to make sure you are fit to work. We all have to have a regular medical exam.”
Ianto nodded his agreement. Torchwood One had had the same policy.
“Take your jacket off, sit down and roll up your sleeve,” Owen directed, holding up a needle ready to draw a blood sample.
Ianto did as he was told and watched as the blood filled first one and then another small tube. “One to test now and one to store for future reference,” Owen explained as he put one tube into the machine to run the tests and labelled the other before putting it into the fridge. “Right, whilst that’s doing its thing I just need to ask you a few questions.”
Ianto nodded.
“Do you smoke?”
“Not for nearly a year now,” Ianto didn’t tell him how much he still craved a cigarette sometimes, and how if he had the money he would have been on at least twenty a day with the stress of the last few months.
“Do you drink?”
“Yeah. Nothing excessive though. A few pints with friends every couple of weeks, that sort of thing.”
“What about your eating habits? Would you say they were healthy?”
“I’m not much of a cook and I don’t have time for anything more than just simple things like bolognaise and stirfrys or else it’s take out. Not the best,” Ianto acknowledged with a shrug.
Owen started to enter his notes onto the computer. “Are you taking any prescribed medication?” Owen asked.
“Not regularly. And not prescribed as such, but not over the counter stuff either.” Ianto was aware that his answer would pique the doctor’s interest and wondered how he would respond.
Owen stopped writing and looked at his patient in surprise. He never would have had the straight laced man in the suit as the type. He raised his eyebrows in question, “cannabis?” he guessed, “or something stronger?”
“Nah, just some sleeping pills I got from Torchwood One that I take sometimes.” He clarified with a smirk.
Owen closed his eyes for a second, reminding himself that he had to be professional. He’d have to wait until later to get this cocky young upstart back.
“Ok, give me your other arm I need to take your blood pressure.”
Ianto did as he was told and watched as the cuff inflated and the doctor added his blood pressure to his notes file.
“Nearly done. Just need to take your height and weight for the records, if you could go stand on the scales over there?”
Ianto hopped off the table and then had to catch himself, leaning back against it as his vision blurred for the second time that morning.
“You ok? What’s wrong?” Owen asked as he reached out to steady the younger man.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine in a second. I just sometimes get this feeling like my vision is clouding in. It’s weird but it goes away,” Ianto said dismissively as Owen reached for a scanner and ran it over Ianto’s frame.
He looked at the readout. “Hmm, nothing showing on the scans… you ok to carry on with the rest of the exam?”
“Yeah I’m fine.” Ianto pushed off from the table and stepped onto the scales where Owen took note of his weight and then measured his height. By the time he had finished with that the machine testing Ianto’s blood had bleeped and spit out a roll of paper with the results of all the tests. Owen picked it up and read through it thoroughly, until he came across something that might explain what happened as Ianto got off the table.
Owen gestured back towards the table, “sit down,” he said, wheeling his own chair over to sit in front of Ianto.
“Your blood test results show that your blood sugars are dangerously low, along with a mild deficiency in a number of vitamins and minerals. I’ve looked through your records from One and you’ve never had any problems before, even in your latest medical just three months ago. Also you seem to have lost a lot of weight since your last medical. Nothing showed up on the scan as being the cause of this, so before I do more tests I need to ask you again have you been eating properly?”
Ianto shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Not so much lately. I... since Lisa… since she died I just haven’t been able to.”
Owen could sympathise. He knew what Ianto was going through, the loss of a loved one. But he wasn’t the touchy feely type, he didn’t know what to say to make it better. There was nothing to say.
“I understand. It can be hard, but you need to look after yourself Ianto.”
Ianto bit his lip and nodded mutely at the doctor.
“I can give you a glycogen injection now to quickly raise your blood sugars. That should make you feel better. But you need to start eating more, keep your meals balanced and regular.” Owen got up to prepare the injection leaving Ianto to take a deep breath and gather his thoughts. It wasn’t that he couldn’t eat since Lisa died, more that he couldn’t afford to eat because all his money was going on keeping Lisa alive and as comfortable as possible.
Ianto snapped out of his thoughts as he realised Owen was talking to him again. “You’re in charge of ordering the food. We like to eat around 12:30, barring any emergency. Make sure you choose something that you like that will tempt you to eat when you smell it. We don’t much care what we have - pizza, Chinese, Indian, anything. To be honest we’ll all just be glad we didn’t have to organise it. Just make sure you get a side of vegetables or something - a token nod to something healthy, alright?”
Ianto nodded, realising that that was probably as close to sympathy and a bedside manner that the acerbic doctor ever really got. He appreciated the effort.
He offered his arm up as Owen gestured with the needle, and winced slightly as the doctor administered the shot.
“Ok,” Owen said, “we’re done here, you can go back to work. I’ll need to check your blood sugars every day for a week or so, just to check they are balancing out and you haven’t developed diabetes or anything. There’s nothing in your file to give me concern so I’m fairly sure this is just a temporary condition caused by you not eating properly. If you feel unwell, or, you know, need to talk about anything, you know where I am. I’m not much good with the talking, but I understand what you are going through.”
“Thanks.” Ianto acknowledged, his accent thick. He knew he could never take Owen up on that, Owen might think he knew what Ianto was going through but nobody had any idea.
On to Chapter 8
Author: Timelordshines
Characters: Ianto Jones, Lisa Hallet, Jack Harkness, Suzie Costello, Toshiko Sato, Owen Harper
Series Rating: 15
Words: 2147 / 25351
Spoilers: S1E4, S2E12, DW-S2E12, DW-S2E13
Disclaimer: Characters belong to RTD and the BBC - I’m just borrowing them.
Written for hc_bingo prompt "Hypoglycaemia/Low Blood Sugar".
Start at the Prologue
Previous chapter - Chapter 6
Ianto’s first day was rather daunting. He had kissed Lisa goodbye that morning, but she had had a bad night so he had upped her morphine. He wasn’t sure if she registered what he was saying as he talked to her about the new job whilst getting dressed in his best suit.
When he arrived at the tourist office, Harkness was already there waiting for him. He pressed a button behind the counter and a secret door opened into the bowels of the Hub.
Ianto was impressed with the set up. Even with his experience at One and knowing what Torchwood did it still took his breath away when the cog doors rolled open. He could only imagine what the normal new recruits felt like, unaware, or in denial of, the existence of aliens and totally unprepared for all of the future and off-world tech that was evident. Not to mention the giant pteradon swooping down to check out the new arrival. It was only yesterday that Ianto had been the one to catch her and assist the Captain in getting her back here as his guard dog, but it still took him by surprise.
Jack placed his hand in the small of Ianto’s back, guiding him into the cavernous space.
“Okay, introductions,” Jack said as they approached the workstations. “This is Suzie Costello, she’s our second in command.”
Suzie raised a hand in greeting and nodded as she said “hi.”
Before Ianto had chance to answer Jack was on to the next person. “And this is our technical genius Toshiko Sato.”
Toshiko beamed at him, her smile somehow both friendly and welcoming and also shy, “nice to meet you,” she said. Ianto smiled in return before Jack turned him towards the other man in the room.
“And that is Doctor Owen Harper, the team’s medic and chief alien autopsy-er.”
Owen raised a hand and grunted in Ianto’s direction.
“And this, everybody, is Ianto Jones. Ianto is here as general support and will be tasked specifically with sorting out the archives. His job will be to keep us fed and watered and to keep us stocked with essential supplies, general day to day running of stuff; the things we often forget. Ianto, I want you to spend some time with Toshiko learning about our computer systems so that you can help with routine maintenance and run comms when we are out on missions. Ianto basically you are going to have to become a Jack of all trades. The rest of you, if you have any jobs you think are suited to general support which I have forgotten, let Ianto know.” Jack turned and pointed at doctor Harper, “Owen don’t take the piss with that.”
Ianto tried not to look as stunned as he felt. There was a lot to take in, and it seemed, a lot to do. For all Jack’s protesting that there wasn’t a job vacancy and he didn’t need anyone he had certainly managed to find a lot of tasks for his newest employee.
“Thank you Sir. Toshiko, if you have some time this afternoon you can start showing me what I need to know? After I’ve had a look around this morning and got my bearings and seen how bad the archives are. I’m sure they can’t be as bad as all that.”
Jack laughed, “Oh they are. First things first though. Your first job is to make us all a coffee. I’ve been telling them all how good your coffee is.”
“Of course Sir. If you could just point me in the direction of the kitchen….”
“This way,” Jack said guiding Ianto forward, “there’s a pretty decent coffee press which none of us have ever bothered to learn to use. We just make instant.”
Ianto supressed a shudder.
“There are some beans but feel free to buy whatever you need. I’ll give you a company credit card later today.”
Once in the kitchen, Ianto set to work as Jack looked on. “Actually these beans aren’t bad sir.”
“I got them yesterday. They’re what the lady in Tesco recommended.”
They fell into silence as Ianto finished setting up the machine and waited for it to brew the best cup of coffee any of the team had had in a long while. Ianto was grateful for the silence. His head was spinning and his vision blurred and he leaned heavily on the countertop as he waited. He had been feeling like that a lot lately but chalked it down to stress or fatigue. Today he assumed it was because he was just overwhelmed with everything.
“You ok? You look a bit pale…”
“I’m Welsh,” Ianto deflected, “I’m always pale.”
When the coffee was ready Ianto poured two cups and watched over the rim of his own as Jack took his first sip. The Captain’s eyes closed in bliss and after he swallowed he looked up at Ianto and his face split into a grin. Ianto took that as his cue to take a restorative sip of his own drink. Coffee never failed to calm his nerves and make him feel better.
Ianto added a spoonful of sugar to his own drink, not something he would usually do but he felt like he needed the energy boost, then he poured the rest of the drinks and the two men carried them out to the team to an enthusiastic welcome.
“Oh Ianto, this is wonderful!” Tosh exclaimed.
“You can keep those coming.” Suzie added.
Even Owen was impressed, “not bad,” he conceded.
After they finished their drinks, Jack spoke up again. “Right Ianto, I believe our good doctor wants to borrow you for a few minutes, and then I’ll show you down to the archives. Owen he’s all yours. Give me a shout when you’re done.”
Ianto watched the Captain depart and then followed Owen down to the medical bay.
“Nothing to worry about,” Owen said. “Just a few routine scans and blood tests etc. Need to make sure you are fit to work. We all have to have a regular medical exam.”
Ianto nodded his agreement. Torchwood One had had the same policy.
“Take your jacket off, sit down and roll up your sleeve,” Owen directed, holding up a needle ready to draw a blood sample.
Ianto did as he was told and watched as the blood filled first one and then another small tube. “One to test now and one to store for future reference,” Owen explained as he put one tube into the machine to run the tests and labelled the other before putting it into the fridge. “Right, whilst that’s doing its thing I just need to ask you a few questions.”
Ianto nodded.
“Do you smoke?”
“Not for nearly a year now,” Ianto didn’t tell him how much he still craved a cigarette sometimes, and how if he had the money he would have been on at least twenty a day with the stress of the last few months.
“Do you drink?”
“Yeah. Nothing excessive though. A few pints with friends every couple of weeks, that sort of thing.”
“What about your eating habits? Would you say they were healthy?”
“I’m not much of a cook and I don’t have time for anything more than just simple things like bolognaise and stirfrys or else it’s take out. Not the best,” Ianto acknowledged with a shrug.
Owen started to enter his notes onto the computer. “Are you taking any prescribed medication?” Owen asked.
“Not regularly. And not prescribed as such, but not over the counter stuff either.” Ianto was aware that his answer would pique the doctor’s interest and wondered how he would respond.
Owen stopped writing and looked at his patient in surprise. He never would have had the straight laced man in the suit as the type. He raised his eyebrows in question, “cannabis?” he guessed, “or something stronger?”
“Nah, just some sleeping pills I got from Torchwood One that I take sometimes.” He clarified with a smirk.
Owen closed his eyes for a second, reminding himself that he had to be professional. He’d have to wait until later to get this cocky young upstart back.
“Ok, give me your other arm I need to take your blood pressure.”
Ianto did as he was told and watched as the cuff inflated and the doctor added his blood pressure to his notes file.
“Nearly done. Just need to take your height and weight for the records, if you could go stand on the scales over there?”
Ianto hopped off the table and then had to catch himself, leaning back against it as his vision blurred for the second time that morning.
“You ok? What’s wrong?” Owen asked as he reached out to steady the younger man.
“Yeah. I’ll be fine in a second. I just sometimes get this feeling like my vision is clouding in. It’s weird but it goes away,” Ianto said dismissively as Owen reached for a scanner and ran it over Ianto’s frame.
He looked at the readout. “Hmm, nothing showing on the scans… you ok to carry on with the rest of the exam?”
“Yeah I’m fine.” Ianto pushed off from the table and stepped onto the scales where Owen took note of his weight and then measured his height. By the time he had finished with that the machine testing Ianto’s blood had bleeped and spit out a roll of paper with the results of all the tests. Owen picked it up and read through it thoroughly, until he came across something that might explain what happened as Ianto got off the table.
Owen gestured back towards the table, “sit down,” he said, wheeling his own chair over to sit in front of Ianto.
“Your blood test results show that your blood sugars are dangerously low, along with a mild deficiency in a number of vitamins and minerals. I’ve looked through your records from One and you’ve never had any problems before, even in your latest medical just three months ago. Also you seem to have lost a lot of weight since your last medical. Nothing showed up on the scan as being the cause of this, so before I do more tests I need to ask you again have you been eating properly?”
Ianto shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Not so much lately. I... since Lisa… since she died I just haven’t been able to.”
Owen could sympathise. He knew what Ianto was going through, the loss of a loved one. But he wasn’t the touchy feely type, he didn’t know what to say to make it better. There was nothing to say.
“I understand. It can be hard, but you need to look after yourself Ianto.”
Ianto bit his lip and nodded mutely at the doctor.
“I can give you a glycogen injection now to quickly raise your blood sugars. That should make you feel better. But you need to start eating more, keep your meals balanced and regular.” Owen got up to prepare the injection leaving Ianto to take a deep breath and gather his thoughts. It wasn’t that he couldn’t eat since Lisa died, more that he couldn’t afford to eat because all his money was going on keeping Lisa alive and as comfortable as possible.
Ianto snapped out of his thoughts as he realised Owen was talking to him again. “You’re in charge of ordering the food. We like to eat around 12:30, barring any emergency. Make sure you choose something that you like that will tempt you to eat when you smell it. We don’t much care what we have - pizza, Chinese, Indian, anything. To be honest we’ll all just be glad we didn’t have to organise it. Just make sure you get a side of vegetables or something - a token nod to something healthy, alright?”
Ianto nodded, realising that that was probably as close to sympathy and a bedside manner that the acerbic doctor ever really got. He appreciated the effort.
He offered his arm up as Owen gestured with the needle, and winced slightly as the doctor administered the shot.
“Ok,” Owen said, “we’re done here, you can go back to work. I’ll need to check your blood sugars every day for a week or so, just to check they are balancing out and you haven’t developed diabetes or anything. There’s nothing in your file to give me concern so I’m fairly sure this is just a temporary condition caused by you not eating properly. If you feel unwell, or, you know, need to talk about anything, you know where I am. I’m not much good with the talking, but I understand what you are going through.”
“Thanks.” Ianto acknowledged, his accent thick. He knew he could never take Owen up on that, Owen might think he knew what Ianto was going through but nobody had any idea.
On to Chapter 8