Ticking clocks [attn: Owen, Torchwood Team]

Lynne was simply shoved aside once they'd gotten into the hospital and told to wait; that she'd be in the way and would hinder rather than help. She'd followed as far as they'd let her, jogging to keep up with them and had been left behind in a hallway, abandoned, afraid, and alone. She stood staring at the door behind which Owen had been rushed on the stretcher, surrounded by medics and nurses, for nearly an hour before an orderly found her and guided her back to the waiting room, giving her a box of tissues and a glass of water.

She was alone in the room, thankful that they hadn't approached her with paperwork, yet. She'd lied to get into the ambulance and she wouldn't have been able to answer probably any of the questions further than the fact that his name was Owen Harper.

The too-bright lights against the stark white walls provided no comfort, nor did the singular sound of a loudly ticking clock on the wall. She tried calling home, but it was earlier where her parents were; they were likely otherwise occupied and unable to hear their phones. She failed to reach her roommate, as well, so she stared at the clock, willing it to stop its incessant ticking. For the first time in what seemed like ages, the wait was unbearable. Would he live...or would he die?

The hospital had given him a ring as soon as they'd pulled Owen's files and seen the special orders attached to it. Technically, it was just an addendum to the usual 'phone in case of emergency' paperwork, but the single page made it very clear that he was not to be informed of an injury at their convenience, but as soon as identification had been made. He had one slipped into the medical files of each member of his staff.

Owen was injured, and Owen had been out hunting Weevils with Ianto - well, that told him nearly more than he would have liked about the situation and what it was likely to entail. He'd finished (quickly) what he'd been doing and headed to the hospital.

Once in the emergency room's waiting area, Jack hunted down an orderly who looked competent, touching their arm and asking for news on one Owen Harper.

Lynne looked away from the clock at the sound of another person entering the room. She took no real notice of him when he didn't look at her. Her attention went back to the clock until she heard him ask the orderly about Owen. Her head whipped back to look at him and she jumped to her feet, hurrying over.

"Yeah have you got news on Owen?" she interrupted. "Because if you do, I think you ought to tell me," she went on, ignoring the other man and focusing on the orderly.

The paramedics wheeled Owen into the hospital. They had blood and oxygen pumping into him, keeping him barely alive as they got him to the operating room. He had heard Lynne's voice sometime before, and he wanted to see her, though he could barely keep his eyes open.

The wounds were deep, but they missed all major organs. They sewed him back together and pumped blood back into him. It was all they could do, but it would be enough. They had him transferred to a room in the intensive care unit until he was stable enough to be moved again.

As soon as the weevils were safely stored in the Hub, for Owen's scientific meddling later on, Ianto rushed to the hospital, where he suspected Jack would also be. Surely enough, there he was - and Lynne, also - at the emergency room waiting area.

Ianto reached them, flushed, panting slightly.

"So sorry I couldn't get here earlier. How is Owen?" He asked Jack.

At the sound of another voice, Lynne turned tearfully to Ianto. It took all her willpower not to throw her arms around him and cry, simply because he was the first familiar face she'd seen since they'd taken Owen away from her. "They haven't said anything, yet..." she added in a choked whisper.

Ianto frowned, seeing how crushed Lynne was. Poor girl couldn't get a break. He sighed, placing his hand on her shoulder, reassuringly.

"What are the injuries?" He asked, because he wouldn't want to run the risk of saying "He'll be fine, I'm sure" if Owen was dying, or anywhere close. He also wanted to know, obviously.

Lynne took a deep breath and tried to give Ianto a weak smile as thanks for his attempt to comfort. "I...this thing...like, took a chunk out of his shoulder," she choked out. "I mean, like, literally. He was bleeding a lot. I mean, a lot," she went on and found herself unable to keep from looking down at her hands, one of which was still stained in Owen's blood. Lynne cringed and scrunched her face to keep back a sob, swallowing hard against the ever-growing lump in her throat. She began wiping her bloodied hand against her jeans nervously.

Ianto sighed, rolling his eyes. Bloody weevils. Lynne was in a bad state herself; Ianto knew what seeing one's other half severely hurt did to one's mind. He tried for a smile.

"Perhaps you should sit down and have some water. I'll get it for you." He said.

Lynne sniffled and shook her head, using her clean hand to swipe at her eyes, roughly. She didn't want his pity; she just wanted to see Owen. "No, thanks, I'm good. They already gave me something like five or six glasses of water. I lost count. All it managed to do was make me antsy," she replied quietly. "It's been a long time..." she added softly, looking down again.

Ianto sniggered at the number of glasses of water she'd had. Of course she'd had a thousand, that's all they knew how to do. And Ianto was being as generic as they had been.

"I'm sorry. They always take a long time saying something useful, don't they?" He said, shaking his head. He decided to stop talking, in any case. Nothing he'd say would ease Lynne's anxiety, or make her feel better, possibly the contrary. He just leaned against the wall, joining in the waiting.

Jack spent some time - a few minutes - talking to the orderly, gently badgering, charming, and when that failed coming close to threatening information on the patient in question from her. He did it all with a smile on his face, which he knew could be a little unsettling, but there you have it. She directed him to the surgeon who'd worked on Owen, and he had to repeat the whole dance with him. He was so used to it that where others would have found the repetition tiring, he just saw it as another part of the job. It came easily to him.

When, at last, he returned to the waiting area, it was in at least a slightly better mood. Caught somewhere between relief and irritation, really, but he hardly let it show. "He'll be fine," he told Ianto, more quietly. He didn't know the girl, or how she knew Owen, so he disregarded her entirely for the moment. "They'll allow visitors in an hour or two, I think."

Well, he knew, because the orderly'd told him so. But that was information gotten under duress.

Ianto nodded as Jack told him what he'd uncovered from charming both the orderly and the surgeon half to death, and smirked. "Good you found use for your charm." He said, turning to Lynne right afterwards. "Jack, this is Lynne. She's...Well, she found Owen." Ianto wasn't sure if he should have told Jack exactly who Lynne was, and what part she played in Owen's life. He didn't know whether Owen wanted the boss to know, and it wasn't his place to decide for either of them.

Lynne was looking back and forth between Ianto and the other man until Ianto introduced them.

"Jack, this is Lynne. She's...Well, she found Owen."

Her heart sank. She wondered if Owen had changed his mind about where he stood with her. Pushing the thought aside and deciding to address it much later, when he was feeling better, Lynne looked back at Jack.

"Nice to meet you," she said, raising her hand to shake and then furrowing her brow and switching hands to offer Jack the clean one. She forced a small smile.

He shook the woman's hand briefly, giving her a quick smile and, "And you." He wasn't much in the mood to keep it up, though he wondered how she knew Owen. He decided to ask at a time when he wasn't something between angry and relieved and unable to tell which exactly (it would inhibit polite conversation, to say the least).

Glancing at Ianto, Jack asked, "Are you sticking around?" Because if he was, Jack could go back to the Hub relatively secure in the fact that he'd get a call when the medic was conscious again and the doctors weren't going to fuck around with the paperwork on him. One of the many benefits of being Torchwood - the authority to tell people to get things done and done now, and have at least some expectation that it will get done.

Ianto sighed, arching his eyebrow. "I suppose I am now." He said, shrugging.

He approached Lynne, whispering in her ear: "I didn't exactly tell him who you were in case you and Owen don't want him to know. I'm not up to committing any indiscretions."

"Neither of you has to stay if you don't want. If you just give me a number to call..." she offered. "Because I'm not leaving," she added, looking over at Ianto. She nodded her understanding and hoped the relief didn't show on her face, even though she felt it.

She let out a sigh and looked toward the hallway again, reflexively as if half-expecting to see Owen walking down it any second.

"Then give me a call when he's conscious, would you?" He asked, with a quick smile. Not above taking advantage of the situation, as long as Ianto was already staying there. There were things to be done, after all - he couldn't really afford to sit round in a hospital waiting room for a couple of hours, especially when it was already clear that Owen would be alright.

Lynne frowned at him. "Yeah. Will do," she said blandly. Why was it such a chore for him to wait around to see Owen? For a person who kept such a short leash on his employees, he certainly didn't seem to care very much about their well-being. It made Lynne suddenly very bitter toward Jack.

"Great, thanks." Jack flashed her a grin, disregarding her frown. He nodded to Ianto and turned to go. There wasn't any point staying here, for the time being. All he'd end up doing is bother the orderlies, and as fun as that could be sometimes, he had too much work to do. Owen was going to be fine, after all, and he'd come visit when he was conscious and somewhere closer to the land of the living (chilling turn of phrase, wasn't that?).

Lynne narrowed her eyes at Jack as he turned. "Dick," she muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes and walking away from Ianto to drop down onto one of the waiting room chairs again, crossing her arms over her chest. She made a mental note not to mention to Owen how eager his boss had seemed to be to leave, nor how Ianto had sounded somewhat burdened by sticking around. No wonder Owen had an inferiority complex. She couldn't blame him. And suddenly, Lynne never wanted to be alone more than she did at that moment in her entire life. She'd have rathered be alone than share company with people who didn't seem to care.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she looked at the clock and took note of the time so she could start her own mental countdown before badgering her way into Owen's room to see him.

Owen blinked awake, a bit woozy from the medication. There was a nurse in the room, writing something down. "L...Lynne? Wh...where's... Lynne?" he asked. He had heard her before he'd fallen asleep... and he wanted to know if she'd waited for him...

Lynne chewed her thumbnail nervously as she paced the room, looking at the clock every few seconds, willing a doctor or nurse to interrupt her; to tell her she could go in and visit Owen.

"It's been, like, two hours..." she muttered miserably to herself. She looked over at Ianto who was standing on the other side of the room, seemingly off in his own little world.

"Lynne Harper?"

It took her a second before it registered the tale she'd told and Lynne blushed hard, looking briefly over at Ianto before turning to the voice. "Yeah, that's me," she lied, hoping Ianto would let it go without a word.

Ianto lifted up his head at the name. Lynne Harper? Since when, twenty-four hours ago?

"Well, and here I thought I'd be bridesmaid..." He muttered to himself, smiling. Apparently Owen was awake, which was great news. Ianto did what Jack told him, and started dialing his number.

"Sir? Owen's awake." He said to the bluetooth, running a hand through his hair.

Lynne gave Ianto a sympathetic grin and followed the nurse eagerly to Owen's room.

"He needs rest...so you can't stay long," the woman said and Lynne nodded, swallowing hard.

She was a little afraid of what she might see; how he might look. He'd scared the hell out of her out on the streets and she certainly hoped he looked a lot less worse for the wear. "Yeah, okay," she agreed.

The nurse opened the door and politely closed the door behind Lynne, leaving her a moment of privacy with him.

"Owen...?" she practically whispered, unable to find her voice.