Log with Ianto & Jack: Man! I Feel Like a Woman!

[parked]

There were three things Sulu always expected when he woke up: some kind of alarm, his regulation sized bed and his regulation sheets. In his line of work, those were the only safe assumptions; for all anyone knew, they could be waking up to their timer alarms or the red alert alarms, or they could wake up on the floor after an attack - but they would always wake up near it.

Being that he was not really a morning person, it took Sulu a groggy minute of groaning and half-hearted stretching to realize that his three safety blankets? They weren't there. Instead, his bed felt - bigger, really, and... manlier. Really manly. Which felt weirder than the softer sheets, the metal bracelet around his wrist and the fact that he had hair in his eyes.

...Hair in his eyes.

Oh, Jesus. He knew what that meant -

Sulu snapped to attention and sat up, only to realize that he was now straddling someone, he was a girl, and he was in his boxers. And that was it. Part of him realized he was on top of Ianto, but the rest of him then followed suit and noticed that his free hand was on Jack's chest, and this was way out of his comfort zone.

Being that he was terrible at this whole "suddenly a girl thing," Sulu could only do one thing in that moment: he shrieked and tried to fling himself off the bed, despite the fact that he was handcuffed to Ianto. "SHIT!"

Comments

[51stcentury]

"Yeah, well," Jack said, and he would shrug if he could at that moment, "he's going to know that something's up when he wakes up wherever we end up taking him, or well, whenever he wakes up and realizes that he's not stuck in the tunnel with you like he remembers being before."

Jack thought for a moment about Sulu's comment, about Ianto mentioning something sooner than he had, before sighing. "Look, I... I can't really say what goes through his mind sometimes, but. Knowing Ianto, he probably figured he could handle it on his own. He gets like that, sometimes. Like he can't remember that there are other people around that are perfectly willing to help, if he'd just say the word. Or, y'know. Even allude to something being the matter, really. It's really easy to miss things with him, too. He's good at hiding."

[parked]

"Hopefully he won't assume that we did it in the most humiliating way possible for him." Sulu had a feeling that being thrown over Jack's shoulders was probably up there for Ianto, at least. "And..." He knew that Ianto did that. It was pretty obvious even from the start, when he'd only asked for help under the guise of anonymity, and how he always seemed ready to stop himself from saying anything too... well, "weak" sounding, he supposed. None of it ever did, though.

"Yeah. I know that. I'm pretty sure he probably knows it too. It..." He frowned, "I guess it just means he needs constant reminding." If only he had been conscious to see Jack come running to help, or to hear his worried tone. It might've helped with that reminding thing.

[51stcentury]

Jack shrugged as much as he could with Ianto on his shoulders. "I'm not sure that this is the most humiliating way possible, really. I mean, we don't have him slung between us. We aren't dragging him behind us on the ground. I mean, yeah," He said, turning his head to look at Ianto's head lolling on his shoulder, then at Sulu, "it's not exactly smooth, and he wouldn't really want to mention this ever again, probably, but it could be a lot worse."

He paused, thinking about what Sulu said about reminding Ianto. "Yeah..." he said, after a moment. "I guess he does." Jack couldn't really think of a time that Ianto'd come out of the blue to him, asking for help. He'd always had to coax it out of Ianto, for the most part, and that was only when he noticed something was up (and Jack wasn't good at subtleties, that something had to be pretty obvious for him to notice it). "What do you think, Lieutenant," he asked, "are you up to the challenge, then?"

[parked]

Sulu had to agree that maybe it wasn't the most unfortunate way to haul someone, but it was still pretty awkward. (He should know; he was the only one in training who everyone could pick up, after all.) Still, Sulu wasn't going to tell Ianto about it, or tease him or anything. It wasn't his fault that the community had made it impossible for him to be away from Jack for very long.

He actually gave Jack's question a little thought, because for however lightly it was proposed, it was still a serious kind of thing to ask. It didn't take more than a moment, though; Sulu would do whatever it took to make Ianto realize that he was there for him - that everyone, him and Jack and Gwen, were there for him. "I think I can handle it," Sulu said with a smile. "I've got patience to spare, after all."

[51stcentury]

Jack looked sideways at Sulu. watching him think about it, and then was appreciative that although the other considered the question seriously, he didn't answer it seriously as well. Jack, despite all of the years he'd lived, still didn't really handle serious conversation topics all that well. he much preferred to be outwardly flippant about everything. "Let's hope you do," he said, with a grin. He nodded to Ianto. "This one's going to definitely try it, sometimes. He's stubborn as hell."

Finally, they reached the end of the tunnels. The going had been slow, because of the fact that the pace was whatever Jack could make while carrying Ianto. Still, they managed. Jack moved to bring Ianto up to where the computer stations were, or more specifically, where the sofa was. "Alright, you're gonna have to help me get him down now, too, unless you want me dropping him and possibly breaking either of your arms, here. After that, we should get his feet up." He grinned. "Afraid I'm fresh out of smelling salts, otherwise I'd suggest that we give that a try, too."

[parked]

"Like he's the only stubborn person in my life," Sulu groused goodnaturedly, throwing Jack a smile. After all, his captain, CMO - hell, let's face it, everyone on alpha shift on the Enterprise was stubborn as hell. It was something he dealt with on a daily basis; and at least Ianto's stubbornness didn't include the natural gift of being completely bullheaded for all the wrong reasons.

When they reached the couch, Sulu just nodded along with what Jack was saying, prepared to help Jack however he needed. Still, he had to raise an eyebrow. "Does that stuff even actually work?" He had to ask - after all, smelling salts were very... Victorian.

[51stcentury]

Jack chuckled. "It does tend to be a trait that runs in the military, doesn't it?" he asked, grinning, very fully aware that he might just be another one of the stubborn people in his life that Sulu was talking about. Especially with their rocky start, and their tendency towards arguing or just rubbing each other the wrong way. "I'm sure that Starfleet isn't that different from the other forms of military out there."

Jack directed Sulu which way to move, and on the count of three, they quickly maneuvered Ianto down the couch. It wasn't pretty, but they hadn't dropped him so that was a plus for them. Jack pulled Ianto's feet up onto the arm of the couch so that they were above his head level as he answered Sulu's question. "Smelling salts? Yeah, it works. I mean, it's not actually salt. It's a chemical compound that triggers an inhalation reflex. Because fainting is caused by a lack of blood to the brain, that usually wakes the person up. It sounds kinda primitive, I know, but it gets the job done." He looked up at Sulu from where he was kneeling beside the sofa, and shrugged. "I was a field medic for a while in World War II," he said, by way of explanation.

[parked]

Once they settled Ianto onto the couch, Sulu found that it was simply easier at this point to just sit on the cushion by Ianto's knees, to keep his arm from dropping over the side in a really uncomfortable way.

"It really isn't, if you disregard the fact that it's the Federation's military, as opposed to just one world's. I've read a lot of historical information on various military forces from Earth and it seems that the basic ideals are the same. Protection of interests, and all. Starfleet also has a big hand in scientific study and exploration, though." He knew he was doing the rambling thing again, like he did with plants, but he had a feeling Jack wasn't really going to mind.

As for the smelling salts, "You're Dr. McCoy's worst nightmare then, I bet," he said with a bit of a laugh, using his free hand to push his hair out of his face. He really, really needed to invest in some hair ties one of these days, since he had a feeling turning him into a girl was the community's favorite thing to do to him. "Sometimes he gets on these rants about 20th century medical practices. You know, needles and saws and stuff. 'Barbaric,'" he quoted McCoy, trying his best to sound like a gruff, unimpressed Southern man as he did so. "Like anyone had a choice back then." Or now, really. But Sulu wasn't going to harass anyone about 21st century practices, especially when he was in that century.

[51stcentury]

Jack nodded. He understood the whole military with a motive of bettering the universe thing. After all, he'd joined the Time Agency with a similar goal of bettering things like the Agency ideally was supposed to do. It didn't quite end out working like that, and there was also Gray and John and the fact that Jack had been so young and stupid back then, but. He knew what it was like, nonetheless.

Jack chuckled at Sulu's impression of this 'Dr. McCoy' of his. "God, but don't I know exactly what he means," Jack said, with a smile. "I didn't realize how easy things were where I came from until I started experiencing this era. I mean. They haven't even got laser saws around yet. It's all laser scalpels and doing what you can with only what this planet has given them, and they have no idea."

Jack absentmindedly ran his hand through Ianto's hair, partly because it felt better just to touch him because of this virus, and partly because when he was passed out like this, Jack was reminded yet again of how young he was, and yet how little time in the scheme of it all, in the timespan of Jack's life, that he really had left. "They really have no idea what there is that's out there. Terrible and wonderful things. Things to make their lives better and so much worse. Maybe... Maybe it's better that way, for now, though. At least, that's what I like to tell myself, anyway." He chuckled again. "The 20th and 21st centuries aren't actually as impossible as you would think to live in, once you're actually stuck living there."

[parked]

Sulu really could understand what Jack was saying. It was probably one of the many things they could connect on, all things considered; Jack was from a future even Sulu hadn't seen, but there were obviously still some similarities between them. And, even with the fact that Jack was so far ahead of Sulu, they both had the common ground of being men from the future. It was actually a little reassuring to know that, despite the fact that the two of them could fight pretty badly on occasion (or... well, on all occasions), they still had a few common threads. Not too many, but enough.

"I don't really think they're impossible to live in," he said with a small smile and a shake of his head. "I mean, some of the cultural tics they have out here are a little strange to me, but. I'm not from too far in the future." He watched how Jack treated Ianto like this with a thoughtful look on his face, thinking about - well. How strange this probably was going to be for Ianto, and how strange it was for him, and how entirely unstrange it probably was going to be for Jack. Sulu wasn't entirely unused to this kind of lifestyle, though he'd never had to deal with it himself, but Jack - from what Ianto had said, and how Jack acted - didn't seem to even bat an eye. He probably should tell Jack about the date. Not now, though - not when they were all virus afflicted and Ianto was passed out.

...Speaking of viruses, "I figured you would have changed out of the uniform by now," Sulu said with a grin, "Are you just that enthralled with being a Starfleet officer?"

[51stcentury]

Jack chuckled softly. "The uniform is pretty dashing on me, don't you think?" he asked, with a grin to Sulu. A grin that lasted only for a few seconds, though. He was feeling a little stressed, what with Ianto not having woken up yet, and the whole uniform thing. "It won't come off," he said, with a sigh. "I tried to take it off, and it just won't. It's not even like it's tight or uncomfortable or anything, but. It looks like I'm going to be stuck in it for another while."

He laughed a little, not really moving his hand from Ianto's hair. "Never would've thought that I'd have a problem getting out of my clothes," he said, with a wink to Sulu. "I guess there are worse fates than being stuck in someone else's uniform for a few days, though," he said. "Though if I don't get my wriststrap back by the end of this, I'm hunting whoever the hell this uniform belongs to down until he gives it back."

[parked]

That was probably the weirdest thing Sulu had ever heard of the community doing; sticking someone in somebody else's clothes? Really? He rolled his eyes at Jack's wink, though it was all in good humor and he did it with a smile still on his face. "It's a weird virus, that's for sure," he said, "But at least it wasn't something embarrassing - if there's even an outfit out there that you'd be embarrassed to be in."

Pausing, he added with a small frown, "You'll get your wriststrap back. It's highly unlikely that the community wouldn't return it to you; I mean, despite everything it puts us through, it usually tries to put things right at the end of it."

[51stcentury]

Jack laughed at the idea that there might not be an outfit he'd be embarrassed to be caught in. "I'm sure that there is one out there somewhere. I just... I can't think of any at the moment," he said with a grin. He had been one to stand tall, proud, and nude in front of a globally broadcast television show, far away and long ago on Satellite 5, after all.

Jack wondered if they shouldn't try shaking Ianto awake. That was one way to do it. Or maybe even slapping him awake (gently, that was). He just couldn't bring himself to do anything about it, though. He just kept his hand on the other man, crouching down in front of the couch so that he was kneeling next to where Ianto was lying and Sulu was sitting. "Sure, it puts things back in the end," Jack said bitterly, "but that doesn't change the fact that these things have happened in the first place. I mean. There've been some pretty horrible things that've happened during viruses. This is by far not anywhere close to being the worst." He did want his clothes back, though. And his wriststrap. He never knew how inconvenient it was not to have one until he didn't have it anymore.

[parked]

Sulu had firsthand experience with some terrible viruses; he knew Jack was right, and that the things the community might do to you could be far worse than a gender-swap or a stubborn shirt. He'd been bitten by a zombie, for God's sake - he'd felt just what that was like, and sometimes he would relive it in his sleep. He'd seen his captain deal with the death and destruction of his entire crew and had been unable to reassure him that it was all fake.

He frowned and looked away, grabbing a lock of his now long hair in his free hand, the hand locked with Ianto's brushing against the man's hand before he thought better of it. Jack probably wouldn't be offended, but there was no way to distract the conversation away from it. "Yeah," he said slowly. "I know all about that. But," he said after a moment, looking back at Jack, "I didn't stay that way and in the end, I know it was a one time deal, that it was temporary. All of this is temporary." Hopefully he wasn't referring to this thing with Ianto, which seemed to be blooming under the community's "gentle" care.

[51stcentury]

"Hm," Jack said. Were he to be a little melancholy about it all, he could even make a case for everything being temporary, even Sulu himself, but. He wasn't going to go there. That was a little too serious a conversation topic, for the moment. He ran his hand through Ianto's hair again, and resisted the urge to sigh.

"Yeah. This isn't really too bad," he said again, repeating himself. "And the uniform is temporary. The handcuffs and this touching thing are temporary, too," he said. "Although I'm going to have to stick a lot closer to you two, I guess, if we don't want a certain archivist here turning into a permanent Sleeping Beauty. Temporary or not, I'd rather not accidentally send him into a coma just because I got a little careless. Or because you two decided to wander off and take your sweet time coming back." Jack wasn't angry at that, not really. He just was a little wary of the fact that Ianto'd been out for as long as he had.

[parked]

Sulu frowned at that, looking at Jack. "I promise, after this? I'm not going to let him convince me that hanging back is a good idea." He looked over to Ianto, unable to keep his hand off of Ianto's now. "Should we try something to wake him up? I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing, him being out for so long."

Sure, it hadn't been entirely too long, but Sulu was concerned for the other, especially after having to help him as far as he had. He didn't know if the virus wanted one of them to wake Ianto up - probably Jack, he thought, since they were connected here - or if Ianto was just prone to being knocked out for long periods of time. "He's going to need water, too," Sulu said, suddenly remembering the fact that Ianto had thrown up before blacking out. ...He decided not to mention that right away.

[51stcentury]

Jack nodded at Sulu's promise. "Okay, good. Honestly, you'd think that after having had this happen, he wouldn't be too keen on the idea either, but then we both know Ianto. He'd probably push himself again, just because. Think he could make it where he'd faltered last time."

"I..." Jack paused, looking at Ianto. "I guess we should try something. I mean. He could even simply be asleep, at the moment." Although Jack knew that wasn't the case--Ianto definitely didn't look like this while he was sleeping, Jack'd watched him in his sleep enough times to know. "Got any suggestions, then?"

At the mention of the water, though, he raised an eyebrow, turning to look at Sulu. "Water?" he asked, curious. "Not that it's a bad idea, but. You guys weren't running any marathons or anything while you were up there, were you?"

[parked]

Sulu was a little surprised that Jack was so easily insinuating that Sulu knew what Ianto was like. He supposed it made sense, really, since Ianto and him had been friends for months now, but it was still a little surprising.

He frowned at Jack's questions, feeling his face heat up and regretting that he couldn't school his face better with this set of hormones. "He was sick near the stairs to the car," he admitted, "I forgot about it until just now. And... we could try shaking him, maybe. That usually works. If we were on the ship, we could probably get him a hypo, but..." Obviously, they weren't there right now.

[51stcentury]

"He...?" Jack started to ask, repeating Sulu's statement as a question, but then, he probably already knew how that had gone down as well. He brought his free hand to pinch the bridge of his nose, sighing. "Damn it, Ianto..." he said, although it was more to himself than to Sulu or Ianto himself really. Ianto's always been careless with himself, and Jack couldn't help but feel that one day, that carelessness was going to have some really bad results. Maybe not this time, but--. No. He needed to stop thinking along those lines.

He brought his head up to look at Sulu, raising an eyebrow. "Shaking could work. We have his feet elevated, that should help too. Keep blood flowing to the brain, and all. You wanna do the honors, or should I?" he asked. He honestly didn't care. Sulu was just sitting next to him, and well, kind of attached to him. Maybe it made sense for the younger man to do the waking up, instead of him, out of convenience. He'd leave it up to Sulu, though, or at least ask what he had to say on the matter.

[parked]

"Don't be mad at him," Sulu said immediately, almost blindly defending Ianto - who was at least partially to blame for the whole mess, after all. Sulu just didn't see things the way that he probably should, when it came to people he cared for. "I should have been paying closer attention, and it's not like you can help yourself when you get nauseous." Sulu wasn't even aware of Jack's train of thought - it seemed that the virus was sporadic, to him, and that none of this was really Ianto's fault. Except for the part where he failed to tell Sulu he was starting to feel the effects, that was.

He wondered if Ianto would feel better seeing Jack or Sulu himself. He had a feeling that he might not recognize Sulu immediately, not like this, and that if he saw Jack - well, he'd know that they'd made it back to him safely. "You should probably do it," he said finally, "I'm pretty sure your face is the one people like waking up to. Especially since it's more recognizable than mine," he laughed.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Jack wasn't mad at Ianto, not really. There wasn't really a point to being mad at him, after all. Ianto was just a secretive person, and nothing any of them could do, aside from Ianto himself, could stop that, or change that fact. He was going to have to give Ianto a rather hypocritical talk about self preservation later on though. Maybe after the virus, maybe in a week or two, but. Pushing himself that hard obviously didn't result quite the way Ianto would ave liked it to result, Jack was sure.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Jack said. "Well, here goes nothing. It's worth a try, at least." Jack moved his hand to Ianto's shoulder, rocking him gently. "Ianto," he said, shooting a sideways glance to Sulu because alright, yes, this was a little personal. "Wake up." He rocked him a little harder. "C'mon, let me see those big, gorgeous blue eyes of yours," he said. No response. He put his other hand on Ianto's shoulder and rocked harder than he had before, and Ianto stirred. Results!

He opened his eyes and seemed to be a bit disoriented for a moment. He looked around--he was in the Hub, on the sofa. Oh right, passing out. And there was Jack. Alright. And...someone was touching his hand? He rolled his eyes to look. Oh right, Sulu. Girl Sulu. The virus. It was all coming back to him. "Oh, lovely," he groaned, closing his eyes again, this time out of embarrassment more than anything else.

[parked]

Sulu understood very well that this wasn't necessarily something he should be watching, but it wasn't as though he could really turn his head or step aside for the timebeing, now, was it? As it was, he was too busy watching Ianto's face to notice Jack's glance, frowning with ill-concealed worry because, well. It was Ianto, and if Jack couldn't get him up, then Sulu probably couldn't, and if Sulu couldn't...

Ianto's eyes opened and Sulu let out a relieved sigh, not having realized that he had been holding his breath a bit. He smiled at Ianto as he looked to Sulu, giving his hand a quick squeeze as he groaned and closed his eyes. "Hey, there," he said, "You're awake." It might have been the obvious, but he wasn't about to lay anything too complex on Ianto at the moment.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto wasn't exactly capable of processing anything too complex, so it was lucky that Sulu didn't try to use too many words on him at that moment. He was more than a little disoriented, seeing as the last thing he remembered was going down in the tunnels, and even that was a little hazy.

"I... I guess I am," he said, bringing his free hand to rub over his face, opening his eyes again. "I see that we made it to the Hub, then." He turned his head to look back at Jack. "Jack," he said, all of the relief and appreciation that Jack had probably showed up to save them evident in his tone.

Jack smiled and ran a hand through Ianto's hair again. He liked doing that, and he knew that it comforted the other man as well. "You gave us a bit of a scare there," Jack said. "Thought I was going to have to go get a pitcher of water to dump on you. Oh, speaking of. Think you can stand to be away from me long enough for me to get a glass. Sulu here says that you might need one."

Ianto made as much of a face as he could at Jack, from where he was lying down. "I'll manage, I'm sure," he said, and with that, Jack hurried off to the far corner of the Hub to Ianto's kitchenette to do just that--get Ianto a glass of water.

[parked]

Sulu saw the relief on Ianto's face when he looked to Jack, and heard it in his tone, and he knew that it had been a very good idea to let Jack do the waking up. It was good to see Ianto looking reassured, especially after all the very unassured expressions that had passed through Ianto's face before he'd collapsed; and, even though Sulu felt a little bad that he probably wouldn't have elicited that kind of response from the other man, he knew why, and he wasn't about to cry about it.

As Jack moved to get Ianto a drink, Sulu leaned over and briefly put a hand to Ianto's cheek, before using two fingers to check his pulse below his jaw. "How are you feeling?" he asked, "Still nauseous? Dizzy at all?" He figured that, while Jack was off doing one useful thing, he could try and do something equally as useful. Smiling, he added, "You had me worried, there."

[torchwoodteaboy]

"I'm..." Ianto paused, taking a mental inventory of himself. He still felt a little light-headed, but he always felt a little woozy after having passed out like he had. He wasn't moving around, but he was pretty sure that if he would, he'd be alright with the nausea. It didn't escape him that Sulu was checking his pulse, and it made him wonder just how bad things had gotten, for him to be doing something like that.

"I'm alright," he said. And he was. He didn't feel much like getting up and running a marathon, but. He was better than he'd been a few minutes ago, at least. "I'm sorry that I worried you, though," he said, lowering his gaze, as much as he could while he was laying down. "I... I really tried to hang on for as long as I could, there. Obviously, it wasn't long enough, though."