Author's Notes: I'm not as late this time, so I hope you like that one, even if it is rather short and written at the wee hours at night yet again. It's partly based on a tumblr prompt as well and I think it added up well so... enjoy!

Kindness – charity, compassion, friendship and sympathy without prejudice and for its own sake.

"Here." Jack carefully cleaned away the blood that was steadily dripping from Ianto's cheekbone. "Better now?"

"Still stings a bit," Ianto said, voice muffled by Jack's wrist where it brushed against his lips occasionally. "But it doesn't hurt anymore."

"Good." Jack was trying to be as business-like as possible and distance himself from the fact that it was Ianto he was trying to save from blood loss. His hands wouldn't shake so much if he could just forget that it was Ianto. "We need to clean the other one as well."

Ianto nodded hastily and Jack could see that he was trying to brace himself. "Okay," he said tightly. "Go on."

"We've done thing before, remember?" He sure did. They'd killed an alien and its father had come later and put Gwen and Jack into some kind of waking coma. The Captain still remembered what it had felt like; being fully awake and yet unable to move. Ianto had found the antidote and had gone on guns blazing into the warehouse where some guy named Alix had been keeping it. As far as Jack knew, Ianto had killed – or, actually, blown up – every single one from Alix's minions and had got shot in the arm. They'd talked while Jack had cleaned it and it was still a memory laced both with endless worry and relief that everything had turned out all right in the end.

He took off Ianto's shirt and hissed when he finally found the wound. It hadn't looked so bad before and there was blood everywhere, but he gritted his teeth and got to work.

The space under the TARDIS console was spacious enough for them to work without having to drag Ianto to a makeshift infirmary the time machine had created or bringing him to their room, and Jack had sat Ianto in a chair as he placed the antiseptic, the bandages and everything else on the floor next to himself.

They'd just wanted to have a walk. A walk. Jack had thought that the 'interrupted by aliens' days were in the past, but evidently not. And here they were, and Ianto had been shot and Jack was trying to gather ever ounce of first aid training he had received at any point in his life so he could help him.

Ianto's muscles were tense under Jack's fingers and his skin was even paler than usual – which, to be honest, was downright frightening. Ianto's eyes were closed and his hands were gripping the arrests tightly. "I'll have to take the bullet out now," Jack said, almost in apology, and Ianto nodded stoically.

Jack took out one of the things that looked like something between a torture device and pincers and reached for the antiseptic, pouring it generously over the wound. Ianto's breathing hitched and the muscles in his arms became tight ropes as he gripped the armrests all the tighter. Any other time, Jack would have been silently admiring what had been laid out so delectably for him, especially as sweat started running down in glistening lines down Ianto's pectoral muscles, but as it was, his eyes were fully focused on the bloody hole in front of him.

"My eyes are up here, asshole," came Ianto's voice and jack laughed, the sound nearly choking him before he schooled his expression back into a serious one.

"How can you joke about this?" The Captain scolded and Ianto shrugged minutely. "You have a bullet halfway to your spine!"

"You know that I don't really give a– Oh, fuck."

Jack had done a very thorough job with the antiseptic and Ianto was, as it seemed, trying not to scream his lungs out. Jack looked up and found himself transfixed by the sight. Ianto's hair was plastered against his forehead, his pale skin covered in a thin sheen of sweat from his forehead to the waistband of his jeans and his muscles were shifting under it from the strain of keeping quiet, almost shimmering on the golden light of the TARDIS as he tried to withstand the pain.

"Get on with it," Ianto ground out and Jack fumbled with the instrument awkwardly as he tried to figure out how he was supposed to pull out a bullet with it. "Okay, okay."

Just then, the front doors upstairs creaked open and Jack looked up, relief flooding his entire body. "They're back!"

"Who is?" Ianto opened his eyes tentatively.

"The Doctor. And, as far as I can hear, Amy and Rory as well. Which means that I'll leave you to the tender mercies of an actual nurse."

Ianto's eyes widened and he shot back a panicked, "You can't!"

"He'll know better than me what he's doing," Jack said apologetically. "I'll stay by your side and hold your hand, too," he teased gently. Ianto glared at him.

"I'm not giving birth, Jack, I just want the bloody thing out before I regenerate hell of a lot sooner than I'd like to. So if you'd please get back to it–"

But it was too later. Jack was already calling for help and, before Ianto could as much as protest, everyone was coming down the stairs in a flurry of animated question as to what had happened.

The Captain knew how much Ianto disliked being coddled, but there wasn't much of a choice left.

o.O.o

Later on, when Ianto was already in his bed with bandages over his chest, he tried to make small talk. Jack frowned at him when he so much as opened his mouth – he wanted his lover to finally get some rest and a good night's sleep so he could recover faster – but he spoke anyway. "Rory did a really good job with this," he said, nodding down at his wound.

"Of course he did, he's a nurse," Jack said, but Ianto didn't seem convinced and he prodded further. "What's bothering you?"

"Both Rory and Amy," Ianto started carefully. "They're always so– open to me." He turned to Jack, then, his eyes now fully focused on him. "And the same goes for you. And I've done nothing to deserve that."

"You were shot!" Jack wasn't really sure how anyone could need care more than Ianto had in that moment.

Ianto shrugged. "Doesn't mean that I haven't been a right pain the arse ever since I've come back."

"You haven't done anything," Jack objected immediately.

"Oh, please." Ianto gave a short laugh. "You have no idea what to do with me. I can see it."

"I'm just getting to know you all over again," Jack said gently. It wasn't something new for Ianto's mind to wander into strange and previously unknown directions and, as much as he was used to it, he was still mystified by the directions his lover's train of thought tended to stray into.

"Sorry about that, then," Ianto chuckled. "I know it wasn't a nice process the first time around."

"Oh, trust me," the Captain said, wrapping an arm cautiously – mindful of the injuries – around Ianto's shoulders. "It's a privilege."