Torchwood: And You Will Know Her, 2/3
Aug. 15th, 2009 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gilascaveTitle: And You Will Know Her By the Smile in Her Eyes
Author: James
Rating: PG-15
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 21,900 total
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit made
Warnings: mpreg, mis-use of coffee machines.
Spoilers: AU after Season One
Summary: Jack is gone, and Ianto has discovered something very important that he needs Jack for. Will he find Jack in time, and, more importantly, what will happen when Jack does return?
Notes: Hope betad this at several stages and made me re-write more than you could possibly imagine. Anything involving coffee is her fault.
Continued from part one
~~~
Two months later Ianto decided he was going to go mad. The work he did for the Historical Museum was interesting, but not very challenging. He knew what the items were, after all, and it was just a matter of recording the information. He had got some puzzles from Daidre a few weeks before, when he'd told her he was getting bored. She'd brought a stack of three-dimensional puzzles to build, and books of maths and logic puzzles -- nothing that said much about the culture outside, but which kept his mind working enough that he didn't want to climb the walls.
He was sitting beside the incubator one morning, trying to get up the energy to go to his office -- and why couldn't he decide on a name, anyhow? At this rate she would be born and be 'baby girl Jones' for the rest of her life. He should have asked Jack what her name had been so he wouldn't have to make a decision.
It wasn't that he couldn't think of a name, it was that there were too many to pick from. There were dozens of female relatives to name her after; his mother or grandmothers or aunts and favorite cousins. And there were friends -- he'd thought about naming her Lisa, and still didn't know if it was a good idea or a horrible one. He could even name her 'Jacqueline', although it didn't seem like a good idea to feed Jack's ego, no matter what the circumstances.
He stared at the incubator and tried to imagine the baby inside. What would she look like? Maybe he needed to wait and meet her properly, before naming her. Ianto sighed. Maybe she would just be Baby Girl Jones. Although Gwen and Tosh would probably murder him...
He had no idea how he was going to tell them. Explaining how it had happened would be easy -- touched an alien artefact, had sex, and here I am with a baby. And he doubted they would be anything other than completely thrilled to meet her.
But he had no idea what was going to happen, once he got back. Jack had said he'd be there, to help raise her. But did they leave Torchwood? Did Ianto leave, and Jack keep working? Did they make a nursery in the Hub and raise her among the Rift and aliens and bizarreness -- the danger of their lives?
He had no idea, and he had to admit he wasn't completely convinced that Jack was telling him the truth. He'd said he came back and helped raise her, but what did that mean? He hadn't even said if they lived together. Maybe Jack just sent support cheques and saw her on weekends, or whenever Rift activity allowed.
Ianto rubbed a hand over his face. He needed to get moving, soon. Jack would be along and Ianto had promised he wouldn't be around. He put his hands on the arms of the chair to push himself upright...and he just couldn't do it. He couldn't bear the thought of sitting in that office, going through boring, stupid, useless pictures of artefacts that no one cared about and would never make a difference. Archiving for Torchwood had always meant that something he found and catalogued might, someday, be useful. Someone might save the world someday because of some alien artefact properly archived in the Hub.
Ianto sighed. He just wanted to go outside.
"Oh! Sorry... Am I early?"
Ianto looked over at Jack, standing a few feet away. He was wearing his greatcoat over a pair of grey coveralls. Ianto wondered if they really were modern fashion or if everyone was being careful with what they wore around him. As if seeing what passed for fashion in the future would change the timeline, Ianto thought miserably.
Jack's face softened. "Having a bad day?" He walked over and crouched beside the chair. "Honestly, we were kind of expecting it before now. But Daidre said you've been coping really well. She thought you might actually make it the whole way without snapping." He grinned, briefly.
"Well, she was wrong. I've snapped. But you're here to visit, so I'm going back to bed and hide under the blankets." Ianto started to push himself out of the chair, but Jack laid his hand on his arm.
"I could.... If you want, I could take you ahead. To the day she's born." Jack tapped his wristband.
Shocked, Ianto just stared at him as the words sank in. He could be done with this now. She'd be born and he could take her home and he could go outside. "It's still three months," he said, not exactly sure why that mattered. Jack could travel through time, it didn't matter if it was ten seconds or ten thousand years.
Jack nodded. "It doesn't have to be more than a few minutes for you."
Anger pulling him out of his depression, Ianto pushed himself forward in the chair. "Then why didn't you, or anyone else, make this offer when I first arrived? Why go to the trouble of making an apartment, and finding work for me to do, if I could have just skipped ahead to the ending?"
There was a half-smirk on Jack's face. "Because do you really think you're going to accept my offer?"
Ianto opened his mouth to demand what the hell Jack was talking about, when he stopped. He could go forward in time, three months, to the day his daughter was ready to be born. She would stay here, in her incubator, watched over by Dr Tevaris and her staff. Probably even Daidre would visit, and Jack would definitely visit every day as he was already doing. She'd be perfectly safe, and cared for, and he would be gone, forward in time.
"It's safe here, though, isn't it?" he asked, already doubting he would believe Jack's answer.
"The building is fire-proof, earthquake-proof, and invasion-proof." Jack paused, and Ianto could see the word 'mostly' already forming on his lips.
Ianto had the image of going ahead, three months into the future, and discovering a bizarre accident had destroyed the incubator and killed his unborn daughter. Or finding that aliens had shown up and kidnapped her -- the ones who'd made the device would track her down and take her, claiming her as their own property. His mind whirled with possibilities, both normal and wild, still entirely probable ones.
For a moment he cursed Torchwood for making him aware of just how many things could go catastrophically wrong.
Could he really walk away and leave her behind? Assume that nothing would happen to her? It wasn't likely anything would -- not if it hadn't already. While he knew he was over-reacting when he said it, he said it anyway, realising that, indeed, Jack was right. Ianto shook his head. "I'm not leaving her alone."
With a soft look, Jack smiled. "I know how you feel. Which is why I didn't mention it as an option before." He put his hand on the edge of the incubator, brushing his fingers gently across its surface. "I know she gets born instead of being eaten by monsters and I sometimes have a hard time waiting until I can come back and see for myself she's still all right."
"But if you know, doesn't that mean it has to happen that way?"
Jack shook his head. "Time isn't written in stone. Just because I remember it happening one way... well, once you start traveling in time, almost anything can happen." He looked at the incubator then up at Ianto. There was something in his eyes that made Ianto wonder just how much Jack believed his own words.
"Nothing's going to happen to her," Ianto said, firmly. "She's too stubborn to get killed before she's born."
Jack blinked. "How-- not that I'm agreeing or disagreeing with you, but how would you know that?" His tone was guarded and a little suspicious.
"Because I know her parents." Ianto folded his arms and looked at Jack, who grinned suddenly, then laughed.
After a moment Jack asked, "Does that mean you want me to take you ahead?"
Ianto shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving -- she may be stubborn but I'm a first-time parent which means I'm completely and utterly paranoid." He looked at the incubator and discovered that it was actually a relief to say so out loud.
He thought how much easier this might have been, if he'd stayed home and let Owen figure out how to keep him and his daughter healthy. Let his friends help him through the whole thing.
Maybe if he hadn't come ahead, but stayed in 21st century Cardiff, Jack would have returned in time to help with this part, as well. The fear and uncertainty of becoming a parent when he'd hadn't planned on it, hadn't even known if he'd wanted to be. God knew he was a poor enough uncle to his sister's kids. What if he was just as poor a father?
God. He was going to be a father.
"Come on, look at me. Ianto?"
Ianto looked over at Jack, who was staring at him with a worried expression. "What?"
"Well, you're a little pale. And hyperventilating." Jack was holding onto his hand, now, squeezing his fingers lightly.
"Sorry. Just--" Ianto gestured towards the incubator with his free hand.
Jack's worried expression changed into one of understanding. "'Oh my god I'm really going to be a father'?" he asked. Ianto nodded. Jack opened his mouth then stopped, shaking his head with frustration. "I can't-- I can't tell you anything. I'm sorry, this is why... You're going to be fine, Ianto. But I want to tell you about all the ways she's wonderful and you're a fantastic father and I shouldn't even--" Jack let go of his hand and stood up. "I shouldn't be here."
"But she's your daughter, too."
Jack shook his head. "I've already been her father. I've been indulging myself, but... It's time for me to go. I won't be back, so you don't need to go hide in your office if you don't want to."
"Jack!" Ianto was on his feet, reaching out to grab onto him, but Jack stepped backwards out of reach. "Don't go."
For a moment they stood there, silently. Ianto wanted to grab onto him and force him to stay -- realising perfectly well that he simply wanted Jack. His Jack, who had gone and left and Ianto still didn't know when he would return. Or if he really would -- just because this Jack remembered going back, didn't mean the timelines would run the same way when Ianto returned to the 21st century.
Jack looked as though he didn't want to leave. Ianto knew it was for their daughter, not himself, but he took some comfort in seeing the torn look on Jack's face as he shook his head again.
"I have to go," he said quietly, and before Ianto had a chance to say anything more, Jack touched his wristband and vanished.
Ianto fell to his knees, watching the shimmer of gold and blue fade away.
He sat there, staring at the wall, for a long, long time.
~~~
Depression got him through two more weeks. Staying in bed or sitting by the incubator, staring at it and thinking; the time dragged by without Ianto paying much attention to anything else. Sometimes he managed to not think about anything at all, sometimes he entertained himself with imagining just how much more screwed up his life could get. Or how much he could screw up his daughter's life.
Then Daidre walked in, carrying an array of items in her arms and another hanging from a strap over her shoulder. She set one down -- a folding table, upon which she set another of the devices. She pointed it at the incubator and Ianto sat up in the chair in alarm.
"What--"
"I've got seven hours of footage of you sitting there moping," she said, not looking at him as she made adjustments to the device on the table. "I barely even had to splice it together." She looked at him then, with a triumphant and determined smile. "Your husband is an idiot and we are going on a picnic. The footage will run so if anybody looks in, they'll think you're still here and won't go raising an alarm." She grinned. "And I won't get fired, so don't tell anybody we did this."
Ianto blinked as her words tumbled through his skull. "I'm-- he's not... I mean -- picnic? Husband?"
Daidre frowned. "Have I got the word wrong? I mean Jack -- he's an idiot and he says he isn't even coming to her birth, now, because he doesn't want to upset you." She rolled her eyes then pointed at the device on the table. "This is a portable monitor. We can keep an eye on the incubator with this." She unrolled a flat piece of... something, and pressed it onto the back of Ianto's hand. She did something else, and suddenly the back of Ianto's hand was a screen, displaying the incubator. He looked at the device on the table, not recognising it at all as a camera, but clearly that's what it was.
He looked at Daidre in confusion.
"Picnic, food in a park. We're sneaking out of here. I've got the footage of you sitting here set up already, that's why they can't see us now. We'll go someplace that's mostly trees and grass and you--" She looked briefly guilty, but then her expression went back to determined. "If you see anything you shouldn't, just don't ever tell anyone." She held out her hand and took a hold of Ianto's -- the one without the screen, which was probably because Ianto was staring at it. He could see the incubator's status display screen clearly.
He felt her tug on his hand again, and he slowly looked up. "We're going outside?" Daidre nodded.
"I'll tell you all about what I ate for dinner last night and how I broke my favorite vase and you can talk about anything you like because it won't change the future." She smiled at him, kindly. "Come on. Six hours and forty nine minutes left before we have to be back here."
Ianto stood up, and with one last look at the incubator, he gave Daidre a nod.
~~~
She was born at 12:23 in the afternoon, in the same front room her incubator had sat in since Ianto's arrival. Dr Tevaris and the attending nurses brought in all the equipment, including a large, soft blanket that they gave to Ianto, spreading it out between his outstretched arms. He barely had time to realise why, when Dr Tevaris was pressing the side of the incubator, checking a small device in her hand, and asking, "Are you ready?"
It was on the tip of Ianto's tongue to say no, he'd changed his mind, could he go home and just get a cat instead. But he realised the doctor wasn't asking him -- she was peering into the incubator, through the display screen which was growing ever so slightly transparent.
She glanced up at him and repeated her question, and Ianto just nodded, dumbly. Then Dr Tevaris slid her hand down the side of the incubator and there was a soft hissing sound. Then the incubator shifted open, and the front slid down. Inside, nestled in something distinctly gooey, was a baby.
Ianto felt his eyes boggle, then the nurses were removing her, wiping her clean and smacking her bottom -- Ianto noted that in some ways medical science might well never evolve past what worked best. Then, as the baby gave a loud cry, the nurse placed her in Ianto's arms and wrapped the blanket tightly around her.
Ianto stared. She was red and wrinkled and had a pair of lungs that proved she was healthy, and none too happy with her new situation. Someone's hand was on his elbow, pulling him back slightly, then he felt something at his knees and he was being pushed down to sit in a chair.
"We can conduct the exam while you hold her," Dr Tevaris was saying, but Ianto barely heard her.
His daughter. She took a breath, stopped screaming, and looked at him; Ianto saw Jack's clear blue eyes staring up at him.
He didn't know how long they looked at each other before he realised someone was talking to him. He looked up and Daidre grinned at him. "We can forge a birth certificate for her, but we need to know what to put on it."
As of that morning he still hadn't decided -- he'd teased Daidre about officially naming her 'Baby Girl Jones' and she'd told him, quite seriously, that she would put 'Daidre Jones' on the certificate if he tried it.
But now, with her in his arms, Ianto found it was easy. "Her name is Carys. Carys Lisa Jones."
He'd told Daidre about Lisa -- told her so much, over the last six months. She'd listened to everything, sometimes commiserating and sometimes laughing, and sometimes telling him off for being stupid. Daidre put her hand lightly on his daughter's head. "It's a good name," Daidre said quietly.
From behind him, a voice asked hesitantly, "If I agree I've been an idiot, would you consider adding another name?"
Ianto looked over, startled but carefully not flinching, holding his daughter gently even as he saw Jack standing there. The Jack from this time was standing there looking apologetic and anxious. His eyes kept straying from Ianto's face to the bundle he held in his arms.
Nodding, Ianto gestured for him to come closer. Jack looked like he'd been sprung free; he was over to the chair and on his knees beside them in a flash, staring at Carys. "I--" Jack stopped, and looked up at Ianto. "I wasn't here, never got to see this... until now."
Ianto had to fight back a grin at the absurdity of language when time travel was involved. But the ache in Jack's expression made him simply hold Carys out to him. Jack took her in his arms, holding her with practised ease. Ianto watched as Jack looked at their daughter, smiling down at her and getting lost in her.
Daidre held out a piece of paper and a pen, and Ianto saw where he had to sign. He glanced at the top -- the name of a medical clinic that might or might not have really existed. He'd have to have Tosh put Carys into the system once they got home. He looked down to see where he had to put his signature, and saw the first line. Baby's name: Carys Lisa Jones-Harkness.
He supposed that even if he hadn't had to suffer through nine months of pregnancy hormones, he was entitled to get a little weepy, now that she was born. He signed the certificate and gave it back to Daidre, trading it for a white handkerchief.
Then there was a pop, and quiet cheering, and Ianto found himself holding a glass of champagne in one hand and his daughter in his arm, and Jack had one arm slung over Ianto's shoulders like everything was really, truly going to be all right from now on.
~~~
"I hope you don't mind," Jack said, as Ianto made sure for the fifth time that Carys was well-wrapped in her blanket for the journey.
"Why should I mind?" Ianto glanced at him, confused by how nervous Jack seemed. "I know you can't stay long, but don't see why I'd refuse to have you be the one to take us back."
"Oh, not that... I sort of-- it isn't like you've been around to set up the nursery," Jack said, and Ianto groaned. He hadn't even thought of it. And here he'd been about to transport back to his flat without even a crib or a supply of nappies and bottles. Daidre and the others had him well-supplied with clothes and stuffed animals, all painstakingly made from cotton and linen and absolutely no alien or 'modern' fibers. But clearly he wasn't prepared at all to take her home. He truly was going to be a miserable father.
"I sort of took the liberty," Jack was saying. "There's a crib and a rocking chair and we stocked the kitchen -- I left a copy of her book," he added, then grew thoughtful. "You know, I wonder if she didn't decide she loved this book because I read it to her. Which I read to her because she loved it, which makes it--"
"Jack!" Jack pulled himself short and looked at him. Ianto smiled. "Your brain is going to short-circuit and then I won't have a ride home. Please. And no, I don't mind. I'm glad one of us was thinking."
Jack smirked. "And you always said I was the beauty, not the brains."
Ianto rolled his eyes, which drew a delighted laugh from Jack.
"Come on, then, let's get you two home and settled." Jack put his hand on Ianto's elbow, peering down at Carys, who was sleeping contentedly in Ianto's arms. Jack leaned down and gave her a kiss, then suddenly they were no longer in Ianto's Torchwood 81 apartment, but home, in his own flat, in 21st century Cardiff.
He looked down and saw that Carys hadn't even stirred, then he looked back up at his bedroom. There, in a corner, was a crib. A small quilt was folded over the edge; he could see a row of yellow ducks along the edge.
Clearly Carys would have no choice but to like ducks, he mused.
"You don't actually have the space for her to have her own room," Jack said. "When I get back, you-- Um. I mean, I hope you like it."
Ianto looked at him, mind whirling. When Jack returned, did he move? Did they live together? It made sense that he would have to find someplace larger eventually, if only so Carys would have her own room. He wanted desperately to ask, to finally know just what he meant to Jack, even get some sort of hint if this was just a convenience for the sake of having had a child together or if there was something more.
But he knew Jack wouldn't tell him. So he said only, "Thank you."
For a time neither of them said a word. Jack looked down at Carys, and Ianto held her out. "Did you want to--"
"No, I better not. It's hard enough as it is," he added quietly, gaze flicking up briefly. Ianto was hardly surprised to see the pain there, one which he could understand. Jack might remember Carys' life, but by his time she would be gone. Having the chance to see her and hold her again, as a baby, would have been marvelous for Jack -- and torture.
"Thank you," Ianto said again. "For everything."
Jack opened his mouth and he stopped, clearly caught between wanting to say something and knowing he shouldn't. Finally he just walked over and gave Carys another soft kiss, and told her, "I love you."
Then he straightened up, and, with one final look at Ianto, disappeared.
In his arms, Carys woke up with a wail. Ianto looked down and sighed. "I think it's time we tell your Aunt Gwen and Aunt Tosh and Uncle Owen that you exist. Otherwise I think I'm going to be a complete wreck by morning."
~~~
"Huh," Owen said, standing in the middle of Ianto's living room with nearly every piece of portable medical equipment Torchwood owned scattered at their feet. Owen tapped the side of the scanner, then said, "I'll have to do a DNA scan to be sure, but as far as I can tell with this, it's a human infant." He stared at the handheld scanner he was holding, the same one Ianto had first used to discover he was pregnant.
"She," Ianto corrected, watching as Carys reflexively closed her tiny hand around Tosh's finger. Tosh was sitting beside him on the sofa, leaning over Carys while Owen scanned her. Gwen had gone into the kitchen to pass judgement on the supplies Ianto had been left with. He hadn't mentioned Jack, only Torchwood 81 and letting them assume they'd been the ones to set him up with baby formula, bottles, and binkies. Much of it had pictures of ducks on it, and Ianto wondered again if it really was Jack's fault that Carys would turn out to like them.
Gwen came back into the living room and scowled at Owen. "Of course it's a human infant," she said. "We just spent the entire day going over the data Ianto left in the medical scanners and watching the CCTV of him disappearing with that girl. We've known all day that Ianto was pregnant, and that that meant an infant."
Owen gave her a dry look. "Yes, well, normally that takes nine months, not twelve hours."
"He was three months pregnant when he left," Tosh reminded him, eyes not leaving Carys' face. Ianto had given them as much of his story as he could and they'd already known some of it from, as Gwen had said, noticing his departure on the CCTV and finding the medical readouts during their investigation into what had happened. Still, it was very odd to actually hear Tosh say it out loud. For nearly three months he'd been carrying Carys around inside him.
He wondered if women ever had this feeling of oddity, that being pregnant was somehow the most bizarre thing that could ever happen to them.
"Even for Torchwood, that's weird," Owen observed, the look on his face echoing Ianto's own thoughts.
Ianto nodded, noticing that he'd been patting Carys gently with one hand, soothing her. Had the alien device imbued him with maternal instinct, then? With his sister's two, Ianto had barely known which end to hold upright. He sighed. "I'm just grateful I didn't have to carry her to term."
"And you couldn't have stolen one of those incubators?" Owen demanded. "I could have introduced it to the market here, pretend I'd invented the thing. I could have been rich."
"Instead, you're changing nappies," Ianto said, holding out Carys. Owen started, then took her -- obviously by reflex, since as soon as she was in his arms Owen looked up at them all with an alarmed expression.
"She doesn't really need to be changed, does she? Why doesn't one of you volunteer?" He tried looking at Gwen and Tosh, both of whom just smiled at him.
"Clearly it isn't a woman's job," Ianto said, dryly.
"I'm not the one who got pregnant though, am I?" Owen snarked, then he very cautiously tapped Carys' bum. "She isn't really--?"
"No, Owen," Ianto said, taking pity on him. "But I'm going to keep handing her over and telling you she needs to be changed, just to make you jump." He grinned as Gwen and Tosh laughed. Owen made a face at them all.
Ianto noticed that Owen didn't try to give her back right away, and he composed his expression to avoid laughing out loud. He wouldn't say that Owen looked particularly comfortable holding her, not cuddling her close like Gwen had done the second they'd come into his flat. He looked more like -- well, a doctor, holding a tiny patient.
"Did you ever do pediatrics?" Ianto asked.
"Did my stint as an intern, yeah," Owen replied. "Thought I'd have more time to brush up before she arrived -- mind you, I'm not sorry to miss giving you a Caesarean. But I'll do as her pediatrician; just in case that device--" Owen stopped and very briefly looked almost guilty before he continued. "Well, not like we know exactly how it made her, from two males. Normally you need at least one female involved somehow. Although males have an X chromosome, I suppose it could have just used one from each of you--" He stopped, suddenly, at the huge yawn Gwen gave. He glared at her and she giggled. Owen said, sharply, "So my point is that I'll be her doctor in case there's anything a normal, civilian doctor wouldn't know what to do with."
"Like fourteen fingers?" Ianto asked.
"That's a normal human genetic mutation," Owen said.
"Maybe her hair will turn pink when she's a toddler," Tosh offered.
"Or she'll do it herself when she's sixteen," Ianto said, remembering his own misspent youth. He hadn't ever dyed his pink, but there was a reason there were no photos of himself as a teenager around his flat.
"I'm so glad you lot are taking this seriously," Owen said. "Here I was just thinking she might have inherited some of her father's more unique abilities." He glared once at Gwen and Tosh, but gave Ianto a slightly apologetic look.
"They checked for that, actually," Ianto said. "At least... well, since they didn't know anymore than we do about the device that did this, they ran every test they could, both during the gestation and after she was born. As far as their technology could tell, she's completely, 100% normal human."
"Until I see it for my own eyes, I'll keep an open mind." Owen looked thoroughly unconvinced, but Ianto suspected it was just sour grapes at Ianto's not having stolen the medical equipment to bring back for him to play with. Owen handed Carys back and Ianto took her, settling her easily on his stomach. She closed her eyes, slipping her thumb into her mouth and almost instantly she was asleep.
Ianto watched her for a few moments, feeling like he could probably sit and watch her sleep for... possibly the rest of his life.
"Have you though about what you're going to do?" Gwen asked, hesitantly.
Ianto looked up at her. "I've tried. I have no idea, though. I can't...I can't stay with Torchwood," he said, the words catching in his throat. "I've got no one to mind her; even if I did I'd never be home normal hours. A baby-minder would have to be on call twenty-four hours every day."
"You could hire a nanny," Tosh said. "I'm sure there's one out there who could get proper security clearance." She looked thoughtful, as if already writing the program to search for a list of candidates.
"I don't know." Ianto stared at his daughter. He'd given it some thought, but admittedly, not a whole lot. Too many other things vying for his worried attention. And, deep down, he'd known he had only the one real choice. "Working for Torchwood... doesn't lend itself to a long life. I can't risk making her an orphan." He looked up at each of his co-workers. His friends. "I know it might mean I'll have to be Retconned--"
"Don't be stupid," Owen said. "We're not going to Retcon anybody. Especially not someone with a possibly-immortal infant to take care of."
"You don't have to decide now," Gwen said quickly, giving Owen a dirty look before smiling calmly at Ianto. "You can take maternity leave."
Ianto stared at her. "Torchwood doesn't have a maternity policy." The maternity policy at Torchwood One was birth control or Retcon. Torchwood Three, he knew perfectly well, had no policy at all.
Gwen smiled, smugly. "It does, now. Jack Harkness even signed the form -- well, it looks as much like his signature as I could manage." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm not as good at that as you are. But you've got twenty-eight weeks' leave coming to you. Take it, and you can decide what you want to do later."
She hesitated, but then didn't say anything more. But Ianto suddenly realised what she was thinking.
Maybe Jack will have returned by then.
Jack had said he would be back. He hadn't said when, but... surely seven months was enough time? If Jack were here, helping Ianto raise their daughter -- it wouldn't change the fact that Ianto didn't see how he could keep working for Torchwood. But it would make a world of difference if there were the two of them. Maybe they'd even both get normal jobs, and raise Carys like a normal -- mostly -- family.
Ianto tried to imagine the three of them living a normal life. Nine-to-five jobs, public schooling for Carys, and no mention of aliens anywhere, except on science fiction programmes on telly.
He couldn't picture it. But it sounded nice.
But he realised Gwen was right about one thing. He didn't have to decide now. Ianto nodded. "Twenty-eight weeks, then."
Gwen clapped him on the knee. "Good! I've already filled out the forms. You just have to sign them; I can forge Jack's signature but yours is beyond me. Too neat."
"Wouldn't that make it easier?" Tosh asked.
Ianto shook his head. "The messy ones are the easiest, because no one can tell exactly what the letters are. I was pretty good at it when I was a kid--" Ianto stopped.
"Ianto, did you forge notes from home excusing you from your schoolwork?" Owen asked, sounding impressed.
Ianto shook his head. "Stolen cheque cards. And that's all I'm going to say." He nodded towards his sleeping daughter. "I have to start setting a good example."
Owen scoffed. "Mate, she's yours and Jack Harkness' daughter. Genetically speaking, you've got the world's greatest con artist on your hands. Well, on your stomach."
Scowling at him, Ianto tried not to let Owen's words scare him.
He failed. After a moment he looked over, giving it his best beseechingly cute look. It sometimes worked on Jack.
"Gwen, would you and Rhys like to adopt a baby?"
Gwen laughed. "Fat chance." She patted him on the head. "I'll tell the local police stations to be on the lookout for her, though."
"I imagine you have time," Tosh began, then she frowned.
"I give it four years before her first arrest," Owen said decisively.
~~~
part three
Author: James
Rating: PG-15
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Word Count: 21,900 total
Disclaimer: not mine, no profit made
Warnings: mpreg, mis-use of coffee machines.
Spoilers: AU after Season One
Summary: Jack is gone, and Ianto has discovered something very important that he needs Jack for. Will he find Jack in time, and, more importantly, what will happen when Jack does return?
Notes: Hope betad this at several stages and made me re-write more than you could possibly imagine. Anything involving coffee is her fault.
Continued from part one
~~~
Two months later Ianto decided he was going to go mad. The work he did for the Historical Museum was interesting, but not very challenging. He knew what the items were, after all, and it was just a matter of recording the information. He had got some puzzles from Daidre a few weeks before, when he'd told her he was getting bored. She'd brought a stack of three-dimensional puzzles to build, and books of maths and logic puzzles -- nothing that said much about the culture outside, but which kept his mind working enough that he didn't want to climb the walls.
He was sitting beside the incubator one morning, trying to get up the energy to go to his office -- and why couldn't he decide on a name, anyhow? At this rate she would be born and be 'baby girl Jones' for the rest of her life. He should have asked Jack what her name had been so he wouldn't have to make a decision.
It wasn't that he couldn't think of a name, it was that there were too many to pick from. There were dozens of female relatives to name her after; his mother or grandmothers or aunts and favorite cousins. And there were friends -- he'd thought about naming her Lisa, and still didn't know if it was a good idea or a horrible one. He could even name her 'Jacqueline', although it didn't seem like a good idea to feed Jack's ego, no matter what the circumstances.
He stared at the incubator and tried to imagine the baby inside. What would she look like? Maybe he needed to wait and meet her properly, before naming her. Ianto sighed. Maybe she would just be Baby Girl Jones. Although Gwen and Tosh would probably murder him...
He had no idea how he was going to tell them. Explaining how it had happened would be easy -- touched an alien artefact, had sex, and here I am with a baby. And he doubted they would be anything other than completely thrilled to meet her.
But he had no idea what was going to happen, once he got back. Jack had said he'd be there, to help raise her. But did they leave Torchwood? Did Ianto leave, and Jack keep working? Did they make a nursery in the Hub and raise her among the Rift and aliens and bizarreness -- the danger of their lives?
He had no idea, and he had to admit he wasn't completely convinced that Jack was telling him the truth. He'd said he came back and helped raise her, but what did that mean? He hadn't even said if they lived together. Maybe Jack just sent support cheques and saw her on weekends, or whenever Rift activity allowed.
Ianto rubbed a hand over his face. He needed to get moving, soon. Jack would be along and Ianto had promised he wouldn't be around. He put his hands on the arms of the chair to push himself upright...and he just couldn't do it. He couldn't bear the thought of sitting in that office, going through boring, stupid, useless pictures of artefacts that no one cared about and would never make a difference. Archiving for Torchwood had always meant that something he found and catalogued might, someday, be useful. Someone might save the world someday because of some alien artefact properly archived in the Hub.
Ianto sighed. He just wanted to go outside.
"Oh! Sorry... Am I early?"
Ianto looked over at Jack, standing a few feet away. He was wearing his greatcoat over a pair of grey coveralls. Ianto wondered if they really were modern fashion or if everyone was being careful with what they wore around him. As if seeing what passed for fashion in the future would change the timeline, Ianto thought miserably.
Jack's face softened. "Having a bad day?" He walked over and crouched beside the chair. "Honestly, we were kind of expecting it before now. But Daidre said you've been coping really well. She thought you might actually make it the whole way without snapping." He grinned, briefly.
"Well, she was wrong. I've snapped. But you're here to visit, so I'm going back to bed and hide under the blankets." Ianto started to push himself out of the chair, but Jack laid his hand on his arm.
"I could.... If you want, I could take you ahead. To the day she's born." Jack tapped his wristband.
Shocked, Ianto just stared at him as the words sank in. He could be done with this now. She'd be born and he could take her home and he could go outside. "It's still three months," he said, not exactly sure why that mattered. Jack could travel through time, it didn't matter if it was ten seconds or ten thousand years.
Jack nodded. "It doesn't have to be more than a few minutes for you."
Anger pulling him out of his depression, Ianto pushed himself forward in the chair. "Then why didn't you, or anyone else, make this offer when I first arrived? Why go to the trouble of making an apartment, and finding work for me to do, if I could have just skipped ahead to the ending?"
There was a half-smirk on Jack's face. "Because do you really think you're going to accept my offer?"
Ianto opened his mouth to demand what the hell Jack was talking about, when he stopped. He could go forward in time, three months, to the day his daughter was ready to be born. She would stay here, in her incubator, watched over by Dr Tevaris and her staff. Probably even Daidre would visit, and Jack would definitely visit every day as he was already doing. She'd be perfectly safe, and cared for, and he would be gone, forward in time.
"It's safe here, though, isn't it?" he asked, already doubting he would believe Jack's answer.
"The building is fire-proof, earthquake-proof, and invasion-proof." Jack paused, and Ianto could see the word 'mostly' already forming on his lips.
Ianto had the image of going ahead, three months into the future, and discovering a bizarre accident had destroyed the incubator and killed his unborn daughter. Or finding that aliens had shown up and kidnapped her -- the ones who'd made the device would track her down and take her, claiming her as their own property. His mind whirled with possibilities, both normal and wild, still entirely probable ones.
For a moment he cursed Torchwood for making him aware of just how many things could go catastrophically wrong.
Could he really walk away and leave her behind? Assume that nothing would happen to her? It wasn't likely anything would -- not if it hadn't already. While he knew he was over-reacting when he said it, he said it anyway, realising that, indeed, Jack was right. Ianto shook his head. "I'm not leaving her alone."
With a soft look, Jack smiled. "I know how you feel. Which is why I didn't mention it as an option before." He put his hand on the edge of the incubator, brushing his fingers gently across its surface. "I know she gets born instead of being eaten by monsters and I sometimes have a hard time waiting until I can come back and see for myself she's still all right."
"But if you know, doesn't that mean it has to happen that way?"
Jack shook his head. "Time isn't written in stone. Just because I remember it happening one way... well, once you start traveling in time, almost anything can happen." He looked at the incubator then up at Ianto. There was something in his eyes that made Ianto wonder just how much Jack believed his own words.
"Nothing's going to happen to her," Ianto said, firmly. "She's too stubborn to get killed before she's born."
Jack blinked. "How-- not that I'm agreeing or disagreeing with you, but how would you know that?" His tone was guarded and a little suspicious.
"Because I know her parents." Ianto folded his arms and looked at Jack, who grinned suddenly, then laughed.
After a moment Jack asked, "Does that mean you want me to take you ahead?"
Ianto shook his head. "No. I'm not leaving -- she may be stubborn but I'm a first-time parent which means I'm completely and utterly paranoid." He looked at the incubator and discovered that it was actually a relief to say so out loud.
He thought how much easier this might have been, if he'd stayed home and let Owen figure out how to keep him and his daughter healthy. Let his friends help him through the whole thing.
Maybe if he hadn't come ahead, but stayed in 21st century Cardiff, Jack would have returned in time to help with this part, as well. The fear and uncertainty of becoming a parent when he'd hadn't planned on it, hadn't even known if he'd wanted to be. God knew he was a poor enough uncle to his sister's kids. What if he was just as poor a father?
God. He was going to be a father.
"Come on, look at me. Ianto?"
Ianto looked over at Jack, who was staring at him with a worried expression. "What?"
"Well, you're a little pale. And hyperventilating." Jack was holding onto his hand, now, squeezing his fingers lightly.
"Sorry. Just--" Ianto gestured towards the incubator with his free hand.
Jack's worried expression changed into one of understanding. "'Oh my god I'm really going to be a father'?" he asked. Ianto nodded. Jack opened his mouth then stopped, shaking his head with frustration. "I can't-- I can't tell you anything. I'm sorry, this is why... You're going to be fine, Ianto. But I want to tell you about all the ways she's wonderful and you're a fantastic father and I shouldn't even--" Jack let go of his hand and stood up. "I shouldn't be here."
"But she's your daughter, too."
Jack shook his head. "I've already been her father. I've been indulging myself, but... It's time for me to go. I won't be back, so you don't need to go hide in your office if you don't want to."
"Jack!" Ianto was on his feet, reaching out to grab onto him, but Jack stepped backwards out of reach. "Don't go."
For a moment they stood there, silently. Ianto wanted to grab onto him and force him to stay -- realising perfectly well that he simply wanted Jack. His Jack, who had gone and left and Ianto still didn't know when he would return. Or if he really would -- just because this Jack remembered going back, didn't mean the timelines would run the same way when Ianto returned to the 21st century.
Jack looked as though he didn't want to leave. Ianto knew it was for their daughter, not himself, but he took some comfort in seeing the torn look on Jack's face as he shook his head again.
"I have to go," he said quietly, and before Ianto had a chance to say anything more, Jack touched his wristband and vanished.
Ianto fell to his knees, watching the shimmer of gold and blue fade away.
He sat there, staring at the wall, for a long, long time.
~~~
Depression got him through two more weeks. Staying in bed or sitting by the incubator, staring at it and thinking; the time dragged by without Ianto paying much attention to anything else. Sometimes he managed to not think about anything at all, sometimes he entertained himself with imagining just how much more screwed up his life could get. Or how much he could screw up his daughter's life.
Then Daidre walked in, carrying an array of items in her arms and another hanging from a strap over her shoulder. She set one down -- a folding table, upon which she set another of the devices. She pointed it at the incubator and Ianto sat up in the chair in alarm.
"What--"
"I've got seven hours of footage of you sitting there moping," she said, not looking at him as she made adjustments to the device on the table. "I barely even had to splice it together." She looked at him then, with a triumphant and determined smile. "Your husband is an idiot and we are going on a picnic. The footage will run so if anybody looks in, they'll think you're still here and won't go raising an alarm." She grinned. "And I won't get fired, so don't tell anybody we did this."
Ianto blinked as her words tumbled through his skull. "I'm-- he's not... I mean -- picnic? Husband?"
Daidre frowned. "Have I got the word wrong? I mean Jack -- he's an idiot and he says he isn't even coming to her birth, now, because he doesn't want to upset you." She rolled her eyes then pointed at the device on the table. "This is a portable monitor. We can keep an eye on the incubator with this." She unrolled a flat piece of... something, and pressed it onto the back of Ianto's hand. She did something else, and suddenly the back of Ianto's hand was a screen, displaying the incubator. He looked at the device on the table, not recognising it at all as a camera, but clearly that's what it was.
He looked at Daidre in confusion.
"Picnic, food in a park. We're sneaking out of here. I've got the footage of you sitting here set up already, that's why they can't see us now. We'll go someplace that's mostly trees and grass and you--" She looked briefly guilty, but then her expression went back to determined. "If you see anything you shouldn't, just don't ever tell anyone." She held out her hand and took a hold of Ianto's -- the one without the screen, which was probably because Ianto was staring at it. He could see the incubator's status display screen clearly.
He felt her tug on his hand again, and he slowly looked up. "We're going outside?" Daidre nodded.
"I'll tell you all about what I ate for dinner last night and how I broke my favorite vase and you can talk about anything you like because it won't change the future." She smiled at him, kindly. "Come on. Six hours and forty nine minutes left before we have to be back here."
Ianto stood up, and with one last look at the incubator, he gave Daidre a nod.
~~~
She was born at 12:23 in the afternoon, in the same front room her incubator had sat in since Ianto's arrival. Dr Tevaris and the attending nurses brought in all the equipment, including a large, soft blanket that they gave to Ianto, spreading it out between his outstretched arms. He barely had time to realise why, when Dr Tevaris was pressing the side of the incubator, checking a small device in her hand, and asking, "Are you ready?"
It was on the tip of Ianto's tongue to say no, he'd changed his mind, could he go home and just get a cat instead. But he realised the doctor wasn't asking him -- she was peering into the incubator, through the display screen which was growing ever so slightly transparent.
She glanced up at him and repeated her question, and Ianto just nodded, dumbly. Then Dr Tevaris slid her hand down the side of the incubator and there was a soft hissing sound. Then the incubator shifted open, and the front slid down. Inside, nestled in something distinctly gooey, was a baby.
Ianto felt his eyes boggle, then the nurses were removing her, wiping her clean and smacking her bottom -- Ianto noted that in some ways medical science might well never evolve past what worked best. Then, as the baby gave a loud cry, the nurse placed her in Ianto's arms and wrapped the blanket tightly around her.
Ianto stared. She was red and wrinkled and had a pair of lungs that proved she was healthy, and none too happy with her new situation. Someone's hand was on his elbow, pulling him back slightly, then he felt something at his knees and he was being pushed down to sit in a chair.
"We can conduct the exam while you hold her," Dr Tevaris was saying, but Ianto barely heard her.
His daughter. She took a breath, stopped screaming, and looked at him; Ianto saw Jack's clear blue eyes staring up at him.
He didn't know how long they looked at each other before he realised someone was talking to him. He looked up and Daidre grinned at him. "We can forge a birth certificate for her, but we need to know what to put on it."
As of that morning he still hadn't decided -- he'd teased Daidre about officially naming her 'Baby Girl Jones' and she'd told him, quite seriously, that she would put 'Daidre Jones' on the certificate if he tried it.
But now, with her in his arms, Ianto found it was easy. "Her name is Carys. Carys Lisa Jones."
He'd told Daidre about Lisa -- told her so much, over the last six months. She'd listened to everything, sometimes commiserating and sometimes laughing, and sometimes telling him off for being stupid. Daidre put her hand lightly on his daughter's head. "It's a good name," Daidre said quietly.
From behind him, a voice asked hesitantly, "If I agree I've been an idiot, would you consider adding another name?"
Ianto looked over, startled but carefully not flinching, holding his daughter gently even as he saw Jack standing there. The Jack from this time was standing there looking apologetic and anxious. His eyes kept straying from Ianto's face to the bundle he held in his arms.
Nodding, Ianto gestured for him to come closer. Jack looked like he'd been sprung free; he was over to the chair and on his knees beside them in a flash, staring at Carys. "I--" Jack stopped, and looked up at Ianto. "I wasn't here, never got to see this... until now."
Ianto had to fight back a grin at the absurdity of language when time travel was involved. But the ache in Jack's expression made him simply hold Carys out to him. Jack took her in his arms, holding her with practised ease. Ianto watched as Jack looked at their daughter, smiling down at her and getting lost in her.
Daidre held out a piece of paper and a pen, and Ianto saw where he had to sign. He glanced at the top -- the name of a medical clinic that might or might not have really existed. He'd have to have Tosh put Carys into the system once they got home. He looked down to see where he had to put his signature, and saw the first line. Baby's name: Carys Lisa Jones-Harkness.
He supposed that even if he hadn't had to suffer through nine months of pregnancy hormones, he was entitled to get a little weepy, now that she was born. He signed the certificate and gave it back to Daidre, trading it for a white handkerchief.
Then there was a pop, and quiet cheering, and Ianto found himself holding a glass of champagne in one hand and his daughter in his arm, and Jack had one arm slung over Ianto's shoulders like everything was really, truly going to be all right from now on.
~~~
"I hope you don't mind," Jack said, as Ianto made sure for the fifth time that Carys was well-wrapped in her blanket for the journey.
"Why should I mind?" Ianto glanced at him, confused by how nervous Jack seemed. "I know you can't stay long, but don't see why I'd refuse to have you be the one to take us back."
"Oh, not that... I sort of-- it isn't like you've been around to set up the nursery," Jack said, and Ianto groaned. He hadn't even thought of it. And here he'd been about to transport back to his flat without even a crib or a supply of nappies and bottles. Daidre and the others had him well-supplied with clothes and stuffed animals, all painstakingly made from cotton and linen and absolutely no alien or 'modern' fibers. But clearly he wasn't prepared at all to take her home. He truly was going to be a miserable father.
"I sort of took the liberty," Jack was saying. "There's a crib and a rocking chair and we stocked the kitchen -- I left a copy of her book," he added, then grew thoughtful. "You know, I wonder if she didn't decide she loved this book because I read it to her. Which I read to her because she loved it, which makes it--"
"Jack!" Jack pulled himself short and looked at him. Ianto smiled. "Your brain is going to short-circuit and then I won't have a ride home. Please. And no, I don't mind. I'm glad one of us was thinking."
Jack smirked. "And you always said I was the beauty, not the brains."
Ianto rolled his eyes, which drew a delighted laugh from Jack.
"Come on, then, let's get you two home and settled." Jack put his hand on Ianto's elbow, peering down at Carys, who was sleeping contentedly in Ianto's arms. Jack leaned down and gave her a kiss, then suddenly they were no longer in Ianto's Torchwood 81 apartment, but home, in his own flat, in 21st century Cardiff.
He looked down and saw that Carys hadn't even stirred, then he looked back up at his bedroom. There, in a corner, was a crib. A small quilt was folded over the edge; he could see a row of yellow ducks along the edge.
Clearly Carys would have no choice but to like ducks, he mused.
"You don't actually have the space for her to have her own room," Jack said. "When I get back, you-- Um. I mean, I hope you like it."
Ianto looked at him, mind whirling. When Jack returned, did he move? Did they live together? It made sense that he would have to find someplace larger eventually, if only so Carys would have her own room. He wanted desperately to ask, to finally know just what he meant to Jack, even get some sort of hint if this was just a convenience for the sake of having had a child together or if there was something more.
But he knew Jack wouldn't tell him. So he said only, "Thank you."
For a time neither of them said a word. Jack looked down at Carys, and Ianto held her out. "Did you want to--"
"No, I better not. It's hard enough as it is," he added quietly, gaze flicking up briefly. Ianto was hardly surprised to see the pain there, one which he could understand. Jack might remember Carys' life, but by his time she would be gone. Having the chance to see her and hold her again, as a baby, would have been marvelous for Jack -- and torture.
"Thank you," Ianto said again. "For everything."
Jack opened his mouth and he stopped, clearly caught between wanting to say something and knowing he shouldn't. Finally he just walked over and gave Carys another soft kiss, and told her, "I love you."
Then he straightened up, and, with one final look at Ianto, disappeared.
In his arms, Carys woke up with a wail. Ianto looked down and sighed. "I think it's time we tell your Aunt Gwen and Aunt Tosh and Uncle Owen that you exist. Otherwise I think I'm going to be a complete wreck by morning."
~~~
"Huh," Owen said, standing in the middle of Ianto's living room with nearly every piece of portable medical equipment Torchwood owned scattered at their feet. Owen tapped the side of the scanner, then said, "I'll have to do a DNA scan to be sure, but as far as I can tell with this, it's a human infant." He stared at the handheld scanner he was holding, the same one Ianto had first used to discover he was pregnant.
"She," Ianto corrected, watching as Carys reflexively closed her tiny hand around Tosh's finger. Tosh was sitting beside him on the sofa, leaning over Carys while Owen scanned her. Gwen had gone into the kitchen to pass judgement on the supplies Ianto had been left with. He hadn't mentioned Jack, only Torchwood 81 and letting them assume they'd been the ones to set him up with baby formula, bottles, and binkies. Much of it had pictures of ducks on it, and Ianto wondered again if it really was Jack's fault that Carys would turn out to like them.
Gwen came back into the living room and scowled at Owen. "Of course it's a human infant," she said. "We just spent the entire day going over the data Ianto left in the medical scanners and watching the CCTV of him disappearing with that girl. We've known all day that Ianto was pregnant, and that that meant an infant."
Owen gave her a dry look. "Yes, well, normally that takes nine months, not twelve hours."
"He was three months pregnant when he left," Tosh reminded him, eyes not leaving Carys' face. Ianto had given them as much of his story as he could and they'd already known some of it from, as Gwen had said, noticing his departure on the CCTV and finding the medical readouts during their investigation into what had happened. Still, it was very odd to actually hear Tosh say it out loud. For nearly three months he'd been carrying Carys around inside him.
He wondered if women ever had this feeling of oddity, that being pregnant was somehow the most bizarre thing that could ever happen to them.
"Even for Torchwood, that's weird," Owen observed, the look on his face echoing Ianto's own thoughts.
Ianto nodded, noticing that he'd been patting Carys gently with one hand, soothing her. Had the alien device imbued him with maternal instinct, then? With his sister's two, Ianto had barely known which end to hold upright. He sighed. "I'm just grateful I didn't have to carry her to term."
"And you couldn't have stolen one of those incubators?" Owen demanded. "I could have introduced it to the market here, pretend I'd invented the thing. I could have been rich."
"Instead, you're changing nappies," Ianto said, holding out Carys. Owen started, then took her -- obviously by reflex, since as soon as she was in his arms Owen looked up at them all with an alarmed expression.
"She doesn't really need to be changed, does she? Why doesn't one of you volunteer?" He tried looking at Gwen and Tosh, both of whom just smiled at him.
"Clearly it isn't a woman's job," Ianto said, dryly.
"I'm not the one who got pregnant though, am I?" Owen snarked, then he very cautiously tapped Carys' bum. "She isn't really--?"
"No, Owen," Ianto said, taking pity on him. "But I'm going to keep handing her over and telling you she needs to be changed, just to make you jump." He grinned as Gwen and Tosh laughed. Owen made a face at them all.
Ianto noticed that Owen didn't try to give her back right away, and he composed his expression to avoid laughing out loud. He wouldn't say that Owen looked particularly comfortable holding her, not cuddling her close like Gwen had done the second they'd come into his flat. He looked more like -- well, a doctor, holding a tiny patient.
"Did you ever do pediatrics?" Ianto asked.
"Did my stint as an intern, yeah," Owen replied. "Thought I'd have more time to brush up before she arrived -- mind you, I'm not sorry to miss giving you a Caesarean. But I'll do as her pediatrician; just in case that device--" Owen stopped and very briefly looked almost guilty before he continued. "Well, not like we know exactly how it made her, from two males. Normally you need at least one female involved somehow. Although males have an X chromosome, I suppose it could have just used one from each of you--" He stopped, suddenly, at the huge yawn Gwen gave. He glared at her and she giggled. Owen said, sharply, "So my point is that I'll be her doctor in case there's anything a normal, civilian doctor wouldn't know what to do with."
"Like fourteen fingers?" Ianto asked.
"That's a normal human genetic mutation," Owen said.
"Maybe her hair will turn pink when she's a toddler," Tosh offered.
"Or she'll do it herself when she's sixteen," Ianto said, remembering his own misspent youth. He hadn't ever dyed his pink, but there was a reason there were no photos of himself as a teenager around his flat.
"I'm so glad you lot are taking this seriously," Owen said. "Here I was just thinking she might have inherited some of her father's more unique abilities." He glared once at Gwen and Tosh, but gave Ianto a slightly apologetic look.
"They checked for that, actually," Ianto said. "At least... well, since they didn't know anymore than we do about the device that did this, they ran every test they could, both during the gestation and after she was born. As far as their technology could tell, she's completely, 100% normal human."
"Until I see it for my own eyes, I'll keep an open mind." Owen looked thoroughly unconvinced, but Ianto suspected it was just sour grapes at Ianto's not having stolen the medical equipment to bring back for him to play with. Owen handed Carys back and Ianto took her, settling her easily on his stomach. She closed her eyes, slipping her thumb into her mouth and almost instantly she was asleep.
Ianto watched her for a few moments, feeling like he could probably sit and watch her sleep for... possibly the rest of his life.
"Have you though about what you're going to do?" Gwen asked, hesitantly.
Ianto looked up at her. "I've tried. I have no idea, though. I can't...I can't stay with Torchwood," he said, the words catching in his throat. "I've got no one to mind her; even if I did I'd never be home normal hours. A baby-minder would have to be on call twenty-four hours every day."
"You could hire a nanny," Tosh said. "I'm sure there's one out there who could get proper security clearance." She looked thoughtful, as if already writing the program to search for a list of candidates.
"I don't know." Ianto stared at his daughter. He'd given it some thought, but admittedly, not a whole lot. Too many other things vying for his worried attention. And, deep down, he'd known he had only the one real choice. "Working for Torchwood... doesn't lend itself to a long life. I can't risk making her an orphan." He looked up at each of his co-workers. His friends. "I know it might mean I'll have to be Retconned--"
"Don't be stupid," Owen said. "We're not going to Retcon anybody. Especially not someone with a possibly-immortal infant to take care of."
"You don't have to decide now," Gwen said quickly, giving Owen a dirty look before smiling calmly at Ianto. "You can take maternity leave."
Ianto stared at her. "Torchwood doesn't have a maternity policy." The maternity policy at Torchwood One was birth control or Retcon. Torchwood Three, he knew perfectly well, had no policy at all.
Gwen smiled, smugly. "It does, now. Jack Harkness even signed the form -- well, it looks as much like his signature as I could manage." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm not as good at that as you are. But you've got twenty-eight weeks' leave coming to you. Take it, and you can decide what you want to do later."
She hesitated, but then didn't say anything more. But Ianto suddenly realised what she was thinking.
Maybe Jack will have returned by then.
Jack had said he would be back. He hadn't said when, but... surely seven months was enough time? If Jack were here, helping Ianto raise their daughter -- it wouldn't change the fact that Ianto didn't see how he could keep working for Torchwood. But it would make a world of difference if there were the two of them. Maybe they'd even both get normal jobs, and raise Carys like a normal -- mostly -- family.
Ianto tried to imagine the three of them living a normal life. Nine-to-five jobs, public schooling for Carys, and no mention of aliens anywhere, except on science fiction programmes on telly.
He couldn't picture it. But it sounded nice.
But he realised Gwen was right about one thing. He didn't have to decide now. Ianto nodded. "Twenty-eight weeks, then."
Gwen clapped him on the knee. "Good! I've already filled out the forms. You just have to sign them; I can forge Jack's signature but yours is beyond me. Too neat."
"Wouldn't that make it easier?" Tosh asked.
Ianto shook his head. "The messy ones are the easiest, because no one can tell exactly what the letters are. I was pretty good at it when I was a kid--" Ianto stopped.
"Ianto, did you forge notes from home excusing you from your schoolwork?" Owen asked, sounding impressed.
Ianto shook his head. "Stolen cheque cards. And that's all I'm going to say." He nodded towards his sleeping daughter. "I have to start setting a good example."
Owen scoffed. "Mate, she's yours and Jack Harkness' daughter. Genetically speaking, you've got the world's greatest con artist on your hands. Well, on your stomach."
Scowling at him, Ianto tried not to let Owen's words scare him.
He failed. After a moment he looked over, giving it his best beseechingly cute look. It sometimes worked on Jack.
"Gwen, would you and Rhys like to adopt a baby?"
Gwen laughed. "Fat chance." She patted him on the head. "I'll tell the local police stations to be on the lookout for her, though."
"I imagine you have time," Tosh began, then she frowned.
"I give it four years before her first arrest," Owen said decisively.
~~~
part three