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This is how these things start around here … down time.

A lull in the Rift when people start getting comfortable. Not a good thing, always seem to encourage the Gods to shit on me from a great height. This? No exception … I will always be the statue won't I … never the lofty pigeon.

Here I was minding my own business, filing paperwork when Owen lets out one of those whoops he does when he has either bested his own highest score or he has found a project in the smatterings of e-mails from colleagues.

"JACK!"

Yeah, judging from the high pitched shriek, he found something. Like … oh well. It's something right? I wander over to have a look, then as Jack reaches the huddle forming I get this….this feeling of doom.

I turn to face him and wonder if my sixth sense is trying to tell me something, the desire to flee immense but I don't know why.

Whatever this is … somehow I know it is not something I am going to like.

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"We got us a live one!" Owen yelled, looking up at the team as they walked over to listen, Ianto unusually solemn as he frowned and let Jack move ahead of him. Then Owen watched as Jack shifted on his feet to include Ianto in the huddle, automatically making room for him.

Since he had come back from … wherever the fuck he went, he has done thing like that. Like … why doesn't he just piss on his leg or something, just because they are shagging doesn't mean the Tea Boy should automatically get privileges right? I mean … ok, so we gave him a gun. He isn't too bad ya know. Not that Owen would EVER ay it out loud but he was actually starting to like the man who had finally stopped hiding himself. That time while Jack had been away with his Doctor had changed all of them.

"Owen?" Tosh asked softly, her head canting to the side, "I have left an algorithm forming… what is it?"

"We got two suspicious deaths. A mauling with bites inconsistent with a dog not of any known breed. At first I thought it was a Weevil then I saw that the two kids lived in different parts of the city. Unrelated, Weevil don't travel across the city like that. They have defined patches" Owen seemed to be holding on to something with extra glee and Ianto frowned as he wondered why he kept glancing at him.

"OK, so what do you think it is then?" Gwen asked, leaning in to look at the files on his screen, "Bloody hell. Looks like they went through a thresher machine or something."

"Yeah right?" Owen was gleeful now as he jiggled in the seat, trying to keep the best bit for last, glancing again at Ianto then he tapped his keyboard and the two files that were side by side changed to show the two children as they looked pre-thresher, "We have Lauren aged five and Gorich aged three and a half. Both sides of wounds that are identical, different places, different times, nothing to tie them together other than the attacks right?"

"Were did they happen?" Jack asked as he looked at the little boy, something in the boy's eyes familiar.

"The boy was attacked in his own back yard over in 'Moneyville'" Owen said using the common name for the opulent side of town, then added "The girl was at school playing on morning break. This is the best part … three friends all saw the thing, drew pictures for London's finest"

Owen tapped the screen and the pictures shrank so three others could fill the screen. Scribbles of something large and black, fuzzy.

"They look like … bears" Gwen squinted, "What did they say?"

"That" Owen was smug, one more glance at Ianto before he couldn't help it anymore and he took a deep breath, "But there is a clanger. The children are related. Both have the same biological father. I checked the DNA three times to be sure."

"And?" Jack said with dread, Owen's glee not something to be overlooked as Gwen sighed at the pictures of the poor babies.

"Even though the families do not know one another and I can find no common link … both children have the same Tad. Birth Certificates do not list him, they list the stepfather who raised them as their father, seems from pictures in their Social media files the two couples were in committed marriages before during and after the pregnancies. Cuckoos all the same though."

"Owen, just say it. Whatever is pleasing you this much when it involves the death of two little babies cannot be good" Gwen had finally noticed his glee and was now annoyed beyond words that he was overlooking the fact two sweet innocent lives had been killed by something.

"They both match one of us!" Owen was triumphant as he looked around, "And it's not me!"

Jack looked at the photos more closely, "Well … neither woman rings a bell for me wither."

Ianto stood silently, with confusion, "Well … Owen. I'm confused, are you telling me one of the girls is secretly a man or something?"

"Nope" Owen folded his arms as he looked Ianto in the eye, "Both of them are yours mate!"

Ianto's face paled as he stared at Owen and snarled, "Not funny. This is not a joke, children are dead and you want to turn it into some prank?"

Owen's smile faded as his feet slid from the desk to the floor "You didn't know?"

"He's serious" Jack turned to face Ianto, "I know Owen. He is serious, those children are yours. Care to explain?"

"What?" Ianto spluttered, "Jack ... they are not mine!"

"Owen, send the DNA results to my office, Ianto get up there and we will look together!"

This didn't make sense to any of them.