"Uncle Jack! Uncle Jack!" the five year old called, her chubby hands reaching out to the immortal man. Smiling Jack picked up the little girl, slightly wincing at how heavy she was getting.
"Hey Anwen." said Jack, gently hugging the five year old girl with her long black hair rubbing against his face "How was your day?"
Anwen giggled beneath him before pulling away to face him "It was great! I learnt how to count to ten!" she claimed proudly.
Jack chuckled slightly "That's amazing Anwen." leaning closer to her head he whispered "You're doing better than I did when I was your age."
Anwen giggled again and placed her thumb inside her mouth.
"Does Anwen want to count to ten for Uncle Jack?" Gwen asked joining the two of them. The little girl nodded excitedly.
"Yeah!" she exclaimed turning back to Jack, "You ready?" she asked, tugging one of Jack's braces.
Jack nodded with a smile "of course I am."
Looking curiously at both her mother and Jack she took a deep breath. "One, two, uh" Jack smiled at her, bouncing her up and down he decided to help her.
"Three" he added Anwen smiled.
"Three, four, five, six..." Jack's smiled faded not because she was struggling again but because she had reminded him of a memory he had only just managed to subside from the consciousness of his mind. The 456, and, Ianto. Blanking staring at the area in front of him he came back to reality by the sound of Gwen's voice.
"Is seven what you are trying to say?" she asked, Anwen nodded.
"Seven, eight, nine... Ten!" Anwen proudly exclaimed, soon giggling at the applause from her mother. Turning to face Jack her giggling faded. "Uncle Jack, what's wrong?"
Jack looked at Anwen "You said it wrong Anwen." he murmured, her eyes widened.
"I did?"
Jack nodded. "I'm afraid you did." he murmured, carefully placing her back on the ground Anwen's bottom lip trembled.
"What did I do wrong?" she asked, tears welding up in her eyes, Jack sighed.
"You added three extra numbers that didn't belong there"
Her little eyebrows narrowed, "Which ones?"
"Five, four and six" he replied, not allowing himself to say those three numbers in the right sequence.
"I did?" Anwen said, a small tear starting to leave her eye.
"Afraid so" Jack replied and soon pulled up his hands. "Look it goes one, two, three, seven, eight, nine and ten" he held up seven fingers.
She stared at her own fingers before glancing up at Jack "Then why do we have ten fingers?"
"We just do," he counted his first seven fingers up to ten, not mentioning four, five or six. "We just have three extra fingers because they're useful for latching onto things; just like thumbs." he replied.
Anwen glanced back down at her fingers, confused to what Jack had told her. Glancing at her mummy she saw her shake her head.
"Sweetheart why don't you go up and play while I have a quick chat with Uncle Jack?" Gwen called.
Quickly nodding Anwen walked away with tears streaming down her face and still looked at her fingers. Shutting the door behind her Gwen turned to face Jack her teeth gritted.
"I don't know what the hell you are playing at Jack Harkness, but it took her ages to learn to count to ten. Once she had finally succeed you had to tell her you did it wrong. Not to mention making her think four, five and six weren't in the number sequence!" Jack winced at the mention of those numbers. He turned his head away from Gwen, now only allowing his tears to escape. Curious, Gwen walked towards him and carefully placed her hand onto his shoulder. "Why did you leave out four, five and six?"
Jack shuddered and pushed Gwen's arm off of his shoulder. Turning around Gwen's heart broke. His eyes were bloodshot and his cheeks were stained with tears.
"Those numbers don't exist to me anymore, especially if they are in that sequence. Those three numbers killed my Ianto and I can only do the right thing and kill those numbers off too" he whispered, a quiet sob escaping his mouth at the thought of Ianto.
He would have thought that five years would have stopped the pain by now, but it's still there. He could still picture the scene inside his head, the banging, and the screaming of no one understanding of what to do. So much death and destruction because of one alien, one alien that had caused him so much regret. Such regret that was forever staying with him, the death of Ianto. He had made a promise to remember Ianto for the rest of eternity and he knew he would never forget with the pain he was suffering.
I'm expressing how I feel about the numbers four, five and six by using Jack to show it. Tell me what you think