Title: Secret Life of A Welsh Teenager
Author: iantojjackh
Beta: badly-knitted
Rating: PG
Characters: Ianto, Rhiannon, OFC
Setting: Pre-series
Word Count: ~2.2k
Warnings:n/a
Contains: Teen pregnancy,
Summary: Ianto had one minor conviction for shoplifting in his teens. What did he steal and what effect did it have on his life?
Season: pre-series
A/N: written for the torchwood-fest prompt: According to Jack, Ianto had one "minor conviction for shoplifting in his teens". What did he steal and why? Prequel to Ianto Jones: Master of Secrets. Also fill for love-bingo prompt 'one more night'.
Secret Life of A Welsh Teenager
"What the hell were you thinking?" Rhiannon pulled her brother by his ear out of the police station. "How could you be so stupid? This is the last thing any of us need right now. Dad is still in the hospital and David is sick. What possessed you to do this? You don't even have a girlfriend. Why would you steal a diamond ring? Did some girl put you up to this?"
Ianto stood stone still with his hands in his pockets and his head down as his sister raged at him. He had learned years ago that it was better to let his sister finish ranting before speaking. This time he chose not to say anything, knowing if Rhi knew the whole truth it would be much worse than anything she would dish out as long as she thought he was a thief.
"Aren't you going to say anything?" The fuming Welshwoman punched Ianto in the shoulder. Rhiannon could not believe he had done something so completely stupid.
"Anything!" Ianto said with a slight smirk.
Rhiannon huffed in annoyance, "You should be taking this seriously. This isn't a joke. You're only fifteen, don't ruin your life over something stupid like this."
"Like you ruined yours?" The off handed comment earned the sassy teenager an open handed smack to the mouth.
"I've never been arrested. You're lucky dad is too ill to deal with this or you'd be in much more trouble than you are." Rhiannon said sternly. She hated to play the role of mother to a teenager that refused to listen and who always had a smart answer for everything.
"So I pay a fine and do some community service. It's no big deal." Ianto shrugged, knowing it would incite his sister even more.
"A fine you or I can't afford to pay. Christ, Ianto, it was an £1800 ring. That's more than Johnny makes in a month. What is going through that head of yours these days? You are smarter than this." Rhiannon wanted to knock some sense into the young man.
Ianto shrugged showing his indifference. "Right now I'm thinking I'm a bit famished and I could use some food."
"You're impossibly stubborn and such a prat." She threw her hands up, tired with the attitude she was receiving.
"But if you really must know, you are wrong about one thing. I do have a girlfriend, Olivia, and her birthday is next week. I just wanted to get her something nice." More lies would have to work. There was no way he would tell Rhiannon he was going to use the ring to propose to his three months pregnant girlfriend. It would literally be his funeral.
"You really are an idiot. You're going to live with me until dad gets out of the hospital. Somebody needs to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't get into any more trouble." Rhiannon dragged Ianto toward where Johnny was waiting in the car where he was greeted by a hysterical David and Ianto got the prize of sitting next to the wailing infant.
"Why are you letting him cry like that? I told you he shouldn't be crying like that." Rhiannon was apparently in an extremely nagging mood caused by a sick baby and a defiant brother.
"He just started. I didn't have time to get to him. David's fever has got worse. Couldn't you have left him at the station over night to teach the brat a lesson. How much is this going to cost us?" Johnny was not happy about the added expense of having to bail his brother-in-law out of jail.
"No. I couldn't leave him there. He just needs someone to look out for him with my dad in the hospital. He's had free rein to do what ever he wanted the last five months and that's coming to an end."
Ianto scowled at the way he was being talked down to as if he was not in the car. Well, two could pay that game.
"What they don't know is that I don't want or need a babysitter and how rude is it to talk about someone as if they can't hear them, when they can hear them? I can take care of myself just fine. Like the grumpy man basically said, they can't afford another mouth to feed. What he's really saying is he doesn't want someone as obnoxious as him is only room for one." Ianto talked to his nephew in one of those high-pitched voices that babies liked, which worked in quieting David.
"Ianto!" Rhiannon glared daggers at her brother as she held back Johnny who wanted to throttle the smart mouthed teenager.
"What?" He asked innocently. "I got him to stop crying, didn't I?" Ianto smirked smugly.
The drive to the abysmally small place the Davies' called home was wrought with grunts and sighs as Rhiannon tried to calm her agitated husband down.
Ianto amused himself by making faces at David, knowing he was going to need as much practice as he could before he became a father in six months.
Once they arrived home, Ianto made himself scarce, wanting to put as much distance as he could between him and everyone else as he plotted his escape.
The perfect opportunity arose to flee once Rhiannon and Johnny started to bicker again. This time it was about letting him live with them. Ianto's solution was the easiest of them all, he did not want to live with his sister so he went to the place that was home for his whole life. There was no need to come back especially if his plans with Olivia worked the way he hoped they would.
Lucky for Ianto, Rhiannon had not moved that far from home and a brisk ten minute walk later, the teenager was exactly where he wanted to be and if the couple were still arguing the way they were it would be some time before they realised Ianto was gone.
The first thing Ianto did when he got home was check the answering machine and there were three missed calls from his girlfriend. After he heard the worried messages Ianto went to turn on the computer and waited for it to connect to the internet. It would be a lot easier if he could just call Olivia, but the girl hated when he called the house when her parents were home. So instant messaging was the only way to contact Olivia after five in the evening unless she called him. Luckily, she was online when the computer finally connected.
DontCallMeYanni: Sorry, I just got home. Didn't mean to worry you. Can you come over?
SugarOlive: Where have you been all day? We need to talk.
DontCallMeYanni: Long story. Do you want me to come to you instead?
SugarOlive: I'll come to you. My brother is home from university and he brought home his annoying girlfriend. I need to get away from her. She suspects something.
DontCallMeYanni: You didn't say anything, right?
SugarOlive: I don't have a death wish. I'll see you in a half hour.
DontCallMeYanni: See you then.
It was closer to an hour when the doorbell finally rang. Ianto had worked himself into a bundle of nerves and he was practically climbing the walls.
"Where have you been? I was worried sick about you." Olivia, a young woman with sandy brown shoulder length hair, grey eyes, a mischievous grin and a slightly swollen belly, tried to be angry but was pulled in for a kiss that temporarily made her forget why she was mad or why she was here.
"That's not fair," Olivia said breathlessly as she wrapped her arms around Ianto's waist and rested her head against his chest. She cursed the power this boy had over her heart. Many would say that fifteen was too young to find the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, but Olivia was sure she had found that in Ianto, which was why her heart was breaking over what she was about to do.
"That's the point. Everything is going to be fine. Please don't worry." Ianto tried to reassure the obviously distressed girl.
"Where were you earlier?" Olivia sighed softly as Ianto's lips found the top of her head, her resolve slowly melting away the longer the strong arms were around her.
"Police station. I was arrested this morning." Ianto prayed Olivia would not give him the reaming that Rhiannon did.
Olivia hid whatever she was feeling on the subject and just held on tighter, trying to savour the feeling that she knew would eventually have to end. "What happened?"
"I was caught trying to steal something." Ianto took a deep breath, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
"What did you try to steal?"
"I want to do right by you and our child. I can't afford a ring…" Ianto stopped when he heard the shuddering breath and tears begin to soak his shirt.
That was all Olivia needed to hear and she folded quicker than a bad poker hand. There was only one answer to the unasked question. "Yes. Of course yes." It was a moment of weakness and Olivia let her heart answer instead of her head.
"We'll find a way to make this work," Ianto sealed his promise with a kiss that ended with the couple laying in each other's arms in Ianto's bed.
"I love you," a drowsy Olivia whispered and she did not hide the smile radiating from every part of her as Ianto's hand lightly stroked her stomach. The blissful high she was riding gave no hint of the crash she was about to experience.
"I love you too, Liv." Ianto murmured as sleep claimed him, feeling truly happy for the first time since before his mother died.
Olivia could not sleep despite the overwhelming exhaustion that threatened to overtake her. She slowly ran her fingers through Ianto's hair as he slept, loving everything about him. The longer she watched him, the more reality reared its ugly head and the fantasy she had created over the last few hours gave birth to a hideous truth; there was no way they could really get married and raise their baby together. Her parents would have a hard enough time dealing with a pregnant teenage daughter and it would kill her mother to learn it was an estate brat that she fell in love with and who was the one who knocked her up.
Tears of grief and sorrow began to pour forth as Olivia played over all the possible outcomes in her head, none of them happy. Eventually she came to the conclusion that if she lied about the baby's parentage then her parents would welcome the child into their lives. In doing that she would break two hearts tonight: her's and Ianto's. Olivia had to convince herself that she was doing this for the sake of her unborn child. She quietly slipped out of bed to get paper and a pen to write her goodbye. When Olivia returned to the bed she could hardly see through the tears as she began to write the hardest letter she would ever have to write.
When Olivia finally finished the letter, there were several spots that were smudged from her tears. She folded the letter and left it on the bedside table. Before walking out on one of the best things to ever happen to her, Olivia gave Ianto one last kiss before whispering a reluctant farewell and vanishing into the night.
Ianto woke in the morning to find himself alone and a folded sheet of paper next to him.
My Ianto,
I'm sorry I can't do this anymore. I can't marry you. It's not that I don't want to; it's that I really can't. I know my parents, mainly my mother, won't approve. Neither of us is 16 yet and once both of us are 16, my parents would never give us permission. My brother's girlfriend got my mother suspicious that something is up with me and it's only a matter of time before it's obvious that I'm pregnant. They will hit the roof and then kill both of us. There is part of me that just wants to run away, but the logical side knows that will never work. I have to keep this baby and to do that I need my parents' help and to get that you can no longer be in my life or in our child's life. My mother would never accept someone like you. She would disown me for as she sees it, lowering my her standards. I think this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I wrote this letter because I am not strong enough to do it to your face. I wouldn't be able to go through with it.
I'm sorry and I love you.
Goodbye,
Olivia
Ianto folded up the letter, his face the picture of stoic non-emotion while his heart was in a million pieces. It was at this moment Ianto decided to do everything in his power to pull himself out of his council estate upbringing and prove to everyone that he can and would escape the life so many failed to.
