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Owen turned to find Jack standing there, his face showing his annoyance as he looked around the room and then settled against the table, "Nice. Suzie must be pissed."
"I know, she was just getting comfortable in here and now I need it for a medical bay" Owen snorted.
Jack settled more and sighed, "Ianto is right, we need to go for those RVs."
"I need this space if we are going to have this baby" Owen nodded as he moved things about, "I need what is in that doctor's clinic in town too … I need all I can get to give that little one a chance."
"Could it be OK?" Jack pondered, "I mean… if the air has cleaned itself, osmosis working for us kinda thing, the planet breathes it all out into the black and we are renewed kinda shit. Do you think it's true? If someone were to step from a protective bubble with their appendix they would be OK?"
"Maybe" Owen paused a she stared into space, "I am like….ah… 70% on that one."
"So the baby might be OK"
"I am also thirty percent against. Mind, that's not the percentage we need to worry about" Owen turned to face him, "She was infected. Did it mutate? The real percentages deal with that. Until she lets me scan her properly I can't say. Depends on how advanced the lungs are? Or the blood? Was it infected but her body is cleansing it like a dialysis machine? Would it be born OK anyway? Questions I can't answer…percentages I can't give mate."
"I know" Jack sighed "I know it drives you crazy too."
"All I do know for sure is that she is preggers. If we want a healthy baby we either operate in-utero or at birth, but then the question is…what if it mutates while still inside her?"
Jack paled as he stared at Owen, "Fuck"
"Yeah. Like one of Ripley's little chest bursters coming out teeth and all" Owen shivered, "Ya see, this is the shit I drive myself mad with."
"How many scans did she do before the battery went dead?" Jack asked.
"Four. Tosh and I are triangulating them to see if we can get a flow chart … a graph from the data. If I can get clear growth markers I can determine if it is growing at a normal rate. Since those Crawlers don't seem to breathe or have a heartbeat it is logical to assume an infected baby would not age, right?"
"Would not grow" Jack nodded as he caught on and Owen rubbed at his face with fatigue.
If there is still growth, it is logical therefore to assume the baby is not infected" Owen surmised, "We can hope."
Jack left Owen still fiddling and found himself watching Mica and Ianto as they worked in the garden, Ianto weeding as Mica plucked fat snails from the cabbages and then ran with each one pinched between her fingers with a look of glee to fling it into the chicken coop where all hell would break loose as they fought over it.
Cruel little bugger having so much fun at the expense of snails.
Ianto was humming as he filled the large bucket with weeds, those too getting flicked over the fence to the chickens every now and then and their delight in scratching through it for any bugs or edible greens made them look like ladies at one of those Black Friday Sales fighting over handbags with their feet kicking as they squabbled and picked.
Then she saw him, her little face lighting up as he abandoned her quest then ran to him with her arms outstretched and he knew as he scooped her up that he had to help Gwen, if only for the baby. They had to do something here, this was ridiculous. Ianto was right, there was a doctor's clinic that would likely have an ultra sound machine as well as multivitamins and such. Suzie needed her own space, the room now Gwen's medical centre and if she crowed about it Suzie would be sure to bloody shoot her this time.
Jack sighed, burying his face in Mica's hair and she hugged his head affectionately, "Come on Uncle. Let's go snuffle and I will tell you a story."
Sounded like a great idea and he rose, lifting her to his hip and heading indoors for their bedroom.
Ianto watched them go and wondered what was worrying him so, hoping when he was ready he would share.
Seems like a man with many secrets, too may lies and not enough truths.
Ianto hopes one day Jack can let go of his losses too.
