So, you are benefiting from one of my rages. I have been working on this verse for a while and completed part one. I had almost completed part 2 and went away to do something then found the computer had a brain fart and the entire folder is gone. All 13 bloody chapters gone and I have done everything I can think of to find it, from system restore to searching every bloody folder in my hard drive and laptop. Nope. No back-up anywhere. The data gods have just winked it away and I am soooo pissed that i have to rewrite it that I am dumping part one out of worry that it might go next hahahaha...aren't you lucky. Don't worry, part 2 is still in my head and as this has happeend before you will probably get a better version second time around.

1

Ianto held Lisa firmly as they swung about the dance floor, her hand in his as sweaty as his own and both plastered their faces with the looks of delight expected of them. But the act was about to drop as Ianto also felt something else that was getting harder to ignore.

Her baby bump.

The song ended and they turned, bowing to the band and then to their families watching with intense scrutiny and he led her towards the refreshments table, her panting with distress alarming him and he snapped at the servant, "Don't just stand there get her a bloody drink."

The man sank a glass cup into the nearby punch bowl and offered it, Ianto snatching it quickly and downing it in one gulp then hissing under his breath so those around them did not hear, "Offer her alcohol again and I will end you. Juice, pure juice you fool."

She glanced at him with gratitude as he glowered and the glass of orange juice was produced so she might finally quench her thirst. She glanced up at him and asked "Are you OK?"

"I do not know what I am!" he spat at her as he offered his arm and plastered the fake smile back on his face, "SHE has not decided."

SHE was his mother, sitting with her fingers digging into the fabric of the chair, her eyes watching them like a hawk's and as one finger rose to tap gently in the fabric he swore softly, "She knows."

"Oh gods" Lisa whimpered "What now?"

"Don't ask me" he sighed as he moved towards the door his mother was now pointing at, "You know I have no choice in anything here, neither do you. We can only hope she declares us an unfit match and we can go our separate ways."

"Unfit?" the voice behind them made him jump as he mother breathed in his ear, "Why would I do that? You foolish boy, could you not keep it in your pants until after the ceremony? Years. Years of work for this bonding between our families and you cannot even control your urges for…"

Ianto slowly turned to face her, her eyes wide as her face contorted with rage and he knew that she had worked out the final piece of the puzzle, now turning to Lisa, "Whose is it? It is not his, whose bastard do you carry?"

"What are you talking about!" Lisa's mother entered from another door followed by her husband, their flushed faces from funning full of horror, "Lisa?"

"Look at her! Clearly seeded!" Ianto's mother waved a hand, "I know him. I bore him, I raised him. He would never…NEVER…betray me. He has not lain with her, he is still as chaste as the day he is borne. He would not DARE defy me. So you tell me …. Who does that belong to?"

Lisa glanced at Ianto again, her need for support clear but he was angry now as he stared at his mother, "How do you know that? I am such a loyal dog I would not fart without permission?"

Lisa's eyes widened, knowing he was trying to save her now and her parents rushed to her in the hopes of doing so as well. Ianto strode to the other side of the room and snorted as he swung to face his mother, "Yes. You were the architect of this. We were promised at birth, we were raised with the knowledge we must wed for the bloodlines, for the pact. Yes, all our lives we have been chaste and only true to one another. I am loyal, loyal to the point of despair! But how do you know I did not lay with her, a man with needs, lusts who did plant me seed in a moment of…"

The slap of his mother's hand was like a gunshot and he stepped back, his hand covering the mark as she roared in his face, "Get Thee From My Sight, Oh Shamer!"

Ianto blinked.

"Jen" his father said softly, "Let us calm and consider…"

"GET!"

Ianto staggered back, his hand still covering the mark of shame and he watched the door swing closed, signalling Lisa's escape complete and she was now safe from his mother's reach so he looked at his mother one last time, "She lay with a dergot so we cannot pass off a purple child as a simple moment of lust between betrothed. You must declare our bond undone."

"Ianto, not is not the time to test your mother's …"

"Begone!" she spat, silencing her husband even as he swung to beg her to be silent, her anger thrumming as she leaned into her son's face, "Shamer. You knew, you knew she was unchaste yet you let us believe there was hope. This is your fault, all your love…all your time spent with that bloody dragon. Had you been a more attentive suitor this would not have happened!"

Ianto's mouth fell open with shock, even his father's hand falling from his wife's arm as he gaped at her, "Jen, you don't mean that. You are the one who said he should be a trainer…you put him in the crèche with…"

Ianto was moving fast along the corridor, his heart pounding as he knew her anger was still rising. He slammed into the chambers and seized Lisa's arms, "Why are you still here. Get. Get like the fires lap at your heels, she had declared me a shamer, she had ordered me from her sight, what will she do to you!"

"Dear gods, you are her son. Her eldest son, surely she speaks in anger and tomorrow with rescind such an order" Lisa's father blustered, "Of all her children, she does love you the most."

"Show" Ianto turned to him, "all show. My mother does not. Her love lies in my sister Rhiannon, already wed to the fat man. She saw this as the final act, both sides pulled ot her skirts. I beg you, take Lisa and run or her body will rot in the soil come morn."

They didn't need another warning, his mother known for her rage and punishments, Ianto moving to his own quarters where Rhiannon rose to greet him, "She didn't mean it. Let Da have the night to speak with her…come the morn…"

"She ordered me from her sight Rhia. She turned her face from mine, she struck me in front of all" he said softly, "I am sorry. I must go. For the foolish weakling that I am, do I not obey her every command? She has ordered me gone. I must go."

"Where" she sobbed, the only choices all dire for one of their blood.

"Where I am unknown. Perhaps where I have a chance of survival…or at least Myfanwy does" he replied as he shoved things into a bag and she sat heavily on the bed.

"Through the gates" she said after a while, her heart breaking as she knew she would never see him again.

"Either I kneel and let my head bounce or I run" he turned to her, "Dragons bond for life. If I die Myfanwy will too, she will refuse food and starve to death if her heart does not cleave. Mother made me a Dragon Rider. She chose this, as she chooses everything. At least over there Myfanwy still has purpose."

"But you will not be you" Rhiannon rose, seizing his hands, "You must leave us, our blood, our name. You will become…."

"Unwanted" Ianto nodded, "Rhiannon, I already am. She said the words, she declared. I am an Unwanted. I must go to the other Realm and serve there with the other Unwanted and give Myfanwy a chance to live, even if I cannot."

Rhiannon watched him finish filling his bag, flinging it over his shoulder then he kissed her forehead and fled the room, her sobs the only thing left.

For her brother had just died.

She would never see him again.