4

She stepped back to let him in, wary of the way he was twisting his hands.

She had never seen him do that.

They sat and he twisted the cup, as she had done last time.

"Are you happy here?" he finally asked, still looking at the cup.

"Are you kidding?" she snorted, "I already started my evac procedures!"

"No one is coming for you" he looked up, examining her soft features, "You know that, right? This was a one way ticket."

"Yes" she looked away. "I have some money squared away, we will be ok."

"So, what will happen to him, and the boy?"

"Ungrateful bastards, the both of them" she sniffed, "I have to drug the slob to keep him compliant and … gods, those pudgy fingers off me."

She shivered and John felt his jaw crack as he ground his teeth.

"Well, there is another option" he leaned back, hoping Hendry had it right.

Damn it.

Ianto.

He was still trying, but it was hard to call him that. Jack's name for him.

Yeah, I know it's not really like that but it's how it sounds. Jack called him that, in the dark as they slid together like eels.

John closed his eyes and told himself to cut it out.

He opened them and found she was still gaping at him.

"What! A man can't want his mate?" he asked softly.

"I don't … what? Johnty, we both know …."

"John" he corrected, "I'm John now Rhia, I like that. Rhia. Makes me think of your pretty toosh."

"You come on here, suggest you can just scoop me up and make a comment on the size of my arse?" she scoffed, "Gods, you haven't changed have you."

"You'd be surprised" he said with a leer.

"Not more mods, please! You know I hated that … what have you done?" her eyes narrowed as she recognized that smug look.

He was hiding something.

They were ready to travel by the time Mica and David got home, the fat little turd heading straight for the fridge.

He would be OK, Johnny was due home soon.

She had hated calling him by her mate's name. Hated those hands on her, not those she wanted. At least when she cried out his name, he never knew who she was crying for.

John smiled down at the little girl, knowing who was going to spoil her rotten.

He placed his hand over Rhia's VM, watching the little one reach for his hand without fear.

They blinked.

Rhia knelt, comforting the child as she vomited in the grass.

"Poor baby, they are not fun are they" she crooned.

"Oh my god! What did you do to that baby!" a voice demanded and Rhia found herself sitting to one side with shock as her child was snatched up.

"Uncle Ianto!" Mica cried with glee, wrapping her arms around him.

John looked at her with glee, "I found the other diamond. The myth of the Arcadian diamonds. It's true."

"My poor little baby, come with me. You need something sweet, I know what you need my little cubby bum" Ianto crooned, then looked down at the two former Time Agents.

"How could you! Jump a wee cub without a sweetie in her mouth!" he chastised, "You knew better than that!"

"Sorry my Sweetling" John whimpered, looking up with a contrite grimace. "I forgot."

"Seems a few things were forgotten, but that is an end to it!" Ianto snarled, "My poor wee Baban."

"Ianto?" Rhia said softly.

"You! I do not forgive you, not yet!" he informed her, "Because you are the mate of my lovely heart here, I will. But not yet. I am so bloody angry."

"Sorry my Heart's Keeper" John sighed, "She is my chosen mate. Always was, even when she didn't want to be."

"And now, this one is mine!" Ianto said imperiously as he swept up the steps with the child in his arms, "You'll not get this one back. This is my wee cubbie now!"

"And you say he remembers?" Rhia whispered to John.

"Yep."

"So … he was always like that, the gentleness, it wasn't part of the wipe?" she started to process the tales she had been told and felt foolish.

The young man she had come to love as a brother had truly been dealt a bad hand, the soft smile for the baby, the way he had briefly shown pleasure in seeing her.

She sighed as she rose and brushed herself down.

Then she looked up at the house.

"Oh my god!"