Chapter Four: Invasions

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"Just because I am what I am doesn't automatically qualify me as some sort of occult expert, Jack," Wendy told him in an exasperated tone as they walked into the warehouse. "Although I can tell you this place reeks."

"Yeah. I got that last night from Gwen."

She shot him a quizzical look.

Jack waved it aside. "Just tell me what you can."

Wendy heaved a sigh and headed up to the second floor. She didn't need him to tell her where to go, the stench was enough of a guide. She walked straight to the right office and opened the door. The scene was just as Jack had described it; it looked like something straight out of an old horror movie.

Reluctantly, she sniffed the air. "I don't think I could pick the people who did this out of a crowd. There are too many other smells… too many people were here," she shot him an apologetic look.

Jack gave her a tight smile in return, "Whatever you can tell me will help."

He leant up against the doorframe with his arms folded across his chest, watching her prowl around the room. Despite her assertion that she wasn't any kind of expert, Wendy was the best of them it came to investigative field work and it was precisely because she was what she was. Her senses were at least four or five times sharper than any human's, even when she was wearing her 'human skin.'

"Something was burned here," she pointed to a dark patch on the floor that they'd missed last night in the dark.

She knelt down and examined some dark droplets on the floor in another spot. "Candle wax," she told him. "For what it's worth, I don't think anybody died here."

"That doesn't mean they didn't use the blood of somebody they'd killed somewhere else," he told her.

"No. It doesn't. But is this really our case? I mean… it's not alien..." she wasn't in the habit of contradicting Jack, but this didn't seem like the sort of thing Torchwood was supposed to investigate.

"Except that something we were chasing ran to that alley right outside this building and then vanished."

"You think it's connected?" she stood up and dusted her hands against her jeans.

"I stopped believing in coincidences a long time ago."

"What do you want me to do?"

He glanced at his watch. "Right now I want you to come with me to my son's birthday party and help me convince my husband not to kill me – I should have been home over an hour ago. Don't laugh," he added to her smile, "I left him alone with his family and five or six kids from Jason's class."

"Oh Jack. How could you?"

"Hey, he's the same man who fought Daleks with me," he told her defensively.

"Daleks are one thing…"

He sighed and led the way back to the SUV. "We can call the police on the way and let them know we've got this. I'll have Mickey follow up with the owners of the building and see if they know anything," but he suspected they didn't. After all, the owners wouldn't have had to use a window to get in and out last night…

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The woman on Jack and Ianto's front porch smiled a bemused smile as Ianto Jones opened the front door, a look of pure relief on his face.

"Sarah Jane," he greeted her. "I can't tell you how glad I am it's you."

"I can tell. I hope we're not late."

"Your timing is perfect."

"It can't be that bad, can it?" she asked as Ianto stepped aside so she and her son Luke could come in. The sounds of children shrieking could be heard from the next room.

Ianto rolled his eyes. So far it was just his family and two of Jason's classmates, however that meant eleven children in addition to Jason. Four more were expected at any moment and there was still no sign of Jack.

"Your place is lovely," Sarah Jane told him, glancing around the living room.

"Thank you. Here, let me take that for you," he offered as she pulled off her coat.

"This is for Jason," Luke held out the big wrapped box he'd carried up to the house from his mother's little green car. "I hope he likes it," he added a little awkwardly. "Mum thought he would."

"It's a telescope," she confided.

"I'm sure he'll love it. And thank you for coming. We're putting gifts by the fire place," he said to Luke. "I know London's a bit of a drive," Ianto added. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate his family – some of them anyway. But there was something comforting about the presence of someone else who knew how to handle an alien invasion, because that's exactly what it was starting to feel like in the kitchen.

"We wouldn't have missed this for anything," Sarah Jane assured him.

Ianto had been up since six getting things ready for the party. He hadn't joined Jack in bed until two, because even though Jack told him it would hold until morning, he'd wanted to track down the ownership of that building they'd been in last night. He only wished they'd come up with some clues as to who had been there, but they hadn't left anything behind except the blood.

"Ianto?" Nerys came in from the kitchen. "Oh, hello. I didn't even hear the bell."

"How could you have?" he muttered. In a more congenial tone, he re-introduced his sister and Sarah Jane, reminding them that they'd met at the wedding.

"It's lovely to see you again," Sarah Jane held out her hand.

Nerys smiled and accepted it. "Nice to see you too… and Luke, wasn't it?" she asked of Sarah Jane's son. She didn't wait for an answer, however, before turning to her brother, "Yan, have you seen Tarra? She seems to have wandered off."

"This house is not toddler proof…" Ianto panicked as he immediately started going through the mental list of all the things an unsupervised four year old could get into…

There was a sudden scream from upstairs. The only words that that could clearly make out were 'locked in' and 'loo.' The voice was definitely Tarra's.

"Let me," Sarah Jane said to Ianto. "I think I've got just the thing to unlock a door. Luke, see if you can lend a hand in the kitchen, will you?"

"Sure, Mum."

"Thank you," Ianto gave them both a grateful smile, silently vowing to strangle Jack in his sleep if he didn't show up soon.

He gave his mother an equally grateful smile when she pressed a cup of tea into his hands as he came back into the kitchen with Luke and Nerys.

"I don't know whose looking more under the weather today," Alice mused softly. "You or Dafydd," she nodded to her youngest, who was hiding in a corner playing a hand held video game. He looked like he hadn't slept in a week.

Ianto chuckled, "I'm not even sure why you dragged him out here."

"Misery loves company," Nerys opined.

"Did you find Tarra?" Gavin joined them.

"Right here," Sarah Jane announced, carrying the teary-eyed toddler into the kitchen.

"Well that didn't take long," Nerys sounded impressed.

"Just had to get the door open," Sarah Jane told her with an easy smile.

"Let me guess, she locked herself in your bathroom too?" asked Gavin.

"I take it it's been a trend?" Ianto inquired.

"I had to take the door off its hinges the last time they were at our place. How'd you manage it?" he glanced Sarah Jane Smith. She hardly looked the handy-man type.

"Oh, I've learnt a few tricks for opening locks over the years."

"Hello…!" Jack's voice rang out from the living room.

"Thank God," Ianto muttered. "Excuse me while I go murder my husband."

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"Just sit, I've got this," Jack told his partner again, physically backing Ianto away from the kitchen sink.

All but two of Jason's school friends had gone home – they were staying the night and had retired with Jason up to his room to play, thankfully quietly.

The house, while finally peaceful again, looked as if it had been hit by a tornado… or perhaps a pack of rabid Weevils, Ianto wasn't sure. "Cariad," he protested Jack's resistance to him helping. There was no way Jack could get things cleaned up properly without his help.

Ella was taking care of the last of the mess in the living room; Wendy was making the coffee for the 'survivors'. "Sit," she told Ianto. "You've been doing nothing but run around all day."

Jack rolled up his sleeves. "You did a fantastic job, by the way," he said with an affectionate smile in the younger man's direction.

Ianto's mother had made the cake, but Ianto had done the rest, and it was no secret that cooking wasn't his forte. He'd managed to pull off food for the kids and adults and fend off a couple of uncomfortable questions from some of Jason's friends' parents, who were apparently unaware of the particulars of the Jones and Harkness household.

Ianto sank into a chair and regarded Jack a moment. As irritated as he'd been earlier, he couldn't be happier with him now. He knew Jack would rather get back to work and deal with the mess they'd found last night, but here was, dealing with this mess instead. "I love you."

"I love you too," the older man smiled over his shoulder as he went to work on the pile of dishes in the sink. "And thank you," Jack added softly. "I know the last couple of months haven't been easy on you."

"We're in this together, remember?"

………………………………………………………

Ianto wasn't particularly surprised to wake up in the middle of the night and find Jack not in bed with him.

What he was surprised by was waking up in the middle of the night and finding Jack downstairs in his bathrobe, in the middle of a video conference with an extremely good looking young man wearing a red silk shirt…