6

Ianto sat looking over at the children he could clearly see with Tommy's parentals playing in the sand about twenty metres away. The bonfire build had been abandoned in favour of sand castles. The sandcastle was extreme, several levels on a huge mound that even a Dragon would be proud of and he smiled as he watched the boys place shells and things for windows, ever the perfectionists like him, they also had cut little doors and were now arguing about the chimney or two. The dog sat in the middle of everything like it was all being built for her.

Frank was laughing as he helped drag some sea weed over so they could now have a hedgerow outside the moat. It was going to be an epic construction when finished and he made a mental note to take a photo or three.

Frank had been first up, the scent of pancakes calling him and he had told them through giggles that Ella was fully asleep with her feet in the air still. Ianto had then told him he had found his sister the same way and thought her mad, but it had sort of worked.

Jack settled next to Ianto and placed the phone down in the table along with the tablet Ianto had been working on earlier, "you left these in there. I know you will want them soon."

"Thank you Cariad" Ianto smiled and right on cue the phone pinged. Ianto picked it up and frowned, then looked at Jack, "It's Ralf. He tells me Owen and Gwen are up to something with the old files and I need to ask what is going on. He is most bullish."

"Well … they can't hear out there, call" Jack nodded.

Owen was distant, surprised and furtive, Ianto immediately suspicious and he demanded he speak. He reluctantly told them about the break-out and as Jack demanded answers Ianto sat still, staring into space.

"Look … I have a theory" Owen said, drawing Ianto back to the conversation, "You know, Ianto is the only one to survive the Muskrat intact. The other two survivors wee turned insane and… altered. Right? Hunters. I am guessing Ianto is not a Hunter. I mean … all Hunter's need Prey. Ianto was not created to be that. You know … it never attacked him. The one who came after the kids… IT never directly attacked him, like it knew he was connected. The kids didn't' have that connection as they were seen as the enemy. Maybe this super soldier was meant to be fed a scent of some enemy and then let loose? As there is nothing given, it sought anyway? It found their scent familiar?"

"Makes a warped kind of sense" Jack sighed, "This one … this last one … it only sought to escape?"

"Franny and Ralf are searchin and it's not in any CCTV near any families. It's like it vanished. Went bush" Owen admitted and Ianto rose from his chair as a new fear took hold and he stepped outside the sliding doors, pulling them closed and stepping out to walk around the side of the house. He stood for a long time just looking at the flower bed outside the window if the boys room. A long time.

Staring at the footprints in the garden bed.

It wasn't gone, wasn't disappeared. It was here. Seeking. Tommy.

Tommy.

"Ianto?" Jack walked around and found him there contemplating, "Tiger?"

"They stopped at roadside stalls on the way here, left markers. They left a trail of breadcrumbs and it had followed them without any trouble at all" Ianto sighed, pointing at the garden, "It was not a nightmare that woke us. We felt it somehow, some warning system or something. All saw the fucking thing. IT could have attacked … our boys might already be dead but something made it wait. Pause. It's confused about something."

"Fuck" Owen's voice said from the phone in Jack's hand, "What's this?"

"Ianto and the boys all dreamt it was here, there are footprints in the garden outside the window they all dreamed it stood outside of. Owen … it's here." Jack said with horror.

"On our way, shit. Which SUV have you got? You've not got Bertha" Owen was alarmed now, the flurry of activity down the phone telling them he was running and so were the girls. The sound of an engine told then the SYV was moving fast, a mad Welshwoman driving as Owen whooped and let them know it had caught air leaving the parking garage.

"We're coming" Owen called in the phone, "hang on."

Ianto knew it didn't matter now.

It was here.

If he could work out why it hadn't attacked already maybe he could still save them. Something had made it pause, something made it stop before it attacked in the night. Like the other one, it hadn't attacked him at all. Each time he had attacked it. Right?

There had to be something that he was doing that gave a signal or something.

Also… if the children were prey….

What the hell was he?