Note: First off, thanks for the reviews and alerts! Now I need to give a reminder - I started to write Thrice Blessed before CoE, so this story doesn't even go there. In fact, it does a 180 from there. It's AU in the sense that after Exit Wounds, it goes in a different direction and will never touch the Season That Never Was. Another thing that makes it AU is Ianto's family. A younger sister named Iola is mentioned in previous chapters and will continue to be part of this series. And we also have Ianto's mother and father as characters in this fic (and his father is a Master Tailor). I didn't know about Rhiannon when I started to write it, so she won't be showing up at all around here. I just wanted to make it clear on why Ianto's family is different than what was shown. So is Jack's. An ex-wife and family is mentioned, but it's not Lucia and Alice. They don't exist in this series. I hope that clears up any confusion anyone might have. Thanks for reading! You get another chapter already. I'll be honest, I have 22 chapters done, but I'm trying to space this out to give me a chance to finish another chapter or two before I reach posting chapter 22. Enoy!
CHAPTER SEVEN
The two men were settled on the couch, the television playing low. When they had entered the flat, Jack had immediately gone into the lounge, put on the television and dropped on to the couch. Ianto had taken time to change out of his suit into something more appropriate for a summer evening at home (Rift permitting, of course) – a tee shirt and shorts.
Returning to join Jack, he went through the lounge to the kitchen, and made them some tea. Jack was lounging on the couch, head back and his eyes closed.
"How did you ever manage to hide this?" Ianto softly said as he placed Jack's mug on the coffee table.
Jack cracked his eyes open, peering up at Ianto. "Necessity. I didn't want you to suspect anything until I was able to tell you properly."
"And not a minute too soon, I would guess." Ianto sat down on the couch next to Jack, and sipped his tea.
Jack leaned over to pick up his mug and stared down into it. "I can't live on tea all day," he moaned.
Ianto chuckled and put an arm around Jack's shoulder. "Sure you can."
"I need coffee. Caffeine. Or else I'm going to die," Jack quipped. "And I won't come back."
"Really?" Ianto asked, feigning interest.
Jack nodded. "Really. The secret to immortality is coffee, yours in particular."
Ianto laughed. "If that was true, we'd both be sitting here planning our vacation in 3459 or something." He leaned against Jack. "One cup a day for now, so deal with it. And I have Shandi's blessing."
Ianto laughed more as Jack pouted.
"Yeah, it's true," Jack admitted low. "Why do you think I couldn't wait once I knew it was very likely. Because I knew I was reaching the point that I couldn't hide from you anymore. I'm lucky I would get sick at times when everyone was busy working on something in the Hub and not notice my disappearing in the loo for a while."
Ianto pulled Jack closer to him, their bodies seeming to mold to each other. He lightly kissed Jack's hair. "Now, I think we need to talk, while I'm between my panic attacks."
Sighing heavily, Jack turned his head to study Ianto. "We can't have that, you know. I need you when it's time to have the sprouts, and they'll need you when they're here. So, I'll do my best to ease any fears you might have. Where do you want to start?"
A minute of quiet went by as Ianto leaned his head against Jack's, seeming deep in thought. "I don't know where to start," he finally said. "House, for one. Your other pregnancies for another."
"Go get the laptop," Jack said. "And while we're browsing to get ideas of what we would like, I'll talk."
"Wait right here. And just for that, I'll bring back chocolate biscuits with the laptop."
Jack grinned at his partner, fingers running through Ianto's thick dark hair. "You can't leave yet."
"Oh? Why not?"
"Because I want to do this first," Jack answered. He moved so his lips pressed against Ianto's. "Can you deal?"
"Oh, I think I could try," Ianto deadpanned.
For the next few minutes, no sound was heard except for the sound of kissing and soft sighs. Ianto finally pulled away from Jack, taking a deep ragged breath and stood up. Looking down at Jack's surprised look, Ianto smirked. "It almost worked," he said to the older man. "But we talk first, before anything else."
"What?" Jack asked, almost too innocently.
"You know. Now sit tight and behave, or I'll have to rescind the biscuits."
Jack attempted to look horrified. "We can't have that."
"No," Ianto agreed, grinning. He walked away from the couch to the dining table, retrieving the laptop. He placed it on the coffee table, before going back into the kitchen, to go through the cupboard for Jack's favorite biscuits.
By the time Ianto was settled on the couch again with Jack, his partner was already on a real estate page, glancing through the listings. "Location?" Jack asked. "Around here?"
"Close to the Hub is preferable," Ianto replied. "However, we need a house. A big house. So if we need to go across the city, we'll deal if it means the perfect house."
With the laptop in his lap, Jack leaned back against the cushions of their couch and studied Ianto. "Okay, my turn for questions," he said.
"I never got my turn," Ianto pointed out.
"So I go first. Then you can go."
"That's not fair."
"It is. Now stop arguing and hear out my question. What is your idea of the perfect house? Have you been giving it any thought?"
"The only thing I've been giving thought to is reminding myself that you're having triplets." Ianto rolled his eyes. "It would have been enough with just one baby, but not for you. You have to be having three."
Jack grinned ruefully. "Seriously. Are we okay?"
"Oh yeah. When I'm not freaking out. But don't worry too much. Shandi said it's perfectly normal. Two days ago I thought I would never have kids. Yet here we are, looking forward to the birth of three babies. And everything we'd have to go through with you until then."
"Fine then. So? Perfect house. In return, I'll tell you about my previous families."
"I'm holding you to that," warned Ianto. "House. Hmm… I'll admit before all this, it has been on my mind for a while that one day we could buy a cottage. Hopefully with a guest room, so we can lock Iola in her own room when she invades."
Jack laughed. "I am telling her that next time we see her."
"She already knows." At Jack's questioning look, Ianto expounded, "We have a unique little support network, you realize. I talk to my sister, while she talks to you. You, in turn, go to Gwen on matters concerning us, while Gwen comes to me."
"At least we all have someone to talk to." Jack noticed Ianto's slight frown. "Oh… um, maybe you might want to take all that pregnancy anxiety to Shandi. Or even Gwen."
"I'll manage," Ianto assured Jack. "And I think a cottage is out of the question now. We'll need four bedrooms, maybe five."
"What?"
"If we buy a house, we'll be making the assumption that our children will grow up in it. Meaning at some point, they will require their own bedrooms. Three babies, three bedrooms. Plus ours. Four. With some luck we can also have a guestroom."
Jack looked thoughtful. "We'll have a few years before spreading the sprouts out into their own rooms. Until then, we'll have two guest rooms."
"And after that?"
Jack shrugged. "Okay." Jack inputted information to pull up five bedroom houses in the Cardiff Area. "Here's some choices." He picked up the laptop and handed it to Ianto. "Pick out the ones that interest you. We'll try another site later. Then we can make appointments to look over the houses."
"What do you want, Jack?" Ianto needed to know.
Jack smiled tenderly, leaning over to kiss Ianto softly. "Anywhere with you. Pick what you like. I'll be there with you, helping to make a final decision."
"Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"I'm looking. Now, tell me about your other pregnancies, along with everything that went with them. It was one thing when it was just me and you, but I think I would like to know the man I'm having children with a little more."
"It's only fair. You'll hear more about the pregnancies themselves as I talk to Shandi. But I think I should go backward. That is, backward to my linear timeline."
Ianto spared a glance at Jack from the laptop. "I know about Kelly. Your two children. Well, Kelly had the two children. And how you have some great-grandchildren that don't know about you."
"There's more involved to that. It was 1903 when Kelly was pregnant the first time. It was shortly after I found out that I realized something I had forgotten a long time ago."
Ianto's attention shifted from the listings, focusing on Jack. "What happened?"
"I remembered I once had a family before that. A husband and four children. Three girls and a boy."
"You said you were pregnant only twice. Did your husband have children too?" Ianto started to frown. "Wait. How do you forget a family?"
"The Time Agency," Jack explained. "Those two years of missing memories. Until Kelly was pregnant with Johnny, I thought that was all they took from me. I thought I still had my memories of my life before those years. Something about Kelly's pregnancy gave me back some of what the Time Agency did to me. When I suddenly found myself with two years of my life missing, I had no idea that there was a family before that. I didn't remember anything about Jensen and the kids. Since then, over the years I slowly started to remember my life with him, my pregnancies, my kids. I can see their faces, but I can't remember their names. I wish I could remember." Jack started to look upset. "Whatever happened to them, I don't know. All I can hope is that they were safe, that whatever I did to cause my memories being wiped, it did not involve them. I know this sounds wrong, but I hope their memories of me were wiped from them, and they were set up to live happy lives without even knowing I was supposed to be with them."
Ianto set the laptop to the side and shifted so he could embrace Jack, holding him close. "I'm sorry, Jack. That's horrible."
"It… it's harder than... burying your wife, children and grandchildren." He lifted his head, giving Ianto a small, sad smile. "At least they all died of natural causes, living long full lives. Except for Kelly. She worked for Torchwood."
Death by Torchwood, Ianto heard the silent thought from Jack. He sighed. If only he could promise Jack it would not happen to them, but Ianto knew better. At some point, before his time, he would be another casualty of "Death by Torchwood".
He now hoped he would be lucky like Kelly who at least saw her oldest become an adult, while her youngest – Grace, Jack had told him before – was three years younger than Johnny. A few years later, Johnny had moved to America, changing his last name at his father's request. He was still Jack's son. He joined the Air Force and had gotten himself involved with the Roswell Incident. Torchwood Three had documentation of the true events surrounding the crash, because Johnny had sent reports to his father. When she had been approaching her 40's, Grace had also moved to America. Jack had once said he would go overseas to visit his children, and eventually had gone to their funerals. His grandchildren knew him, knew their grandfather was unique, and requested his wishes to not to let their children know he was related to them.
"We live for today," Ianto said, kissing Jack's forehead. "That's what we decided when we moved in together. We're going to have three more reasons to keep doing that."
Jack hugged Ianto tightly. "I know. After I lost Kelly, I swore no more getting that involved. After I buried Grace, I never wanted children again. But I meant what I said about you. You changed everything, Ianto. I need to take the chance of losing everything one day in the future. Because it will mean having all that I have now, what we will have. I don't want to have regrets of what we might have done when I find myself alone again."
Ianto continued to hold Jack, both men caught up in their emotions. When Jack finally moved away from Ianto, he gave his partner a soft smile. "Thank you, Ianto. For everything."
"I'm just sorry, Jack. I'm sorry we're all going to have to leave you someday."
Jack put on a brave face, cupping Ianto's face between his hands. "That's going to be long in the future. And until then, we do what we can to make it as full as we can." He kissed Ianto lovingly.
"We will, Jack. I suspect three children will help." He returned Jack's kiss. "Now answer me one question."
"Sure."
"Four kids, two pregnancies, and your husband didn't contribute other than as a sperm donor. Does that explain why you were suspecting twins?"
"Yeah. That's why. I had twins both times. The first were identical – girls. The second were a boy and a girl. Funny how I can remember that, but I can't remember their names."
"Maybe you will one day, Jack. Until then, it's not your fault. Whatever they did to wipe your mind caused it."
"Oh, I have a good idea of what they did. I only wish I knew why." Jack visibly shook himself from becoming maudlin again. "So, you know more about my past. You're looking through listings so we can find the perfect house. What else do you want to know?"
"I don't know. There's so much we need to sort. What to tell my parents about the babies. What to tell Iola to stop her from barging in on us whenever she pleases. How to explain when you suddenly stop going to family functions. Clothes for you. Worrying about keeping you locked indoors when you start showing. Needing to double check the Hub to make sure it's safe for you and the babies, and making up a list of sections down in the Archives that you should avoid. Buying a house, moving into a house and if it's a bigger place, buying new furniture. There's buying things for the babies, and also getting that examination room set up as soon as possible before Shandi has kittens over examining you in the autopsy bay. And quite frankly, I don't blame her. I would prefer you getting checked up somewhere less dismal and tainted with death." Ianto took a deep breath. "I might have left out a few things."
"I assume you already have a list of it."
"And adding to it as new things come to mind, yes."
"After dinner, if we find ourselves still here and not called back to the Hub, we'll sit down with your list and prioritize. And over the next few weeks, we'll tackle it all a little each day. That way you get the peace of mind that we're doing something about it, while I have mine by not worrying about you dropping on me from anxiety."
"I'm sorry, Jack. It's just so overwhelming. But don't get me wrong. I'm happy. Hell, I'm ecstatic. Which is why I'm turning into a basket case here. I don't want anything to happen to you or the babies."
"I'll do everything I can do to make sure we're all okay during this, but you have to do the same. Promise?"
"Promise." Ianto kissed Jack again, slowly and deeply. When they broke the kiss for air, he asked, "Are you still feeling sick?"
"What about looking for houses?" Jack asked slyly.
"I think we both need some relaxation first. And there's nothing more relaxing than…."
Jack was already standing up, pulling Ianto up by his hand. "Say no more. Let's go and get ourselves relaxed."
Once they were both on their feet, Ianto hugged Jack, kissing him again, before pulling Jack out of the lounge toward their bedroom.
