Disclaimer: You already know CoE isn't mine. If it were, I would have left ALL of it on the cutting room floor.
Author's Note: Apologies for the long delay in posting. Mother Nature has been having hot flashes around here lately, and there were some spring gardening chores I had to get done before things grew too much. A week of sunny days with highs in the 80s F (27C-32C) with two record highs suddenly has us a month ahead of schedule, but I barely got everything done, even transplanting the azalea, which was in full bloom two days later. Anyway, barring more freakishly beautiful weather, I should be back to posting every two or three days until the whole fic is posted.
Chapter Eight
Full-Scale Assault
At a signal from Jack, the group broke up into small teams of two and three people. The idea was to generate more thought energy by tackling several issues at once.
Lois fretted about the weak password used by Bridget Spears, the fact that the same password got her into everything on the Home Office's network, how readily Miss Spears wrote it down on a sticky note and gave it to a brand new temp to post it on her monitor at a public work station, and how cavalier she was about sending out an 'order to kill' under her own username instead of telling her boss to be a man and do it himself if he really thought cold-blooded murder was the right action.
Agent Johnson tried to answer Lois's questions and then asked how it happened that when John Frobisher shot his family and himself in his own home and without using a silencer rather than turn his children over to the government to be 'vaccinated,' the media, who were there to record the event to show the public that it was safe, never went into the house to investigate when he didn't come out again and never filed a single report on the incident. Try as she might, Lois couldn't explain how nobody noticed the sound of gunshots coming from the home of the Permanent Secretary to the Home Office, the man who had been the public face of Earth's negotiations with the 456.
"Mummy," Stephen said.
Jack and Ianto argued about the apparent regression of their relationship, Ianto's sudden fixation on the word 'couple,' and his constant, uncharacteristic need for reassurance that he and Jack were one, and where the hell Martha Jones could have been honeymooning that she never got wind of what was going on in the rest of the world, never got called back to duty by UNIT, and never saw a single child acting strangely, or if she did, never took the initiative to check it out. They also discussed trivial things such as where Ianto had managed to find a vintage WWII RAF greatcoat without being spotted by Johnson's mercenaries and how Jack could pass up the opportunity to shag Ianto for Rhys's bloody beans.
Gwen, Rhys, Andy, and Clem rattled on about all sorts of things, like why Andy led Johnson straight to Rhys and Gwen's flat rather than pretending to be confused about the street numbers when he hadn't been by their place in a couple of years, how Gwen could shoot out all four tires on a moving vehicle in the dark and still not get her knickers in the laundry basket more than half the time, how Clem could smell that Ianto was 'queer' and Gwen was pregnant but didn't seem to recognize Jack's smell on any of them until he saw him, how Rhys could be so thick as to miss all the signals that Jack and Ianto needed some alone time, how Jack could pass up the opportunity to shag Ianto rather than tell Rhys what to do with his bloody beans, and why, in the end, Andy would care if Ianto was gay.
"Mummy?" Stephen repeated, this time tugging on Alice's sleeve.
Rupesh and Doctor shared their theories on how a virus could be released from an airtight tank and kill instantly without causing fever, pain, sweating, excess mucus production, airway inflammation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, or haemorrhaging from any of several body orifices. Then their conversation moved on to how quickly the virus went inert, or how easily it was killed with standard cleaning chemicals, making it possible for people to enter Thames House and the facility where the unrefrigerated bodies were being stored just hours later with no need for hazmat suits or specialized cleanup procedures.
Alice and Rhiannon discussed the universal agreement of all the countries around the world, even the ones with no stable government in power to make the decision to follow the UK's lead in handing over their children. Then they wondered why PM Green's administration bothered to cover up the stupid mistakes of an administration that had passed out of power over forty years ago when it would have been so much easier for them to release the details, say, "We're sorry, but we didn't make this mess," and publicly ask the United Nations and UNIT for help.
"Mummy!" the little boy shouted impatiently. "I have a question, too! Why do you make me call your daddy 'Uncle Jack' instead of 'Grandpa'?"
Naturally, everyone heard the shrill little voice, and they all stopped talking and turned to look at him. The little boy was surrounded by a faint neon glow of energy and his fair hair stood out from his head like dandelion fluff. Wide-eyed with shock, Alice looked at Jack, who looked at the Doctor with abject fear.
"He'll be all right, Jack," the Time Lord assured them. "You just have to trust me and let this happen."
"He better be," the captain said threateningly.
Dropping to her knees before her son, Alice said, "I-I didn't think you'd understand. He's still so young and I'm getting older." The energy around the boy made the fine hairs on her arms stand up and tingle like gooseflesh, and she had to suppress the urge to shiver.
"But calling him Uncle didn't stop me noticing that," Stephen said petulantly.
"No, I suppose it didn't," Alice agreed fondly. "I was silly not to account for you being such a clever boy, wasn't I?"
"So, why'd you lie to me?' Stephen asked. "Why'd you make him lie?"
Alice gave her son a sad look and said, "I just wanted to protect you." She put her hands on her son's thin shoulders and said, "Your granddad has a dangerous job, I thought it was best to keep him away from you."
Stephen frowned. "But it didn't make me love him any less. It only made me wonder why you would lie to me."
"I didn't know you knew," Alice said softly.
"I remember you and him talking about it when I was really little," Stephen said. "You thought I was stupid then, too, I guess."
"Oh, Stephen, I have never, ever thought you were stupid, my beautiful boy," Alice assured him. "I just thought you were too young to understand or care about what grownups argued over."
"And you never thought we would be safer to have Grandpa close by, watching over us?" he asked.
Alice looked hopefully at Jack, who was reeling from being called Grandpa for the first time. Ianto had to nudge him gently in the boy's direction. Finally crossing the room, Jack hoisted his grandson into his arms. The energy surrounding Stephen made his woollen greatcoat crackle and pop even under the insulating rubber of his Mackintosh. Tweaking the child's nose affectionately, he said, "Maybe your mum did the right thing, Stephen. Trouble seems to follow me, so maybe it was safer not having me hanging around."
Stephen gave him a sceptical look and then glanced at the TRD. A delicate umbilical of blue-tinged white energy had formed between the child and the greedy alien. Squinting at the glowing creature, he asked, "Do you still think that now?"
Jack followed his grandson's gaze. "I . . . I don't know anymore," he gasped.
"We almost have it!" the Doctor encouraged his team of companions. "Come on, people! Just a little more. I know you can do it! You're all so brilliant! Think! There has to be something more. Anything. Don't give up now!"
TBC
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