Path to forgiveness Part Eight
A week after Ianto comes back from his suspension; he is hurt by an alien device. Deaging fic. Spoilers up to Cyberwoman. Warnings Gwen bashing and preslash, Janto of course.
Beta'd by the amazing Owensheart
It barely seemed like any time at all since Jack fell asleep when he was woken up by the sound of whimpering coming from the form next to him. For a second Jack wondered who was in bed with him, he never usually took anyone back to the hub for sex because Retconning them was too bothersome.
It didn't take long for Jack to remember everything that had happened in the last couple of days, including the deaging that occurred to the youngest member of the team.
Jack carefully turned around, he didn't want to squish the small toddler after all, and gently shook him awake.
"Are you ok Ianto?" Jack asked in clear concern as he looked as the upset child. "What happened? Is everything ok Sweetie?"
"I haf a nitemawe," Ianto whimpered as he snuggled closer to Jack. He wanted to get as close as possible to Jack, after all he was the only one who could protect him from all of the monsters in his nightmares.
Ianto had no idea how, but he knew that Jack saved people from all sorts of scary monsters and he was sure that Jack would do the same thing for him. Even if the monsters weren't real and only existed in his head.
"Do you want to tell me what your nightmare was about?" Jack asked as he hugged the child closer to his chest.
"No," Ianto muttered in reply, as he shook his head in response. "I scawed Jack."
"I know you are Ianto," Jacked reassured the small child. "Telling me will make you feel a lot better, I promise."
"The robot lady kill Jack!" Ianto cried. "Don't want Jack to be dead. I wuv Jack."
"I love you too Ianto" Jack soothed, trying to calm the small child down.
"Why you go then?" Ianto asked. "Don't want you to go, no leave me."
"I won't sweetie, I promise," Jack reassured. "There is nothing that could ever make me leave you, I'm not going to die."
"Pwomise?" Ianto whispered. "Jack no go."
"Of course I won't Ianto," Jack assured the small archivist. "The robot lady isn't going to get me, she's gone now. She can't hurt any of us again."
"Me haf drink pwease?" Ianto asked.
"Of course you can" Jack answered. "Do you want some milk?"
"Yeah pwease," Ianto muttered in reply.
"Ok I'll be back in a minute" Jack replied as he turned to leave the room.
"Don't go," Ianto whimpered in fear as he noticed that Jack was leaving the room without him, leaving him behind like Jack just promised that he wasn't.
"I'm just going to get you a drink Ianto," Jack soothed as he walked back to the bed. "I'll be right back, I promise."
"Me go with you pwease?" Ianto muttered as he lifted his arms up towards Jack, he really didn't want to be left alone after such a horrible and terrifying nightmare.
"Ok Sweetie," Jack replied as he picked up the small toddler and carried him up to the kitchen where he proceeded to make Ianto a small glass of warm milk making sure that he remembered to clean up after himself.
It wasn't long before Ianto fell back to sleep and Jack carried him back to bed where he tucked the small boy back in. Luckily the captain never really needed much sleep so he wasn't really affected by getting woken up in the middle of the night because of a nightmare.
Gwen was the last one into work that morning, not that anyone was surprised about that, though at least she decided to actually get to work in time.
The more surprising thing was that Owen actually got into work and he wasn't even hung over or anything. It seemed like having a small child in the hub was a good influence on Owen, Jack just hoped that it wouldn't change back once Ianto was back to his original age.
Ianto was sitting on the couch with Tosh when Gwen arrived; Tosh had taken Ianto away from Jack as she knew that the leader wouldn't do any of his paperwork with Ianto in the office with him. The man would probably end up using Ianto's cuteness as an excuse.
There was a small part of Gwen that really felt guilty when she saw the frightened look on Ianto's face as soon as he spotted her. She had thought about everything and had realised that she would have done the exact same thing in order to save Rhys and that was even when she knew that she didn't truly love Rhys. Not in the same way that she loved Jack, she knew actually who she would choose if she had to and it would always be Jack.
"I am so sorry Ianto," Gwen started as she sat down next to Ianto and Tosh. "I was wrong to act like that yesterday and I promise you that it will never happen again."
"It's ok," Ianto muttered shyly, he was still afraid of the scary and loud woman, especially after how she treated him yesterday. Even if she was saying that she was sorry now.
Jack watched Gwen apologise from his office, he was so glad that the woman had told Ianto that she was sorry, though he couldn't help but wonder if she really meant it.
Gwen was insistent in her believes that Ianto deserved her treatment and Jack was a hundred percent sure that she wasn't just doing it because it was something that she knew that Jack wanted her to.
He wasn't stupid, he knew all about Gwen's feelings for him and whilst he liked her it wasn't in the way she wanted him to. Jack loved Gwen but it was more like you loved a close friend or a sister, he just didn't know how he should tell her, he really hoped that she wouldn't do anything stupid like dumping Rhys because she believes that she have a chance with him. He didn't think that he would forgive himself if she ruined her relationship for no good reason.
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