10

"Tad?"

Ianto knew Billy had noticed and would not let it pass so he turned from his wandering and waited for him to catch up.

"Just walking to settle the food" Ianto said softly, "And consider things. The Others. I don't like something about them but can't put my finger on it."

"So…you asked Marley to put hers on them instead?" Billy asked, having seen her stumped little finger.

Ianto slipped into a side room that served as a reading annex, "Look. They are not being monitored, maybe that's my fault because I bypassed protocol with Kev and Sam's crew but it never occurred to me that these Others were being so easily accepted as well. I get a …a…"

"Vibe?"

"Yes love, a vibe off them that is making my hackles rise" Ianto nodded, "I might be over protective with your sister so tiny yet or it might just be that they are not telling us the truth…"

"About the babies not being theirs?" Hope startled them, a rare thing to do with Ianto but his changeling daughter was as stealthy as her dam, her eyes gleaming in the soft light, "They don'y smell of any of them and I don't think either baby is theirs."

"How do you know" Ianto asked, crouching to show he was purely interested, not angry, "When did you meet them darling?"

"Nainny took them clothes for the babies and them, I helped carry. Ifan came with but I said the others had to wait back. They give me a ….like…biting a too cold ice-block and you get that shiver down your spine. They are lying." She paused and canted her head as she considered and Billy crouched as well, "I think whoever those babies belong to, they are not going to be happy about them pinching them."

"They said that the people were eating the babies, that's why they had to run" Billy said and Ianto watched his daughter's face as she frowned deeply.

"But…why save two babies that aren't yours but not your own baby?" she asked and Ianto face palmed as she revealed the thing he had been searching for. "She had her own baby to have milk, right Tadda?"

"My angel" Ianto crooned, cupping her face and kissing her gently with so much affection, "My sweetling. So clever. Yes, that is what I was missing. Thank you Hope. I do so appreciate your thoughts and insight here."

"They will come looking" she now looked towards the door, towards the Others, "If they didn't know about us they will. If it was one of ours we would search no matter how long it took."

"Yeh" Ianto huffed with annoyance, then looked up as Jack stood in the doorway was a sleepy baby in his arms.

"What' this?"

"Hope has pointed out something that is extremely valid and I missed" Into said with pride, "We do not think the babies are theirs. She has been close enough to scent as well and feels neither baby is the woman's. We think they stole the babies, we also dispute the cannibal claims. Hope is the one to say it."

"They have saved two babies that are not their own babies, but the woman with milk had a baby too. Where is hers?" Hope explained to her father as he leaned against the wall to listen, "I don't think they are truthing us. They took the babies but not for that. I think they stole them from someone and now they are afraid they will be caught. They smell of fear and lies."

Ianto watched Jack consider, then he nodded, "Owen took their blood to check for any contagions, I can ask him to do a DNA check. We will know if they have a claim to those children or not."

"If not we have a shit-storm to sort out" Billy sighed as he rose, "If they do belong to someone we can't righteously keep them, can we. If and when someone comes knocking not only do we have something they want….they will see that we have a lot of things they need. They are like a fucking Trojan horse, right?"

"Yea, good analogy" Ianto smiled as he hugged his son, "We have a lot of young, a few impending a well. The last thing we need is a feud or attempted hostile takeover."

"So if you are right?" Jack asked, "What do you suggest Holdfast?"

"We have few options. We either keep them and fight, hope they don't find us…"

"But they will. We would." Hope interrupted, her head canting as well, "We will have to either give them back or fight for them. If we fight we might lose some people. We need to decide if these Others are worth that risk, to make enemies that might have more numbers that us? For people that aren't truthing to begin with? Do we trust them?"

"There is no way of knowing their numbers or firepower, you are right there rosebud, "Ianto smiled as he used her baby nickname, "Look, they arrived clean, well kept and their clothes were relatively new. Similar to us, right?"

Hope nodded.

"So, that in mind…they must have a base of operations with power, water the basics right?" Ianto surmised, "Well fed. I did not smell sickness or disease. I also did not smell that sticky sweet Cannibal stench of a muncher."

"Muncher" Jack repeated as he heard the term for the cannibals of the future and he now knew where that had come from. He grinned as he looked at his family, plotting like superheroes in a bloody cave.

"Marley will tell us soon enough" Billy decided, "I propose we go back to yours, settle and wait."

As they walked back to Ianto and Jack's underworld home Hope took another glance back toward the Others.

She was unsettled.

They were making her hackles rise.