3.

Owen turned to the cogwheel door when it rolled open and Jack and Gwen strode in. Gwen looked like the meeting hadn't been a big success and Jack had murder written all across his face. Owen noticed that Ianto took one look at Jack and then hurried towards the coffee machine while Tosh leaned back in her chair and asked, "What is it?"

Jack shrugged off his coat and leaned into his office to throw it towards the hook, then he turned back to his team to answer, "Top secret files. Leslie has to clear it with his superiors first. The little we know certainly isn't good." Jack's eyes caught Ianto at the coffee machine and softened. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Ianto answered.

Owen cleared his throat. "About that," he started, caught Ianto's pleading look and swallowed. He didn't quite know what to do to be honest. It was his responsibility to tell Jack the truth, he was the leader and this was quite surely a Torchwood matter. On the other hand, he could see Ianto's point.

Jack noticed the hesitation and frowned in concern. "What? What's wrong?"

"I ran all the usual tests on Ianto. I wanted to make sure."

Jack nodded.

Owen glanced at Ianto, who bit his lip and turned away. Owen silently cursed himself and said, "Exhaustion. That's all." He caught Ianto's surprised look. "He has to take it easy over the next few weeks." He cleared his throat. "I recommend … plenty of rest and … no coffee."

Ianto stared at him incredulously. "No coffee?"

"Hey, it's your exhaustion," Owen answered, irritated about having to lie to Jack. "It's common knowledge that coffee's not good for you when you're exhausted."

Ianto glared at him in warning.

Jack frowned. "Alright."

Hurriedly, Tosh changed the subject. "So what did you find out at UNIT?"

Gwen dropped into her chair tiredly. "Well, we found out that it wasn't the killer who sent the robots throughout time. Or at least not just him."

Jack accepted the mug Ianto handed him. "Project Horizon was something UNIT and Torchwood worked on together and they sent the robots throughout time to scavenge technology."

"That's all they could tell us," Gwen said.

"So they say," Jack muttered.

"But Leslie's looking into it and will get us more clearance," Gwen added with a warning glare in his direction. Her glare turned into a smile when Ianto handed her her coffee.

"Fact is, we'll work on this together," Jack said with a shrug. "For the time being, we hold the fort in South Wales and UNIT around London, since those seem to be the preferred areas for the killer to strike. Tosh, I know that you can't break through the encryptions in the Horizon files, but maybe we can take a small detour to find out more about a transmitter Leslie admitted was stolen. It's used to give the Golems their orders and I guess that they relay their messages to each other using it."

She shrugged. "That could be possible. What are you thinking?"

"Tracking. If we can find out more about how the transmitter works, maybe you'll be able to write a detection program."

Her eyes widened. "That's … actually a good idea." She turned to her computer.

Jack shrugged. "It happens."

xxx

Ianto waved Tosh good-bye when she left just an hour later. Jack had decided that they should take every chance they got to rest – just in case – and sent the team home. Even though Ianto knew that he was included in that order, he couldn't leave. He felt too much on edge, too nervous. Even though he was tired, he knew that he wouldn't be able to sleep once he was home. So he kept circling the Hub, looking for trash to pick up and dispose of. He still didn't know what to do about the baby – if it was a human baby. They couldn't be sure yet. Owen had said something about doing more tests first thing in the morning, as soon as they could get away from the main Hub for a while, away from Jack's eyes. But what would he do if it was human? What would he do if it was Jack's?

Jack's voice coming from his office door and echoing through the cavernous room startled him. "Ianto Jones," he said firmly, "I sent all of you home. What makes you think you're excluded, especially considering the circumstances?"

"The circumstances," Ianto muttered and chuckled without humour. Then he caught himself and looked at Jack. He was leaning against the door to his office, his braces hanging down around his hips and a white t-shirt peeking out between the unbuttoned edges of his dark-blue shirt. He was downright gorgeous, as always, and Ianto missed him so much it hurt. "Just finishing up."

"I want you to go."

"I'll only need five more minutes."

"Now."

Ianto glared at him. "Stop mothering me. You've lost that right." He became aware of what he'd said and wanted to apologize but Jack interrupted him.

"What if I want to have it back?"

Ianto almost dropped the trash bag. Jack stepped closer slowly, his hands buried deep in his pockets. "I miss you."

Ianto felt like his chest was constricting him, choking him. "You miss the sex."

Jack's voice was quiet, intimate, just like his eyes. "I miss talking until two in the morning and filling out paperwork in bed and having dinner together and not having to explain why I need distance and some time alone."

Ianto closed his eyes. "Don't do this to me."

"Why not?" Jack asked, clearly hurt by Ianto turning him away.

Ianto felt all his fear and frustration and insecurity push away his forced calm and snapped, "Because you don't want me, Jack. You want all those things, you don't want to be alone but in the end, it doesn't really matter who you are shagging. It could be Gwen or Tosh or some guy you pick up in a bar. They could give you all these things … it's just less work trying to come back to me."

Jack was staring at him as if he'd never seen him before. "That hurt. I'm being honest here."

"Who cares?" Ianto yelled. "It's too late." He dropped the bin bag and pointed one angry finger at Jack. "I gave you everything. Always. And I asked for a small thing – just a bit of your endless amount of time. And you couldn't give me that. How am I to believe that you changed your mind when it's obvious that you're just desperate to get laid?"

"That's not what this is about," Jack answered loudly, putting his hands on his hips. "Gods, you make this so complicated."

"How very 21st century of me," Ianto mocked. "I bet you wish you'd just executed me when I-"

"Shut up!" Jack yelled. He was standing so close suddenly and Ianto took a startled step back. They were both breathing hard and Ianto was surprised to notice tears brimming in Jack's eyes. "Don't say that ever again," Jack whispered. "Don't you dare and say that I should have killed you."

"Another thing you don't want to hear me say," Ianto answered. "I only noticed when it was over and I thought about it properly that I was never able to say it. You wouldn't let me. You saw it coming and you managed to distract me every single time." He took a deep breath. "Well, listen now and take it or leave it: I love you. And if you want to be with me, you'll have to deal with that and everything it entails. Otherwise … just leave me alone." Ianto turned away and headed for the cogwheel door, fighting against an onslaught of tears. He left Jack in the Hub, he left his words hanging in the air, all of them unspoken for so long ... and finally, he felt able to breathe again.

xxx

As soon as Owen entered the Hub with Tosh and Gwen early the next morning, Jack's voice thundered through the cavernous space. "Boardroom, now!" With that, he turned away and headed down.

Owen looked at Gwen and Tosh. "Somebody is grumpy today."

Gwen giggled and Tosh just rolled her eyes. While Gwen went to the kitchen niche to get herself a biscuit, Tosh leaned closer and whispered to Owen, "Do you think he knows? About Ianto, I mean."

"I don't think so," Owen answered. He looked around but Ianto was nowhere to be seen. Owen hoped that he was still at home, resting, but he didn't count on it. It was more likely that he was already in the boardroom, setting everything up for the meeting.

As soon as he entered the boardroom with Gwen and Tosh in tow, though, they knew for sure that it wasn't about Ianto. Pictures of all the Golem victims were displayed on the flatscreen behind Jack's seat at the head of the table. Beside their own victims, four new ones had joined the group and Owen suspected that those were UNIT's cases. Apparently, some case files had made their way over to Cardiff during the night.

Jack was standing next to the flatscreen, his arms crossed and brows furrowed. He barely waited for them to settle into their chairs before he started, "We have a lot of work today. Following up leads."

Owen leaned back in his chair. "What leads? We haven't had a lead for weeks." He noticed Ianto in the small alcove that held the coffee machine. He was quiet, pale and held himself rigid as if he was trying not to show that he was uncomfortable in some way. Owen frowned in concern.

"We have one, now. UNIT sent me a report this morning. They've been authorized to disclose at least some facts about Project Horizon and they started by dropping quite a bomb on us. All the victims from UNIT were at some point involved in the project."

Gwen's eyes widened. "So they're not random victims, then?"

"No. Which leads us to these," Jack said and bent down to lift and dump several boxes on top of the table. "We got them out of the archives this morning. Personnel files from Torchwood One."

Owen cursed inwardly and just managed to hold his tongue about Ianto lifting heavy boxes. Jack didn't know. Instead, Owen focussed on the case. "Files from Torchwood One? Why?"

Gwen rubbed her forehead. "Because since the UNIT victims were associated with the project, the other victims could be as well. UNIT would know if they were part of them. They aren't. They're Torchwood."

Jack nodded. "We've got six victims in total. Four UNIT – the other two have to be Torchwood One."

Tosh frowned. "But I cross-referenced our victims' names. They didn't come up in our database."

"Because they aren't their names."

Owen sighed as he understood. "They were Torchwood One, worked on the project and then got retconned – new names, new identities."

"We were fooled by our own techniques," Jack said with a nod. "We have to find out who they were to make sure. And there's not other way but to dive in and look at all of the personnel files from the early 60s to see what all of them were up to during that time."

Ianto cleared his throat. "Unfortunately, I haven't got to the personnel files, yet. They're not digitalized."

"So it's good old detective work," Jack said.

Owen stared at the boxes dreadfully. "It's going to be a long day." He caught Ianto reaching out a hand to steady himself against the wall, the other hand pressed against his belly. He was becoming paler by the minute.

"Yes, a long day. I suggest we-"

"Ianto?" Owen interrupted Jack and got up. He walked around the table to Ianto's side, taking his arm.

"It's nothing," Ianto answered. He gasped.

Owen put a hand against his forehead. "Don't tell me it's nothing. You're clammy and trembling."

Jack came over to them and from the corner of his eye, Owen saw Gwen stand up and Tosh pressing her hand on her mouth in concern. Jack took Ianto's other arm and asked, "What's going on?"

Ianto looked sharply at Owen. "Don't."

Owen asked, "It's another cramp, right?"

"Don't you dare-"

"Shut up, Ianto! This quit being a small thing a while ago!" Owen looked at Jack and together, they helped Ianto into one of the chairs. Ianto immediately bent forwards, groaning softly. He was in pain alright.

Jack gave Owen a demanding and worried look. "Owen?"

"You should sit down as well," Owen muttered, kneeling before Ianto to take his pulse.

"Quit playing games!" Jack snapped and put his hands on Ianto's shoulders.

Ianto's breathing grew more ragged by the minute an he started to whimper.

"What's going on?"

Ianto screamed and then sagged forward and into Owen's chest. Owen took his weight and laid him on the floor, realizing that he'd lost consciousness. Tosh pulled off her cardigan and put it underneath Ianto's head. Owen checked Ianto's breathing.

"What aren't you telling me?" Jack asked.

Owen looked up at him sharply. "He's pregnant." Jack's expression would have been funny if Owen hadn't been so damned scared. "He's going to have a baby."