Okay, final part for here! This is just something I felt had to be done really. I thought it'd show a good group dynamic and how the babies affected life in Torchwood Three. With this, it's the official end of 'One Accidental Step Further', I hope you all enjoyed it.
(the description of Ianto in this is a mix of the Doctor and Dr. John Carter in series 11 of ER, to anyone who may be interested)
Thanks for reading and reviewing, everyone!
Disclaimer: I only own the children, not the parents or their work colleagues. They belong to Russel T. Davies and their respective actors and actresses.
16 years, 3 months and 4 days later…
The huge cog door rolled back to reveal two young people walking casually down the corridor behind and into the hub.
The first of them was a young man with dark brown hair, flopping across his face and into his clear blue eyes, providing the perfect frame for the intellect and sharp humour that glittered in them. The eighteen year old was tall and slender, his school uniform wrapped around his frame in a stylishly casual way; a testament to both his fathers. If his current appearance was anything to go by, the young man would pull off devilishly handsome in tailored suits exceptionally well in his life.
The second was a girl, perhaps a head shorter than the young man, with the same, clear blue eyes, framed with auburn hair that fell past her shoulders several inches in gentle waves. The eyes it framed, however, were full of a playful amusement, tempered with a patience beyond her sixteen years.
The girl walked quickly to catch up with her brother and fell into step with him, her bouncing footsteps contrasting with the young man's smooth, graceful stride. When they reached the area by the workstations, the boy held out his hand and without either needing to look at what they were doing, the girl dropped her school back-pack into his proffered hand. He dumped their bags on the sofa behind Tosh's desk and folded his school blazer carefully next to them.
Rolling the white shirt's sleeves up to his elbows, he made his way over to the Japanese woman sitting at her computers. He pulled up the second chair tucked under the desk and sat down.
"Hi, Griff," Tosh turned and smiled at the young man, "how was school?"
"Well, you know… It was school. Not exactly challenging." He replied in a low voice, his accent unplaceable. Both he and his sister had a mixture of Welsh, English and American spins on their words, creating an entirely new dialect that only those two shared. Griffin smiled at Tosh, the amusement sparkling in his eyes as he reached over and pulled the laptop he worked on towards him. "So, what're we working on today?"
Tosh laughed gently and pulled out a file, handing Griffin the sheets of coding and half completed mathematical equations. For the past few months, the young man had been helping Tosh with her work when he arrived after school. They had soon found a rhythm in the proceedings that they both enjoyed, finding it relaxing. They became close friends quickly, just as Tosh and Ianto had become all those years ago after the incident with Lisa.
As Griffin had folded his blazer neatly, the girl had run head on into the autopsy bay, stopping doubled over the banister at the top, her hair swinging forward over her shoulders as she grinned at the man below her.
"Hi, Uncle Owen!" The medic looked up and smiled at the girl.
"Hey, kid, how're you today?" He snorted briefly at the look of indignance, so like Jack's own disapproving look, flashed across her face at the nickname Owen had long ago started using.
"I have a name, you know, you might care to use it." After a moment, she beamed at him again, sitting down on the floor and swinging her legs over the ledge, leaning her elbows on the railing that was normal knee height.
"Whatever, you know I never listen to you, Niamh." Owen looked back down at the body he'd been cutting up and smiled to himself briefly, considering just how he'd become 'Uncle Owen'.
When Niamh had been teething, there had been a particularly sticky day in which she refused to be put down by either Jack or Ianto. By the middle of the afternoon, Ianto was on his last leg and Jack had practically glazed over completely. In a rare fit of selflessness, Owen had taken the baby from the captain's unresisting arms and sat down on the sofa.
To everyone's surprise, instead of bawling her head off, she'd sat quietly and looked up at him with interest filling her eyes. It had been a tradition, from that moment on, that Niamh went to Owen when the her fathers needed a break. For some reason, he felt a strange protectiveness for the little girl, probably because of how involved he'd been with the difficult situation of her birth.
She was also partly responsible for the relationship that he'd developed with Tosh, as the woman had helped him on many occasion when he'd been babysitting and had needed help. The pair had been together for a little over ten years now.
A new voice snapped him back to the present, making him look up to find who had turned up.
"Seriously? You go to Owen first?" The voice drawled sceptically. Owen rolled his eyes as the girl jumped up and rushed to the figure leaning on the doorframe.
"Daddy!" She flung herself at the man and hugged him hard, burying her face in the strong chest as arms came around her to return the embrace. After a moment, she tilted her head back and looked up, smiling happily.
"Hey, sweetheart." The man leaned forwards and kissed her on the forehead gently. "But still, you go to Owen first?"
"I guess there's something about me that attracts the female population, Jack." Owen replied, a grin on his face as he looked up at the captain.
"Careful, Harper, that's my little girl you're talking about." He growled, the humour in his eyes betraying the glower fixed on his face. "By the way, do you know where Ianto is? I haven't seen him in a while."
"Nope, sorry… Probably in his precious archives or making coffee." Owen had turned back to the dead body and Jack snorted gently, turning Niamh and himself away, heading back into the main section of the hub and towards Tosh's workstation. He reached a hand out to ruffle Griff's hair, but the young man ducked at precisely the right time.
"How do you do that?" Jack asked incredulously. The boy twisted in his seat and smiled at his dad as if he was missing something very key in the situation.
"If you insist on 'creeping up' on me whilst I'm looking at a computer, I'm going to see you." He raised his eyebrows and twisted back round, his fingers flying over the keyboard as he inputted more codes, flicking his hair out of his eyes with a casual shake of his head. Jack just rolled his eyes and dropped his arm from around Niamh's shoulders to lean on the back of his son's chair.
"What're you working on?" His eyes flickered between the various computer screens, deciphering and unravelling what they showed to a lesser extent than how Tosh, Ianto and Griff would have done.
"A new command code to open the Rift in specific places, on both ends. A passage, if you will." Griff replied smoothly, without looking away from the screen in front of him. Jack nodded briefly, his natural reaction to being told something like that, something which he very loosely grasped.
"Well, that sounds great. I'll leave this in your capable hands." He turned away, leaving Niamh perched on the desk and watching her brother work. As a second thought, Jack turned back to face them. "Oh, and Griff? Try not to be too disheartened when Tosh whips your butt at the technical genius stuff."
Tosh chuckled to herself and Griffin gave his dad a disapproving roll of the eyes as Jack walked away, hands in pockets, to find Ianto. His first thought was the archives, but when he glanced at his watch, he changed course, betting that the man would be sorting out his usual mid afternoon caffeine dose. He sauntered up the stairs to the kitchen area and as he turned the corner, he saw a sight to make him smile.
Ianto was standing back the coffee machine, biting his bottom lip gently as he filled the mug in his hand up. The concentration across his features was extremely endearing. Over the past sixteen years, the man Jack had fallen in love with had changed surprisingly little. His shoulders were perhaps a little broader, his face a little creased with 'laugh lines' (mostly due to Jack though) and his hairstyle had adapted slightly; his brown hair a little longer and flopping casually over his forehead. It reminded Jack of someone he'd not seen since before Griffin was born.
However, the most marked change to his appearance was the stubble that peppered the lower half of his face. Several years ago now, Ianto had decided that shaving every morning was too much hassle. It had taken Jack a little while to get used to the change, but once he had, the pros dramatically outweighed the cons. Occasionally, he still shaved, just for the variety in the bedroom, but the beard was a given now, and along with the longer hairstyle, it served to make the man as delectable as ever.
Smiling, Jack walked up behind his partner and wrapped his arms tightly around his waist, humming in approval at the smell of the coffee. He buried his face into the side of Ianto's neck and kissed the delicate skin beneath his ear gently. He felt the body in his arms move and pulled away to capture the lips now facing him, growling his appreciation. The kiss was deep and luxurious, a thing to be enjoyed whilst it lasted.
Which wasn't long. After a couple of minutes, there was a call.
"TAD!" Ianto groaned and pulled away from Jack reluctantly, heading to the railing and leaning on it, looking down to find Niamh standing in the middle of the workstations and looking around.
"Up here, sweetheart, what do you need?" Ianto smiled fondly at his daughter as the blue eyes swivelled round to meet his. There was a happy grin and a sudden movement as she waved enthusiastically to him, a greeting which made him chuckle in return.
"I just wanted to say hello." She beamed for a moment more before heading back to the autopsy bay to pester her 'Uncle' Owen again. There'd been several long and painful arguments with her about assisting the medic in his duties. She'd argued that Griff was allowed to help Tosh, so she should be allowed to help Owen. Ianto had argued that Griff's work didn't involve slicing and dicing potentially toxic substances and cataloguing them. Jack had stayed quiet throughout all of them, acting as the neutral zone between times.
Shaking his head in amusement, Ianto turned back to the coffee machine and quickly produced several more mugs of coffee, handing Jack's to him as he piled the rest onto a tray and carried them downstairs. With his usual efficiency, he dropped off Tosh's and Griffin's before moving down to the autopsy bay for the other two.
As he was about to leave the room, he heard the siren go off, alerting everyone to the door opening. With a look of intense excitement, Niamh's head whipped up, her hair flying smoothly over her shoulders as she took the stairs two at a time, passed Ianto and headed up to the workstations. Ianto and Owen exchanged a look before the Welshman decided to follow her.
Niamh was standing by the door, hands clasped behind her back, rocking on her heels impatiently. As the door rolled away, Ianto saw a woman with two little boys, one holding her hand and the other balanced on her hip. In a moment, Niamh was relieving her of the smaller boy and heading back over to the sofa by Tosh's desk.
"Thanks, pet." Gwen smiled as she took a seat next to Niamh and held the second little boy still as he squirmed out of his coat. Niamh just smiled and bounced the toddler on her lap gently, grinning as he chuckled happily, clapping his podgy hands together.
"Hi, Gwen. How're the boys today?" Gwen looked at him with a sarcastic expression.
"I should've learnt from you two having kids this age that it's not just happy families. Luckily, Evan adores Niamh and Gethan's rather taken with Griffin. I'll have to thank him again for putting up with him." She gestured to Tosh's desk where the older of her two sons was tugging on Griffin's sleeve. The good natured young man picked the little boy up and sat him on his lap, handing him a simple puzzle cube for him to work on whilst Griffin himself carried on typing. The work soon smoothed out and continued as if there'd been no interruption.
"He doesn't mind it. Despite the cool, too-smart for school exterior, he's as soft as Jack." Ianto laughed at the snort of disapproval from his son before looking up to find the captain himself walking across the hub, hands in pockets again.
"Hey, Gwen! How're the sprogs? It looks like Torchwood Three's back to being daycare. All we need is Tosh and Owen to have a few and the family's complete!" He grinned, amusement glittering in his eyes at the look on Gwen's face and the look of acute embarrassment on Tosh's .
"I'm sorry about this, Rhys got kept behind, so he couldn't fetch them from school and nursery." Jack waved a hand, dismissing the apology. It wasn't exactly like Griffin and Niamh hadn't visited the hub. In fact, they'd practically been brought up there.
"How is Rhys anyway? Did he get that promotion he was going for?" Jack sat down, taking the newly vacated seat of his daughter, watching as she carried Evan over to Griffin and Gethan.
"Oh! Yes, that's one of the reasons he had to stay late, to work out the scheduling. He's going in a little earlier, but he'll have more time in the afternoon to spend with the boys." She smiled happily, obviously relieved to have her sons taken off her hands for a few minutes. "I don't think he realises how much work a two year old and a five year old can be though. There's plenty of time for that though!"
Jack chuckled and Gwen joined him as Ianto smiled. He knew all too well the stresses of bringing up two small children. Luckily, Griffin had always been a quiet and good natured child, and Niamh had taken her brother's word as law. Their son had been an extremely useful tool in the upbringing of their daughter. The look of complete devotion on the girl's face as she watched and chatted with her brother was a testament to that.
The change in their offspring wasn't the only thing to occur to Ianto over the past few years. For some reason, Jack seemed to have aged as well. Whether it was due to carrying two babies, the cocktail of fertility inhibitors Owen and Jack himself had worked out sixteen years previously or just the man's natural reaction to the passing years, Ianto wasn't sure. What he did know was that while he still looked young for his rough age, he was alot happier being able to grow old with his family. That much was obvious in him.
The not-so-young man was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt familiar arms around his middle again, bringing a smile to his face. Jack rested his chin on Ianto's shoulder and watched the scene before them as well. The fact that the two young people in front of them had come from two amazing mistakes many years before was nothing in comparison to the adults they'd become. Griffin was sharp, caring and very funny whilst Niamh was playful, passionate and intensely stubborn. It wasn't hard to imagine either of them having full and happy lives.
"Griffin?" It was Jack's turn to be snapped out of his reverie as Ianto called to the young man.
"Yes, Tad?" He watched as, with a flick of his hair, the boy turned in his seat, one arm protectively around the little boy sitting on his lap.
"You need a hair cut." Jack knew from experience that Ianto's face was deadpanned and serious as the two pairs of blue eyes met.
"So do you," Griffin didn't miss a beat, whipping his retort right back at Ianto, "and you need to shave."
Everyone was surprised at the low chuckle that echoed from Jack's chest, even Ianto. He swivelled in his arms and looked at him inquisitively. Jack just smirked at him and ran his nose lightly along Ianto's rough jaw line before pulling him into another kiss.
"You do NOT need to see this." Griffin muttered, twisting back around and wrapping his arm around Niamh's head, hand over her eyes and pulling her close to his chest. Both of the men across the room smiled and shared another, deep kiss before Jack pulled himself away a little.
"He's right you know, maybe you do need to shave." Jack looked at Ianto suggestively, making Ianto snort in reply and grin, kissing him hard once more before pulling himself free and heading across the hub to the archives, no doubt to finish a pile of paperwork that Jack had once again refused to do himself. After a couple of minutes, Jack headed over to Tosh's workstation and shoved Griffin's head to the side playfully, messing up his hair a little.
"You really do need a haircut though." There was a growl of disapproval as some of Griffin's more Jack-like traits emerged, but the captain ignored him and strode towards the archive door, hands in pockets and a smug grin on his face. Some things never did change, and his trip to the archives wasn't going to break the trend.