As usual, big thanks to starwefter for leaving the review :)

Chapter Eleven

Lying on the sofa, Ianto opened his eyes to find that the room he was in wasn't his own; however he did recognise his surroundings. He was in Gwen and Rhys' apartment. Can it be?! Swiftly his hands were raised into the Welshman's view that also scanned down the body he inhabited.

"Yes!" There was a gasp of joy and relief at finding himself back inside his own body, the Maroon Esprit's effecting having worn off during the slumber both parties had been in. Turning and craning his neck, he saw his colleague curled up asleep on the armchair adjacent to him. "Gwen?" He received no answer from her so proceeded to get up from where he lay. Big mistake.

The moment his feet were supporting his weight, Ianto felt dizzy and lost his balance only to end up kneeling on the floor. His head was clutched in both hands as though it would help to stop the spinning feeling. He knew instantly that Kisara must have taken use of the body switch to have the opportunity to drink alcohol the previous night. Hopefully she hadn't consumed enough to leave him with a hangover, which he could really do without, since he still had the best man's speech to prepare.

Gwen's eyes slowly flickered open at the sound of the groaning that met her ears. She looked down at the man kneeling on her living room floor. "Ianto, - I mean Kisara, - are you okay?"

"You were right with your first guess, and yes I think I'm going to be okay."

"Ianto!" She leapt from the armchair and embraced him tightly. "Thank god, I'm glad everything is back to normal."

"Me too. I'm sure that if I was to marry Seto it would traumatise me for life." He eased her from him so that he could breathe. "How much did Kisara have to drink last night?"

"Not much." She frowned at being pushed away. "Just a couple of drinking games with watered down knock-off spirits that Rhys bought from Banana and his dodgy dealings…"

A wailing sound erupted from the bedroom as Anathema opened the door. "Mommy Kara, Mommy Kara!" She walked down the hall hugging tightly at her bunny plush and froze in the living room doorway when she saw her uncle Seto's two friends. "Where's Mommy Kara!"

"She's not here right now." Gwen spoke softly as she got up to her feet and watched the little girl drop the toy, now rubbing the tears from her eyes with clenched little fists. "What's wrong Sweetie?"

"I had a bad dream."

"Do you want to tell me and your uncle Ianto all about it?"

"No!" Anathema shouted as the woman, who was still unfamiliar to her, stepped closer. "I want my Mommy Kara!" She turned and raced towards the bathroom.

Gwen followed but was too late to stop the four year old from locking the door. The sound of the little girl's sobs almost broke her heart and she tried to coax her into opening the door. "Come on Sweetie, don't be silly, open up."

"No, I want Mommy Kara." The crying became heavier.

Ianto had picked up the plush which had been discarded and now stood outside the bathroom as he also attempted to talk to his friend's niece. "You dropped your bunny rabbit. I think he's lonely without you. Why don't you open up and give him a big cwtch?"

The crying paused while a little voice asked. "What's a cutch?"

"A hug."

"I just want Mommy Kara." The crying started again. "She understands me."

"We will too if you just talk to us." Gwen assured. "I tell you what, you come out and we'll all go and find her, how does that sound?" Hopefully she'd be able to persuade Anathema into cooperating with them to be able to get to Kisara, who'd be waking, - if she hadn't already woken up, - in Ianto's flat. They'd need to get ready for the wedding there too anyway. "You don't want to ruin your mommy Kara and uncle Seto's big day now do you?"

There was no answer from behind the bathroom door, though the cries had become softer.

"We'll get you some sweets." Ianto added in his attempt to bribe her similar to the way he did his own nephew and niece each time he visited them, which wasn't that often, hence the bribe for their affection. He crouched down so that he'd been more level with her if, - when, - she came out. Also, his head didn't feel so bad the closer it was to the ground.

The crying stopped and a faint rattling could now be heard as the lock was slowly released.

Gwen's voice was a low whisper as she spoke down towards her friend. "Ianto move so that I can jab my foot in the door once …"

"Don't!" He whispered back. "You'll just scare her and she'll likely do the same thing again, only it'll take us even longer to get her out." A blank look was all he received. "I had a similar experience with Mica last year …" His words trailed off as a gap appeared between the door and its framework and a pair of bright blue eyes peered out at him.

"Where's Mr Hoppy?"

"Right here." Ianto smiled and jiggled the plush around so that it looked like it was waving back to its owner. "He really wants that cwtch."

Anathema smiled back and stepped out of the small room to reclaim her toy. She snuggled it close to her and then without warning, threw herself at the Welshman. Her move was so unexpected that it almost knocked him off the balance of his arched feet.

"Aww, look at you two." Gwen cooed in a silly voice.

The tone that had been used to voice his colleague's observation made Ianto feel even more uncomfortable than he was already feeling. There were only three people in his life that he ever felt comfortable enough to allow them to hug him and hug back in return. One of them was Jack, the other two his mother and sister. But the tiny little arms wrapped around him right now made his heart melt and added another name to his short list. It was almost like the kind of bond he longed for from his own nephew and niece which had never quite taken off during the rare occasions that he saw them.

After a clink of the lock, the front door of Gwen's home opened and in thundered two Welshmen in an unruly manner.

"I'm dying for a piss!" Banana Boat exclaimed to his friend before his view caught sight of the three people in the hall outside the bathroom door.

"Alright Lovely!" Rhys ignored the man behind him and greeted his wife. "How was your night?"

Frightened by the appearance of the two men, Anathema fled from the embrace she was in and locked herself back inside the small room. Neither Gwen nor Ianto was quick enough to stop her as their hands hit the closed door just a fraction of a second too late. "I want Mommy Kara!"

A heavy frustrated sigh escaped the woman's mouth as she shot her husband and his friend a heated look. "Thanks a lot!"

"What? What did I do now?"

With a hand gently massaging his eyes and temples, Ianto rose back onto his feet. The faint throbbing of his head still occurred and he bit back the bitter feeling towards his colleague's other half for having ruined the moment he'd had with the little girl and undoing the hard work of getting her to come out of the bathroom in the first place. "Come on Gwen, they can take it from here."

"Okay, just give me a minute to grab my things." Gwen disappeared into her bedroom to retrieve her outfit and make-up which she'd need for the wedding. "I'll give Seto a call too, tell him that he'll have to come and get Anathema." She shouted as an afterthought.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rhys held his arms up, palms facing his wife's work colleague as he approached the front door. "Where are you two off to?"

"Kisara needs us to help her get ready for her big day." Ianto began to explain. "We can't leave Anathema on her own and it's going to take at least twice as long to coax her out this time around. That's just time we don't have to spare right now so it looks like you two will playing babysitters until …"

"But I need to piss!" Banana Boat moaned cupping himself as the urge to pass urine was becoming too overwhelming for him to handle. "Like now!"

"Go use the sink." Rhys sent his friend off in the direction of the kitchen.

"Where's he going?" Gwen asked as she exited the room, hanging up on her call, a sports bag flung over her shoulder.

"Stuffing his face." Her husband smiled in his cover-up way.

"You better sterilise that sink, or I'll have your head Rhys Williams." She knew exactly what the other man was intending to do.

"Yes Love." He mumbled and should have known better than trying to deceive her.

"Goodbye then." Gwen leaned close and kissed him farewell. "Seto and Jack are on their way round, and I'll see you at the Millennium centre in a little while." She followed Ianto out of the door as they made their way over to his flat.

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Kisara's eyes slowly fluttered open as the sunlight coming through the tiny gap in the curtains' parting landed across her face. She was sat slumped forward with her chin on her folded arms that were resting on the tabletop. Directly in front of her was a sewing machine with waves of shimmering white material positioned underneath its needle.

Swivelling her head around, she realised that she must have been in Ianto's flat and that he had fallen asleep whilst working on her dress, which from the looks of it, had been coming along quite nicely. Her heart somersaulted with joy at being returned back to her own body again and a weak smile crossed her face. In just a few hours time she'd be getting married but how far from completion was her wedding gown?

Carefully she sat up straight, making sure not to knock the huge mug of dark stone-cold coffee on the table to her right, and examined the sewing machine. She found that the thread in the needle had become tightly tangled and knotted with the fabric and attempt to free it with a little tug.

Nothing.

She tugged a little harder and it gave a tiny bit but was still stuck. Surely one hard yank would be enough to drag it free? Kisara did just that and like she had assumed, the whole gown came away, albeit more easily than she had expected. With it clutched in both hands she staggered to the side and toppled the coffee mug which spilt its contents down onto the white folds.

All she could do was stare in silent horror at the mess at her feet. The gown which Ianto had worked so hard throughout the night to create now lay as a heap drenched in cold coffee. It was nothing short of ruined and all her fault. Tears began to form in her eyes as time seemed to have lost all of its meaning. No!

The intercom of the Welshman's flat began to buzz and brought Kisara out of her trance. She approached the electronic box located on the wall and pressed a button before speaking into the microphone that would relay her voice to those outside. "Hello? Who's there?"

"It's us." Ianto calmly stated.

Without a second thought she pressed the button which would allow her two husband's friends to enter the building and waiting for them to walk through the flat's front door. What was she meant to say to them about the dress?

The door opened and Ianto stepped in with Gwen right behind him. "And just how is the bride this morning?" He asked brightly only to see a tearful face staring back at him.

"I've done something stupid." She spoke in a shaky voice, still stunned by what she had done, and then lead them back into the room to show them what had happened to the dress.

Ianto's eyes widened from the sight he saw as the mound of white satin lay on the floor with coffee stains all over it. He'd stayed up all night to try and finish the dress and now …

"It was an accident; I didn't mean to ruin it!" Kisara blurted out in a sob as she saw the look appear on the Welshman's face. "All I was trying to do was free it from the sewing machine."

"Don't worry." He assured her in his usual composed manner. "These things happen…"

"Well, they wouldn't have happened if you hadn't had a mug of coffee close by!" She exclaimed as she hit him in an act of irritation from seeing her fiancé's friend remain so calm. "I told you, no caffeine!"

"Easy, easy does it now." Gwen soothed the silvery haired woman away from her colleague. She understood the frustration felt as so far everything seemed to be going wrong for this poor girl and her wedding day. But that still didn't give her the right to take it out on others, especially on the man who had bent over backwards to help her.

Ianto took the chance to swiftly leave the room.

"All I wanted was one day, - one perfect day, - is that too much to ask?" Kisara was close to tears as Gwen held her at arms length.

"Look on the bright side." The Welshwoman smirked as she attempted to light-hearten the situation. "It could be worse."

"I don't see how it could."

"At least you're not pregnant." That got a faint smile out of her as she began to retell her own real life wedding nightmare. "And there isn't some vicious alien being chasing you and trying to…"

"Here we go." Ianto re-entered the room holding a shimmering white gown on a hanger. "One wedding dress for the beautiful bride." He saw two gob-smacked faces looking at him like he'd just pulled a rabbit out of a hat and grinned. "Once I finished the main part of the dress, I kept it in my room. What you see on the floor is the train that I was attempting to make for it but didn't have enough time to complete."

Kisara raised both hands to cover her open mouth. Her eyes were prickling from the sight of the dress and she closed them, sending a stream of tears down her checks, sobbing all the while.

"That's not quite the reaction I'd expected." The deadpan tone seemed almost disappointed.

Gwen looked at the dress that had been knocked up without a pattern and in the short space of time. It wasn't a bad attempt but didn't look like anything that you'd find hanging on the rail of a bridal shop. How was she meant to compliment it without seeming insulting? "Very nice sweetheart, look's a bit like a helter-skelter in a snowstorm."

"Oh." Ianto sighed. That didn't sound good at all; no wonder Kisara was crying her eyes out at the monstrosity, - which he'd worked hard over, - presented before her.

A small high pitched squeak left the sobbing woman's mouth.

"Pardon?!" Both Ianto and Gwen exclaimed in unison. Had they just heard her correctly?

Wiping her eyes dry and with a huge smile on her face, Kisara took a deep breath to regain her composure before repeating what she had just said. "It's perfect!" Her voice was nothing short of pure sincerity for all the trouble the Welshman had gone to, to make the dress for her. "I wouldn't have dreamt or considered such a concept, but seeing this dress … It's just too beautiful for words. Thank you Ianto." She wrapped her arms around him.

"Don't mention it." He was dumbfounded by the praise he'd received and saw that Gwen was too. His cheeks were burning and he wriggled himself free from the embrace. "We had better start getting ready." A little nervous laugh to hide his uncomfortable feeling. "Don't want to be late for your big day after all."

"Of course." Kisara smiled back. How was she ever going to repay him for what he had done? Her stomach flipped and whirled violently. "Where's your bathroom?"

"In the hall, second left."

"Thank you." She raced off as fast as she could.

Ianto casually hung the hanger on the back of the room door before moving to clear up the messy heap on the floor. He caught Gwen smiling at him as she watched his every move. "What?"

"Isn't there anything you can't do?"

With a smug smile he replied, "I guess not."

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A/N: A couple of things were cut from this chapter due to the fact that they didn't blend too well with the rest of it as it just seemed to ramble on into nowhere at all. The first thing being that I had Rhys ask why Kisara wasn't at the flat and the second had Banana Boat make more homophobic comments. In short, they had no 'real' purpose to the story telling so had to go.

KG