12
"Winkle?" Jack said softly as he searched, turning his back for a second and the little bugger showing she was more mobile than he had thought. He crouched to look under the chair and she was there, curled up asleep.
"You poor little stink" he sighed, lifting the surprisingly heavy chair carefully to expose her and lifting her to carry to his bed and he settled her to a more comfortable sleep. After thinking for a moment he lifted a box and gently placed it over her, hiding her from the world and he sat back.
"Some sleep in little baskets"
Jack stood as he swung to see Ianto there, again sneaking up the stairs in stealth mode, "I know they have pockets for them when newborn, carry then about inside their clothes."
"I need to sort something more permanent" Jack frowned as he looked back at the bed.
"I suggest a box, like that but wooden on its side so she can crawl in and out. Hide and seek. She will come into your bed at night but even in the day she is so little she will seek a hidey-hole." Ianto informed him.
"Josh. He was the same age?" Jack asked.
"Two. He's two and a half now" Ianto answered as he moved to look at the screens and Jack took a breath.
"You know he's still alive? Gwen said…"
"Gwen is full of shit. She knows nothing about loss or fear. Pain. She has all she loves, she has never lost someone" Ianto snapped, then looked sorry for it, "She rubs me wrong but to have Rhys I must have her. I fear one night I might feed her to them by accident… maybe with glee."
Jack snorted as he saw that image, "wouldn't be that hard."
"A tent" Ianto suddenly said, "A little tent"
Jack perked up as he rose to his feet, "I can sort some branches and put a sheet over them, a wee room just for her. Yeah, she would like that, right? A little room within a room."
"I will go sort some sheets to choose from, some bedding for inside it. She will like that Jack" Ianto smiled, "Well one."
It wasn't until Jack was sorting the thin ranches while Winkle played with a switch that was a pretend horse that he realised Ianto had been the one with the idea, so easily passing it off as his and he laughed.
Coned.
How about that.
.
.
.
.
That night they came.
Jack glanced at the lump in his bed, hoping she would not rouse as Ianto stood defiantly in the open, his head high as he stared down the thing that was once his wife.
"Leave. We have an agreement. Leave and the little one will not know you were here. Please Lissy, leave" Ianto said softly, the thing stepping closer as Jack felt his mouth go dry. Another had stepped behind him and Ianto was now surrounded but showed no fear.
"If I fall, all is lost. You know this. We all know this. The delicate line is scrubbed raw" Ianto hissed, "Go, do your thing somewhere else. You made a choice, we all make them. I have made mine. The baban is safe."
The thing turned and gave a soft chuffing bark that signalled an end to the confrontation but as they moved off one spun and seized Ianto's arm. Jack roared as Ianto cried out, slamming his fast into the thing's face and it dragged him off his feet.
It was quick.
The huge black thing attacked, tearing the smaller male apart as Ianto crawled towards the porch, Owen appearing with a rifle that he fired into the air.
"Fuck off ya bitch, go on. Fuck off or the next bullet is aimed at a certain skull" Owen screamed in a high pitched voice showing his fear.
Ianto reached the steps and pulled himself to his feet, turning to watch the Others disappear.
"Are you OK?" Jack came out of the dark, his Webley drawn at his side.
"We need to clean this up before sunrise." Ianto said as he ignored the question, his gaze fixed on the Webley like it was an exotic creature "The house will wake soon, probably did from the noise. Go in and tell them it's OK, Jack and I will sort the pieces."
Jack looked at the stables, "Winkle slept through it thank the gods. So Owen, can you go see if Andy will go though to sit with her will you?"
Owen nodded and went in leaving the two men to pick up the bits of monster.
"Would Owen have shot her?" Jack asked after awhile and Ianto snorted.
"The threat was not to her, I was one of the things she loved enough to have a remnant of recognition still" Ianto replied and Jack laughed softly.
"An empty one. There is no way he would harm you let along aim a gun at your skull" Jack said, "She will know that. One day she will forget you, one day she will take you down like she did this thing. You know that, right?"
"Never" Ianto replied, "She loves too much. The only protection this house has. We will never risk it but she also knows the day might come when I bite back."
Jack straightened up from picking up pieces to look at the man hefting a hunk of creature into the wheelbarrow.
What the hell did that mean?
