Title: Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder 12/?
Author: McParrot
Torchwood Team and OCs
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Rating NC 17 for story overall
Warning: not really - genderswap
Summary: Last time Ianto was a woman he was a gorgeous woman. This time he's just himself but female.

Chapter summary: Owen and Tosh have built a new piece of tech – out of nanogenes and an old photocopier.

Back in the hub everyone was clustered in the autopsy room. A larger than life display of a woman's body showed translucent, projected onto the white tile wall. The image was rotating slowly and Owen's voice was giving a one handed commentary, his other arm still in a sling, pointing out systems and organs that showed darker than the main outline. It became apparent that it was no random generic woman they were looking at but a facsimile of Tosh and as they looked down they could see that she had her hand on what looked like the scanning bed of a photocopier. Owen noticed them looking and stopped his graphic description of the state of Tosh's digestive tract. 'Yes,' he beamed at them. 'Fresh meat. Jack, Ianto, step right this way.'

Tosh took her hand off the copier and her image disappeared from the wall. She smiled up at them. 'We did it,' she said proudly. 'Owen and I,' the way she looked at Owen when she said that nearly broke Ianto's heart, 'built this scanner using those alien nanobots…'

'And an old photocopier,' Owen broke in, a wide and unfamiliar smile covering his face, 'and it's just brilliant. Here, Tosh, show them.'

Tosh put her hand back on the plate. The scanning mechanism moved up the length of the plate, exactly like a photocopier, and her image appeared once again projected on the wall, just a generalised body shape, no other details. It was definitely Tosh though, there was no mistaking the profile. 'Now,' she said, 'Owen just needs to…' but Owen was already busy at his key board tapping awkwardly with one hand. 'I put in the right parameters, so here,' and Tosh's skeleton appeared overlaid on her silhouette, 'the skeletal system. And here the soft tissues and organs,' and the image looked pretty much as it had before. 'I can narrow it down,' the image didn't change, 'to show parasitic invasions, signs of illness and the like. But, 'he beamed at Tosh, 'Tosh is in perfect health. Oh here,' suddenly some darker spots appeared on her teeth, 'you have got fillings. Isn't it brilliant? Come on Gwen, you try it.'

Jack and Ianto moved down into the bay as Gwen took Tosh's place. Jack clapped Owen on the shoulder, brushed a hand across Tosh's cheek. 'Well done you two.'

This uncharacteristically happy Owen was a little bit creepy.

Gwen took Tosh's place and her silhouette appeared on the wall. Owen ran through all his parameters and pronounced her healthy too. 'Right,' he said cheerfully, 'Ianto, your turn.'

All of a sudden Ianto could feel something in the air, an anticipation, but not a nice one from Owen and the girls. It was like being the "volunteer" chosen to wait outside while the rest of the cub scouts set up a skit and you just knew that when you came back in the chair you were going to have to sit on would be wet, or the lid you had to lift on the table would have something nasty under it, or some other embarrassing thing was going to happen and everyone was going to laugh at you while you pretended you really didn't mind and it was actually a funny joke.

Ianto realised he was actually afraid to put his hand on the scanner. 'This is some joke isn't it?' Owen was far too cheerful for it to be anything else. 'This is some elaborate set up and you've made the scans on the computer and when I touch the thing, and it is actually only a photocopier without a lid, you've got it set up to give me an electric shock or something.'

Owen was staring at him, open mouthed. 'Jeeze Ianto, paranoid much?' He slapped his hand on the plate and without appearing to touch anything else the scanner moved up the plate and his image appeared on the wall. The flesh around the injuries on his arm showed denser. He didn't even look, just glared at Ianto. He took his hand off. The image disappeared. He indicated the scanner. 'Your turn.'

And that feeling was there again. He moved closer. He didn't have to put his hand on it of course, but he was feeling ridiculous about not wanting to. Maybe Owen had found out that his woman's parts were in the wrong places or something. He put out his hand.

Jack grabbed his wrist. 'Ianto don't.'

Everybody looked at Jack, but Jack's eyes were boring into Owen. Without looking at anyone else Jack ordered, 'Girls out. Go buy some shoes or something but don't come back for a while.' They both opened their mouths as if they were going to protest, then looked at each other and changed their minds. Jack's hand moved from his wrist until he was holding Ianto's hand and they waited. Ianto concentrated on staying calm and casual while his heart pounded irregularly in his chest. He had no doubt that he would find out what this was about soon, but he was starting to feel very anxious. Everybody seemed to know something that he didn't. Jack stared at Owen and no one moved or spoke until the sounds of the girls collecting their handbags and finally the cog door closing behind them showed they had gone.

'Right,' Jack said letting out a slow breath. 'Badly played Owen. Not nice. Not nice at all.'

'Oh come on Jack. It would have been a brilliant reveal. And besides,' his cocky smirk was forced, 'you know I don't do nice.'

'Excuse me, Hello.' Ianto had just about had enough. 'What the fuck is going on?'

Jack gave him a tender smile and it scared the shit out of him. Jack guided his hand over the machine. 'Put your hand on it. Let's see how good it really is.'

'Jack?' Ianto's heart was beating flat out and he had no idea why. Tentatively he reached out and put his hand on the glass. It was quite warm and once the wand underneath started moving he could feel a staticky buzz against his palm, but nothing uncomfortable. His image appeared on the wall, and just for a moment he was disconcerted because it was his new body with the somewhat boxy womanly shape and for some reason he wasn't expecting that. Jack took hold of his free hand and a vague ghostly image of Jack appeared on the wall beside him. The thing was good.

The image was only a silhouette. 'Owen,' Jack ordered quietly.

'Okay,' Owen's fingers tapped at his keyboard and the image illuminated his internal organs, heart, lungs, liver, digestive tract. That must be womb and ovaries, smaller and lower than he was expecting, bladder shown overlapping. He wasn't sure if it was in front or behind. Owen tapped again and a small dot off centre in his womb glowed brighter. Jack sighed.

Ianto looked at the screen, felt Jack's hand tighten its grip. He wanted to reach for his stomach, to feel if there was anything there but he didn't have any spare hands.

'I knew from your bloods,' Owen said softly.

Ianto was still trying to figure out what the hell was going on, even as his mind stuttered with a thought. 'What?'

'Ianto mate,' Owen said gently. 'I don't want you to panic, but you're pregnant.'