13
Jack sighed and rose to find Ianto, his guts-ache was growing.
"Owen? Where's Ianto?"
"Went out" came a terse reply, "What do you need?"
"My stomach is grumpy now" Jack pouted, then his eyes slid to the med-bay, "Owen. Any chance of a wee sneak peek at the bub?"
"Without Ianto here?" Tosh said softly, "The first scan?"
"Just a sneaky one" Jack said softly with a pout that was one of his best, knowing Owen would relent, which he did.
"Come on, just a quickie" Owen huffed, "God, never thought I would say those words to you!"
Jack laughed as he slid onto the table and rubbed, "Such a dull ache, like …I need to take a dump but I tried that already. You think he's just sitting low?"
Owen grunted and placed the wand on Jack's stomach, then frowned.
"Well? Where's the heartbeat?" Jack demanded eagerly.
"Ah…shut up a minute" Owen said softly, as he leaned into the screen and looked with open confusion.
"Owen?"
Owen frowned as Tosh stepped around and her hand moved to her mouth as she looked as well.
"Guys?" Andy asked softly, looking from them to Jack.
""Jack, I don't know how to tell you this…ah…it's …shit." Owen slumped, "Jack, you're not pregnant. It looks like you are definitely at the end of a cycle and what you are feeling is your usual period starting. I don't know what to tell you."
"So…oh gods" Jack gasped with horror, "Are you telling me I've lost it?"
"Mate, I'm telling you there never was one!" Owen sighed as Tosh concurred, apologising as well.
"But the signs were all there. I was …I mean …it felt so real" Jack said as he sat there in shock.
"The most I can say is maybe it's one of those sympathetic ones. A Phantom. You are close to someone who is really pregnant and with your cycle full blown it grabbed and made you think it was you too. Could it be the Lilacs?"
"Maybe" Jack said faintly "Gods. I feel such a fool. I was so sure."
"Yeah, well …sorry mate. I know it's not good news and all I can say is that it all looks healthy. You should have no problem conceiving again but …right now it's a non-event" Owen patted his arm, feeling genuinely sad as he knew what Tosh was going through as well.
"Oh gods" Jack said softly, a new horror occurring to him, "Ianto! Oh gods, he is…shit."
"Oh shit" Andy huffed, "Gonna have to eat some crow there big guy. You know he was crying when he left. Looked like death warmed up."
"I…I need him" Jack sniffled, "He is going to be so pissed at me for how I've been behaving. Ah shit."
Rhys called out from the hub floor, "Tosh? I can't find him, how do you work the tracker thing again?"
Tosh slumped and theatrically stomped up the stairs as Owen smiled softly, watching her go. She had really come out of her shell lately, well, since they finally stopped beating around the bush and she had some moxie, that bird of his.
"Jack" she called out, "Ianto's left the city."
"What?" Jack was moving quickly, "Where is he?"
"I don't know, I have to wait for another satellite to come around" she muttered as her fingers flew across the keyboard, "He's definitely not in the Cardiff area."
"Ah shit" Jack slumped, rubbing at his belly before realising what he was doing. "How do I tell him?"
"He was talking about the nursery" Andy sighed, "How he was going to update it so Byrd could share with her baby brother. He showed me this little crib shaped like a row boat, he had seemed excited about it."
"He did?" Jack said softly, looking back and remembering Ianto approaching with a book that had little page markers in it and he had told him he was tired. Ianto had politely placed the book done and left.
Jack went to his office and found it still sitting in the coffee table, over a week since Ianto had tried to show him and he opened it to find not only a little row boat but an airplane bed that had also been circled with 'Captain's No1' pencilled under it.
Ianto had been nesting and he hadn't even noticed.
Jack flicked through the book as page after page of lovely little things flipped past. Ianto had wanted to share with this him, talk over and possibly buy right down to a sweet little hoodie with a buillt in sling so the baby could be cuddled and carried in the winter months. Ianto had written '3?' next to it.
OK, so now Jack felt like shit.
Then he came to the last page where Ianto had been writing names and was shocked to see that they had all been scribbled out. Some had been quite cute.
The only one not scribbled out had struck at Jack's heart as he looked at it.
'Franklin Jackson.'
Ianto had been prepared to let Jack name their son without any part of himself in there.
Hormonal or not, Jack started to cry softly.
What a fucking mess.