AN: Not quite as quick as the last update, but quicker than some of mine. A Torchwood based chapter this one so Harry this time, but the next chapter will show his day with the Doctor.
Ianto sighed as he set up the boardroom for the meeting, he had a feeling that this was going to be a rather long day. He and Jack had arrived shortly at the Hub shortly after six that morning after dealing with a rift alert that had them running around Cardiff from about four in the morning, leaving Harry with the Doctor for the day. He had a feeling that his son was going to get into all sorts of mischief with the Doctor as his guardian for the day, but he had agreed to the man being his godfather, he really had no-one to blame but himself. He and Jack had agreed between them and made the Doctor promise that there were to be no trips in the TARDIS, so hopefully there wouldn't be too much of a mess to clear when he got home.
Today was sure to be a long one, what with the new recruits arriving at nine, setting everyone up in their roles, getting them all into the Torchwood systems so they could access Mainframe, and the explanation of the Wizarding Wrold to those who were unaware of it. They also had to deal with Gwen, who would no doubt have many opinions about the changes in Torchwood and about Harry and how he would fit into their lives.
Gwen was no doubt going to be unhappy that they had chosen to expand without any input from her. Jack had chosen the new medical personnel, and as Toshiko had mentioned the fact they were a couple was bound to annoy Gwen, even if she did like Martha. Then there was James and Kateryn, that Kateryn would be aware of Torchwood whilst still in the police force and working as their liaison, was not going to sit well with Gwen. The other woman seemed to be of the belief that the police should be kept ignorant and just do as they told them, something that she had no doubt copied from Jack's attitude towards the constabulary. It had however made things difficult for them though, as Gwen who had only been a beat cop had then thought it appropriate now that she was Torchwood to lord it over her former colleagues.
There was also the fact that with more people came more responsibility, Owen was in charge of the medical personnel, Toshiko was going to take charge over James and be the head of their technology and weapons department, small though it was, as although she didn't possess as much knowledge of weapons as Jack or the innate skill that Suzie had she was still incredible with alien weoponary. As Administrator he was technically in charge of them all except Jack, not that Gwen had ever really noticed, except in the week that Jack had been away, but now he would have people working directly under him. Kateryn would report to him and so would Amanda and to a lesser extent Jodi. Everyone else would fall under Jack as field officers, Gwen included, and she was no doubt going to be ill impressed at the fact that she was just going to be one of the others, despite having been with Torchwood before their hire and that Owen and Tosh were rising above her. It wouldn't really matter or occur to Gwen though, that Tosh and Owen were both well respected in their own fields and deserved to lead their respective sections within the Institute.
Owen and Toshiko had already arrived, the four of them having wanted to get an earlier start and be a prepared united front when Gwen arrived. They were hoping that they could deal with all her issues before the new recruits arrived as they didn't want it to overshadow the morning or the newbies to have their first impression of Torchwood to be a squabbling group. He had just left the conference room for the main area of the Hub when the cog door rolled back and Gwen strolled in, pausing as she took in the changes that had occurred in the time that she had been away.
"Where's Jack?" Gwen asked, not allowing for any pleasantries to be voiced.
"He was just heading to the conference room." Ianto replied, noting that both Toshiko and Owen had snuck around them and made their way their silently, leaving Ianto to deal with Gwen, "Shall we join them?"
Gwen turned and walked straight to the conference room ignoring Ianto and leaving him to follow along behind her. As he was behind her he didn't get to see her face at the sight of the conference room set up for fifteen people, but he did get to walk into her when she stopped abruptly right in front of him. He nudged her forward and she entered the room taking a seat next to Toshiko, Ianto having already snuck round her and taken his own seat next to Jack.
"What's going on?" Gwen asked, looking at all the extra settings at the table, a copy of the Torchwood Handbook at every seat, including her own.
"We've expanded." Jack commented, "Your always saying that we need a life outside of Torchwood and I realised that you were right. I have hired another ten members of staff, eight full-time and two part-time, to help lessen the load a bit. With you getting married, and Ianto and I adopting my great grandson it made sense to hire more people so we aren't stretched as thin as we have been."
Gwen stared at him for a moment before speaking, "You and Ianto adopting the child, Jack he needs a normal life, a normal family. Rhys and I will look after him for you, you know we will take good care of him."
"He has a normal family Gwen." Ianto spoke up, not going to allow her to even think she had a chance of winning. "He will stay with Jack and I, we have already adopted him, and no-one will be taking him away from us it's what his parent's would want for him."
Gwen snorted, "Jack's granddaughter didn't know about him, why would she want him to raise her son. Rhys and I have a much more stable relationship, we would be the better option, we know how to look after children, I've looked after my nephew."
Deciding to get it over and done with and out of the bag Ianto spoke, "Jack and my relationship is plenty stable Gwen, in fact we are engaged, and neither of us is sleeping with other people behind our partner's back. As for what Lillian and her husband wanted, I was on their list of guardians for their child and would have had custody of him since her death if it hadn't been for the meddling old man who put Harry with his mother's adopted sister."
"You what? When did you get engaged? Where's your ring?" Gwen shrieked, and although they never spoke, he could see the question in both Owen and Toshiko's eyes as well.
Jack snorted, having not expecting Ianto to out them in such a way, but Gwen's reaction was not unexpected. "Gwen. Do either Ianto or I look like a woman to you? Neither of us is wearing an engagement ring, and our wedding bands are still in the process of being made. When we got engaged is none of your business though and neither is how we raise our son."
Gwen sat staring at him like someone had slapped her, the congratulations from Owen and Toshiko drowning out her snort of derision at the whole situation. Instead she decided to focus back on the child for now. "What do you mean you were on the list of guardians for the boy?"
"I mean that Lillian left a list of people that guardianship was to fall to if something happened to her or her husband. Harry's original godfather is in prison, his godmother your sister is in hospital, next on the list is who I thought he was with, but it turns out as a werewolf he wasn't allowed custody, then I was to be his next guardian." Ianto replied, shocking Gwen into silence.
"How do you know about Alice?" Gwen questioned, not many people knew that she had a little sister who was stuck in hospital for life.
"I knew her, we went to school together, we were friends of a sort." Ianto replied.
"You're a wizard?" Gwen asked. "Why didn't you tell us? Surely you could have been of more help with your magic."
"We knew." Jack replied, "We have known since Ianto was hired, and he uses his magic to help out as much as he can legally. Anyway, that is not important, what is important is that Harry is staying with us and that isn't going to change."
Jack then stood up as he noted the time, "I am going up to have a listen on the plass before I bring the new recruits down. I expect a united front, any issues that you feel need discussed can wait, and you can speak to me about them after this meeting, but we show Torchwood as a team."
The rest nodded to him, watching as he left the room making his way to the invisible lift. Ianto smirked knowing that he was going to stand on that slab and listen in on the conversations that the new recruits were having. The only people that would notice him in Ianto's opinion would be Martha, who had dealt with perception filters before and possibly James due to his work with alien technology. He quickly turned the screen on the wall on, searching for the cctv for the plass so that they could watch the newbies reaction.
They were scattered into three groups; Martha, Tom and Tara as one group, James, Kateryn and Amanda as another, and then off to one side were Jodi, Derek, Aiden and Lysander. Each group seemed to be in heavy discussion about something, and the small smirk on Martha's face told Ianto that she knew that Jack was standing there listening to them all. She seemed to be the only one who had noticed him though as was shown when he stepped off the lift. In the defence of those who hadn't noticed him, every one of them who owned a firearm had it trained on him as soon as they did. So they may not be the most aware of perception filters yet, but they did have good reaction times.
Ianto turned the monitor off after he watched Jack start to lead the newbies toward the tourist office. He looked around the rest of the team, noting that they each seemed a little nervous about the meeting ahead. Owen most likely due to the fact that there was going to be a lot more people than he was used to comfortably playing nice with. Toshiko because she hadn't seen Tara Bartlett since before she was locked up in a UNIT prison, as for Gwen, Ianto was sure she was worried that they may not like her.
When the new recruits entered the room though they looked nothing but professional, nodding to each of them as they entered through the doorway, Jack filtering them in and down the room to seats. He took his place at the head of the table and indicated that everyone should take a seat before he began to talk.
"Introductions." Jack began, "I am Captain Jack Harkness, Director of the Torchwood Institute." He then looked at his team before speaking again. "Ianto Jones, Administrator and second in command. Toshiko Sato, Head of Weapons and Technology. Doctor Owen Harper, Chief Medical Officer. Gwen Cooper, Field Agent." He indicated each member of his original team as he spoke, then turned and looked at the new recruits. "Introduce yourself, one at a time, name and roll."
Martha, sat next to Owen, was the most at ease and comfortable with the situation having met all the team before decided to start. "Martha Jones, Doctor." She looked to Tom on her right and the ball started rolling.
"Tom Milligan, Paediatrician."
"Tara Bartlett, Pyschiatrist."
"Amanda Jenkins, Admin assistant."
"Lysander Malfoy, Field Agent."
"Derek Brown, Field Agent."
"Kateryn Parker, Police Liaison."
"James Parker, Weapons expert."
"Aiden Millar, Field Agent."
"Jodi Scott, Field Agent/Intelligence Agent."
"Right," Jack spoke up, "Now that we are all acquainted. In front of you is a handbook, read it, memorise it, I'm told that there will be a test." He shared a small smile with Ianto at that, while Owen snickered a bit under his breath, nothing that Tosh's foot to his shin couldn't cure.
"Okay, so Torchwood. I don't need to go into a lot of detail, you've all worked for UNIT in some form or another, you'll of heard of us. Basically, outside the government, beyond the police, arming the human race for the future." Jack spoke. "We all know aliens exist, that while a big part of what we do isn't the only concern."
Jack looked around the table, before speaking again, "How many of you are aware of the magical world?"
Jack and Ianto both chuckled as a few heads snapped up at the words 'magical world' and the look of shock on the faces of the three new male field agents. It turned out that those three and Martha were the only ones who had any real knowledge of that world. Jack then turned to Ianto allowing him to take over the briefing for this part at least.
Ianto then spent the next hour explaining about the magical world, Torchwood's role in the magical world, his role, and pretty much everything else that he could think of. Then they split the group up, sending Martha and Tom off with Owen, Amanda, Kateryn and James off with Toshiko and the field agents minus Jodi off with Gwen for a tour.
"So Miss Scott," Jack began once it was just them and Ianto, "what was it that you uncovered that led to your suspension?"
"Experimental time travel, scavenged from Sontaran technology." Jodi replied before going into further explanation of what she had found out.
Once they had finished their meeting they all regrouped as one so that Ianto could give them a quick tour of archives before lunch. Ianto had been right about the day being an exceptionally long one, the rift had thankfully behaved for the rest of the day, but it was still late by time he and Jack had left the hub.
All in all though it had been a good day, the newbies were all logged into the system, they had been briefed on their role as Torchwood, their role in Torchwood, had Owen poke and prod at them and had been introduced to their long term residents Janet and Myfanwy.
Ianto just hoped that Harry had managed to keep the Doctor in line over the course of the day. He really didn't want to have to go home and tidy up after the errant Time Lord. All he wanted to do when he got in was listen to how Harry's day was before putting him to bed, then crawling into bed himself with Jack to sleep for as many hours as they could manage.