Trains, Planes and Automobiles

- March 4699, Cardiff

The day had been a busy one for everyone and Ianto was happy to sit on the couch and stretch out his legs in front of him. The family was in the middle of relocating their home from here in the Castle to a new apartment in a building on the other side of the city and Ianto was spending most of his time at the latter, supervising the builders and answering their seemingly never ending questions about the minutest detail. He had been late in today, held up by a debate about the location of a cupboard, just managing to join the family for the evening meal. As he and Jack had hardly seen Holly and Owain for the past couple of days, they were now all four ensconced on the couch ready to enjoy some family time.

Ianto put his arm round Holly, sat between her fathers, and hugged her. She had had her bath and was in her sleep suit all ready for bed and smelt of the special floral fragrance she'd selected for her sonic bath. "How about a story, sweetheart?" he suggested.

"Oh, yes please, Tad!" She bounded up, "I'll choose." She was off to the bookcase where a selection of children's books was kept. She knelt down and frowned as she looked at them; although only able to read a few words herself, she knew what each book contained from the covers.

"Let's have something other than Black Beauty," said Jack. He had charge of Owain who at fourteen months was a handful. He had got over his noisy stage, at least when Jack was around, and was now beginning to take an interest in picture books. The boy was sitting calmly on his dad's knee, leaning back and contentedly sucking on a corner of his blanket while smiling at his tad.

Reluctantly, Holly replaced Black Beauty on the shelf. It was her current favourite book and she adored it, crying every time the poor horse was mistreated. On the bottom shelf she found Wind in the Willows and decided on that one, partly because it was long and Tad might let her stay up late to read it and partly because it was one she did not know very well. Back at the couch, she settled herself in the space between Ianto and Jack, handing the book to her tad.

"Ah, I always liked this one," said Ianto, running his hands over the binding. He opened the book, a paper one, and held it to his nose getting just a faint whiff of the 'new book' smell – a mixture of print and paper. "I'm so glad paper books are still around."

"They're be around a while longer," said Jack. "A new library's being built which will hold one copy of all the books ever written."

"That's a lot of books," said Holly, snuggling under Ianto's arm.

"It is and the library's going to take up a whole planet." Jack shifted Owain a little; his arm was going to sleep.

"Wow, that's big."

"It sure is."

"Are you ready for this story then, young lady?" asked Ianto.

"Yes." Holly looked over at the now open book and saw her tad was not starting at the beginning, he was rifling through until he found the page he wanted. "You gotta start at the beginning," protested Holly.

"This is a long book and I want to get my favourite bit. You don't mind, do you?" he asked, looking down at her bright face.

"I suppose not." Her eyes settled on the page, which was all words, and made ready to listen. Ianto began and Holly listened carefully until one bit didn't make sense. She frowned and looked up at her tad. "What's a car?" she asked.

"That's a car," said Ianto, pointing to an illustration of Toad driving an ancient vehicle.

"Yes but what is it? What's it for?"

"It's for getting around." Ianto saw her blank look and realised that this 47th century daughter of his had never seen such a vehicle except in history or story books. "Before teleports everyone had one of these and used it to drive from one place to another, like from home to work."

"Why?" Ianto opened his mouth but wasn't sure how to describe it when she had no frame of reference for transport of the type. Luckily, Jack came to his rescue.

"Long ago, from the time when I met Tad, towns and cities were connected by roads which were like large walkways. People would get into their car at home and drive along the roads to their work and at the end of the day they'd drive back again. It was very smelly and took lots of time but there wasn't anything better." Jack moved Owain again, he really was getting heavy. He recalled the days of driving the Torchwood SUV around Cardiff and smiled at the memory. Flying a flivver was fun too but without the danger of collision it did not have the same thrill.

"Why didn't they walk?" asked Holly, looking from one of her fathers to the other.

"Mostly, it was too far," replied Ianto. "When we built the house at Ogmore, your dad and I couldn't have walked there from here."

"Why not use a flivver?"

"Fivv!" cried Owain, recognising one of the words he knew well. He loved the trip to Ogmore, often sitting on Jack's knee as he piloted the craft.

"There weren't flivvers, love," said Jack, tickling Owain and making him giggle. "Only big planes that went from one city or country to another."

"What's a plane?" Holly was finding this very confusing.

"Like a flivver," began Ianto, "but with big engines and carrying hundreds of people at a time."

"Hundreds! And they all wanted to go to the same place?"

"Well, mostly. Back then you had to travel to the nearest airport and then get into a car or a train to where you really wanted to be." As he explained Ianto realised how time consuming and tiring it had been to get from one country to another. His trips to Italy, which now took him less than half an hour each way, would have taken all day with barely any time for business.

"A train?" queried the girl, "like Thomas?" She and Owain still enjoyed the Thomas the Tank Engine books even though the technology was so far outside their daily lives.

"Yes, like Thomas." Ianto did not feel up to explaining how trains had developed from the small steam engines into large electric monsters. "Now, shall we get on with the story?"

Holly nodded and settled back into her place to listen. Her tad was good at reading stories; he made them exciting with different voices for each character. She also liked his accent which she'd been told was Welsh. Sometimes she heard herself say words just as he did and was pleased. A little further into the story she was looking at a picture of the car again and noticed something odd.

"Tad," she interrupted, "what are those?"

"What?"

"Those." She out a finger on the part of the car that she didn't understand. "Those round things."

"Wheels." Ianto looked down at her in confusion, was he misunderstanding her?

"What's a wheel?"

On the other side of her, Jack chuckled at the ingenuous question while Ianto looked flummoxed. Holly looked from one to the other, wondering why they didn't answer her, it seemed perfectly valid to her. She'd only seen wheels in books, like Black Beauty when a poor horse had been made to pull a coal wagon, and had never understood why they were there. The discussion about cars and planes and trains had reminded her to ask.

"Holly, surely you know what a wheel is." He stared at her and she shook her head. Then he considered and realised that anti-grav technology had replaced wheels on everything. It was used for travel, for moving heavy items and even for baby chairs. All her toys used it rather than wheels. He saw Holly was still looking at him, waiting for an answer. "Jack, help."

"Okay, let's try and explain." He ran a hand over Holly's soft curls and thought of the simplest examples. "A wheel is round, as you can see from the picture." He pointed to the illustration that had started the discussion. "They go round and round and can be used to move heavy weights around, like a car with people in it, by rolling along the ground easily. Before anti-gravs were invented, that's how people managed to move themselves and their belongings from one place to another. Understand?"

"I think so," she said slowly. "But horses had to pull wagons and cabs. What pulls a car?"

"Well spotted, young lady. Wheels just go round and round," Jack went on, "and have to either be pulled along, pushed or driven mechanically, by an engine. The coal wagon," Jack had been required to read Black Beauty so often lately she knew exactly what she was referring to, "needed a horse to pull it but a car has an engine that drives the wheels round."

Holly was silent as she considered this and she thought it made sense. It seemed a very odd way of going about things but then people who lived a long time ago did lots of strange things. "Do trains have engines?" she asked finally, remembering that Thomas had wheels.

"Thomas is the engine," said Ianto. "He pulls all the carriages and wagons behind him. In fact, trains used to be called iron horses at one time because they worked in the same way."

"But trains have tracks." Holly was determined to get to the bottom of this very confusing and complicated explanation.

"They did," put in Jack. "They were very heavy as they were built of iron and steel and they pulled heavy loads so they needed an iron track to run on while cars, which weren't as heavy, could use lighter roads." He looked down at Owain who had been quiet for a while and saw he had dropped off to sleep; he gently pulled the blanket out of his mouth.

"Did these other things, planes, have wheels?"

"Yes, to help them take off." Ianto saw the girl's confusion. "A plane had to build up speed on the ground to get sufficient lift to get into the air. They ran along special runways, like big roads, and then would take off into the air and fly on to their destination where they'd use another runway to land."

"Oh."

Ianto held her tight. "I know it's confusing, sweetheart. But don't worry about it now, it'll make sense as you get older." He often used this formula when Holly asked difficult questions and, luckily, it worked again. "Now, back to Mr Toad!"

"I'm going to put this one to bed," said Jack, standing up. "Won't be long."

He walked into the bedroom, making sure not to wake the boy; Owain was sharing Jack and Ianto's room until the new apartment was finished. It was the work of a moment to put him in his cot and tuck him in. He made sure Foo-Foo was close and that the covers were keeping him warm before setting the force field and monitor. He was about to return to Ianto and Holly when he got an idea. Five minutes later, he rejoined his family in the living room placing the items he had found on the coffee table. Ianto's voice faltered as he saw what they were and he glared at Jack.

"Go on, Tad," said Holly, moving to sit on her dad's knee once he had sat down.

Ianto recovered and continued to read. He reached the end of the chapter about ten minutes later and decided to stop there. "I think that's enough for tonight." He closed the book and risked another glance at the coffee table.

"In that case, I have something to show you, gorgeous." Jack kissed Holly's forehead and eased her off his knee. He knelt beside the coffee table. "You see these?" he held up the small, hard rubber balls. "If I put this stylus in here and here they get linked up. See?" he showed the girl two balls with the stylus between them like an axle. "Now, I'm going to do it again and join then all together." He made another axle and with two more styli linked them together making a square with a ball at each corner.

"What are you going do with it?" asked Holly, uncertain. Ianto shared her uncertainty. He had recognised the balls as those used by Jack and himself in ways he would rather Holly knew nothing about. Ever. Never ever.

"This." Jack placed a piece of thin plastic on top of the triangle and then sat a plastic duck on top of that. "Now, recognise it?" Jack looked over expectantly.

"No." Holly shook her head.

"It's a car. Well, not a proper one but it'll give you the basic idea. See, when I push it," he gave it a nudge, "it rolls across the table carrying the duck."

"Like Mr Toad!" cried Holly, clapping her hands. "Oh, that's clever." She was now off the couch standing beside Jack. She reached out and pushed the 'car' and it moved. She giggled delighted with the demonstration.

"Do you understand, Holly?" asked Ianto. "The wheels go round and carry the duck along."

"Yes, I see now," she confirmed. "And if there's a horse or an engine, then Dad wouldn't have to push it."

"Absolutely right," agreed Jack, catching her around the waist and giving her a hug. "The wheel is probably the most important thing people have ever invented. Without it, so many things wouldn't have been possible."

"Thanks for explaining, Dad."

"I like explaining things, if I can." He grinned at her and kissed her nose. "Now, I think it's bedtime. Is that right, Tad?"

"Yes, it is. Come on, sweetheart." Ianto stood and took the girl's hand.

"Can I have the car?" she asked, looking at the little model. "I want to show it my friends." Over her head, Ianto shook his head violently; cars made of sex toys were not going anywhere!

"This one's not very good," said Jack amused at Ianto's reaction. "I'll get some proper parts tomorrow and then we'll make another, better one that you can take to playschool. How about that?"

"Thank you, Dad." She threw her arms round his neck and then happily trotted off to bed.

Jack smiled as dismantled the model and decided these small balls had languished in the drawer for way too long. He was still smiling when Ianto came back into the room.

Hope you liked that.