21. 1.15pm Day Two

Jack found Ianto sitting on the bed, as earlier stated.

The only difference from his statement of what he would be doing was that he was asleep.

Jack smiled as he gently removed the laptop, closing it as he placed it by the bed and pulled up the crocheted rug over Ianto's legs. The cast was already dirty. Scuffed and Jack could see a little piece chipped off. Barely a day old and it was looking like a cast ready to be removed at the end of a month long stint.

Ianto's head lolled and he took a deep breath, his forehead furrowing so Jack leaned in and kissed him then he leaned back as Ianto sighed softly and smiled as he settled.

The kids were yahooing faintly downstairs so Jack rose and walked down to watch. Work could wait, after all, they weren't going anywhere. Right?

Then a sensor pinged and Tosh called Owen over, Jack following as Rhys distracted the kids with the animals and the three agents leaned in for a look.

"Can't see, here" Owen muttered as he gently moved the car and they could see what was setting it off.

"Jack, Deer?"

"Yes Owen love?" Jack quipped, then pointed at the screen, "Yeah. See the patches of fur off their hides?"

"Fallout" Tosh said sadly, "Poor things are dying and don't even know it."

"What direction did they come from?" Jack demanded, "If they walked though fallout maybe we can…"

A loud rumbling noise followed by screaming had them all hurtling out in the foyer to see Ianto lying at the bottom of the stairs rolling into his side as Stephen screamed.

"Oh god, that bloody cast" Jack cried as he rushed towards him, "He fell down the fucking stairs!"

"My turn!" Stephen demanded and David argues that he wanted next turn.

"It's a…it's a…" Ianto rolled onto his back and roared with laughter, trying to get his breath back, "It's a two sided staircase, why not take either side?"

"I want your box!" David was pulling at him and Ianto rolled to his hands and knees, revealing the cardboard he had been sitting on.

"Right, remember to lean back." Ianto instructed as he grabbed a box off Stephen and limped back up the stairs, going to the one on the other side of the grand foyer.

He ripped the box flat and then sat down, holding a flap as he shuffled it off, then slid down with more thumping as he shot down the stairs yelling like a banshee.

"YES!" Stephen seized the box Ianto had now broken in and ran up the race David on the other side, the kids all excited and laughing as Ianto rolled to the middle of the floor and star-fished.

"I think I broke my arse" Ianto said to no one in particular, "Always wanted to try that though. That and skydiving. Seems that is out of the question for now but I can tick one off."

"Really" Jack grinned done at him, "You Jones Ianto Jones, are a maniac."

"Oh, so you won't be taking a turn then sir?" Ianto asked with wide eyes and Jack grinned as Owen's yodel split the air.

Ianto twisted to watch as the medic careened down the stairs with a look of total childish glee, slamming into the wall at the bottom as the marble helped him slide across the floor as well.

Owen laughed as he flopped on the floor and Rhys grabbed the cardboard to go up with Micha.

"You OK?" Jack asked softly as he helped Ianto to his feet.

"We lost contact with the northern cell" Ianto said softly, "There were almost thirty of them."

"Oh shit" Jack sighed, "What does the Valiant say?"

"They were hoping it was a power issue but satellite photos show fire" Ianto whispered as he glanced at Tosh who was standing nearby, "Looks like another faction tried to overthrow them."

"Shit" Jack repeated, "We knew this might happen. Those desperate enough will start to go crazy. Attack and pillage."

"Yeah" Ianto stepped back and glanced at Tosh again as she stepped closer, "And they will head this way, right?"

"If they keep going in the same direction they have been…yeah. They will reach here sooner or later." She said softy as she joined the conversation.

"ETA?" Ianto addressed her directly.

"We have two days, maybe three" she confirmed and Ianto walked off muttering about supplies as Jack stared after him.

Two days?

The air would not be clear enough by then to move.

Even as the marauders were killing themselves slowly by moving freely in the fallout, the air remained deadly.

In a week those men would be dead, like those after the livestock yesterday.

But it was a week too long if they would be here in two days.

Jack followed Ianto, knowing he was probably already chewing on a plan.

Liking it or not was another thing.