The sounds of fighting were the first things to drift through the doorway as it steadily swung open. As Jack swung the door open he could hear the audible gasps behind him. The Pirask were in fine form, going all out in their training session. The drones buzzed around the firing the odd laser as the three Pirask spared. Their movements were often too fast to see, the sounds of the blows they dealt to each other could be heard from the other side of the warehouse sized room, some of them even echoing around the space. They weren't just on ground level either, they often flipped up onto the other levels and beams without even pausing in their sparing.
Andre was off to the side watching the action playing out before him. He was shirtless and covered in sweat, a water bottle clutched in one hand, almost empty, he'd obviously been training with the other three until they'd decided to up the level past him.
"Oh my lord," Gwen whispered and Jack couldn't help grinning back at his stunned followers.
"You've seen them use their abilities before haven't you?" Jack asked knowing full well that they must have seen them in the past few months, either on missions or if nothing else when they came to rescue him.
"Not like this," Tosh replied watching the action as closely as possible. Jack could already see she was over her initial shock. Tosh's ability to take on what she saw and accept, especially in regards to those she cared about, was one of the things Jack loved about her.
Andre spotted them over by the door and with a slight nod gestured for them to join him in the sitting area, which still contained all the cushions and blankets Jack had chosen and placed there when he'd first built the room.
"I didn't even know this place existed," Owen said flopping down onto the cushions as everyone took a seat where they could see the action still playing out above them.
"If I remember rightly, until we opened it up to form the living areas the only rooms on the levels this low down were empty," Tosh explained leaning back slightly so her shoulder was pressed against Andre.
Jack glanced at the pair and smiled, he was happy that they had managed to find someone, something good in a time like this and they did make the cutest couple.
"Ianto and I were the only ones who came down here after I built it. Then Ari, Dex and Andre came down later." Jack replied watching as his mate gracefully moved around the room with his two oldest friends.
"Why did you build all this?" Gwen asked but Jack didn't feel the need to answer her so he simply continued to watch the fight, he could feel Andre's eyes burning into him and he glanced over to find the other man smiling at him.
"Was this what I think it was?" Andre asked, Jack felt his ears burn and not for the first time, he was grateful he could stop himself blushing, a trick he'd had to learn as a conman.
Andre however could smell his embarrassment and chuckled his older friend. Tosh looked between the two men curiously before she turned to Andre for answers. Jack sighed knowing that if his suspicions were correct Andre would tell Tosh just to make her happy. Jack refused to look at the others when he answered but he knew it would be more embarrassing for them to hear it from Andre.
"It was a courtship present for Ianto, when I asked him to become my mate," Jack replied and noticed with some amusement that the entire group had fallen deathly silent behind him and were probably now staring at him in shock. Jack realized he actually didn't care so he just kept his eyes locked on his mate seeing just how much Ianto had improved in his absence.
After a while Owen was the one to break the silence. "You know Dexter's sword wound still hasn't healed properly. He shouldn't be out there with the other two. They're fully healed but he's supposed to be taking it easy."
Jack frowned in concern and focused as hard as he could on the fight for a moment before turning back to look at Owen, "He's not actually fighting. Arabella and Ianto are sparing and Dexter is just staying close to them, instructing them."
"He still shouldn't be out there," Owen scowled.
"I'm not his father," Jack shrugged.
"Thank you for your concern Dr Harper, but I'm fine," Dexter's voice made them all jump, including Andre and Jack as he seemed to appear beside them, Arabella and Ianto landing behind him a moment later.
Jack stared at the bare chest of his mate as he walked over and sat beside him.
"Enjoying the view?" Ianto asked smiling gratefully at Andre as he passed them all large glasses of blood.
"Naturally," Jack replied leaning back with a leer.
"Don't you ever stop?" Andy asked trying not to look at the blood. He had accepted a lot in the last few months, almost nothing freaked him out and while he accepted that the Pirask had to drink blood to survive he still felt a little queasy actually watching them do so.
"You get used to it after a while," Arabella said taking a seat with Dexter leaning into his embrace carefully.
"I doubt that somehow. If you turn that flirting onto me captain there'll be hell to pay!"
"Now Andy, you must know how much I love a good Welsh accent, especially when it's attached to a cute Welshman," Jack smirked.
"Oi, enough of that!" Andy protested looking a little uncomfortable.
Leave him alone you bully.
Jack turned smiling back at Ianto who rolled his eyes in return before leaning down and meeting Jack's lips in a chaste kiss.
"So, is there a reason you lot decided to invade our training session?" Arabella asked looking between the members of the group who were arranged rather comfortably in the small cushion area.
"Don't look at me, I got grabbed and dragged down here, I have no idea," Taffy shrugged.
"We needed to talk to you, when we couldn't find you Jack lead us down here. The group just kind of grew as we went," Tosh replied smiling in apology.
Jack frowned as something finally occured to him, Ianto, why didn't you tell them about this place?
There was a slight pause before Ianto decided to answer, This was ours. Something between the two of us, you built it and we became Mates here. I wasn't comforatble showing them, It wasn't like Ari, Dex and Andre they understood but the others didn't even know about us. Plus I wasn't sure if you wanted them to know about this so we just kept it from them. Ianto explained
Do you mind that they're here? We can retcon them you know. Jack suggested and he could feel Ianto's amusement surge.
I don't mind. All my reasons for not telling them are gone, besides they might enjoy it, they might need the sanctuary down here as much as I do these days.
Jack sqeezed Ianto's hand where it was in his breifly in understanding before turning his attention back to what was happening around them.
"Well we would have needed to speak to everyone at some point so we might as well just get it all over and done with now," Jack grinned casually slipping am arm around Ianto's waist. Ianto leant back into the embrace; the move was second nature to the men in their private life and was quickly becoming just as comfortable in front of the team now that they all knew.
Everyone was now curiously waiting for Jack to continue, knowing that something must have developed in their plan for them to all be called together.
"Tosh would you like to do the honours?" Jack asked deliberately stringing things out. He barely managed to duck the pillow Arabella flung in his direction, though Ianto calming caught it and propped it behind his lower back to make himself more comfortable.
"Stop arseing about Harkness," Owen grumbled and Jack rolled his eyes at the Doctor not taking any offense at his abrupt manner.
"Ok, Tosh and her team have finished work on the gun, I've talked to Martha and we've set up locations and rough time to meet there, depending on how fast she thinks she can travel. Zenia and Ifan are still with her, which helps her progress. Each group will be paired up with a one of the team and Pirask or Andre so we all stand the best chances of getting there and back." Jack explained and the others all nodded in understanding.
"So who are in the groups?" Rhys asked
"Ianto and Dexter will take the first piece to San Diego since they'll have to be able to move quickly to meet Martha as soon as possible, we don't want her staying in one place too long. Andre and Tosh will take the second piece to Budapest. Gwen and Arabella the third to Beijing and Owen and I will take the fourth piece up to London. If everything goes to plan she won't need the fourth piece anyway but we'll put it in place just in case," Jack continued.
"What about the rest of us?" Taffy asked
"The rest of you are needed right where you are, keeping everything here running, especially if a few of us are going to be missing for periods of time to get the pieces to Martha," Ianto explained having already discussed most of this with Jack when they had initially worked out the teams, though just how he'd managed to become the second in command he wasn't quite sure.
"I assumed that's why Jack and I are the ones who aren't going any further than London. I'm needed here too much, a trip to London is coverable in the medical wing but not if we go further and I'm away for too long." Owen realized squeezing Taffy's hand slightly to try and both reassure and calm her. He knew she wanted to help more, but there was only so much their 'civilian' friends could do before they were putting themselves in too much danger.
"Exactly, and I'm not going any further because I'm already a prime target for Saxon so it's best to make my trip as short as possible," Jack replied.
"And there was no possible way you were being left out," Gwen teased and everyone smiled at that since they all knew exactly how true her statement was.
"Anyway," Jack replied though he was smiling as well. "Does any one have any questions, need anything clarified etc?"
"How are you traveling? It's not like you can just hop aboard a plane anymore," Andy asked.
"The same way as Martha, on foot or hitching a ride with the supply transport that Saxon's still allowing to move. The only way to cross the water is by supply boat. We're just lucky that his grand scheme to destroy the galaxy needs supplies and people to build it," Jack explained though the last bit came out as a growl.
"Andre and I can carry Tosh and Gwen to make the travels faster and we'll be there as extra protection if they need it. If we're careful though we should be able to move around fairly unnoticed since Saxon and the Toclafane all think we're dead, no ones going to be looking for us," Arabella added.
"It's a long way to travel carrying us, are you sure you're going to be ok?" Tosh asked glancing between Arabella and Andre.
"I'll make sure I take enough food to keep my energy up and Arabella, Dexter and Ianto will all be carrying a supply on Blood for themselves. If worse comes to worse we can always hunt to feed ourselves," Andre explained softly to Tosh.
Rhys was just about to comment on what they would be hunting but Gwen's elbow in his ribs cut him off. One look at his wife told him she knew exactly what he was about to say and he'd better not mention it, so he stayed quiet.
"I was wondering though, how have you guys been keeping up the blood supplies, not only for the injured but for your three to feed off?" Jack asked looked at Dexter, knowing as the leader of the Pirask Coverent it was his responsibility to make sure his people were always fed.
"We all raided the closest hospitals and blood banks when everything was shut down. As the Pirask on the outside have run out they've had to resort back to feeding though most of them have friend or family who are giving them blood voluntarily. Down here all the residents who are healthy enough give blood once a week, it's enough to keep the three of us fed, the hospital stocked and there's always some backed up from when we need to feed more due to missions," Dexter explained.
Arabella smiled, "Everyone who gives blood knows why and yet they don't mind. We gave them the choice even that if they wanted they could say their blood was only for medical purposes but now one has."
"The world goes to hell and little things like sexism, racism, whether you're human, alien or hybrid; it doesn't matter anymore, because we're all stuck in it together," Ianto replied.