25

"Awww, Yan!"

"Tad, don't you dare shut down!" Walter scolded as he plopped onto the sofa, "You need to talk this out. You never talk about feelings and we don't have a hose tower to crawl into for a while here."

"That's what you need" Jack said as it dawned, "You need a space. Shit. You keep saying you need space. A space. Right?"

Ianto looked up as Jack rose to start pacing now, "Like the cabin is my special spot, shit baby you need yours. At the Firehouse you would go to the roses and the rotunda. Here the mayoral office. That's why you wanted to head to the library. Shit."

"Yeah, I do miss that little spot" Ianto said in a small voice.

Jack looked out at the field where Ton was currently on his Rocky and knew he had struck the right note.

"What about out in the field where Mama and Herb married?" Jack asked, "The roses and arch are already there, we can build a wee pathway through it to a pagoda? Your own spot and when you are out there we all know you need time alone?"

Ianto nodded and then did that shrug thing that was so infuriating but Jack knew was a defence mechanism.

"I'll go talk to Carl, he might help" Jack said as John walked in and Walter spoke up.

"Me and Fen could help, we could do some of the wood parts?" Walter offered, "Panels or something?"

Ianto watched his men as they started to gush then ran from the house leaving him standing there with surprise.

He had gotten rid of all of them that easy?

Jared arrived to look at the broken window and before long Ianto could see the menfolk out on the field pacing things out and generally looking like twats as they all argued and flapped their arms about.

"Tad? What are they doing?" Ton asked with interest.

"I had a tantrum" Ianto told him as seriously as he could given the wide eyes, "Daddy thinks I need my own thinking spot since I don't have one here."

"You have the garden" Ton pointed out, "And the Throne Room."

"Yes but Daddy wants to make me somewhere alone, like you have Rocky to go be with" Ianto explained, "So when I get snotty I can go out there and grump for a while."

"Oh" Ton nodded as it made sense in his wee Harkness part of his brain, "OK."

Ton calmly went and got his Bob the Builder stuff which was really too small but the hat did fit Badger quite well and they went to offer their help.

When the SUV roared off with boy and dog hanging out the window with glee Ianto sighed with relief and went out to see how far they had got, moved a few pegs and looked over the piece of paper stuck on Rocky with some stones to hold it down.

Not bad.

He made a few more notes and then went back inside before they returned.

He started to cook so they would have a good hearty meal once finished and it wasn't until they were sitting eating his food and laughing as they all talked at once that Ianto felt his house feel happy again and he knew he had overreacted on an epic scale.

He would be the first to admit it at counselling.

He knew he should have talked it out instead of being a bloody child.