37
Jack watched Ianto as he moved into the kitchen to do the evening dishes, Kara cured up in her bed with the puppy, both snoring softly.
"Yan?"
Ianto grunted as he slammed the plates together almost loud enough to wake her, Jack's hands sliding around his waist to pause his hand over the pocket with something in it. "What's this?"
Ianto turned to face him, his eyes sliding to the side like they always did when he was considering what to say so Jack waited patiently knowing Ianto would not lie.
"It's what I thought they might be looking for" He finally replied, "It's the one thing I have guarded as fiercely as that gem in the other room."
"What it is love?" Jack asked softly, "Tell me."
"It's Tosh's work" Ianto pulled out the USB stick and held it up, "Her bubble, her facial recognition and all the other things she was not quite finished. I downloaded everything of hers habitually and when we lost her I…I …"
Jack pulled him close, his heart in his mouth as he thought of Ianto keeping this piece of their friend all this time, "Oh darling."
"But Jack" Ianto pulled back to look him in the eye "The time bubble worked, remember? The Darleks stole earth, they broke into the hub, me and Gwen were saved. It works. What else might now work given the advancements since Tosh …left."
Jack closed his hand around the stick and looked at heir joined hands, then he turned to look in the doorway where their daughter stood with her puffed black eye closed and her split lip pouting.
"Well, like you said. As precious as her." Jack took the stick and held it out, "This is the most precious thing from before you. Toshio's work. Tosh. The woman in red Taddy paints. This is her work. Look at it, you have time. Look at her work, her equations. See her rhythm, all her work had a rhythm like a song. Find it. You might see the tune."
She accepted the stick and looked between them, then said to her Taddy, "Can I share with Anny?"
"Yes love" Ianto said softly, "Fitting I guess, it's still Torchwood Cardiff just the next generation."
"What did you need love?" Jack asked.
"I wanted a hot chocolate but now wonder if my lip will let me have it." She sighed.
"I have straws somewhere" Ianto started to sort through boxes, "Somewhere, I know I have. Those candy cane ones you like so the chocolate has the peppermint tang."
Her face lit up and Jack saw what a lovely child she had been, saddened that both his daughters had grown up without him but so relieved this time he had been allowed to know her now and Ianto had clearly never bad mouthed him or turned Kara from him.
"Go back to bed and play with that on your laptop" Ianto waved a hand behind himself as he peered into another box, "Dad will bring it in once I've made it, maybe he and I want one too. Toddy?"
"Oh! Whiskey?" she asked with renewed glee as she scampered off.
"Yes darling, a nice malt here!" he called back and she made a noise of delight as she carefully got back in without disturbing the sleeping puppy.
"I remember her glasses on the edge of her nose" Jack said as he sat watching Ianto work at the stove, "Remember that pencil she chewed so hard it splintered? She was spitting it all over the meeting room table. Gods, Gwen pissed her off that day."
"I got her some plastic ones" Ianto smiled at the memory, "Smelt like apples and watermelon. She loved them."
"Tosh and her pencils, Owen and his badges. Gwen and…hey. What did you give Gwen?" Jack asked.
"Patience" Ianto replied and Jack laughed as he leaned back, the snark so apt. "Actually I always got her those muffins she likes. Blueberry, remember? Meetings with her muffin by her mug. That time Owen ate it to be a prick? She tipped her coffee all over him."
"Oh yeah" Jack grinned at the memory.
"Tad? What's the wee water dragon thing?" Kara called and he frowned.
"Like a wee blue one? That's Tosh's wee avatar, used to dace across my screen when she sent a message" he answered.
"Does the Macarena" she laughed "Cool!"
Ianto suddenly grunted and swung to say something but she had already clicked it, the place going nuts as every electrical thing in the place suddenly shut down and the lights died.
"Bum" Ianto sighed, "Baby, did you click on it?"
"What's happened? Taddy, its dead!" she cried.
"No" Jack said as he watched everything roar back to life with chirps, beeps and whirrs, then he started to laugh. "Clever wee dragon. It's OK love it's not dead, you just gave it life."
Ianto sighed,
"You knew?" Jack asked and Ianto shrugged.
"I suspected she had a backdoor, she always did" he nodded, "Didn't know it would be so excitable though"
"Taddy?"
It's alright love it's just mainframe taking over the world" Ianto laughed "Kara, welcome to Torchwood Cardiff's Mainframe. She's a sentient creature somewhere in the cosmos of space, remotely hooked in to the streams of binary code floating around earth waiting for us to reach out and connect her physically to the grid and at the moment she is so excited to be back she is overloading everything."
"Clever wee dragon" Jack whispered again, looking at the portrait he had carried in and placed on the mantle to hang, "Thank you Tosh. Well done. Hello Frannie."
The microwave beeped back happily.
She was glad to be back.