38
Owen declared the child to be healthy, if slightly small for the reported age of seven.
Jack couldn't believe it. One year? Gray had been gone just one year in his timeline?
Jack watched the way that the boy kept checking where Ianto was, craning his head when Ianto bent down to pick up a file from beside Owen's desk.
"So, how long was he captive?" Jack asked quietly as he enjoyed the view as well.
"Two months," Ianto answered, straightening up to look at Jack.
"Then …." Jack frowned, "Why so long?"
"Um" Ianto pulled a face, "G-Pa kind of went the wrong way, almost a year of hopping, trying to fix the Tardis and then there was this solar ….well. What am I saying? You know G-Pa. When we found him it was too late, I had to leave him so it didn't create a fixed point and jump further back. It took another six months of bullshit. Finally, I snatched him as close as I could to the point of origin. I was afraid that the next jump would be worse. It was like a wrinkle on a wrinkle. Ya know?"
Jack smiled as he heard the Doctor's speech patterns coming from Ianto and pulled him into a hug.
"I can't believe you did this for me"
"For us" Ianto corrected him, "I couldn't stop thinking about someone that you loved in trouble. I know what it did to your life, I wanted to give you something."
"Oh Ianto" Jack pulled him into a hug.
Owen was waiting and pulled Ianto aside.
"Dude! Explain the paradox slide thingie" he demanded and Ianto smiled softly.
"OK, I'll say it only once" Ianto said as everyone stopped to listen.
"The Year That Never Was" he began. "That was a paradox. Right?"
Everyone nodded.
"OK, Owen. When there was the shooting, ah shit." Ianto sighed, "Owen. You were supposed to die."
Owen gaped silently at Ianto.
"Owen, I love you, ya bloody arsehole!" Ianto laughed, "I knew I was messing with the timelines and would probably incur the wrath of the Shadow Proclamation, but … damn. I couldn't let you go."
"Really?" Owen asked in a small voice.
"Yeah. Then Jack and I had a wee argument and I went to … ah, a holiday place" Ianto said cryptically and Owen narrowed his eyes, as did Tosh.
Gwen looked away as she surmised the true place Ianto hid.
"G-Pa turned up and we went for a wee flight, which turned into a major case of G-Pa stomping all over timelines." Ianto explained, "I realised that we had created another paradox, albeit a little one and I decided that I could do it again."
"How!"
"Ayelish. The coral on Jack's desk is a baby Tardis. I knew that with the amount of attention I've been giving her that she was strong enough to communicate with another Tardis. I waited for the perfect alignment of stars, time and placed her in one of the boxes we took out to the field. She did her job, she called G-Pa and he came for me. We went and got Gray, returning before I had left in his ship. The jumping back by a few minutes created a wrinkle, it closed the paradox without changing the time-stream." Ianto leaned back and looked at the team who were in different stages of understanding.
"So you were wearing a suit because you came back much later even though in reality, you came back before you left!" Owen pointed out.
"Yes, I lost my jeans during the snatch n grab" Ianto nodded.
"Shadow Proclamation?" Tosh asked.
"Sort of time police" Jack supplied, "You don't want to piss them off."
"No. G-Pa does all the time, one day he'll find himself on trial." Ianto sighed.
"You kidding?" Jack laughed as he leaned back, "They wouldn't want the headache. Imagine him on a witness stand."
"The truth! You can't handle the truth!" Ianto parodied and Jack laughed.
"So, let me get this straight. A major paradox when TYTNW happened and another when I didn't die." Owen counted in his fingers, "Then you went … somewhere the other week and created another one. Now this one, but it doesn't count because of the fucking fold or wrinkle or whatever."
"You know Owen, you could be a companion" Ianto said calmly, "You understand the basics of a Timelord's crazy llife."
"Understand? Christ, I don't understand it at all!" Owen scoffed.
"Exactly. But you break it down so nicely" Ianto smiled.
"Don't even try to understand timey-wimey Timelord explanations!" Jack shook his head. "You just need to remember one thing if you ever want to be a companion."
"What?" Tosh asked.
"Don't ask questions, just run!" Jack laughed.
Ianto snorted as Jack over-tipped his chair and landed backwards.
"And there we are!" Ianto waved a hand at him, "The hidden gift of a companion."
"It's not to run, it's to be able to fall without too much harm to yourself!" Ianto deadpanned, "Anyone who has travelled with G-Pa has learned to fall on their butt."
Jack roared with laughter from the floor.