51

Jack arrived home to chaos.

Ianto was sitting in his chair with a look of fury as the children raced about yelling and yahooing. Jack saw warning signs so he clapped his hands. The children stopped.

"Yes. For you, they stop" Ianto sighed, "They have been ignoring me for the last two hours!"

"Oh! Really! You lot have been ignoring your poor Tad? What are you teaching the baby!" Jack demanded and they children all looked at Ianto with horror as they hadn't even considered that.

"We were playing Ghost" David explained, "One of the kids at school thought it up. They pick a kid and pretend they are a ghost all day."

Ianto and Jack stared at one another, then Ianto asked softly, "These kids, the ones that become ghosts. Are they Catkind?"

"Yeah, but Dragone get picked too" came a hesitant reply as they considered it.

"And the one picking who is a ghost for the day… are they human?"

"Yes"

"Shit. They're doing it again" Jack sat and motioned the children closer, "Have any of you been a ghost? Harrison?"

Harrison hesitated and looked down at his feet, "I was chosen but then one of them said I was the Captain's kat now so they chose someone else."

"Sweetheart, we are not mad at you we just want to know what happened. Tell me, the boy who was choosing who was a ghost for the day. Is it Lester Grint?" Ianto asked, naming the son of one of the engineers who he suspected of being a Humans for Humanity Member that had managed to talk his way around the round ups.

The kids all looked at him like he was a magician or something and Jack sighed, "You did warn me about him."

"Well, to be fair I was uncertain and he passed all the tests even if he failed the lie detector. He had the excuse of a bad heart which I found strange. I questioned why he was allowed on board as it was not in his medical records or Owen would have denied him. A hereditary condition is no good" Ianto nodded, "Unfortunately he has a bit of a following and we had bigger Kollisi to fry."

"Well I think we need to consider a sweep of people again, we still have sympathisers on board" Jack frowned.

"Yes but they are a registered religion as well so we cannot be seen to be singling them out, this was out problem before Cariad. Not all are dissidents. If they swear allegiance to the Torchwood symbol then we cannot be seen to be picking on them for their beliefs" Ianto reminded and Jack huffed.

"That was on Sol3. We are not Sol3, we are Torchwood"

"Which is why we have to be better than what we once were my love" Ianto's' voice was gentle as he scolded "We cannot teach our children to be bigots because we are faced with some. Eh?"

Jack stared at him for a while, then sighed. Of course he was right, they had to practice what they preach and they cannot expect their children to be tolerant if they went in with batons.

"But there is no reason why Tosh and Andy cannot create a little programme to randomly select and assess crew members sometimes to make sure they are doing their assigned jobs and things" Ianto said and Jack looked at him closely, then snorted as he saw the crafty eyes glinting, "We can just….choose one and have Mainframe watch their every move for…like….a while. Then we can announce we did it and give out awards for those who showed Torchwood Spark?"

"Oooooooooo" Jack's eyes widened, "You are sooo naughty."

"Yes." Ianto agreed sagely, "but anyone not happy will be looked at funny as this is a positive team building exercise. Like the cadets, maybe they get a special pin showing that they are …like… top crew members for a month or something?"

"And those who get quietly pinged for subversive behaviour will be frowned upon for not towing the line" Jack grinned, "We set it up, do it for a few months and then announce it. If we announce first they will go underground again, we announce after we know who we need to watch and then…ahhhh…. Positive reinforcement. Great idea."

"I thought so" Ianto looked down at his bump and hummed as he rubbed it gently, "By the time this one is here we will have it all in place. Maybe the wetting of the baby's head can be the first awards as well. The party for the bub will bring everyone and they will all be there including those who will panic and change their routines. All it will do is make them more obvious."

"Clever mate"

"Don't' start that again!" Ianto growled, his eyes dancing with affection as Jack shuffled closer.

"Bossy mate."

"Jack!"

"Ooooo, a gnashy mate."

"Oh Cariad, you are a fool" Ianto crooned as he gave in and smiled.

"Ahhhhhh. Loving Mate, my favourite kind." Jack smiled as he leaned in and kissed him.

Mental mate, Ianto thought to himself and leaned into the kiss.

Jack hugged his forgiving mate.