51
It was early morning, dawn approaching and everyone was still asleep bar Ianto who was making the first of the coffee for later, settling it on the hot plate so he could go for his morning run. Something else he had started now he seemed to have more time.
It was persisting down, the repetitive noise of a drop from a hole in the spouting Jack still had to fix hitting the bucket one of the kids has left out. He was making a mental note to self to move it when there was a knock at the door making him jump.
"Shit." He laughed softly at himself then opened the back door expecting to find a wet little Monkey or maybe Penny pushing into the house for breakfast instead finding a young woman standing there from the upper end of the village, her hair lank and dripping as she stared at him.
"Veronika?"
She didn't speak, just shoved a piece of paper at him, soggy and dripping as well. He frowned at her and looked down at it with confusion, reading the slowly bleeding text.
"Oh wow. Holy shit" Ianto said softly "When did you get this?"
"In my letterbox when I was heading home from might shift. It wasn't there when I left at dusk, someone has gone around the village in the dark poking this drivel into the letterboxes."
"OK, come on. I'll take you home" Ianto got his coat, left Jack a note by the pot of coffee and headed out, hopping in his ATV that was such a step up from the Mayoral Motor. He dropped her at her front gate then started to walk along her street, pulling the folded paper out of the letterboxes, his anger growing with each vile piece of filth he collected.
"Ianto?" Carl called out as he stood in his PJs collecting the milk from his stoop, "What's up?"
Ianto showed him and Carl paled as he looked at it. "Why? Why would someone do this? A warning that Jared and I are a gay couple with little children in the village around their children too?"
"They got rid of me, now they want to get rid of Jarred so a smear campaign is the best idea. Worked for me, right?" Ianto sniffed.
"But … everyone knows we are gay" Carl frowned "Why make a thing of it in a letter warning about us?"
"You don't see what I do. This is a shot across your bow, next comes the innuendo of child abuse. A phone call or two about your children, CPS involved…. Jared is ashamed and stands down" Ianto sighed.
"Jesus" Carl huffed, moving to the other side of the road to pull more, his anger clear.
Matching Ianto's.
