55
Ianto was irritable. It was a chilly morning and he had walked the kids to school and then settled back in the warm house to ignore the dull ache.
"Taddy?"
Ianto looked up from where he currently sat in the main living room with a cup of hot tea and a book he could not read for the distraction of the aching "Sammy? Need some help love?"
"No, LB is next door with Grace having a snooze. No. Jax is with his namesake who will probably return him with a clean nappy for me later. No. I wanted to talk to you" Sam settled next to him and he turned to her with a soft hum of interest.
"Tad … I noticed the other day that you have a huge scarf you seem to wrap around you like you are going across the arctic tundra each time you walk the kids to school. I asked Fen and he said you have a reconstructed eye socket and cheek bone?"
Ianto nodded, explaining about the attack at the school and his … well one of many … near death experiences and he sighed as he finished by admitting that the cold made his face ache on that side.
"I thought so" she sighed then from the nappy bag she had carried in, she pulled out a paper bag and looked at him nervously "You will probably think this is naff. It's something I used to do as a kid and it always comforted me so ... I thought you might like one."
Ianto opened the bag and peered in, shocked as he stared at the bean bag inside.
"It's a baby one. Small enough for you to hold against your face to soothe but not too bulky. It will fit inside the scarf against your face so the cold can't hurt you. I love bean bags, you reminded me when you got me the lovely big long one for my lower back. It is wheat, I also added a little bit of lavender so it smells nice too."
Ianto raised the bag and breathed in the scent of his long since dead sister as he felt the shock wearing off then he looked over at her and asked "Did Fen tell you to do that?"
"Fen?" she repeated, then laughed "Gods no. He does not have a crafty bone in his body. No. I like lavender. You have so many bushes spotted around, I like saving it and drying it out. Have done since we moved here."
"This is my Lavender?"
"From that huge purple pot of it that looks like it could hide a body. You know, Poo the little cat sleeps in there so the dogs can't find her" she laughed and he removed the bag covered with pretty purple paisley material and breathed Rhiannon in.
Hide a body indeed.
That was her bush. Instead of just a rose for her he also planted that lavender and it had never failed to flower. Wow. He tried not to cry. After all this time …. Rhia. In a lavender pillow for his pain.
Sam really did fit here.
