22

Ianto gaped as his bird entered the area, her wings filling the space as she screeched again, those affected hitting the ground to cover their ears as they felt a pain like they had never experienced. (Alts aside.) As Ianto had suspected all along, Owen calmly stood ignoring the noise as he aimed at Guppy who was on the ground writhing. Jack looked away from his brother to Lisa "Get on your knees bitch!"

Gray blinked, turned to walk toward her, picking up a lump of pipe from the table and swinging before anyone could stop him, her head whipping back as the bar connected and she fell to a heap, convulsing from the impact.

Gray then dropped the pipe and turned to Jack once more "Is it you? Really?"

Jack smiled softly as he embraced him "I tried to find you so many times. Dad paid them all we had, he even took money from the business. Thy gave us back bits. He was so desperate … they took the money and left him in the gutter, bleeding out as he cried your name."

"They said… they said they didn't want me back …they…." Gay was struggling to understand this "Really? They killed Daddy?"

"Yeah. I never knew who took you, why I became a cop. Tried to find you that way … gods Gray" Jack sobbed hugging him again "I love you."

Ianto was tired, so damned tired and ill with the treatment he had received, slumping back into the chair as he watched his bird stalk Lisa, her beak clacking as she recognised someone who had caused him pain, Lisa's eyes widening as she saw the danger. Kneeling on the ground with blood seeping from a cut in her scalp, the bird ws much larger than her as it now craned it's head to peer into her face.

"Myfanwy? Oh god … is that you?" she whimpered with horror.

"LISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSA" Myfanwy hissed with anger "There you are little mouse!"

Ianto could have yelled out, could have done lots of things but he was so tired he could only sit and watch as Myfanwy did something extraordinary. She raised her head and stuck like a snake, sizing Lisa's cheek in her beak and twisting, a huge hunk coming away as Lisa screamed and tried to pull away, her hands over her face as blood started to flow.

"Oops" Ianto sighed "Clean up aisle three."

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"So … let's just recap." Owen said as he stood in front of Ianto who sat on the gurney accepting some tenderness from the man "That was all so fast and mad. The highlights?"

"Fish was behind the abduction of Gray twenty years ago. Jack was … Ten? Gray was five. We are almost the same age, I am one year older than him, same as you are anther two. Twenty eight." Ianto smiled, then continued "Of course … Jack being a small child did not know who his father was paying to try to get Gray back, just that it failed when a box of toes and fingers came in the mail. Then his father went with the last of their money to meet the people … and his body was found."

"Shit."

"Jack became a cop to try and hunt down those he thought had killed both his male family members. Only now does he realise Gray is here, now I am here to talk to his father who haunts him." Ianto supplied further "And he is still here so whatever he wants fixed … this was not the end of it."

"The mother I guess" Owen shrugged "Although mine can rot in hell."

"Fish taught Guppy all he knew … we continue the bloodshed. Fish has to pay, has to burn for this" Ianto sighed "Myfanwy might just do that if she ever finds him."

"Scary fucking bird" Owen snorted "and the other part?"

"Hmmmmm?"

"Martha Jones. Think I don't recognise a fellow doctor?"

Ianto smiled "Ah. I have a growth on my kidney, she put me in an experimental trial to see if we could shrink it enough to trick the tests to give me at least give clear test results for a kidney transplant."

Owen stared at him "but … that's …"

"failing. Yeah. Five out of the twelve on the trial are already dead, another two showing signs of late stage. I am the only one with improvement" Ianto nodded.

"why do you think that is?" Owen sat back next to him, looking at their feet.

"I m the only one that's Altered" Ianto said after a while "I think … I think it's helping."

"Huh"

"I only have one kidney, without another I shall die. I have about six months … maybe seven if this treatment works and I can stave off the effects a bit longer but … then I am in trouble here." Ianto confided softly "Jack knows. I don't know … if he knows how severe it is, I sort of glossed over it a bit."

"We could check now" Owen said as he turned to look at him "This multi-million dollar scanner Jack stole …ah… appropriated from another team can do bone density, the lot"

Ianto nodded as he settled back to let Owen have a go at him.

Neither of them saw Jack hovering at the top of the autopsy bay, looking down at them while Alice played in her room.

They all silently prayed for a Christmas miracle here … when so many were already being given.

One more?