Nightmare

Chapter Two – A Middle, Part I

Placing the last period with a satisfying 'dot' of his fountain pen, Ianto slipped the completed report into the folder and added that to the rest of the files waiting to be put away. He then capped his pen, tidied away the odds and ends on his desk and turned off the lamp. Even as he rolled his chair back, his mind had already moved on to what needed doing before he could start cooking dinner. Jack was finally coming home after almost a week away and Ianto wanted it all to be perfect.

Everything was ready at home; he'd set the table before he'd left for work, he had the wine chilling, and the music was ready to play. All he had to do was stop by the bakery on his way home for a loaf of hot, fresh bread, and once he'd finished preparing his speciality, he would have Jack eating out the palm of his hand, again.

Ianto stood up – well, actually, he tried to stand and then he plopped heavily down into his seat again. 'What the…?' Ianto frowned. 'Has Owen played a prank on me?' he wondered as he looked down. 'If you've glued me to my seat, Owen…!'

"Good grief! When did I get so fat!" he yelped aloud as he saw his extremely expansive waistline.

With a jolt, everything came pouring into his mind. 'I'm not fat,' he realised, "I'm pregnant!" As if to confirm his words, Ianto felt a series of kicks and twists inside his body and his hands flew to his belly.

"It's all right, baban, Tad's here," he soothed his restless baby. "Just a few more days and you'll be out of there!" His hands stroked his swollen middle in small comforting circles. "Your Daddy and I can't wait to meet you."

Speaking of Daddy, Ianto knew he needed to get moving or dinner would be late, so he gathered himself together and with one push, heaved his overly-large body up and to his feet. Waiting a moment to make sure he wasn't going to be dizzy, Ianto quickly grabbed his bag and started for the door. Past experience told him that it would take a good five minutes to get from his desk in the Archives out to the car park, and that didn't include the obligatory bathroom stop on the way out. One humiliating experience of being forced to pee into an empty water bottle had taught him to never, ever pass up the chance to use proper indoor plumbing again.

Finally, thirteen minutes after standing up, Ianto arrived in the Torchwood car park. As he approached his beloved Audi, he noticed that something didn't look quite right. It seemed to be sitting at an odd angle. Sure enough, as he rounded his car, he saw that the driver's side front tire was flat.

Setting his bag down, Ianto gazed at the tire, trying to figure out how on Earth he was going to change the puncture in his condition; he could barely tie his shoes! Just as he had decided to give up and call a taxi, Gwen drove into the car park. Seeing Ianto standing at the back of his car, staring forlornly into the boot, she stopped and rolled down her window.

"Are you all right, Ianto?" she asked sweetly. "Do you need some help?"

Ianto shook his head sadly. "My car has a puncture and there's no way I'll ever be able to change the tire like this." He shut the boot none-too-gently. "Jack's coming back from that UNIT conference in Cornwall tonight and I need to get home."

"Why don't I give you a lift then?" Gwen offered.

"No, that's okay. You go home to Rhys." Ianto politely declined. "I'll get a taxi home and then call the towing company in the morning."

"Don't be silly, Ianto," Gwen said firmly as she turned off her engine, got out of her car, and picked up Ianto's bag. "It's rush hour and it'll take forever to get someone out here."

"But…"

"No buts about it…" Gwen paused and giggled. "Good thing Jack's not here!" she laughed. "I'd never hear the end of that slip-up!"

Ianto laughed with her. He could already hear Jack's innuendos in his head. A line like that was too good for anyone to pass up at the best of times, but for Jack it would have been impossible.

"Now come on. The sooner you get home the sooner you can get off your feet." Gwen left him no choice as she put his bag in her car and then stood by the passenger's door, waiting expectantly.

With a sigh, Ianto went around to the passenger's side and with Gwen's help, he lowered his bulk into the seat. "I usually have the steering wheel to help me," he grunted as he got comfortable. "You're going to have to help me back out, you know," he warned as he clicked his seatbelt shut.

"Oh, great! Now you tell me!" she laughed. "Maybe we should call the tow company after all, have them meet us at your flat!" Gwen shut the door and missed seeing the look of hurt that crossed Ianto's face. As it was, he hated having to let the rest of the team help him out around the Hub. He was always acutely aware of how his condition – his size – was a problem. 'I already have Owen making cracks about my weight!' Ianto mourned silently. 'I really don't need Gwen, too!'

As Gwen eased into traffic, she asked, "So, how are you feeling, Ianto?"

He grimaced. "OW!"

"What!" Gwen gave him a panicked look. "Is it the baby? What's wrong?"

"It's okay, Gwen!" Ianto hastened to reassure her. "Baby Harkness-Jones is just letting me know he or she is awake by planting a very pointed elbow in my bladder."

"Oh, all right, then," Gwen heaved a sigh of relief.

"That also answers your question of how am I, I suppose," Ianto reflected. "'OW' does indeed say it all."

"How so?"

"Well, starting at the bottom, my feet hurt, my ankles are swollen, my legs are tired, Jack's the only one who's seen my penis for the last few months…" he stopped speaking so he could turn a withering glare on Gwen. She was trying unsuccessfully to keep from laughing at Ianto's last complaint and he waited until she was finished giggling before continuing.

"I have constant indigestion, I have to pee a hundred times a day, I've put on weight and my nipples are sore!" Finished with his litany of ailments, Ianto crossed his arms over his belly and pouted.

Gwen smiled fondly at her team-mate. She knew he hadn't had an easy life over the past nine months, not after coming in contact with an alien who had decided that Ianto would make the perfect female to carry his offspring. He kidnapped Ianto and took him on board his cloaked spaceship which he'd hidden in a warehouse on the docks, no less. The alien had then used the technology of his medical bay to permanently alter Ianto's DNA and physiology.

In addition to his own normal male bits, the young Welshman would forever have the internal reproductive organs of a human female. The only thing other thing Ianto didn't received were female breasts, something Jack bemoaned on occasion but which Ianto celebrated joyously. According to Toshiko's research on the species, it was customary for the male of the alien's race to nurse the children; Ianto could only be thankful for small favours.

"On the other hand, Ianto," Gwen said, trying to make him feel better, "you are glowing."

Ianto pursed his lips. He didn't want to smile; he wanted to feel sorry for himself, but it was no use. His bloody hormones betrayed him. "Really?" he finally asked hopefully, a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Yes, really," Gwen confirmed.

"Well, thank you, Gwen," Ianto told her gratefully. "And thank you for the ride home."

"Oh, don't thank me yet; we're not going to your flat." Gwen drove past the turn into Ianto's quiet neighbourhood.

Ianto twisted in his seat, looking back down the street. "Gwen, you missed my turn."

"Yes, I know." Gwen's demeanour had changed. Gone was the happy, laughing woman that Ianto had known for three years and in her place was a cold, snarling stranger. "Now sit back and be quiet."

"Gwen, what's going on?" Ianto was beginning to be afraid, not for himself, but for his baby. As if sensing its tad's worry, the baby gently poked Ianto in the side.

"Last chance." Gwen's hands were white-knuckled on the steering wheel. "Shut up and enjoy the ride."

Ianto sat quietly for a few minutes, watching the passing streets and buildings, trying to figure out where they were going. As far as he could tell, they were in an old industrialised area of Cardiff, long abandoned and set for demolition within a few weeks.

"Gwen, please, talk to me," Ianto asked, trying very hard to keep his fear from coming through in his voice.

"I warned you…" Faster than Ianto could track, Gwen's arm swung out and he felt a sharp prick in his leg.

"What… Gwen, what did you…?" Ianto could feel himself growing woozy and he struggled to keep his eyes open.

Gwen grinned at him. "Oh, just relax and enjoy it, Ianto. You're always so uptight!" She turned into an alley between two of the old buildings and pulled up in front of a huge double door.

Getting out, she went to open the doors, leaving the keys in the car and the engine running. Desperately, Ianto reached for the keys; if he could get them, maybe throw them away, anything! But he discovered to his horror that he couldn't control his arm. As hard as he tried, he couldn't make himself move more than a few inches.

'Oh God, what has she done to me?' his mind cried. 'Please let my baby be okay!' Hot, frightened tears began falling. 'Jack, help me!'

Returning to the car, Gwen saw his tears and laughed at his distress. "Oh, come on, Ianto! Where's your sense of adventure? It'll all be over soon, I promise!" She drove inside the warehouse and got out of the car again to close the doors behind them. Once the daylight was cut off, the interior was pitch black, and then with an angry buzz, overhead fluorescent lights sprang on.

Ianto blinked his eyes at the sudden difference and studied what he could see of the building, which wasn't much at all; the car was parked facing a wall. Gwen startled him by suddenly appearing at his window and opening his door.

"Come on now, out you go." As she leaned in to unfasten his seatbelt, Ianto tried to head-butt her, but only succeeded in bumping into her gently. She just shook her head at him. "Nice try, though," she smirked.

Pulling a wheelchair closer to the car door, it took all of Gwen's strength to pull Ianto out of the car and into the chair. "Good God, you weigh a ton!" she exclaimed. Using her hands to fan herself, she leaned against her car to catch her breath. After a few minutes, Gwen pulled herself together and pushed Ianto off into the depths of the warehouse.

Ianto realised that they were actually heading towards an enclosed area in the back corner, probably an office of some sort, he thought. When they got to the door, Gwen turned them both around, bumped it open with her arse, then spun him to face front again and then shoved the chair forward, pushing him into the room. After closing the door, the room was again pitch black.

After a moment of sitting silently in the dark, wondering what was going to happen next, Ianto realised that Gwen wasn't in there with him. 'This may be my only chance,' he thought, trying desperately to make his legs move. 'Maybe, if I could just get out of this damned wheelchair, I can find another exit or a weapon or a phone or something! Why did I put my mobile in my bag?' He could feel himself beginning to panic and he forced his lungs to breathe, pulling air in through his nose, deep breaths, out through his mouth. Slowly, he could feel his panic subsiding.

In panic's wake, he became aware that his baby was kicking up a storm. Alarmed by its unusual level of activity, Ianto momentarily abandoned his attempts to stand up, concentrating instead on soothing his unborn child. With awkward fumbling fingers he slowly unbuttoned his shirt and then slipped it out of his trousers' waistband. It took forever; despite his intense focus, his fingers were clumsy and sloppy, but he was finally able to push it far enough out of his way, baring his belly to his worried gaze.

Wishing Gwen had turned on the lights before she'd left him behind, Ianto used his fingertips to trace the shape of his baby's body. He could feel the head; the baby was upside down, ready to be born… well, if he were a woman, that is. Owen had things all set up at the Hub to perform his C-section when his labour contractions began. Thankfully, the alien's alterations of his body had all been on the inside; there wouldn't be a wild and scary trip through the birth canal for his child.

With a joyous smile that belied the frightened tears on his face, Ianto felt little feet kicking him under his hands and he gently poked them back. "Don't you worry, my sweet baban. Tad's right here and I'll take good care of you. Don't be scared, okay?" he whispered softly. He and Jack had spent countless hours talking to their baby, and he could feel it respond to the sound of his voice and begin to settle down.

"That's it, Cariad; you sleep and let me worry about what's going on out here." Stroking his hands over his baby bump in an effort to sooth not only his child but also himself, Ianto crooned the lyrics of the only song that he could think of, an old Welsh lullaby that his own man used to sing to him.

Ianto wasn't sure how much time had passed between when Gwen left him in the pitch-black room and when she returned, flipping the switch and flooding the darkness with blinding light. At some point, while soothing his restless baby and trying to calm himself, he had managed to drift off into a light doze, something no doubt helped along by the drugs that Gwen had injected into his body earlier.

"Wake up, Ianto!" Her voice overly cheerful, Gwen grabbed the back of the wheelchair, startling him awake; she steered him deeper into the room. With a groan, Ianto forced himself to open his eyes, clenched tight against the unexpected glare. As the room came into focus, Ianto gasped aloud as its contents sprang into view. Before he could stop himself, a loud whimper escaped his lips and the sound make Gwen laugh gleefully.

"Oh, come on now, don't be like that, Ianto!" she said in a sunny, smiling voice. "It'll all be over soon, I promise."

"What are you going to do, Gwen?" An icy hand of fear clenched Ianto's gut when he saw that she had changed from her street clothes into a set of Owen's surgical scrubs.

"I'm going to fix things." Gwen bustled about, organising and arranging objects. "Put everything right; you'll see."

"Please take me home, Gwen," Ianto asked, heedless of the tears streaking down his cheeks. He struggled to wrap his shirt and jacket around his belly. "Please take me home to Jack." He knew he sounded pathetic, but he didn't care. He was too scared. Deep inside he knew something very bad was about to happen and there was nothing he could do to stop it. He couldn't keep his promise to his beloved unborn child to keep it safe.

Ignoring Ianto's pleas, she retrieved the chair and stopped it against the large table set up under a large overhead light. "Okay, up onto the table." Gwen slid both arms under Ianto's armpits and pulled him to his feet. Somehow, she managed to nudge the wheelchair out of the way as she used her body to turn them both around so that Ianto was backed up against the metal surgical table. Hoisting Ianto's weight with a loud and very unlady-like grunt, Gwen managed to manoeuvre Ianto so that his butt was high enough on the table that she could grab a leg and swing him around. With one mighty shove, Gwen pushed Ianto completely onto the bed and into a semi-prone position.

"Gwen, please…" Tears began to cascade down Ianto's cheeks in earnest as his captor undid his belt and yanked it free of the belt loops; he heard it clatter to the floor somewhere off to his left, followed by the twin clunks of his shoes hitting the floor. She then popped open the button and pulled down the zipper; in the silence of the room the sound was deafening.

As she shifted Ianto's body this way and that, tugging and yanking at his trousers, she suddenly giggled. "Never thought having Rhys coming home drunk from the pub and then passing out would ever come in handy!" With a final tug, she succeeded in pulling Ianto's trousers free and she tossed them across the room. For a moment, she stood, hands on her hips, catching her breath and looking critically at Ianto.

"Let's see here…" She tugged experimentally at the waistband of Ianto's boxers, testing the give in the elastic. "I think… if I…" Gwen pushed Ianto's pants down far enough that she could tuck them into his groin, leaving his genitals covered but his belly completely clear. Looking up, she grinned at him; "Leave you a little bit of modesty, yeah?" Leaning down, she kissed Ianto's belly several times. "Hey there, little one, this is your mam and pretty soon, we'll go home to your Tad and then we'll be one happy family forever."

She poked around Ianto's baby bump, feeling for the baby's position. Nodding in satisfaction, she walked away for a few seconds and then returned with a laptop on a rolling cart. She left a second time and returned with another cart, this one containing medical instruments and various other paraphernalia. Finally, a third trip away and back brought a baby bassinet to the side of Ianto's table.

Grim realisation flooded through Ianto as he finally accepted the horrifying reality of what Gwen Cooper, his friend and team-mate, was up to. "You're going to take my baby!" he gasped, trying frantically to get off the table. "Damn it! Why are you doing this, Gwen? Why?" He couldn't move his legs any more than a few twitches and his arms hung down off the sides of the table, flailing about. He couldn't stop the whimper of despair that escaped his lips.

"Just relax and lay back, Ianto." Gwen slipped on a pair of Owen's latex gloves with a snap. "Once we get going, it'll all be over with in just a few minutes," she grinned her gap-toothed smile at him.

"Why are you doing this, Gwen?" Ianto questioned her. 'Maybe if I can keep her talking long enough, Jack will come and rescue us,' he told himself.

"Why not?" she asked him. "Someone has to be a proper mother to Jack's baby. It's not like you're going to be around."

"You can't make me just disappear! Jack won't stop looking until he finds me!" His protest ended with a loud gasp as she began washing his belly with cold antiseptic liquid.

"Jack won't have any reason to look for you, pet," Gwen told him calmly. "As far as he'll ever know, you died in the line of duty." Finished washing Ianto, Gwen stepped over to the laptop and started typing.

Frantically, Ianto searched his mind, trying to figure out something, anything that would keep him alive until Jack could find him. Just as he knew for sure that Gwen was going to try and kill him, Ianto was just as certain that Jack would save him. That's how it worked. Nearly being eaten by cannibals in the Brecon Beacons? Jack to the rescue. Maxicorfin raiders kidnapping him and Owen? Jack to the rescue. It didn't matter who, what, when or where, Jack was always the knight in shining armour, riding in to save the day.

"Gwen, what are you going to do to me?" the captured father-to-be asked, trying to sound as calm as possible.

"Shhh!" she shushed him, waving her hand back at him while she scrutinised the computer screen. From his angle, Ianto couldn't see what she was studying so intently.

'Jack, please, hurry! You have to save our baby, please, Jack!' In his mind, Ianto was screaming his pleas loudly enough to be heard in London, even in the northern-most Highlands of Scotland.

Turning back to Ianto, Gwen clapped her gloved hands together. "Okay! I think we're ready here!" There was a look of maniacal excitement on her face that made Ianto's stomach turn rancid. "Now, let's get you numbed up, shall we?"

When Gwen picked up a syringe and approached him, Ianto couldn't stop his terrified whimpers from escaping, no matter how tightly he pursed his trembling lips.

"Should I make a joke about feeling a small prick?" she giggled, remembering when Owen had used the same line on her in the Brecon Beacons as the medic had prepared to treat her shotgun wound.

As the sharp point of the needle punctured his skin for the first time, Ianto tried to squirm away, but it was no use. Whatever paralytic Gwen had injected him with in the car wasn't wearing off quickly enough. All he had was limited use of his arms, but it wasn't enough to stop Gwen.

"What is that, Gwen? What have you been giving me? What if it's bad for my baby?" he asked in a fearful voice. "What did you give me in the car? What is this?" He tried futilely to move again and suddenly Gwen's silence was too much. "Damn it, Gwen! You can't just inject me with whatever you bloody well please!" Ianto snapped ferociously; his voice was sharp and angry and his blue-grey eyes were blazing with fire.

"Don't be daft, Ianto. Do you think I'm a complete twpsyn? I would never hurt my child!" Gwen gave Ianto two more jabs before she was satisfied. "There. Didn't hurt a bit, did it?" For the first time she stopped long enough to actually look Ianto in the eye. When she saw the tears coursing down his cheeks, she immediately reached out and tenderly brushed them away.

"Please don't hurt my baby, Gwen, please?" Ianto wept; his anger was gone and once again, fear for his child was all that he could feel. "I'm begging you!"

"Oh, don't cry, Ianto. Everything will be okay, I promise." She patted his shoulder. "This baby will have a wonderful home with two loving parents. You'll never have to worry about a thing, I promise."

"Oh, thank God, thank you, Gwen. For a min…"

Gwen continued on as if Ianto weren't speaking. "Jack and I will make sure that our baby never wants for anything."

Ianto's blood turned to ice in his veins. "Gwen, what do you mean by 'you and Jack'? I'm not giving you my child to raise and Jack certainly doesn't want you." Ianto tried to sound as decisive as he could. "Jack is with me, Gwen."