27

Epilogue

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"Tad!"

Ianto looked up from the flower bed as his younger daughter … OK. I know.. not really as she was born first but we are talking image here. They can't help it, Aurora is so youthful that she will always be the little girl of the family now, her little sister almost a decade older before her first reset makes that a fact.

"Down here Rory love" he called out, rising from his knees so she could see him over the flower bed and she grinned as she leaned on the railing. It was midmorning and the air was full of a mist coming off the sea from below, covering the village they overlooked and it was fast blowing up the garden towards the house, a strange weather phenomenon that could last for days before leaving for amazing weather.

"Should you be doing that?" she asked with amusement, looking at the muddy clothing and his hair in need of a trim, the small curls around his face so sweet in the dewy morning "You'll catch your death of cold."

Ianto laughed and threw a dirt clod at her "I am planting. The rain is not too far off and it's the perfect time to plant these little ones, give them a boost in the mists."

"Well Papa is hungry, doing that thing with his utensils like a bloody five year old and I think Lulu is gonna brain him soon" she called back "Come on. Daddy is making pancakes and he has blueberries from the Boeshane Outback."

"What?" Ianto was interested now, not realising his mate had returned from the markets with some native fare. Those blueberries are hard to come by this time of year and he knew Jack would have paid a pretty penny for them… well … not like they could not afford it I suppose.

The sprawling house sat at the top of a hill overlooking the town below. Like a large creature on an overhang perusing the fields, the house was the epitome of a Dragons' Lair down to the castle-like turrets. Ianto had laughed when he first saw it, Jack and John's surprise for him had been over a year in the making and the time they spent overseeing the build of it while hiding it from him had been one of their better tricks.

Ianto started up the steps then heard a noise, looking up to find Jack at the top of the steps on the patio with his hands on his hips "Ianto Harkness-Jones. What the hell are you doing out here in the mist? Look at you … gods. Come on, inside and get some clean clothes on. Like a bloody child sometimes."

Ianto took the scolding with good grace, knowing Jack was in a good mood as he let Jack pull him into a kiss, his hands finding Ianto's belly to offer affection to their unborn who moved inside Ianto's belly, the fluttering of a new life making Ianto need the loo now.

"Great, he's found my bladder again" Ianto muttered as he pushed past, heading for the bathroom as Jack swung to watch him go with delight.

"Did you hear that baby girl?" he whispered as his daughter came to stand next to him, his other daughter yelling at her Papa inside for sealing a pancake already. "He said 'he' like… a boy?"

"Well … he did buy some little blue booties at the market the other day when he didn't know I was trailing him, I didn't want to say in case he was deliberately doing it to tease." She replied with equal excitement. "A brother? Do you think Daddy?"

"Think?" Jack swung and seized her little waist in his hands, lifting her to swing her around on the decking "Think? Don't be silly, a brainless gormlet like me? Think? Nah. I leave all that to Taddy. I don't have to think … with Taddy for my brain, Papa for my heart and you for my laughter."

"Oi. What am I then?" Lucy demanded from the doorway, a spatula raised threateningly.

"Oh Lucy, you are my determination!" he laughed happily, "Our new little one will be my cheekiness if the bladder trick is anything to go by."

"And if we are all that Cariad… what are you?" Ianto asked as he came to the doorway with his freshly washed face shining.

"Easy" Jack laughed as he rushed to catch the pancakes, snatching the spatula from his daughter "I am the Captain of the Madness."

"Ah" Ianto nodded as he looked out over their palatial home "True. Even a ship of fools needs a Captain. Like an insane asylum needs a head loon."

"I HEARD THAT!"

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The end