18
"Jill, stop that!" Ianto scolded as the dog hunted for crumbs around Hawk's chair and Jack looked up from his morning paper with reef. Ianto noticed it and looked at him with surprise "What?"
"For the last few days you've been calling her Myfanwy" Jack admitted "I didn't say anything because I didn't want to upset you but … you have been doing a few weird little things and I know it's from the grief and lack of sleep. I know you lay there in the dark staring into space thinking of anything and everything. Made you a little spaced out."
"Are you sure?" Ianto said with horror "I mean … I know she's not Myfanwy. She's Jill. Your Jill. I know that… I never…. God. You don't think it's an early onset do you?"
"What?" now it was Jack's turn to be confused.
"Dementia. Or Alzheimer's or…"
"Ianto!" Jack said sternly, more than intended and he grimaced at his angry tone, clearing his throat to calm himself "You lost your beloved Taddy. The most important person in your life not counting us for most of your life, someone that was the pseudo mother to you. You've not slept really since, you are eating like a bird and are always nervously fidgeting. Baby, you are over tired to the point of weirdness. You get like this sometimes… I have watched you call Penny Walter for an entire afternoon and the little guy was so pleased that he didn't' correct you. He thought you were paying him a compliment to call him by his daddy's name. I didn't say anything because I knew you were a little crazy. You and I had some wild sex that night and you slept. Next day you were fine."
"Oh my god" Ianto gasped with horror "I think I need to be tested when we get back. Just to be sure, it could…"
"Ianto. Remember that time I kept calling Rhiannon Rye Man? I don't know to this day why and she found it hilarious. I was recovering from the gunshot wound, worried about you and not sleeping right. God, I also patted a doctor's bum because he was facing away from me and I thought it ws you. Sleep deprivation does things to your head. It's not some sort of mental illness stealing you away from me. After all … last night we had some fun and you slept. This morning you called her Jill."
"How often do I do this?" he demanded, now annoyed with himself as well as Jack for not saying anything.
"Seriously?" Jack said gently as he reached for Ianto's hand "Ever since I met you. You call inanimate objects the wrong thing, you mix up dates… all sorts when you are in your of your phase of sleep deprivation. Always love."
Ianto was stunned. All these years. All these years and Jack never corrected him or pointed out he was being a little nuts. For some reason Ianto felt much better knowing this.
And he loved his silly man all the more knowing he had his back.