25
They were ready, everyone poised with patches for any mistakes and guns for any problems. Ianto stood at one door, Jack another, Rex at the other entrance so all three were covered by elites with no hesitation to fire.
It was an anticlimax actually. John got to the ship, took it up and as he reached obit he fires at the warehouse, the large missile obliterating it and causing those surrounding it to fly back from the shock wave of the blast.
"JOHN YOU PRICK!" Jack was the first to resurrect, rising to check the others who had been ordered to stand farther back were not hurt, and then he comms checked Rex. OK. Pissed but OK. Ianto? Ianto? Jack walked around the building and found Ianto sitting in the dirt with a look of thunder, his fingers threading through the holes in his suit where the shrapnel had strafed him. The pale skin beneath pristine.
"Hey. You OK?"
Ianto glanced up at him with a look of total disbelief and Jack blinked then started to laugh quietly as he offered his hand, lifting Ianto to his feet "Tell me one thing. Sorry, it's … I resurrect at the same age and physical fitness each time. Do you?"
"Yeah."
"So… are you pregnant again too?"
Ianto blinked "no."
"So … not a total reset hen."
"Jack… not now"
"Then when" Jack asked, "Right now. Just us. Ianto… Pease. I am trying not to smother you with attention and questions but.. this is too much for my brain when I need to focus on other things. I should have known he ws going to do that so we couldn't get the off-world tech inside. Just tell me, let me compartmentalise it.. move on."
"Will you?"
"Yes" he promised genuinely believing himself there for a moment.
"Your kiss… that last kiss held me in .. stasis? The TARDIS helped. Then when the Doctor got me on board the TARDIS went haywire. Something to do with a Giver of Life called Bad Wolf who in that moment was doing something across time and space for you… your spark of … you. In me was part of you in the form of our lovemaking… sorry… fucking… so it… lived too. The Doctor can't explain it, couldn't stop it and was really annoyed with me for not getting rid of it. When Daniel was born I died… that was me first true reset. When we knew for certain that she had gifted me as well as Danny. I wake five minutes to the moment after he was taken from me and I was closed again by the machines. I am pristine, strong, ready to go and my tits are killing me until the milk dies up again. Yes." Ianto snarled knowing Jack was going to break that promise almost straight away "The Thames House death was not a real death…more of a ... stasis. Had you turned aroid and found me still alive… he would not have happened I guess. I don't know. The birth of our son was my first real death. My first reset point. Without Danny … I would still be mortal?"
"Our son."
"Well, for fucksake. You know as well as he did. Come on Jack. Who else could 'seed' me as he put it in this time and place? Daniel is yours. Well ... mine. I went off-word to find out what I could to help him. Learned in the end there was no answer, just like you. Just like me. He's an anomaly with his own unique set of rules. Will he die? I hope not. Does he age? For now… yes. If cut does he heal? Yes, at an astronomical rate. He thinks he is an X-Man and one day will fight alongside wolverine and such to save humankind from other mutants. I have not explained the difference between mutants and aliens… is there? He is happy, calm and thinks he is superman. Knows he has to hide behind a pretend person like all superheroes. So … that's it."
"You can't have him. You try to be a good Tad but… to hide him … to keep him hidden … you had to give him away" Jack finally saw the pain there, slumping as he reached out but Ianto slid back "Oh Yan. Because of me?"
"I had to go off-world, seek out other civilisations. Other tech … try all I could to … I don't now … fix him. Learned so many things, learned nothing. Came back broke… or rich … depending on how you see it. I had to go years between each visit, even if it wss a mere day or so for him. Her Majesty is his God Mother. She is the best protection I could get here on earth" Ianto decided to go for broke "The Doctor is his God Father of course. Loves him to bits. TARDIS does too. Spoilt little bugger."
"So … he has flown?"
"Yes. Of course. Short, week ones and such. God, I never want him at risk, not until he is grown and we know the risks…no. The Doctor knows he can't go gallivanting about with him. Daniel loves the mad coot." Ianto looked intently at Jack "And I … I miss you. I passed by you so many times, once even brushed against you in a nightclub and cried all the way home. Made myself physically ill with my teenage-like sobbing. God, you smelt so good. The man you were shagging seemed to think so, giving you hand job there on the dance floor."
"You were gone" Jack defended himself "and I … I missed you!"
"I didn't?" Ianto slapped at himself "You left me!"
"And yet… here we are."