8

"Come on Sweetie" Ianto crooned as he breastfed the baby, tilting his head back to enjoy the sun. Not much more going to be around today with the dark clouds on the horizon and the weather report full of foreboding doom. Ianto was pondering a port as she burped and told him she was done. He smiled as he looked at her sweet face, his tears over the circumstances of their life more than dried up as he realized he had moments of pure wonderful with her.

Ianto smiled as he checked her bum and then took her below to the little bed he had made for her by emptying out the bottom two drawers and smashing the bottom out of the top of the two so she had a nice little two drawer high crib that was able to be pushed closed in a storm. It was lined with soft bedding and was a sweet little nest that she seemed to be quite fond of and he knelt to place her in it as his stitches bit. Like her Daddy, likes small spaces. Been a week since the birth and a few stitches had popped with his activeness so he knew he should check the wound site before any more exertions. He patted her little belly as she lay there drifting off "There, there Evie. Good night little one."

He rose leaving Eve asleep now, making his way topside to check the charts and make for a nearby port. He had to tie up for this one, not some little summer squall, no…a storm was coming that could sink a vessel out on the water and he knew it was time to get more provisions as well.

.

.

He was not sure how to feel as he watched him walk through the market, his coat flying as he laughed and pointed at something then stopping to swing and motion for Gwen to catch up as she struggled get get past someone selling something.

Ianto stood transfixed, his arms protectively over the bundle in the front pack as Jack turned to look for Owen, scanning the crowd in the marketplace. Ianto instinctively swung around to face away and stared straight into the face of Owen Fucking Harper who stood not five yard away with a piece of tat in his hands.

"Hello Ianto mate" Owen said with a slow blink of surprise.

"Hello Doctor Harper" Ianto replied with a blink of his own, the little bindle squeaking as her legs kicked, confused by the way her Taddy was squeezing her and Owen's eyes tracked from Ianto's face to the little booties.

"Fuck" Owen said with wide eyes as he stared then looked up at Ianto who was so pale he might be a ghost, as much as seen one.

"Don't" Ianto whispered "Please Owen. Don't call out to him."

Owen pointed at Ianto's bundle "What the actual fuck is that T-Boy?"

Jack could see them, stepping around Gwen as he tried to see who Owen was talking to instead of answering his coms as he reached up to tap his coms again, signaling time to leave and caught the tail end of the sentence "… uck is that T-Boy?"

Toshiko swing from the negotiations with the elderly man for the modulator, to see Owen as well, the man he was talking to was in a huge coat and a bobble hat, Owen's face full of surprise as he said "Really? Holy shit… this is why you… wow. Jack is gonna have a fucking cow when he sees this Ianto!"

Jack started to run, dropping the piece of tat he had been fiddling with to let it bounce on the ground and Ianto heard the thunk, turning his head to see Jack running towards him at speed and he spun out, turning to duck the other way, slamming Owen to one side as he ran for his daughter's life.

Owen shoved Gwen off as she tried to help him up, running after the two men as they slammed out of the marketplace, Eve upset from the jostling starting to cry. Jack heard the faint cries of a baby and slowed his pace, the confusion now raw as Ianto slammed into walls with his back and bounced off, turning so that for a moment the baby was visible… clearly visible in her little sunhat and bootees, her pale arms clinging to him as he glanced back at Jack with open fear. Such fear, then he was running again.

Jack found himself and started to run as well but as he exploded into the alleyway …. in to another market place he knew he had lost him when he saw the bobble hat on the ground where it had fallen and a lone bootie lay a few feet away.

Ianto was like the wind.

.

.

Jack would not release the bootie but Owen had managed to extract the bobble hat while a quick scan showed it was clearly Ianto's the DNA in the strands of hair unmistakable.

Jack held the tiny bootie and looked at it, such a pretty pale candy-floss pink. He kept replying Ianto's face over and over in his mind. The fear, the abject terror as he had made eye contact, the little baby clutched so possessively as he had run. He became aware of raised voices and finally looked up from Ianto's daughter's little booty to find Owen and Gwen squaring off.

"You know we were to detain him at all costs" she roared.

"He had a fucking baby strapped to him, what should I do Cooper?" Owen demanded "Shoot them? Would that have been the right thing to o? Used the tazer and hoped I got him not the baby's little body? Or maybe just use my sidearm and put them both down. Tell me Miss Fucking Expert tell me how to stop a terrified man rampaging about with a newborn on his chest!"

"Stop it" Jack said as he rose, his voice full of weariness and sorrow "Just… stop it."

"We were so close this time, we were not eve there looking for him and… this means there is hope right? Maybe next time he will let us speak to him?" Toshiko said as she reached out to comfort but Jack was already moving away with an anger he could not quell as she called after him "An entire planet to hide in but he does not leave. He has not left Jack… still here… just out of reach… there has to be a reason he has not simply left all together."

So close.

Close enough to tell that Ianto would never come back to him. Whatever the reason Ianto could not bring himself to leave Wales… it could not be out of love.