19

The village was ahead and the was stock moving well so Jack hooked Ianto's elbow and asked him to take a perimeter walk with him, nodding to Owen to continue on with the others.

They were around the back of some barns before Jack spoke "Are you OK?"

"Sure" Ianto nodded with a look of surprise.

"It's just… the dreams…"

"Ah" Ianto stopped walking and leaned against the fence as he plucked at a strand of grass "That. My Night Terrors. I am sorry, they are…"

"Hey, I am not complaining. I just… I want you to know that I care and I am here for you…"

Ianto stepped in and kissed him, hard, searing and familiar. He DID remember. This comforted Jack even as Ianto's hands slid around to cup Jack's arse and then lift him slightly and Jack grunted as he felt something behind him then he was sitting on a piece of old farm machinery, then they were rutting like wild animals.

Jack leaned back, sliding to the edge to let their crotches rub together as they writhed and grappled, finally Ianto stepping back to laugh softly "Damn. Sorry… I might forget myself and you are best not returned semi dressed covered in scratches and bite marks."

"Like last night? I am a fast healer…see any signs of our naked wrestling on me?" Jack assured him "And besides… if we don't fuck I might explode"

Ianto's face softened as he looked around, then he pointed "The barn. Come on. Let's see if there is a mezzanine level."

"I love the way you talk… say that again" Jack said dreamily as Ianto hooked his hand and let him into the cool semidarkness where there was a ladder that almost made Jack shout with glee.

In the hay up on that level, Ianto took him again. This time with more care, more affection and Jack enjoyed every damned minute as Myfanwy sat in the open doorway trying to ignore them. After all … she was SOOOO not into that messy business.

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"Hey, where did you two get to?" Rhys yelled as he watched the two men approaching across the field, the dog loping along ahead of them.

"There is a barn over that way full of hay and winter feed" Jack hooked a thumb "Also… we found a little kitty with some babies"

Everyone took off, leaving Owen and Toshiko to look at the two men. Owen finally said "Nice deflection. Why didn't you say you were shagging?"

"We don't know how… closed… these people are. The fact Ianto and I are sharing a bed has not even been noticed… we start holding hand and calling one another 'darling' how long before they are uncomfortable?" Jack demanded "I swear, this world is so damned backward and retarded in their approach to sex."

"we really did find a queen with a little clowder of kittens" Ianto added.

"OK… but that will only work for so long with HER" Owen hissed moving away and Ianto canted his head as he felt Jack's annoyance. Yes. Gwen.

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"It's a battle… the vision" Ianto said as he and Jack peeled potatoes on the back porch that afternoon, making Jack almost cut himself with his knife.

Jack tried to act nonchalant "They can linger."

"It's not my battle. It's a memory that… well. You know how a baby turtle hatches and knows to seek the sea?"

"Inherited memories, also called Genetic Memories" Jack nodded.

"Yeah. I think it is that. Someone in my gene pool, an ancestor suffered so much that it echoes through the generations." Ianto sighed, sitting back and examining his potatoes for an errant skin "I see it. Feel it, like it is me."

"Did he die?"

"No. I feel the closeness of it, the inevitability of it… like it is about to happen but at the last moment… the moment of impact… I always feel myself yanked away like there is a rope around me and then I am free falling in…well… nothingness." Ianto sighed "I hate that feeling. I hate heights, hate the feeling ... the threat of an edge and an abyss beyond. My whole life I have feared falling."

"And what were you told about it?"

"My great Grandfather or something… he was in the Great Battle of Sector Eight, whatever the hell that means. He fought like a demon to protect his platoon, many fella and he was like a wild animal. Got a lot of awards and such but he never spoke of it. Haunted. They say he had terrible dreams afterwards, slept outside on the lawn and howled to the moon." Ianto rose and placed the bowl of potatoes inside returning to sit once more. "I tried to research the battle found nothing to help. No I know why."

"I am sorry.. I have suffered many things in my long life… live for a few hundred years and you are bound to know pain… I try not to linger on my past because of that. To be trapped in a moment… I know of a few that would be horrifying" Jack commiserated "but you know… I will never judge you for it. I have cried out in my sleep, woken weeping uncontrollably some times and not even remembering why. It is your body needing to get it out, release it. He suffered… he suffered so much it echoes through the generations, as you put it. Gods, poor man."

"Yes. But he was not a man. Not back then... back when it happened… he was full Harbinger."

And there it was.

Ianto said it and Jack nodded peeling his last potato like he didn't' care.

After all… like he had thought of someone else not so long ago to someone else… he's not from around these parts himself.

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My image of a Harbinger would be like a cross between a boar, a bull and a bear... huge and dark with huge jaws and teeth. Intelligent eyes and claws the size of a man's hand.