7

"We cannot go 'No Comment' to this!" Ianto was beyond angry as he paced the room, "Lisa is… Jesus… Lisa was never anything but a beard. We never had sex, I never did anything untoward… I fucking paid for her education as art of the deal!"

"Can she prove that?" Malcolm asked "Can she prove you have been giving her money over the years? She can say it was hush money."

"But why! I have been good to her… good to her entire fucking family… why…." Ianto's voice petered out as he stared at Jack "They have something over her. Her love for her family is the only thing that is stronger than her loyalty to me!"

Jack looked over at Malcolm who was already demanding a report for where each of Lisa Hallett's family members currently were and what they were doing. If they did have something over her, they needed to know what it was… fast. Ianto could not take another hit like the one he took durng those early years.

Malcolm knew better than most how close Ianto and Jack came to leaving it all behind them. He wondered if the world at large knew how close they came to losing their kings?

.

.

Ianto was watching the screen, his face impassive as Lisa haltingly agreed with the queen that Ianto was 'handsy' and her grimace was paused by the commentator who asked his viewers if that look of discomfort was any indication to the lechery of their so called 'good king' then he asked if there was need for ANY king these days.

Ouch.

Ianto sat back, angered and slightly insulted now as he knew they were twisting the things said even as Lisa openly showed degust in her own words. More than once she apologised out loud, before saying the next thing like she knew Ianto was watching her.

"Her little brother, Marcus!" Malcolm burst into the room and Jack turned to face him even as Ianto ignored him, Lisa's despair so hard to watch. She had been a good friend, this was his fault she was in the middle of this.

"What about him?" Jack asked.

"He's gone off the grid… nothing since he finished his third class on Friday of last week." Malcolm looked between the two men "He is… what… fifteen?"

"Ah shit" Ianto said softly "I think I know where they are going with this and we are not going to like it one little bit"

Jack turned to him as Lisa said it.

"Ianto was only fifteen… I was seventeen. Older, I know I should have known better but… Ianto had such a way about him even then… you know… you've all seen it" she stopped to blink and Ianto whispered to the screen for her to stop, think… don't do it….. She took a breath and finished with "And the baby was something neither of us knew what to do about."

"Fuck" Ianto huffed.

.

.

The media had gone wild, the claims that the youngest brother was really the illegitimate child had them all screaming with glee and wrath.

"Jack, how many times do I have to tell you… it is a lie!" Ianto said for the umpteenth time "Think about it. You gave her mother the little soft rabbit with a rattle in side it at the baby shower. We went to the hospital after he was born to see him still so new, her mother in the bed so proud of her late life child."

"But why can they not find his birth certificate? Any sign of his birth? Huh? Her medical records show nothing, all their records are gone mother and daughter… and son!" Jack raged "Fuck."

Ianto knew Jack believed him, he knew Jack was well aware that this was all a smear campaign but it still stung that Jack would … even for a second… question things. He decided to ignore it and try to focus on the real problem. Someone must have Marcus, right?

"Mal, you have to find Marc" Ianto implored "Only his appearance can finish this."

Malcolm nodded his agreement, reaching for the hone in his pocket as he left the room.

"Johnny? Got a sec?"

.

.

Ianto was in the garden, not fair for the kids to feel like they are missing out just because of these lies. He stood with the huge coat wrapped around himself as the two little ones squealed, running and laughing in the sunshine.

"Majesty… OI… KING IFAN…. WHAT ABOUT YOUR OTHER SON…WHAT ABOUT MARCUS…"

Ianto turned his back to the reporters who were yelling at him from a distance, their voices carrying on the breeze and it was not until Mac turned to face them that he realized the kids could hear them too.

"Come on…Taddy is cold. I want a hot chocolate with lashings of marshmallows…. Do you?" he said, ushering the babies inside, stopping to glance back at the masses who were all looking like the pitchforks were not as hidden as they should be.

Maybe it was time to retreat.

For real.