22

"Hope!" Ianto barked as he saw her rising from the breakfast table with a sandwich in her hand "Where do you think you are going? You are on restrictions until …"

"Dad!" Hope replied snappily "He told me to go take the bird food!"

"He did not!" Ianto shot back "He doesn't even care about them!"

"No but I do" she snarked "At least he cares about me instead of treating me like some … some .. disobedient dog!"

The place was silent, everyone frozen as they gaped and Pip finally slammed his spoon down on his highchair tray with a resounding whollop and glared around like someone had better fix that shit up! Ianto rose and followed her only to find her clothing in the tunnel system. She had run.

Wow. So Harkness with her sneers but a Jones-hit-and-run can be used equally as fast huh?

Ianto went to find Jack who was in the vehicle bay with boomer laughing about something and his smile faded making Boomer and the others turn to look in the direction Jack had before Ianto entered the room. It got considerably chillier as Jack straightened up, feeling the anger in the bond.

What now?

"What now?" Ianto snared "The pup I grounded has gone to feed the fucking birds because you overrode me, that's what!"

Jack blinked "She always feeds the birds."

"She always takes her licks!" Ianto hissed "She had another three days of a weeklong punishment for the shit she pulled out there, don't you dare override that! She needs to learn consequences before she gets too big for her little boots!"

"Ianto … you need to cool down buddy" Boomer snorted "You'll have a heart attack or something. It's just bird food. She's not leaving the dome."

"She was confined below quarters and Jack knows it" Ianto was now even more pissed that others thought they could give him advice. Them tell him how to raise his own pup.

"She's mine too! Don't I get a say?" Jack asked, hearing Ianto's feelings loud and clear "She's just a little girl!"

"No" Ianto shook his head "She's not. She's Wolfling and in her mind closer to twenty than twelve! For the love of gods, she needs to learn that responsibility means sucking it up sometimes. After all … I have to!"

"Well … don't then. They don't need smothering around here now, everyone is working as they should without you breathing down their necks" Jack huffed "Gods. Don't' be such the wife all the time!"

Jack suddenly heard what he had said and swung with horror to pull it back but Ianto was already gone, stomping off as the bond screamed with Pip rage at the insult handed down to his Tadda.

Jack swore and Andy shook his head.

"You know … if I called Martha the wife she would cut me nuts off to prove the point she has some!" he pointed out "Way to feminise him. Shit. Wanna complement his new hairdo next? Might work … or ask him if he tried a new recipe? Buy him a vacuum cleaner?"

Andy yelped and laughed as Jack swung at him, laughed softly as well then grimaced as Ianto's snarl echoed in the bond. Laughing at him now?

Fine. See how you're laughing!

Jack didn't like the sound of that and left the men to wander off searching steaming for his mate, finding the twins instead, standing there holding hands like they were waiting for their cue for the Stephen king movie they would star in.

"Father?"

Eerie how they spoke as one person, their voices musically tuned to each other. Like stereo. He smiled softly with affection at the two scary ones.

"Yes my little fiery beasts?"

"Is it bad to be a wife?" Tum asked with wide eyes as Burn nodded then canted his head waiting for Jack to answer her.

"To … what? No. Of course not, you will be a wonderful wife someday." He floundered.

"I don't know, looks like hard work putting up with someone. Sharing with another… I may not like him" Burn said to her with a frown as they turned to walk away, Jack dismissed.

Jack stood staring at the spot for a moment then sighed as Rosie came though the bond seeking him, Dean as well. Looks like a family meeting might be needed to reassure the pups as he and Ianto had not had such an angry argument in a while, the bond thrumming with it as he had not shielded.

Damn, this Wolfling thing is a bitch sometimes.

So now I am a bitch?

Jack scrubbed his face with his hands as he dug himself deeper, Ianto so touchy.

OF course he was, the anniversary of Anna's death and everyone had forgotten, even Pip. Ianto went to pick wild flowers alone.