8
Jack had decided to blast into London, taking a quiet Ton with him and Hawk asleep in the back. The village still needed a lot of things, mostly distractions for the many children that were now using the Harkness-Jones house as the temporary school room until they could get the school fixed. Jack knew Ianto was still upset over the damage, second guessing the decision to build the library and school next to one another. It made sense; the resources were there⦠more playground for the kids. Although the explosion was a freak thing, Ianto wool ponder it for some time.
Time for a distraction.
"Daddy?" Ton suddenly cut into Jack's musings "What was that?"
"What was what son?" Jack asked as he looked in the rear-view mirror.
"That lump of stuff on the side of the road. It liked weird. It moved. Could be an alien, we should check it out" Ton had moved in his seat with a look Jack knew well. Obey or suffer a meltdown. Jack turned the SUV and headed back, finally seeing that Ton was right. A lump of something grey. It looked like a mass of mop heads or maybe some cushion filing that had blown off a trailer or something. Rope? They got out and Jack approached, poking at it with his shoe.
It whimpered.
Shit.
Jack was in his knees pulling at the matted coat as the poor creature whimpered softly. He was disgusted to find ropes under the matting. The poor animal was hogtied under the coat, it's muzzle also taped shut, left to die.
With the pocket knife from the glove box Ton had run for, Jack managed to cut the tape first and left it stuck while allowing the dog to finally breathe properly as it let to a soft cry of relief. He then worked on the rope, releasing its limbs and it shakily rose to its feet only to fall again, overcome with dehydration and hunger no doubt. God, how long had it lain here with people passing it by, thinking it a pile of garbage. Garbage. On the side of the road. Jack felt an irrational rage, gathering the large dog in his arms and turning for the SUV, Ton running to clamber in the back and hold out his arms to soothe.
Jack headed home, the trip to London forgotten.
He had something to distract Ianto with now.
Much better.
