1
"Ianto?" Jack sat up in the bed, disorientated as he woke to find Ianto sitting on the edge of his own side, groaning softly as he leaned over so jack could see the pearl necklace of his spine in the moonlight.
"Cramp" came the soft reply and Jack slid out, moving around the bed to offer help only to find it was not going to be so easy. Ianto had hold of his stump, rubbing at the heel of it with concentration as he grimaced.
"Where is it?" Jack asked as he knelt and started to kneed around the scaring.
"Across the edge of the top, you know where the toes connect? Right across that part. Can't think of the name, know there is one… argh… fuck it hurts." Ianto waved his hand over the space near the floor where a foot might once have been and Jack sighed, changing his grip to squeezing now. "Mid foot region."
"Any better?"
"No. Fucking thing. God, phantom pain is the worst. No way to escape something that isn't really there. Just the nerves sending a wrong message and the brain trying to remember what it might be… fuck. Argh. If I still had a foot I might have cut it off by now" Ianto was gripping Jack's shoulder hard, his teeth gleaming in the candle light as he grimaced.
"How about we stick the stump in some ice water like you might do your foot. Let it think you put the entire thing in a big tub of it or something?" Jack asked.
"Worth a try" Ianto gasped out, tears forming now as the pain really hooked in.
And so, at stupid o'clock in the morning a naked man crouched by a bed with a bowl of iced water so his beloved could stick a stump in it to try and fool the brain into releasing the cramp in a foot that did not exist.
More impossible things before breakfast?
Ianto's soft giggling as he stroked Jack's face and kissed him as he whispered that it was working was worth it.
Always worth it.
.
.
Ianto rose from the row of lettuces and looked out the glassed side of the tunnel house to watch the kids racing past with a pack of dogs in amongst them. Well, wild animals all of them I guess and he smiled as he went to move further down the row he was currently weeding when he saw clouds in the distance and he frowned as he focused more.
He moved fast for the Great Divide and the air horn sitting on the top step, lifting it to let off three sharp bursts that had everyone running for the Food House, as it was now called. In the four months since we last checked in things had settled more, people had allowed themselves to grieve and accept their lot, and right now something was coming that they had experienced twice before. An electrical storm.
Everyone scattered to their pre-assigned tasks, Owen and Rhys running for the Jeep as Andy fired it up and they took off across the field to plant the large metal poles into the larger metal pipes that had been slammed into the ground as deep as they would go so the forked lightning might have an outlet that was not one of their buildings.
Stock was ushered into barns, vehicles put away and kid's heads counted. They settled to watch the world go to custard outside, little faces lighting up with glee as they counted between strikes for the huge booms of thunder.
Comfort food came out and everyone accepted that they were having a 'Storm Day' which is sort of like a Snow Day but without snow angels later. Their worst fear was hail but none seemed to come. The squirrel family chattered and threw the occasional acorn down at the kids and after a while it became clear that it was a game and the kids were moving about to see if they could follow the child they wanted to hit, chattering and soft cursing from them as the kids changed hats as well.
They still found David who roared with mirth.
Ianto rose and headed to his place, the Great Divide's sides rusting in the wind as a metal coupling slanged incessantly. Damn, that needed to be tightened. Shit, really they needed to cover this in properly. If they create a road around the outside of the buildings they would not need to move along the street anymore. This could be permanently glassed in or something like the walkways. So much safer for the kids… shit.
Ianto slipped.
He corrected himself and started to giggle, reaching the library where he entered to find the fire low and the cats huddled on the hearth looking pathetic. He soon had the fie roaring, the mother cat and her now almost grown kittens lounging about in the chairs now, the place warm and inviting.
By the time Jack entered with a child under his arm and a basket of food for an early evening picnic of their own, the place was a comforting den of love.
No matter the storm outside, they were safe.