5

Gray was dead.

Lucia was hanging in there but Gray was gone. The wailing and screaming from his mother was heart rendering to hear as Franklin tried to lift her from the floor to a more soundproof room. Ianto just felt numb as he watched Jack fold around his mother once they got her into a room.

"OK. Rose needs to know … shit. Did anyone call Archie?" Ianto asked one of the men from Franklin's staff milling around "We will need him."

"Shit, right" the man nodded, going off to call the family lawyer. Ianto looked around and tried to think of what else needed to be done, and then headed over to ask the doctor who had told them the bad news.

"Do you need a formal identification or something? The mother will want to wail over the body and I know you need forms filled out. Also, any news on Lucia? She's pregnant" Ianto said softly only to watch the doctor shake his head as he said they did not know that. The baby was probably toast. Oh no.

Ianto went into the room and looked at the body of the boy he had thought of as his own little brother, touching the cooling flesh with interest then filing out the form to allow the body to be released to the family. He washed him gently as he talked to him, making sure he looked presentable with the tubes and patches for wires all gone. He stood back as Anna was helped in to fling herself on the bed so she could scream with anguish and pain.

"Excuse me" the doctor had returned "You asked about the baby."

Anna suddenly grew silent as he lifted her head to stare at them and the doctor added "Apparently, the scans show the little one is still alive. The pregnancy will be tenuous mind, there is still a chance she may miscarry in the next few hours or days but if we can keep her stabilized there is a chance the baby might survive to term. No guarantees."

Anna rose from the body and straightened up to blink owlishly then say in a halting voice "She is pregnant with my boy's child?"

"Yes" Ianto answered her "Just found out and they were going to announce at your anniversary soon. Yes."

She let out a sob and rushed from the room yelling "where is she. We have to save her… I need that baby."

Ianto had a terrible feeling in his gut that Jack's threats were about to be played out.

Oh… how right he was.

.

.

Ianto was packing. Quietly and methodically packing things away as Jack moved around him totally oblivious to what was going on in their own life.

Gray's funeral was today and Ianto was trying to remain calm for now, the need to run still there but the need to help Jack stronger, despite what had happened.

"I hate this tie"

"You know he gave you that one last Christmas, your mother probably chose it so she will know" Ianto said without looking over at him and Jack grunted as he stared at the mirror.

"Right. Forgot. Right. Right." Jack moved to the bathroom and Ianto put more things in the suitcase. Jack called back "How long will you be gone this time? Running away when I need you."

"I am not leaving until three days after the funeral, my flight is not tomorrow for Godsake. I need to go see Rhiannon, I need to feel Welsh air on me face" Ianto said calmly. This was not a lie. He did need to go, he did need Rhiannon and some Welsh air around him. Mostly, he had to escape. Maybe with time and space he would miss Jack, see the silliness of holding onto the pain and want to return. Right?

In the days following the crash several things had happened. The first being Mother Harkness slapping a custody order on the unborn baby in the poor girl still fighting for her own life in the hospital. Gwen's unborn baby had been tested and was Rhys's. Thank fuck for that one anyway. Still the ranting had continued for a while about what might have happened if it had been proven to be Jack's or Grays. Franklin had grown eerily silent.

At least now Jack had started to look furtive and apologetic when he spoke about her and Ianto knew the expensive gifts and serious eye locking conversations were coming soon. The declarations of love, the promise not to ever cheat again… lies… lies… lies. Again. You see Jack had cheated on him before… and now the scab from that had been knocked off and it was a gaping wound. Ianto had thought he had forgiven him completely for that but is seems he was slapping Band-Aid after Band-Aid over things.

The baby, the one that was proven to be Gray's, was going to be torn from that poor girl like a cancerous growth. She would be lucky to get visitation. She lost her lover and would soon lose her baby and was still in too bad a condition to even know she was fucked.

Ianto had seen all he had to see to know this was not going to end well for him.

Mother Harkness would smell this baby in two seconds flat. She would attempt to snatch it away like Gray's one. Would Jack fight for him? Would he want to marry Ianto and settle down like he had always said he would? Or had this all been some sort of fucking cosmic joke. Gwen. Who else had he fucked over the time they were together? Ianto knew about two of them. Two times since they were kids that Jack 'slipped up' and had done the hand holding, eyeball locking admissions of guilt and a need to be forgiven.

Ianto just could not do it this time.

This was not about Jack, was it?

A male pregnancy was rare, so rare that it was illegal to abort one. So he was guaranteed a child in seven months or so. And what then? What if it get snatched away? Was he to lose Jack and their child all in one foul swoop? Would Jack fight for him? Or simply fight him.

This was not about Ianto either.

It was about this unborn child that needed to have a normal life. What life would it have under Mother Harkness's thumb?

Ianto placed another item in the suitcase and tried not to show his dismay as he prepared to send another suitcase ahead to Rhiannon.

The only thing left to ship to her soon would be his own cargo.

If he found the guts to do so.