3
The large piano in the corner of the Family Room was tuned, Ianto had checked with that weird crazy ear he has and now he sat at it with his mind still whirring from everything. God… three years down here and still they were trying to find their rhythm.
Ianto smiled.
Maybe that's it.
We all need a little rhythm.
Ianto glanced over at Jack who was on the Day Bed with some of the kids, theirs included and as he lay there absently rubbing Martha's bump Ianto felt a rush of love. This is what it is all about. This. The future of these babies is what matters now.
Ianto started to sing. John Denver's 'Fill up my senses' filled the space and everyone stopped with awe to listen to the pretty words and the memories they evoked of the world topside they once knew. Jack was also taken, his eyes resting on his handsome mate who serenaded him like they were the only people in the entire fucking world.
"Wow" Jack said softly as he leaned in for a kiss after Ianto finished the song "Thank you sweetheart."
"I can smell the rain on the pavement" Owen said softly, 'sometimes… turning a corner and I smell it. A hot summer day sun shower."
"For me it is always the early morning air… walking to work along the quay with the sea air coming off the water. The distant sound of the boats unloading and general bustle. An occasional duck or seagull wandering about on the path." Toshiko smiled "I often took bread with me."
"Swimming. I loved swimming in the waterhole as a child. Sometimes… sometimes even as an adult when I had time off, and believe me it was few and far between, but there was this spot along the walking trail where me and Lisa used to skinny dip. That first emersion, dunking your head under and feeling… cleansed." Ianto smiled at the memory. "Only the birds and bees to see… and the occasional squirrel who was clearly not fazed by mad humans."
"Probably checking out your nuts" Owen muttered then grinned as Ianto caught it and laughed softly.
"Standing on top of the building looking out over the city at night. The sound of the city breathing. The smell of food cooking in the restaurant kitchens with their back doors opened to the streets on the breeze, I could tell from the direction of the softest breeze by the scents it brought with it" Jack told them "My sense of smell so attuned to the great food places here."
"The throb of a nightclub for me" Owen admitted "Pounding music so loud it rattles your bones and you feel each thump in your dick. On the dance floor grinding way, the lights going off... god. Getting drunk and wanton. Mind you… I paid each morning… every time I knew I would regret it and I always did but that night… like I was possessed."
"You know, we could have a night club down here" John said as he leered at Owen "I would rub against you little man."
Little… Oi! We are the same size!" Owen spluttered.
"Not really" John winked and then Owen's eyes narrowed for one of their arguments about measurements.
Ianto cut into the argument "the rain has stopped. Wanna check out the trail for deer? Change out some cameras and check the levels in the air?"
Both men swung to look at him and light up, then both of then raced from the room to change into 'outside' stuff as Jack and Ianto calmly went to do the same. Soon, the four of them standing outside the side door of the house, walking calmly along in the weird reddish hue of a permanent sunset… sunrise… something like that.
"Is this what Mars would be like?" Owen asked.
"Don't' be stupid, Mars is a hole" John huffed "Serleriff 3… it's like that. They lost a sun when it was impacted by a huge war ship, the second sun already dying and the light was like this. Everything dying and choking in the weird air. It all changed so quickly. I hated it there. Ya know that was a hard won battle with so many losses."
"Yeah, not just to the fleet. Serleriff 3 had about two thousand terra formers living on it too, they all perished in the impact's sonic wave. It seems to just… wipe the surface of the planet clean, at least the side facing the sun. The backside of it was still lush and green… weird to see. But everyone died, it was the air. It changed to a gas form that was not conducive to life."
"That didn't happen to us" Owen pointed out.
"No, the impacts were from the planet's surface with the bombs going off, throwing shit up into the air, not raining it down from space. Same difference though, things are dying and resetting. New plants might form to survive, adapt and become. Like plants, animals will adapt too."
"Evolution" Owen nodded.
"On a global scale, quickly. Like the dinosaurs that became birds… the ones who mutated to survive. This will be the same, we will see new species appearing that we have never seen before. Quite exciting really" John said and the two men continued their conversation like old friends.
It was sort of weird to see the friendship there, even with the childish bickering.
John was right though … things were evolving to survive.
Including them
.
.
…..
You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,
like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,
like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.
You fill up my senses, come fill me again.
Come let me love you, let me give my life to you,
let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms,
let me lay down beside you, let me always be with you.
Come let me love you, come love me again.
You fill up my senses like a night in the forest,
like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain,
like a storm in the desert, like a sleepy blue ocean.
You fill up my senses, come fill me again.
John Denver