8

Everyone was on board talking with the kids and preparing for the flight with glee. Ianto and Owen were scanning the levels for anything they had forgotten, the water level in the lowest level registering high tide.

There was a faint boom and Ianto hesitated as he checked his tablet, then he looked at Owen with concern, "the seal to the elevator shaft went. The next level is now filling. Fuckers are working on it still, must have forced the doors."

"Right, anything else?"

"No. Wait" Ianto walked over to a table in the hallway, picking up a little doll "This belongs to little Renae."

"They do understand the concept of… not coming back… right?" Owen sighed.

"They think it's just another drill. No matter how serous we made them they don't think it's really the last time. Why I have this entire shopping trolley full of things they will break their hearts over." Ianto rolled his eyes.

"So, they are on your timeline? The Bots?"

"Yeah. I think we need to go, by the time they get to this level we will be long gone, we wait any longer and they might be close enough to track us." Ianto looked around one more time, so sad that they had to leave this place of safety that had been such a good home to them the last three years, those that had died to get them here and he was also thinking about that poor girl in the Garden Level who would never know how perfect her child was.

"It's too soon isn't it. For that secondary green belt in the valley?" Owen asked.

"No… we can make it work. It's bigger than the first one, it's large enough but we will have to take it slow. Twelve months or so here, or there inside the Valiant is not that much difference. Not really, the kids can learn moderation when it comes to outside time" Ianto turned to look at him and sighed "Do you think we are right?"

"Ianto, I know I would follow you anywhere, right? I trust you, like I trust me missus's brain." Owen assured him.

"Fine, despite Jack's decision not to tell anyone this is not a drill, I think the adults all need to know this is it in case they have anything hidden in their quarters they think is safe there for when we are finished the drill" Ianto sighed.

"Yeah, me too" Owen nodded.

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"I don't want to hear it" Ianto said as Jack headed towards him for another complaint about the time they were wasting "We have another five minutes to go before the third level is full, the sensors show that clearly. The engines are ready to fire up without any issue and we have a good hour before the Bots are in our living quarters."

"We could be gone now."

"And we are not coming back, they had the right to know, to get their things."

"Why the fuck didn't they have them already, the entire point of…" Jack stopped arguing as Ianto's hand came up into his face in warning that he was entering the slap zone. Jack closed his mouth.

"flawed, human idiots are what we are dealing with, living with and sometimes appearing to be ourselves" Ianto said softly as he leaned in to touch his hand to Jack's chest "I know, I know you are pissed but look."

As he pointed Jack saw them coming back, running hell for leather with armfuls of things, one even pushing a trolley full of stuff and he sighed "Francine!"

"Well… I didn't think" she huffed. "Third drill this month. Once the Replicators were secure I thought we were good!"

"Except it is not a drill, like we warned. Anytime might be the real thing" Ianto scolded, then turned to see Jack watching silently.

"Right Cariad, you get John and Mickey to the controls, me and you will take the two away vessels up to help you with the line of sight."

Jack nodded and went to obey, making Ianto wonder if this was all going to go as smoothly as he had hoped. Jack seemed not to think so. But then again, when he is deep in thought or unsure of himself he also does this so maybe it's the fact this is beyond his control that he is being a bit sullen. He's worried.

Ianto concluded that it could be that making him appear angry.

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"Two meters here at the arse end" Jack said as he watched the Valliant rise and get closer to the back wall of the house.

"Looking super green here" Ianto agreed as he swung the Away Vessel over the building, then cursed as he looked down at the water of the Loch "Bots. Cariad, I see them in the water, come on before they notice us."

Jack didn't need to be told twice, rising out of there with the silent engines making a soft sigh of annoyance like they were over this shit too. "John, give her some welly."

"Huh?"

"Book it."

John nodded and let her slam through the back wall, the brickwork falling as he swung her up and out.

"Are we free?" John's voice crackled over the coms and Ianto glanced back as he led the way towards the greenbelt, Jack's answer soft like he was afraid the Bots might hear them "Five by five, roger."

Then they punched it, flaying high in the messy skyline with Ianto leading them, the lights on his Away Vessels all John had as a point of reference in the thick fog of the upper level of the sky, clouds giving way to the darkness above them.

The kids were enthralled on the flight deck… so were most of the adults. John liking like the boss he was as he sat in the captain's seat calmly flying her like she was a puddle jumper.

He had never felt so alive.

God he has missed this. Given Mickey's grin, he was pretty happy with it all too.

"Flying five by five, we are all green!"