7
"So it's a boy?"
"Yes." Ianto replied calmly as Hawk stared at the baby. "And they are also a girl."
"Like Babs?"
"No. Sort of… no. When a baby is made, it is neither… both… then it becomes either a boy or girl early on while growing in the mummy's tummy. This one could not decide so… did not choose one" Ianto said gently "So… little bubs is both."
"So… do we say he or she?"
"They? Because they are both?" Ianto shrugged "Or maybe … try… this is like thinking of them as two people, a little boy and girl sharing one body yeah … and their name. Him and her… so … Hir?"
"So… what is hir name?" Hawk asked his eyes wide with wonder. "Can it be Shay?"
"What… where did that come from?" Ianto asked with surprise.
"We looked at names for Tonny's bub and I saw some of them. Shay is a boy or girl's name and it means' like a Hawk' ya know!" Hawk said confidently "So they can be like me… strong and brave and fearless."
"Shay… well… Jack?"
"I like it" Jack said as he fiddled with the papers then said loudly "Alexa… what does Shay mean?"
Admired and respected or like a hawk; stately and dauntless
"Sounds like you love" Jack said as he went back to reading the papers. "And me too….A Harkness-Jones. I like it."
Ianto picked up the baby and held hir close knowing this would be more of a task than any of their previous babies, but at the same time he had never been so learned and mature for this. He could do this right? After all… this flu thing would never really come here and really…. He had already taken the baby home to meet everyone so … seriously… the decision was made by the Gods already.
Right?
So many had the choice made for them when newborns, no memory of who they were in the womb, the promise, the first sparks… really… Ianto found that… hard. Easier when the DNA showed a lean one way or the other to show the baby was more male or female but when it was undetermined… to choose for them is selfish. Why. Why choose when these days a man can be a woman… a woman can be a man … why can't a baby be themselves and settle into want of a dress or masculine preference? Ianto knew his personal view on the forcing of a gender on any child. Had he not written a fucking book on the matter?
Too many were fucked up because of the choices made for them, too many suicides, mental illness and unhappy people in the bodies they did not choose or want. No. Ianto knew he had to be ready to die on this fucking mountain of epic proportions.
This is no different from Noah becoming Babs or really … any baby. This one just needed time to decide for hir-self what designation they wanted. When old enough to voice their preference Ianto can help hir adjust and undergo any and all necessary treatments for to that… right?
Or not choose at all. Why should they have to choose? Why can't they be both?
Not a big deal and… god… what am I doing?