7
"Darling… what?" Jennifer was still trying to get her head around what was happening, out of the loop as per usual. The appearance of her usually aloof son with a bruised face, crying children and the mental bloody dog still addling her slightly. Especially as the bloody dog was now on her white lounge suite.
"I don't want to talk about it" Ianto flopped into her pouf with a whomp that made the dog woof at him, the twins silently watching on. She did not like that either, the usually rowdy and excitable Jamie Dee hugging the little Nate who was usually just a little withheld, not in need of a firm grip.
She then saw the way Jamie Dee was rubbing his head and she sat down next to him "darling, what's wrong?"
"Gammy pulled my hair and hit Taddy" the little boy said in a small voice "then she tried to give us food that would make Natty sick. I think she's a bit nuts, ya know?"
Jennifer gaped at him, then looked over at Ianto and the large egg on his head, the bruising and she felt something she had never felt before. Something… motherly. She sat and contemplated this new feeling, watching as Ianto let his head fall back and she saw the total devastation in his face. Jack had almost died and still… Ianto had just walked out. She felt it.
A shift in the air.
Time to make a phone call she never thought she would.
.
.
"What's this?" Ianto asked as his mother placed a cottage shaped key ring full of keys on the table in front of him, the kids lying on the floor gaping at the huge TV screen as they ignored them..
"It's the key to the cottage."
Ianto stared at it like it was a rattlesnake "What?"
"Your father… I know there is a lot of things your father lacks and you will never have a relationship but… he did say that the cottage was his father's and was to go to you anyway." She tapped the leys "And you loved it as a little boy."
"You knew… all this time, you knew where he was?"
"No, he contacted me after the Oscars to ask if it was really you on the arm of the handsome man" she explained "It was a short conversation but he did ask to talk to you, I refused to pass on any message. I think… I think this is an exception."
Ianto sat back to contemplate things.
.
.
Ianto watched Jack enter his mother's home, his hands holding a bag "Ah… I thought, since you are having a sleep-over that the boys might want their favourite PJs."
"Thank you, I had not thought of that in my flounce out of there" Ianto tried for a weak smile. "Look at us, you almost died and instead of me being supportive and…. God… why does she have to ruin everything?"
"Is there… somewhere we can talk?" Jack asked plaintively, his discomfort clear. Ianto wondered if Toshiko had twisted his gonads a while. This was not Jacks' fault. He was doing the best he could, Ianto knew that but also… he had to find the strength to say no to his fucking mother.
They headed to Jennifer's photo studio, looking nervously at all the fancy shit that cost way too much and would probably fetch even more now. Ianto waited, letting Jack have the time to chew over his words and hopefully not choose the wrong ones. Finally, he chose "I read the police report… what mama did to you and the boys. I … I did read it, Toshi sent it digitally to my tablet."
OK. Ianto sat on some chaise longue that looked too dainty to take his weight.
"She told me… I mean… then I read what the police said happened and … there were attachments. I looked at the icons and wondered what B-Cam meant so I clicked one" Jack stopped talking, the image of Ianto staggering towards the police officer with his face covered with blood, dazed and terrified as he tried to hold one of the twins tightly, then the other one running for them and… his mother… then… Jack had watched it. He now knew B-Cam meant Body Camera. There was another one and he wished he had not watched that one either. That one was the woman that went inside to listen to his mother say such horrible things, such acid filled things about them. She had told them Ianto was just a family friend. That he had kidnapped the kids. That she thought he was a pedophile. Yeah…that one had Jack's mouth dropping as his mother tried to say Ianto was harming the boys and she had to save them from his clutches. Probably had Jack killed.
"So. You saw" Ianto said, shaking him from his stupor, Jack's hand on the fur stole across the back of a chair stroking it like it was alive still.
"I did. I do, Tiger… I do see." Jack sighed softly, leaning back to watch Ianto look at the ceiling.
"There's a mirror up there on the ceiling" Ianto finally said, then with a look of horror he leapt off the sofa and turned to gape at it "Ewwwwww, do you think mum…. Ewwwww."
Jack laughed, he couldn't help it.
Ianto walked over and stood so close they could touch, his voice soft without anger. Jack felt the love still raw between them, the hope "Listen. I am going to give you two choices. Just two. The first one… you stay here and work on your relationship with your mother. Sort out the shit and try to salvage your name. The other, you come with me and we spend the next three weeks in a secluded place, just the four of us. We work out if we are OK, if everything is still working and if another baby will fit in. I do not want another baby just to fix things, they never fix things. I cannot have a baby with you if you are going to leave me or force me to leave you. If she has any say… that little girl I crave will just have to never become real."
Jack blinked. "Huh?"
"I am leaving in the morning. Either you are here before eight to come with us…. Or it's over. The only thing to discuss will be custody" Ianto said firmly, watching Jack stager back and then after staring at him, leaving the room.
Long after the front door had slammed shut, Ianto still stood there, talking deep breaths so he didn't' throw up in his mother's favorite room.
Holy fuck, did he just show his spine?
.
Sorry for posting delays, this week was my mother's 70th birthday and despite being one of six children... guess who had to do ALL the bloody work for the party... then the next day another one for those who could not go on the day. Yeah... TWO parties... mad. Also... sorry if the fact i always make Jack the twat and Ianto the victim upsets some, this is how i see them as people. Jack is not a bd person, just prone to being thoughtless. Ianto is too sensitive an prone to the sulks. I think this is how i will always see them, but the BAMF Ianto in some stories is cool too.