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"And then what happened?" Ianto asked calmly as he watched the Zoom call with a resigned indifference.
"And then she fell in the little marigold garden and Tank put the hose on her" Curt said before he started to choke and snigger, a hand over his mouth as he tried to remain calm.
"And what did Walter do?"
"Walter? He did what you would expect him to do when an antagonistic reporter goes tits up. He walked away as quickly as he could before she saw him laugh" Curt rolled his eyes.
"Oh Curtis, I hope there is some video footage somewhere of that" Ianto smiled.
"You know, it's weird listening to you two. You call Curt 'Curtis' and Walt 'Walter' like they are still kids" Babs said as she swung in the chair in the bottom left of the screen.
"Because Walter is always my little Walty Saggy Bum and Curtis is my sweet boy" Ianto said "Where as... you are just Babs."
"Ouch. Cold man!" Babs said and then started to shriek with laughter as she flipped her Taddy the bird.
"OK… sometimes…. Only sometimes when I am alone and I think of you… in my mind I call you 'little cow' OK?" Ianto said and she laughed even more, now slapping at her knee as she tried to say something back.
"Tad?" Ton's voice cut in "You do not."
"No darling boy. No. When I think of Babs I call her Babbity in my head." Ianto smiled, unable to lie to him.
"Babbity Bum. Walt is Walty Saggy Bum and I am Babbity Bum. Really? Is Imp Impy Bum too?"
"Imperooney."
They laughed as Ianto shared the joy of having children that may be full grown adults but still want to spend time with their Tad, even is it is on a screen. Jack was outside with Hawk and Shay, dancing on the lawn to music playing on a Bluetooth speaker and they had watched that for a while as well, but really they wanted to check Ianto was OK.
They stopped short of demanding to see his sugar level chart he filed out every day. Well, Jack did.
"Taddy?"
"Yes Darling?" Ianto smiled at his little girl.
"Are you all really OK?"
"Yes Babby… Shay is on the way to recovery with some taste returning if the porridge on the floor for not having sugar on it this morning is anything to go by and hopefully Friday's tests will be negative and we can come home." Ianto assured her.
"Well thank god! Finally… I neeeeeeeeed some Taddy Soup." Ton said with delight.
Ianto glowed as he felt needed, missed and wanted.
Even if it involved some insults and laughter to get the message.
God, how needy was he?
He will always need his babies as much as they need him.
Plain and simple.
