9

The egg hunt was underway, yelling, screaming and general chaos as the kids rampaged.

The Easter Bunny had NOT been eaten by a Blue Bear apparently, the eggs left at the foot of each child's bed in the night bright colours, painted things on them that were suspiciously like Ianto's style of painting but the kids were enamored. Duckie got one with a huge wolf's face on it. Charlie got his with a horse that liked just like his. Pearl got one with a rabbit on it eating a carrot. Ianto had even done one for the new born… the first egg. It had Dickie's face on it. Dickie was most pleased that his new baby sister got to see his face all the time, placing the egg carefully by the crib before racing off with the others.

Jack was delighted to see the paints he had purchased were the right ones and Ianto was painting again. It seemed to bring him joy… and he was so damned good, the lifelike images breathtaking.

They had decided on a name. Rosemary. Jack had been a little weird about it and Ianto had cornered him to discover he had once had a good friend called Rose that he lost contact with after the war. Another called Mary who betrayed him. They agreed that this was not the same name as this was clearly a different little soul and they would say nothing. This was not their child.

Henry suspected something wrong but neither man would tell him so he went back to his wife and they considered as they looked at their perfect little drop of wonderful. Dickie came back with his Easter basket full of eggs, settling to open a little bag of sweets he had found as well. "Whatcha doing?"

"Trying to decide if Rosemary is the right name for her or if she suits something else" Henry told their son. Dickie hummed around a mouthful of sugar. "What do you think Dick?"

"I don't know, I am the wrong one to ask. I would have called her something like Dancer or Angel or something. I don't know" he leaned in to look at her, those cute little doll-like eyes starring back as he smiled softly and poked at her "well… if you really want to know. She's like a Raven. So… I would call her Raven."

"Raven" his mother repeated as he looked at her "Miss Raven. Raven Childe. Hmmmm."

"Makes you think of a strong woman, if a little petite… like herself was." Henry agreed, warming to it. "Raven Ruby?

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"What do you mean Raven. I thought you decided on Rosemary" Ianto was confused, as was Jack.

"Well… we let it sit for a while and found it might not suit her once grown. She is not going to be a skinny little waif of a thing… she will be big and strong like her mama and we decided she needed a more… rounded name" Henry said proudly.

"This is not because Jack and I did not like the name?" Ianto accused "Because this is YOUR abbey, not ours, we were gonna get used to it ya know."

"No… no. We saw the hesitation and looked again, seeing why… feeling it too. She is not a Rosie or a Mary-loo or anything like that. No. Raven. Strong, intelligent and not easily frightened. Yes, we like that." Mae assured the men "Like the large bird … I like that one."

"OK" Ianto shrugged. Later the two men sat on the back stoop talking it over and agreeing it was definitely their fault as they had let their dislike show. Ianto was conflicted but Jack was happy as it not only showed their affection for the family to change the name but it really meant the name was changed. He decided to whittle a raven for the little one's teething to come.

"But I feel terrible about it" Ianto sighed then stopped talking as Pearl ran past in a pair of her brother's pants, the long legs flapping the dirt as her dress was discarded somewhere had a half naked boy was chasing her.

"Pearly, give them back. Damn it all, I tool them off for the toilet and she snagged them under the door…PEARL!" he was yelling as Dickie laughed and pointed at his friend with glee.

"Pearl! Where is your dress!"

"He can wear it" came a faint reply "I can ride my horse easier now!"

"Bloody lunatic" Ianto said as he shook his head and Jack laughed.

"Emma came none too soon. Far too many boys around her for her to ever be a lady… she really needs a woman's hand" Jack laughed.

Dickie and Charlie stopped casing her and Charlie turned to Dickie. "What's a lunatic."

"Well… you know when we have to burn a tic off one of the cows and they do that weird dance as they die in the dirt?" Dickie asked. "That is what it is. A Tic that is loony. Loony Tic."

Both boys nodded as the headed inside to get Charlie another pair of britches.

Pearl long gone.

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Happy Easter everyone and please be safe xxxx We leave them here in this happy place.