10
"Well… it's clearly dead" Rex said with his usual snark.
"Thanks for letting me know, I might have wasted precious time trying to speak to it or something" Jack relied with equal snark as they stood over the dead creature.
Ianto was ignoring them as he crouched and sniffed at the body, interested in the inert fleshy thing. He poked at it with a stick. He moved to another angle and poked it again.
"Jack? Is the tummy supposed to move like that? He finally said, stopping the argument between the two hardheads.
"Shit" Rex stepped back automatically with horror as the stomach of the dead thing moved again, Ianto cooing as he leaned in.
"It's a bubba?"
"Ah… yes. I think so darling" Jack said softly "How about you step back and I will take a look, yeah?"
"Oh my god, we have to save it" Ianto said with horror, reaching out and to everyone's shock the blade appeared out of nowhere as Ianto cut into the creature with reckless abandon, then reached in with the other hand to pull out the baby monster thing with three mouths that seemed to be screaming with rage.
"Awwwwww" Ianto crooned, hugging the baby to him with disregard to the goop all over it.
"Oh god" Jack groaned as he crouched to speak softly "Sweetie… it's a bitey one."
"It's a BABBBBBYYYY"
"Ianto, it…." Jack could only watch with horror as the thing latched onto Ianto's throat and Ianto's eyes widened with surprise.
At least it was quick.
.
.
Jack was in shock, he knew he was as he washed Ianto's' body.
"Are you OK?" Gwen asked softly.
"I just…. I only had him in my arms for such a short time… i… part of me says it was not Ianto anyway. Move on, get over it… but…. Damn it! I wanted him. I really.. I wanted him" Jack sobbed leaning over Ianto as he started to grieve and Gwen went to leave but hesitated.
"Jack?"
"what" came a muffle reply.
"His hand s moving."
Jack leaned back and watched as Ianto took a deep breath and then surged for the gurney with a cry of pain. Jack grabbed at him and held him as he writhed and struggled with confusion then asked in a small voice "Is the Bubba OK?"
.
.
"So… shit. He's one of us?" Rex asked with confusion as he watched Ianto eating some porridge.
"I don't… no. Yes... I think he…. Look. I think there is a drop of me in the mix when he was made and the … thing…. Is in him." Jack shrugged "I think that this IS my fault. I think he is part Ianto, part me."
"So… if you have sex with him are you fucking yourself?" Rex blurted out then placed a hand over his mouth as Jack slowly turned his head to gape at him.
"That is not helping things" Gwen snared at Rex, "Honestly. God."
"I am a Windy-Woo. A Bladesinger or… Wind Dancer… lots of names for us. We are created from a single whisper of a promise… carried on the breeze from the lips of a lover… we spark and catch, burn and grow consuming the air around us as we grow and become real" Ianto said, his voice soft and lyrical as he stood in the doorway watching them "I am a mixture of memories, a promise of what is to come and above all… I am a little bit of magic."
"The best kind" Jack agreed.
"So what now?" Rex asked.
"Well, I want somewhere to live. We can't live off Gwen's pull out sofa bed forever and if this place is to be brought into some sense of order we need somewhere to live. I mina… seriously… look at the state of the floor. When was it last cleaned?" Ianto demanded with annoyance. "I am not going anywhere so... let's hunker in and have a life."
"Just like that" Gwen said "Torchwood strikes again."
"Oh… the baby thing?" Ianto asked after a while, showing he was still as tenacious than ever.
"After it killed you it went for Rex. He managed to kick it off without much damage… his leg is mostly healed now but… well …. Gwen would have been next" Jack said gently "I had no choice. So little… so alone. We could not feed it the special food and…"
Ianto stared at him as he talked gently and then asked in a syrupy sweet voice "Well, wanna come wipe my bum-bum while I go potty, then have cuddles while you sing a lullaby?"
Jack blinked.
"You don't have to be so bloody gentle. I understand. Remember that baby Hefron? We all shot at it for almost half an hour, Toshi's reloading skill coming to the fore. No… I understand" Ianto calmly soothed.
"Sorry Sweetling, I… I know you wanted to save it."
"That's the thing with life Cariad…. Sometimes… not everybody lives. Can't win them all."
This might be true but Jack knew he had won something he didn't deserve.