15

"Sir?"

Ianto looked up from the skimmer he was busy detailing to take out, rising to greet the team member who was flanked by several more, all of them looking nervously about. To had been three days since it all went down and he was still in stand-down mode awaiting the official paperwork to come back as accepted.

"Henders?"

"Sir…ah… a moment?"

"I have one, you may have it" Ianto nodded, then glanced down at Jack who was not visible on his side. He considered then added "Actually I was coming to find you lot. I want a full assembly of Meatsticks this afternoon if possible, I have news for our kind and for our cell."

"Sir" Henders blinked with surprise then he glanced back for support, the woman stepping forward to nod to him one Ianto knew. She had walked with him in the fire fight and he smiled at her then turned to Henders and nodded. Henders started again "Sir…"

"Look… call me that again and I shall check if I am wearing full fucking armour and a white horse is waiting to take me to slay a fucking dragon."

Soft laughter and Henders grinned at his leader "Sorry S… boss. You know the Snake Pit. We kept it secure, let the company fuckers rampage about and snatch stuff then retreat with their balls in their stomachs."

"Yes… as per protocol we let the Planetary Forces scan the area once it was secure" Ianto nodded then frowned "What did you hide?"

"Boss?" Henders said with wide eyes then grinned as he added "You mean… the room?"

Jack went from crouching to sitting on his arse, looking up at Ianto with his knees hugged to his chest as he watched the man's slow smile start to full his face. So handsome. So strong.

"Henders. Were you a cad young man?"

"Mehaps"

Ianto laughed "OK… what room."

"It looks like a communications room of some sort, lots of tech we don't know or recognise. Doc Sato has been in there for days like a fucking mole. Doc Harper goes to the doorway and yells 'food' to get her to come out for refreshments and then she goes back in with this look of…well… glee."

"And you thought to tell me…."

"We tried the other day but you seemed pissed. IT was all so raw and you were injured but hiding it and we had casualties too… we thought it best to give it a couple of days to settle. I never thought she would go nuts in there" Henders sighed.

"Henders… you have been my second for so long that you know full well my response to this… I take it you acted accordingly?" Inot asked.

"Yes. Three more sent after her this morning … all of our techies are in there lost in the maze too. We are lucky if we get any response. They are all… like kids in a candy store boss" Henders shrugged "Then about an hour ago Doc Sato made a weird nose and they all converged in her area. Then one came out with wild eyes, a bit of hair gone off the side of his head like something had attacked him and he said to come find you."

Jack watched the hand behind Ianto's back clench and then the fingers relax, a comfort thing? Then Ianto nodded "Well… seems that assembly is for now. I need to make some announcements, but right now… I need to go yell at Tosh. Coming?"

"Yep" Jack popped up, starting Henders even as the woman to his left calmly looked at Jack with a smile that told him she knew he was there all along.

"Hey Justice" he said with a leer.

"Captain" she nodded, "Nice shirt."

"Yeah… I know. Ianto got it for me" Jack said as he ran his hand up and down the white shirt, smearing gunk all over it and Ianto watched him with a wide grin as Justice laughed softly.

"Jack… where is your coat?"

Jack got the coat and shrugged it on, then tined to Ianto for inspection, the smear of stuff on his left cheek also endearing. Ianto shook his head and muttered "Your poor mother must have been driven crazy by you sometimes."

"Yeah… but that's what mothers are for" Jack said happily.

"I wouldn't know" Ianto replied sagely "I was always a Meatstick. Come on… let's go see what Tosh has bailed up."

.

.

"It's undeterminable but I think if I have the right clearance to hook this into Mainframe then…"

"Toshi… it's not that I don't trust you but this might be connected to all the servers of ALL their splinter-cell groups. Do we want them to know Mainframe is here?" Ianto asked. "On this planet? Bad enough we are here … do we want them here too?"

"No…noonononno… that's not it" she was animatedly flapping hands now, her glasses on the end of her nose and a piece of … fuselage or something holding her hair up in the messy bun on her head "This is their control room… the master switch for all the others. If I can patch in, not only do I gain control, I can shut their arses down. Or …or plant viruses… cause havoc. Imagine it Ianto… terrorism against the terrorists. They would not know what to do!"

Ianto turned to look at Jack who was standing back to listen and Jack shrugged "Sounds pretty cut and dried to me."

"OK" Ianto sighed with a roll of his eyes "You have diplomatic clearance… give the codename as GIJ13."

She stared at him and repeated it slowly, her face changing as she recognised the call sign for what it meant, so new and so much more than the previous clearance level.

He had told her first and she knew it, squealing with glee as she turned to enter the maze of computers, stacked boxes and weird machinery.

"OWEN… GUESS WHAT"

"Oh gods… he's in there too?" Ianto sighed.