18
"I would like to give you steroids in the beginning of the third trimester, push the baby to be ready at about thirty six weeks. You can't give birth naturally and what if you start labor in the due week? Taking it early is the best way to supersede that."
"It will be strong enough?" Ianto tasked softly.
"Progesterone shots, steroids, we are going to throw everything we have at it" she smiled confidently and Ianto nodded as he sighed softly.
"Hey, what is it?"
"Hormones" he quipped with a fake smile.
"Any other questions?" she asked as she settled with her PDA.
"Does sex … I mean ... would it hurt the baby?" Ianto asked with a wince of embarrassment that made her smile.
"Oh Ianto" she giggled, "No. I don't think so, as long as you feel able and it is pleasurable, it's OK. With any pregnancy, the minute it starts feeling uncomfortable you should stop."
"God, I hate … god." He blushed, "I mean … with me bottoming."
"Same rules apply" she giggled as she slapped at him.
He nodded with relief.
"So, you told him yet?" she asked as she watched his face change.
No.
"I tried, I mean. I started to but ... no." he sighed. "I don't know if he would like the idea."
"Sooner or later he might notice" she needled.
"Yeah" Ianto's face dropped and he looked down at his hands over his stomach again. "Yeah."
"Ianto?"
"I skirted the issue, sort of loosely flew it up the flag pole and he didn't just shoot it down" he sighed, "He cut the flag pole down and set fire to the flag."
"Oh Ianto"
"Then he pissed on it."
Martha groaned.
"He said he doesn't want a child" Ianto looked at her with a fat tear starting to escape from the corner of his eye, "he …he might not want me either when he finds out."
"No!" she rushed to assure him, "He doesn't know. He's talking out of a hole in his arse, you know he does a lot, right?"
Ianto laughed though his tears and sniffed, ribbing his face.
"I want it" he said morosely, "I don't want to get rid of it but …"
"You would?" She asked, "For him?"
"I don't know" Ianto wailed as she pulled him against her and he sobbed into her chest.
"Oh baby" she soothed, wanting to smack Jack upside the head for being so oblivious to what was happening.
"What if I tell him?" she offered.
"NO!" Ianto drew back with horror, rubbing at his face and her heart sank as she watched him draw away from her.
He was off the exam table and pulling at his clothes as if she had suggested something illegal.
"Ianto, we can work this out honey"
"NO" Ianto barked, "Its mine!"
"OK" she sighed.
He rushed from the room and she leaned against the exam table with sorrow.
.
.
.
Jack watched Ianto stride across the lawn and kick over a peg that marked where the roses were going and he walked over to place it back in, finding Ianto staring at the spot for the graves.
"I want them" he said to Jack without turning around, "I wanna get them and put them here. Why are we dicking about with our balls in our hands?"
Jack blinked as he processed the anger.
"I want to go to the hub and get them, I want my family here. I want Tosh here. Lisa and even bloody Gray. Now!"
He sounded like a petulant child and looked like one as well as he stamped his foot.
It was on the tip of Jack's tongue to reprimand him then he remembered that this was his mate, his ill mate and he was trying to tell him something.
Had been trying for a few days.
"OK" Jack agreed.
Maybe after a little burial service Ianto would feel settled.
Maybe then he would tell him why he was weeping in his sleep.