25
They travelled back without any sign of a tail, almost disappointing Jack and he congratulated Mickey on the multiple vehicle idea even if he wasn't sure it was what had worked, wanting Mickey to have some satisfaction.
Jack had helped unload and was more than excited with some of their acquisitions, noting that Ianto was quietly removing some from the communal pile and ferreting them away, other bits going to the shelving unit in his reading nook.
The hole was still there and Jack made a mental note to fix it into a doorway as well as a door to their own room beyond the room that was now to be the nursery.
The nursery.
Jack loved the idea.
He had also ordered the two chairs, adding a third so he might sit with them as well.
Maybe a nice deep burgundy or blood red rug was needed on those dark stained floorboards.
He was determined to show Ianto that he was happy about this child.
His child.
He glanced over at Ianto who was chewing the inside of his mouth as he stared at a piece of coloured glass and then looked at Mickey, gasping as he saw what Mickey had just plucked from the pile.
"Oi! That's mine!" he roared and Mickey poked his tongue at him.
Ianto was distracted for most of the afternoon as he chewed over what had happened, then when he was sure of his thoughts he settled to voice them.
"What do you mean, Gwen was there?" Jack asked with surprise as he looked up from the piece of tat he was wrestling Mickey for.
"On the Plass, Gwen was looking for you. She had a black man called Rex with her." Ianto repeated calmly.
Jack was suddenly on his feet and so very serious that even Mickey's smile was gone.
"She was keyed into our coms, was listening to you. That's why I didn't answer. She looked straight through me but was searching the entire place for you. I would say by now she has discovered our entrance," Ianto sighed, watching Tosh nod her agreement from a monitor.
"She is already in, but she thinks it is all damaged" Tosh assured them, "I have created a hologram to cover the secure archives door."
"Nothing in there left of importance" Mickey frowned.
"She doesn't know that" Ianto replied, "Keep the bitch guessing. Plus if she gets in she will know what we were doing. No. Best keep her chasing her tail."
"Why now?" Jack questioned.
"She must have …"
"No. Why tell us now. Why not straight away?" Jack clarified.
"I was … unsettled. Something was wrong with her. She didn't smell like her. Something was off" Ianto shrugged, "I don't know how to explain it."
"And Rex?" Jack asked quickly, "How was he?"
Ianto furrowed his brows and glared at Jack as he waited for some sort of explanation.
"He stank of you" Ianto finally said. "He also smelt … rotten. Sickly."
"Damn it" Jack sat with a thump.
"Ex lover?" Ianto couldn't help it as his jealousy flared again.
"Rex?" Jack laughed as she shook his head, "No, he couldn't stand me. Bloody homophobe!"
Ianto felt his hands unclench with a small amount of shame, then he looked away and Jack realized what he had been thinking.
"Rex … he had a blood transfusion from me" he hastened to explain, "During the switch for the end of the miracle we needed my blood at both ends of the pole. Rex went in with my blood in his veins, the only way to get it past security. We both died. The switch made us both immortal!"
"So he's like you?" Ianto canted his head.
"Yes. No. Yes. Shit. Sort of" Jack struggled as Martha moved closer to Ianto, seeing his dismay.
"He heals quickly, the first was like a reset, but since then he heals, but not completely. It's like a diluted version. A washed down effect where he still has to heal and they seem to stall out at … like eighty percent." Jack grimaced, "What you smelt was the festering."
"Oh my god, do they heal at all?" Martha asked with horror.
"Lancing helps" Jack shrugged, "But then he has the burn instead. He blames me, like I had any idea this would happen. Who would have thought?"
"That anyone with some of your DNA in them at the point of turn would become … immortal?" Mickey snorted, "Shit a brick."
Ianto had paled a bit more and his hand went to his chest, now completely smooth with the scar more of a red pen mark
Martha noted the movement and she frowned as she watched Ianto swallow, then rise.
"Morning sickness" he stammered as he stumbled from the room, heading not for the bathroom but the back yard.
He reached the rocks and leaned against them as his mind swirled with so many things.
Most of all, now he knew why she had said the other test subjects had died.
It was not just her brother's heart that had saved him.
It was his baby's heart beat as well.
Holly shit.