5

"Jack, you aren't listening" Gwen said with her usual snarl, "We know where the next one will happen, we did not need an algorithm or whatever. It's alphabetical. We are on the way there now."

Ianto swung around the corner and cursed, Heddlu already there and people were swarming the street. Ianto parked. Gwen got out and stomped over, her Heddlu walk recognised by the others like wolves welcoming anther back to the pack, she talked to them and came back grim faced.

"He's missing" she said as she slumped, "Snatched from the front yard while the mother was weeding next to him. She turned around and he was gone"

"Damn it" Ianto groaned as he rubbed his face, then a knocking at the window had him turning to look at a badge.

"Can you step out of the car please sir?"

Ianto lifted his own badge to the window "No, jog on will ya!"

"Ianto!" Gwen gasped with fake horror, "I never thought I would see the day, you…rude."

"Well … I don't have time for this and he's so young the parents might recognise me from the Donor file. Next thing ya know I am being accused of abducting him or something"

Gwen blinked, "Shit. They would think that."

"well … he's gone. Next … are H? There were the Harveys? Right?" Ianto canted his head, "Got the file there?"

They took off as the Torchwood SUV prowled past, the drivers of the two vehicles making eye contact briefly before Ianto blanched and looked away, Jack's surprise evident as he stared back at him.

"I don't know. Is this a futile thing? Should we go a couple down the list?" Gwen uttered then slapped the hand over her mouth, "I can't believe I just said that. That's … horrible."

"Thinking logically, that's all. This job does that to you" Ianto assured her, "The fact you heard yourself and corrected means you are not a lost cause yet."

"So … you and Lisa were not going to … well, do the family thing?" she asked as they sped along, trying to ignore the black SUV following on their arse. Ianto thought about that question knowing Gwen was genuinely interested, not just fishing.

"In the beginning I thought .. .like … imagined our own little man. Even had a name picked out" Ianto smiled softly.

"What name?"

"Walter. I liked Walter but she wanted Dylan. If a girl we considered Angel and Chrystal. I liked Jasmine too" Ianto smiled softly.

"Anwen, I always liked that for a girl. Maybe Sean or Gorwin for a boy" Gwen laughed, "I've had them in my brain for almost forever."

"Yeah. Funny, I see you with a little girl. Solid like Rhys but your face" Ianto swung the wheel and pulled to a stop, "right, they live on the tenth floor of this tower."

"A tower" Gwen looked up as she grimaced, both of them entering the grimy doors "Bloody stairs."

"Well, we can always reverse things. Why go up all those stairs when we can get them all to come down to us?" Ianto asked as he calmly walked over to the fire alarm and tapped the glass with his gun's butt, breaking it then he pulled down the handle to start the fun.

The noise was loud, tinny and crap but it seemed to work as people poured out, Ianto watching the crowd then frowning, "They're not here."

"Maybe they weren't home" Gwen said, then caught a fleeing mother with a child on her hip "Excuse me pet, are the Harvey's here or at work?"

The woman looked around, "They should be down here with us, they had their little one home today with the flu going around"

Ianto was already moving for the stairs, his stun gun exchanged for something more comfortable as he took the stairs two at a time, his training kicking in as he let himself breath calmly, even as he pumped his legs like a traction engine. The faint sound of screaching tyres outside heralded the arrival of the others.

Gwen was following, her panting loud as she complained and then she noises grew fainter as he lengthened the distance between them, slamming into the apartment he knew was that if his child, the body on the floor not welcome. Not welcome at all.

A woman, the mother was lying with an arm outstretched like she was reaching for something and Ianto knew the room she seemed to be trying to crawl to once upon a time, before her skull was crushed held something important.

He took a moment and told himself the little open was dead. Already dead. All dead. Calm down, take your time. It doesn't matter now.

He stepped into the room and saw the huge creature standing g over a man who was silently screaming with pain, his left arm torn from his shoulder like a doll's, the blood splatter covering the walls as he writhed.

Ianto raised the weapon and fired, measuring each shot as the creature howled and swung at him, missing as he popped down, then shot to one side before it could recover from the swing, firing once more into the back of its knee.

Then a sound stopped Ianto's heart.

A little sob from behind the sofa.

The boy.