17
Ianto was peeling the spuds as he listened to the radio and as it started to cut out intermittently he swore and turned from the sink, yelling out through the house, "Babs! Stop playing with that remote control car inside!"
The interference stopped and Ianto went back to peeling.
Spuds done, he moved on to carrots, then the interference started again and he growled in the back of his throat as he stormed into the main room, then stopped as he tried to find the car by its whirring noise … that was strangely absent.
He wandered through the house and then looked at the aquarium in passing, froze and did a fair moonwalk back to it.
Oh bugger.
Ianto ran for the back yard where the jeep was whizzing about, bouncing happily along with Bert sitting in it calmly staring straight ahead.
"Noah Owen Harkness-Jones!" Ianto cried and Babbit looked up with surprise, cutting the feed so the vehicle slowly coasted to a stop.
Ianto stormed over and retrieved the lizard, turning to glare at the child before carrying him back inside to his tank.
"He was quite alright Taddy" Babbit argued as he scuttled alongside his Tad's wide strides, "He has been fed so he just sort of sits there. He was getting some air!"
"Getting some …" Ianto gaped at the child and then started to laugh as he looked at what he was wearing.
Babbit stood there in a pair of Bethy's sunflower shorts, his father's spare combat boots, a flat jacket that came to his knees and Heck's sun hat.
God, he looked like an extra from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. All he needed was a cigarette holder between his teeth.
"Babs, I understand your thought process, honestly I do" Ianto tried to stay calm, "But a passing hawk would swoop down and eat him before you could get to him to save his little green arse!"
Babbit's mouth fell open as he stared at his Tad.
"When he is bigger, he will be more intimidating, maybe he would be safe but for now you must remember that he is a baby. We have to be more careful!" Ianto said softly.
"Hawks eat lizards" Babbit whispered with wide eyes.
"Yes. Not big full grown iguanas but right now he's not much bigger than a geko, a hawk would see food." Ianto reprimanded.
"Oh my god!" Babbit gasped "My poor boy was swimming with sharks and I pushed him in!"
"Well, maybe he's all the stronger for it" Ianto soothed as he watched the lizard scuttle to the heat lamp, "What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?"
Babbit smiled as he pressed against the glass and started to sing a lullaby.
"I love you Babbity" Ianto sighed, kissing the little head and going to check the little Ton, still asleep in his beanbag and oblivious to a family member's mortal peril moments ago.
"I'm sorry" Babbit whispered to the lizard "I was stupid there."
When Jack got home he found Babbit sitting in a chair calmly reading out loud to the lizard that sat on the back of the sofa. The hat had been replaced with Bethy's plastic Tiara from dress-ups.
"Is he safe up there?" Jack asked as he walked past.
"When fully grown he will be the length of it probably" Babbit said grandly, "He'll be too big for my lap so I'm getting him ready now."
Jack ran to Ianto with wide eyes as he demanded to know if Babbit was telling the truth.
"Of course he is" Ianto huffed, "He doesn't lie. I tried to tell you. It's a green iguana. They live for bloody decades and get as large as a small dog."
"Shit" Jack wailed with horror.
Ianto rolled his eyes and checked his pots for tea.
