45

Ianto did his best to stay away from their careers, not wanting to intrude on their lives outside of the home but Babs had left her script by her bed and he knew she would be furious once she discovered it missing.

Ianto waited calmly as his credentials were checked and he was allowed through security, walking quickly towards the kid's trailer with the script in his hand.

He was going to be late for class and he had texted to say he would be detained due to family problems and hoped his professor would let it go. This psychology course was both time consuming and engaging as he found more to help Babs as well as other children in need of understanding.

Ianto was, of course, top of his class with his edidic memory and ability to find comparisons in his past and present.

He rounded the trailer and slammed into a man who was leaning against it as they both yelped with surprise.

"Shit, sorry. Quinn tells me all the time that I'll trip someone doing that" the man laughed, then held out his hand, "I'm Warren. Quinn's … friend."

"I'm Ianto. I'm Walter and Babs's Taddy" Ianto smiled politely.

"Christ, of course you are! Walter has your smile!" Warren laughed.

There was a commotion in the trailer and Ianto entered to find Babbit in a tantrum as she threw a new script at Walter.

"I'm not doing it!" she screamed "I just got this hair and they are not cutting it off!"

"It's just for the screen" Walter argued, "They can stick more on afterwards. You agreed when they talked to you about it."

"No they won't" Babs sneered, "Look at these rewrites! I'll have to have short hair for weeks. I don't wanna."

Ianto picked up the script and started to read, then snarled as he slammed out of the trailer and grabbed a passing crewmember, demanding to know where the director was.

George was sitting with the writer as they went over something and Ianto slumped into a chair and glared at him until he looked up.

"You have decided to cut my child's hair without asking first" Ianto said, flicking the script onto the table.

"Yeah, bullying scene" the writer said gleefully. "We were going to only do it for the one episode but I think it plays. It can be her thing, reminding them of what happened."

"Are you aware that this happened?" Ianto asked, "Two held Babs down while a third bully chopped her hair off as punishment for acting girly. Those extensions were one of the selling points for this job."

"Christ" George sighed, "I had no idea she had been bullied."

"That's why I home school her." Ianto shrugged, then pointed at the script "This is going to kill her and she will not do it. She agreed to one scene, and then she was told the extensions would be replaced. She would rather walk off set than be a boy again."

The writer opened his mouth to argue but George held up his hand to silence him as he stared at Ianto.

"I forgot" he said simply, "God. She is so spectacular that I simply forgot. No. We are not cutting her hair. Choose something else."

"She broke her arm once" Ianto offered, "Knows the pain of it. A cast wouldn't be too hard to apply."

"We can do that" the director agreed.

"I still don't see the problem" the writer was still wanting to argue as Ianto rose and he smiled as a shark might.

"My child's welfare comes first. She will not feel small." He leaned in, looming over the man. "Ever again."

"We do the cast!" George said firmly and the writer frowned.

"Why?"

"Because her father said so!" George said and he rose to follow Ianto.

"Hey," he jogged to catch up, "We do love the kids, all of them. Yours are firm favorites with the cast and crew. I forgot she is Trans. We want to make this work."

Ianto nodded and returned to the trailer where Babs was sitting in Eugene's lap sucking her thumb.

"You are going to have a broken arm instead" Ianto informed her and she gasped with glee.

"Oh Taddy, thank you for saving my hair" she smiled.

"I wish I could have in the first place" he leaned in to kiss her, "And I hope I always can save you."

Come hell or high water.