A/N. Hi all. Thank you all so much for the reviews for the last chapter, I really appreciated them. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. I wanted to let Ianto and Lexie have a little bonding time, but i never realised how hard it would be to write. I wrote so many different conversations between them, but just couldn't get the flow right. I'm pretty happy with how this turned out though and hopefully you will be too. Until next time, Kat :)

Chapter 5.

Fifteen minutes later and Lexie walked back into the main area of the Hub, hair still damp from her shower. She looked around and saw that Ianto was sat at a computer engrossed in whatever he was looking at. Jack was just coming down from his office; he smiled when he saw Lexie and walked over to her.

'How was the shower?' he asked.

'Good, not sure what I was expecting, but they were better than I thought they would be. It gave me time to gather my thoughts.'

'Oh,' said Jack, concerned at what this meant

'Yeah, so much has happened today I think it finally hit me,' she paused. 'I'm not going to let it get to me though, not yet. I need to try and keep my focus until we find out who was behind today. Then I can grieve properly, if I think about it too much now I'll be a mess and that won't help anybody.'

Jack wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. 'You are so brave, not that I expected anything less. We will find who did this and they will pay.'

'I know.'

The moment was interrupted by Jack's phone ringing. He retrieved it from his pocket and moved away to answer it. Lexie went and sat down on the sofa. She pulled out a notebook from her bag and started drawing on it.

'Can't you manage by yourselves?' asked Jack in an exasperated tone. 'What do you mean you found something I need to see? Can you stop being so cryptic Gwen.' Jack stopped to listen to Gwen's reply, 'Okay I'll be right over,' he said his tone changing to one of concern. He ended the call and then looked around the Hub for Ianto. He had moved away from his computer, this meant he was in one of two places, the kitchen or the Archives. As he hadn't said anything about going down to the Archives, Jack went into the kitchen and found Ianto at his coffee machine. Ianto sensing Jack had walked into the room turned to face him.

'Thought Lexie might need a drink. What is it?' he asked looking at the expression on Jack's face.

'I need to go out. Gwen just called. She said that her and Tosh have found something at Lexie's that I need to see. She won't go into detail on the phone, but she sounded worried.'

'What about Lexie?'

'She'll have to stay here; it's the safest place for her at the moment. Is that okay with you?'

'That's fine by me, but are you sure she'll be alright staying here with me?' Ianto asked, turning the question back onto Jack.

'She knows how much I trust you; I think she'll be okay. If I was trying to leave her with Gwen or Owen then we'd have a problem.' Jack said smiling and Ianto chuckled. 'Anyway, hopefully, I won't be long,' said Jack leaning into Ianto's personal space to snatch a quick kiss.

They walked out to where Lexie was sitting and she immediately looked up at them. 'What's going on?'

'I have to go out and deal with something, but I won't be long.'

'I'll come with you,' replied Lexie.

'No I need you to stay here with Ianto. It's the safest place for you right now.'

Lexie looked briefly in Ianto's direction. 'Okay, just promise you won't be long, because I would like to see daylight again at some point.'

'Promise, and at least you already have one thing in common to talk about,' said Jack grinning.

Ianto rolled his eyes, 'Like your ego needs any more boosting.'

'Oh I don't know,' said Lexie slyly. 'I could tell you about the time I was eleven and Jack took me on a day out to the park. It ended with him falling into the river.'

Ianto looked on in interest while Jack's eyes widened slightly and he shook his head at her. 'Maybe it isn't such a good idea leaving you two together,' Jack groaned.

'Actually I think it's a great idea,' said Ianto. He was genuinely interested in getting to know Lexie and in finding out about Jack from her. 'Go on, the sooner you go, the sooner you can come back.'

'Okay I'm going. Be good,' he said, kissing them both on the cheek before heading out of the cog door.

'I was just making a drink, do you want one?' asked Ianto.

'That'd be nice, thanks. I take milk and two sugars.'

Ianto turned and went back into the kitchen to finish off making the drinks he started earlier. He took the drinks he had made and went back out to the sofa and sat down next to Lexie, handing her one of the drinks.

She took a sip, 'Wow this is really good. I thought Jack was exaggerating when he described it.'

'Jack, exaggerate? Never,' said Ianto smiling. They fell into silence for a moment, but it wasn't an uncomfortable one. Lexie was the first to break it.

'You know I have wanted to meet you for ages, never expected it to be under circumstances like this though.'

'Really?' questioned Ianto, 'You wanted to meet me.'

Lexie smiled, 'Yeah, you're important to Jack, and anyone who's important to Jack is important to me.' Ianto blushed a little at Lexie's words. Lexie turned so that she was sitting crossed legged on the sofa facing Ianto. 'Look, I realise that I probably didn't make the greatest first impression earlier, but…

Ianto cut her off, 'Don't worry about it. Considering the day you've had I think you can be forgiven for not being in the best of moods.'

'True, if my parents could see me here now I think they'd be proud,' she said sadly.

'I'm sure they would,' replied Ianto. 'Can I ask you something?'

'Sure.'

'How often do you see Jack?' Ianto had been wondering this; he didn't think it was a regular occurrence as he was sure he would have noticed.

'Probably once a month, sometimes it's longer. We tend to communicate more through email nowadays. It was a lot more often when I was little, especially right at the beginning. Jack was really good to me, and he didn't have to be. Once he found someone to take me in, he could have walked away and not looked back, but he didn't. I suppose it's because he could understand my situation in a way no one else ever could. I'm just thankful he did, and I love him for it. He will always be family to me.'

'I'm glad you had him. Maybe when this is all over we can all go for dinner or something, get to know each other properly.'

'I'd like that; it would be nice to get to know you. Jack has told me a little about you, the others too, but only bits.'

'Like what?' Ianto was intrigued now.

'I know you have a sister, who has two children, and that you make the best coffee ever, which having tasted it I can agree with. Other than that it's usually about things he's planning or about how things went. He never tells me anything really personal about you,' Lexie added hurriedly.

'I never thought he would,' Ianto replied. He trusted that Jack wouldn't talk about anything really personal with Lexie. 'What has he said about the others?'

'Not much, mainly because we hardly ever talk about Torchwood. I know Toshiko is the computer genius. From the brief meeting I had with her earlier I get the sense she's quite shy, but could probably kick your ass if you upset her.'

Ianto smiled 'Yeah that sounds like Tosh. She's a really good person. It might not be my place, but I think you would get on alright with Tosh.'

'Maybe. As for the others, Jack told me that Owen was a doctor and that once you got to know him, you could see past the snarky comments. The only thing I could tell you about Gwen is that she was in the police, oh and she married someone called Rhys. After having met her I think he must have the patience of a saint.'

Ianto laughed, 'Rhys is a lovely bloke. He has put up with his fair share from Gwen.'

'I'm sure Gwen is lovely when you get to know her and I shouldn't judge people on first meetings, but it's hard when you have the ability I do. She had the strongest emotions out of any of you, and they were all over the place. She was obviously frustrated that Jack stopped her from asking anymore questions, she has a really inquisitive aura about her.'

'She is definitely inquisitive' replied Ianto.

'Part of it is because I was so emotional myself when I got here. My empathy is heightened when I'm upset or stressed; normally I can control it quite well. Jack taught me a few tricks.'

'Can you block it out completely?'

'No, I can always sense people, even Jack and he has some psychic training which means he can…' Lexie stopped her eyes widening as she realised something, she stood up abruptly and started pacing along the floor near the sofa.

Puzzled Ianto got up and stood in front of her, worried at what was happening. 'Lexie, what is it?'

'I just realised something. I can't believe I never realised before. I never felt them.' Ianto looked at her puzzled. Lexie looked at him, tears glistening in her eyes. 'Normally I can tell when someone new comes into the house, but I never felt them. Even when I tried to fight them off I couldn't sense them. That never happens; no one can shut their emotions off completely.'

'That would add to the theory that whoever was in your house either had technology that wasn't from this planet, or that maybe they weren't.'

'Why though? Why were they there?' Lexie was starting to breath harder now, and Ianto sensed she was about to have a panic attack.

'Lexie you have to listen to me. You need to take deep breaths and calm down okay.' Lexie nodded and started to take deep breaths, focusing on a spot on the wall above the sofa. Ianto reached out hesitantly and placed his hand on her back; when she didn't flinch away he started to rub soothing circles on her back. Eventually Lexie's breathing returned to normal.

'Sorry.'

'Its okay, come and sit down.'

As Ianto moved to help Lexie sit back down the lights in the Hub flickered off and an alarm sounded. As the emergency lighting kicked in Lexie looked at him panicked. 'What's that?'

Ianto sighed, he didn't want to tell her, but he knew he couldn't lie to her. He tried to hide his own unease at the situation and said, 'That's the intruder alarm.'

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