Title: Something Unpredictable (Chapter 4/?)
Rating/Warnings: G, mpreg
Pairing: Jack/Ianto
Description: Jack finds himself with a 51st century predicament in a 21st century world.
Words: 3,900
A/N: Again, you guys, thanks for waiting and thanks for the feedback. I couldn't reply to the last comments because of time, but I promise to reply to these. Also, a big make out session to my friend Ann for beta-ing it like whoa.
The first time Kavin had regenerated, he did it in his own TARDIS as he fled from Gallifrey during the Time War. He couldn't have any physical remnants of his old self, and he was too much of a self-admitted coward to stay behind and die like the rest of his kind. He kissed his mother goodbye as she slept, then let himself burn to death before his inevitable recreation.
His TARDIS took him to the year 5006 and died an hour later, just as he assumed the human role of Kavin Carson – a twenty-five year old "fact checker," of sorts, working for a high-ranking firm in midtown New New York. In time, he forged a fake identity even down to his thumb print, anything to escape the eye of the Time War.
So many nights, he dreamt of his mother and his father and the peaceful life they all lived in Gallifrey. He excelled in mathematics very early on in life and lived a peaceful existence, until he was plucked to live out his destiny as a Time Lord. He wanted to defy the Eye of Harmony, be so brave for the first time in his life. But he turned away and ran. He had everything inside of him to be valiant and powerful, but he was reluctant.
He met Darion a year later. Both men adapted to each other rather quickly, the closet thing to love in the 51st century without actually putting any stamp on it. On Gallifrey, love and monogamy were completely different words, and whatever they were, it wasn't even synonymous to that of the new planet he was on, not even by a long shot.
And so it was simple. Both Darion and Kavin both swore by a polyamory lifestyle, though Darion far more than Kavin. Kavin never minded it – he enjoyed his companionship and then some, and he was a warm welcome to a strange and unknown place.
Things just developed as they went along.
Ianto watched Jack carefully as Jack still formulated the words in his head. So much could be said in so many ways and yet the near-two hundred year old man was lost for dialogue. Ianto nearly wanted to say something, but Jack looked back at him with a softened expression, and he squeezed his forearm supportively.
How could Ianto, a man so horribly charming yet so potentially simple, possibly understand? Jack kissed him again and lied back, complaining about his back – anything to change the subject.
Ianto sat up for twenty minutes, watching Jack drift in and out of bouts of sleep. Ianto never saw him do that, even during the night when all Jack could do was clutch the younger man like nothing else mattered. So he left him alone and even covered him with the duvet as he went to clean up the kitchen and put on a kettle.
Kavin's feet planted like a teeter-totter in a completely new and different world. In his first moment on Earth, he heaved his body toward a side alley and bowled over. Time travel… never good for the gastrointestinal processes, at least that's what Darion had told him several times before rather off-handedly. Kavin had no time to waste, however. Despite his nauseous state and disorientation, he gunned it as quickly as he could down the London streets and around a corner.
Things felt different. His clothes clung tighter to his longer body – he was taller now, he was sure of it, but he was far too dizzy to analyze all that had transpired in the last five minutes. He had no opportunity to glance by a store window or suitable mirror as he ran past the shops and commotion of the city.
His swift feet eventually took him into another alley blocks and blocks ahead of the last one. Empty, completely empty, potentially dangerous – and perfect. He popped open his fob watch and took a deep breath, absorbing every last aura of light before collapsing back against a brick wall and lying his tired body with a thud. There was no better word for his current demeanor except utterly spent. He couldn't stop to care if anyone saw him as he lied there. He had no intention to wake up any time soon.
For what felt like hours, Kavin eventually felt small but firm hands clutching his arms as he was pulled back up to his feet. The female voice asked for his name but he mumbled incoherently and barely cracked his eyes open. She stood there, all the while, holding him up for support – this lovely woman with big eyes and a caring, optimistic voice.
"You'll be all right. Can you move your legs?"
Kavin nodded his head, frowned, and opened his eyes to look to her. She was beautiful, but so was he, and she smiled and said, "There you are. Go on, love, let's take you some place more comfortable."
"Cuppa tea?" Ianto offered with a smile, swatting Jack on the hip with the paper and taking a seat beside him. "Get up. I'm not going to hand-serve you."
Jack took the cup of tea with a wink of gratitude and folded his legs in from underneath the covers. "Thanks." He took a sip and rubbed his teeth over his tongue. "Listen, get ready for work, I'm not letting you off that easy. I'll join you in an hour."
"Sir…"
But Jack only wagged his finger. "Uh-uh. Don't start, Ianto Jones, behave."
Ianto shot him a dirty look and an eye roll as he moved to put a proper suit on. And it was The Pretty One, in Jack's words, which seemed to put a slight skip in the Captain's stride as he eventually pulled his body up.
Kavin awoke several hours later on what seemed to be a small twin-size bed splattered in indigo sheets and blankets. He had no idea where he was and had little recollection of what had occurred earlier – had he simply gotten himself bollocksed, wandered into a strange, rather old-fashioned suburb, and planted himself into the arms of someone else? He rubbed his brow, a different-shaped brow, and pulled his legs, longer legs than before, from the side of the bed. As he adjusted his eyes into focus, he stared down at his hands and raised his eyebrow, then to his feet. His fingers grazed over his nose and cheeks, softer and stubbier.
His feet instantly ran to what appeared to be a bathroom only a few feet away and flicked on a foreign light switch with very precise, inquisitive fingers. The door was shut and locked behind him before he built up the courage to look in the mirror. The image in front of him took his breath away; it hadn't been a dream or his imagination. Everything had changed. The man staring back at him didn't have his face.
He. He had changed in more ways than he could recall were possible, despite the fact that Kavin, in and of himself, had only been a temporary arrangement to begin with.
Perhaps he'd simply grown attached to seeing the same face day after day, including those of the people he knew and cherished, all lost and scattered in different galaxies and millennia. Including Darion's.
Kavin suddenly balled a fist and slammed it on to the sink, feeling the tears well up in his eyes as he stared back at himself, this complete stranger in front of him. This man who was to be a phony figment of this century, whatever century he was in; a man who was supposed to forget about the past, his true self, and simply sail into a new life all over again.
And he'd never see him again. More so, he'd left him without a single goodbye. For all he knew, ten years had passed between now and then. He could even be dead.
His heard turned to the door as he heard a female voice from behind it. It had all come back to him, even her, though her name had dissolved from his memory.
"Y'all right in there? Is there anything you need?"
"No!" He called back, hoarser and lower than he had expected. He cleared his throat and repeated the word, but his voice was still the same, including a new and unexpected accent. Another thing he'd have to get used to. "I'm fine!"
It was silent for exactly one minute. Kavin counted each second in his head to a meticulous level. "Well, all right, just come out when you're ready for tea."
"Yes! Thank you, I will. Thank you."
Awfully trustworthy, he thought, as he opened the doorknob and stepped out. At least he didn't feel as alone.
Jack was nearly relieved to get back to the Hub an hour and a half later. His morning sickness had more or less subsided. He could get back to work despite the periodic, knowing glances from Owen as he polished what disturbingly appeared to be stirrups for the examination table. It was a slow day, so far, but Jack could concentrate on paperwork and squeezing his stress ball for hours on end.
Of course, it didn't help his frustration when Gwen and Tosh pulled the team into the boardroom for a Big and Important Meeting. Jack used every fiber within himself to sound anything but cold, at best, as Gwen insisted that Torchwood analyze the rift spikes to prevent further people from being lost in it. Owen offered a hand while Ianto remained quiet and supportive, up until Jack shifted his weight and left the board room, only to be faced by the younger Welshman a minute later.
Jack could not have predicted Ianto's siding with Gwen on this particular case, but he walked away from it and returned to his office to clench the stress ball into his palm.
He somehow assumed that moment that, by the end of this entire ordeal, he would have boxes and boxes of the little rubber play toys, and all would be heaved at members of his team periodically throughout the day – including Myfanwy, if she kept up that bloody squawking. Jack would have to put a request to Ianto to put a stop to that. And then he would tell him. No excuses, no putting it off any longer.
Tonight. It would be tonight. Post haste.
The woman poured Kavin a cup of tea and smiled graciously as a slight drop of water popped from the edge of the cup and on to his palm. "Sorry."
"Not a problem," he responded quietly, pulling away the cup and grabbing a loose tea bag from the counter. "Thank you."
She smiled again and offered him a seat down at her table. He took it and crossed his long legs in front of him. It grew quiet, so he spoke in short, casual words for the conversation's sake. "And thank you, too, for taking me in when you saw me. I'm sorry if I might have struggled."
She shook her head. "Not at all. I mean, don't think I take in random people regularly. But I thought I saw you fall over."
"I don't remember what happened, I just blacked out," he said as he took a sip of his tea. It was a safe answer, and she took to it well. "In fact, I barely remember a thing. I remember you picking me up though." He smiled at that.
"Good," she chuckled and eventually grinned. "I'd hate for you to have woken up in a complete frenzy – who am I, why am I here?"
Kavin's eyes widened ever so slightly, but he simply smiled and nodded his head. Another sixty seconds.
"So what's your name?" She asked. The question of the hour.
Kavin stammered, to say the least. "My what?"
"Your name?"
"My name?"
She looked at him strangely. "Yes..."
"My name?"
"What people call you."
"My name?"
At that point, she was downright blinking. He was quiet still. As he opened his mouth to speak, there was simply air, and she cut in right away, shaking her head.
"Nevermind. It's okay… I guess?" Her fingernails tapped the side of her cup and she shook her head. "Right. Do you live here?"
"No, I just dropped in today. I don't know how long I'll be here. Well, permanently maybe. Actually, this is my first visit here." She seemed surprised, so he added, "Believe it or not." He stared down into his steeping tea at that and shifted his tea bag.
She smiled graciously again. She had been nothing but gracious, despite being put off a moment ago. "Do you like it so far?"
Kavin returned the smile and nodded his head. "Yes. Yes, very much so."
Forty-two seconds passed again while the woman stared back at him. He, too, caught her glance and stared back in return. He could keep counting the seconds, but he shoved the mental clock into the back of his mind and smiled nervously. As she opened her mouth to speak, she also extended her hand and shook his, if only momentarily.
"What was that for?" He smiled, suddenly realizing how attractive she really was. The woman started laughing and pulled up her cuppa tea. She held it coyly and grinned widely, her teeth white and gleaming against her darker complexion.
"Well, I believe I was welcoming you to London!"
He grinned wider and blushed slightly, sipping back the rest of his tea. It'd grown cool before he'd realized it. "Oh, thank you." He looked back at her again. "Thank you very much."
She simply stood to pour more tea into his cup and offer him another tea bag when need be. "So what do you do?"
"Me?" He pointed to himself as she nodded her head enthusiastically. "Well, I did work for a firm where I lived before—a place called," he stressed to say it only once."New York. You have that, yeah?"
He received a peculiar glance from across the table. She nodded her head apprehensively with a crooked smile. "Just across the pond. You lived in New York?"
"Well," oh, bugger, wrong identity. "In a way. Sort of. No, not really. It was based in New York, I stayed in the United Kingdom." Regenerations were often times quite sloppy. It was bad enough that she caught him before he could work out all the kinks. At least he had a good sleep before the questionnaire began.
"Oh, of course." She nodded with greater understanding. "So did you have a job transfer?"
He shook his head and smiled as she poured in more hot, steaming water. "Well, no, not really. I decided to leave home and try something new—whatever that is. I only just got here."
"Wait. So you moved to London without knowing what the hell you're doing? Just like that, completely off-hand, and you don't have a thing lined up?" Beat. "You're… really not from here are you?"
He nearly froze in his spot, but he shook his head and picked up more of his tea. The woman still continued to look back at him, half-sympathizing for him and half-worried that she let a complete free loader into her flat.
"Uh, I'm not, I'm from all over. Why do you say that?"
She shrugged. It was deadly quiet. "Just don't talk like a Londoner, that's all."
Kavin noticeably relaxed and even chuckled to himself. "OH! No! I'm from all over."
"You already said that."
Time to get a new default answer, Kavin mentally told himself, as he let out a bit of a noise and closed his mouth again. "Because I am."
It was quiet for a good long time until she said something again, only hesitating slightly. "You're quite odd, you know that, right?"
They both shared a laugh at that, though she had an air of nervousness about her that was unmistakable. As if he could read her mind, Kavin quickly shook his head and cupped his palm over his tea cup. "No worries. I know people in town." Lie. "So I'll stay at their place." Somehow. "Don't worry. I'll be out of your hair. I really do appreciate you taking me in though, for today."
His answer seemed to pacify her worry slightly more then. "Not a problem. And listen, it's a big city. If you ever want to do coffee or something..."
He sipped down the rest of is tea and signified he was done with a little extra nod. "I'd really like that." He stood up to his feet and saved her an extra step by putting the coffee cup into the sink and the tea bag into a bin. She thanked him and offered to do it, but he insisted to clean it out and set it back on to the sink. He always had a clean streak in him. She handed over her cup and he took care of it before taking a seat again.
"Bugger, thanks—as you can tell, I look like a bit of a pack rat."
Kavin looked around the flat and sucked on his lower lip. "No, this is really nice, it's warm."
She flashed him a brilliant grin. "Sure, I get that a lot. It's another word for 'packed to the gills' isn't it?" Kavin didn't say anything, but he chuckled softly as she continued. "I inherited all these things from my mum after she died and I haven't quite had the time or expenses to put it into storage."
Kavin's face fell. "Sorry to hear about your mum."
She shook it off. "Ahh, bloody brain tumor—longest two years of our lives. But she was ready, we all were… by the end. And so…" Her voice trailed as she dribbled her fingers against the table idly. How could a girl so young be so ready? Kavin didn't question it, and so he remained silent yet sympathetic. "So what about you, is your family spread out?"
"Ianto! IANTO!!"
Ianto glanced up to the window at his rather pushy boss before hanging up the phone. "Bye, Gwen." As the tea boy returned back to the room with two cups of coffee (decaf, just for the sake of sanity), he eyed Jack up and down before handing him his coffee. Jack stood there in nothing but his undergarments. For as long as Ianto had known him, he had never been anything short of an exhibitionist at times. While Ianto's collar was popped open, he dignified himself with a pair of trousers.
"Bit pushy, aren't we?" Ianto handed him a coffee and followed Jack into his office. He took a seat at the edge of his desk and Jack sat back.
"I just know what I want. Ah, thanks." Jack sighed into his cup of coffee and held the warm mug around his fingertips. He glanced back and forth between Ianto and his desk and opened his mouth to speak, taking in a long breath. "I need to talk to you about Myfanwy, possibly a sedative for the late afternoon; she's been going on screeching rampages and giving me a headache. We can't very well let her out at three in the afternoon."
It was moments like these that Ianto wished Suzie were still around, the fearless leader behind the Myfanwy barbecue sauce. How was he going to find a sedative strong enough to put out a dinosaur? Besides, Myfanwy had never seemed to bother Jack before. Hell, Jack should have been thanking her for blessing him with Ianto, the master of coffee.
Ianto was still at the ready, as always. "No, we can't. I'll see what I can do." Ianto smiled to himself for a few seconds, eventually breaking into a laugh.
"What?" Jack questioned.
"Oh, just the time that Owen thought Myfanwy was about to lay an egg because Gwen was extra hyper-sensitive to her while carrying the Nostrovite, even when she was out of the Hub. I had to give him the birds and the bees discussion. When mummy dinosaur falls in love with daddy dinosaur…"
Jack smiled idly in his attempt to not give anything away, though it seemed horribly ironic. As if Ianto could actually sense something. Impossible on every level – no, it was just a coincidence. "What did Owen say to that?"
Ianto looked over his shoulder to Jack's desk. "Threatened to turn me into a medical experiment gone wrong." Ianto remembered the packet he put on Gwen's desk and his smile subsided. "What's so wrong with Gwen knowing?"
A sigh left Jack's entire body. He hardly needed this discussion in the afternoon, let alone here and now. He sipped on his coffee and didn't even look up at Ianto. Discussion was closed. Ianto took the hint and moved his hand over his own shoulder to give it a soft rub.
Sixty-three seconds.
"Ianto, what's the most unbelievable thing I could tell you—something you would never believe in a million years?"
Ianto knew what he wanted to say to that, but he shrugged his shoulders back and gave it a good thought or two. "Honestly? I don't think there's one thing you could tell me that wouldn't make sense in one way or the other." The younger man smiled a bit mischievously. "Why?"
Kavin looked back at her before shaking his head. "No, I lost my parents," he cracked a melancholy yet strong smile. At least, that's what he assumed. Just another thing he ran from before he could find out. "Good people, too."
She covered her hand over his and gave it a small stroke. "Then neither of us are alone, are we?"
Kavin looked at her with fresh eyes then, noticing for the first time a girl just as alone as him, perhaps. He brushed his other hand over hers and nodded his head as he squeezed their hands. And then they laughed.
As he squinted, he formed his words carefully. "What did you tell me your name was again?"
Jack waved his hand and sipped more of his coffee. "Just that…" He trailed off again and didn't even look to Ianto. His fingers pinched his bottom lip and he stared into space. All the while, Ianto sat for a few seconds in silence and eventually crinkled his forehead.
"Jack?"
The Captain's fingers moved away from his lap, and he folded them on to his bare lap as he stared down into it. Another minute passed like this, the seconds like time bombs. "Ianto, in the 51st century, I was implanted with this thing. This thing that allowed me to bear children, barring some… extra additions from my partner."
Ianto was deadly silent as he stared back at his Captain. His arms shook and he held on to his cup of coffee with the grips of life. Jack looked back at him seriously as he straightened out his fingers from his lap.
"Ianto. You have to believe me."
"Is that fair?" She smiled coyly.
"Not particularly, but if you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine." Kavin paused. "Promise."
"You really promise?"
"I promise."
"You promise?"
"I promise, I promise!"
"Okay!" She smiled nervously, unsure of how she could trust this ambiguous man in front of her. Even so, she let her guard down as she pulled her fingers away. "Lisa. Lisa Hallett."