Chapter Nine: An Evening Out

"I think we all wish we could erase the dark times in our lives.
But all of life's experiences, bad and good, make you who you are. Erasing any of life's experiences would be a great mistake."
Luis Miguel

Ianto came out of the shower to find his partner standing naked in front of the mirror… definitely not his least favourite way to find the other man he loved, however… "Cariad?" he asked. Something on Jack's face…

He looked up at the sound of his partner's voice; he was still damp from his own shower, taken just before Ianto had taken his. His expression was difficult to read, but the younger man could see that something was definitely the matter.

"Tonight was your idea," the Welshman reminded him in a soft tone. He hadn't wanted to go out, but Jack was right, he couldn't let John's visit rattle him. It had been nearly three months and so far, nothing horrible had happened.

And he knew he couldn't stay cooped up in their apartment refusing to go out for fear of making friends. All things considered, Ianto was forced to concede that that was rather silly. Jack was right, even in his own time, he could never really know which people would be friends for life and who would drift in and out of his life… people moved… life moved on.

Both he and Jack had spent the first two weeks after John's sudden appearance – and just as sudden departure – peering around every corner, stopping to examine every shadow, but eventually they settled back into a routine that didn't include paranoid behaviour. Jack even managed to convince his Welshman to go to the market again… to make out with him in the stacks at the library.

For all Ianto knew, John's real motivation in dropping in on them was just to shake up their lives out of spite. He was the one who had brought up the story of Sleeping Beauty, after all, the moral of which had never been lost on the Welshman. It was better to invite the consummate trickster to appease him or her, rather than to risk pissing them off by snubbing them. That didn't, however, mean he regretted not inviting John to his wedding.

"If you don't get dressed, we're going to be late," Ianto suggested in a carefully gentle tone. Jack was still staring at his reflection in the mirror…

Last month at the library, Jack found an advert for a concert he had to see. Although the band members were all dead and gone by Jack's youth, it was one of his favourite bands 'of all time' – which was certainly saying something. Under the circumstances, Ianto didn't feel like he could refuse.

It would he like him suddenly getting the chance to see the Beatles or Elvis Presley and someone telling him he couldn't go.

Jack didn't respond to his partner's prompting. He didn't feel like going anywhere. No matter what he wore, it was painfully obvious he was pregnant. Or fat. Or both. According to their technician, he had gained 'a little more' than the recommended amount of weight since their last visit… but she went on to confide that that was perfectly normal and he shouldn't let it bother him.

Easy for her to say, Jack thought. She'd probably never had children.

Ianto's telling him how much Nerys gained with Remi didn't help, either.

And he was sure he hadn't gained this much weight with Jason. He'd kept his figure at least through the first seven months. He'd shown a little, of course. It was impossible not to, but he'd been able to hide it a lot longer than he was able to hide this pregnancy. Not that he necessarily wanted to hide it… but if I look like this at six months, what am I going to look like at nine months? He wondered. If he were a woman in the twenty first century, he would be certain he was carrying twins. Triplets even. But he was a man in the fiftieth century and he knew that wasn't possible. Which left only one conclusion. It wasn't the baby, it was him. He was fat...

Ianto crept up behind him and wrapped his arms around Jack's waist. "You look beautiful, Cariad."

"I look like a beached whale."

Ianto tried, but he couldn't bite back his chuckle. Jack was showing, but it wasn't half as bad as he was acting...

Jack pulled away from him. "It's not funny!"

"I know. I'm sorry. It's just that you're not even into your third trimester and you're already moaning about how you look… Cariad…" he followed his still-naked and obviously sulking partner into the kitchen. "That isn't going to help, you know."

He'd gone straight for the ice cream. Again. Lately every time Ianto turned around, Jack was in the freezer. The fiftieth century and Jack's favourite comfort food is still Rocky Road ice cream. Ianto sighed. "If you feel fat, eating that isn't going to help," he tried to take it away, but the look in his partner's eye suggested he might lose a limb if he got too near. "Jack…"

"I don't care!" he said defensively in between giant spoonfuls of ice cream. "I'm fat anyway, I might as well eat what I want!"

"For all it's worth," Ianto came in slowly and carefully, making a great show of staying away from the Rocky Road, "I really do think you look wonderful." He laid a gentle hand on the ever growing bulge.

"I look fat."

"You look pregnant."

"Same damned difference."

Ianto sighed. He pulled the ice cream away from his partner (thankfully without losing a limb) and put it away. "Come on, you've been looking forward to this concert for almost a month," he coaxed the other man towards the bedroom. "I know you; you'll feel better once we're out."

"No I won't."

"Yes you will, you always do. Now come on," Ianto pulled him into the bedroom and handed him his shirt. It probably didn't help matters any that earlier in the day they'd gone shopping for maternity clothes. The shop girl, the first alien Ianto had seen since their arrival, had presumed Jack to be a further along than he was.

"Let me ask you something," Ianto sat his unhappy sulking partner down on the bed. He sat down too, taking the older man's hands into his. "Say for argument's sake that I really do see my thirtieth birthday… my fortieth… maybe even my fiftieth…"

"That would make me so incredibly happy."

"Would it?"

"What?!"

Ianto flashed a sly smile. "In twenty years… in thirty years… I'm going to have wrinkles and grey hair. I might even lose my hair. You've seen my mother's brother Harold. I'm sure that comb over wasn't fooling anybody."

Jack chuckled briefly at the mention of Uncle Harold. "Just as long as you promise to wear your hearing aid turned to the right volume," he teased.

Ianto mirrored his smile before continuing in a serious tone. "The point is that eventually I'm going to get old."

"I hope you do."

"Cariad… are you still going to love me when I'm grey? Balding? If my metabolism goes to shit and I develop a pot belly…?"

"I'll be more than happy to help you work off those banana splits," he promised with a lascivious grin.

"I'm serious, Jack. I'm not always going to look like I do now."

The Captain took a breath and let it out. The hurt in his tone at the suggestion was obvious. "What makes you think I won't love you just as much as I do now? I know I tease you about the suit… but it's you I love, Sweetheart. I'm never going to care what you look like."

"So what makes you think I care what you look like or that I love you any less now that you're carrying around a little extra weight, especially when most of it happens to be our daughter?"

Jack regarded him a long, thoughtful moment… the notion of Ianto actually growing old… of them having a real life together… made him feel so warm inside… Which didn't mean that he didn't understand the real message. "You're trying to tell me I'm being silly, aren't you?"

"Yes," he leant in and gave him a quick peck. "Now get dressed…"

"Ianto," Jack pulled him back in for another, much less chaste kiss. "I would be so happy… I want you to live to be a hundred."

"I know. And truthfully, so do I. You've given me all the more reason to want to stick around," gently, he rubbed his partner's stomach... their daughter. "But that doesn't mean that you're going to get me to stop doing my job," he said.

"You promised…"

"I'll stick to the conditions of the Family Leave Plan, Jack," he agreed. After all, he'd been the one to draft it. "I'll probably spend the first few years of our daughter's life taking it easier than I would have otherwise. But if something happens… another alien invasion… whatever… I will be right next to you and the rest of the team on the front line. Don't you dare ever ask me to sit out of something that big."

"All right," he conceded. There was no arguing with the stubborn young man… one of the things he loved about Ianto was his loyalty… he would never abandon the team. He leant in and kissed him again, long and hard.

Ianto returned it… he found himself on top of Jack as the older man eased down onto his back… he knew what Jack had said before about not having a sex drive when he was pregnant with Jason, but if the last few weeks were any indication that wasn't a problem this time around.

"We could skip the concert…" the older man suggested in a husky voice.

"We could," Ianto agreed, easing back away from him. "But you'll probably never get another chance like this again. When we come home, however…" he gave his partner's inner thigh a gentle caress. It caused an immediate reaction that made them both smile.

Jack rubbed much more than his partner's thigh in return… However, if he was going to get the blood flowing back towards his brain, he needed to think about something other than the gorgeous man standing there in absolutely nothing…

Jack cleared his throat. "Yan… we've really only got a few months left to start figuring out names," he brought up the first thing that came to mind as he hauled himself up into a sitting position. Jason has been named even before they went to have the genetic material harvested… although like so many other things, he'd left that decision up to Roan.

"I suppose we should start thinking about it," Ianto agreed, although he sounded a little hesitant.

"So? What do you think? Did you have any names in mind?"

"I guess… I've always had a few favourite names," the younger man admitted slowly.

Jack gave him a look.

"They're all Welsh," he explained. "We should probably think about other sorts of names as well… " he slid on his boxers… jeans… t shirt. "Maybe something a little more… American…?" Even though Jack wasn't American, he had the accent.

"We're not moving to America any time soon, Sweetheart," he countered. "There's nothing wrong with giving a Welsh girl a Welsh name."

Ianto considered a long moment before speaking again. "What do you think of the name Seren, then?" he asked.

"It sounds Welsh," Jack teased.

Ianto picked up his sock and tossed it at him; he laughed. They both did.

"It means 'star'," the younger man continued, putting his sock on his foot; Jack had tossed it back at him, hitting him square in the side of the head.

"Star Jones Harkness… or Harkness Jones?" he asked.

"I guess it could go either way. Only if you call her Star, she's going to sound like a hippie."

"You're the one who said Mom was an old hippie, not me."

"How else was I supposed to explain her attitudes towards sex and sexuality to my conservative Anglican mother?"

Jack chuckled and hooked his arm around the younger man's thin waist as they headed for the apartment door. "You could have just said that she wasn't raised in the Dark Ages."

"Oh and how lovely that would have gone over," Ianto droned.

Jack locked the door and they headed for the lift. "So which is it going to be? Seren Harkness Jones or Seren Jones Harkness?" he asked.

"I'm Jones-Harkness," at least on paper. The novelty of a hyphenated last name had worn off quickly. It was his legal name but typically he introduced himself as Jones because it was much less complicated that way. "So it would seem to make sense that if she's going to have both names she should have it the same way around as me." He paused a minute. "What about Jason?"

"What about Jason?"

"I mean… I know he's Harkness now… but what about before?"

Jack took a breath and let it out. He'd wondered if Ianto was ever going to ask… "When I was with Roan, neither of us picked up the other's surname," he answered carefully. He knew the subject was a touchy one with Ianto. Since John's unexpected visit, it was touchy with him, too. "Jason would probably have had both our last names, but I suggested he just have Roan's. I… I knew I wasn't going to be around much." What John had said was true… he had spent very little time warming the bed of the man he'd fathered a child with.

"Cariad…"

Jack shook his head. "I made the mistakes I made. The best I can do now is not repeat them."