Author's Note: I've been totally distracted by gorgeous weather and shiny shifts at work which pay me money which I can save towards backpacking the States in 2013! Is that a good excuse? Well it's the only one I got. Gaps happen, and I'm slowing down with the speed I'm churing out chapters. You guys are fast catching up to where I am at the moment. Hope you're all well and having great weather too! Love yas, Kal x

P.S. I've discovered that when I entered scene breaks using * * * * *, keeps removing them! I've never noticed before. Same with using - - - - - Highly frustrating. Any suggestions? It's making my chapters look messy and confusing when they jump without warning. Grr.

A Chance in a Million

Chapter Eleven

Gwen groaned and rubbed the small of her back. It had been a slow couple of weeks and to be truthful she was glad. She was dangerously near her due date. Rhys was practically pulling his hair out trying to get her to stay at home now but she kept promising him she wouldn't leave the office and therefore kept coming in to work. It wasn't that she didn't trust her team. She did, with all her heart and soul, she just didn't want to sit around the house on her own waiting for something to happen. She'd be permanently tense, which she was sure wouldn't be good for the baby. That had been her winning argument. Anything which wasn't good for the baby Rhys would turn against, however much he must have known she was playing him. In return for (reluctantly) letting her go into work, Rhys had made Gwen promise to keep her mobile phone attached to her hip using a little clasp which attached it to her belt. So she did, even if it was a tad uncomfortable when she leaned forward as the action caused it to dig into her swollen stomach.

She could hear the clattering of instruments and out of key humming from the autopsy room next door. Martha Jones had been as good as her word and finally provided them with a young but heavily experience medic who didn't even flinch when she had been presented with her first alien body. In fact when she laid her eyes on the flying dog, a grin had lit up her face and she had shoo'd everyone out of the room as soon as they had given her all the facts they knew. Her name was Melissa (Mel to her friends) Hardy. She was four years out of medical school and had been snapped up by UNIT when she stumbled across two aliens fighting over the scraps of a Subway sandwich in Manchester's Gay Village. Not as shocked as another civilian might have been, they decided to recruit her rather than wipe her memory (it turned out UNIT weren't above retconning people either if it was needed.) And the rest, as they say, is history.

Ianto was sat behind his desk and looked up at Gwen's groan. He was, once again, trying to fine tune their communication software. He was bordering on the idea that whatever the problem was it was nothing to do with their software but more to do with the receiver, i.e. Jack's vortex manipulator. It wasn't as comforting a thought as it should be. Either something was broken, or Jack was... he shook his head. He wasn't going there. Gwen's groan distracted him from his thoughts.

"Are you okay, Gwen?" he asked, careful about how much concern he put into his question. Gwen's hormones were making her testy and he had already had his head bitten off once that morning. He couldn't even make her coffee to cheer her up.

"If this kid doesn't drop soon, I swear to God I'll..." she cut off, not able to thing of anything to do which she wouldn't feel bad about once her baby had actually been born.

"Is there anything I can get you?" Ianto leaned back and stretched, revelling in the sensation of his back cracking. He had been hunched over all morning and was ready for a break. He wondered how Andy and Jamie had landed themselves the roles of "pounding the streets" as they put it. Getting fish and chips and going for a stroll was more like it. Ianto could smell the grease on them when they showed their faces. He wasn't far from fully deciding there was something going on between them two of them. It was just a matter of how to either catch them in the act or drop it into the conversation without warning and watch their reactions.

"I'll be fine, thanks Ianto," Gwen sighed and rubbed her eyes. Suddenly her hands froze over her face for two seconds before lowering slowly. "Shit," she whispered.

"Gwen?" Ianto was on his feet and out from behind his desk before she spoke again.

"I think my water's just broke," Gwen gasped, looking down at her crotch. Ianto didn't follow her gaze out of respect and instead grabbed the bag lying next to her desk. Gwen had two hospital bags. One in the house and one in the office, just in case. He held out his free hand to help her up out of her seat. As she got up he couldn't help but glance down and was shocked at how wet the seat was. "I've g... got to phone Rhys," Gwen stammered out, suddenly looking very nervous and unsure of herself. Ianto didn't think she knew what unsure was until just now.

"You can phone him from the car," Ianto said, carefully leading her towards the door of the office. "Mel!" He turned his head suddenly to shout over his shoulder.

"Yup?" Mel appeared at the connecting door between the two units. One look at Gwen and excitement filled her young features. "Ohmygod is she in labour?"

"She has a name," growled Gwen, bending over as her first contraction hit. "Fuckmewithashovel," she swore. Ianto would've laughed at her choice of expletive had she not been squeezing his hand so tightly he thought she was going to break something in it. He'd privately done research on going into labour in case it happened during office hours. It hadn't done him much good as he had learnt that every woman was different. It appeared Gwen's body was the type to move quickly through the motions, so to speak.

"Hold the fort, Mel," Ianto instructed. "I'll ring you from the hospital."

"Oh totally!" Mel squeaked. "This is so exciting! Good luck, Gwen."

"Bite me," muttered Gwen as the contraction passed. "Please tell me we're not taking that bloody van?"

"I was more thinking your car," Ianto explained, opening the door and escorting her outside. He'd dread to think what a bumpy van would do to the suddenly very much in labour Gwen. The last thing he wanted was taking on the role of midwife without warning.

"Where is she?" Ianto heard Rhys' voice before he saw the burly Welshman. Rhys skidded on the tiled floor as he stopped in front of the plastic seat Ianto was occupying.

"In there," Ianto pointed to a nearby room. Rhys was opening the door before the words were barely out of Ianto's mouth. He sighed and stared glumly at the disgusting sludge in the polystyrene cup that passed for coffee in this place. He had been waiting an hour. It hadn't taken long for him to be thrown out of the private room Gwen was in by the nurses. He was glad. Seeing his friend give birth was not an experience he wanted right now. He remembered Rhys' reaction when he found out Jack knew about Gwen's pregnancy before he did. He didn't want to risk the wrath of Rhys by witnessing the birth of his first child. He wondered if he could leave the waiting area now Rhys had shown up. Labour could last for hours and hanging around like a spare part wasn't going to do anyone any good.

Glancing at his watch, Ianto stood up and began to pace. He could wait another hour or so. Mel had his mobile number if anything came up.

It was three hours and fifty five minutes later when the door to Gwen's room blasted open and a beaming Rhys stood in the doorway.

"I'm a dad," he said.

A grin spread across Ianto's face as he reached out to grasp Rhys' hand in a celebratory handshake. Rhys looked like he could hug him. Ianto was slightly glad he didn't and instead he followed the new father back into the room. Gwen was lying on the bed, her hair matted to her head in sweat with a satisfied smile on her face. In her arms lay a tiny body wrapped in a yellow blanket.

"It's a boy, Ianto," whispered Gwen. Ianto crept forward. The baby was so tiny. He seemed to be asleep with one fist curled up against his mouth. His fingers were so small, Ianto was scared to touch them for fear they might break. He felt his heart melt. "Haydn, this is your Uncle Ianto. Ianto, Haydn," she said, an exhausted giggle escaping her lips.

"Hey Haydn," Ianto felt a rush of love for the child. He wasn't biologically connected but he felt he could be. He liked the sound of him being an Uncle. "That wasn't too long a labour was it?" He said to Gwen.

Gwen raised an eyebrow and Ianto squirmed.

"What I meant... was... uh..." Ianto said, sorry he had said anything.

Rhys placed a hand on his shoulder, "don't go there, mate. She'll have your head."

"Sorry," Ianto smiled at Gwen.

"Forgiven," she looked down at her child and her smile could have powered the building.

Jack rubbed the back of his hands across his eyes, removing the sweat which was threatening to fall into them. He'd been on this new ship two weeks and had soon been put to work. As nice as they were, he had no currency and they weren't prepared to transport him for free. Which was fair enough. Their English was very basic but they were able to communicate comfortably enough. Once up on a time he could've wrangled his vortex manipulator to act as a rough translator. But it had indeed broken when he'd thrown it at the wall and he didn't have the tools to fix it. So it was strapped to his wrist as a fashion accessory and nothing more.

Jack had learnt it would be another month and a half before they would be as close to Earth as they would get and he would have to find another transport vessel. In the mean time he was working as a cleaner. And the ship wasn't half filthy.

As he worked he couldn't help but think about Ianto and Gwen. Even about Rhys and even more Alice when he felt he could handle the ache of knowing she would never talk to him again. He wondered what had happened since he left. Would they be glad to have him back? It was easy to assume so having heard both Gwen and Ianto's voices but for all he knew, something major could be happening and they just want his expertise rather than him. But he mostly kept such depressing thoughts out of his head. He knew turning back was the right decision.