They arrived at the hub a little after ten. Jack had dressed Ianto in a pair of beige combat trousers, a tee shirt and red sweatshirt. Gwen had obligingly set up breakfast after eyeing Jack curiously, probably knowing him well enough to realise he had something on his mind and that he wasn't about to tell. They had eaten rather companionably, although Ianto was a little subdued. He sat next to Jack again and Gwen was on Jack's left at the head of the table. Amazingly, and again with the help of a very large napkin, Ianto stayed relatively unsticky.

However, Jack's shirt and the cushion cover were a little less well off. Gwen put them in to soak to try and get the blood out. But she didn't hold out much hope. Still, if they righted Ianto today, Jack thought as he changed into a new shirt, he'll sort it out. At that time, Ianto was sat on the bed in the spare room watching him. He refused to stay downstairs with Gwen.

Jack didn't think it was necessary to look quite as hurt as she did. Ianto was a kid, and there was no denying the fact his state had simplified his complex adult feelings, which in turn made them more obvious. But she had to surely have known that Ianto was marginally jealous of her.

Ianto rested in Jack's arms as he carried him into the hub, his back was complaining just a fraction, but not as much as he thought it would. If he had strained it, it was only very mild. And he hoped that he wouldn't be carrying him around for much longer. Gwen had the laptop with the calibrations saved on it tucked under her arm.

"Owen!" Jack shouted, going into the autopsy room. "Can you look at Ianto's arm?"

He carried Ianto down to him, while Gwen took the laptop to Toshiko. Jack sat Ianto down on the bench in the autopsy room. Ianto's eyes strayed to the implements on the side. He looked at them with horrified fascination while Jack rolled up his sleeve and started to remove the dressing. He flinched as Jack pulled the dried blood that had stuck the gauze to the wound.

Owen gently took Ianto's arm, turning it one way and then the other to get a clear look.

"Christ," he said. "What happened?"

"The cat scratched him."

Owen looked up at Jack, raising his eyebrows as he did so. "Scratched! I'd go with mauled."

Ianto cuddled Barney with his other arm, hugging him tightly to his chest. His face again buried in his fur, but his blue eyes peeked at Owen.

"Jack?" Toshiko called. Jack patted Ianto's head and went up the stairs. However he stayed in the doorway where Ianto could see him.

"You understand all that?" he asked, looking at the numbers running over her screen.

"I think so, I can certainly use it to line up the scanners when they power it up, so the machine should calibrate it right, but we will test it."

"Ow!" Ianto said as Owen took him by surprise. Having rolled his sleeve up to the top of his arm he had given him a tetanus jab. Ianto glared at Owen and clouted him with Barney. Owen ignored him.

"It's for your own good."

Ianto pouted and whacked Owen again, almost hitting him in the face.

"I'd watch it Owen, Barney's done his exercises this morning," Jack warned and then went into a round of spontaneous giggles. He was giggling so hard he couldn't explain himself. Everyone eventually ignored him. Owen went back to cleaning off Ianto's arm and examining the scratches. They were deep but he drew the line at putting in any stitches, so he washed them and dressed it a little better. Gwen and Toshiko went to work on the machinery and the calculations and Jack stayed in the middle, intermittently gigging and setting Ianto off by glancing at him and pulling faces.

"What have you been doing to him?" Owen asked Ianto, who just smiled. It was hard to tell with his face in Barney's fur, but his eyes brightened in a way that made Owen pause and regard him carefully. Ianto had won a victory somewhere along the way. Owen smiled and shook his head. Somewhere in there surely Ianto knew that he was going to get wound up over some of this. At the moment he didn't seem to care, so whatever it was, it must have been good.

"Come on, Little Prince." Owen hefted Ianto off the bed and put him down guiding him to the stairs. He stayed behind him the whole way. He didn't fancy Ianto falling down but he clambered up the stairs competently enough and went to Jack, leaning against his leg. Jack put a hand on his head and grinned down at him. Then he looked back up at Tosh. Oddly, to Owen at least, he didn't pick Ianto up.

"So, are we going to test this thing?"

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Ianto watched the whole experiment from the safety of Jack's lap. They had set everything up in the firing range, the machine, the particle scanner, an energy boost from the microtron. They ran the process, and again, and again until they had aged an entire litter of rats that were now haring around a tank in irritation, shock, or confusion - Owen wasn't sure what. He had everyone convinced that all the rats were fine. They were fine. Ianto was watching them run around with intense fascination.

"What if they show after effects hours later?" Gwen asked, actually dampening the excitement slightly.

"He's been running around for two days with the after effects of that machine. There is nothing wrong with him; there are no side effects, other that if we get this wrong it… will be bad." Owen said, the last part sounding terribly lame.

"It's not going to go wrong, we've got the calibration right, I've got it right for the rats, I have it right for Ianto. This is working."

Everyone paused and looked around. Ianto stopped gawping at the tank of rats and looked around, he looked up at Jack first and then around the rest of the group. He seemed to sense something was up, he batted Jack with Barney to get his attention. Jack looked down at him and ruffled his hair.

"Everything's fine."

Ianto didn't look convinced. He huddled into Jack, looking around as if seeing the dark, cavernous room for the first time. Jack hugged him.

"Jack, there is a difference between rats and Ianto." Owen spoke very cautiously and Jack could tell there was a second part to what he was saying. Presumably so did Gwen and Toshiko since they stared at him. Toshiko had a slight frown on her face, with a trace of disapproval.

"I'm very much aware of that," Jack said cautiously. Owen took an unnecessary breath.

"Before we work on Ianto, I want a larger subject." He rolled his eyes around to the rest of the group before looking at Jack. "I want to age one of the weevils."

"Owen!" Toshiko snapped.

"Can we do that?" Gwen asked.

"I think you should be asking, 'should we do that?'" Toshiko said.

Jack for the moment said nothing. He got up from the chair, lifting Ianto onto his hip, holding him tightly. For a moment he didn't speak, instead he went to look at the tank of rats. Some of them now looked less frantic. Instead they were busy eating the food Owen had put in there, and drinking the water, their tongues lapping at the bowl frantically.

"I thought you said that the size of the subject had no bearing on the power needed, or the age ratio. We've tested that theory."

"I know but…" Owen paused and faltered. "And I know in a way I'm putting it off. Not because I don't want Ianto fixed, I can't cope with twenty or so years of this cuteness, waiting for him to get back to normal. But we've never run an experiment as huge as this on one of us."

"Excuse me, singularity scalpel to remove huge alien egg from belly!"

"Ditto Martha's mayfly. And you had less practice time on that thing," Toshiko added.

"And we set one of the weevils up to catch that fight club," Jack said.

"You shot Jack," Gwen said to Owen. Everyone paused and turned on her.

"What's that got to do with it?" Jack asked.

"You got shot and this idiot brought you back with a Resurrection Gauntlet," Toshiko added to Owen waving a hand in Jack's direction. Gwen looked shocked but Owen smirked.

Owen rolled his eyes. "Okay, what are we pointing out here? That no one has performed a completely stupid experiment on Ianto as of yet? Does he really feel that left out?"

Gwen shrugged. "Just pointing out, we've not always been careful with each other have we?" Gwen paused for a moment. "And I hate to say it but the longer we put it off, the less likely we are to go through with it, we'll just keep finding ways to delay it. Another check of the calibrations, the machine, Ianto…"

Ianto squeaked as he heard his name.

"We could end up finding a million and one excuses and he could grow up while we carry on like that."

"We need to be careful about this Gwen," Jack said.

"You were quite happy to let Owen use the singularity scalpel on me." She glared at him with a challenge in her eyes. Jack sighed.

"Actually I wasn't. But as Owen said, with a nostravite coming to rip you open we didn't have a huge number of options, we actually had one. This time we have a little more time but… you're right…" Jack said very falteringly. "We're sure it will work… but Owen's right as well. We'll sedate one of the weevils and bring it down."

"Jack you can't. It's not ethical!" Toshiko said. She never really forgiven him, or perhaps just not understood, why he had released the weevil to allow Mark Lynch to kidnap it. Jack hadn't liked it, but he had done it, and he was glad he had. He took a breath and turned round.

"I know Tosh, and I don't care. Owen."

Owen nodded. She sidled past the girls and went out to do exactly as Jack ordered.

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

They had two young weevils in the vaults, neither of them more than a year, Owen thought. Owen chose the smaller of the two and between them they brought it down, settling it down on the table.

Toshiko said nothing, she was seriously not happy about this. None of them were, but Jack had to agree with Owen. Testing it on something larger was a worthwhile experiment, before they put Ianto in the firing line.

Jack wanted to do it, he had to do it. He had no right to keep Ianto like he was just because they were too frightened to try and fix it. And he didn't entirely understand their hesitation. They knew the dangers, and as they had argued, they had all been through something that had left them at risk. Maybe it was because this time, Ianto had become so vulnerable, and rather cute; a factor which seemed to have affected all of them. Even, it appeared, Owen, despite his protests to the contrary.

Ianto was becoming increasingly fretful. The tensions were rising as they realised they were coming closer to actually having to do what they needed to. He had fussed and whined when Jack had put him down to help Owen with the weevil and thrown a mild tantrum when Jack wouldn't pick him back up again, when he insisted on it.

However in the end Toshiko had taken over from him. Instead she helped Owen, with Gwen and Jack held Ianto. He settled a little, but not much. There was, Jack thought, a possibility that on some levels he understood exactly what they were doing, and he knew it was all about him. Ianto may have actually been trying to tell them that he just wanted it over and done with, but it could just be he sensed the fear in all of them. Jack sat on the table behind the machine and put Ianto next to him. Ianto clung and Jack hugged him.

"Everything will be fine."

He watched Toshiko and Owen power the machine again. There was the strange humming noise which indicated the device was doing whatever it was it did. The flash of light shimmering out from the machine engulfed the weevil lying sedated on the table. All five of them looked away even thought they were all wearing protective goggles. When they looked back, Jack breathed one sigh of relief. The weevil was still there, utterly intact and fast asleep. Owen ran to it to scan it again. He looked at the reading, scanned again and re-checked the reading. Then very slowly he looked up, at Jack.

"It worked."

Everyone stared again. It was hard to tell; true the weevil was a little bigger but essentially just the same. Owen walked over to him to show him the reading.

"It worked perfectly Jack," Owen repeated. "What do we do?"

Jack swallowed heavily, Ianto clambered onto him, wrapping his arms around his neck. Jack put an arm around him to steady him. That somehow, Owen thought, seemed to help him make up his mind. Jack's eyes suddenly focussed sharply and he looked at Owen. He slid off the table and lifted Ianto up.

"Take the weevil back down to the vaults, Toshiko get the machine powered up again. I'll get Ianto ready."

XxxxxxxxxxxxxX

Jack brought Ianto back down wearing nothing but a white shirt. He had brought one with him just in case they got to this stage. Ianto couldn't stay in the kid's clothes he was wearing. If this worked he'd outgrow them in seconds. The logical thing was to keep him naked but since Toshiko needed to be there to work the machine and Gwen wouldn't leave, Jack wasn't about to have Ianto stood naked in front of his work colleagues.

So instead he went back to the way Ianto was dressed when he had found him to be an infant. A shirt. It would fit him when he grew back to his normal size, hopefully, and cover him up enough that it would be less awkward.

He also got Gwen to bring down Ianto's suit and underwear which he had been wearing when he had changed, so he could get dressed the moment this worked.

Jack couldn't help but feel mind-numbingly nervous as he brought Ianto back into the firing range. Toshiko was ready, Owen was ready, Gwen was ready. Jack wasn't sure he was. An accident was one thing, consciously putting Ianto in danger was… different to the rest of them. He wasn't sure why, it just was. He really didn't want to screw this up, or Ianto up, any further.

What concerned him, deep down, was Ianto's reaction. Had Jack made things worse, better, or no different? Which one did he want to happen? He certainly didn't want Ianto to blame him for what happened, or how he had managed over the last few days. He couldn't really, Ianto would understand that it was an accident, they had managed the best they could.

He stopped worrying as he realised they were looking at him expectantly.

"Jack?" Owen insisted indicating to the table.

Slowly Jack went over to the table and put Ianto down on it, sitting him on the edge. Ianto clung for a moment and Jack gently prised him off. As he backed off Ianto whimpered, he looked down at the floor which seemed horribly far away, looked back up at Jack and started to cry. Jack winced and glanced at the others.

"Almost ready," Toshiko said. Jack went back to Ianto and crouched down.

"I'm going to be here, I'm not going to leave you." Very gently Jack shushed Ianto down, until all he did was stare at him with wide eyes. For a moment Jack felt a shot of fear, maybe Ianto didn't want to go back. Was he really of a level that he could comprehend that in his own mind?

"Jack?"

He jumped a mile as he heard Gwen's voice. She had moved up behind him and held out Barney. Jack took him and put him in Ianto's lap. Ianto took him, wrapping his arms around him. Jack smiled at Ianto and wiped the tears off his cheek and then gently brushed some stray hairs back off his forehead.

"You hold onto Barney, and I'll be right here, just over there. I'm not going to leave you, okay?"

Ianto gave a little nod, sniffled and buried his head down into Barney. Jack realised he probably shouldn't have let Ianto watch all the experiments. He knew something was going on, and it was something that was about to happen to him. Jack wanted to run from the room so he wouldn't have to see it happen.

He wanted Ianto back. He wanted him back as a grown-up. The screwed up grown up that he was. The one that Jack loved. He loved this little Ianto, who seemed as just as screwed up, but his life had been so simplified over the last two days that he had seemed genuinely happy. Or maybe, just bloody maybe, Jack thought, he was happy anyway, damaged, badly psychologically scarred, but somehow in the middle of all that mess, just happy. With Jack.

"Jack?" Owen's voice this time, with a touch of impatience, he wanted this over and done with.

Jack rose up and leant over to kiss Ianto lightly on the forehead before he backed up, moving behind the safety line. Ianto kept his eyes on Jack, clinging onto Barney, shivering a little with cold and trying not to cry.

This time Jack didn't need the goggles. He closed his eyes, he couldn't look and he didn't dare watch. As the hum of the machine started, as it powered up he felt his throat constrict painfully. A hand moved into his. He knew it was Gwen's without even looking. Both Toshiko and Owen had their hands full with the machine, and neither of them would much bother to try and comfort him anyway, but Gwen would. He squeezed her hand and she squeezed back.

Even with his eyes shut the flash of light was obvious. The sound of the machine intensified and Jack felt himself holding his breath, feeling his heart pounding in his chest. His breath released and his heart rate almost doubled as the light faded and a voice, wonderfully familiar, well-accented and stridently stressed cut through the tense silence.

"What the bloody hell…?"