Chapter rating: Hell if I know

A/N: I am beat, already down and getting kicked in the kidneys. But hey! Ze show must go on as zey say in France!

And please… about the toothbrush thing… it's 3 in the morning, be kind…

The Doctor's Child

13. Safety is such a flitting thing

Lucy couldn't say that the presence of Evan was all that bothering. Stephen had accepted quite readily to play babysitter for his uncle Jack with her, and the baby really was one of the quietest she'd seen. He hadn't kicked up of a fuss the whole night and had drunk his formula readily in the morning. If she hadn't, out of pure curiosity, leaned her head against his small torso and listened to the double, fast heartbeat in his chest, she would have never imagined him being anything but another cute kid.

But he'd started crying again, some time in the late afternoon, seemingly out of the blue and she'd sat in the kitchen with the baby in her arms, singing gently to try and calm him. Her own son was entertaining himself outside, kicking around a football ball. And suddenly, out of nowhere, she felt this strange feeling of sadness and overpowering confusion and longing. It took her a moment to regroup herself and she looked down at the baby who was looking back at her with a tiny frown and his cheeks puffy and red with tears.

"I guess you miss your daddy, then…" She muttered softly, rocking the baby delicately. "We need something to occupy our minds, the both of us! How about some good old idiot box time, hm?"

Smiling gently at the still frowning baby, she stood up and switched on the TV. It took her no more than a minute to recognize the place depicted in the evening news. It was the Torchwood Hub in Cardiff. And it was in rumbles…

The Doctor hummed to himself as he looked around the Xenophysics town of the Library, near Quantum physics city and Physics metropolis. Amy and Rory were somewhere further inside the town, searching for any referencing books even alluding to Time Lord's sciences. They had arrived about 5 hours prior, the Doctor taking a great care not to appear in the city he'd appeared with Donna that other time around, and went back as far as 200 years before that time. He was searching for any information that could help him re-design a new Chameleon Ark. The one he'd started to fashion in Cardiff had been a godsend. It had been an half-way destroyed one and he had only had to repair it a bit and modify its settings. But now that that one was in pieces, he'd have to actually built one from scratches and with his newborn son's life somewhat hanging in the balance, he would do it by the book and possibly refresh his memories for more security. He was visiting his 4th building of the day when an angry voice behind him startled him slightly.

"YOU!"

Turning around, he came face to face with an old-ish Chula alien, who, by his cloak, was probably a warrior or a mechanic.

"Oh hello there!" He said with a slight smile.

He couldn't help but reminisce that one time all those decades ago, when he'd come across the Chula vessel, with Rose and Jack. Crushing the pang in his chest with the ease of practice, he continued smiling at the other male who was clicking his antennas threateningly at him.

"YOU STOLE MY TOOTHBRUSH!" The alien screamed, taking a step toward him.

The Gallifreyan's eyes widened at the accusation. Chula religion revolved around the completion of rites. After each rite the induced developed a new row of teeth, and were given a new toothbrush. They were so serious about their oral hygiene that it was honestly a bit amusing to the Time Lord. But for one of them to accuse him of steeling his toothbrush… it was one of the highest offences on Chula, next to forgetting to mouthwash.

"Err… I do think you're mistaken here…" The Doctor replied quickly, taking a swift step back from the alien.

"NO! IT'S YOU! YOU STOLE IT! NOW PREPARE TO DIE!" The Chulla roared back at him before lunging forward.

Anticipating his move, the man in the bow-tie dodged and ran as fast as he could, bellowing at the top of his lungs his two companions' names.

He was in the town's main street when the couple came out, looking bewildered, just a few doors ahead from him.

"QUICK! The T.A.R.D.I.S.! We have to go!" He practically screamed as he ran past them.

The two humans looked at each other then at the large form of the alien that was running after the Doctor and immediately ran after their friend who'd disappeared around the corner where he'd parked the ship.

A few galaxies away, a few centuries in the past, Ianto Jones laid on a hill, watching with nearly physical pain as gallons of cement were dropped inside a cell, he knew damn well was that of one Captain Jack Harkness. It had been 4 days since the explosion of the Hub and he'd been forced into hiding by whoever was targeting Torchwood.

The last few days had been a nerve-wracking whirlwind of running and hiding, while he tracked the convoy that had taken the remains of his lover. He tried very hard not to let his thoughts stray from his mission, ignoring the gnawing worry for Gwen, but of course, occulting thoughts of Gwen and her newly-discovered pregnancy pushed him to think of Evan. The baby had wormed his way into the Welshman's heart in just a few hours, those months ago when the Doctor had pulled his first disappearing act, and hadn't budged one bit ever since.

When Jack had appeared that morning with no baby, Ianto had been all set to rip him to shreds, even when the Immortal assured him that the babe was in good hands, and safer than they were for the duration of the investigation. But that was back when the Torchwood team wasn't being hunted like animals to be executed, and Jack still there to retrieve him at any given time. Now Jack was suffering alone in a cell while Ianto hid and planned and only God knew where Gwen was, the short phone call he gave her wasn't enough to prove that she was even still alive now. Wherever the Captain had hidden Evan, the Welshman hoped fiercely that he would be well protected.

In a quiet suburb of Kensington, Lucy was walking around her bedroom, rocking little Evan. The baby had been distressed and prone to crying jags for the last few days now. The woman was starting to feel the strain of trying to calm him down and wondered silently how she could have imagined that alien babies were any different from human ones. Obviously, they were just as fussy.

She sighed at her own thoughts, knowing full well that her slight frustration was more caused by worry that anything else. Jack hadn't picked up any of her calls since the news of the explosion and she couldn't help but feel that everything was connected, especially with the children making having another one of their trance-like fits. It wasn't at all helped by the fact that Evan seemed to have lost any resemblance of control on his telepathic gift. She'd taken to wear long sleeved clothes while holding him, just to be able to shield herself a little from the amalgam of fear, confusion and anger, emanating regularly from the babe. It didn't stop the broadcasting completely, but it left it muffled enough that she didn't have too much trouble distinguishing his feelings from hers.

After what felt like an hour of pacing, humming softly to the baby, the little one finally nodded off and she was able to put him in the middle of her bedding, heaving a sigh of relief. Taking care not to make too much noise, she put a baby-walkie next to the bed and went down to the kitchen to fix some snack for Stephen who would be coming back from school soon. She'd go ask for some passerby's phone and call the Cardiff police to ask about Jack later, hoping against all odds that either Jack or that mysterious Doctor of his, would reappear soon.

It had all gone so quickly, Ianto had immediately put his plan into action when he realized who exactly were the two would-be morticians that entered what he'd dubbed the "Evil Lair". He'd busted the wall of the cell where Jack was detained with a forklift and they'd all ran from the armed men that were trying to gun them down. And soon, he was dropping the case of cement that encased the body of his lover, hoping to high heavens that the insufferable man would pull back from the dead yet again.

The Welshman could not really explain the feeling of relieved joy that erupted in him when they drove down the fall and found Captain Jack Harkness in all his naked glory, dusting off cement from his hair and face with his patented grin on his face. He had to stay in retreat while Gwen and Rhys greeted the man, fully aware that if he gave in now, he'd snog the man senseless and probably take advantage of his nudity, friends presence be damned.

"What are we doing now?" Gwen asked from her place at the front, looking at the newly-delivered man on the backseat.

"First some clothes, then I have to get Evan. Something like this, it's getting too dangerous to leave him away from us. If the people that were tailing us have done it for some time, I bet they know he exists. We haven't really kept his presence on the down low while the Doctor was away…" Jack explained grimly.

Gwen started opening her mouth to protest. They couldn't bring in a wee baby into this situation. It would be too dangerous. But at the same time, Jack's argument was solid. If whoever wanted Torchwood dead had done their work, they'd know that Ianto and Jack were carrying a baby around a lot, in these last few months and what best way to get to the man that through their children? Sure, Evan wasn't actually theirs, but she'd seen the two others with him, they had become a sort of surrogate family over the course of that month when the Doctor disappeared the first time, even when he was back, when the baby wasn't with him, he was almost always surely with Ianto or Jack. And if, by some horrible turn of fate, he did fall into those people's hand, the fact that he wasn't at all human, would put another threat to his life.

So they drove off and Jack (after changing into a tracking suit, to his great despair) left them with coordinates where to meet him back, after he'd gone to get the baby back.

Jack drove as fast as he could while staying inconspicuous. He was running the situation into his mind, wondering how he could spin this all to receive the less damage possible from Lucy. He knew that the woman would be pissed off as soon as he got there and she might not react as calmly as Gwen (which had actually surprised him, he didn't think she'd take it that easily) especially because he was endangering a child, but there was no other solution to this. If he left Evan with her there was always a possibility that Evan, Lucy and Stephen got snatched by whoever was behind this, either by them following the lead on Evan or discovering that Lucy was his daughter.

Either way, it'd be catastrophic, and he didn't know if he'd be able to stop the Doctor from committing a genocide if even a hair of his son's head was singed.

From what he'd seen in the last month or so, this new version of the man was slightly more mellow and fun-loving than even the previous one. But the previous one had appeared just as funny and childish until they had face the Daleks and the Master and he'd gotten a taste of the man's darkness. He would have to call him back as soon as he got hold of a phone, this was developing to be a more than serious threat and the Time Lord would not thank him for not informing him.

When he arrived at his daughter's house, his decision had been reached and he went around to stand under the next floor's window.

Jack climbed up as swiftly and silently as possible and had to hide a triumphant grin when he realized he'd climbed into Lucy's bedroom and a certain baby Gallifreyan was sleeping peacefully on the bed. Looking around, he snatched a notepad and penned a quick note to his daughter; apologizing for getting in without her notice and saying he had to go into hiding with the babe and demanding that she went underground as well, as soon as possible. That done, he hefted the baby in his arms, smiling softly when Evan scrunched his nose and nuzzled his t-shirt, grabbed the baby-bag where he'd thrown everything he could find that was Evan's and creeped back downstairs.

He could hear Lucy talking to Stephen from the kitchen but made it out of the door unnoticed. Once out on the street, he went back to the stolen car, acting as natural as he could, thanking all deities that he'd chosen a car with a booster seat at back.

He put Evan in the seat, the baby looking blissfully unaware of any mishap as he continued sleeping, and drove off to the rendezvous point.

This really was shaping up to be an utter shitstorm.

2 days to write one chapter? Oh the novelty of this fanfic is wearing off, I need to rekindle myself with the notion or I'll never finish it.

Anyway, reviews please?