And I'm back. Sorry about the long break, I would have had this up earlier this week but I ended up scraping an entire chapter becuase I didn't like it and then I started completely over. I hope you like it.

First contact with the 456 had gone exactly how the Doctor had thought it would. Hannah had been brilliant about planting the recording devices all over Downing Street, including inside Gold Command as well as at Thames House. There wasn't an important conversation going on there that he didn't know about. John Frobisher had apparently made a deal with the aliens to keep the 1965 'negotiations' off the record. Not surprisingly, the 456 had not held up their end of the bargain, just another indication that they couldn't be trusted.

So the cat was out of the bag, so to speak. All the world leaders knew that Britain had not only had contact with the 456 before, but they had willingly given children to them and had attempted to cover everything up. At least that meant they no longer had a reason to hunt Jack and his team.

Still, it bothered the Doctor to no end that he still had no idea what species the 456 were. They had gotten a good look at the creature when a camera man had been allowed inside its tank. It had also afforded a look at what had happened to the children from 1965. It had three, vulture-like heads, was covered in a slimy green substance and liked to spit copious amounts of yellow bile everywhere. It was disgusting.

But not nearly as bad as what had become of the children. The child they had seen had a bald head that was distorted; his eyes had been overlarge and stared blankly into space. There had been a black gas mask across his face with tubes attached to it. The child only vaguely resembled a human anymore.

Oh, the 456 claimed that the children lived beyond their years and felt no pain. The Doctor desperately hoped that that was true, hoped that those poor children felt nothing at all ever again. He had no idea what they were using them for, an energy source maybe; tomorrow he would confront them and give them a chance to back off. Of course, he would offer to help them, no matter how hard he had to fight the urge to destroy them now. He was quick to anger in this body, especially when someone threatened his friends, family or innocent children.

Ultimately, the 456 had returned because they wanted more children, 10% of the prepubescent population to be exact. Millions and millions of children, and the government might just hand them over to these creatures as a gift. If the children weren't handed over, the 456 had vowed to destroy every human on the planet. There was no proof that they could do that, but the mind control over the children was enough to frighten anyone.

He had reacted badly to the news, but his Rose had been there to bring him back to his senses. Closing his eyes, he remembered those moments.

Jack let out a long slow breath. "That is a giant step up from the twelve that they wanted the first time."

"You think?" the Doctor bellowed. "They were testing the waters the first time, seeing if the simple minded creatures of this planet would blindly give up children for their own gain. And they did, with very little resistance. So they think they can do it again."

Alice looked horrified by the Doctor's words so Rose walked over and placed a hand on her arm. "Don't let it bother you. He loves humans. It's just that when he's stressed, he likes to insult other species."

The Doctor glared at her for a moment and Rose shook her head. "All species are made up of both good and bad aspects, my love, including your own." She looked pointedly at him. "So let's stop with the blanket generalizations, ta."

With a roll of his eyes, the Doctor began pacing the monitor room. He was mumbling something under his breath. This went on for several minutes before Rory dared to interrupt him. "So, Doctor, any idea what these creatures are or what they want with the kids?"

The Time Lord sighed heavily and leaned against the wall. "No idea and trust me, it takes a lot to admit that. But I do know that they will not get one single child, not one."

"Fre…Frequencies," Alice stammered abruptly.

The Doctor looked up startled. "What?"

Alice cleared her throat. "These things are communicating with frequencies or wavelengths. Can't you… I don't know, reverse the signal they're using and stop them?" Earlier, they had told Alice everything that they knew about the 456. Obviously she had been paying close attention. Jack beamed at his daughter's brilliance and Rory nodded in contemplation.

"It could work. We weren't able to trace the signal using Rory last time, but maybe we could use one of us as a transmitter. Of course we'd have to use a combination of shielding from both of the TARDISes to stop the transmission from frying our brains," Jenny said and looked over at her Dad. "What do you think?"

"The possibility of frying either yours or Rory's brains aside," the Doctor said dryly and Rory scoffed at the prospect. "If we did that, we might kill every last one of them and we have to give them a chance first."

"Even after everything they've done with the children so far?" Alice asked, a note of panic laced her voice. "They want us to hand over millions of children."

Trisha spoke up this time. "Everyone deserves a chance. Either way, we'll stop 'em." The brunette winked at her.

Honestly, Alice had come up with a tangible solution, but it would only be used as a last resort. Although he shivered at the thought of using one of his children as the transmitter, using a human child meant certain death. Rory was the better choice for it. He was the stronger telepath and he was older, having had more time to build his mind's defenses. Plus, his connection to either TARDIS was stronger and the shields were more willing to hold.

Right now they needed a plan to get into Thames House and confront the 456 as well as let the Prime Minister know that the Calvary had arrived. And there was no longer a need to negotiate because the 456 weren't getting any more children, not one single child.

Late the following morning, Ianto found himself in the kitchen of the Doctor's TARDIS making tea and coffee for everyone. It had been a long night, and almost everyone was slightly sleep deprived. Over the course of the night, the Doctor's band of merry misfits (as Ianto began to call them in his head) had watched as the heads of the British government had stumbled all over themselves to decide on a course of action.

They had tried to counter offer. They offered the 456 a fraction of the number they had been asking for. That offer was soundly rejected, and all over the world children began repeating a number, a different number in every country, a number equal to 10% of the child population of that country. It became apparent that the 456 would settle for no less than what they demanded.

In the end, they had caved to the pressure and decided to hand over the children who attended the lowest performing schools in the country, the ones most likely to produce criminals and the dregs of society. Someone had even had the nerve to suggest that they could spin this as a good thing. A cull of the 10% of the children with the lowest potential could be seen as a good thing, less people to drain the resources of the better part of the population. It made Ianto both sick and furious. A few years ago, that would have included not only himself, but Rose Tyler and Mickey Smith as well. No one could accurately judge a child's potential. Ianto himself had helped to save the world, multiple times. Mickey had helped to save the multiverse. And he shuddered to think what could have become of all of reality without Rose. Narrow minded idiots.

Of course the team had come up with a plan. It focused on three fronts. The first was Rose and Hannah confronting the Prime Minister in the Cabinet room at the newly rebuilt Downing Street. Jenny had teased her mum about not getting any ideas about keeping the Vortex Manipulator when this was all over. Reluctantly, Rose had admitted it was a convenient way to travel.

Second, Rory, the Doctor and Jack would take the Doctor's TARDIS to Thames house to confront the 456 directly and give them the chance to leave peacefully. The last front of the plan was the reserve team. Jenny would take the Tyler family TARDIS and park it in the back garden of his sister Rhiannon's house. That way the children there would be protected if things went pear shaped.

There were only two problems with this plan. Firstly, Clem refused to step into the protection of the TARDIS. Yesterday had been upsetting, to put it mildly, for the poor man. The 456 had said something about a remnant remaining; Clem had been convinced that they were talking about him. He was incredibly scared but still refused to trust the alien technology. Honestly, no one could really blame him, so Gwen and Rhys had agreed to stay behind with him.

And then there was the problem of Ianto himself. There was no way that he was just going to be relegated to the TARDIS outside of his sister's house. He was going into Thames house with Jack and that was final. After years of working for Torchwood and, more recently, outing himself on the front lines, he wouldn't allow himself to be relegated to tea boy again. Now if he could just find Jack to tell him.

But the man in question had spent most of the night secreted away with Alice. Ianto knew that he shouldn't be jealous of the woman for getting Jack's attention. Nor should he be surprised at her existence. Even if he was loyal to the one he was with, Jack had always been…open with his affections. It would have been more surprising to Ianto if Alice was the only child Jack had fathered.

What was upsetting him right now was that Jack hadn't bothered to tell him that he had a daughter, or a grandson. Nor had he been told about the 456. Rose and Hannah seemed to be the ones he confided in about such things. It seemed like all he was getting was the surface and nothing underneath. Ianto didn't doubt how Jack felt about him and he was certain Jack knew he loved him. But would it be enough if Jack couldn't trust him with his secrets.

"Stop thinking like that," he muttered under his breath.

"You know," Jack's voice floated in from the doorway. "They say that talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity."

"Really?" Ianto half-smiled. "I always thought it was when you started to answer back was when you knew there was a problem." Picking up one of the coffee mugs, Ianto handed Jack one made just the way he liked it.

"You are a life saver." Jack took a large gulp and stared at the other man. "What's wrong?"

Ianto rolled his shoulders and said, "I want to go with you, the Doctor and Rory to meet with the 456."

"No," Jack reacted quickly. "It's dangerous and we have no idea what they are capable of. I don't want you in that room."

"But it was okay to send Hannah in there yesterday?" Ianto spat. "You always play everything so close to your chest. I wish that you would just trust me, too."

With a thud, Jack set the coffee mug down on the counter. "You really want to talk about this now?"

"Why not now? There's never a good time, is there? You keep shutting me out. I didn't know about the 456, I didn't know you had a daughter. But Hannah knew and Rose knew. Talk to me, Jack. I'm right here. Or do you not trust me the way you trust them?" Ianto didn't raise his voice but his tone was pleading.

"Have you ever had to look at a child, your child, your grandchild, and know that you are going to outlive them by decades, by centuries?" Jack asked, his voice filled with agony. "Because I have and Rose has. She and I will both have to bury our children while we still look young. So yes, I told her about Alice, because I needed someone who would understand that. And the things I told Hannah…"

Jack turned his back and took a deep breath. "I needed someone who would absolve me; Hannah was a parent herself when I told her. If she could forgive me for it, see past it, then maybe… Maybe I wasn't as horrible as I thought. All these years, I consoled myself by believing that maybe those kids were in paradise, and now I know. I'm a monster, Ianto."

"Jack." Ianto laid a hand on his back. "You're not a monster. If you were, you wouldn't care what happened to those kids. But you can talk to me about these things. I won't judge you."

"Just stop," Jack said, shrugging him off. "We'll talk about this later."

"Sure, fine." Ianto knew he didn't sound convinced but he didn't care.

Taking a step closer to him, Jack said, "After all of this is over, we'll talk. I promise." Jack leaned over and placed a quick kiss on Ianto's lips. "And if you really want to, you can come with us to meet with the 456."

"Good, thank you."

"Ahem," Sabrina cleared her throat from the doorway. "It's time to go."

Twenty minutes later, the Tyler family's TARDIS had dematerialized with the majority of the family in it. The Doctor, Jack, Ianto and Rory were in the Doctor's TARDIS awaiting the signal for them to storm Thames house. It also left Rose in the warehouse with Gwen, Rhys and Clem to watch the latest feed from Hannah in Gold Command at 10 Downing Street.

Rose's eyes were glued to the monitor. The group consisting of Prime Minister Green, high ranking members of the cabinet, John Frobisher, American General Pierce, UNIT Colonel Oduya, and of course, Hannah were sitting around a long conference table. Rose's fingers itched as she triple checked the coordinates on the manipulator. It was almost show time.

John Frobisher explained what they were going to be distributing through the news media. "So… We need a cover story to explain why the operation is happening, and to encourage participation. So the suggestion is we announce the children will be given some sort of inoculation; a jab to stop them speaking in unison. We stress that there's no immediate danger, that everyone will be seen in due course. Then when it goes wrong and the children disappear, we blame the aliens. Claiming innocence, we face the music."

"We say the 456 double crossed us?" Pierce asked.

"Well, it is the aliens' fault that this is happening. Why not blame them?" someone off camera expounded.

"Yes, we play the part of naive dupes rather than willing accomplices," Frobisher agreed." And I believe that this is a plausible cover that can be used by countries all over the world. We are forcing the news outlets to keep a lid on what is really going on. That will buy everyone time."

"No one in this room is a willing accomplice," Green said pointedly. "This is extortion and I will not now, nor ever say that we did this willingly." He took a deep breath. "Now, ladies and gentlemen… Comments? Anyone?"

From the end of the table, Hannah cleared her throat and stood up. "With all due respect, sir, I have something to say."

Green smiled politely at her. "Yes, Lt Colonel Stalwart?"

"I don't believe that any of the preparations are necessary. I know for a fact that we have a trump card."

"And what is that?" Pierce asked, leaning forward in his chair.

"Torchwood," Hannah said, straightening her shoulders. "And the Doctor."

Frobisher jumped to his feet. "That's ridiculous. The Torchwood Hub was destroyed and all of the employees killed in the explosion a few days ago."

Hannah rounded on him. "An explosion caused by a bomb that you ordered to be planted in Jack Harkness' body. My grandchildren were there that night. Count your lucky stars that they escaped along with Ianto Jones and Gwen Cooper or you would have to answer to me." He slumped back into his chair.

"Stalwart, did you say the Doctor?" Colonel Oduya interrupted and glared at her. Apparently he was upset that she hadn't told him immediately about the Doctor being in contact.

"That's my cue," Rose said and pressed the button on the manipulator. A moment later she appeared in Gold Command, standing right beside Hannah. "Yes, Colonel, Hannah did in fact say the Doctor."

"Who the hell are you?" Green demanded. "And how did you get in here?"

"Dame Rose Tyler, Prime Minister. I would say it was a pleasure to meet you, but I'd be lying." Rose eyed him disdainfully. "Oh, and I have a teleport." She held up her wrist and turned to Frobisher. "I'm sure your lackey told you all about it, didn't she?"

Frobisher sank further back into his chair in an apparent attempt to look invisible.

"And what is your connection to the Doctor, Dame Tyler?" General Pierce asked.

"Oh, that is fairly complicated." She smiled wryly. "For now, all you need to know is that I'm on your side."

"What do you want from us?" Green asked.

"That's simple," Rose said with a small shrug. "I want you to stop all of your plans to hand over any children to the 456 and you to let the Doctor and Captain Harkness handle any and all discussions with the 456 from now on."

Pierce looked indignant. "We should just let this Doctor and Harkness speak for the planet? What authority do they have?"

Colonel Oduya looked like he wanted to say something but Rose cut him off. "You can trust the Doctor's track record by the number of times that he has saved this planet. Most recently from the Atraxi, but there were also the Sontarans, the Nestene Consciousness, the Sycorax, the Slitheen... And those are just a few examples."

"This place looks nice since you've rebuilt it." She looked around the room, a smile forming on her lips as she remembered the first time she was in Downing Street. Then she leaned forward onto the conference table. "This planet owes the Doctor and Captain a chance to handle this. Because one way or another, we are the only shot that you have at ending this without causing a massive rebellion."

Prime Minister Green and General Pierce shifted uncomfortably in their chairs and Oduya stepped forward. "UNIT and the United Nations stand behind the Doctor, Dame Tyler. I'm sure that none of the people in this room would object to the Doctor negotiating with the 456 on behalf of the planet. How soon can this be arranged?"

Rose beamed and nodded to a television monitor. "If you turn on the camera feed from Thames House, you'll find he's just arrived."

The moment that the Colonel had agreed to the meeting, Rory and the Doctor materialized the TARDIS right into the room containing the 456 on the thirteenth floor although they would have done the same thing had no one agreed. The Doctor didn't need permission to save the world. He did it whether you liked it or not.

"Right," the Doctor said, clapping his hands together. "It's show time. Rory, stay here, monitor for any signs of trouble. You two…" He pointed at Jack and Ianto. "Let's go."

Rory called out, "Good luck," as the other three men stepped outside of the doors of the ship.

Taking one step forward, the Doctor spoke first. "Hello, I'm the Doctor and these are my friends, Captain Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones. We're here to negotiate on behalf of the human race." He fiddled with his bowtie, in what looked to be a nervous manner. It wasn't nerves, just one of his ways to try lull an opponent into a false sense of security.

"You are not human." The voice of the 456 drifted out of a speaker box near the tank.

A smirk formed on the Doctor's face. "No, I'm not. But I've sort of adopted this planet. I'm quite fond of it, actually. So I would hate to see something happen to the children of its people." The Doctor strode up to the tank. "I want to help you. Whatever you need these children for, we can find something else that you can use instead. Let me help."

He took a deep breath. "As a father and as a grandfather—you need these children. Are they keeping you alive?"

The 456 responded, "No."

"Then what are they for?" Jack stepped forward and asked.

"The hit," the 456 said simply.

The Doctor's brow furrowed. "I don't understand."

"The hit," the voice from the box began. "They create chemicals. The chemicals are good."

"Good in what way?" The Doctor did not like where this was going.

"We feel good. The chemicals are good," the 456 said.

Ianto finally spoke, his voice filled with revulsion. "They're like... drugs?"

"Yes," was the cold reply before the creature spit its yellow bile against the wall of the tank. "We need the children."

Gritting his teeth, the Doctor addressed the 456 again. "Well, I'm sorry about that, but this time you will not be getting one single child. Not one."

"You have yielded in the past," the disembodied voice said.

Jack snorted. "And don't I know it. I was there. In 1965, I was part of that trade, and that's why I'm never going to let it happen again."

"Explain," the 456 demanded.

"You're not getting a single, solitary child," Ianto declared. "We won't let you."

"You yielded in the past. You will do so again," the 456 replied.

"In the past," Jack answered, "the numbers were so small they could be kept secret, but this time, that is not going to happen.

"And why not?" the voice from the speaker asked.

"Because," the Doctor began, "if you don't leave this planet for good, I will destroy you. I'm only giving you one chance. I suggest you take it."

Ianto spoke again. "You've got enough information on this planet. Check your records. Their names are the Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness. Take a look and see what you're facing."

The speaker crackled to life again. "This is fascinating, isn't it? The human infant mortality rate is 29,158 deaths per day. Every three seconds, a child dies. The human response is to accept, and adapt. You have yielded in the past, you will do so again."

"The human race does not hand their child over to be used as drugs." The Doctor's blood boiled and he yelled, "Last chance, leave now or I will make you leave."

"Then the fight begins," the 456 responded. There was a slight hiss of what sounded like an air canister being slowly released and there was a slightly tangy taste on the Doctor's tongue. Immediately he engaged his respiratory bypass, knowing that he only had mere moments to get himself and Ianto out of the room if they wanted to survive.