Chapter 8: A Delicate Issue

AN/ This chapter was requested by my Dad of all people, who pointed out what was missing from Ianto's transformation into a woman..love my Dad he's a nutter. Once again there's a bit of naughty language in this one but considering Ianto's situation it's called for.

When Rhys Williams was younger he had believed that he wasn't morning person, that was until he moved in with Gwen Cooper, a woman who could not be moved from her bed before 8am if aliens had been attacking Cardiff zoo – and that had happened more than once. It was true, as much as he loved Gwen he had learned pretty quickly that she wasn't the same woman during the hours she so beautifully dubbed "fuck off o'clock". So this morning when there was frantic banging on the front door at 6:27am he wasn't surprised to see a pillow came flying from the other side of the bed as he got up to see who the hell it was. He had barely unlocked the door when he was faced with Gwen's colleague - the one who had just cut all her hair off but still looked like a bloody supermodel - on his doorstep looking ill and upset.

"Oh, come inside my love I'll go see if I can get Gwen out of bed"

Ianto sat uncomfortably on Gwen's sofa and watched as Rhys, dressed in nothing but his black boxers, went back into the bedroom to get Gwen. He hated to barge in so early but with the morning he was having he hadn't known where else to go. He couldn't go to Tosh, she was his best friend and he didn't want her to see him like this. Gwen was a good friend, she even followed a now dressed Rhys out of the bedroom looking sleepy and confused into the living room but she was so different from Tosh, she might actually help him with his current problem without calling Owen (which was the last thing he wanted.) By seven o'clock they had eaten breakfast (cooked by Rhys of course) around the table and Ianto had gone with Gwen into the bedroom so that they could talk.

"Sweet heart what's happened?" they sat on the end of the bed and Gwen put an arm around her troubled friend. Ianto mumbled a response that though she was listening intently she couldn't make out.

"What was that sorry?"

"I need your help with a little problem"

"Okay, always thought you'd go to Tosh in situations like this but yeah I'm always here to help"

"Trust me I've never had this particular problem before and I can't go to Tosh she'd just call Owen"

That had Gwen worried, if Ianto's problem could be something in Owen's department then she really wasn't equipped to help him, she had waited patiently for Ianto to tell her what was wrong.

At 0858 Gwen and Ianto walked into the HUB together, Toshiko looked up in surprise, Ianto was never this late and for once Gwen was in on time, their arriving together was just as strange and when Ianto went to the kitchen to make the coffee Owen was screaming for she got up to go and ask Gwen what was going on only to see the Welshwoman walking towards her.

"I need to talk to you about Ianto"

"Of course" She indicated Owen's chair and Gwen pulled it over.

"Ianto came to my house this morning, and shall we say that his transformation into a woman is now complete"

"But...I halted the nano genes, there shouldn't have been any more changes"

"Tosh" Gwen stopped her before she could reach for her keyboard "There are changes going on in Ianto's body that have nothing to do with technology, it's all completely natural it's just a bit outside of his area of experience so he was a bit panicked"

Toshiko's brilliant mind digested the information for a moment, Though Sven had specifically mentioned him wanting Ianto as a mate in all of their research she and Owen hadn't even thought of Ianto's transformation as a means to procreate. They had left Ianto totally unprepared for the possibility of it and she supposed that for a man to find out one morning that the stomach pains he had yesterday were actually warning signs as part of his menstrual cycle it would be pretty terrifying.

"He's okay?"

"Fine, just a bit embarrassed about the whole thing, didn't want to tell you in case you called Owen"

"Well he is his doctor."

"Tosh. Ianto wants this kept private and you know Owen would only laugh if he found out about this"

"Fine I promise not to tell"

"Thanks Tosh" Ianto appeared out of nowhere with a tray of drinks and passed one to each of the women before heading down to given Owen his in the med bay where he was still dissecting a rather disgusting alien from last night.

At three o'clock there was a small rift spike in Newport, it looked like a piece of tech so Tosh and Owen had gone to pick it up leaving Gwen and Ianto in the HUB, Gwen was talking to them over the comms while Ianto went round feeding Myfanwy, the weevils and other aliens in the cells while it was quiet. As usual he left level three for last, it was empty save for one cell but it was the one place in the whole HUB aside from that room in the basement where he had kept Lisa that he would be happy never to see again. Today he carried the tray of soup-like food and a cup of tea into the cells he got the same reaction from the prisoner as always; Sven (at least that's who he claimed to be) pressed himself against the glass to watch Ianto walk towards him along the corridor then sat down and watched as he slid the tray of food through a hatch in the door.

"You should eat that while it's hot"

Sven cocked his head and looked at Ianto again, he looked manic, the telepath hadn't fared too well to the lack of mental activity down here when he was used to being surrounded by half the minds in Cardiff "You came yourself, usually it's the other one, with the mind full of parts and pieces, trying to figure out the tiny machines she can't see. Thinks she's so clever the tiny little bitch"

"Hey"Ianto turned to leave, not willing to stand here and have his friends insulted

"I'm sorry, it's just it's so quiet down here and I missed you" Ianto wasn't willing to believe that, whatever perverted fixation Sven had with him there couldn't be any real feeling behind it, they barely knew each other and Sven was convinced that he was in love with him.

"Do you have any idea what you've done to me, you turned me into a woman"

"That was my plan yes" Sven seemed confused, and also a little amused

"Shut up it's not fucking funny, my life has gone to hell and you won't tell be how to be me again"

"Why would you want to give up a gift like this, I gave you new life"

"No" Ianto smacked his hand against the glass wall of the cell, causing Sven to take a step back "You took my life away, I haven't seen my sister in a month, my nephew thinks I'm a science experiment gone wrong and I can't stop crying" Right on cue tears were pricking at Ianto's eyes and he turned around so that Sven wouldn't see him, damned female hormones meant that whenever he got angry he also got upset it had been even worse for the last week and this morning he had learned why.

"Ianto I..."

"No" He didn't want to listen any more and walked along the corridor back to the main HUB, he didn't stop there though and let Gwen know that he was taking the night off. She seemed worried but accepted it.

He had been home for about an hour when his doorbell rang, he answered it to find Owen stood there with his hands in his pockets looking uncomfortable

"The girls told you?"

"Yeah, sucks to be you mate" Ianto gave him a glare and walked back into the flat, Owen followed Ianto into the kitchen where he smelt the Welshman's home-made pizza and grabbed a slice

"Beer?"

"Course" They settled down on the couch with their pizza and beer and Ianto put a DVD on. Ianto was glad that Owen had come round, they hadn't spent much time together since he had been changed and Ianto thought that if he spent much more time with the girls them he would officially become one of them, last week he was horrified to find that all he had in his freezer was Hagen-Daaz and vodka so pizza and beer coupled with an Al Pachino marathon with Owen put him in a much better mood. Half way through Scarface Owen had fallen asleep on the sofa and Ianto had turned off the TV and gone to bed. When his alarm clock woke him up to a chorus of "I don't feel like dancin'" he swung his legs out of bed and for the first time in a month danced around his bedroom in his underwear, something that he used to do everyday.

"Mate it is too early for you to be singing that crap" Ianto had forgotten that Owen was on his sofa but grinned and continued singing louder than he had been doing before as he made coffee and got dressed for work, even getting Owen to join in with the last chorus. Owen was much more fun after his first coffee and they walked the half mile to work arguing about what was the best al pachino film and joking around to the extent that Owen chased Ianto across the plass as they raced each other to the invisible lift.

"I win!" Owen jumped the last five feet off the lift to be the first one into the HUB

"You're stupid and when you break your neck I'll point and laugh" Tosh came out of nowhere to smack the medic on the back of the head like a mother telling off her child.

"Well..." the medic looked at Ianto expectantly"Don't you have something you should be doing right now" Owen looked as if he might explode and Ianto just rolled his eyes and went to pay his forfeit for losing their bet.

"Hey Gwen"

"Oh hi Iant..."she was cut off when her colleague planted a kiss on her lips then turned around with arms crossed to glare at Owen.

"Happy now?" Owen couldn't respond as he was bent over laughing

"That was just wrong" Gwen had never felt less chemistry from a kiss in her life

"on so many levels, let's never do that again" Ianto offered her a smile and went to make the team coffee, except for Owen who was being demoted to decaf instant all day as punishment for his perverted brain.