Chapter Six

"There's the rest of the family!" grinned Livi as she pressed a kiss to Jack's cheek.

He smirked as he allowed Anne to remove her daughter. Anne, still holding her daughter looked at Jack and grinned from ear to ear. "Thank you Jack. Oh, and Ianto was thinking about maybe taking Billie every once in awhile for a weekend back to Cardiff—"

Jack's eyes flew over to Ianto who was talking to his da' in the corner. He felt a chill down his spine, as if Ianto had been in the room when he'd been talking to Billie about the very thing. "Did he?"

"Yes, I just wanted to make sure you were okay with it before I okayed the idea. I think it would be a wonderful experience for her."

Jack grinned as he looked back at Anne. "I was actually going to make a similar suggestion, it's a wonderful idea. I told her anytime she's feeling a little neglected she could call us as well."

Anne smiled. "Thank you for caring Jack, I know it must sound like we're terrible parents—"

Jack shook his head. "Not at all, it sounds like you're a busy mother with a job and your husband is an equally busy father. I was the older sibling once, I can understand that. She knows you guys love her, I just want to welcome all my nieces and nephews into Ianto and my family now."

Anne grinned and pressed a kiss to Jack's cheek. "You're a good man, Jack Harkness."

"Okay everyone!" called Maggie as she entered the living room, carrying a tray of cinnamon rolls and cups of coffee for the adults. "Let's take a seat, remember we do this from youngest to eldest. Chris sweetheart, that means you go first."

Moments later all the presents had been passed out, each of the children had decent sized piles in front of them and most of the adults had nice piles in front of them as well. Jack was surprised to find that he even had a few. Each child took a turn opening one present, followed by the adults from youngest to oldest. Jack watched Ianto intently as he opened a gift from his mother and father.

Ianto opened the gift and smiled as he looked in surprise at two tickets to Switzerland. "You—" Ianto grinned.

"We know you loved it the first time you went at Uni, we though perhaps it would be a nice holiday for you and Jack—maybe even a honeymoon. We'd also like to pay for the rooms when you go, so just let us know when you want to go. These tickets are redeemable at any time."

"Yan?" Jack asked leaning over his lover's shoulder his eyes growing wide.

"Jack, would you like to go skiing in Switzerland for our honeymoon?"

The present was well worth it as Jack and Ianto excitedly began discussing the trip. Jack opened a present from Katie and Billie, it was a CD, holding the songs they'd sung last night as well as a few others. Jack smirked. "Thank you, I love this." He replied as he hugged both the girls.

The pattern continued until nearly all the presents had been opened, Ianto, assuming he'd finished looked over at Sean to open his present, but suddenly Jack thrust a neatly wrapped box towards him. Ianto, unsure what he got looked at Jack nervously for a moment. "Jack—you didn't have to—"

Jack shrugged. "I wasn't going to get you anything, honestly, but I saw this and—it screamed you." offered Jack.

Ianto, still nervous with his family around, began to neatly unwrap the box. When he lifted the lid from the black box he gasped, inside lay an intricate and beautifully engraved pocket watch with a chain and all. It was silver and cold. Ianto grinned, there was a little button on top to open the watch. As he clicked it open he smiled inside was an engraving. -True love stories never have endings- To my Ianto, Merry Christmas.

Ianto smiled as he leaned forward and pressed his lips to Jack, ignoring his family's catcalls behind him. "I love it." He whispered.

Jack smirked and nodded. "I'm glad."

Ianto chuckled and pulled out a similar box from his pocket. "Bought you something too."

Jack shook his head as he opened his present—again as if Ianto had read his mind, inside was a beautiful silver wrist watch, with a deep blue face and white hands. His old one was wearing out. Jack grinned as he ran his fingers over it. Ianto reached out and flipped it over. Love is a game that two can play—With love from Ianto.

"It's perfect." He whispered as he removed his old watch and slid this one onto his wrist.

o0o

The whole family had breakfast then the kids decided to challenge their parents to of a game of soccer. Jack waved off his lover, saying he didn't want to interfere with his time with the family. So Jack remained with Maggie in the kitchen and dining room.

"You can ask Jack, they'll be out there for awhile."

Jack glanced down at his watch in surprise, not realizing he'd gotten up so early. "What happened?"

She smiled. "Let me preface this by explaining that if you were too look me up somewhere you'd find all the information in place that says I'm a normal human being just like everyone else on this planet."

"I'm going to be sick." Jack mumbled suddenly.

"Don't be, I am human Jack, I'm as human as they come, my DNA is 100 human—okay well not 100, more like 80-20. Anyway, I was born in the year 6700. Which probably makes me even older than you—fifty first century, am I right?"

His eyes grew wide. "Seriously?" Very few people surprised Jack, it was safe to say that Maggie was not only one of the few who managed it once, but she'd done it twice within ten hours of the first time.

"I caught a glimpse of your wrist band last night on the desk in Ianto's old room. It's fifty first century technology."

"You traveled with the Doctor?"

She shrugged and smiled. "Yes. Does that bother you?"

"It bothers me knowing that I probably slept with the same man Ianto's mother did."

Maggie chuckled softly. "Yes, you probably did, but then I'm sure you can look past that."

"When? How!?"

"In the year 6724 I was working for a division of alien transportation, I was in a job going nowhere."

"Sounds familiar."

She nodded. "He does have his projects. He landed in my hands because he parked in an area of our planet that was private. We spent hours talking, eventually he asked me to travel with him."

"How long ago was this?"

"Ianto wasn't born yet."

"He's the Doctor's?"

"Yes."

"How is this possible?"

Maggie smiled. "You know better than anyone Jack that anything is possible with the Doctor. He was in what he called his eighth regeneration; I don't actually know what that means. But he'd just come from meeting a woman named Grace. She was wonderful from the way he spoke."

"So he ran into you and what? How did you end up in the 20th century on Earth? Pregnant?"

"Jack—if I have to explain to you how I ended up pregnant then I doubt you slept with the same man."

Jack laughed out loud, grinning; he felt a true connection with this woman as he watched her explain herself. "Sorry—continue."

She chuckled again, squeezing his hand that she'd taken to holding for a few moments. "Anyway he offered to take anywhere I wanted to go—three trips. Anywhere. So I requested three places, I wanted to go to the future and see something beautiful, I wanted to see his planet and I wanted to see the Earth in the past."

"And you did?"

"Yes, in that order in fact, I saw Gallifrey—against his better intuition, it was so beautiful. I've learned since then that I'm the only human to have ever laid eyes on it. We traveled so many places—a year together, best year of my life—or so I thought. Anyway so he took me to planet Earth, asked me if I had a specific year and I said I wanted to see the Beatles, naturally I'd heard of them but I wanted to see them. We landed in 1982 instead, that damn Tardis. Anyway we were wandering around Ireland when he suddenly he got called away. He told me he'd be back."

"He never came back?"

She shook her head. "No, he didn't. And I was pregnant."

"When did you meet Gareth?"

"Two weeks later, it wasn't love at first sight, like you and Ianto, if anything Gareth drove me crazy. He had three beautiful children who I adored. So we got married and adopted each other's children. Told everyone—Ianto was Gareth's."

"Livi?"

"Look at all of them Jack—do any of them look a thing like me?"

He chuckled. "Ianto looks just like you."

She nodded. "Yes, but he's got his father's eyes—stunning blue eyes unlike anything I've ever seen."

"You haven't seen him since?"

"No."

"There are some things you should probably know as well."

"Do tell Jack Harkness."

Over the course of next hour Jack told her everything, told her about his immortality, told her about his time with the Doctor, about Rose, everything he could think of she'd need to know, and finally she told her about Ianto being immortal.

"He may have already been immortal Jack; his father was a Time Lord."

"I think the Doctor needs to know this?"

She smiled and shook her head. "Why, so poor Ianto's life can be flipped upside down? He loves his life, loves his nieces and nephews."

Jack nodded. "I can carry children—"

"I wondered. Ianto said you'd lost someone named Michael, there's no Michael at Torchwood Three. And he'd never spoken about Michael before."

"He was our son—I had a miscarriage—I can't believe I'm actually having this conversation with you—I can't believe you're from 6700."

She laughed softly. "It's all true."

"Maggie, if we have kids we could very well be breeding the next generation of Time Lords."

"Possibly, or you could have normal children."

Jack sighed. "He deserves to know, don't you think?"

Maggie shrugged. "Maybe one day Jack, but not yet. Let him just enjoying being a boy. He's barely thirty."

"Mother's can't protect their young forever."

She chuckled softly. "Perhaps not, but then I'm willing to bet your mother would have protected you until the end."

He felt a pang of sadness in his heart. "She did, so did my dad."

Maggie gripped his hand again. "Life doesn't always have to hurt sweetheart. You can be happy again."

Jack grinned at the woman. "Thanks to your family."

"If there's one thing I've learned from the Doctor, it's that nothing is ever an accident. Come on then, would you like to help an old space traveler make lunch?"

"I'd love to."