Owen found Gwen lightly snoring in Ianto's chair. He hadn't been that far into the archives in years. Looking around, aside from the mess of boxes on the floor the place looked clean and organized. Ianto really did take good care of the place. The last time he ventured this far down was in his first year in Torchwood. He could recall getting lost in the damp, dusty archives that looked like nothing had been touched in years. He could remember walking into a nasty spider web and making the decision that anything that could form a spider web that big was something he did not want to encounter. He had not been down in the archives again without his archive safety kit which consisted of a torch, a pocket knife and a large can of bug spray.
"Wake up PC Cooper!" Owen yelled while slamming his palms on the desk.
Gwen leapt up from her chair startled. She was in the middle of salacious dream with her favorite captain. "Owen! You bastard! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
Owen laughed at the indignant look on his ex-lover's face. He loved getting her riled up. It was his way of getting back at her for fantasizing about another man while in his bed. He was a good lay and anyone in his bed should be focused solely on him not fantasizing about long coats and roof tops. He wasn't stupid and she was too obvious.
"Jack wants us in the conference room for a team meeting. Lucky for you we found Ianto."
"You did? Is he alright?" she said with slight disappointment in her tone, looks like she wasn't going to get to comfort her captain after all. It was wrong of her to want Ianto gone but she just couldn't help it. She had almost been killed by his cyber-girlfriend and she just knew if he wasn't in the picture, Jack would be in her bed. It was just beyond her comprehension how Jack could have forgiven his betrayal so quickly. Hiding his cyber-girlfriend in the basement had almost brought about a full scale cyber-man invasion and nearly killed them all. He should have at least left Torchwood with his tail between his legs. Jack deserved better than him.
"He's as well as can be expected considering what he's been through. Did you organize those files on the floor in any recognizable order?"
"I put them in alphabetical order, why?"
"I want to know if there is anymore information we can use on the device that affected Ianto." Bending down he sifted through the pile and picked up all the files related to the Argolin, which weren't many. He tucked the files under his arm he headed to the conference room with Gwen in toe.
When they reached the conference room the rest of the team was sitting there waiting for them. Gwen searched around for Ianto until her eyes fell on the child in Jacks arms. Walking straight up to them, she went to cuddle him. "Who's this?"
"Watch it Gwen, he bites." Owen answered her while rubbing his hand.
She almost pulled her hand back, but then thought it a perfect chance to show Jack just how great she was with kids. "Oh he can't be that bad." She said as she ruffled his hair.
Ianto hid further into Jack's arms hiding his face in the crook of his neck. He didn't feel like being coddled by Gwen. It was her fault he was now a child and as such he was going to act his age and not be civil with her or give her a minute of his time.
"Ianto doesn't like his hair being messed with; I should know, I remember this one time...ugh!" Jack rubbed his side where Ianto had hit him.
Staring at the exchange, the words began to sink in and Gwen gasped, "Oh, poor Ianto! It turned you into a baby? Is it permanent?"
"We're trying to figure out how to reverse it." Tosh answered her. Gwen took a seat at the far end while Tosh continued. "If we can get started, the database came up with a basic profile of the Argolin. They are humanoid in appearance with extraordinarily long life cycles. According to one of the files Owen pulled, they are unable to reproduce as consequence of nuclear warfare before their world was transformed into a pleasure planet."
"So the device could be a form of staying immortal then?" Owen asked at no one in particular.
"With this type of advance technology I don't think that's quite it. If they wanted to be immortal I'm sure they could have found a way. Imagine if you could never have children and you knew that your species would eventually die out. By reversing themselves into child form they could form family units while maintaining the species."
"You're a genius Tosh!" Jack praised her. "Now how do we reverse it?"
"I'm sorry but there was no information on the device."
"I found these downstairs. They're from Torchwood Two on the Argolin but I haven't had a chance to go through them yet." Owen pushed half the files over to Tosh. "There has to be something in there."
"How about physically, how did the examination go?" Tosh asked Ianto directly. She didn't want him to feel excluded. Ianto looked up from playing with one of Jack's cufflinks and smiled at her gratefully.
"I haf too many bwainwaves." He answered before yawning and cuddling back into Jack again. He didn't know what time it was but he was exhausted.
"Everything else seems normal for a toddler, but I'm concerned about his brain activity. Worst case scenario we're looking at severe headaches, seizures and loss of consciousness. However at least he will still be Ianto. If his brainwaves normalize to that of a healthy toddler then I'm afraid we may loose Ianto and be left with a toddler with no knowledge of his identity." Owen looked somberly over at Ianto who yawned once again.
"It's late. Let's all get some rest and continue early tomorrow." Picking Ianto up and heading towards his office, Jack left no room for argument as he sent them all home.
"Jack?" Gwen called out, walking after him. "If you want I can stay and help you with him."
"You've helped enough, Gwen. Go home." Jack ordered. Gwen walked away looking extremely put out and grabbed her things before heading out behind Owen.
"Tosh, could you hold on a second?" Dropping her purse back on her chair she walked over to Jack.
"Can you buy Ianto some more clothes before you come in tomorrow?"
"Sure! Do you need anything else in particular, another rugby shirt perhaps?" She teased a very sleepy Ianto, who smiled back at her.
"Yep!" He answered before reaching out to give her a hug.
Kissing him goodnight, Tosh grabbed her hand bag and left for home. She knew she probably wouldn't be getting too much sleep. Her brain was just too busy trying to think of ways to make things right.
"Just you and me left now kiddo." Jack hugged Ianto closer to himself "Time for bed." He walked over to his manhole and descended down the ladder as carefully as he could with Ianto in his arms. Setting Ianto down on his bunk, he removed his shoes and tucked him in. "Ianto, I… I'm glad you're safe." He said as he sat beside him. "Get some rest. We'll talk tomorrow."
Getting up from the bed he went and sat in the arm chair across the room. Turning off the main light and only leaving a small lamp on, he made himself comfortable for the night. He dosed off for a few hours only to wake up in the middle of the night to find Ianto asleep on his lap. Picking him up, he headed back to the bunk and fell asleep holding him close.
Jack awoke the next morning to the sound of running water. Minutes later Ianto walked out of the shower engulfed in one of his under shirts and toweling his dry his wet hair.
"Good morning." Jack sighed as he stretched.
"Good monin' I'm hungy, Jack."
"Give me a minute to get dressed and…" Jack jumped to his feet and grabbed Ianto, who had been trying to make his way up the ladder but slipped on the long shirt. "What are you doing? You're going to get hurt!"
"I wan sum coffee." He replied with big watery blue eyes.
"You can't have coffee. You're currently a toddler in case you've forgotten and how exactly we're you going to get that coffee? The counter is high and you could burn yourself."
"I can do it!" replied Ianto who rubbed dry his eyes, trying to fight away the tears. Jack had never used that tone of voice with him before. He had heard Jack angry, happy, lustful, and even annoyed but he had never heard Jack concerned or scared. He felt thoroughly guilty and chastised.
"No you can't. I'm not going to risk you getting hurt. Its bad enough you were missing all day yesterday. You didn't even bother to let us know where you were the minute you could. I thought you were dead! I thought I had lost you! I won't see you get hurt, not while I'm around, damn it!"
The concern that had to anger quickly disappeared when he heard Ianto sniffling into his shoulder.
"Oh God, Ianto I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell." He held him tightly until he suddenly felt Ianto begin to shake. Looking down he saw Ianto was in the middle of a full blown seizure.