9.

Ianto woke up and, before even thinking about opening his eyes or giving his memory a chance to catch up, he groaned. Aftershocks of pain were travelling through his body and his hand rubbed his belly soothingly.

A man muttered, "I know. I know it hurts."

Ianto opened his eyes, but his surroundings remained blurry at best. The collage of grey and beige colours, interrupted by darker shades and shapes and blinking lights told him that he had to be in the main Hub, though. He could hear the water trickling down the sculpture. The familiar sound was calming, as was the slightly lumpy shape of the couch he was lying on. The clicking of booted feet came closer and ever so slowly, Ianto's memory returned.

Danger!

He blinked several times and bent one leg, trying to sit up and only managing to raise his head to the man standing at the other end of the couch: one hand on the sword belted to his waist, the other propping his body up against the wall casually, showing off a well-toned chest underneath a red vintage military jacket over a shirt in need of a wash. He was wearing a wide grin, his blue eyes twinkling in amusement. "Hi there, Eye Candy."

Captain John Hart had been the bane of Jack's existence while they'd been partners – in every way – back when Jack had still been travelling through space and time on a regular basis for the Time Agency. Ianto had thought that, after their last encounter, John wouldn't dare show his face again. Apparently, he'd been wrong. The problem with John Hart, as Jack had once said to him, wasn't that he was necessarily up to no good. He always did what he thought was right … unfortunately, most of the time what was right for him wasn't right for others. Jack had called him a notorious liar, thief and – when necessary – killer … but had also admitted that there was a part of John that was kind and charming. Since Jack had lived with John for quite some time, Ianto really hoped so … or Jack's taste in bedpartners was seriously warped and what did that mean for Ianto himself?

He tried to sit up again, but a stab in his belly prevented him from moving too fast and John pushed him back onto the couch. "It's alright. Don't move too fast. I'm not here to harm you. Or I would have done so already." He raised his eyebrows. "Of course, not after seeing you like this. I'm always respectful towards pregnant people. Congratulations, Eye Candy."

Before Ianto could answer or react in any way, a new cramp started and Ianto tensed. John watched him for a second and grimaced, then he abruptly climbed onto the couch and straddled Ianto's lap, despite Ianto's attempt to push him off. Ianto slammed both his knees into John's back, but his position was awkward and there was hardly any force behind it. He grabbed John's hands when they reached for his belly. "What are you doing?" he asked, breathing heavily against the pain and against his fear.

"Relieving the pain," John answered. Ianto eyed him mistrustfully but he couldn't resist anymore when the first strong wave of pain hit. John untucked Ianto's shirt and pressed his hand to his belly, his fingers skirting over Ianto's skin as if looking for something, and then his knuckles pressed against Ianto's body. Harder. Hard enough to make the cramp even worse. Ianto cried out and tried to squirm away, but John's legs held him fast. "It hurts," John said with a nod, "For a moment, then it'll stop."

And the pain ebbed away suddenly. Breathing heavily, Ianto stared up at John. "What did you do?"

"Pressure points."

Ianto shifted, bending one leg. John was helping him, no doubt about it, but he wasn't to be trusted. His hand reached for his ankle holster. He masked the motion by shifting again, pulling a face. "Do you mind?"

"If I let go, the pain will start again", John answered.

Ianto reached the small gun and sank back, pretending to relax while he got a good grip on the gun."How did you know-"

"Experience." John smirked, keeping up the pressure, then his eyes widened in surprise when Ianto pressed the gun against his neck. John recovered quickly, though, and he grinned at Ianto. "My, aren't you a clever one. Where did you get that from?"

"Ankle holster."

"Kinky and undeniably sexy. If you only knew how much that turns me on."

"Actually, I can feel it," Ianto answered, glancing towards where John's crotch was pressing against his.

"You want me to let go of you?" John asked and raised his hands. The pain came back immediately and Ianto shook his head with a grunt. John pushed against the pressure points once more, his grin annoyingly smug. "You rather have my hands on you than be in pain. I think we've made progress since our last meeting."

Ianto raised his eyebrows. "Never going to happen."

"We'll see," John replied with a smirk.

A voice from behind them said, "I have no idea what kind of kinky game you two are playing and I don't want to know." Ianto was relieved when he identified the voice as Owen's, then slightly mortified at the position he and John had been found in. Owen continued, "Just tell me if we're interrupting you and we'll get ourselves a coffee."

Ianto rolled his eyes at Owen's words.

By now, John was grinning at them in delight. "Oh, the team." He let go of Ianto once again, slower this time. The cramp was over, though. No pain flooded Ianto's body. Instead he felt just slightly sore like usual when one of the cramps ended. Ianto pushed John away from him quickly and got up to join Tosh, Owen and Martha near the entrance that led to the garage. The three of them had their guns trained on John who was standing next to the couch, his hands on his hips.

"Weapons," Owen said.

"What, don't I get a silver tray this time?"

"Just drop them."

John sighed with a roll of his eyes and started to drop one weapon after another, pulling most of them out of hiding places in his clothes. While doing so, he winked at Tosh. "Nice seeing you again, gorgeous." Ianto noticed Tosh biting her lip, trying to suppress a smile. She'd been a bit smitten by John the last time he'd been here, cementing Ianto's belief that – harmless as she herself was – she definitely liked the dangerous ones. John asked, "Still no boyfriend?"

Tosh shook her head.

Owen glared at her and snapped, "Why are you even reacting?"

Tosh shrugged, focused on John.

"A shame," he said. "Legs like yours need to be worshipped. Not to mention your brea-"

"Alright," Owen interrupted. "Enough of that."

"Jealous?" John asked. "Don't worry, you're still my favourite … well, after Eye Candy and Jack of course." He looked at Martha, letting his sword fall to the floor. "And who is this sight to die for?"

Martha said, "He reminds me of Jack."

Owen replied, "He's his evil twin brother."

Ianto added, "Figuratively speaking. Captain John Hart was his partner while Jack worked for the Time Agency."

Tosh said, "We're not sure if one of them rubbed off on the other or if they've both always been that way."

John raised his hands in surrender after having dropped the last of his guns. "Oh, gorgeous, we did lots of rubbing off, believe me." He looked at Martha again. "You're not blonde, though. I told them they needed someone blonde. No offence, beautiful."

Martha took the cuffs Owen handed her and moved towards John, restraining him expertly with his hands behind his back.

Owen asked, "What do you want here?"

"Just dropping by. And what do I find? Eye Candy all pregnant and even more handsome."

"What do you want?" Owen repeated impatiently.

"I told you, I'm just visiting," John answered. "We hit it off like whoa the last time, so I thought: why not go and meet Team Excalibur again?"

Martha corrected, "Torchwood."

Owen sighed. "Don't get him started."

John shrugged. "I'm harmless. Even helped out Eye Candy."

Everyone looked at Ianto who shrugged. "He kind of did … in a creepy, sexually harassing way."

Silence settled, then Owen took a breath. "Okay, my call for now. Lock him up, Tosh. I'll call Jack."

John grinned. "You're a born leader – in case of doubt, run to daddy."

Owen frowned at him.

xxx

Jack put his head in his hand and groaned. "Are you kidding me?" he asked Owen. "Just what we need."

From the other side of the table, Gwen grinned at him. She was playing with the corner of one of the folders, bending it up and down. It was dog-eared by now. Jack wondered if it was petty to think of it as kind of a revenge for making them stay in this windowless room for hours on end.

The mobile in-between them, on the dark wood of the table, was on speaker and Owen answered, "I'm not too happy myself, as you can imagine."

"What does he want?"

"He says nothing. Just dropping by."

Tosh said,"Jack, maybe he really is just dropping by. He seemed to be honest."

"Are you mad?"

"And he helped Ianto."

"By practically shagging him?" Owen asked.

Jack frowned. "He did what?"

Tosh answered, "He said something about pushing on certain pressure points to lessen the pain the cramps are causing. Ianto said it worked just fine."

"It does," Jack replied. He knew the technique and cursed himself for not thinking of it sooner. However, it worked best skin-on-skin, which meant that John had had his hands on Ianto's naked belly. Jack pressed his lips together to suppress a growl. It wasn't jealousy that reared its ugly head, just protectiveness of his team. John touching Ianto so intimately seemed wrong. "Put him through a lie detector test. You know the device?"

Owen answered, "Yeah, we thought about that ourselves, actually. Ianto and Martha are just getting it."

"No matter what the results, John stays in that cell for the time being."

"Understood."

Before Jack could hang up, Gwen asked, "How is Ianto?"

"Fine. Tired and hungry but that's nothing new." He hesitated. "Jack, should I send him home with Martha? With John here, he's the perfect target."

Jack wanted to tell Owen to get Ianto the hell out of there because John would certainly find a way to use him against the team but he couldn't. All the years and all the lies and fights between him and John, but there were some things they just couldn't lie about. "Ianto's the last person you need to be worried about. As maniac as he is, John won't even consider hurting him because Ianto's pregnant." He looked at Gwen. "There are lines John doesn't cross."

xxx

"You did what?" Tosh asked and stared at Martha in disbelief.

"I know," Martha answered and huddled in her chair in the boardroom, stabbing her egg noddles with her chopsticks. She and Tosh had left Owen to deal with Hart and the lie detector. They'd found some left-over take-away from the day before in the fridge and had – Martha's idea – come down here where they would be undisturbed. By now, Martha was feeling bad for snapping at Jack the night before. And she had an inkling that Tosh, being Ianto's best friend, would know if Martha had really acted in Ianto's best interest (she liked to think so) or if she'd just been mad at Jack and lashed out (in which case an apology was due). "I blew up in his face and told him to stay away from Ianto, and knowing Jack, he will do just that … he's childish like that."

Tosh frowned and sat her carton on the huge conference table. "That's got nothing to do with being childish," she answered. "He's insecure. What you said to him must have stung and he probably thinks it's true – that we think he wants the baby dead." She sighed. "Even worse: that Ianto thinks he wants the baby dead."

Martha shook her head. "He'll get over it. He always does. I mean … I've seen him get over worse."

"He shrugs off deaths and pain and torture, but he won't shrug off this. He tries to hold himself to these … stunningly high standards of leadership and friendship and love, but he can't reach them of course. He's only human, has failures like everybody else. The difference is that he doesn't understand that. Living so long, he thinks he should do better. Letting someone down is the worst that he can do. You saw him after Owen got shot." Martha had. And, on second thought, she'd never seen Jack that broken before. Not even after the year that never was, after the torture the Master had put him through … Owen's death had broken him so much that he'd gone out and revived him, trapping Owen in the zombie-like state he was in now. Tosh continued, "You shouldn't have said that to him. With Jack and Ianto … it's best to leave them alone and let them sort it out themselves."

"Well, there won't be much time for that," Martha replied.

Tosh looked at her questioningly.

Martha shrugged. "I told Ianto I'd look into a job at UNIT for him."

Tosh's eyes widened. "You did what?"

xxx

Owen stared darkly at John who was leaning back against the bare concrete wall of his cell in the Hub's vaults. He was grinning at Owen through the plexiglass wall. Owen pointed accusingly at the lie detector, an advanced alien device that, at first glance, could have been just as well an optician's equipment. "See that red light. It tells me that you're lying."

John laughed. "Of course I am."

Owen sighed. "Why?"

"Because Jack's not here. And I'm bored." He grinned at Owen. "And it was fun to see you try and be the intimidating boss."

Owen folded down the top of the device carefully and then snapped shut the lid of the case that held the device. "You know what, I've got better things to with my time. You can rot in here."

John rolled his eyes. "Listen, I've really gotta talk to Jack."

"He's not here, so you'll have to talk to me."

"It's private."

Owen snorted incredulously. "Since when do you respect privacy?" John just stared back at him. Owen shook his head. "We don't know when Jack will be back."

John asked, "You can call him right?"

Owen nodded.

"So call him … tell him to get back here." He raised his eyebrows. "Tell him it's about Sophia. He'll know what I mean." The door to the vaults opened and Ianto entered, carrying a pizza box and a bottle of juice. As soon as John saw him, he grinned. "Eye Candy!"

Ianto just opened the hatch to the cell and pushed the pizza box and the juice inside.

John's grin turned even wider. "Wanna stay and chat?"

Owen snorted. "No way in hell."

Ianto answered, "Sure."

Owen's eyes widened in disbelief and he started to protest but a sharp glare from Ianto stopped him. Technically, there was no reason for Owen to object. John was safely locked up and Ianto had his comm link in case of emergencies. Nevertheless, he felt uncomfortable leaving the both of them alone. There just wasn't much he could do about that. Ianto was stubborn at the best of times and the recent days had made him tetchy because everyone kept fussing over him. So Owen nodded grimly and handed Ianto his gun. "Be careful."

With the case in hand, he left the vaults and closed the door. He couldn't help a last look back through the small window of the door. Ianto was pulling over one of the folding chairs they kept down here and sitting. With a sigh, Owen headed back upstairs and decided to keep an eye on them via the CCTV.