Yay! Chapter two is here!

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 2

Jack climbed into the driver's seat and turned the key in the ignition. He turned around to look into the back seat and his eyes locked with Ianto's. A silent wave of understanding passed between them. Everything would be okay if they got back to the hub. They had to get home and figure this out. Jack turned on the headlights and switched on the heat before pulling out into the street. After a few minutes of silent driving, "Has he spoken at all?"

Ianto shook his head in the rear-view mirror. "No."

"I should have gotten his name from the…people."

"No, it's fine, Sir. I'm sure we'll be able to find it when we get back to the Hub. I think he's falling asleep now."

"Good. He deserves to sleep, after what he's been through."

After about an hour of driving in relative silence, Jack pulled into a petrol station to refuel and Ianto got out to get them some coffee. It was vile-tasting, but it was loaded with caffeine, so Jack sipped it gratefully.

"Jack," Ianto said from the back seat where he was checking on the child.

"Huh?"

"I think he's wet the bed, so to speak."

Jack sighed. "What do we need to clean it up? I can see what they have in the store."

"Get some towels and some disinfectant. And some clothes for him if you can." Jack nodded and headed towards the small store. When he returned, they worked together to get the mess cleaned up. The boy was dead asleep and only stirred a little when they stripped him of his dirty clothes and cleaned him off to dress him in a large sweatshirt and a pair of boxers.

"Not much selection," Jack explained. Finally, Ianto wrapped the child up in Jack's big coat and climbed into the back seat next to him. Jack got back into the driver's seat and they started off again. Jack played some old music for a while before flipping through radio channels for a while longer. That was followed by silence as there wasn't really anything to talk about. It was after nine and traffic was thinning by the time they pulled the car into the parking complex and Jack helped Ianto pull the sleeping child out of the back seat.

Jack grabbed the bag of stuff and the rift monitor out of the back and walked with Ianto to the doors that led to the Hub. Quietly, they traveled the stairs and hallways to get to the main floor of the Hub. They were met by an outburst of noise.

Gwen burst out with a "Why am I here, Jack?", Owen let out a "Bloody hell, Tea-boy!" and Toshiko got in an "Are you alright?" Ianto ignored them all, hugging the boy to his chest as he descended into the medical bay. Jack gave them all a glare and a whispered "You all had better not have woken him up!"

He motioned Owen towards the medical bay, indicating that he had work to do, and motioned the two women over to the main floor area. "Toshiko, I need you to find out everything you can about this child: name, age, family, why he was there, and why the hell no one picked up on the signs of abuse. The address was 4 Privet Dr., Little Whinging, Surrey." Tosh nodded and turned to her computer screens and Jack looked at Gwen. "I need you to take what Tosh finds out and use it to get custody away from those bastards. We'll deal with finding him a new home later." He then turned on his heel and went straight to the medical bay, where could already be heard the not-so-muffled expletives coming from one royally pissed off Owen Harper.

"You just don't bloody well do this to a child!" he complained loudly. He looked up when he saw Jack. "The kid have a name?"

"Not yet."

"Bloody hell, Jack! What happened?"

So Jack told the story—the shortened form—of how they'd come across the young boy.

"Do a full set of medical scans and patch him up as best as you can. I'm going to go through the other stuff and make sure it wasn't any of that that we were detecting. Ianto, could you get us some coffee?" He looked pleadingly at his lover, who responded with mercy and nodded before getting up and walking towards the kitchenette.

Jack stared sadly at the little boy for a moment before turning and hauling the bag of stuff up to his office.

Jack descended the stairs sullenly, empty coffee mug left forgotten on his desk, and joined the gathering in the med-bay. He gave them all a questioning look. Owen gave his report first. "He's got massive bruising basically everywhere. This kid was used as a punching bag. He's malnourished and exhausted. He's got a good selection of breaks and fractures that have never been properly set and he's got piss-poor eyesight. He's lucky not to have any internal bleeding. He'll live, but I'll have to re-break some of those bones to set them properly and that'll be painful and potentially traumatizing for someone that young."

"How young, exactly?"

"I'd estimate five or six."

"Tosh?"

Toshiko sighed. There's nothing, Jack. Number 4, Privet drive is owned by Vernon Dursley, his wife Petunia, and their son Dudley. There's no record of them having any other children in the house. The kid has never been to see a doctor and isn't registered with any local schools."

"Do the Dursleys have any relatives?"

"They each have a sister. Marge Dursley never married or had any children and breeds pit bulls. Lily Evans, Petunia's sister, dropped off the records at age eleven. At ten, she goes to school a year below her sister. At eleven, she no longer exists on any records. There's no death notice, but her name isn't on anything."

Jack thought for a moment before moving on. "Gwen?"

"The Dursleys don't have custody of anyone except for their own son, so there's no way to take custody away from them."

Jack nodded slowly and looked down at his feet as he leaned against the railing. "Right. Gwen, go out and get the kid some clothes and a teddy bear or something. He doesn't have a thing to his name. Tosh, can you get some food please?" The girls went off to their assigned tasks and Jack jumped down the stairs to stand next to Ianto. He snaked an arm around the younger man's waist and pulled him close. "Owen, is there any way to get a more precise age?"

"Yeah, I can try, but I still have a full other battery of tests to do and I've got to set those breaks."

"Right. Get on that." Owen turned back to the computer screen he'd been working on and went to work on whatever he'd been doing. "What're we going to call him?"

"What do you mean, Sir?"

"I mean, he doesn't exist. He doesn't have a name, so what are we going to call him?"

"I don't know. How about Hayden?"

"Yeah, I like that. And how about Ifan?"

"Hayden Ifan. It has a nice ring. What are we going to finish it off with then?"

"I want to talk to you about that. Ianto, he hasn't got a home. He hasn't got a family or friends that we know of. He doesn't exist. We can't put a child who doesn't exist into the child welfare system." Jack took a deep breath. "I think we ought to adopt him. Or just me. I don't mind. It's just, well, he got on so well with you. Well, a lot better than with me at any rate." Owen politely pretended to be deaf while continuing to work and Ianto turned to look into Jack's eyes.

"Really? You want to adopt him?" Jack nodded. Ianto nodded with him. "Okay. We should wait for him to wake up first, though. Maybe we can get him to talk and we can find out what he wants."

Jack cupped Ianto's face in his hands and kissed his lover with everything he had. When they broke apart, Jack held the younger man tightly and breathed in the scent of his hair and clothes. "Thank you," he whispered. Ianto hugged his boss tighter.

After a few moments of this, Ianto pulled away, straightening his suit.

Jack ran a hand through his hair and looked over at the doctor. So, is there anything we can do to help?"

"You can get out," Owen answered. The doctor set up an IV and inserted it into Hayden's arm and Ianto followed Jack up to his office.

Any idea why he's been dripping rift energy?" Ianto asked.

"Not a clue."

They slumped down into the couch and wrapped their arms around each other.

"This was supposed to be our chance for a quick, pointless job and a nice, long make-out session," Jack admitted.

"Yes, I did get that impression, Sir."

Jack chuckled ruefully. "And just look how that turned out."

Tosh got back with two pizzas, two bottles of soda, and some fruit she'd stopped at the grocery store for. Leaving all this on the conference room table, she hurried down to the med-bay. "How is he?" she asked Owen.

"Bad."

She bit her bottom lip. "Can you fix most of it?"

"Given time and a hell of a lot of pain, yeah. Most of it."

Tosh looked down at her feet sadly. "It's so terrible. No one should have to go through that."

Owen silently agreed with her but only said, "Well that's life."

"There's pizza in the conference room."

"Thanks Tosh."

She nodded and stood up to go back to her desk.

Gwen didn't want to be out buying clothes and toys at this time of night. She wanted to be at home with Rhys, but she knew it was important and understood why she was the one doing it. She wasn't cut apart from the rest of the world like the others. Ianto could have gotten the things, but he obviously wanted to stay with the child and that was a good thing. Owen was busy and wouldn't have a clue anyway, Tosh would be completely lost, and Jack was hopeless and working on something else. So, as she was putting socks and t-shirts and briefs into the cart and looking at stuffed animals, Gwen was also talking on the phone to Rhys.

At the end of her trip, she brought back three full outfits that, if she estimated sizing correctly, should fit him well enough, and a soft, brown teddy bear and a floppy, stuffed lion. She would have preferred a dog or something, but the lion was undeniably the cutest of the lot at the store.

When Owen came up from the med-bay to join the team in the conference room, he found about half of the food had been eaten already. "Nice lion," he commented, indicating the stuffed animal sitting in an unused chair. Gwen gave him a small smile and took another sip from her cup.

"How is he?" asked Ianto.

"He'll make it, Tea-boy. He'll be in a world of pain for a while, but I've got about half of the problem bones reset. Once those heal, I can do the rest. I've got him on some pain meds and some vitamins and minerals, but he's off the anesthesia and he should eat some real food as soon as he wakes up." Ianto nodded sullenly and took a bite of apple. Owen reached for some pizza.

When he'd finished his first slice and was reaching for a second, Jack asked him, "How will we know when he wakes up?"

"It'll be at least another half hour. Probably longer. I've got him on a monitor, though, so it should alert me." Owen finished off his second slice of pizza and, reaching for a third, stood up. He snagged it and said, "I'm going home. A loud beeping should let you know when he's up. Get him to eat something and don't let him move. If you need me, call, but it'd better be important."

Gwen and Tosh then announced that they were going home as well.

Ianto put the food away in the fridge and started brewing another batch of coffee.

"Ian, you're my hero," Jack moaned as he caught the scent.

Ianto dozed off leaning against Jack as they waited for Hayden to wake. It was three forty-five when the loud beeping jolted him awake. The beeping stopped quickly, which they were all thankful for since they didn't know how to turn it off. Hayden started to panic. He screamed and sat up quickly, trying to pull out the IV. Both men immediately jumped up from their seat on the stairs and rushed to stop him. Ianto immediately wrapped the child in a protective hug and Jack grabbed his hand.

A burning sensation passed over Jack's skin and Ianto yelped and pulled away a bit. Suddenly, Hayden slumped over, unconscious again. Ianto gently lowered the boy back onto the bed. "Jack, what just happened?"

"Not a clue. I'm going to go get him a banana for when he wakes up again." Ianto nodded and collapsed on Owen's stool.

Jack hopped up the stairs and was moving away when he turned back in response to Ianto's shout. "Sir!"

Hayden was surrounded by a bright golden energy. He thrust his hand into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and called Owen.

"What?"

"Owen, get down here. Now."

Let me know what you think, guys. I will try to update soon, but I have to write an English essay and finish a History assignment before I can write any more of this. I really love feedback!

Thanks for reading!

-MP