I know it's been a while since the last update, but I do hope that this chapter was worth the wait.

Disclaimer: Not mine if you know it's not. I also took a lot of inspiration for how Hayden deals with Tom in his head from the story Psychosis which is an excellent fic and I recommend highly. However, my version of the horcrux is a bit more aware and less violent, most of the time.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 7

The brain scans revealed absolutely nothing and Jack was near screaming in frustration, but the hospital staff wouldn't let them leave until Hayden was set up for an appointment with a psychologist.

The psychologist talked to Hayden for half an hour before she would even let Jack and Ianto into the room and when she did, it's wasn't to deliver good news.

"When did you adopt Hayden?"

"A few months ago," Jack answered. Ianto had provided all the necessary paperwork earlier to prevent problems.

She nodded. Have you seen him talking to himself before? Maybe even harming himself?"

Ianto looked terrified as he thought back to the incident of the scar. Jack shook his head and Ianto grabbed his sleeve, giving him a look. "I'm not sure, Doctor, but there was an incident a while back—we don't know what happened, but it was an odd injury. A—a cut."

She frowned and nodded slowly. "Your son is healthy. His self-esteem is only a bit below average and his thinking skills and knowledge levels are off the charts. He seems nervous though, as though he simply doesn't know how to interact with other people. He may just be shy, but with a violent incident involving what we can only assume to be some kind of hallucination, and a mysterious injury on top of that, it's clear that other things are at play here. Is he home-schooled?"

"Yes," Jack said.

She nodded again. "It would be beneficial to find a way for him to be around other children. Maybe you could find some sort of play group or have him join a children's sports team. We'll start with therapy before we start him on any medications—we don't want to mistreat due to a lack of information—and we'll see where it goes from there."

She gave them what was undoubtedly supposed to be a sympathetic look as she pointed them towards the secretary and made sure it was very clear that they were to watch him carefully-no leaving him alone for extended periods of time. Like they even could.

ooo

Ianto was leaning up against the doorframe, arms folded and ankles crossed as he sadly observed his son. Jack came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder, but he didn't turn around—just reached up to put his hand on top of his partner's.

Hayden was sitting in a corner with a book, reading mostly, but occasionally, he would mutter under his breath. "Shut up!" and "No, no that's not true!" were frequent occurences and his Tad and Dad only wished they could do something to make it stop. No child deserved to be at war with themselves like that and he'd been through so much already that it simply wasn't fair.

The night before, Hayden had cried himself to sleep because 'Tom' had told him he was an unnatural freak again and called him half-blood filth. Hayden didn't even know what that stuff meant and neither did the two torchwood agents, but that didn't stop it from hurting.

ooo

The new medication seemed to be working and Hayden was actually smiling widely and giggling as he played with the group of kids from his dance class. They'd started out by putting him into a football league, but Hayden had hated it and had actually timidly asked if he could learn to dance. Jack had been delighted. Ianto had been shocked that there were actually three other boys in the group, but it had been in a good way. No matter how they ended up here though, Hayden loved dancing and had actually admitted that when he was focusing on music and dance steps, it was easier to tune out what Tom was saying.

So, Ianto smiled as he watched the seven and eight year olds running around the room chasing after eachother. Getting home could wait. Having fun was a rare occurence that should certainly not be ended before necessary.

ooo

Jack held Hayden's left hand and Ianto held his right. Hayden was nine now and it was one of the rare days when there had been absolutely no appearance made by Tom—not even the medication suppressed mumbles in the back of Hayden's mind.

Christmas trees and other decorations were everywhere and slush covered the sidewalks, making it the absolute perfect time to teach Hayden how to ice skate. After nearly two years of dance classes it shouldn't be too hard for im to learn and they were hoping that he'd enjoy himself.

Hayden sliped and started to fall backwards, but Jack pulled him back up before he could hit the ice and helped him to keep going, a grin on the captain's face. A few minutes later, Hayden was ready to try it on his own and his parents released his hands to grasp eachothers, skating leisurely behind him as he struggled to remember the correct way to move his feet. Eventually, he figured it out and took off at a much faster pace, only falling down twice before they had to head home that night. Two months later, the young dancer could skate backwards and jump into the air on the ice. It seemed he was a natural at anything involving graceful movement.

Nothing could be easy though, and a sport with blades wasn't the safest one Hayden could have chosen. It was June when he finally lost control on the ice and slashed violently into his right leg with his own left foot, leaving blood all around him on the rink and scaring some of the people around him half to death.

For his birthday that year, he got to go back out onto the ice again, whether the doctors thought it was a good idea or not. Jack refused to take away something that made his son happy and Ianto agreed wholeheartedly.

ooo

It was October when the eating problems started.

The small family was in their once-a-fortnight meeting with Hayden's phychologist.

The woman frowned, her dark skin creasing slightly between her eyebrows. "Hayden, can you tell me how much you ate yesterday?"

Hayden shook his head.

"Why not?"

"I can't remember," Hayden mumbled in Armenian.

Jack frowned at that. He knew that Hayden didn't really like seeing Mrs. Henley, but normally he was much more cooperative. Then again, he was normally much more cooperative when it came to eating meals as well. "Hayden?" When he got no response, he reached out to gently take Hayden's face in his hand and force his son to look at him.

Mrs. Henley looked on curiously as Jack spoke to his son in his native language, hoping that continuing in the language Hayden had chosen would help him to be more comfortable talking. "Hayden, Kiddo, you can't remember? Is there anything else you don't remember from yesterday?"

A sudden thought hit him and he looked up, shooting a panicked question to Ianto in Welsh. "We don't have any stores of retcon in the flat, do we?"

Ianto hook his head and Jack relaxed slightly, looking back down at Hayden, who was shakign his hed slowly. "There's big blank spots."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Mrs. Henley looked to Ianto and quietly asked, "do you speak the language they're using right now?"

"A little bit, but not enough to be considered fluent."

"What is it?"

"An obscure language used in a remote part of Africa. Jack had an odd childhood and it's what he grew up using. Now it's like a secret code between them."

The psychologist nodded and took a note down. "We've talked before about how Hayden has a knack for languages; how many does he speak fluently?"

Ianto smiled as he thought of his son's massive accomplishment. "Eight. He's got a solid grip on reading and writing in Greek and Latin too, and he's been working on translating some ancient languages."

She looked shocked, but didn't say anything—just went back to waiting for Jack and Hayden to conclude their conversation. Jack looked up at Ianto and the doctor worriedly. "He says he's got huge blanks in his memory for all this week."

Mrs. Henley looked really concerned now, as did Ianto.

"Why didn't he-"

"He didn't want to worry us. And he was scared."

Hayden folded his arms and leaned back into the couch, looking offended that they were talking about him like he wasn't there.

ooo

The meeting concluded with the second medication change in as many months and Hayden was himself again for a day, but then he stopped eating again. He could remember it all, but he said he felt like he was choking every time he tried to eat and he never felt hungry.

The phychologist asked all the standard questions about his body-image and whether he thought of himself as fat, but it all came to nothing and just a month later, the poor child ended up hospitalized with a feeding tube.

Ianto and Jack had never felt worse than when they saw their child strapped down to a bed, choking and crying as that tube was inserted through his nose, and the fact that the tears were quiet and Hayden was being so incredibly brave about everything only made it more heartbreaking. So, when Hayden fell asleep and Jack wrapped his arms around Ianto's waist, the welshman leaned into the touch gratefully.

"I had no idea parenting would be so difficult."

Jack kissed him before answering. "It's always difficult, but Hayden's not a normal kid. Maybe we could try that someday though. Having another kid."

"Maybe."

ooo

A few months later, Hayden was eating normally again and the medication was working beautifully. Hayden was back in dance and figure-skating classes and was eating normally. He hadn't had an incident in over a week and was a generally happy kid.

Hayden turned eleven with a small party to celebrate and cake to eat and presents to open and a wonderful, peaceful day. He was able to be a normal kid with a normal life and normal friends and a normal, wonderful family, and he loved it.

Please review!

Thanks for reading!

-MP