11
They were hiking.
The pathway was easy, it had been dug out some time ago and now soft mosses grew on it and a touch of wild lavender grass here and there, making it all smell great underfoot. There were some cute little wild flowers sprung along the edges and Jack did wonder if someone had seeded them but then also saw a man walking ahead of them with robes on, the old traditional type of ones that seemed to sweep the ground, brushing against the grass like it was cleaning his hems.
Jack was about to point this out to Ianto when Mica called out to them from up ahead, Ianto quickening his pace with those long legs powering past the wizard ahead of them who started with surprise, not even aware of them behind him, such was his admiration of the world around him.
They came to a briar patch and Jack slowed with horror, images of his poor little girl all cut up by those vicious thorns but Ianto kept going, simply… disappearing. Huh? Jack stood there in total confusion.
"Optical illusion dear boy" the old wizard purred as he stopped to help "Step to the left, you will see the gap."
Jack did…. And did. "Shit, that's clever. Thanks."
"Sometimes the oldest tricks are the best… not all magick is real darling boy" the man smiled, then resumed his communing with nature.
Jack entered the area to find a garden that was as if stepping through a portal into another world. The high briar patch sheltered it like fortress walls from the wind and the sun beat down on the flowers that were so generously placed that it was like a patchwork quilt of gorgeousness.
"Look daddy… the caterpillars have little hairy tufts on them like pig tails!" Alice said as she thrust her hand at him and a huge caterpillar as big as her hand wriggled happily.
"Ew" Jack said automatically "Get it away from me. Ew. Gross. Tickly bum things."
"Daddy, they do not go up your bum" Alice scolded as she turned her back to him and he blinked with shock as Ianto started to roar with mirth, bending to grab his knees as he let out those loud bellows Jack loved to hear.
"well… rude" Jack finally managed to giggle out as he sat on a large stump that had a soft curve to it like many bums had been here already helping to hone it to the seat it had become. A butterfly slowly ambled past and Jack's gaze was drawn to it. The wings were translucent and they sort of changed colour with each wing beat. Jack had never seen anything like it, so pretty.
"An enchanted garden" Alice said to Mica happily "It's perfect really."
"They say the Mara come here sometimes and they leave gifts for the children" Mica replied and Jack caught it.
"Mara?"
"The fairy folk" Ianto muttered as he knelt to pluck a little flower and then rose to place it in his button hole "They created this. For the kids. They are kind, loving souls who dearly love children. Unfortunately this also makes them dangerous little bastards Cruel too."
"How?"
"They have been known to take a child here and there"
Jack balked with confusion "Huh?"
"If a child is abused, sad lost and alone… sometimes they will intervene and take the child away." Ianto said softly.
"Where?"
"Nowhere"
Jack was confused as hell now and he watched Ianto as he walked over to show the girls how to make some flower crowns.
"How can you be nowhere?" Jack muttered to himself, then he looked around the garden and knew Ianto was telling the truth. Not nowhere. A different 'where' and Jack had long since believed in multiple universes all layered on top of one another, sometimes something would slip through a crack or tear.
Now he knew where this notion had come from. His Grandy telling him about tears in time and something he called the Rift. A Rift is a ribbon of energy that can touch several verses and sort of bleed along it like slipping in the snakes and ladders game.
"My Grandy knew your Estelle right?" Jack called out.
"Yes. He liked it here too" came the faint reply and Jack nodded. So his grandfather was here. Maybe even sat on this same stump.
Comforting.
Time is a strange creature.
.
.
"And I wanted one but Daddy got the heebie-jeebies thinking of it loose in his bed. He has this weird thing about ticking things and his bum!" Alice was telling the other kids at the dinner table and Jack gaped, unable to defend himself over Ianto's laughter.
"Wibble Wobbles" an old man said, his long beard tied up in a knot under his chin "that's what we called those buggers as kids. They make the big butterflies with the rainbow wings."
The kids all made a noise of delight as he told them of one time he dropped on in his sister's dress, the giggling intense as he said his mother tired to help get it out and somehow it wound up down her frontage, her boobs big and the poor thing almost squished. For a moment or two he was another child giggling at the thought of it as he spluttered out "Mind you, the warmth must have been lovely on such a chilly day."
More laughter as everyone agreed his dear mother did have large warm boobs.
Jack watched everyone laugh, talk and entertain each other. No anger, no negativity. Clearly they were all family in one way or another.
It felt like coming home.
Did it feel like this for his grandfather?
.
.
Both girls were sitting by the fire, their hair gleaming from their baths and so gently yet thoroughly brushed out o dry. Ianto was holding a dried flower that had fallen from one of the children's books.
"And so the rain came and the spider hid under the shelter of the pretty flower" Ianto was telling a story of a spider in a flower, Jack entranced as Ianto held up the pressed bell and then before them, in the firelight as Ianto's fingers pinched the stem and rubbed it on the end of Mica's still dripping hair, the flower seemed to slowly fill.
They all watched as it filled like a balloon, each petal popping back into fullness and then the colour bursting more until a bright purple flower was presented to her.
"Oh… do me!" Alice squealed and Ianto laughed, reaching back to the book of pressed flowers to choose a bright daffodil.
"Right. The Mouse and his Trumpet" Ianto said, his face as loving and full of joy as the children while he did the same thing for his other child.
Jack sat watching the magick with wonderment.
Just when you think he can't be any more endearing… look at that.