4
Jack was wiping his hands on a cloth, Kara bouncing energetically off the walls with glee, it had apparently been everything she had hoped it would be.
"So. He tried for a while but is apparently not 51st Century. Didn't hold up against my third level interrogations" Jack said smugly as he settled in a chair "He did admit to having a standing order to snatch and grab the offspring. The Immortal's Child."
"Me!" Kara enthused happily, "apparently they have orders to snatch the child of the immortals!"
Ianto stared at her silently, as he processed, then frowned
"So… their aim was off? I mean if they wanted her they only had to wait until the afternoon when she always comes to the Café for a mocha. I keep telling her its bad form to get a ….daily…plan" Willem said with a grimace as she scowled at him, "Ianto said so too, right?"
Jack was turning to Kara, "H's right ya know."
"Tad runs the same way every morning, you don't tell him off." She frowned.
"Yes but four Weres run with him love" Jack sighed.
"And he parks in the same spot when he calls into town, he walks the same way to the hall" she continued, now defensive "How do we know they were not grabbing him to use as leverage against me or something! Maybe they know I have a Were with me too!"
Ianto was sitting silently thinking.
Seething.
"You know the entire town would let us tear it apart if he went missing, besides. They want the offspring, of course it's you. That bloody blood test told them something, Mainframe didn't manage to cleanse it all or something" Jack was annoyed as he saw Ianto getting upset, "Don't use your Tad to deflect the fact you are in danger. I do not want you unaccompanied by Were until we have a full sweep finished"
Ianto seemed to agree, rising and turning to follow then he hesitated and motioned for Willem to come closer, "I want your brother for something."
Willem nodded, not surprised by anything asked of him anymore and he headed off to find his older and scarier brother. Ianto walked the room with growing apprehension and then he turned as Gino entered the room and seemed to fill it with anger.
Ianto told him what he wanted and the man nodded silently, not one for words.
.
.
.
.
Jack had considered as he sat on his favourite sofa at home and then turned to their daughter "Sweetheart. You are OK, right? They didn't inject anything?"
"Dad, you swept me with your VM and everything remember" she soothed, his concern sweet. "It's OK. I don't know why they thought they could just grab me. I mean … using Tad as bait? They know you are both immortal right? It makes no sense."
"I don't think they were thinking much at all" Jack decided, "They wanted to lure you out, to make you…hello Tiger"
Ianto had entered and was placing down shopping bags, Gino slipping in behind with bags as well and Willem looked at his brother with surprise, Gino both anti-social in general and definitely anti-human. "Gino?"
"Will"
"I am going to take a swim to the middle island and back" Ianto said as he stated to head for the patio, pulling off his t-shirt as he went and Gino walked out to settle on a lounger and watch, not liking water.
Willem followed him out and looked down, "I don't understand. What are you doing here?"
"He asked"
Willem blinked slowly, looking at his brother, then he turned to watch Ianto slicing through the water and he blinked again.
"Him."
"Yes."
Willem sighed as he started to get the wider picture, turning as Kara's hand slid around his waist and she tucked herself under his arm, "what are you two talking about?"
"Your Tad. They wanted to take him. We think they might try again. Maybe it's not your Dad's DNA in you they are after. You said yourself, your Tad has something old and dangerous in him" Willem said softly, "Maybe…maybe he set off alarms. Maybe your DNA connected to something else, someone other than yourself that they wanted."
She looked over at her Tad who had reached the island and now stood on it staring out into the bay beyond their patch. He looked like a wild animal scenting the air and she felt a shiver down her spine.
"I led them to him? Not Dad?"
"He thinks so" Gino finally admitted, "He thinks they are after something he carries, something you are connected to, something that is a danger to them. Power comes in many forms."
"Well Dad does say Tad had a certain way about him that is predatory. It's what first attracted him. Tad has an ability to…disappear. Then suddenly be right there in front of you like magic."
"He is important to us. Maybe he is the only thing that your Father might bow for" Willem said as Gino looked over at his mark once more, "I mean. He is his everything."
"Don't be a fool" Gino suddenly said as he rose to fetch a towel for the returning Welshman, "It is their offspring that they will die to protect. A thousand times over, they will die and snarl back into the fight."
Kara nodded as Willem watched his brother stalk over to the pier.
He was starting to get the feeling his brother knew more than he was saying.