22
Ianto was up with the birds, Jack yawning as he stretched and looked over at his bed mate. The little wet nose snuffled into his neck as he snorted softly, "good morning Sydney me old bud."
Jack wandered out and froze, staring at Willem and Gino who were both watching something from the French doors as they ate cereal from a cox. "Boys?"
"Hi Jack" came the unison response.
"Whatcha doing?"
"Ianto is being weird" Willem said as Gino nodded.
"He has a backpack with him and he's putting something in the other side of the river. Like … he called it… what did he call it little one?" Gino asked.
"Stop calling me that!" Willem snapped, "He called it a polarity sensor tower."
"Polarity…. Hang on. Steel like… this big?" Jack motioned with his hands and again both heads nodded, then Willem pointed.
"Here he comes."
Ianto came up the ladder at the side of the boathouse and clambered up to the deck, his bump not hindering him as he grinned at Jack and accepted the towel Gino was offering "Wow, that water was chilly. Good for the pores they say, right?"
"Whatcha doing?"
Ianto grinned wide as he knew Jack had twigged and he pointed to five more small towers that looked like Bunsen Burner tripods with weird tat stuck on top "These are for in town, I planted the others in the woods last night and this morning. Then we fire her up and see if Tosh was right."
"When was she ever wrong?" Jack agreed as he picked up the notebook seeing the little scribbles and extra notes in Ianto's purple pen. It matched Tosh's pink and he knew other books already had some of these as the two had worked on projects together.
"Well there was that time she blew Owen's eyebrows off" Ianto pointed out.
"Yes but I am still convinced that was strategic on her part, after all he did let her blow on them for a while to ease the tingling" Jack laughed.
"It might not even work" Ianto sighed, "I dismantled it as carefully as I could but we are talking … what …..25 years ago? Yeah?"
"Ianto, I know you remember every command and reboot step too" Jack soothed, "Come on. Get dressed and we will post those while it's early and no one notices us then if it doesn't work no one is any the wiser. Including whoever else is watching."
They puttered into town and the SUV purred happily as Ianto sat in the safest vehicle in the fleet. They soon had the towers in place bar the last one, Ianto wanted that on the roof of the hall. They entered to find a tai chi class starting and the women all squealed with delight as Ianto walked in with his too tight clothes on. Bugger. He really thought they were starting in an hour.
He accepted touches with good grace as Jack slipped to the roof and back, totally unnoticed as the only thing that existed in the entire universe was the pregnant man who seemed to glow.
"Come on, sit down" Daisy demanded and Ianto waved a hand.
"Tell you what, I'll take class then" he said happily, "I will show you young ones that when you are whales like me you can still look after yourself, after all the baby comes out and you have a baby belly then. Keeping fit helps you pull back."
Jack settled to watch Ianto bend and dip, sway and stretch especially enjoying the riding up to let Kai peek out as the women all watched with unreserved delight. He finished the entire routine with only a soft pant to show the weight was telling, then he clapped his hands, "Right then. This is probably it until the little bugglet is here. Kara will make up for it I am sure with the new Jeep. Gods, that girl is as impossible as her Dad."
Some soft laughter as Ianto glowed happily at Jack who rose for a kiss then Jack turned to the assembled women, "And when he is born there will be an announcement, I know you are all waiting with baited breath. A day or so for Ianto to bond and rest then we will allow some visitors, just one or two at a time so I will leave to you all to sort your rosters for that, I don't want any guns involved in the negotiations!"
Laughter as they all gushed and Ianto smiled, "And if anyone missed it, we are having a boy but he will wear any colour, I am not restricting him to just male dominant colours so if he starts sporting a bright pink hat you know he likes it. Simple as."
Jack nodded as he added, "In my culture pink is as male as blue is. There is no classification for sexual preference. Kara is such a lady but she can spit like the devil!"
"Ladies" Ianto bowed, "I am retiring to my boudoir."
They laughed and waved as they drove off, Willem in the back checking the tablet as Mainframe worked her numbers to see if the towers were all up and functioning.
Ianto didn't bother checking.
He was confident.
Tosh was never wrong.
Neither was he.