31
Ianto stood with little Kai strapped on his chest like a little blobby tic thing, the tiny feet with teddy bear booties looking glaringly out of place against the plain ninja style clothing he was wearing while he walked slowly around the corpse.
Gone were the heebie-jeebies he had felt while pregnant, gone was the need to hurl as he looked dispassionately at the mess left by his daughter and her wonderful mate he loved wholeheartedly and would proudly call his son…sorry. Maybe a few hormones were wafting about.
"Anything?" he asked as Jack fiddled with the VM and Jack rose to show it to him.
"Not used in a couple of days, clearly outside the bubble so he's only been here since Saturday, right?" Jack frowned, "There must be a breach."
Ianto turned to watch Kev walk from the water his skin shimmering as he approached still in partly reptilian form and Ianto stepped forward to greet him as those strange green eyes with slits like a cat slid to look at the baby.
"Well?"
"You were right"
Willem stopped rubbing his chest where it still smarted from the pulse blast and canted his head to listen.
"Where was the breach?"
"We searched deep, along the floor of the bed and found a vehicle down there. Strange as it was fresh, like it had appeared there, not been washed there over time." Kev motioned out at the water, "The bubble had closed over it, around each side and it was like a tunnel between the two worlds."
"Shit" Ianto huffed, "anymore?"
"My children are still searching but this is all we have found, likely all we will find. My son has been to speak with the bigs, an entire sweep of the upper levels will be sought so if they had the same idea up there it will be discovered and stopped." Kev nodded.
"Well done, good thinking" Ianto praised as a scaled hand reached out to fold back the blanket inside the front pack and he crooned at the baby who was asleep. "So, you moved it?"
"No" Kev said happily, "We filled it with electric eels instead."
Ianto blinked and then started to laugh, "Evil."
"Yes, they will be asleep and docile until the door opens and then they will react to any intruders. I have hope those try to jump as you call it, imagine them arriving wet and covered in angry killer eels of doom" Kev sniggered, "Those trying to help them will get a sharp shot as well."
"They will likely kill the eels though" Ianto warned.
"Of no consequence, stupid thing are not mine. Their minds are primitive" he shrugged, "Those still here will travel though to outside the bubble and we will be rid of them one way or another. One of my children will watch and wait, then tell us so we can move the vehicle just inside the bubble, watch them seeing their tunnel and not being able to reach it."
"Good sound ideas" Ianto nodded, "Well done Kev. You make a good leutenant."
"Thank you" he smiled, "Little angel isn't he."
"He is perfect" Ianto gushed happily as Jack stopped fiddling with the body and rose, waking over.
"So … you think it will be soon?" Jack asked and as if in reply the water started to boil out in the distance, Kev laughing as he swung to watch.
It lasted for a few minutes and then went calm, only a muddy patch to show that they must be moving the wreak, then a crocodilian surged up onto the bank, his features shifting slightly to speak.
"Pop, we got one. He clamber out this side, the others poof away with eels, at least twenty gone. The other are furious and will wait on the other side of the bubble to see if one returns." His gnashing jaws were mesmerising, "It was grand."
"Yes it was" Kev laughed, "Well done boy, go tell the others we will eat well tonight, this one is done here too."
Two gators pushed ashore and Jack stepped back as he watched, "what is the difference between the crocodiles and the gators?"
"Temper" came the strange reply from more than one, then laughter.
"Cousins" Ianto supplied with a sage nod, "like different breeds but the same thoughts."
"Well put" Kev nodded, "I do not see the breeding anymore, just themselves. Funny how family grows on you."
Ianto hummed as he jiggled the baby who was shifting in the front pack, "family is not measured in blood or in looks, but in love."
"Come on love, on that note" Jack said softly, "Let's get him out of the wind."
They walked to their vehicles, Kara choosing to stomp to the stabbed Jeep as she rubbed her hands over the stabs and cracks in the bodywork, declaring it 'broke-in now' and driving off happily to get the windscreen repaired.
"Did you hear Willem say how she scolded him for trying to help her?" Jack said after a while, his pride evident as he grinned and tightened his grip on the strap, Ianto taking the corner like a manic.
"Yah, mad thing" Ianto smiled, the baby in the back sighing in his safe little capsule, not caring a jot about anything mad.
That made them family too.