Alice

Her voice was breathless, but flushed with unrequited joy. "Daddy! The baby's coming!" Jack was up and running even before he canceled the call.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Lucy the weapons expert folded her arms, having placed herself very inconveniently between Jack and the door.

"I have to go!" said Jack impatiently. He tried to brush past her, but Lucy was big and muscular - an ex-soldier - and rebuffed him with ease.

"You're not cleared to leave without proper permission and an escort."

"Lucy, I don't have time, please. Get out of the way."

"No chance."

Jack glared at Lucy, and Lucy glared at Jack. Every second he let slip by was making him later and later. He wouldn't get there in time. Fine. He knew he would catch hell for it later, but Yvonne Hartman herself could come and starve him in a cell for a month for all he cared. He was going to be with his daughter, and no force on Earth or the rest of the damn universe was going to stop him.

Jack raised his gun and leveled it at Lucy's head. "I'm going," he said in a low voice.

"You're dead, Harkness," Lucy spat as Jack slipped by her and out the rolling silver door.

"Yeah, good luck with that," Jack retorted just before the door rolled closed.

St. James Hospital was a good 45 minutes outside downtown Cardiff, and each mile crept by at an agonizingly slow pace, no matter how far over the speed limit Jack drove.

Alice's stepfather, Arthur, met him in the waiting room. Neither Alice nor Maggie had ever told him the truth about Jack. As far as Arthur knew, he was a family friend who had grown up only a few years older than Alice. As such, he greeted Jack warmly and led him down the hall to the maternity ward. Jack noticed that, like him, Arthur had slight jitters.

When they reached Alice's room, she was propped up on several fluffy pillows, holding a tiny squirming bundle in her arms. She looked up and smiled when Jack entered, and even Maggie's now wrinkled, but still beautiful, face bore far less than its usual animosity.

"We'll be outside." Jack nodded his thanks as Maggie took her husband's hand and went out into the hall, and shut the door.

"He's got your eyes," Alice said. She shifted the bundle so Jack, who now stood at her shoulder, could see the baby's pink, wrinkly face. His vision seemed to tunnel. It was the most beautiful face he'd ever seen. Never did he think he'd felt that same level of unequivocal love as he did for this tiny little boy. Except, of course, for the woman holding him.

Alice held the bundle out to him, and Jack took it gently in his arms, feeling a lump rise in his throat as he did so. His grandson was impossibly light, as though he was barely there at all. And yet he loved tit more than anything else in the universe. Was it healthy to have your heart beat so fast, so jubilantly? Surely this wasn't normal.

"What's his name?" he managed after a long moment.

"Steven," said Alice. "Steven Andrew Carter."

"Hello, there, Steven Carter. Welcome to Earth." A tiny pink hand reached up out of the blanket. Jack let it close around his pinky. His grip was surprisingly firm.

"He's strong," Jack remarked.

"Like his granddad."

Jack laughed appreciatively and handed the baby back to his daughter. He kissed her lightly on the forehead, and really looked at her properly for the first time since arriving.

Deep purple shadows underscored her eyes, a light sheen of sweat glistened on her forehead, but still her face seemed to glow with a radiant glee the likes of which Jack had never seen before. He'd never seen his baby girl so happy.

He sniffed a little and frowned as he caught the scent of smoke. "Do you smell that?"

Alice drew in a deep breath through her nose, looked down, and screamed. Bright orange flames licked her arms, and the blanket they held. She screamed again.

Jack leapt up and frantically tried to smother the fire with his coat, but it only grew, brighter and hotter, engulfing the entire bed. Jack dragged Alice, still screaming, off of it and to the cold linoleum floor, unaware of the scorches to his own skin. He couldn't see hear anymore, only hear her and Steven's screams. He ran to the door but it was locked. Jack pounded against it with all his might.

"HELP!" he bellowed desperately. "HELP!" The flames now filled the entire room.

"Oh dear, now that's a shame."

Jack's eyes snapped open. His chest was heaving, and his heart pounded painfully against his ribcage. He lay on his back on a hard concrete floor, with his arms and legs stretched forcefully away from his body at distinctly less than comfortable angles. And above him, leaning over him with an expression of nauseating false concern, was Ianto.

As the realization washed over him, Jack made to get up, to grab that horrible, beautiful face, and rip it off, only to find that his arms and legs were chained to the floor. Jack strained against them as hard as he could, ignoring his muscles' protests, driven by sheer bloodlust.

Ianto raised his eyebrows, looking unimpressed. "I'll leave you to that then." He turned and vanished from Jack's sight, and a moment later he heard a door slam shut and lock. Jack's vision went dark once more.

Her voice was breathless, but flushed with unrequited joy. "Daddy! The baby's coming!"