A/N - Special delivery of next chapter early, as it's a seasonal chapter. Less angst and more comfort to be had here.

Thanks to all who've reviewed, favourited and followed - your feedback has been wonderful over the past year. Best wishes, and a Happy New Year to all of you.

Chapter 12

Following Jack's conversation and a pot of Ianto's excellent coffee, there was no more speculation about Jack's mission. There was a quiet acceptance of the fact that it was sensitive and that UNIT were never to find out the true nature of the operation involving a pregnant alien in north Wales.

Owen was relieved to a large extent as it made his weekly trips more of a routine and Tosh helped him calibrate the various medical scanners without question. Ianto was able to put together special 'care' packages for Jack catering for his cravings without having to hide his actions.

Although Tosh had been suspicious at the time, she couldn't put her finger on the exact reason for her scepticism, it all made perfect sense. She occasionally wondered why she didn't know more about the particular species of alien and the circumstances surrounding its discovery in Cardiff and then she realised that Jack had deliberately kept the details secret to protect all concerned. There were times when she wanted to ask Owen questions, but he pre-empted her curiosity with a finger to her lips and a gentle shake of his head.

Meanwhile, Gwen was under the impression that Jack had entrusted her with more facts than the others knew, after all none of them were talking openly of his special mission, therefore they couldn't know about it, not like she did. After all, Ianto had told her, as he'd handed her that coffee, that she should feel privileged that Jack had taken her into his confidence. He'd whispered that in her ear so none of the others heard him – and she could have sworn he looked slightly envious. That was enough for Gwen. Jack trusted her so she would keep his secret, she wouldn't discuss it with anyone and she'd make sure that UNIT never found out what was going on.

Owen was pleased that Ianto helped him sort out the duty roster, because he didn't have the patience for that sort of thing. It was presented in a grid, with colour codes for each person, detailing when they were meant to be on active duty, when they were to be on call within the Hub or at home and when they each got their allocated twenty four hours break once a week, barring emergencies.

"Why am I pink?" asked Owen, outraged.

"Because I knew you'd react that way," replied Ianto, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Gwen's yellow and Tosh is green – why couldn't I have been green? Pink's a –"

"If you're about to say 'girlie colour' I suggest you check the colour of my shirt and change your mind. Remember – I'm able to determine who gets Friday and Saturday nights off."

"Pink's fine. I see you haven't allocated dates for my appointments with Jack."

"Thought it best to make those more random – but if you do those on any of the dates where all four of us are on duty, then there will still be three here to respond to any situation. Of course, in case of emergencies you can always reschedule your check ups can't you?"

"Yeah – as long as I check up on him at least once a fortnight that should be fine. What about you?"

"What about me?" Ianto frowned, confused.

"I'm not going to be able to take you with me, not if we're going to keep to this rota."

"I'll find a way – don't worry."

"You're not able to drive long distances yet, you know. Especially not on those roads with your car – that arm's not healed enough for gear changes every five minutes."

"I know." Ianto looked ruefully at his left arm.

Jack was looking forlornly out of the window of the cottage – the falling snow had coated the branches of the straggly hawthorn trees and was fast obscuring the track that led to the front door. He sighed wearily. It had been over two weeks since he'd spoken to his team and to Jo Grant. In the meantime, he'd received an apology from a UNIT general who had reassured him that his activities would be respected and that UNIT would only provide assistance if requested.

Owen had been to check up on him three days beforehand and had frowned at his blood pressure readings. He'd instructed Jack to keep his feet up and to quit worrying. That wasn't easy, not with his inability to do anything to ease the workload on his team. He was especially worried about Ianto, he'd barely had chance to recover from his injuries and was already back at work, the only concession being not to drive and to co-ordinate the majority of operations from the Hub, rather than be out in the field.

The wind picked up, swirling the snow into funnels that caught the light from his window and spun it into patterns reminiscent of the golden light of the time vortex. He wondered why he had gone along with this plan of isolation and then thought of UNIT – if any of their spies had observed his growing belly and had seen him withdraw from active duty, they'd have intervened for certain. It was a sad fact that there were forces in the government that had worked with Saxon and had not been rooted out – there was no way of knowing who they were or in which departments they were hiding, but Jack knew damn well that Saxon hadn't got where he had alone, he'd had assistance.

Perhaps he should have sought help from Martha and asked her to get the Doctor involved – he could have left Earth, had the baby and returned within the week. He need never have told Ianto or got Owen involved. But he'd wanted to tell Ianto, after all he was the father and part of Jack couldn't help wanting him to be as excited as he was by the impending birth of their child. He'd fathered plenty of children since he'd been stranded on Earth, probably more than he knew about, but it was different bearing that child himself, knowing that he was carrying Ianto's son. Although they weren't able to share the experience as he'd have liked, he couldn't have denied Ianto the opportunity to be involved.

He shivered, partly from melancholy and partly because the fire was dying down and he should really have headed for bed an hour ago, but there was something keeping him up and it wasn't just the snow. He'd not heard from Ianto yet and he always called every evening, even if it was just to let Jack know that everyone was alright and to wish him a good night. It had become a habit of theirs. Since he'd been well and truly reprimanded by Owen for waking Ianto up at all hours of night, preventing the poor man from getting a decent night's sleep, Jack had agreed to let Ianto be the one to make the calls and to determine how long they lasted.

Jack looked at his phone and wondered if it would hurt, just this once, to call Ianto. Then again, maybe they were out dealing with something that had fallen through the rift and his call could distract them and cause an accident. He'd never forgive himself if it did.

So Jack decided to add one more log to the fire and to curl up on the sofa and give it until the fire died down once more before going to bed. He pulled the crocheted blanket over his legs and settled back into the cushions and allowed himself to be mesmerised by the flickering flames that seemed to be dancing up and down the logs, as the fire crackled restlessly.

The sound of his footsteps was muffled as the man trudged through the thick snow, the soles of his boots not touching the gravel that usually announced visitors to the lonely cottage. His head was tucked down to keep the sharp wind out of his eyes and his back was bowed under the weight of a large rucksack. He fumbled in his pocket and then swore as he dropped what he'd been looking for in the snow. Pulling off his glove with his teeth he sunk down to his knees and began digging around in the snow looking for the object he'd lost. He slid the rucksack off and leaned it against the wall, cursing again as it knocked over a terracotta pot, spilling old compost across the flagstones.

"Bloody hell," he muttered to himself as the cold numbed his fingertips, rendering his search even more helpless.

"Stay exactly where you are – keep your hands where I can see them!"

The man looked up to find himself staring at the dangerous end of an old fashioned pistol.

"Surprise?" he offered with a shrug.

"Ianto?"

Jack could hardly make out the other man's face under the hood of his coat and with a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face, but the nose was unmistakable, as was the accent.

"Um, I dropped my key-"

"What the hell are you doing out there – get inside now!" Jack grabbed hold of Ianto's elbow and started to pull him inside.

"Wait a minute – got to bring my bag inside."

Ianto took hold of the straps and heaved the rucksack off the ground and dragged it inside.

"Happy Christmas, Jack." Ianto smiled shyly as he pulled off his other glove and tugged the scarf free from around his neck.

Jack grinned and shook his head.

"Time may run slower up here, but I'm pretty sure it's not Christmas until next week."

"Yeah, I know, but Gwen asked for that day off and Owen's reserved New Year. So I thought we'd celebrate early."

"Is that why your bag weighs a ton?" Jack hefted the rucksack up to move it away from where it was blocking the doorway. "You impersonating Santa?"

"That all depends on whether or not you've been a good boy." Ianto winked as he let Jack help him out of his coat, melting clumps of snow scattering as he did so. "No peeking inside the bag, please."

Ianto sat down to pull his boots off his feet, not an easy job with his fingers tingling as the feeling came back to them. Sitting down also brought the soaking wet, cold denim into direct contact with his legs and he shivered involuntarily.

"You look frozen. Hang on, I didn't hear a car – you didn't break down, did you?" Jack scowled as he hung the wet coat up on the rack by the door.

"Nope – I got the train from Cardiff to Bangor and arranged for a private taxi to take me as far as the village and I walked from there."

"In the snow?"

"It wasn't actually snowing when I set off from Cardiff. The forecast only said snow showers possible, not blizzards – honestly, Tosh's rift predictor is more accurate than the bloody weather forecast for Wales."

"It's nearly midnight, Ianto – just how long has it taken you to get here?"

"Midnight? Oh … well I caught the train at just after six this evening and it got into Bangor not long after ten o'clock. It should only have taken about half an hour by road from there, but visibility was awful-"

"You idiot, why didn't you call and let me know you were coming? I nearly shot you! I thought you were -"

"It was meant to be a surprise," said Ianto sheepishly.

"Well consider yourself successful on that front." Jack held out a hand to help hoist Ianto up from the chair he'd collapsed in. "Come on, let's get you warmed up – time to get out of those wet clothes."

"Hang on," Ianto glanced at his watch and raised an eyebrow. "That's four minutes and twenty seconds before trying to get me out of my clothes. You're slacking!"

"Very funny – now come on, I've still got some of your clothes here from the last time you stayed, they're clean and dry. They're in the bottom drawer in the bedroom."

While Ianto changed into a pair of dry jeans and a thick woollen sweater, Jack stacked up more logs on the fire and put the kettle on to boil.

"When did you last eat?" Jack called out.

"Oh, let's think - I had a sandwich on the train and a packet of crisps."

"How long ago was that?"

"Um – just outside of Cardiff I guess, so that would be around five hours ago."

"Sit down – I'll reheat some soup for you. Megan made some leek and potato soup for me – it's really good with grated cheese on top – fancy some of that?"

"Hey, what's going on here? I thought we had ground rules for playing role reversal?"

"Well, seeing as you decided to risk life and limb in this weather to come visit me, the least I can do is to feed you up." Jack checked the contents of the fridge as he fetched out the jug of home made soup. "I think I've got enough food in for breakfast, but it looks like I'll have to get Megan to drop off extra rations tomorrow. How long are you staying?"

"Until the day after tomorrow – the earliest train out of Bangor gets into Cardiff at about nine thirty, or there's one a bit later, at six in the morning, gets in at ten – it's pushing it, but I'll put in a later shift that evening-"

"Just one day?" Jack couldn't keep the disappointment from his voice. He'd not seen Ianto for a while and had hoped to have longer with him before he had to return to Torchwood.

"Yeah, one day. But two nights." Ianto took hold of Jack's face and kissed him lightly on the lips. "Come on, let's make the most of them."

Jack slid his arms around Ianto's waist and pulled him as close as his growing stomach would allow.

"Yeah, let's do that."