Ianto found Jack sat on the park bench they'd put in beside the stream on their property. He didn't say anything, just sat down beside Jack and took his hand.

Jack squeezed Ianto's hand back. Both stayed silent for a long while, listening to the running water and the little toads that inhabited the stream banks.

"I'm sorry," Jack whispered eventually.

Ianto had wondered how long it would be before Jack said that. "Don't you dare apologize," Ianto said quietly. "Don't you dare believe for a second that this is your fault. I won't have it."

"Of course it is, Ianto. It's my body, my DNA, me that's wrong."

"Or my DNA that isn't evolved to match. But that doesn't make it my fault either."

"No, not your fault. I should have… I didn't know…."

"You weren't to know. Even the Doctor didn't realize until there was a problem."

"Then I should have listened to you. You knew something was wrong."

"Wouldn't have helped."

"But I should listen to you! This would have been your baby, too. Ianto…."

Ianto had never heard Jack say his name like that before, like he was begging for help that he knew Ianto couldn't give. All Ianto could do was pull him in and hold on.

"Why did you ever fall for me?" Jack whispered desperately.

"I've never known that, Jack. Don't think it's something I can know. There's too much to define."

"I swore off love for so long after I figured out I'd never bring anything but hurt to the people I cared most about. And that I'd always have to lose them. But you came…." Jack faltered on a long sob. "And now I can't live without you. So you have to accept my apology, please. Because I need you like I need air, Ianto."

"Jack…. How can you talk like I would leave?"

"I wouldn't blame you," Jack muttered. "Won't ever have a normal life with me."

"I don't care what kind of life I have," Ianto said, wrapping himself tighter around Jack. "The only kind of life that matters to me is one with you."

"I'm not very good to be around. I've proved that time and again."

"It's a dangerous world, Jack. Bad things can happen to anyone. I think it's more like some of us have signed on for additional exposure to hazards. Don't think I ever had illusions of normality or safety – and that's not because of you, Jack. Ever since I joined up in London, I knew things would always be different. What I didn't expect was you, and us… this. This is what makes all the danger and sadness bearable. Jack… this happens to 'normal' couples as well. Rhi didn't marry Johnny because they were going to have a baby together. She married him because they got through losing the baby together. And as for being safe with you – you blew up a planet of monsters to get me back. No, I'm not leaving you. Not until whatever refuses to keep you refuses not to take me. Ok, so we can't ever have 'normal' exactly. But if that's the price of having one another, fine by me."

"Everything this universe has done to me… but it let me find you," Jack murmured.

"What would help, Jack? I don't mean just now, but whatever it is, whenever you think of it. Anything you want. If you want to go away for a while or just see friends… anything that makes you feel alright."

Jack nodded against Ianto's shoulder. "Thank you." For a long while, Jack stayed burrowed in Ianto's embrace. "You've always been the one to hold me," Jack said quietly.

"I think we've always held each other," Ianto said. "You've seen me through quite a lot as well."

"But no one else ever held me, not like you do. You let me need you sometimes. That's a real change for me. I'm always the big guy who protects everybody else."

"It's ok if you always need me, Jack. I need you as well, so it's square."

"I'll need you as long as I live. But I won't always have you."

"You'll have me for as long as I live, I can promise that."

Again Jack was quiet for a while, letting himself feel protected in a way he hadn't since the day he'd lost his father and brother, almost 200 years ago by then. "Remember the first time we danced?"

"That night in the Hub, or the first time publicly?"

Jack breathed a tiny laugh. "You remember everything."

"I remember how you kissed me after that dance. It was the first time I felt like something was really different with us. Romantically, I mean. You'd never kissed me quite like that before."

"I finally gave in to myself that night. Decided it really was ok to love you. Even if I did decide to keep it close to the vest."

"Like I didn't know," Ianto said softly. "You like to think you don't, but you wear your heart on your sleeve. Well, to my eyes, anyway."

"You see right through me. Most people don't bother trying."

"Their loss. They could get to know a really great guy."

"Better for knowing you."

"Tea, Joneses?" the Doctor asked carefully, walking down toward the stream with a couple of mugs.

Jack took a breath and sat up, kissing Ianto on the way. "Thanks, Doctor."

"I'm so sorry I can't help," the Doctor said regretfully, joining them on the park bench. "If there was anything I could do…."

"Not your fault, Doc. Some things are just that way, I guess."

"I just wish I'd thought of it before. You shouldn't have had to go through this."

"Maybe we were meant to, for some reason," Ianto said. "Though, none I can imagine."

The Doctor gave Ianto an appraising look for a moment and then gave him a nod, as if to say Ianto was definitely the one who would get Jack through.

"Yan… maybe some time away is a good idea," Jack said, reaching for Ianto's hand. "To be honest, I just don't want to think about telling people at this point."

"I could do that," Ianto offered. "I mean… unless you just don't want them knowing at all."

"I just don't want to hear the pity right now. Well-intentioned as it would be."

Ianto knew exactly what Jack meant.

"I could…," the Doctor started to say, then thought twice. "Well, I could pay a call to Martha and Mickey, anyway."

"That would be good of you," Ianto said. "I can ring the rest, let them know we're going on holiday because we need some time to ourselves, yeah?"

Late that night Ianto woke up from a dream he couldn't remember. He knew it wasn't pleasant, whatever it was, because he still felt uneasy. Jack was sleeping and Ianto didn't want to disturb his sleep, especially that night, so he slipped carefully out of bed and pulled on a dressing gown on his way downstairs.

Ianto froze when he heard someone moving about the lit kitchen. His hand automatically went toward where he'd so often slipped his Torchwood-issued weapon into his back waistband, before he realized he was in Jack's fluffy dressing gown and their guns were triple-dead-locked up in the bedroom.

After a quick glance around, Ianto grabbed a cast-iron poker from the fireplace and made his way tactically toward the kitchen. He silently let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding when he caught a flash of a red jacket with gold braiding.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Ianto demanded, holding the poker out in a fair sketch of a parry quarte.

"Tea, sandwiches. Fancy anything, Eye-candy?"

"Why are you in my kitchen?"

John sighed. "Well, I'm paying you a call. Wouldn't exactly go to your neighbor's house to do that, would I?"

"Did Jack get in touch with you?"

"No. And I'm a bit hurt about that, incidentally. I wasn't even invited to the wedding. I did, however, attend your funeral. Neat trick, Eye-candy. I didn't think that condition was catching."

"It isn't. And I'm not having this conversation with you. A call from you is probably the last thing Jack needs right now, so please, attempt to be considerate, just the once?"

"He should be passed the fatigue by now. I've heard it's going for three months, isn't it?"

"Would be," Ianto said tiredly, lowering the poker.

"Would… but isn't?"

Ianto shook his head and poured himself a cup of tea from the pot John had sitting on the kitchen table (without a pot holder under it).

John was uncharacteristically quiet for a few moments. "Guess it wasn't time-loop related this time."

"No. DNA. Mine's not… quite up to his, apparently. Maybe that's just as well. I've no idea how to be a good father. And that's the worst of it, that some part of me feels relieved while he's so devastated. And I really don't know why I'm telling you that."

"It was the other way round last time. I was the one devastated. Jack was relieved. He never said, but it was obvious. He went AWOL not long after, couldn't wait to get away."

Ianto sighed. He recognized Jack's need to get away from things that bothered him more than he liked to admit. And Ianto hated to admit that he could understand how John felt about that.

"Ianto? What's wrong… why aren't you in bed?" Jack called, coming down the stairs.

Ianto took a deep breath, wanting to tell Jack to go back to bed and that he'd be up in a minute, so that Jack wouldn't have to deal with his ex-'partner' just then, but he knew Jack too well.

"Yan…? Whoa. What are you doing here?"

"Did no one ever tell you it's impolite to point? Well, with fingers, anyway," John said, his eyes making a bee-line to Jack's groin.

Ianto rolled his eyes and quickly threw a tea towel to his (unsurprisingly) naked husband.

"What am I gonna do with this?" Jack said.

"Well, I'm not taking off the gown!" Ianto said firmly.

John turned to Ianto with grin.

"No. Bloody time agents," he muttered, hurrying upstairs to fetch another dressing gown for Jack.

"I did come to offer congratulations. Even though you didn't even invite me to the wedding. In any event… I'm sorry."

Jack took a long breath and sat down, draping the tea towel over his lap and reaching for the mug Ianto had left. "There's been some kind of curse on me since the day I was born," Jack sighed.

"Well, you've got one thing right."

Jack nodded. "I don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't gotten him back."

"I do. You'd have probably ended up in murder rehab like me."

Jack shook his head. "No…. Drink myself to death a few times a month, maybe."

"I really am sorry, Jack. About the baby. You'd have been good parents, nice family."

Jack took another long breath. "We would have been good dads. But we are a nice family."

Ianto, coming back down, ducked into the living room for a moment to collect himself before going into the kitchen and putting Jack's fluffy robe around his shoulders. Jack reached out to take his hand as he sat back down.

John, seeing the way their eyes met and held, drained his tea in a swig and stood up from the kitchen table. "Right, well. Guess I'll be off again. Don't mind me, see myself out. Care if I take one of your bananas for the road… or, ether, as it were? Hey, these are Villengardian… damn, remind me to go back and steal a horde of blaster parts before the factory blows up. Think I'll do that right now…. Right. 'Bye then, you two lovebirds…."

Neither Jack nor Ianto paid any attention to John Hart as he wandered out onto the terrace before zapping himself off to wherever.

"Don't think you've ever called us 'family' before," Ianto said, "just us two, I mean."

"I think I just realized it, after knowing it all along," Jack said. "We are a family, you and me."

Ianto pulled his chair over to Jack's so they could hold one another. "We've got each other, Jack. Nothing else matters."