5.

Ianto was on his way to the teachers' lounge when the door to an adjacent store room opened and he was pulled inside, losing half his books in the process. "Hey!", he said, pushing his attacker away … and froze. Then he laughed. "Oh my God!"

"You didn't tell me," Jack hissed angrily, sending a small cloud of feathers flying into the dusty air with an angry gesture, "that they are bloody psychopaths!"

Ianto was still laughing, leaning against one of the shelves holding skulls and other animal bones. "What happened to you?"

"What didn't happen to me?" Jack asked, starting to pace. He was covered in feathers, which stuck to a smelly dark substance doused all over him, flattening his hair to his head and making his clothes stick to his body. His appearance was only made worse by the harsh neon lights in the room, which were trying their best to keep the gloomy afternoon outside. "I grabbed a mousetrap when I tried to reach for the class log."

Ianto looked at the red welts on Jack's fingers and winced, but a smile stole itself back on his face despite himself.

"I was showered by something that smells like dung, and they bloody rigged the air condition in my car, so when I wanted to drive home to change, feathers were exploding into my face! Feathers! In my car!" He turned away, taking a deep breath.

Ianto looked down and bit his lip, trying to suppress a new wave of laughter. "What happened to your jeans?"

Part of the seat was ripped out, revealing that Jack – thankfully – was wearing underwear. He turned back around to Ianto. "They stuck me to my chair with some sort of super-glue."

"Well," Ianto said, steeling himself. "I'm not giving my Year 7 back and nobody else will volunteer to take the 10b, so you better deal with it."

Jack stalked towards him, his face a furious mask, and Ianto pressed his back to the wall while Jack towered over him. Cornered like that, Ianto swallowed and it took all his courage to look into Jack's eyes. Whatever Jack was going to say next, though, was interrupted by Tosh opening the door. "Here you are," she said. She only halted briefly at Jack's appearance. "God. My office, Jack. Now." With that, she left again.

Jack ground his jaw. "Nobody," he said to Ianto, "makes a fool of me. Believe me … they won't know what hit them."

With that he followed Tosh. Ianto breathed a sigh of relief and straightened. "Yeah," he said softly, "but this round definitely went to them."

xxx

As soon as the door to her office fell shut behind Jack, Tosh said, "You left the class unattended."

Jack gestured at himself. "They're psychopaths," he replied. "Antisocial stupid brats."

"Excuse me?" Tosh frowned disapprovingly. "I think the words you were looking for were 'educationally disadvantaged students'."

Jack stared at her in disbelief. "Educationally dis … look at me!"

Tosh sighed and sat in her chair, tapping a pen against the desk while her dark eyes looked at Jack speculatively. "I want that class under control, do you understand me? The school could become the focus of an inspection at any given time. If we lose points, we lose budget, are we clear on that?"

Jack ground his teeth together. "Yes," he said reluctantly.

"I have confidence that you are the right man for the job. Do you know how I know that?"

Jack shook his head grimly.

Tosh smiled. "You had the guts to hit the amok alarm and lie to me about it." Jack's eyes widened and Tosh laughed. "I have been a teacher for a very long time before I became the leader of the pack. Go home and get changed. And then get back to work."

xxx

"They're just children, aren't they?" Gwen asked, leaning in the door to the room Jack was living in at the moment, already clad in her sexy teacher outfit. Music was thumping up the stairs from both bars, and Jack heard Harold barking orders in the hallway.

He slid on a muscle shirt and loose-fitting jeans to get back to digging, frowning at himself in the mirror. "You have no idea," he answered. "They have no respect. Somebody needs to slap some sense into them, but I heard that's not allowed."

"Maybe you just need to be stricter with them," Gwen said, fiddling with her blouse.

"Oh, believe me," Jack answered with a grim smile, "they haven't seen the last of me. I already have a plan. Did some shopping this afternoon." He grabbed his pick axe from the bed.

"I really hope this isn't what you're using on them," Gwen said.

Jack snorted. "I wish." He kissed Gwen's cheek on his way out the door. "But this is what's going to bring me closer to the money." He winked at her and left.

"Hey!" she called after him. "That outfit plus a helmet, and you could dance for Harold in the Nevada."

Jack laughed.

xxx

When Jack entered the classroom the next morning, it was with sore muscles and not enough caffeine in his bloodstream. All in all, he was in the perfect mood for his plan on getting one over the 10b.

He halted on his way to his desk at the front of the room, seeing only half of the students present. "Where are the others?" he asked.

He didn't get an answer, the teenagers continuing to chat and ignore him, but when he glanced out the window, he caught sight of Carys and Bernie near the basketball field, smoking. He slammed his bag on the desk and grinned. "Class is starting," he told those present … but he only got a reaction out of them when he removed the rifle from his bag.

One girl screamed and everyone leaped out of their seats.

"Calm down!" Jack snapped and they halted when the rifle swung in their direction. "It's just a paintball rifle." He stepped towards the window and opened it. "Watch and learn."

It was deathly quiet in the room now, but everyone shuffled to the windows to look out. Carys and Bernie weren't alone. Annie and Jonah were with them, laughing about something.

Jack smirked and leaned out the window, yelling, "Class has started!"

The four teenagers didn't even turn to look at him. Bernie showed him the finger. Jack brought the rifle up to rest against his shoulder and took aim. The paintball hit Annie against the head, splashing red colour into her hair.

Carys screamed. "You're bleeding!" She took the next load against her shoulder, blooming yellow over her top. She stared at Jack, now seeming to realise that the rifle wasn't real. "Are you crazy!? This is Forever 21, you retard!"

"Into the class room," Jack replied. "Now!"

Annie looked at Carys and then started to trot towards the building, trying to brush the colour out of her hair. Carys followed her slowly. Bernie and Jonah didn't move but Jack hadn't expected the boys to give in as easily as the girls. They looked nervous, though, ready for flight or fight.

"Didn't you hear me?!" Jack asked.

They looked at each other, then flight won over and they started to run for the fence. Jack got Jonah into the thigh. He went down onto the tarmac of the basketball field and stared back at Jack in loathing. Bernie managed to climb the fence half-way before Jack hit him in the back and he lost his grip, falling onto the grass.

"Move your skinny arses!" With that, Jack slammed the window closed, knowing that ignoring them now would have more of an effect than watching them trot back towards the building.

xxx

"Right," Jack said, staring at the students with his arms crossed and leaning back against his desk. He'd kept his leather jacket on, knowing it made him look a bit bulkier than he actually was. He wasn't above cheap tricks. Jonah and Bernie had just arrived, slinking to their seats in sulky silence. It was quiet, everyone sitting at their table, not looking at each other.

Most of them didn't even look at him.

Jack smiled. "I think that cleared the chain of command in here. In the future, you get your arses in here on time and behave."

Carys looked up from trying to wipe away the stain on her top. "And now? We didn't do our homework anyway."

"Do I look like I care, princess?" Jack asked. "You're sitting at your table, everything else doesn't matter to me."

Annie frowned at him as if she wasn't sure he was telling the truth.

Bernie scoffed. "You're our teacher."

"Yes," Jack answered, "but your class isn't worth the time anyone puts into you, so I won't bother to even start. In a few weeks, you'll all be failing your GCSEs anyway."

That got him a few rebellious looks.

Jack got a prospect from the local building centre out of his bag. "You don't believe me?" he asked. "I only started here yesterday but I already know that you're the losers on this school. Everyone in the teachers' lounge is laughing about you because you're just plain stupid. I can do whatever I want with you, nobody cares. You're dirt under their shoes." He opened the prospect and looked at the offers the centre had in regards to underground construction.

Nobody said anything but there was the distinct sound of soft sniffling, which Jack ignored, and the tension was so thick he could have cut it with a knife. He pretended to be engrossed in the prospect, having learned in life and in prison alike that ignoring bullies was most of the time the way to success. He'd marked his territory, now he had to hold it by making them see how unafraid he was of them.

The knock on the door seemed absurdly loud in the room. Ianto entered carefully. "Sorry, do you have chalk?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Go check."

Ianto sighed and went to the blackboard. Jack heard him pause on his way back to the door and then Ianto stepped loser to him. "Uh … Jack," he said softly.

"What?" Jack snapped.

"Your student's crying."

Jack looked up searchingly, finding the source of the sniffling. "Carys!"

She looked at him, startled, tears running down her cheeks, tracking mascara and eye shadow across her face. "What?"

"Cry quietly!"

She whimpered and bit her lip, burying her head in her arms.

"Happy now?" Jack asked Ianto.

Ianto frowned. "Not exactly." He seemed to hesitate for a moment and then said, "Listen, it's normally not my business, but do you even care?"

Jack sighed. "About what?"

"They respect you." Ianto leaned closer and whispered, "They usually don't respect anyone."

"Don't you have a class to get to?"

"I think something here is off. They look as if they were traumatised … and why are some of them covered in paint?"

"They made name badges and spilled paint on themselves, now get out of here and don't tell me what they need." He flicked the prospect, getting back to his reading. "I know exactly how to handle them."

Ianto huffed a breath. "And I don't? I'm a teacher, too."

"And yet, they respect me and not you."

Ianto stared at him, then he looked around once more. "You know what? I was wrong. They don't respect you, they are scared."

Jack chuckled. "That's one and the same."

"You don't actually think so, do you?"

"Get out!"

Ianto glared at him and left.

xxx

Jack didn't know why Ianto's words bothered him. He tried to get them out of his head by working harder on digging the tunnel. He was making progress, but since he was alone, it went a bit too slow for his taste. He'd only managed to dig about two feet into the ground, though now that he'd hacked away part of the concrete wall of the basement and was starting to work through the softer ground with a shovel and the pick axe. He was speeding up.

He heard his mobile ring just before seven and quickly crawled back out of the tunnel into the basement, picking up. "Yeah."

"Jack, it's Harold. Gina's back from rehab, so you need to get your things and get lost."

Jack closed his eyes, cursing silently. "Come on, Harold."

"No discussion. You're here within one hour or I will put your things out on the street for the whores and crack addicts."

With that, he hung up. Jack stared at the mobile. "Damn it."

xxx

Throwing a box with his belongings into the car, Jack asked angrily, "And where am I supposed to sleep?"

Harold stood in the door to the Exotic, his suit immaculate, his blond hair styled carefully and his arms crossed. In the milky light of the setting sun and framed by the door to the strip bar, he didn't look like he belonged. He smiled at two men who left the Exotic. "Come again", he called after them, but his friendly smile melted off his face when he turned back to Jack. "Why should I care?"

Gwen handed Jack another one of his boxes. "You could sleep in my room."

Alonso was leaning in the door to the Nevada, watching. "Or in mine."

Harold scoffed. "And where will the both of you go to shag your clients? No way."

Jack slammed the car door shut. "What's the matter, Harold? I'm working all night anyway. I won't bother them. I just need to get few hours of sleep in the afternoons and early mornings when they don't have clients anyway."

"Listen," Harold said, stepping closer. "You're a nice guy for a criminal, but the thing is that you and the police don't get along and sooner or later, they are going to turn up here. My bars are clean bars and my boys and girls are all legal. I don't want any trouble."

"You own a brothel," Jack said. "That is trouble."

"I own strip bars."

"And you have a crack lab in your attic!"

"Exactly," Harold answered. "The last I need is a raid!" With that, he went back inside.

Alonso looked sadly at Jack and then hugged him before returning to the Nevada. Gwen kissed Jack's cheek. "Where are you going to go?"

Jack shrugged. "Sleep in the car maybe."

Gwen bit her lip. "I'm sorry. If I had a flat-"

"It's okay. It's not your fault."

Gwen sighed, straightening the lapels of his leather jacket. "Look, I'll ask around. Maybe one of the girls or boys will take you home with them."

"Don't bother," Jack replied. "I'll survive." He opened the car door.

"Don't be a stranger," Gwen said when he closed it.

xxx

The rain was beating down on the roof of the car while Jack tried to get comfortable enough on the folded-back passenger seat. The cold evening air was filtering in through the half-open window and he breathed it in, the sound of trains going past towards Cardiff main station calming and lulling him to sleep. After Harold had kicked him out, Jack wanted to get in a couple of hours of sleep before returning to the school. He'd considered sleeping in the basement there or in one of the store rooms, but deemed it too risky in the end. Ianto was suspicious already and certainly not stupid. The risk of being caught sleeping was too big.

The car would have to do.

Just when he'd started to drift off, water dropping onto his face woke him. The wind had turned, spraying rain into the car through the open window. He tried to roll it up, but first, it didn't react and then it just fell down to vanish completely within the door. He tried to roll it back up but the handle was stuck. Jack cursed, sitting in the dark and thinking frantically while the wind picked up, ushering more rain through the window.

Jack sighed.

xxx

Dinner was late this evening and was always a quiet affair. Ianto had tried his hand at cooking, but he would certainly be the first to admit that he wasn't overly good at it. Mica and Owen were eating but they weren't exactly ecstatic either. Ianto's sister Rhiannon had been a good cook and Ianto thought sometimes that he was failing at yet another thing he should be able to provide Mica with. He cleared his throat, the sound loud in the kitchen Rhiannon had made cosy over the years. He didn't dare change anything and he didn't really want to anyway. "How was school?" he asked.

Mica shrugged, moving the gravy-soaked potato mash from one side of her plate to the other. She was wearing one of her father's baggy shirts again and her dark hair was pinned up haphazardly. She didn't answer.

Ianto exchanged a glance with Owen, who just shrugged and took another sip of his beer. Ianto waited another moment and then continued, "I noticed that you were skyping with Emma again this afternoon." He ignored the warning look from Owen from across the table. "You see each other at school everyday. What more do you need to talk about?"

Mica glared at him for a second and then ducked her head again. "None of your business."

Ianto sighed. "Mica, I'm just trying ..."

She looked up at him. "You're just trying to what?"

"You want to stay here with me, don't you? We need to at least be friendly with each other."

"And we aren't?"

Ianto bit his lip. "You never talk to me. Not properly about how you feel or what you're up to."

"What I'm talking about with Emma doesn't concern you," Mica replied.

Ianto pressed his lips together. "Is it about boys? Because I think that I can give you some advice in that area."

Owen choked on his beer.

Mica stared at him in shock, her dark eyes wide. "Christ, Uncle Ianto! Shut up!"

"I'm just saying," Ianto replied, "that you're a teenager and at the moment, you probably feel confused and insecure. I mean … I don't want you not to date or experiment or anything, but I just want you to be honest about it with me."

"Why do you care?" Mica asked.

Ianto dropped his fork. "Because you're my niece and I love you. Is that so hard to understand?"

"You're trying too hard, Uncle Ianto," Mica answered.

"Am I?" Ianto asked. He looked at Owen.

"Jesus," Owen muttered. "Stop involving me, Ianto, I'm starting to feel like a gay step-father." He emptied his beer. "We're not married."

Something outside in the garden squeaked and then rumpled loud enough that the sound carried over the torrent of rain coming down. They all looked towards the window.

"What was that?" Mica asked, alarmed.

Owen went to the window. "Shit, there's light in our shed."

"Somebody's in our shed?" Ianto asked, getting up to look outside as well. "Mica, go upstairs and close the door." He went into the hallway and grabbed Mica's hockey stick, waiting for Owen who got the torch out of the kitchen drawer. He didn't switch it on, though, when they stepped out the patio door into the garden. The light of a torch was moving around the shed. Ianto swallowed, tightening his grip around the stick while Owen grabbed the shovel that was leaning against the house.

Together, they stepped onto the grass and towards the shed. The rain had them both wet within seconds, the grass squelching underneath their shoes. They took position at the door of the shed. Ianto raised the stick and nodded at Owen who switched on the torch and pulled open the door, raising the shovel to strike.

A man turned around to them in surprise and Ianto swung the stick, hitting him in the chest. He charged in and raised the stick again, but paused when Owen grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Wait, wait, wait!"

Now, Ianto recognised as well who the intruder was. "Jack?"

Owen stared at him while Jack tried to shield his eyes from the light. "What the hell?" Owen asked, having a look around the little shed. Ianto saw a sleeping bag on the floor and some boxes, one of them open and apparently filled with clothes. Owen looked at Jack. "Were you bunking down here?"

Jack rubbed his arm where Ianto had hit him and shrugged. "Uh … yes."

xxx

Owen and Ianto were standing at the door to the kitchen, watching Jack sitting at the table and wolfing down lasagne as if he hadn't eaten properly in days. Music filtered downstairs from Mica's room. As soon as her curiosity about who their unexpected guest was had been satisfied, she'd disappeared. Probably to chat with Emma about what she thought of the situation, Ianto thought bitterly, instead of talking to him. Not that he didn't want Mica to have friends or secrets with those friends. But he felt like Mica had nothing but secrets from him, and in light of the trauma that losing he family had been, he was worried. Especially since Mica seemed to like Bernie rather a lot, who Ianto thought could be a bad influence on anyone – even a nun.

Jack glared sullenly at him and then shovelled another serving onto his plate.

Ianto softly said, "I'm telling you that bloke is a tit."

"So what?" Owen asked. "The fucking house is big enough for one more and we can use the money to finally get the pipes and the heating fixed. They've been dodgy for weeks. It's only a matter of time before they break down."

Ianto glared at him. "The 'fucking house' is the house my sister and her family used to live in. I don't want him here." He crossed his arms. "And you only pay fifty quid a month. That's not a lot."

"He doesn't know that, does he?" Owen asked. "Tell him he has to pay more."

Ianto frowned, but was tempted.

"So?" Jack asked, interrupting their hushed conversation. "Can I stay?"

"One night," Ianto answered. "For free. If you want to have the room in the attic for a while, you'll have to pay 100 quid a week beforehand. Food is included in that."

Jack looked him up and down, chewing thoughtfully. "That's a bit steep," he said. "I'm good at maintenance, though. Good with my hands." He grinned wolfishly and Ianto blushed. Jack's grin became even more lewd as his eyes stayed firmly on Ianto. "I'm sure there's always stuff that needs doing around here."

Ianto cleared his throat and shifted, not wanting to show Jack that his innuendos didn't go unnoticed. "So?"

"Fifty quid a week and I fix whatever … comes up."

"Stop that now," Ianto snapped.

Jack grinned.

Ianto let out a breath and looked at Owen who shrugged. "I can't do maintenance for shit and you can't even cook so I don't hold out much hope."

Ianto nodded at Jack. "Okay. Fifty quid a week, you fix things … and you will start to properly work with the 10b."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Are you serious?"

Ianto just stared at him.

Jack sighed. "Fine."

"Fine."

Owen smiled. "Fine."