17
"Daddy?" Jack looked over at his daughter as she peered over Ianto at him, her face drawn with fear, "I have to go potty."
Ianto looked down at her and then at the baby asleep in Tosh's arms, "Actually, me too."
The relief on the child's face was sad to see, her fear of going out amongst the people who were all fighting and being mean, Ianto smiled as he slid from the bed and accepted the blanket around his shoulders, Alice pulling hers off the bed to wear as well in mimicry of her new best friend. Ianto thought it looked so sweet… if not for Jack holding that Webley at his hip with a stern glare out the door, then he nodded and they started to walk.
Ianto was horrified to see the state of the place. It was a tip, there were overturned tables and chairs smashed in one corner like a bonfire that just needed a Guy, used food containers thrown there as well. He could hear coughing from behind another curtained area and knew it was the Strangles area, pulling Alice closer to him as he shied around it.
They used the facilities and he was helping Alice wash her hands when a woman entered, looking at them with surprise the approaching, "Hello. Look, I just want to say sorry for yesterday. We acted like idiots and I am so sorry you…oh my, you have a child?"
Ianto had turned when she spoke and Alice was visible wiping her hands, her instinct to crowd into Ianto more. The woman looked genuinely sorry, "I had no idea. I know you have the poor baby but…I didn't realise you have one of your own. Oh for the love of Pete, she must have been terrified."
"Still is" Jack said shortly, watching intently and she stopped to look at him, then Ianto and Alice again.
"Not our best time is it" she sighed, "We went 'Lord of the Flies' pretty quickly."
Jack looked confused by the remark but Ianto snorted making Jack smile softly, of course he would get the obscure comment and Ianto turned to show they were ready to leave.
"I appreciate your apology, I think we are all scared and people do strange things when afraid" Ianto answered her, "I just want to be left alone until we can get out. I am afraid the offer of friendship is mote after a threat of violence and I must think if the children."
"Children, the baby of course. The milk is being expressed still, there is some waiting for you" she said with an apologetic smile, "Please do not think too harshly of us."
"I don't" Ianto smiled, "I think we are all stressed. I hold no ill will."
They left the bathroom to find others had gathered and Jack remembered Ianto's plea for separation so he calmly asked if they would step aside and give them room to pass, "Please. My family just want to go back to our corner. Please, let us pass."
"We didn't mean to scare anyone, we were pretty scared too" an older man said, his hands wringing, "We just don't know what is happening."
Ianto canted his head, "Right now the automatic Shielding relay is sending a distress signal that it was unable to reconstitute the shield. This had been picked up by the off world ship that is in orbit, they will have sent down a crew sometime in the night as we slept to check the extent of the damage to the shields. I say shields because it is clear from the blast doors that both the planetary and the sector shields have fallen. Their first priority will be to get our sector shielding up, our air is starting to be filtered already which is not a good thing as the filters will not filter out an air borne disease. Strangles is said to be contact driven but mutation is not far away, they estimate that within a matter of months it will be airborne. Who is to say. I've not heard any clanking or movement that shows they are at the outer doors so the damage must have been at the main shielding station."
As Ianto spoke people gathered, drawn by his unusual voice and his calm explanation of things, more than one pulling a still intact chair with them.
"I suggest a watch at the doors, take turns for someone to sit at the doors and listen. Any sound of movement outside the doors means the shield has been restored and they are efforting the locks. This means we will be out in a matter of one of two hours. According to the literature on these shields it only takes a matter of 24 hours to replace the working parts completely if it is damaged beyond repair. These emergency shields can be landed anywhere and activated. I have been estimating the times from the storm to shield activation and if everything goes like clockwork then we will be out this afternoon. If one of the hazards or setbacks that were warned of like unstable ground or debris covering us then we should estimate for another 24 hours for them to remove the rubble. Therefore I would shoot for the longer time so we are not too disappointed if it is not clockwork and assume one more night down here before rescue sometime late tomorrow. I will visualise a hot bath. A huge hot bath with bubbles and a lovely glass of wine being handed to me by my Cariad as he slides in to join me. I will have eaten the biggest steak my plate could fit and the onions caramelized just right were wonderful on the fluffy potatoes. Ah. Gravy. I want gravy too Cariad." Ianto turned to Jack who was watching Ianto's face as it softened, "Dinner then a bath. Then a huge soft bed with so many pillows we may suffocate. Yes?"
"Yes love" Jack whispered, "I will hold you all night long, safe in our little nest."
Everyone watching could see the love between them as they smiled at one another like they were the only two people on the Verse.
The older man turned to face the crowd, "Well you heard him. Let's set up a roster for listening. Maybe clean this place up a bit if we have to be here another day. It looks like a dump."
Jack took his family back to the safety of the cubicle, pleased to see Tosh feeding the baby as Owen sorted the food on their makeshift table.
Jack put the Webley away.