4

Jack stood in the comfy looking bedroom and found himself smiling as he looked at the door and the little cat door built into the wall beside it.

"So, if you want company leave it open and either Frankie or Brad… oh, he's a tabby… will come for a snuggle if you are lucky. Don't worry…Meatloaf is too fat to get through it." Ianto was explaining "I release the hounds at night, better than the security system Toshio insisted on… and you have an ensuite so you don't have to leave this room. Best leave the girls to their jobs."

"How long have you lived here?" Jack asked as he leaned against the huge comfortable looking bed, finding it as soft as marshmallow.

"Four years now. I love it here, I don't like people and would rather just hide away like a hermit." Ianto shrugged, "I had my own 'What the Fuck' moment in my life and decide to just… leave the realm of fucktard man."

Jack smiled as he sat on the bed and let himself fall back, the cat flap making a soft noise as a little cat entered to stare at him silently. Like… is that where you are sleeping human? Jack grinned as he met Brad.

He felt safe.

.

.

Jack woke the next morning to a fuzzer on his head and he found the smell calling him to the kitchen where Ianto stood with his back to him, cooking bacon. Decidedly bacon, the toast popping up as Ianto turned like he knew the exact timing. Then he spoke "awake then."

"Wow, I slept like a baby. Weird, I thought I would lie awake all night with everything in my brain but… the rain last night, it was calming" Jack admitted as he settled at the table, looking out the large window next to him to see the rain had stopped and the world seemed so bright and clean.

"Like another world, right?" Ianto asked as he set the plates down and settled, then sighed as two heads appeared from under the table. "As if I would forget you."

Ianto then handed over a skein of bacon to each dog who looked at him for a moment longer, then disappeared. Ianto sighed "See? Like monsters from the deep."

Jack find himself smiling again, wonder of wonders. Felt strange to be here, so… yes. Apart, another world. Like, what was happening out there in the real world could not touch in here. Jack had forgotten. For a moment, for a little while… he had forgotten that his life was over.

"Stop it" Ianto scolded gently, pushing over the toast "Don't think. Eat."

Jack ate.

.

.

"How are you doing?" Owen asked as he watched Jack.

Jack was sitting in the chair by the window still, his hand on the head of the huge Janet, her face serene.

"Strangely calm."

"Well, Toshi has all the CCTV footage from the area, not only the workplace, your home but also the surrounding areas that show times and places you were or were not when these allegations were made. Also… we have proof of Gwen's real affair partner." Owen assured him "We can easily discredit all her claims and prove that she is not only trying to save her arse by pretending this baby is from an assault, but her affair partner is likely the father. Rhys… is still in unknown quantity."

Jack nodded and then asked "Lucia? Is she thawing at all?"

Owen looked pensive, even a little more ratty than usual and Jack felt something in his gut twist as Owen turned to look at Ianto, then make a face. Ianto's face changed to what can only be called a scold. Owen groaned "Well… that's another problem I need to talk to you about."

"OK."

"You gave us permission to access your personal CCTV footage from the cloud server, right?"

"Yeeeees?"

"Right. Um…."

"Owen" Ianto said softly "Spit it out."

"Well… ahhh… shit. Jack, Gwen is not the only one hiding an affair" Owen finally said, slumping back in the char with a look of woe.

Jack was confused, seems he was there a lot these days and he turned to Ianto as the only one who seemed to have a finger on the pulse was him these days.

"I believe what the idiot is trying to say is that Lucia is not faithful. Might be why she was eager to jump on the band wagon with everyone else to vilify you. So you know, with the county laws… filing for divorce on the grounds of adultery gets you the house… the car… the kids… everything. The kid…. Shit. Is she Jack's?"

Jack felt himself rear back as Ianto so calmly tore his heart out and stomped on it, looking at Owen who was shifty as fuck now. Ianto frowned "You did it right? Look at your face, you did the test already?"

"Melissa… no. No, she's… no." Owen deflated so much he was literally lying in the chair "I … don't like this conversation."

Ianto rose from his chair and walked to the window, staring out at the dogs now cavorting in the sunshine "None of us do but… here we are. So, her affair has gone on for more than eighteen months I guess, and she was not able to get out of it. Jack's trouble has fallen in her lap and now she will file quickly with this as her reason, blaming Jack."

"So what do we do?" Owen asked, Jack mutely looking at Ianto for the answer.

"File first. File hard, fast and nasty. Slam the proof in, make it messy for her. She will not expect it and anything she planned might be derailed. If she was secretly going to help Gwen, or they had this plan together… who knows. Might be just providence but… that is what I would do. Do not make it loud. Do it as silently and viciously as you can. By the time she realizes, it will be over. If I am right, if she and Gwen are on cahoots somehow… then she will file loudly and want the publicity, the tears and the camera time for allegations and crap. Get her. Then we can sue for defamation of character too." Ianto stopped talking, and then said "more coffee?"

"Wait" Jack said softly "Melly is not mine?"

"No. Lucia was already sleeping with someone else, whoever her affair partner is… she is his baby" Owen said, now sorry for the man who really could not take many more hits.

Jack nodded, leaning back to accept more coffee.

It was like watching a movie, so surreal.

Fuck.