3

Lisa stood there looking at the body of the man she had been depending on to help her.

Simon was slumped back in his chair with the gun on the floor next to him, the ceiling and wall behind him bearing the Jackson Pollock artwork of brain matter and skull. Oh… OK… some scalp too, I guess. Not that anyone want to look THAT closely at it all.

The house had been hard to get into, a fortress really and as her SUV sat smouldering from the impact through the wall, she cursed and stamped her foot. The bulletproof glass had been on the windows but not the front door. Idiot never thought anyone would be mad enough hot drive a large vehicle through the entranceway I guess and clearly… this is why. They were all a paranoid lot trained to be. Still, it cost an SUV this time.

She liked that one. Damn it.

"Boss?" the Samoan idiot in the Hawaiian shirt called out. He gestured at the man on the floor by his feet. She walked over to find one of her techs sitting cross-legged while on the laptop that had been stomped on by the dead man not half an hour earlier, the cord from it to the one the tech had been working on feeding the live laptop.

"Fuck me… someone cleaned out the accounts… even his Cayman Island one… look at this… it also got his retirement fund in the Maldives… how the hell… porn. Ew, is this kiddy… hang on. What is this folder called Princess? Wait. What…. Is this his little… ew. What?" Roger was leaning over the tech's shoulder backed away with horror "the Boss's granddaughter. What?"

"It's not real. Don't be a fucking idiot, this is some high-tech shit but it's not real. The faces are changed, this… whoever this is fucking this guy it's not a thirteen-year-old girl, look… a tattoo that was not disguised. This is not the Boss's grandkid here. And it is not Simon screwing her into the mattress. No… this good. This is really good. A frikin master…. Oh. Shit. It's her isn't it." The man placed his laptop down and actually… physically backed away from it "Oh no. I liked that one."

Lisa pulled her gun from her shoulder holster and shot the laptops with open malice, snarling with rage as she was amazed at the way this had gone down.

"How did they know!" she demanded, looking around at the team "Who is the weak link here! Someone… everyone check your fucking devices. She must have a tracker on you or something!"

.

.

The camera blinking on the PC on the desk behind Lisa did not have a blinking red light to show it was active… no… did you know you can disable that too? Oh wow… Toshiko was wanting popcorn now.

"Whatcha doing?" Owner asked as he wandered past with a little girl's clothes in his arms fresh from the dryer to fold.

"Playing" she muttered in reply.

"That's nice love. Me too"

Both of them happy in their own little worlds as they worked, while the two men were having a talk in the surf as they watched over Alice.

.

.

"Ianto, where are you taking us next?" Jack asked as he held his daughter's hand, watching her stomp in the little eddy.

"Well, it's not all my decision and I know that. Things moved quickly and I didn't have a chance for anything more than taking the lead but… from here on out, we will discuss things, OK?" Ianto assured him, then added "Unless we must move quickly again. Is that agreeable?"

"Yes, of course" Jack reassured him with a soft smile, the other little hand of his little girl gripped in Ianto's hand.

Safe.

"There are three choices right now that are ready for us now, we can move whenever we want to with minimal fuss" Ianto continued "we can look at them and decide which one works best with Alice and your work too."

"And your work?"

"I can paint anywhere, it is more of an outlet for me than anything" Ianto shrugged, knowing that Jack snatching that painting he loved so much from the wall had been something Jack had done without a second thought. Nice to know he had a fan I guess. All the others at the Caretaker's cottage had been taken by Toshiko and Owen, now in the hands of his agent who would sell them for shits and giggles. Ianto was not attached to his art, once completed… well, never really finished as he could tweak one forever… he simply moved on to the next one. Trained to do that…let go and move on. Right now, he was learning a long-forgotten trait he once had. The desire to hold on to something and that little hand in his felt so damned real. The man looking directly at him provided the most clarity he had in a long time. The Dragon was waking and he was waking different from before.

"So, what now?"

"For now, we wait. Lisa will do the same, waiting for us to twitch".

Jak watched his daughter curl her toes in the water then he sighed softly "Like some sort of long-distance game of chicken?"

Ianto laughed as he scooped the little girl into his arms, then kissed her belly as she squealed and wriggled. Jack made clucking noises as he started to chase them, and Ianto gave a silly scream running with the little girl who was laughing so much she was choking.

John watched from his chair on the porch, watched not only Jack acting like a normal person but Ianto as well. It had been along time since… well… maybe Ianto never played the fool, but Jack used to. Once upon a time.

Ianto seemed to know he was watching them as he let Jack snatch the little girl to run off with, turning to stare back up at the house and John felt like he was staring right into his soul, even from that distance.

John saluted him and Ianto turned to run after Jack.

No chickens here my lovely.

Nope.