2

Ianto had been baking, the place smelling amazing as Mama Bets stood with her hands on her hips scolding the children for spiling popcorn all over the floor.

"Now, now good woman, be still with ya" Babbit said with a strong wag of a finger "Be calm."

"Excuse me?" Bets asked, her shock clear as she turned to Ianto who was sitting at the table handing the little man in the highchair another cupcake that he had finished putting frosting on "Ianto darling, did you hear that child?"

"Oh, don't bring me into that madness" Ianto replied without looking away "If you want to escape, tell them you are going to check the babies."

"Oh. Yes!" she perked up, taking off for the cottage next door to check on baby Ifan and Prim. Those little angels a nice change.

Babbit finally noticed his 'Mama Bets' was gone and turned around "damn it… now I lost her too, I gotta put a frickin bell on Dadda when loose in the wilds…now me old girl! What a day! I might have to get a leash for Dadda like we have for Ton!"

Ianto froze, the glass of milk he was about to lift to his lips there in mid-space, his eyes moving from the lip of it, to his child. Then to the one at the end of the table eating his own cupcake, Jack's frozen image telling him all he needed to know.

"Well… sheeeeyyyyyit" John said softly, rolling from the floor where he had been laying watching the telly, "And I am out."

"No… no, I don't think so." Ianto said calmly, lowering the glass "I think I want to know what happened today. Babs, my darling? Can I have one of your amazing stories?"

Babs stood and told with harrowing brutalness how he was all alone in the pet shop, he knew his Dadda and Uncle John had got lost but at least Uncle Connor was with them, and he had every hope that at least he might have the brains to get them to the right place.

"I see."

Jack did not speak, squirming slightly as Ianto's eyes moved to him once more.

Jack grinned meekly.

"And what did you buy?"

"Oh, some stuff for Barty's tanks"

"No…. new members?"

"Don't be silly Dadda. Barty has to settle in and until he has himself a girlfriend, I will not be upsetting that pear cart" came a snorted reply.

"Well… we did get fireworks" Bethy hissed loudly to her bestie "For the New Years party."

Ianto's eyes shifted around the room and settled on the one who had thought he might escape, slithering toward the door on his gut like a snake "John?"

"What… it will be nothing like last year!" John defended.

"Right. Last year… when the Christmas Tree went up in smoke" Ianto said slowly, blinking so slowly that it was like he was in slow motion "the tree full of all those lovely baubles."

"Yeah, but it meant you have such a shiny new tree! Fresh and new and… come on. Nothing less than a tornado or a flood could damage those!" John scoffed.

"This town has never flooded that bad, I know the water will never reach us" Bets said, clearly insulted by the mere suggestion that their flood banks might not hold. "This town has not flooded for nigh on eighty years young man. How dare you even say such a thing!"

Ianto waved a hand distractedly "Come on... we are getting off track. Nice try John. I want to see the safety protocols, an emergency plan on my desk and maybe I need to run a few drills."

"Drills?"

"OOOOOOOO" Jack was suddenly jigging on the spot "Tiger… I can run some drills. Like… how to react to one that falls over… we can maybe…OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO … Connor. I need Connor. We have to get some sand trucked in for the fireworks… safer that way."

Ianto watched them all race off and turned to Bets "This is gonna get messy, isn't it."

"Oh darling, I think so."

Babs quietly rose to follow the others outside.

Messy sounded quite interesting really.