17

They had both found the document at the same time, now pouring over it in the medical bay.

"Do you think…"

"Ianto, if anyone deserves a break you do!" she answered as thy compared their findings. "So it's definitely an alien design, they've made it to see what it was for and I agree with your theory that it is to repopulate a planet with survivors after the war is over, or a ship got away. Wow…. Do you think …"

"Whatcha doing?"

They both spun to find Martha there, leaning against the doorway with her arms folded, looking rather Jones about it.

"There was a finding… more like a footnote… ah… these are different studies that note the same anomaly with the Zap Gun." Ianto flapped his hands over the documents.

"Baby Blaster is the last one they seem to like" she rolled her eyes and they all snorted with mirth, "So, it is clearly alien? And they just… what decided to play god? Typical men! Sorry Ianto… excluding you of course but you are an exception to most things."

"This study of rats, one of them had cancer markers and after the zap… didn't." Toshiko tapped a page. "Looks like it wants it's hosts in peak medical condition and by the time it got to Ianto and Jack's as thirteenth on the street, it had blasted several families, knew he had something different about him that it… well… corrected maybe?"

"And this is a monkey one, same. The adult monkey had cancerous growths. They wanted to see what happened and zap… zap… no more cancer" Ianto agreed with his own report.

"Oh my god so… you might…" she pushed off from the doorframe to step towards them "Well… markers in the blood would be a first check. If there are still markers we are simply blowing air, right?"

"Agreed. We are waiting for the results now" Toshiko motioned towards a machine humming away as little vials of blood spun.

They all sat and waited for the beeping that would precipitate a check of the blood cells.

It was half an hour later that Jack found them "Hey Tiger. Whatcha doing?"

"Well… the cancan maybe" Ianto replied as he watched Martha's face. She was a doctor, a good one. Toshiko more clinical and Martha more hands on with testing … like Owen was trauma.

When she glanced at him he knew and seemed to flop back into himself "Sure?"

"Yeah. We've done it twice. Hell Ianto, there are no markers at all. Nothing to suggest you ever even had cancer" Martha said with glee, "Come on. Get on the table, let's scan you with this hand held scanner. Rudimentary as it's an ultrasound scanner for a baby but… I know where your growth was, lower so… come on. Let's see if it's still there and shrunk down to a small margin that does not affect your blood or…"

"It might be gone completely" Ianto laughed softly "Come on. Let's not get too carried away."

Jack stood dumbfounded as they rushed to look and after a while Martha touched the screen, the wand sweeping low around the hairline of pubic hair "See here? This void? It's where the growth was. It made a little space for itself and now it's gone the organs have not yet settled back to fill the space. Oh my god Ianto… they cured you. The zap got a woman preggers but… it cured you."

"Yeah!" Ianto gasped out, and then started to cry.

Jack rushed to him, pulling him in close and they took a moment to just… breathe.

"What's going on?" Owen rushed into the room, his eyes wide as he took in the tears both men were now blubbing everywhere and his wife's look of sheer shock.

Then she smiled and started to laugh, "Out. Leave them alone… out. I will tell everyone. Ianto? OK if I tell everyone?"

"Yeah" he choked out "Just… just let us have time to … oh god. Oh god."

And soon the two men were alone in the room, holding each other so close it was like they had become one person.

Safe.

.

.

Ianto was hungry, not just a little hungry but fucking ravenous. It was as if he had woken from a deep sleep, from a nightmare to a sunny day and he wanted to grab hold of life. Each mouthful was an explosion and each sip of water like elixir. It was hard to explain. After starting to prepare for the worst, accepting that his medications were gone and he would rather die than let Toshiko's baby be found… he has another chance.

What can you do about that.

But celebrate.

Toshiko was having a good day as well, her smile wide as Owen crowed that their baby was making good margins and was actually going to be a beast! He was about to make another crazy claim when Toshiko's tablet chimed and she scooped it up while still laughing at him. She placed it back down as she confirmed UNIT were still downloading files she could read too.

"God, it's a phantom pregnancy, I am sure of it" Ianto said around a mouthful as he and Toshiko ate together, both of them dipping a fish finger into custard… don't ask… they had no idea who thought of it first either.

Jack pestered Owen more, demanding he check the recording of the scan to make sure and he did so with Jack leaning over him like some sort of buzzard, the clear picture showing no growths in his prostate region, lymph nodes or anywhere else in the lower regions of his body.

Jack was finally satisfied that Owen was right, Toshiko was right and Ianto was right.

Ianto was cured.

For whatever horror and nightmare it might cause for them down the line, for now… it was a godsend.

Jack walked to the back of the property where there was a summer house thing with a bed covered in pillows throws and general welcome feels. As he sat on the edge of it, he felt the first prickle of tear and there alone with just a gentle breeze to comfort him, Jack wept with relief.

He could not bear the thought of a life without this man beside him.

It was all too good to be true.