35
"Right, Toshiko?" Jack barked as he left the table where the kids were colouring in.
"No word on her, but chatter does say Lucia is still proving elusive. They are starting to get pissed at how she keeps evading them." Toshiko replied.
"I Would have loved to have met her mother. Her family sounded like first class technicians" Ianto said with a slow nod of his head "Clearly well trained."
"Well, it will take them a month of Sundays to get close to her, I can tell you that for certain" Jack agreed.
"Right. So… can't stay here."
"Awwwww, come on. Rhia didn't know about this place!" Jack whined "We have three more days at least!"
"Annnnnd we are leaving now" Ianto said without it sounding like an order, more of a fact "The kids rang here, remember? They might be able to trace it, they might have tracing powder on the kids themselves. Maybe they LET us have them."
"Tracing powder?" Jack scoffed. Ianto looked at Jack silently for a beat and then Jack sighed "OK… OK. We move out after we've eaten."
"Thank you Cariad"
.
.
They were almost finished their breakfast, Toshiko sipping her tea as Owen started to politely clear things away. The phone ringing made them freeze.
Again?
"Oi oi!"
"Rhys?" Jack had the phone on speaker and he looked at the others with a strange feeling of relief. It was only Rhys.
"Me and Andy are wandering the feckin street right now. We got up for our morning run and some bastards in red caps flew past n a paddy wagon heading for our safe house. Thought we should let you know, it's like they knew where we were all along."
Ianto didn't answer, his argument that those two using one of Andy's family's empty apartment to stay in for a wile was suss to begin with a mote point now.
"Well, we are moving up our plans too. We are moving out in about half an hour… meet you by the lock?" Jack said as he looked to Ianto for confirmation that they were going to London like they had talked about earlier. Ianto nodded and moved off to change his shirt, the baby drool sticky.
Once again, Jack felt the urgency in Iantos' actions.
UNIT were still playing games.
.
.
"Rhia, are ya sure?" Rhys asked with open concern as he helped lift supplies from the skiff to the boat.
"Yeah. They almost swooped on the kids, we had to move fast. Why we changed our meeting time. You ringing was fortuitous" Ianto replied.
"Right. So… what now?"
"Something has made them do this, some reason to suddenly act instead of continuing to observe. Toshiko? Are their babies OK?" Ianto turned to her.
"Well, no reports of change across the paperwork no… but … there is a doctor's note about teething" she frowned as she lifted her tablet to bring it up "Here. Titan. Titan is teething, volatile. Sedation needed."
"Sedation. He's teething so they sedate him? Is there a baby called Titan? Who the hell called their son that!" Rhys spluttered.
"Teeth? Already?" Owen frowned "Nah… I … that's code for something else right? Teething … what the hell do they mean?"
"Teething problems might not mean teeth, Owens right. Look into it sweetie" Ianto patted Owen on the shoulder as praise and Owen visibly straightened his back with pride.
"What next?" Jack asked softly as he leaned in to kiss Ianto's cheek.
"Well, I still need to move. I am not going to let up on this, we were only going to do this for a another few days, we are simply bringing the timeline forward" Ianto replied.
"So… where to now?" Owen asked firmly.
"With four older kids, two babies…. I have to think. I have a few fallbacks but…. Not like this. I want one we can settle in at for a few weeks… months would be better." Ianto frowned "I need to pace and this boat is not big enough for that."
"You going ashore?"
"For a while"
Jack watched Ianto head for the riverbank and then disappear into the foliage along the side, no doubt to do just what he said he would.
Pace.
"You not going after him?" Owen asked.
"He needs to process. Think… think of a computer doing three or four tasks at once. Adding another slows the entire system down. Right now, I would slow his system down if ya know what I mean. He needs to think" Jack assured Owen "It's OK. He said it, he has several options, he will simply be trying to find one that is best for all of us, probably including Lucia if we can catch up to her. Also… the other one… we have to accept might be gone. And he has to come to terms with that before talking out loud about it to certain others."
Everyone looked over at the kids, knowing Rhiannon was probably a hot potato and those kids would not see their mother for some time now.
Yeah.
.
.
.
Sorry for no catch up yesterday, a very pesky cyclone is trying to wash away my country and it makes for some extra Real World dramas. Never fear… I am still here and will be fine. We have been through floods, cyclones, tornadoes, earthquakes… we will prevail.
National State of Emergency but we are safe.