37

As quickly as it started… it stopped.

The babies were limp and unresponsive as they were cradled by their parentals. Some faint sobbing from the confused older kids and a soft dripping as a bottle of fizzy had been knocked over during the melee. Other than that… silence.

Jack didn't know what to do so he looked over at Ianto who seemed to have calmed down first, rising with the babies in his arms to hand them off to Andy and Rhys. Ianto was trying to unruffled himself, his hands flapping out form the wrists as he walked in a small circle taking deep breaths. Thinking. The he stopped, looked at his feet and grunted. Jack knew that grunt.

IDEA GRUNT.

"What are we doing" Jack asked as he moved closer to watch Ianto open a laptop and boot it up.

"We are looking at the others" Ianto replied, breaking through firewalls Toshiko had not been able to and giving away so much more of a skill set than Jack expected.

"Anything?" Toshiko asked shakily.

"Yeah… they have marked Titan A as Deleted" Ianto said softly, then balked as he placed the laptop down carefully, then started to back way from it like it was a rattlesnake "deleted… destroyed… eliminated… oh shit. Oh shit. Tosh. They are murdering the babies in their lab A."

"What?" Andy rose with shock, his face pale. "What do we do?"

"It's done. The reports are coming through but clearly the babies are over it so… it's over" Jack said with raw sorrow "Nothing we can do. Bastards… oh god. Do you think the parentals… fuck. I hope they didn't make the parents watch. I… I couldn't."

"So it's what I thought" Ianto looked over at Toshiko like there was no one else in the room "there is some sort of connection between them, right?"

"Must be, to know…react. Something faint but, some sort of… you knew? How?" she asked.

Ianto seemed to consider then he answered "It sounds weird but… I felt it. I thought it was a migraine coming on from fatigue or something. When the convulsing started…"

"Sex helps?" Owen asked with annoyance "you were having some sexy time to stave off a migraine?"

"I will not deem to answer that Owen, as it is a possible remedy you will not be testing out anytime soon. Jack only works for me" Ianto said, winking as soft laughter started around them. False bravado as they now hid their fear.

Owen spluttered indignantly, the relief in his actions clear as he checked the babies and declared them all OK. This also stopped the next question that had been about to fall from Toshiko's lips and Ianto was not ready to answer that one. He was not sure. But… yeah. Empathic? Telepathic? Something enhanced and probably not human in there.

Ianto was sitting back now as Toshio took over the laptop, her face changing to anger as she read the reports as they were coming through.

Ianto was right.

They were killing the babies in one of the labs. Oh god, she glanced over to find Ianto with his son cuddled into him, the little girl she had started to think of as Ianto and Jack's as well, clinging to Jack with wide eyes like, even at her young age, she knew fear.

"Ianto… they have a count here. They… they just killed one room of them, one focus group. Eight babies" She whispered with horror "They watched the other two groups that are separated to see their reactions. One is in the same facility, the other is… in Cardiff."

"So that is where they will have Rhiannon too" Ianto snorted, "One big trap. Right."

"You think?" Andy asked.

"Yeah. This was… a test. To see what the others would do, a cold hearted test. Only a third of the kids were there… less than maybe. This was not just to see what would happen… oh hit… this was to see if it would flush out any others that might be hiding" Ianto replied with growing horror as he looked around the room, everyone knowing he was right "We will sit and watch. Toshiko, can we watch the Emergency Rooms to see if anyone comes in with a baby with convulsions or something… could be we overlooked some of those from the village."

"Shit… you think so? They are trying to flush out hiding babies?" Rhys was now angry, rising to snatch one of the babies up like he had to defend with his life right then and there. A good man.

"You know Rhys… you are a lovely guy" Andy said softly as he smiled at his lover "My lovely big Teddy Bear with massive paws, blades for claws."

"Let them come" Rhys snarled, "I will fuck shit up!"

"Sweat Jar Uncle!" Alice giggled.

"Arghhhhh" Rhys made a show of being horrified "I am not a millionaire ya know!"

Soft laugher now as everyone relaxed.

Ianto was right.

The best thing to do right now was hunker down more, get further into the shadows.

The flushing out of stragglers had begun.

.

.

.

IT has been a very stressful week but things are looking better. Thank you to everyone who offered support. It did matter to me. I do love you all, my crazy Torchwood family.

My oldest brother was lucky. Those in the region that lost their lives were from the same area as him but he … it seems as always… was lucky. His house is undamaged. Apart from no power or cell phones for the first few days it has been restored with generators and temporary cell towers. Our Civil Defense, Army, Navy and civilians all worked together.

There is loss of lives, there are large… HUGE loss of animals, from pets to livestock. Our farming industry took a huge hit, as did the agricultural one. Hawkes Bay wine will be worth a bloody lot now. Fruit and veggies are all gone, huge crops taken. It is devastating and yet amazing to see the damage done. Houses gone… just gone. A bathtub in a tree… people picking up watermelons still bobbing in the water from a nearby farm, so thick against the wire fence that once held deer that it is a green boundary now.

A river burst it's banks and that caused the most damage, people in their homes caught in the tsunami of mud and debris. No chance. Swept off their feet as they ran. Shocking and horrible but so many stories of heroes and faith in each other. We prevailed, we stood together and held on tight not only to ourselves and our families… but anyone else we could reach.

It will be weeks before some roads are opened, some areas reached and bodies retrieved but in the meantime I am thankful that we are all OK.