4

They headed down the stairs to chaos. A TV had been brought in and someone was trying to get it to work, both men sharing a glance as they knew the atmosphere outside might prohibit that.

"My bloody cell phone isn't working" someone complained, others chiming in and Ianto loked around.

"There's a landline. I am sure that we can reimburse the church for any calls" he pointed out and then watched people run for it.

"You think that will work?" Jack whispered.

"Local calls only."

Jack nodded his agreement, satellites no doubt not able to help them with anything outside of the area. Jack's eyes moved around the church "Right. Let's start looking busy."

"Your flight attendant has done a head check from the manifest, and we are all here. We need our luggage here too, so… go look important and puffy. I will try and sort out some food. They might calm done if we feed them. Then it's just sleeping arrangements to sort."

Jack nodded, moving off and Ianto wondered why he chose him to talk to, of all the passengers. He headed into the kitchen of the place, it was a large industrial one that clearly fed homeless people as well as social gatherings and the wedding leftovers were still there. Well… that's a start.

"Excuse me"

He turned to find the flight attendant there, her hands clasping the clipboard.

"Yes pet?"

"You are Ianto Jones right?" she asked looking at the list.

"that's right. We all accounted for I take it?" Ianto asked as he lifted a lid to find soup in the large cauldron style pot.

"Yes, was some confusion over the couple who did not have their little boy with them, but it turns out he recently died… they brought his ashes in his seat. Creepy" she shuddered "All accounted for plus a creepy one. I was looking for the Captain and someone said he was talking to you?"

Good God. Well, would he do any different? Instead he said "We can add to this with those left over veggies over there and the cold meat. Is this OK to be used? Go find out for me love."

She rushed off to find out and soon nodded at him through the kitchen's open slide.

Ianto pulled over the remains of a roast, the bone still there and some meat on it. He took a large bread knife and started hacking at it, the meat coming off in hanks and shreds. He knew this would make the soup more of an Irish stew and it might be enough for now.

Then he noticed her still there in the doorway "What is it love?"

"Next to your name. When the Captina saw it he sort of tapped the paper and went looking for you. I see he found you and… I was wondering…"

Ianto leaned over to look at the list and was surprised to find a small crown next to his name, making him smile "Ah. Queen's Guard. That is a symbol to show I work for Her Majesty. Or did. Once I did my tour of duty in the army, I was chosen to join the Queen's Guard. You know… we are her personal security guards. We go around like the secret service. I was wounded on duty and am retired now. I guess they still kept the rank next to my name. Huh."

"How were you wounded? Not a horse hoof to the gonads I hope" another voice chimed in and he turned to find the co-pilot… Hart.. in the doorway.

"No, there was an intruder in the Palace, and I chased him to the roof. He then attacked me and another of the Queen's Garad. We all fell. He died… well… they both died, and I broke my pelvis."

"I heard abut that. Huh. They never gave names. Wow. That must have hurt. Are you scared? Tell me… need it kissed better at all? I am available to scar tissue care" Hart moved into the room and looked at what he was doing, then the pot. He then opened the fridge and started to remove what loked like cold roasted vegetables.

"We can fry those" Ianto pointed out "If you want to cut some large hunks off that ham over there, looks like almost half a bloody pig not eaten, we can fry up that as well. Soup, piggy and fried veggies. Sounds like heaven. If only we had bread too."

"Well, there is a whole heap of buns in the walk-in chiller, the wedding party finished due to the groom not turning up ya know. The bride's family had a feed and then just… left. We tried to get them to take the food, but they said we could chuck it out." a young girl said aa she entered and Ianto smiled as she had greeted them at the door and been so sweet to the kids.

"Well… sounds like a feast. We will need tables set up, make it buffet style I guess." Ianto said as he went back to the soup.

"Oi, Oi. Anything I can do to help?"

"Rhys. Yeah… wanna fry some veggies?"

"Bloody hell" the man spluttered "This is looking grand."

"Where's ya missus?" Ianto asked, looking warily toward the door and Rhys laughed.

"Don't worry. Gwen has some poor town official bailed up, asking for feminine products like they are all about to cycle together or something" the man laughed as he started to expertly cut up the vegetables. Good. Man can cook.

"So, how long do you think we will be here?" Rhy asked after a while.

"Let's not consider leaving anytime soon" John Hart answered softly glancing toward the door "as long as the sky is like that… we are better off here where it's safe."

Screaming, yelling and chaos started in the main church and Ianto sighed as he turned to look at John "Sounds like someone got a TV working."

"Yeah. Wanna go watch shit hitting the fan?"

"Nope. I am hungry. I want some fucking soup for a starter and some fried ham and fried up veggies for the main. I think I will poach the eggs in another huge pot." Ianto said conversationally as he loked over at the trays of eggs.

"You know what? I'm with you" Rhys answered "A nice greasy meal and then they might settle down so we can sort out the sleeping arrangements. I know some of them want a men's area and a women's area but those of us together might not be happy being separated."

"Then both is best. A men's area… couples and family in the middle and the women at the other end. If we push pews together facing one another, we can make some beds. Hard wood but there are probably prayer mats or something somewhere around here… a Sunday school for the kids with mats?" Ianto shrugged.

And so, they had a plan there too.

Ianto did not even seem to realise that he was leading. And they were looking to him.

He just did what he always did. He moved forward.

Away from the past and the disappointments.