5
They were looking over the heads of those who had arrived from the city and Ianto felt a small tendril of fear, approaching the handsome young man with a flop of dark hair who was trying to wrangle a small child "Norvil. Where is your sister?"
"I don't know Grandy, she didn't answer my text, I sent it like agreed." He replied, looking up and for the first time it was evident from his steely gaze that this was of Ianto's bloodline.
Ianto gave a soft huff, looking around for Jack and finding him looking back across the sea of people, his own face full of concern. He walked over "Not even a reply?"
"No, I texted, Villy texted, she is not answering." Ianto replied "I swear… she is as stubborn as her mother."
"Yes, but she did have the sense to do as he was told" Jack replied, defending their daughter, long dead and gone in childbirth that resulted in Rhiannon and her twin brother Norvil. It had been a harsh blow to lose her, to have to raise their grandchildren alongside their own children but this was what it was, Ianto and Jack not complaining as their grandchildren gave them joy, and the great-grandchildren as well.
Yeah…. These two were older than they looked and as such… they moved like dancers in a long-danced routine. Every fifty or sixty years or so a large fight would make them have a break but as always, they would come back tighter in unity as the time apart reminded them that there was no better place than in one another's arms. Their babies around them.
Speaking of which, Ianto was now worried about Mica. David was here, as per usual running around but Mica had stayed with her mother, in town with the feckless bastard Norm Rhiannon had married behind their back and mated with before letting them know she had done so.
Damn it.
"She is as strong willed as her mother" Ianto muttered his anger thrumming as he looked around once more, then sighed "We might need to go get her."
"We agreed not to leave now things were getting tense." Jack warned.
"You know I have to… you can't. You stay here and finalize the boarding of the livestock and bloody mind changers, I will just go along the road and possibly meet her truck on the way here" Ianto assured his mate, a hand going to Jack's stomach to sooth and bless the life within.
Why Jack was benched. Their latest child growing within. Another surprise they did not expect so late in their lives with their adult children and grandchildren already gown with their own families. But damn… here we are.
Jack knew Ianto was lying as much as he did, but also knew he had a better chance of walking around in the Norm world so he nodded. Watching with hidden fear, his eyes tracked Ianto going inside to change. He turned back to the others "Come on. I need to go over the pre-flight checks and Toshi, go check in with the other Colony, make sure they are ready to board and go. Those hand scanners were a scare."
Everyone moved off as in the bathroom of his house Ianto finally shaved away the beard and dyed whiskers to reveal a youthful and handsome face.
The time to hide was over, he had to move fast and for this, he had no time for games.
Ianto Jones stared back through the mirror at the handsome man who seemed to be only in his twenties, not anciently over two hundred or so.
Gotta love these mutant genes.
.
.
Ianto parked and turned to the one with him "This is where I must leave you. Stay here. Wait as long as you can. Then, if I have not returned… go. You must make the take-off time. If I am late, I will simply adjust my course to the second colony and meet you all there."
"Grandy…"
"Do not argue with me Shelby. I have to get your cousin, even if she is the most vexing of my grandchildren" Ianto leaned in to kiss the weathered face of one of his many bloodline, the older woman lifting her head to accept the gentle kiss to her face and she nodded, knowing that her Grandy never lied. Not in her sixty-two years of life, had he ever lied.
Ianto exited the deep foliage by the road and across it, heading for the roadblock and the city limit beyond. Goddamn it all, he hated doing this. It would use so much energy, so much power, when he knew the day was far from over yet.
"Who goes there!" a guard yelled, and it was a woman looking to be in her fiftyish odd years of life that answered softly in her feminine voice that she was crossing the border to go into the market. The skirts that Shelby had been fluffing in the vehicle now wafting around her heels.
Shelby smiled politely as the barrier was moved and the man touched his cap to the pretty lady, who despite being old enough to be his mother seemed to have a certain way about her that was… intoxicating.
Real-Shelby watched for a few moment until her Grandy disappeared from view into the checkout, the guard resetting the barriers as her Grandy sashayed past and she resumed her seat in the Jeep to wait.
Dammed if it wasn't weird to see herself moving like that but Grandy always held a woman's body differently. Something her Grandpa always hissed was evil, even as he lusted after his mate when playing in someone else's skin.
Of all his powers, this is the one she was most jealous of, as most of those who had not gained that one were.
A glimmer.
Able to take the image of anyone he touched skin to skin, even if only momentarily. He could also hold it the longest of anyone she knew, almost half an hour if struggling, mostly twenty with ease.
By now he will have chosen another skin, moving freely amongst the Normals, indetectable by those scanners as his outer skin will reflect only the DNA of the last person chosen.
But Rhiannon does not have that power, nor does her little one. Grandy will have to do some fast talking to get them out of wherever they are.
But he will already be three steps ahead on that.
Shelby started to hum softly as she looked up at the canopy of the trees she was parked under.
Might take a wee nap.