29

"It's OK" Ianto said yet again as Jack fussed and he slapped at his hands at they tried to pull the tunic together "Cariad. Come on. You are still recovering from childbirth. It can take weeks for the body to reset, you know that."

"But I like this one and have been looking forward to fitting it again" Jack huffed then groaned as the strain on the button already done up was too much and it pinged off to fly across the room and John yelped in the doorway as he ducked like it was a bullet.

The button then pinged off the bulkhead and Ianto napped his wrist without blinking to catch it on the ricochet.

"Show off" John said calmly, as he straightened up, pulling at his own tunic "Mine is snug too. I think the food on this vessel is too…. Good. We need to consider exercise now we have room. Maybe a nice walkway or something inside the safe zone?"

Jack pointed a finger across Ianto's shoulder at John "Thank you! Yes. I haven't thought of that, more salad. And a nice garden border to walk?"

Ianto did not answer but made a noise in his throat that had Jack sniggering "Done worry darling I know you don't to salad, none for you. Why mess with perfection, hmmm?"

"I came to tell you the migration is complete and those fuzzy fucks are now in the other sector on the norther reach of the planet." John said as he looked around the private quarters like he had never been there before "And we were able to contact those at the other colony who had stayed back from the picnic, seems like they had a few casualties but their shields held and those who got to the bunker are OK. We took out enough that they lost some crops but not buildings. The only building lost was the one you incinerated and Rhys is still whinging about the time he had taken to build it."

"Well… can't be helped." Jack shrugged.

"Are they still claiming to have no knowledge of those things?" Ianto asked as he stepped away from Jack and check the wardrobe to find a slightly roomier tunic, whether Jack liked it or not. The captain does not have an open tunic on the flight deck of the bridge.

"Well, they still say the things had never gone this way, a couple of the older ones argue they warned that the things take a different migratory path sometimes and maybe one time might be this way but were shot down as being scaremongers." John snorted.

"Not listening to their elders. God, does the list of things I need to scold for gonna grow much more?" Jack groaned.

"Look, we need to know what else they have been hiding and we also need to have the BIG conversation with everyone as to whether we cut and run or dig in" Ianto said with annoyance, one hand going to the back of his neck as he showed his annoyance in a way Jack always found endearing… and a warning that Ianto was about to split heads open with anger.

"OK Tiger, first… we take a beat and calm down. Let them track those things and after we have had a few hours up here, a meal for our bodies and some meditation for our minds… we can have that conversation. Right?" Jack asked crouching slightly to be lower than Ianto so he can look up into Ianto's face while his chin was tucked into his chest in that closed 'gonna cut a bitch' way.

Ianto nodded silently, knowing that some time spent in their berth clinging to the baby girl wating for them would help. As they moved off, he glanced back at the monitor for the camera in the main hold where beds were being set up as the mother sat on the floor still cradling her own little one, their older child showing his anger now as he told his father off for leaving the baby. So… clearly the firstborn, the son, had been saved and the girl left… well… fuck. Was she left as a sacrifice? To slow the fucking things down so their son might live? Ianto scolded himself for such thoughts, knowing he had to let it go or he might really lose his shit an no one wanted him to show his ire.

.

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"What are you going to suggest?" Jack asked, watching Ianto as he lay with his hand on the little girl's stomach, watching her sleep. The most loving and renewing thing right now.

"Well, we have invested ourselves here."

"This was not your choice and…"

"Stop it. We can't have that mentality here, if they get the smell of this being your fault we are here or something stupid like that… there was a vote. EVERYONE had the chance to say yes or no… it was a landslide for here so that can be put to rest" Ianto scolded gently, careful not to wake the baby with his anger "no… we have to be serious here."

"So… whatever you say, I will back you up"

Ianto hummed softly, that not even something that needed to be said.

Jack knew to let Ianto have the lead.

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"OK, I think our first course of action is to ensure the safety of the two colonies. I am sorry, but the first colony will not survive. Their shields are crap and the vessel's shielding will not survive another two or three years" John said and Ianto nodded.

"So I propose we invite them to join us here and we create one large infrastructure." Ianto stopped talking as the place lit up, the voices raised as arguments broke out and there was also those begging for calm and compromise.

Jack stepped forward to take over from Ianto now they had the words begun "If we can consolidate we can create the shielding fencing to cover all of us, those little fuckers did not like fire so I am sure they will not like getting zapped with enough volts to kill a Gervosh."

Ianto nodded and added "And besides… it will ensure the inter-colony breeding needed for the bloodlines to continue and for there to be growth."

John knew things were on the cusp of a real explosion, so he stood and said calmly "I concur. This is our home, we fought to get here, we fought to dig in and we need to fight to make it what we need it to be. This is our home. We chose it… we wanted it and now we have it. And I will be fucking damned if I will let fuzzy balls scare ME off!"

The roars of agreement started and Ianto relaxed as the tide surged towards group mentality of agreement.

Ianto sat back and let it be, knowing that by the end of the day, at the evening meal there would be a vote and it would be done. The few stragglers would not really argue too much and would come into line.

He just needed to covertly ensure the status quo regarding the ones in charge did not change. He did not want to lose the ability to control the room when an emergency happened.

Then he would be satisfied.

Well… sort of.

This IS Ianto.