7- Pensive Title: Pensive Authors:becky_h and baffledking Characters: Jack Harkness and Ianto Jones Fandom: Torchwood Theme Set: Theme Set #LW1 Theme(s): Pensive Warnings and Notes: Mpreg
Everyone else was gone for the day, exhausted after all of them being chased and chasing around an alien monkey that was, basically, an eight foot toddler.
Ianto was sitting in the kitchen, feet propped up on the table and reading a pregnancy book.
Jack wandered in yawning, made himself a cup of coffee and sprawled in a chair across from Ianto. "Anything interesting in there?"
"Are you feeling especially sexy, sir?" Ianto asked idly.
"...What?" he asked, blankly.
"The book," he shook his head and closed the book, "How are you?"
"Feeling a little more 'stuffed and nauseated' than sexy, actually."
"So noted. What can I do?"
"Stop hovering."
"Not possible. What else?" he said briskly.
"Tell me about what you've been reading?"
"Pregnancy and child rearing books."
"I meant specifically what you're learning from them," he explained, patiently.
"How to raise a child," he said dryly.
"Anything about alien children in there?"
"No, sir, I'm thinking of writing the editor."
He laughed. "That could be amusing. You'll be okay, Ianto."
"So will you, Jack."
"You realize it's likely that I'm going to die in the process of this thing coming out, don't you?"
"I guessed," he nodded, "C-section."
"No."
"No?"
He shook his head. "No. It would require someone else being involved or you killing me. There's also no way to be sure of dates or how ready the thing is to come out. "
"It might not come out any other way."
"I'll handle it," he said calmly. "You just need to be prepared for the possibility of a mess."
"Okay," he said carefully.
"Okay." He sighed with relief.
"It's month seven," Ianto said quietly.
"...Yes?"
"Two more months if it were human."
"...Yes?"
"So soon."
"Yeah," he agreed. "I should probably send you out shopping, and you're going to need to make sure you've got some place to go, if you're committed to doing this."
"I've made plans, sir."
"What sort of plans?"
"To move."
"Have you found a place yet?"
"Yes, and a job to move to," he said softly.
"Good." It wasn't. It broke his heart. He understood it as much as he resented it.
Ianto held his hand out to Jack.
He shook his head, slightly. He didn't usually turn down any sort of physical contact, but he just couldn't. He was feeling invaded and taken over and extraneous and generally not wanted, period. Hormones were part of that. Circumstances were the rest. "Where is it?"
"In my home town. There's a cottage," he said quietly, "My family's near. I told them I was having a baby and my girlfriend couldn't keep it."
"It should be close enough to human for that to work for a while. At least as long as no one looks too close. You'll still have to be careful."
"I"m always careful, Jack."
"I know." He was thoughtful, quiet and introspective. "We really need to work this out. If the kid's born here, you're going to have to travel, and people," Notably the team, "are going to ask questions. I'm not quite prepared to go to your cottage. How far away's the nearest hotel?"
"From the cottage? Two blocks. But if the child's born here, I take family leave, you take me down to my home, and I leave Torchwood to take care of my sick gran."
"I think the bigger consideration is where I am for the time it takes for me," he said, almost dismissively. "Maybe just a hotel here. I can blame a weevil later, and then we can blame your gran."
"I meant that you'd go into labor and we'd lock up the hub."
"What about the others?" Pregnancy brain or something. He wasn't following well.
"Lock up the hub and say they have 3 days off."
"How far is it from here?"
"Two hours."
"Okay," he agreed.
"Jack?"
"Yeah?"
"Are you okay?"
"Okay how?"
"Any way."
"I'm fine," he said quietly.
"Are you sure?" he asked softly.
he nodded, slightly, slow and silently.
He held his hand out again.
"Are we going somewhere?"
"No, I just want to hold your hand."
"Why?"
"Because I love you, because I want to touch you as often as possible, and because I have about two months with you before I probably never see you again. Hold my goddamn hand, Jack."
He took Ianto's hand, palm to palm, wove his fingers through and propped his head on his other hand - heel of his hand right against the bridge of his nose, fingers in his hair.
"Thank you," he said softly, holding on to Jack.
He squeezed and jostled Ianto's hand a little in acknowledgment.