m_findlow

Title: Meeting in the middle
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Jack, Ianto, Rhiannon, David, Mica
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,269 words
Content notes: Written for Challenge 33 - Compromise
Summary: Introducing Jack to his family doesn't quite go according to plan

Ianto pulled the car over to the kerb side and stopped, pausing over the wheel as he stared at the house.

'Before we go in, I need to lay down some ground rules, okay?'

Jack nodded. 'Okay,' he said, half expecting that this had been forthcoming, but that Ianto had been putting it off until the last possible moment.

'Rhi has told them about us being together. And, that this hasn't exactly been a new development.' He felt awkward even saying it out loud. He loved Jack, but verbalising the status of their relationship just wasn't the done thing.

'They were okay with it?' Jack asked.

'They're kids,' he replied, staring blankly out the windscreen, as if that answered the question in its entirety. 'Apparently they think it's cool.'

'It is cool,' he said, reaching across and taking Ianto's hand in his own.

'Jack, we can't tell them anything about Torchwood or what we do.'

'Understood,' Jack said, hoping that was the end of the matter.

'I'm serious. It's bad enough that Rhi knows what we do. I don't want the kids worried about weevils in the sewers and the world ending every other day. If they ask you what you do, tell them you're a speechwriter, or something.'

'A speechwriter?'

'Or something.'

'Something more exciting than a speechwriter, I hope.'

Ianto ignored the attempt at a joke.

'And there's the fact that if they knew, they'd want to tell everyone about it. Not that I think they'd be believed, but they're kids. If they start telling stories at school about flying saucers and blowfish, their teachers will get upset, other kids might make fun of them, and David, well, don't think he wouldn't put up a fight if he thought he was defending the truth, or Mica for that matter. Being a kid is hard enough without all of that.'

'You really love thinking up these worst case scenarios, don't you?' Jack chuckled, trying to lighten the mood.

'Take it from one who knows,' came the reply, sobering him.

Jack understood, he really did. Ianto only wanted to protect his family as best he could, and if them not knowing how dangerous a place it was that they lived in would ease his conscience, then Jack would abide by that. He squeezed Ianto's hand.

'I get it. No Torchwood, no aliens, just you and me and our boring nine to five jobs I'm just glad that you still want me to be a part of your family.'

'Of course I do,' Ianto said, surprised as Jack's suggestion. 'You guys are all I have.'

Jack leaned over for a kiss. 'Then let's go do this.'

They were barely inside the door before feet could be heard pounding down the hall in their direction.

'Uncle Ianto! Uncle Ianto! We saw you on TV!' David yelled.

Oh dear.

'Did you, now?' he replied, trying to stay coy, still trying to figure out a way to convince them it wasn't him, having not seen the footage for himself, but having a pretty good idea what they were referring to. Once they spied Jack in the same frame there'd be no convincing them otherwise. Every time they thought they'd scrambled and stolen every last piece of media film, there was always was one that manged to slip through the cracks. Curse the modern age of camera phones.

'You were so brave!' Mica squealed in awe.

'It was aliens, wasn't it, Uncle Jack?' David said, tugging on his sleeve, drawing them into the living room.

'Uncle Jack?' Ianto muttered, raising his eyebrow. 'You've been here less than five minutes and already you're Uncle Jack?' he added, wondering what on earth Rhiannon had told them about his relationship with Jack.

'Did they want to be friends?' Mica asked, also looking up at Jack.

'Don't be stupid,' David said, 'they wanted to suck our brains out and eat them, didn't they?'

Ianto trod on Jack's foot before he could open his big mouth and agree. David was unfortunately very close to the mark. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the thought that he had clearly inherited his mother's wild sense of imagination.

He sighed, surveying the scene that was already spiraling out of control before it had barely begun.

'What have you been telling them, Rhi?'

She threw her hands up. 'I didn't say anything, I swear. It's not my fault if you get your silly face splashed all over the telly. They're kids; what are they supposed to think? And don't even get me started. What the hell did you think you were doing hanging off the back of a speeding car? You could've gotten yourself killed! Come here,' she said, pulling him into a tight hug.

'Yeah, but now they think we're some kind of alien crime fighters,' he said, once he'd manage to get his breath back.

'Well, aren't you?'

Ianto sputtered. 'That's not the point!' he hissed quietly. 'We're public servants.'

'And you think that's going to wash with them?' she replied, nodding at the kids who were crawling all over Jack, peppering him with questions, whilst he lapped up the attention.

'Josie Richards down the street is thick as two planks, and even she wouldn't believe you if you told her that.'

Jack scooped up Mica, telling her not to worry about aliens, and that if they came after her, he'd come and capture them and take them far, far away.

Jack looked at him. 'I think the cat's out of the bag, Ianto,' he said. 'That's what you get for being dashing in public.'

'Uncle Ianto, will you stay with us tonight in case the aliens come back?' Mica said, lip trembling just slightly.

He leaned over and gave her a kiss, surprised by his own open display of affection. He decided to blame Jack and his pheromones. They had a habit of making him light-headed and demonstrative, rather like being drunk. So much for the long list of rules he'd put around his family to protect them. Already he was being forced to make a compromise.

'If we stay here, who will protect all the other little boys and girls?' he replied.

'I knew it was true!' David cried, jumping up and down like it was Christmas. 'Tell us everything!'

Ianto looked at Jack, then over at his sister in askance. 'They're your kids,' he said, giving her the last word on the matter, since it was clearly out of his own hands now.

She fixed him with a look. 'If they have nightmares, you'll be the one getting the call in the middle of the night to come sort it out,' she warned.

'Forget the aliens,' Jack said, 'did you know we have a pet dinosaur? Why don't I tell you both about how uncle Ianto caught it using chocolate as bait.'

Rhiannon folded her arms over and watched the past the three of them piled onto the sofa, enraptured by Jack's promise of exciting stories and heroic deeds.

'So her name's Myfanwy, and she's a pteranadon from millions of years ago who fell through a gap in time...'

'He's not serious, is he?' she asked, looking skeptical.

'He is. It's actually one of the least weird stories. It's also pretty much how we met. That's why he loves it so much.'

She sighed. 'Nothing's ever going to be the same around here anymore, is it?'

He stared stupidly at his lover, who was curled up between the pair of them, as if he'd been part of the family forever.

'Not a chance,' he replied.