Anythingdrabble Challenge 150 - False alarms
Title: False alarms
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters/Pairings: Jack, Ianto
Word Count: 500 words
Rating: PG. Contains M-preg
Notes: Written for Challenge 150 - Alarm at anythingdrabble
Summary: Ianto's noises are turning Jack into a nervous Nelly.
Ianto winced and placed a hand on his swollen stomach. 'Oof!' he uttered, bending forward slightly.
Jack reached for the TV remote and hit the mute button. 'Don't you dare,' Jack warned him.
'What?'
Jack glared at him. 'You. Making sounds like that. Are you trying to scare me?'
Ianto looked surprised by the comment. 'I got a twinge in my back. So would you if you had the equivalent of a sack of potatoes pulling your spine out of place. Now I'm not allowed to react to that?'
'I thought maybe it was something else.'
Ianto raised an eyebrow at him, rubbing his stomach. 'Something else?'
Jack squirmed. 'You know, like a contraction, or worse.'
Ianto moved his hand from his belly to Jack's knee. 'Stand down, Captain. It's a false alarm if you think I'm ready for all of that.'
'Thirty one weeks is not that far from ready,' Jack insisted.
'It's fine.'
'Ianto, I love you, and I love that you can be so calm about all of this, but I've got to tell you, my poor heart can't stand it. I feel like I'm in a permanent state of panic, wondering if you're okay, wondering if our babies are okay.'
'You said you were pregnant once before.'
'I know, but this is different. I'm genetically advanced enough that this kind of thing is possible. You shouldn't be, but traveling in the TARDIS must have changed you. No one can be one hundred percent certain that this will be like a normal fifty-first century pregnancy.'
Ianto chuckled. 'I love how you describe this as a normal fifty-first century pregnancy.'
'Except it isn't, because you're not from the fifty-first century.'
'Well, seven months in and I think we can say it's gone as smoothly as we could hope.'
'Oh, sure, if you discount the two months you spent puking your guts out and lying on our bathroom tiles.'
'If your DNA was being rewritten you'd probably feel a bit queasy too.'
Jack shook his head. 'You should be freaking out. This calm Ianto scares me.'
'Well, one of us has to keep their head. If I was fussing you'd only tell me to calm down so I didn't put additional strain on the babies. I'm just cutting out the middle man.'
'Still, I worry.'
'I know. And I love that you worry. I don't know how I'd feel if I didn't have you here. Calm is one thing I definitely wouldn't be.' He rested his hand on his stomach and felt a small kick. He grabbed for Jack's hand and placed it there so that he could feel it too. 'I think we're going to get a few false alarms before this is over, so we'd better get used to it. Nothing about our relationship has ever been straightforward, so I wouldn't count on this being straightforward either.'
Jack leant his head on Ianto's shoulder. 'Might be you're the one reminding me to take a few deep breaths.'