Fffc Bingo Card - To the moon and back

[m_findlow]

Title: To the moon and back 
Fandom: Torchwood
Characters: Ianto, Jack
Author: m_findlow
Rating: PG
Length: 1,000 words
Content notes: none 
Author notes: Written for Bingo Card Prompt 41 - Moon at fffc
Summary: Sian is furious at her parents for having adventures without them. 

‘What's all this? Ianto asked as he spun around and heard the thud of a box being dropped on the kitchen table. 

‘I'm spring cleaning,’ came Sian's reply. 

Ianto smirked. ‘I think you're a bit late for that. It's July.’ 

She rolled her eyes in that delightfully teenage way. ‘Duh, Dad. I know it's summer. I thought you'd be happy I'm cleaning stuff out.’ 

‘I'm utterly over the moon about it.’ It only happened once every three years. There must be some astral energy emitted from a far way conjunction of planets that caused children to suddenly behave like adults for five minutes. 

Sian leaned over the table and rummaged through the box of things that were obviously destined for the hub - posters of boybands who'd fallen out of favour for younger, more popular ones, which occurred about every six months, books for the op shop, grade five pottery and other plastic knick-knacks that had been collected from vending machines that parked themselves outside supermarkets right in the line of sight of small children. ‘D'you want this back?’ she asked, holding out her chunk of moon rock. ‘Figure you probably want to stuff it back in the Torchwood junk room.’ 

Ianto bit his lip at her description of the archives. They'd been his pride and joy for many a year. No matter how many times he'd taken the kids down there, instead of the museum, trying to teach them all about the universe, they'd given him the same bored looks. To them, it was all just ancient junk. ‘Don't you want to keep that?’ he asked. ‘It's yours. We didn't go all the way to the moon to bring it back for you just for fun. I picked it out especially.’ 

Sian's expression dropped. ‘What? You and Dad went to the moon and you didn't tell us?’ 

‘You can't buy moon rocks on eBay, you know.’ 

Sian's expression grew darker. ‘You went to the moon.’ It wasn't a question. 

‘Yes.’ 

‘I can't believe you! You went without us?’ 

At fourteen that made her still a bit too young to be interested in boys, which therefore meant she still had time and energy to be interested in doing stuff with her dads that would be deemed cool. That also meant she'd be mad as hell if her dads did something cool and hadn't included her in on the action.

‘You were too young,’ he said, right at the moment Jack breezed through, carrying his laptop. 

‘Oh, and you never thought since then that we were old enough either, huh? You're unbelievable. Tom's gonna be mad as "you know what" when I tell him.’ 

Ianto could put up with a lot, but there came a time at which he had to set his foot down. ‘Do not use that language, Missy!’ 

‘What? You know what?’ 

‘You know that we all know perfectly well what you mean when you say "you know what". Just saying "you know what" doesn't absolve you from what you really mean.’ 

‘Geez, I'm getting a headache just from trying to wrap my brain around the sentence,’ Jack teased. 

Sian gave an exasperated sigh and spun on her heels, marching out of the kitchen and down the hall, slamming her bedroom door loudly. Ianto followed after her and knocked on the door, which was a remarkably polite response to just having been ignored. ‘We haven't finished talking.’ 

‘Yes we have.’ 

Ianto jiggled the door handle, finding it locked. ‘The door is locked. Why on Earth did we ever let them have doors that locked from the inside?’ 

‘Uh, to stop anything alien and nasty getting in there,’ Jack replied, remembering how insistent Ianto had been on the locks in the first place all those years ago. Jack had thought it was overkill, since they would never knowingly bring anything dangerous within five miles of their house. Of course, it hadn't stopped things from finding their own way there. Honestly were they listed in some intergalactic phone book these days? As much as he always loathe to admit it, the locks had come in handy on at least two occasions he could remember. 

Ianto sighed, feeling temporarily defeated. ‘Well, at least from in there she can't go spilling the beans to anyone else.’ 

Jack smirked. ‘You forget they own mobile phones.’ 

‘Damn. Why on Earth did we let them have mobile phones?’ 

Jack smiled at the facetious question. ‘Why don't you let me talk to her.’ 

‘No, I've got this.’ 

‘No, I think you really don't. You've taken your share of the blame already. I'm fresh meat. She hasn't had a chance to rant at me yet, which gives me a chance to get in there.’ 

Ianto sighed. Jack could tell he hated these moments of failure as a parent. ‘Fine.’ 

Jack knocked gently. ‘Baby? It's Dad. Can I come in?’ 

The door cracked open a few inches and Jack caught the glowering blue eyes staring back at him through the gap. Gods, but it was like looking in a mirror sometimes. He didn't like that angry expression he had so often worn being displayed on his daughter's face. 

‘Just you?’ 

Jack nodded. ‘Just me,’ he said, shooing Ianto away. The door creaked open a little wider and Jack slipped through before she changed her mind. 

There was stuff everywhere. If this was spring cleaning, he hated to see what making a mess looked like. 

‘You went without us,’ came the accusation. 

Jack perched on the only available spot on the bed. ‘Your Dad and I have done lots of things without you.’

‘It's not fair.’ 

‘You might not think so, but there's always a good reason for it.’ He held out the moon rock. ‘Your Dad went two hundred and forty thousand miles to get you this. If that's not love, I don't know what is. How many other dads have ever done that?’ 

She took it from his outstretched hand. ‘Yeah alright. I suppose I can forgive you.’