![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The plot bunnies are now slowly and cautiously creeping back, giving us a new chapter of Hope. ;)
http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/41185.html
Link to Part 12
http://amythest-n-ice.livejournal.com/46495.html
Link to Part 14
************************************
Jack looked down from his contemplation of the ceiling when he heard the door to medical swing open, smiling as he saw Ianto and the Doctor struggling to carry a table in.
“What are you two up to?”
“We thought we could all have dinner together tonight, I know you’ve been going stir crazy in the last week,” the Doctor said as they settled the table next to the bed.
“Well, you could just let me out of here, my blood pressure hasn’t even twitched since it stabilized,” Jack tried.
“That’s because you’re flat on your back Jack,” the Doctor pointed out.
Ianto smiled and left them to the light bickering, going to get two chairs for him and the Doctor.
When he came back in with the chairs, the Doctor was sitting beside Jack on the bed, one arm wrapped around his shoulders and the other hand resting on top of the bump. Jack’s eyes were closed, and he was leaning his head back on the Doctor’s shoulder.
“Is anything wrong?” Ianto asked in alarm.
“No, everything is great, the baby’s telepathic centers just became active, we can feel it,” the Doctor grinned.
“Oh,” Ianto said, feeling a little left out.
“Come here, Ianto,” Jack said vaguely, holding out his free hand to the other man.
“What?”
“He wants you to come and feel the baby,” the Doctor said.
“I’m not a telepath,” Ianto pointed out.
“Doesn’t matter right now, come on.”
Ianto walked over and took the hand that Jack was still holding out, sitting on the other side of the bed as Jack pressed Ianto’s hand down beside the Doctor’s.
Ianto felt a soft, warm buzzing inside his head, an odd feeling.
“What is that?” he asked.
“Contentment, Ianto that is the baby’s contentment. It’s far too young to form thoughts yet, and too young to know what its feeling, but it is contentment.”
“God,” Ianto breathed, awed.
“Something else isn’t it?” the Doctor asked quietly.
“Its amazing, truly amazing,” Ianto smiled.
The Doctor leaned down to kiss Jack’s forehead, resting his cheek on top of his head for a long moment, and then shifted Jack so that he was leaning against Ianto’s shoulder.
“I’ll go and get dinner, leave you two for a minute,” he said, sliding off the bed.
“Why did he leave?” Ianto asked.
“He just needed a moment, he’ll be back as soon as he sorts dinner out,” Jack said, knowing that the Time Lord’s thoughts had gone to his lost family, to the fact he had never experienced this with them, had never had a chance before this to feel his unborn child become telepathically awake, because they had been created the Gallifreyan way and not carried in the womb.
Ianto stroked his hand lightly over the bump, feeling the child inside flex and shift slightly in its now very confined quarters.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” Ianto asked.
“You mean when the baby moves? Not really, not now that there isn’t really room for kicking anymore anyway,” Jack said with a smile.
The Doctor came back in then, pushing a trolley along with the food on it, grinning at them.
“Dinner is served,” he said.
Jack could see that his eyes were slightly red, and a little damp, but he said nothing, it was up to the Doctor if he wanted to address the issue or not.
“Looks good, smells great,” Jack said as the Doctor hit the switch to raise the back of the bed into a sitting position. While Ianto set up the table for the Doctor and himself, the Doctor set up the bed table for Jack, grinning as he produced a single white bloom in a small glass vase and put it on the corner of Jack’s table.
“Where did you get that from? It isn’t one of the flowers from the gardens,” Jack said, smiling as he looked at it.
“No, I got it from outside, after I had the TARDIS scan it every which way from Sunday to make sure it was safe.”
“Thank you, it’s lovely.”
“Well, I thought that as you can’t go outside right now, I could bring something of the outside in to you,” the Doctor said, blushing faintly.
He placed Jack’s plate onto the bed table, and then he and Ianto sat down at the table with their own meals. Jack grinned at the full roast that was set before him, knowing that had to be Ianto’s doing. The Doctor could cook, but he didn’t have the patience to stay in one place long enough to prepare and cook something like this.
“Is this beef? Where did you get it from? It’s been ages since I had roast beef,” he said happily, biting into a succulent, tender piece.
“Ianto ran out and got it when we dropped Martha off,”
“Gods, Ianto, you are fantastic,” Jack groaned, taking another bite.
“You two only want me for my cooking, don’t you?” Ianto teased.
“No Ianto, we want you because we love you,” the Doctor said.
“That, and your damn sexy body, but we’ll have to wait a while to get to that,” Jack grinned.
“Idiot,” Ianto laughed, reaching out to smack Jack’s leg.
Jack grinned, tucking into his dinner. He couldn’t believe how much it lifted his mood, just having them both here at a time when they were usually gone.
After dinner, the Doctor stayed while Ianto went to get rid of the trolley and the plates, the Time Lord sat on the edge of the bed, once more pressing his hand to the curve of Jack’s stomach, feeling the soft static of the baby’s mind.
“Want to talk?” Jack finally asked.
The Doctor looked up as Ianto came back, now carrying a covered tray which he knew held dessert and tea, and leaning into Jack, he smiled slightly at the young human before looking back to the immortal, their beloved immortal.
“I never knew, never imagined, that it could be this way for me. I thought I had been given my chance at a family and blown it, even then, it wasn’t like this. The children were made, grown, from my DNA and hers, without any real participation from either of us; I never got to watch them grow from a tiny spark into a real little being, never got to feel the first stirrings of their telepathy. Then Gallifrey was gone, and I would never get the chance to make it right with the family I had lost, I thought my chance to be happy had slipped through my fingers. Even my granddaughter, Susan, I don’t know if she’s dead or alive. Then you Jack, you forgave me so much, and I used you. I never blamed you for walking away that day, when I took you back to
“Hey, shh, that is all sorted, no need to rake that back up for any of us,” Jack soothed.
“Now Jack, now, this is a second chance, and it feels so much more real, so much brighter. I’m not saying that I didn’t love my family on Gallifrey, because I did, but I’ve watched this child grow inside of you, watched you getting round, and start to glow with the new life you carry, and I’ve felt those first moments of telepathic awareness. I’ve been granted your forgiveness a second time, which I so much want to deserve, to prove I can deserve, you allowed me back into your life, allowed me into the baby’s life. I’ve been gifted with Ianto’s forgiveness, for hurting you, which I KNOW I don’t deserve, but hope I can earn. I have what I never thought I could have again, a family. You and Ianto, and this little life that we’re waiting to meet, you mean the worlds to me, and I never want to lose you, any of you.”
“We’re not going anywhere for a good long while yet,” Ianto said. He had put the tray down while he was listening to the Doctor talk, and now he came over to stand beside him and pulled both him and Jack into a warm embrace.
The Doctor stayed held between them for a long moment, then suddenly clapped his hands together, gently pulling away.
“Chocolate cake and tea, just what all of us need,” he said, bouncing over to where Ianto had left the tray.
Jack grinned, just knowing that the word ‘domestic’ had popped into the Doctor’s head at that moment, and his reaction to that word, no matter how content he was, was to change directions fast, he had faith now though, that whichever direction the Doctor bounced in for that instant, he was settling into the relationship the three of them were building.
The chocolate cake had been reduced to a few crumbs, and they were on the last dregs of the tea when the ringing of the phone in the console room started, the sound echoing down the corridors.
“Darn, back in a minute,” the Doctor said, darting off, and the noise stopped a few seconds later. When he came back, the Doctor looked grim, worried.
“What is it?” Ianto asked.
“That was your friend Toshiko, at Torchwood. Martha went to help them out, to check into some outfit called The Pharm, because they needed a medical opinion on what was going on, and they had already seen Owen. They’ve lost contact with her, they need help.”
tbc
