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Gwil's Guide to Growing Up Torchwood: Year 4, Chapter 3
Title: Gwil's Guide to Growing Up Torchwood: Year 4, Chapter 3
Pairing: Jack/Ianto, +Gwil, +Team, +Eleven, Rory, and Amy. Mentions of River.
Word Count: 3,784
Rating: PG-13
Summary: When a seven-year-old boy falls through the Rift, Ianto and Jack decide to adopt him. This is the story of his life at Torchwood.
Chapter Summary: The Doctor starts (emphasis on starts) to explain what the hell is going on.
Warnings: angsting begins
A/N: SO BUSY. Ungk. Busy couple of days, with rsbigbang final draft due in a week, and a million doctor's appointments and finals week for all my kids and &c &c &c. But anyway. Enjoy!
Previous Chapter: Year 4, Chapter 2
Gwil Masterlist
Ianto's hand was perfectly steady as he served coffee and biscuits to the rather large group gathered around the Torchwood conference table. Rhiannon and her family had been sent home, but the entire Torchwood team plus the Doctor and his two companions were seated there. Gwil was standing with Ianto, hands drifting over and over again to his tad's trousers before he would snatch them away and clasp them behind his back. He followed Ianto around the table, unease evident as his eyes kept flickering over to the strange man in the bow tie seated on the far end of the table. Ianto did his best not to look at the man. He already had a sneaking suspicion as to what this was about. That Doctor had already stolen one of his men away from him, even if he had eventually returned. He wasn't about to steal another.
“What is this? Coffee?” The Doctor sniffed at his mug, peering down into its rich chocolate-colored depths. He seemed unimpressed.
“Ianto makes the best coffee in the universe,” Jack praised Ianto. His eyes were wary, though Ianto thought he saw more trust in them for the Doctor than he was entirely comfortable with. “Trust me: I'd know.”
Still looking rather skeptical, the Doctor pursed his lips and took a sip from the mug. His eyes lit up, and he took a longer gulp. “Hey!” he pointed at the mug as he took another gulp, mumbling around the porcelain. “This body likes coffee!”
Ianto definitely did not throw himself down in his seat at Jack's right hand. “Of course it has to do with the new body,” Ianto grumbled. “Nothing to do with the fact that it's my coffee.”
Jack's foot bumped his beneath the table in gentle reproach. Ianto turned away from him and focused instead on making sure that Gwil drank all his milk in the seat next to him.
Rory, seated on Amy's right side, held his mug up at Ianto and nodded at him. “This is good,” he complimented Ianto. “Sight better than the stuff they serve at the hospital.”
“You a doctor?” Owen twirled in his chair, legs splayed wide as he casually examined Rory.
Rory shook his head. “Nurse.” Owen's disinterest was immediate.
“Doctor.” Ianto found the word tasted sour in his mouth, and so heavy that he practically had to push it out with teeth and tongue. “Could we discuss the matter that brought you to our wedding?”
The Doctor giggled. Giggled. He scrunched his nose up and laughed in this flighty little way. Jack seemed just as shocked as Ianto, which seemed to indicate that this was a feature new to this particular incarnation. “I can't believe you're getting married, Jack! Funny.” He giggled again. He turned to Rory and Amy, tossing a thumb over his shoulder at Jack. “He traveled with me a couple bodies back. Tried to con me. Cheeky bugger. Incorrigible flirt-”
“Some things haven't changed,” Rhys piped up from his seat next to Gwen, bouncing Braith on his knee. Gwen had tried to make him go home when Ianto had sent Rhiannon and her lot on their way, but Rhys had refused. “If it has to do with Gwil, it has to do with all of us. Including me.” And that had been the end of that.
“Doctor.” The word still wasn't any easier for Ianto to say. “Please. Gwil is my- our son. Could you please explain what you believe is going on?”
“Your son?” The Doctor poked a biscuit at Ianto as he spoke, eyeing him up curiously. “Aren't you a bit young for a son? Actually, I'm terrible with human ages. Amy, Rory: is he too young for a son?”
Before the baffled Companions could answer Ianto cut in, tone sharper than he had meant it to be. “Well Jack's well over two millenia old so I imagine we average out.”
Rory's eyes widened to the size of saucers as he looked at Jack. Amy's did, too, but then reduced to normal size far more quickly, before turning sly. “Looking good,” she flirted.
Jack winked back. “I find facials to be the secret to keeping the wrinkles at bay.” Just incase someone didn't get the joke, Jack turned to Ianto and winked. “Ianto's always happy to provide them.”
Personally, Ianto didn't find he had a lot to be happy about at the moment. His wedding had been interrupted, the Doctor was here, which meant trouble, and Gwil was apparently at the center of it all. Not the best of days: not by any measure. “Doctor.” Ianto's hands slammed down onto the table, rattling the china and causing the room to fall deathly silent. Beside him, even Gwil looked worriedly up at his tad. “Please.” Ianto fought to bring his voice back under control. “Tell me what is wrong with my son.”
Easing a biscuit back down to his plate, the Doctor wiggled his fingers in what appeared to be some sort of nervous apology. “Right.” He reached into his inside jacket pocket and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, peering down at it before sliding it across the table to Ianto. He caught it in one hand and brought it up to his face, trying his best to make heads or tails of it. “We've been picking up some strange readings from here. Paradox-y, time-y wime-y sort of readings. It seemed,” the Doctor continued, warming up to the topic as his fingers drummed excitedly on the table, “that two pieces of time were smushing themselves together.” To illustrate, the Doctor interlocked his fingers and pressed his palms together, moving them against each other in dramatic fashion.
Amy leaned over to the Doctor, stage-whispering: “We didn't know any of this...”
The Doctor whispered similarly back: “When I said we, I meant the TARDIS and I. You and Rory were in the back somewhere playing house.” Rory's blush was fierce, and he raised a finger to defend himself, when he seemed to remember that he didn't really have to.
“So, two pieces of time, smushing together!” The Doctor slammed his palms together again. “There's something drawing them together: something of Gwil's back in 1848, and him being here. The two pieces of Gwil are sucking the two years together, like two slices of cheese on the inside of pieces of bread sticking them together when you fry it.” The Doctor paused, considering his analogy. He then turned to Rory. “When was the last time we ate? I could go for a grilled cheese right about now.”
Rory ignored the Doctor, turning instead to Ianto and Gwil. He nodded gently at the little boy. “What... uh... what happened with his...” Rory wiggled his index finger.
Ianto laid a hand gently over Gwil's, drawing it off the table and into his lap. For his part, Gwil was staying very quiet and very serious, not one to be the center of attention, much less such heated discussion by a strange Doctor man. “He was a mill scavenger back in his time,” Ianto answered quietly. “Owen checked him over when he first came here. He was malnourished and suffering lung damage in addition to the missing finger.” Ianto's eyes rested on Gwil, taking in the preteen who was so much bigger and smarter and surer than the scared little bundle of rags they had found three years ago. “We've taken care of him.”
“Ah! Fishfingers!” The Doctor's shout brought the attention of the room away from Ianto and Gwil and back to the Doctor. He wiggled his index finger significantly, tracing circles in the air until he stopped it, pointing at Gwil. “Goes well with custard, but also grilled cheese, as it would seem in this case.”
Ianto opened his mouth, glanced at Jack, then closed it. Apparently this was just how the Doctor talked.
The Doctor continued, wiggling finger still pointing at Gwil as he crooked it madly. “Gwil wasn't supposed to come to the future, but he did. But he left a bit of himself in the past: namely, his finger. Now his finger is tethering him to that time and he's in this time and it's all sucking the two bits of time together like the stickiest cheese-and-fishfinger sandwich this side of the Rift!”
The Doctor jumped up with a flourish, spinning around once before turning to Jack and jabbing his finger at him, leaning halfway across the table as he did so. Ianto noticed Amy carefully slide the coffee mug out of the Doctor's path of destructive energy. Jack was right: he and the Doctor were much too alike to be suitable companions for each other. Both needed others to look after them.
Ianto could hear Andy mutter under his breath: “Am I the only one who isn't catching this?”
Mickey reached over Martha and patted Andy on the arm. “It's alright, mate. None of us does.”
“Jack!”
Jack jumped to attention in his chair, eyes darting around the table, between Ianto and Gwil and the Doctor. “Yeah?”
The Doctor poked his roving finger down onto the table, prodding it back and forth between one point and the next. “Why haven't you caught any of this? The TARDIS picked up a... a thingy of blips...” he craned his neck back to Amy, still leaning over the table. “What did you call it?”
“A spreadsheet?” Amy offered. “At least, it looked like one. What we saw on the monitors.”
On the other side of the table, Tosh cleared her throat. “Excuse me? Doctor?”
The Doctor's wild eyes turned to Tosh. “Ah, yes. Toshiko. Something to add?”
Tosh slid her laptop over to the Doctor, nodding at it. “We've been collecting data on some strange Rift behavior we believed connected to Gwil. There's a ninety-six percent correlation between them and Gwil's school schedule. Nothing seems to come of them, but we were worried, just the same.”
The Doctor scrambled with the laptop, flipping through it and clacking away madly at the keys. As he worked, he absently queried: “You don't look at naughty videos on this, do you?”
Tosh's eyes widened behind her glasses, face turning red as Amy's hair. Next to her, Owen snickered, rocking himself delightedly back and forth in his seat.
The Doctor waved an absent hand at Tosh as his eyes scanned through the data. “Last person whose laptop I looked at had naughty videos on it. Disgusting. All your flibbity bits.”
Behind him, Amy crossed her arms over her chest and raised an eyebrow. “Suppose you think River's 'flibbity bits' aren't so 'flibbity', now do you?”
Jack's eyes lit up, mouth falling open. The Doctor glanced up at him and their eyes met for a long moment, in some sort of silent contest of amusement and embarrassment. Eventually Jack's mouth closed without him saying a word, but he looked significantly over at Amy in a silent promise to pursue the matter later.
“You say this has something to do with his school? Going to it, coming home, all that traveling?” The Doctor's eyes were focused back on Tosh's laptop screen, though Ianto could detect a certain amount of unease still in him with the mention of this River woman – which would have been interesting, given other circumstances. According to Jack the Doctor was always steadfastly asexual for as long as he knew him. But as it was, Ianto had a few issues just a bit more pressing on his mind.
The Doctor's smile widened as he looked up from the laptop, and Ianto got the sense that he was going to say something he thought quite clever. “Well,” the Doctor shut the laptop with a click and slid it back to Toshiko as he straightened upright. “Then I think the question you need to be asking yourselves is: how does Gwil get to school?”
**
Jack and Ianto's atrium in their house beneath the Hub was a bit crowded for twelve adults, one child, and one baby to squeeze into, but somehow they managed with a small amount of spillover into the kitchen. The Doctor was stalking around the teleport, sonicing it from this angle and that as he tried to get a reading off it. At one point he shoved his screwdriver back into his inside jacket pocket and pressed his face up against one side of the teleport, rubbing his hand lovingly up and down. His tongue poked out and he licked it, causing all not-former or -current companions of the Doctor to stare at him in shock. The companions seemed to consider this business as usual.
Turning away from the teleporter at last, the Doctor slowly stalked toward Jack, rocking back on his heels as he did. “So when exactly did you decide it would be acceptable to use twenty-fifth century non-Earth technology for your son's daily commute to school?”
Jack shrugged. “It's not that far off from what the humans are going to develop. We used one all the time when I was a kid for going to the market on weekends.”
“Yeah, well: this is Earth, not Boeshane.”
At Ianto's waist Gwil gasped, eyes darting from Jack to Ianto. “Tad?” he tugged urgently at Ianto's trousers.
“Later,” Ianto promised, running a hand through Gwil's curls. Jack and the Doctor didn't seem to notice Gwil's sudden newfound knowledge about his father, but Ianto glared at the Doctor all the same. He hadn't planned on having this conversation with Gwil for several more years, and it would have to come now, of all times. As if Gwil didn't have enough to confuse and frighten him right now.
Unaware – or uncaring – of the mental turmoil going on inside Gwil, the Doctor turned his gaze to the little boy, cocking his head and tapping his fingers together. His tone softened a little as he moved to Gwil, crouching down so he was level with him.
“Little human: Gwil.” Half-hidden behind Ianto's legs, Gwil peered nervously up at the Doctor. “Does anything funny happen when you go through the teleporter? Queasiness time displacement flashes of ulterior realities tingling sensations vomiting sickness passing out blacking out sneezing or the intense desire to stand on your head?” the Doctor finished in a rush.
To Ianto's great surprise, and everyone else's in the room besides the Doctor, Gwil nodded slowly. Looking up at his tad, Gwil addressed his response to him. “My scar tingles when I go through.”
Ianto gaped, ignoring the smug grin spreading across the Doctor's face. “Why didn't you tell me?”
Gwil shrugged one shoulder. “I didn't think it was bad. It didn't hurt. Just... tickled. Itched. But not bad. I thought it was okay.” Gwil's lower lip wibbled. “I'm sorry. I didn't know.”
Ianto dropped down to his haunches and hugged Gwil to him tightly, tucking Gwil's face into his chest. “It's not your fault,” he said, ignoring the rest of the adults in the room as he clutched his son to him. “And don't worry: your dad and I are going to fix this. Just like we fix everything else. It's going to be fine.”
“Doctor.” It was Jack that spoke, and Ianto noted with no small amount of pleasure that his voice had turned hard as he glanced between the Doctor and Gwil, expressed concern finally starting to match a tenth of what Ianto was feeling. “What do you think we should do?”
The Doctor paused for a moment, looking around the room: at Gwil, at the teleport, at Jack, Ianto, his former companions, and the rest of the Torchwood team. After a slow turn around the room he stopped, staring out into the kitchen as he thought.
Stepping away from her position pressed against a wall for a moment, Gwen pushed her way past Rhys and Andy. “But Doctor,” she smiled nervously as the Doctor turned to look at her. “The last time two pieces of time came together we saw bits of the past bubbling up in the days leading up to us having to send Tommy back. We haven't seen anything like that recently.”
The Doctor didn't respond for a moment, cocking his head and staring at Gwen curiously. “You're Gwen Cooper.” Gwen nodded. “I met your ancestor. You look just like her.”
Gwen seemed bemused by this news, but before she could reply the Doctor turned to Gwil and Ianto, leaning over as he peered down at them, still crouched together on the floor. “You two humans: you look alike, don't you?”
Jack spoke: “It's good Welsh breeding.”
“Uh-huh.” The Doctor didn't seem convinced, keeping one eye trained on Gwil and Ianto for a touch longer than Ianto was comfortable with. That man had an idea, and Ianto knew in his bones it wasn't one with any good conclusion foreseeable.
Abruptly the Doctor whirled back to Gwen, snapping his fingers. “Right! You were saying no bits of time floating through, bumping heads with your bits. But there wouldn't be: know why?”
The room remained silent in the half a second the Doctor paused before continuing.
“'Course you wouldn't know why, because you're all – most of you – twenty-first century humans. So, question for the not twenty-first century humans in the room:” to Ianto's irritation, he saw Jack perk up, a spark of excitement in his eyes. The Doctor alludes to him and Jack is just ready to jump: some things never change. “How much time passes between stepping into a teleport and stepping out?”
“None.” The Doctor whirled around, eyes focusing on Tosh as she spoke up. “Well, that's my understanding of it, at least.” She shrugged sheepishly. “From what I've read, it appears to operate under the same principle as current-day quantum tunneling of photons, which means that it breaks the speed of light barrier by never actually having to accelerate, thus upholding Einstein's formulas concerning light-speed travel while at the same time allowing for instantaneous transference of atoms from one location to another.”
The Doctor was positively proud as he examined Tosh from head to foot. “That's right. So!” He turned back to the room at large. “If there's no time between travel, there's no time for the bits of the past to show up with bits of the future, or vice versa. Thus why you haven't seen anything. But!” He turned back to Tosh. “Pretty lady with the naughty-videos computer! Toshiko!”
Ill at ease with her new title – and Ianto didn't blame her, with the way Owen was grinning madly at it – Tosh stepped forward, laptop clutched to her chest. “Yes Doctor?”
The Doctor clapped his hands together, rubbing them vigorously. “We're going to do an experiment.” Turning, the Doctor's eyes sought out Gwil until he found him, clutching to Ianto's expensive wedding suit. He crooked his finger at Gwil, who just tightened his grip. Ianto didn't blame him, and wrapped a hand around his shoulder in reassurance. “Little human: Gwil. Come over here.” When Gwil didn't move, the Doctor frowned. “Please?”
Ianto hesitated, glancing up at Jack. He nodded once. Although Ianto didn't want to trust Jack when it came to their son and the Doctor, he did. Jack would always try and do the right thing, and Ianto knew that he loved him and Gwil. So he pushed aside his own trepidations and turned to Gwil. “Go on, Gwil. Dad and I are right here. We promise nothing is going to hurt you.”
With one last snuggle into Ianto's neck, Gwil turned out of his arms and went to the Doctor, peering up at him. The Doctor took Gwil by both shoulders and steered him toward the teleport. “Alright. Toshiko! Get that laptop ready. Gwil: just stay where I put you. Everyone else,” the Doctor turned to grin at the crowd gathered behind him, “watch this.”
The Doctor shoved Gwil into the teleport and held him there.
Ianto leapt forward as Gwil frowned and squirmed, half-in, half-out of the portal. But then Jack was at his side, holding onto Ianto's elbow. “It's okay. He's fine.”
The Doctor wasn't even looking at Gwil as he held him in place, but was instead trying to peer around to Tosh's laptop screen. “Well?” he asked, grin playing at the corners of his mouth. “What do you see?”
Toshiko gasped, one hand flying over the keyboard as the other held the laptop up. “The blips! They're... I have a location! Hang on, let me see if I can get a visual from the CCTV...”
There was more clicking of keys as the Doctor and the Torchwood team waited. Ianto's eyes were fixed on Gwil, who was still squirming uncomfortably inside the portal. “Tad?” Ianto tried to move forward again, but again Jack's gentle pressure on his elbow stopped him from taking more than a step forward. “Tad, my hand itches.”
“Just a moment more,” Ianto promised. He looked over at Tosh. “Tosh.”
She nodded frantically, hair bobbing around her chin as she worked. “I know, I know. Just a few more seconds...” Behind her glasses her eyes widened. Her head darted up from the laptop and over to Gwil. “Pull him out!”
The Doctor did as he was told, yanking Gwil from the teleport. The little boy's hand went to his other immediately, scratching at the old scar. Ianto saw it was pink and irritated before he started scratching it. Just one more strange thing to add to the list. He held out his hand, tugging Gwil to him. Jack intervened and scooped Gwil up into his arms, holding him close as both men turned to Tosh.
“Well?” The Doctor asked, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I was right, wasn't I? Something happened.”
Tosh nodded, biting her lower lip as she continued to stare at her laptop screen. “You could say that,” she mumbled. “It's...” she looked at Gwil, eyes going teary as she turned the laptop around. “I'm sorry,” she apologized. “It appears to be a textile mill. Circa eighteen forty-eight.”
Continue on to Chapter 4.
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But I do think that Ianto and Gwil are related (not going to say how I think so) and some travelling is in the cards.
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You'll just have to wait and see!
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And unfortunately Jack learning all the sordid details about River will just have to wait a bit, until they've got everything else fixed.
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Oh, but they CAN'T lose Gwil! My heart will break into 1000 pieces, never mind what it would do to Jack and Ianto!
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One question though: Jack and Ianto, are they or are they not married now. That bit remained a bit fuzzy to me.
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(This does have plans to get resolved, no worries.)
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Absolutely fantasticly groanworthy! And so Jack!
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(No. The series is continuing for many Years.)
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NO! It can't end there! I have ideas too and all of them make me totally sad.
Ianto and Jack just can't loose Gwil! He's too damn adorable...
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(I wouldn't really know, I've only read all of Gwil's Guide. Though I et the impression that you've written others, yes?)
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(But for this series, it's only going to get worse before it gets better. :{ Sorry!)
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(That's what makes a good fanfic series, so that's perfectly fine with me. I was just worried that it was going to end soon!)
ooh -- impressive
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Glad you're still enjoying this!
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(Anonymous) 2011-05-24 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)I can hardly wait until Thursday for the next installment. This story just keeps getting better and better.
Until Thursday,
Elbria :}
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Glad you liked!
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The school is the same sight as the textile mill where Gwil lost his finger! Oh noes!
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*whisper*
No. The textile mill appeared in the present day while Gwil was being held in the teleport. The reason it was correlated to school was because he went through the teleport on school days.
:{ There is more explanation coming up in the next chappie, so hopefully everything will be clearer then.
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So thrilling...but poor little Gwil- has to go thruogh all this angsty-things!:-(
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Less than 4 hours before next chappie goes up ^.^
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