Chapter 2: Adjusting
Jack just shook his head and winced as Ianto stood up and paced the room a few times, settling over by the curtains and turning on his heel to look at Jack. He had one hand on his hip and the other on his head, the shocked expression on his face making Jack want to squirm.
“Are you sure?” Ianto’s voice was calm, betraying none of the anxiety he was feeling. Jack just nodded.
“Last time it was the same… Snoring, throwing up everything but apple pie, ice cream and pizza for the first trimester…” He rubbed the back of his head and looked away. He couldn’t read the expression on Ianto’s face and he didn't want to.
“How long?” Jack silently calculated it in his head. The morning sickness had started around week three, give or take a few days. He’d been throwing up regularly each morning for the past week, making it around about a month in.
“A month, maybe a bit more?” He shrugged, not really being able to guess. “The snoring would be the key point here. Whenever that started, it began a day or two before.”
A sudden look of realisation lit up Ianto’s eyes and he managed a smile. Jack remembered the night a little over a month ago too and they shared a quick look before Ianto looked away, dropping his eyes to the floor. This wasn’t something he’d planned on worrying about in that particular relationship. Sighing heavily, he walked back over to the sofa and dropped down, taking a hold of one of Jack’s hands.
“My mam’ll be happy… She’d given up all thought of a grandkid off of me.” Jack looked up and saw an affectionate smile on the young man’s face. His heart soared when Ianto leaned down and kiss him gently, inspiring a huge amount of trust and encouragement.
“But what do you think, Ianto?” He pulled away and looked seriously at the young man. “We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, we really don’t.”
Ianto punched him hard on the arm for that.
“It’s not that I’m not happy, trust me, I am…” He rubbed his face, still trying to come to terms with the fact. “… I’m just having problems working out how. It doesn’t help either that the moment I got into bed with you, I gave up all hope of having kids.”
Jack sighed, picked up the now semi melted ice cream and handed it to Ianto, gesturing to him to make himself comfortable. Jack himself sat back, fingers interlinked and hands lying on his still flat stomach. He was suddenly glad that he healed in no time, shuddering at the thought of having stretch marks.
“Right. Simple answer here, or as simple as I can make it.” Ianto had sunk down into the sofa, feet on the coffee table and spoon in his mouth, looking up at the ceiling to listen. “In the 51st century, due to an illness contracted from an alien species, the female population suffered dramatically. Well over half of them died, but no men were affected. Me, being the dashing and valiant hero that I am, applied for a medical trial in which they put me through a series of procedures to test a new theory. Basically, they needed to find a way to bring the human population back up to a healthy level.”
He looked back over at Ianto, who was sucking thoughtfully on the spoon. He turned his head and smiled.
“Go on.” He pointed the spoon at him before digging out another pile of the ice cream and putting it in his mouth.
“I was the first successful test case, and it resulted in me getting pregnant the next time I had a night in with my boyfriend. Of course, as the treatment wasn’t official yet, they terminated it at my next check up, a few months later, and a week after that, I got trapped in a different time.” He sighed and thought about the experience. It hadn’t been pleasant.
He’d never told the boyfriend, but he’d gone through the first few months of snoring and stomach volatility. The Jack he’d been back then hadn’t been one to settle down, and he’d split from the guy a few weeks after the incident. He’d found the fact that he was pregnant a little annoying as it would mean a responsibility he didn’t want, so he was fine about the termination. He’d been paid pretty well for it too, so that was even better.
He felt Ianto shift beside him and he was surprised to feel his hands squirming under his own, pushing his shirt up and placing his palms on his skin. It made him shiver a little, but he smiled affectionately at the young man, pleased at how well he’d taken the news. He didn’t want to pressure Ianto, but over the last few minutes since realisation, he’d become quite attached to the idea of being a parent.
“Of all the strange and bizarre things about you, Jack Harkness, this is the weirdest of them all.” He followed Ianto’s eyes down to his stomach and watched him stroke it gently. It was still a little weird to think there was something growing inside him, let alone something that was part him, part his lover.
Ianto shifted himself again and swung a leg over Jack so he was sitting in his lap. Jack just grinned and leaned forwards, kissing the young man hard on the lips. Ianto moved his hands to either side of Jack’s face and leaned right into the kiss as Jack’s arms came around his waist. After a few moments, he suddenly jerked back and Jack looked at him confused.
“How’s it born?” He looked dubiously down at Jack’s crotch which made Jack’s face split in two with a huge grin, accompanied by a low chuckle.
”C-section. Set a date, and Owen cuts ‘it’ out.” Ianto’s face visibly relaxed and he smiled, climbing off Jack and standing up and holding his hand out. Jack groaned in protest. “Can’t I just sleep on the sofa? I can’t be bothered to move.”
Ianto rolled his eyes and grabbed Jack’s arm, hauling him off the sofa and pushing him out of the room and up the stairs. Jack reluctantly took control and went into the bedroom, stripping down to his boxers and pulling on the t-shirt he slept in, in his usual messy fashion. Ianto quickly remembered the half drunk cups of coffee and the ice-cream and vanished downstairs to sort them out before they got nasty.
When he returned to the bedroom, he found Jack lying on his side, in bed, the covers pulled up to his chest. He was already asleep. Ianto smiled and set about picking up Jack’s clothes and dumping them in the laundry basket in the bathroom. He stripped off as well and pulled his pyjama trousers on before shoving his own clothes in the basket and flicking the light off. Making his way back across the dark landing and into the dimly lit bedroom, he slipped under the covers behind Jack, turned the bedside lamp off and slipped his arms around Jack’s waist.
He was a little surprised at the swell of happiness he felt in his chest, and the lack of regret and nervousness he felt about the whole situation. He couldn’t imagine himself being a parent though, the thought was still a little too bizarre.
*
Two months later was a different story completely. He had no idea just how hard it was going to be to make Jack realise that he couldn’t go running around and getting himself killed all the time. He soon made Jack aware that if he got shot and died, the baby would be deprived of oxygen for too long and would die… and the baby wasn’t going to be immortal. Jack had promised a hysterical Ianto that he would take better care of himself over the coming months.
The time since then had been riddled with arguments, bitching, bullying and yelling. Ianto had lost count of the number of nights he’d spent on the sofa because of fights that had gotten too bad. Of course, the morning after, Jack always apologised, even when it wasn’t his fault.
At around the five month mark, the team had made Jack acknowledge that he couldn’t go on runs anymore. The event had been quite unpleasant.
Jack had fallen asleep on the sofa in his office, as was usual for that time in the afternoon, and Ianto and the others had orchestrated a kidnapping of sorts. They’d locked the door to his office and stood outside waiting for him to wake up. Eventually, they’d heard shuffling and then the door handle twisted uselessly. Jack groaned, having realised what was about to happen. They’d already tried to get him to stay still last time a call came through.
“Jack, you’re not going on any more hunts.” Ianto’s voice was firm and commanding, but Jack just hit against it.
“Like hell I’m not.” The following argument had brought growled death threats on both Ianto and the baby, but all involved knew they were completely empty. The argument had raged for half an hour before Jack finally accepted the fact that the team weren’t going to let him leave the hub.
At that point, Jack had just looked like he’d put on a few pounds from all the pizza and ice cream he’d been eating, but soon after, when he really started to show, the team decided they’d have to intervene with that as well.
He’d been sitting in his office, going through some filing when Tosh came up to the door, holding something out. He recognised the thing in her hand and suddenly looked down at his left wrist. How had she gotten his wrist strap? He’d beckoned her in and she came and sat down opposite him, handing him the leather accessory as she did so.
“I’ve built in a perception filter, using the tech from the lift.” She smiled at him and he looked down at his wrist as he put the strap back on. “You press these buttons-“ She leaned forwards and pointed “-and you’ll fade into the background.”
She beamed at him and he nodded his head, impressed. “You never cease to amaze me Tosh, thanks.” He gave a genuinely warm smile which she returned as she stood up and left the office.
Ianto had earned himself an affectionate kiss and a heartfelt apology for Jack’s recent behaviour that evening as they curled up on the sofa watching a Lord of the Rings film.
About a month or so after that, when Jack was at about seven and a half months, Owen had ordered him to stop coming in for work. There’d been a brief argument at the house about Jack wanting to go in and ignore Owen, but Ianto managed to convince him to stay. He’d returned home from work that night to see Jack lying curled up asleep on the sofa, the ending credits of some film scrolling along the TV set. Jack had stirred and looked up to see Ianto staring at the open magazines on the coffee table. He’d made the mistake of leaving Jack with the credit card, a phone and the home order form for Mothercare.
Ianto took the next day off and had to help the delivery men carry the flat packed crib and baby furniture up to the spare room. He spent the day sitting amongst the fold out instructions with his toolbox open by the door, throwing a screwed up piece of cardboard at Jack every time he ventured to stick his head round the door.
By the time he was finished, he couldn’t wait for the day they’d set out with Owen to come around. Only five more weeks to go.
