teachfic | Mourning is Not Forgetting (3/6)

Chapter 3 – Prompt Grief

By the time dawn was breaking over the Bay, they knew Dr. Singh was right. For all intents and purposes, Alice Carter – born Melissa Moretti – was gone. While Jack sat with his daughter’s still form, Ianto made a series of phone calls. He managed to reach Martha immediately. She offered to call the Doctor, but Ianto explained Jack’s wishes. The medic and her husband promised to take the first flight back. He could already here Mickey in the background, calling in favours to get a last minute flight.

It took a bit longer to track down Gwen, who had turned off her mobile. He finally located her by ringing the hotel he’d booked for her and Rhys in Paris. Stunned and distraught, she promised to get back to Cardiff immediately, although he heard Rhys sputtering ‘Bloody Torchwood’ in the background. He knew the other man would agree to return to Cardiff once his wife explained the situation. He’d actually grown fond of Jack once he’d seen the truth of his relationship with Ianto and realised that while the Captain might look at Gwen with lust in his eyes, he went home to his Welshman every night just as Gwen came home to hers.

His final call was to Rhi. His sister sounded harried and annoyed when she answered the phone. “You don’t call practically for years, and now you call me while I’m trying to get two kids to school and a lazy husband to work? You have no timing, Ianto,” she spat between hollering for Mica and David to get a move on before she came to find them.

“Rhi,” he croaked, feeling his composure starting to crumble. He liked Alice and would grieve for her, but the thought of what Jack was enduring was breaking his heart slowly. “Rhi, I need your help.”

“What is it?” she demanded with all traces of her impatience gone. “What’s happened? Is someone hurt? Is it Jack? Gwen?”

Regaining control, Ianto explained the situation. He kept to the cover story he and Jack had agreed to tell Rhi after she had met Alice and Steven during the episode with the 456. Rhi had wanted to get to know Jack and his family better, and Jack wanted that, too. With Alice’s permission, they told Ianto’s family what the rest of the world believed – that Alice was the Captain’s sister and Steven was his nephew. Only Gwen and Martha – and he guessed Rhys and Mickey – knew the truth.

In true Jones fashion, Rhiannon had a plan in minutes. She would go to Alice’s house. The number for Steven’s friend was likely available somewhere. Once she had it, she’d call Ianto back, and Jack could call the friend’s parent to explain that Rhiannon would be picking Steven up. The little boy would remember her from a couple of ‘family’ dinners and got along well with David and Mica. She’d keep Steven at hers, but wouldn’t tell him anything until Jack came for him.

Once Steven was sorted, Ianto joined Jack in Alice’s room. He was sitting next to the bed and holding her hand, crooning a song in a language Ianto did not recognise. Crouching down in front of the Captain, he took his hand. “Steven’s taken care of,” he assured his partner. “Rhi’s going to handle all of it, just like I said.” He didn’t bother the Captain with the details. When it was time to call Steven’s friend’s parents, Ianto would hand him the phone and give him clear instructions.

Ianto knew what Jack needed in a crisis; he needed not to have to think about the details. Sometimes, though, the Captain wanted things he didn’t vocalise, so Ianto had to ask. “How can I help, Jack?” he asked, stroking his thumb over his partner’s knuckles. “What do you need me to do?”

“Nothing,” Jack whispered brokenly, then brushed at his eyes as he regarded Alice again. “I have to let her go and I don’t know how. It’s different with her, Ianto. I remember the day Lucia told me she was pregnant. Hell, I’m pretty sure I know when she was conceived. I remember feeling her move the first time, and holding her the day she was born. I’ve missed parts of her life because her mother asked me to stay away or she did, but I’ve also been there to see her grow up and become such a wonderful mother.” He paused as his voice cracked.

“I’ve buried other children,” he explained. “But, I’ve never been there at the beginning and the end. I always left before it got too complicated for them, or maybe for me. Alice was different because Lucia was Torchwood, so she told her everything. In some ways, it was worse, but in others it gave me time with her and Steven I would never have had. I thought it was better; now I’m not sure. Death at a distance is ... different. I’m not sure how to sit here and let her go, when all I see is this newborn baby screaming her head off.”

Ianto wasn’t sure what to say to his lover, so he fell back on the advise his aunt had given him after his mother died. “One minute at a time,” he suggested gently, grasping Jack’s hands tightly and blinking back his own tears. “And with help – me, Gwen, Martha, Rhi – we’re all here for you and Steven.”

“Should I ...” Jack began, and then choked back a sob. He took a breath and continued. “Should I bring Steven to say goodbye?”

“I can’t decide that for you,” Ianto said, shaking his head. “You know Alice best. What would she want?” He knew he wouldn’t want Mica and David to see him this way, and he was pretty sure Rhi would agree.

Jack looked over at his daughter, seeing her beauty and not the bruises and scrapes from the accident. “She wouldn’t want him to see her like this,” he decided with a hollow note in his voice. They sat in silence for several minutes, and then he looked at Ianto. “Will you tell Dr. Singh I’m as ready as I ever will be?” he asked, locking his gaze with his lover’s. “Will you come back with him? Will you stay with me while I let her go?”

Nodding, Ianto stood. “Of course I will,” he replied, and then kissed Jack gently before leaving the room in search of the doctor.

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