[Torchwood] "Modern Family" (PG-13)
Author's Notes: Written for any, any, the joy of a first child Part of "NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN??" (PG-13) These got written very much out of order. A masterlist will be up, in due time.
Their first night home -- with 'home' defined as Ianto's apartment -- with their newborn daughter and Jack had pretty much crashed asleep, little Verrity nestled in his arms, also asleep. "Girls look like their fathers," Ianto's mother had always said, and if anything, Verrity looked like the both of them, with Jack's dark hair and strong chin and Ianto's hazel eyes.
Thankfully, she had fallen asleep, after she had fussed all the way home from the Hub, where she had been born: all the better to hide the procedure and no unfamiliar doctors asking questions. No one would call them anything close to a typical family, and so the child would have to be born in seclusion, in a cave beneath the earth, much like the grotto Ianto had seen in the calender pictures of Bethlehem. Owen, wise man and midwife, had enjoyed almost every minute of the operation, to the point that Jack had threatened to get up off the operating table and deck him, if he didn't stop goofing around. Ianto had hovered so close to the operating table that Owen had had to shoo him away. Even Jack had snarled at him to get out of the light, otherwise the procedure would take even longer. Gwen had finally taken Ianto aside and sat him down at her desk, offering to fetch him coffee, but he insisted on getting his own. Even still, she sat with him till they both heard a thin but strong howl rise from the surgical bay.
A two hour procedure and Verrity lay in the arms of the father who bore her, with the father who'd seeded her hovering close by, along with her two nominal aunts looking on.
"She's perfect," Toshiko said, relieved.
"She looks like a hairless Vridectan monkey," Jack twitted, woozy from the anesthetic and the painkillers.
Now the light from the small Christmas tree that Tosh had decorated for them shone on the three of them, nestled on the couch, a strange family by modern standards, but then again, a strange family with an improbable mother had inspired the season. At least Ianto, unlike Joseph of Nazareth, didn't have to wonder where the child had come from; but much like that carpenter so long ago and like any father before and since, he could not help asking himself how they would take care of this new life?
And yet... and yet, he knew he would have the strength and more importantly the love to care for this child. Did any new parent ever feel confident, whether theirs was an ordinary or an extraordinary arrangement? Did they ever feel ready to take on the sweet burden of a child.
Jack stirred in his sleep, opening his eyes. "Hmm... must've dozed off," he murmured. "Kid's still sucking the life out of me and she's on the atmospheric side of my skin."
"Go back to sleep: I'll keep an eye on the both of you," Ianto said. "You've both had a long day.
Their first night home -- with 'home' defined as Ianto's apartment -- with their newborn daughter and Jack had pretty much crashed asleep, little Verrity nestled in his arms, also asleep. "Girls look like their fathers," Ianto's mother had always said, and if anything, Verrity looked like the both of them, with Jack's dark hair and strong chin and Ianto's hazel eyes.
Thankfully, she had fallen asleep, after she had fussed all the way home from the Hub, where she had been born: all the better to hide the procedure and no unfamiliar doctors asking questions. No one would call them anything close to a typical family, and so the child would have to be born in seclusion, in a cave beneath the earth, much like the grotto Ianto had seen in the calender pictures of Bethlehem. Owen, wise man and midwife, had enjoyed almost every minute of the operation, to the point that Jack had threatened to get up off the operating table and deck him, if he didn't stop goofing around. Ianto had hovered so close to the operating table that Owen had had to shoo him away. Even Jack had snarled at him to get out of the light, otherwise the procedure would take even longer. Gwen had finally taken Ianto aside and sat him down at her desk, offering to fetch him coffee, but he insisted on getting his own. Even still, she sat with him till they both heard a thin but strong howl rise from the surgical bay.
A two hour procedure and Verrity lay in the arms of the father who bore her, with the father who'd seeded her hovering close by, along with her two nominal aunts looking on.
"She's perfect," Toshiko said, relieved.
"She looks like a hairless Vridectan monkey," Jack twitted, woozy from the anesthetic and the painkillers.
Now the light from the small Christmas tree that Tosh had decorated for them shone on the three of them, nestled on the couch, a strange family by modern standards, but then again, a strange family with an improbable mother had inspired the season. At least Ianto, unlike Joseph of Nazareth, didn't have to wonder where the child had come from; but much like that carpenter so long ago and like any father before and since, he could not help asking himself how they would take care of this new life?
And yet... and yet, he knew he would have the strength and more importantly the love to care for this child. Did any new parent ever feel confident, whether theirs was an ordinary or an extraordinary arrangement? Did they ever feel ready to take on the sweet burden of a child.
Jack stirred in his sleep, opening his eyes. "Hmm... must've dozed off," he murmured. "Kid's still sucking the life out of me and she's on the atmospheric side of my skin."
"Go back to sleep: I'll keep an eye on the both of you," Ianto said. "You've both had a long day.