Sonata for the TARDIS in D -- Isn't There A Place Between?
Title: Sonata for the TARDIS in D
Chapter Seven: Isn't There A Place Between?
dwtwprompts prompt: Years
Date Written: 6/12/08
Word Count: 2,555
Rating: PG/K+3
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Doctor, OC, mentioned Donna and Martha and Rose
Spoilers: Up through Torchwood Season 02, with a nod to The Sarah Jane Adventures
Warnings: Mentioned character death
Author's Notes: You've all been asking for it, and here it is. Title from the song Home to Stay by Josh Groban (which I so want to write Janto fic to).
1/?: And So It Begins
2/?: Time Travel Messes With Your Senses
3/?: It's Just Sex, Sex, Sex With You People
4/?: Break Out Your Converse, It's Time To Save The Universe
5/?: Here Be Dragons
6/?: Imitation Is The Finest Form Of Flattery
The Doctor had a soft spot -- with very very few exceptions -- for all of his Companions, no matter how brief their trips had been. He completely and utterly adored them, wrapping his hearts around their brief time spans even as he knew that they would leave him eventually.
Some, like Sarah Jane, he had avoided, even after the War was lost. He'd been ashamed of the man he had been forced to become, the murderer of two species. He'd thought that they would never accept him back, what he had done marked him as unstable and a renegade.
He really should have known better.
The others, the later Companions, they tracked him down to get back to him. Jack and Martha and Donna had clawed their way back into his life after they'd parted ways, full-knowing the consequences.
Ianto, Jack's quiet, brilliant, level-headed soul mate, had completely won the Doctor over from the moment he'd set eyes on the young Welshman. The Doctor recognized a fellow comrade, one who had lost his entire world because of a war he hadn't started.
That and it was fun to poke at him, get him properly riled up. Ianto could take a lot of bullshit before he completely and utterly snapped. When he did snap, whole planets shook under the wrath of one human.
The newest Companion, Koko, he'd fallen in with like he had the others -- completely by accident. She was pretty and smart as a button and reminded him a lot of Jack and Ianto, lots of snark and not-so-subtle flirtatious teasing one minute, all yes sir and domestic the next. She didn't put up with his half-assed explanations and could follow the ones he gave. She was a rare diamond he'd found in the dark mine of the rebuilt Torchwood One.
So he did what any proud man would do. He took her home to show off to the family.
Koko tore open the door to the TARDIS, flinching against the blast of cold air. "We're in Cardiff!"
"Yes! Cardiff, Wales, Earth, 21st Century. There's some people you should meet, friends of mine." She turned and gave him an odd look, her short hair blowing in the breeze. "Off with you, go grab a coat from the wardrobe."
She laughed. "Yes Dad," she teased, heading off down the hall, long thing fingers trailing over the TARDIS walls. The Time Lord felt an answering wash of warm affection following the young human. The TARDIS had taken very easily to their newest Companion.
There was that little nagging feeling, like he should know her from somewhere. Where, he had no idea, but she just had a familiar look about her...
The Doctor pulled on his own brown jacket and stepped out onto the Plass. He grinned as he caught sight of Jack and Ianto Harkness-Jones running across the Plass. He gave an over-exaggerated wave with his whole arm, laughing again when Jack returned it.
"Doctor!" Jack laughed, sweeping the Time Lord up in a huge hug that nearly lifted him off his feet. The Doctor laughed and patted his back, turning to give Ianto a warm embrace as well.
He still got a weird feeling around the two immortals -- he hated Facts, they told him what he could and couldn't do -- but he decided that the friendship they offered was well worth the unease. Besides, it faded as he got used to it.
"We weren't expecting to see you today," the Welshman said, smiling at him.
"Yes, well, you're always telling me to not travel alone," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "And since Donna's not traveling with me anymore, I thought I'd show you my latest hitchhiker."
Jack grinned. "Yeah? Another girl?"
"They're easier to keep in line," the Doctor teased back, earning a laugh from both Companions.
The doors opened again, and Koko stepped out, wrapped up in what the Doctor recognized as Jack's old RAF greatcoat. "Doctor, look what I fo--"
"EMIKO!"
Blue eyes widened as the Doctor's newest Companion looked at her uncles. "Uncle Jack, Ewythr Ianto!"
"I knew you looked familiar!" the Doctor said, clapping a hand to his head and pointing at her with the other. "But you said your name was Koko."
"It's a nickname, hello," Emiko replied, putting her hands on her hips.
"Emi's your new Companion?" Jack asked.
"If I had realized it was Emiko Sato, I would have brought her home straight off!"
"And that's why I didn't tell you, idiot," the girl said. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions!"
Ianto, who had been stunned when the girl stepped out of the TARDIS, finally snapped out his stupor. "What the HELL do you think you're doing?!" he yelled in Welsh, the language registering in everyone's brains but getting translated immediately by the TARDIS.
"Let's have this conversation inside," Jack urged, pushing his husband into the TARDIS.
A dark little head appeared in the doorway of Jack's office, slanted blue eyes eyes peering carefully around the door frame. Jack waggled his fingers at the face, and the child giggled before pulling away.
"I didn't think Torchwood had a daycare," the Doctor teased.
Jack just laughed. "We didn't have operatives with kids before." The head reappeared and Jack rapped his knuckles on the desk. "C'mere Emi."
The little girl hurried into Jack's office, little trainers tapping against the floor as her braided pigtails flew out behind her. She ran around Jack's desk and clambered up into his lap, smoothing out her little uniform skirt.
"Hallo there," the Doctor said, leaning over to smile at the little girl. "And what's your name?"
"Emiko," she replied softly. Jack smiled and put a hand on her head, winking at her when she looked up at him.
"Emi, this is the Doctor. Doc, this is Emiko Sato."
"Are you a doctor like Uncle Owen, or are you Uncle Jack and Ewythr Ianto's Doctor?" she asked the Doctor, bright blue eyes meeting his bravely.
The Doctor laughed. "I know a lot of the same things that your Uncle Owen knows, but I'm Uncle Jack and Uncle Ianto's Doctor too."
"So you're really an alien?" she asked. "A good one that likes us and wants to help?"
The Time Lord smiled at her, but inwardly was frowning. Jaded so young! He wasn't sure if it was from Torchwood or from the Universe. "Yes."
"Will you tell me all about it?" She gave her best puppy dog look.
"So did your Uncle Jack teach you that one?" the Doctor teased, making Emiko giggle and drew a protest from Jack. "I'll try to answer your questions, but there are some that I can't answer. Is that okay?"
Emiko nodded. "Mummy has some things she can't tell me either."
Jack kissed her forehead. "Why don't you go help Ianto make some tea, and then you and the Doctor can talk, hmn?"
She giggled and leaned up to kiss Jack's cheek. "I'll see you in ten minutes!" she told the Doctor, running out the door.
The Doctor waved at her as she left. "So she's yours then?"
"Nope." Jack stood. "She'll probably want to take notes too, so make sure you spell everything out for her."
Jack and the Doctor, seasoned soldiers, had decided that the course of action was strategic retreat. The two of them sat on the other side of the table and watched Ianto and Emiko argue over her traveling with the Doctor.
"Why isn't she working for you?" the Doctor asked in low tones, watching the other two fight.
"When Tosh died, she... didn't want me to recruit her daughter. Emi went to live with her grandparents in Tokyo, got into a really great Japanese school, graduated super early, then came back to Cardiff and asked for a job."
"And you turned her down."
Jack nodded. "So she went to London." He shook his head. She was so like her father. "And you honestly didn't recognize her?"
"The last time I saw her, she was about six years old and had black hair down to her waist," the Doctor defended. "Now she looks like she stepped out of a rock concert."
The immortal laughed, glancing over at the glimmering silver studs that lined her ear up to her short, violent blue hair. "Yeah. Ear piercings are a really big deal with her grandparents, she got one every time they pissed her off."
"She has to be yours," the Doctor insisted. "There's no one else I know who would do something like that. Besides, she's so much like you."
"Oh? You don't know anyone else who's so passively rebellious?" His eyes cut over to Ianto, and back again, catching the Doctor's look of surprise.
Ianto's voice cut through the lull in their conversation. "Emiko, traveling with the Doctor is dangerous. You could get hurt, you could die."
"You traveled with him!" she argued back.
"I was older than you, I had the experience -- "
"Ewythr Ianto, I grew up around this stuff! I know more about this sort of thing than you or anyone else!"
Ianto slammed his hands down on the table. "You have not seen a platoon of Cybermen storming down on you, or heard a Darlek screaming to exterminate you," he said, oh-so-quietly.
Danger, danger! Jack leaned forward to touch his shoulder. "Ianto, Yan, calm down -- "
"I am not going to let my daughter go out and willingly kill herself!" Ianto snapped without thinking.
Jack flinched, pulling his hand back and taking a sharp breath, waiting for the backlash.
Emiko's eyes were so wide you could see the whites all around. "D... daughter?" she finally managed, sounding breathless.
Ianto covered his mouth with a hand once his brain caught up with what he'd said. Emiko pushed back from the table and fled out of the kitchen. The Welshman started after her, but Jack reached out and touched his elbow. "Give her a little bit, Ianto."
The Doctor sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "...Wow. A second generation Companion. Through her Mum too, Toshiko got a spin when she was little." He looked up to find Ianto and Jack staring at him.
"Right. Tea?"
The Doctor had run across the rebuilt Torchwood One when he was doing a favor for his Companions. Jack and Ianto kept in regular contact with him -- so did Martha. Donna too, every Sunday afternoon. All four of them had practically called him at the same instant, UNIT and Torchwood working together at last with an alien incursion. Donna had landed a freelancer job with Torchwood One, tracking down her own projects and seeing everything her little old rock had to offer.
Jack and Ianto had to stay in Cardiff, monitoring the Rift, which had become a little fidgety while the invaders tapped into the energy. Donna had been in America and was unable to get a flight out to London, and Martha was stuck in a hospital near the front line, patching up the injured (on both sides, good old Martha Jones).
The Doctor swept in the way he always did, coat swishing and sending the army scattering under the fall of his trainers. There was something to be said about having his reputation at times.
He left notes for his four Companions, placed a quick call to Sarah Jane (who was a mother now! no more sudden trips to the thirty-fifth century for tea anymore), and headed down to where he'd left the TARDIS.
The new Torchwood One was so different from the old, but there was still the fundamental feeling that they were doing something so damn noble and right that it set him on edge. He wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there.
Koko was standing by the TARDIS, taking down notes on a clipboard. She looked up and grinned as the Doctor stepped into her lab. "Good to see you again, sir."
The Doctor nodded, disinterested and dismissing her immediately. "You didn't do anything to her, did you?"
The young woman look scandalized. "Of course not! She's a sentient being, that would be inhumane!"
The Time Lord paused, key halfway to the door. He looked over at her, really looked at her. "How did you know that?"
She gave him an odd look. "I got notes from Torchwood Three."
"Oh!" He smiled. She was young, probably about the same age Rose had been when he met her, maybe just a little younger. There was something else in her too, a light that all of his Companions had.
"What else do you know about her?" he asked.
"Um..." She shuffled through the papers on her clipboard. "I have some instructions on how she flies, engine make-up, dimensions." She looked up. "Is she really bigger on the inside?"
The Doctor grinned and opened the door. "See for yourself."
Emiko didn't look up when Ianto sat down next to her; instead, she pulled her coat tighter around her body. Ianto sat down next to her, his feet hanging over the edge of the roof, waiting for her to break the silence.
"Is it true?" she finally asked.
Ianto nodded, looking down at his feet as they swayed in the breeze. "Your mother wanted a baby so badly, and I could never tell her no."
"Why didn't you -- why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know how." He finally looked over at her. "Em, you've grown up so wonderfully, I know your Mam would be so proud of you. God knows I am. But... Cariad, you have a finite time. When you're gone, you're gone and I'll still be here, and I'm going to miss you something fierce."
"Isn't that all the more reason to make the most of now?" She gave him a little nudge. "And you old people say that we're the ones who act like we have all the time in the world."
Ianto laughed and put an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. "You're right. I've been a shitty Tad."
"You were a pretty good one to me when I was little," Emiko said, looking up at him. "You and Uncle Jack."
Ianto smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "We love you, you know."
"I know," she replied, snuggling into him. "And I love you too, Tad."
He rested his cheek against the top of her head as they looked out over Cardiff.
"Are you really going to not let me travel with the Doctor?"
Ianto chuckled. "Of course not. You'll have the time of your life. Just remember us back here in Cardiff every now and again, okay?"
She nodded. "I promise I won't do anything completely idiotic."
"That's my girl." He reached up to run his fingers through her short hair before giving the strands a brief tug. "And what's all this then?" he teased gently.
"Tad..." Emiko groaned, rolling her eyes before dissolving into her mother's giggles
Ianto laughed as well, hugging her close again. She was right. One day she would be long gone, but he'd never forget these little moments they could make right now.
He had nineteen years to make up for, and he was going to do his level best.
ETA: Chapter eight here.
Chapter Seven: Isn't There A Place Between?
dwtwprompts prompt: Years
Date Written: 6/12/08
Word Count: 2,555
Rating: PG/K+3
Fandom: Torchwood/Doctor Who
Characters/Pairings: Jack/Ianto, Doctor, OC, mentioned Donna and Martha and Rose
Spoilers: Up through Torchwood Season 02, with a nod to The Sarah Jane Adventures
Warnings: Mentioned character death
Author's Notes: You've all been asking for it, and here it is. Title from the song Home to Stay by Josh Groban (which I so want to write Janto fic to).
1/?: And So It Begins
2/?: Time Travel Messes With Your Senses
3/?: It's Just Sex, Sex, Sex With You People
4/?: Break Out Your Converse, It's Time To Save The Universe
5/?: Here Be Dragons
6/?: Imitation Is The Finest Form Of Flattery
The Doctor had a soft spot -- with very very few exceptions -- for all of his Companions, no matter how brief their trips had been. He completely and utterly adored them, wrapping his hearts around their brief time spans even as he knew that they would leave him eventually.
Some, like Sarah Jane, he had avoided, even after the War was lost. He'd been ashamed of the man he had been forced to become, the murderer of two species. He'd thought that they would never accept him back, what he had done marked him as unstable and a renegade.
He really should have known better.
The others, the later Companions, they tracked him down to get back to him. Jack and Martha and Donna had clawed their way back into his life after they'd parted ways, full-knowing the consequences.
Ianto, Jack's quiet, brilliant, level-headed soul mate, had completely won the Doctor over from the moment he'd set eyes on the young Welshman. The Doctor recognized a fellow comrade, one who had lost his entire world because of a war he hadn't started.
That and it was fun to poke at him, get him properly riled up. Ianto could take a lot of bullshit before he completely and utterly snapped. When he did snap, whole planets shook under the wrath of one human.
The newest Companion, Koko, he'd fallen in with like he had the others -- completely by accident. She was pretty and smart as a button and reminded him a lot of Jack and Ianto, lots of snark and not-so-subtle flirtatious teasing one minute, all yes sir and domestic the next. She didn't put up with his half-assed explanations and could follow the ones he gave. She was a rare diamond he'd found in the dark mine of the rebuilt Torchwood One.
So he did what any proud man would do. He took her home to show off to the family.
Koko tore open the door to the TARDIS, flinching against the blast of cold air. "We're in Cardiff!"
"Yes! Cardiff, Wales, Earth, 21st Century. There's some people you should meet, friends of mine." She turned and gave him an odd look, her short hair blowing in the breeze. "Off with you, go grab a coat from the wardrobe."
She laughed. "Yes Dad," she teased, heading off down the hall, long thing fingers trailing over the TARDIS walls. The Time Lord felt an answering wash of warm affection following the young human. The TARDIS had taken very easily to their newest Companion.
There was that little nagging feeling, like he should know her from somewhere. Where, he had no idea, but she just had a familiar look about her...
The Doctor pulled on his own brown jacket and stepped out onto the Plass. He grinned as he caught sight of Jack and Ianto Harkness-Jones running across the Plass. He gave an over-exaggerated wave with his whole arm, laughing again when Jack returned it.
"Doctor!" Jack laughed, sweeping the Time Lord up in a huge hug that nearly lifted him off his feet. The Doctor laughed and patted his back, turning to give Ianto a warm embrace as well.
He still got a weird feeling around the two immortals -- he hated Facts, they told him what he could and couldn't do -- but he decided that the friendship they offered was well worth the unease. Besides, it faded as he got used to it.
"We weren't expecting to see you today," the Welshman said, smiling at him.
"Yes, well, you're always telling me to not travel alone," he said, putting his hands in his pockets. "And since Donna's not traveling with me anymore, I thought I'd show you my latest hitchhiker."
Jack grinned. "Yeah? Another girl?"
"They're easier to keep in line," the Doctor teased back, earning a laugh from both Companions.
The doors opened again, and Koko stepped out, wrapped up in what the Doctor recognized as Jack's old RAF greatcoat. "Doctor, look what I fo--"
"EMIKO!"
Blue eyes widened as the Doctor's newest Companion looked at her uncles. "Uncle Jack, Ewythr Ianto!"
"I knew you looked familiar!" the Doctor said, clapping a hand to his head and pointing at her with the other. "But you said your name was Koko."
"It's a nickname, hello," Emiko replied, putting her hands on her hips.
"Emi's your new Companion?" Jack asked.
"If I had realized it was Emiko Sato, I would have brought her home straight off!"
"And that's why I didn't tell you, idiot," the girl said. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions!"
Ianto, who had been stunned when the girl stepped out of the TARDIS, finally snapped out his stupor. "What the HELL do you think you're doing?!" he yelled in Welsh, the language registering in everyone's brains but getting translated immediately by the TARDIS.
"Let's have this conversation inside," Jack urged, pushing his husband into the TARDIS.
A dark little head appeared in the doorway of Jack's office, slanted blue eyes eyes peering carefully around the door frame. Jack waggled his fingers at the face, and the child giggled before pulling away.
"I didn't think Torchwood had a daycare," the Doctor teased.
Jack just laughed. "We didn't have operatives with kids before." The head reappeared and Jack rapped his knuckles on the desk. "C'mere Emi."
The little girl hurried into Jack's office, little trainers tapping against the floor as her braided pigtails flew out behind her. She ran around Jack's desk and clambered up into his lap, smoothing out her little uniform skirt.
"Hallo there," the Doctor said, leaning over to smile at the little girl. "And what's your name?"
"Emiko," she replied softly. Jack smiled and put a hand on her head, winking at her when she looked up at him.
"Emi, this is the Doctor. Doc, this is Emiko Sato."
"Are you a doctor like Uncle Owen, or are you Uncle Jack and Ewythr Ianto's Doctor?" she asked the Doctor, bright blue eyes meeting his bravely.
The Doctor laughed. "I know a lot of the same things that your Uncle Owen knows, but I'm Uncle Jack and Uncle Ianto's Doctor too."
"So you're really an alien?" she asked. "A good one that likes us and wants to help?"
The Time Lord smiled at her, but inwardly was frowning. Jaded so young! He wasn't sure if it was from Torchwood or from the Universe. "Yes."
"Will you tell me all about it?" She gave her best puppy dog look.
"So did your Uncle Jack teach you that one?" the Doctor teased, making Emiko giggle and drew a protest from Jack. "I'll try to answer your questions, but there are some that I can't answer. Is that okay?"
Emiko nodded. "Mummy has some things she can't tell me either."
Jack kissed her forehead. "Why don't you go help Ianto make some tea, and then you and the Doctor can talk, hmn?"
She giggled and leaned up to kiss Jack's cheek. "I'll see you in ten minutes!" she told the Doctor, running out the door.
The Doctor waved at her as she left. "So she's yours then?"
"Nope." Jack stood. "She'll probably want to take notes too, so make sure you spell everything out for her."
Jack and the Doctor, seasoned soldiers, had decided that the course of action was strategic retreat. The two of them sat on the other side of the table and watched Ianto and Emiko argue over her traveling with the Doctor.
"Why isn't she working for you?" the Doctor asked in low tones, watching the other two fight.
"When Tosh died, she... didn't want me to recruit her daughter. Emi went to live with her grandparents in Tokyo, got into a really great Japanese school, graduated super early, then came back to Cardiff and asked for a job."
"And you turned her down."
Jack nodded. "So she went to London." He shook his head. She was so like her father. "And you honestly didn't recognize her?"
"The last time I saw her, she was about six years old and had black hair down to her waist," the Doctor defended. "Now she looks like she stepped out of a rock concert."
The immortal laughed, glancing over at the glimmering silver studs that lined her ear up to her short, violent blue hair. "Yeah. Ear piercings are a really big deal with her grandparents, she got one every time they pissed her off."
"She has to be yours," the Doctor insisted. "There's no one else I know who would do something like that. Besides, she's so much like you."
"Oh? You don't know anyone else who's so passively rebellious?" His eyes cut over to Ianto, and back again, catching the Doctor's look of surprise.
Ianto's voice cut through the lull in their conversation. "Emiko, traveling with the Doctor is dangerous. You could get hurt, you could die."
"You traveled with him!" she argued back.
"I was older than you, I had the experience -- "
"Ewythr Ianto, I grew up around this stuff! I know more about this sort of thing than you or anyone else!"
Ianto slammed his hands down on the table. "You have not seen a platoon of Cybermen storming down on you, or heard a Darlek screaming to exterminate you," he said, oh-so-quietly.
Danger, danger! Jack leaned forward to touch his shoulder. "Ianto, Yan, calm down -- "
"I am not going to let my daughter go out and willingly kill herself!" Ianto snapped without thinking.
Jack flinched, pulling his hand back and taking a sharp breath, waiting for the backlash.
Emiko's eyes were so wide you could see the whites all around. "D... daughter?" she finally managed, sounding breathless.
Ianto covered his mouth with a hand once his brain caught up with what he'd said. Emiko pushed back from the table and fled out of the kitchen. The Welshman started after her, but Jack reached out and touched his elbow. "Give her a little bit, Ianto."
The Doctor sat back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling. "...Wow. A second generation Companion. Through her Mum too, Toshiko got a spin when she was little." He looked up to find Ianto and Jack staring at him.
"Right. Tea?"
The Doctor had run across the rebuilt Torchwood One when he was doing a favor for his Companions. Jack and Ianto kept in regular contact with him -- so did Martha. Donna too, every Sunday afternoon. All four of them had practically called him at the same instant, UNIT and Torchwood working together at last with an alien incursion. Donna had landed a freelancer job with Torchwood One, tracking down her own projects and seeing everything her little old rock had to offer.
Jack and Ianto had to stay in Cardiff, monitoring the Rift, which had become a little fidgety while the invaders tapped into the energy. Donna had been in America and was unable to get a flight out to London, and Martha was stuck in a hospital near the front line, patching up the injured (on both sides, good old Martha Jones).
The Doctor swept in the way he always did, coat swishing and sending the army scattering under the fall of his trainers. There was something to be said about having his reputation at times.
He left notes for his four Companions, placed a quick call to Sarah Jane (who was a mother now! no more sudden trips to the thirty-fifth century for tea anymore), and headed down to where he'd left the TARDIS.
The new Torchwood One was so different from the old, but there was still the fundamental feeling that they were doing something so damn noble and right that it set him on edge. He wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of there.
Koko was standing by the TARDIS, taking down notes on a clipboard. She looked up and grinned as the Doctor stepped into her lab. "Good to see you again, sir."
The Doctor nodded, disinterested and dismissing her immediately. "You didn't do anything to her, did you?"
The young woman look scandalized. "Of course not! She's a sentient being, that would be inhumane!"
The Time Lord paused, key halfway to the door. He looked over at her, really looked at her. "How did you know that?"
She gave him an odd look. "I got notes from Torchwood Three."
"Oh!" He smiled. She was young, probably about the same age Rose had been when he met her, maybe just a little younger. There was something else in her too, a light that all of his Companions had.
"What else do you know about her?" he asked.
"Um..." She shuffled through the papers on her clipboard. "I have some instructions on how she flies, engine make-up, dimensions." She looked up. "Is she really bigger on the inside?"
The Doctor grinned and opened the door. "See for yourself."
Emiko didn't look up when Ianto sat down next to her; instead, she pulled her coat tighter around her body. Ianto sat down next to her, his feet hanging over the edge of the roof, waiting for her to break the silence.
"Is it true?" she finally asked.
Ianto nodded, looking down at his feet as they swayed in the breeze. "Your mother wanted a baby so badly, and I could never tell her no."
"Why didn't you -- why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't know how." He finally looked over at her. "Em, you've grown up so wonderfully, I know your Mam would be so proud of you. God knows I am. But... Cariad, you have a finite time. When you're gone, you're gone and I'll still be here, and I'm going to miss you something fierce."
"Isn't that all the more reason to make the most of now?" She gave him a little nudge. "And you old people say that we're the ones who act like we have all the time in the world."
Ianto laughed and put an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him. "You're right. I've been a shitty Tad."
"You were a pretty good one to me when I was little," Emiko said, looking up at him. "You and Uncle Jack."
Ianto smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "We love you, you know."
"I know," she replied, snuggling into him. "And I love you too, Tad."
He rested his cheek against the top of her head as they looked out over Cardiff.
"Are you really going to not let me travel with the Doctor?"
Ianto chuckled. "Of course not. You'll have the time of your life. Just remember us back here in Cardiff every now and again, okay?"
She nodded. "I promise I won't do anything completely idiotic."
"That's my girl." He reached up to run his fingers through her short hair before giving the strands a brief tug. "And what's all this then?" he teased gently.
"Tad..." Emiko groaned, rolling her eyes before dissolving into her mother's giggles
Ianto laughed as well, hugging her close again. She was right. One day she would be long gone, but he'd never forget these little moments they could make right now.
He had nineteen years to make up for, and he was going to do his level best.
ETA: Chapter eight here.