Jack's thinking about getting pregnant again, but he's worried. Can his team allay his concerns?
This Chapter rated PG-13.
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‘Jack’s found another one,’ Ianto thought as he carried the takeout back to the SUV. Jack was talking to a young couple who were out for a stroll with their baby.
“Sam is six months old now and eats like a horse,” the mother proudly informed Jack.
“Who’s this then?” Ianto asked as he joined them.
“This is Sarah, Bob and this little tiger with the strong grip on my finger is Sam,” Jack answered. “Sarah and Bob meet my partner, Ianto.”
“Nice to miss you,” Ianto said shaking their hands. “Handsome son you have there.”
“Thank you,” Sarah replied. “He’s our joy.”
“Except at two in the morning when he wakes us up,” Bob added playfully.
“Oh, stop it, you; don’t believe what he’s saying. He loves taking care of Sam as much as I do,” countered Sarah.
“Doesn’t surprise me, he’s wonderful,” Jack agreed playfully shaking his finger while Sam tried to put it in his mouth.
“We better get back to the Hub before lunch gets cold,” Ianto reminded Jack.
Jack nodded. “Okay tiger, time to let go of my finger,” Jack said to Sam as he gently removed his finger from the child’s grip. “You folks have a lovely stroll with your son.”
“We will; goodbye,” Bob said as they continued their stroll.
Jack and Ianto entered the Hub five minutes later. “About time you got back with the food; I’m starving,” Owen said.
“Keep your shirt on Owen,” Jack said. “We’ve got enough to feed an army. Meet us in the boardroom in five minutes.” Ianto followed Jack into the boardroom where they unpacked the food.
“You’re thinking about trying to get pregnant again, aren’t you?” Ianto asked casually.
Jack stopped perusing the food choices and looked at Ianto. “I might have thought about it - what makes you think so?”
“Jack, every time you spot a couple with a baby or a toddler you can’t resist stopping and talking to them and cooing over the child,” Ianto said walking over behind his mate. Putting his arms around Jack and placing his hands on Jack’s stomach Ianto added, “Plus you keep putting your hand on your stomach like you’re imaging what it would be like carrying our child.” Tenderly Ianto kissed the back of Jack’s neck; “Am I wrong, Cariad?” he asked.
“You’re too observant Ianto,” Jack replied huskily. He turned around in Ianto’s arm and added, “I do want to try again, but I’m scared to; we haven’t found a way to detect a pregnancy as early as possible.”
“What about those pee-on-a-stick pregnancy tests?” Ianto asked.
“They’re designed for women with monthly cycles, not for 51st century males who can bear children,” Jack replied. “By the time the test was positive I’d be two months pregnant. I need to know sooner than two months.”
“Don’t worry love, we’ll figure out a way,” Ianto promised. He kissed Jack again; Jack responded enthusiastically and they were so focused on each other they didn’t see Owen, Tosh and Gwen come in the boardroom.
“Oi, get a room you two,” Owen loudly complained. The boys broke off their kissing, Ianto blushing and Jack as usual grinning.
“Just working up an appetite kids,” Jack replied. “Let’s eat!”
They all dished up food from the numerous choices and sat down to eat. The team gave Jack status on various cases and projects while they ate, but Jack looked puzzled. “What’s the status on the project you three, are working on?” Jack asked.
Gwen, Tosh and Owen exchanged glances before Gwen inquired, “What project do you mean, Jack?”
Jack leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. “The one you discuss all the time until Ianto or I come near and then you break apart and pretend you weren’t discussing anything,” he replied raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, that project,” Gwen said smiling at Jack. Looking at Owen and Tosh she asked, “Should we tell him?”
“I don’t know;” Tosh said, “maybe we should do some more tweaking first.”
“Or we could analyze more data first,” Owen said playing along with the girls.
Jack was getting frustrated and said, “Stop playing around - what’s going on with this mysterious project of yours?”
Tosh, Gwen and Owen just looked at Jack for a moment until Owen smiled and said, “Alright, come down to the medical bay and we’ll show you.”
“Show me what?” asked Jack as they all stood up.
“Our project, it’s completely operational now,” Tosh said grabbing Jack’s hand and pulling to make him follow her through the door and down to the medical bay.
“You’re going to love it,” Gwen chimed in as she urged Ianto to hurry up.
Once they all arrived in the medical bay, Owen removed the covering off a new piece of equipment. Ianto and Jack both looked at it.
“Didn’t that fall through the Rift a year ago?” Ianto asked.
“It did,” Owen agreed.
“I thought we decided it was broken,” Jack stated.
“It was, but the good news is we figured out what it was and we fixed it,” Tosh answered.
“Tosh, Gwen and I worked on it together; it’s an instant medical scanner,” Owen added.
“Okay,” Ianto said taking a closer look at the machine, “but we already have some medical scanners, so what’s so different about this one?”
“We’ll show you,” Owen replied. He walked over to a counter and retrieved two small cages. “Meet Laverne and Shirley.” The two caged rats were busy sniffing the air and checking out Owen’s fingers.
“Cute,” Ianto said. He liked all kinds of animals. “You’re not going to blow them up and make rat jam are you?”
Owen looked offended; “No, I’m not, and besides that was the sex alien’s fault! These two lovely female rats are going to help demonstrate our new medical scanner.” Owen put the two cages down and took the slightly smaller rat out of her cage. “I’ve already confirmed through normal methods that Shirley is not pregnant. The machine is currently calibrated to scan rats so all I have to do is place Shirley on the machine.” He placed Shirley on top of machine in an area designated with the outline of a human hand. “The machine is programmed to scan for pregnancy automatically and it will display the results on the opposing wall.” Sure enough, the machine lit up, scanned the small rat and a moment later it projected an image on the opposite wall displaying the outline of a rat and flashing the phrase: Pregnancy Test results Negative.
“So far, so good,” Jack admitted.
“Now I’ll put Shirley back in her cage and bring out Laverne.” Swiftly Shirley was returned to her cage and Owen now held Laverne in his hand. “First, I made sure Laverne wasn’t pregnant and then three days ago I let her do the dirty dance with another rat named Lenny for a day. Let’s see if the little lady is up the duff,” Owen said placing Laverne on the machine. It scanned the rat and displayed the results: Pregnancy Test results Positive. “So what do you think?” Owen asked.
Jack stared at the results on the wall. “It can tell the rat is pregnant after just two days?”
“Yes,” Tosh confirmed.
“Have you tested it more than once?” Ianto asked feeling hopeful but still wary.
“This is our twentieth test,” Gwen said. “The first four times it wasn’t quite right and we had to tweak the machine a bit, but after the sixth time it was pretty accurate and now the machine’s correctly diagnosing the pregnant rat each time.
“You believe it’ll be just as accurate with humans?” Jack asked holding his breath. He felt Ianto’s hand slip into his hand.
“It may not tell you when you’re only two days pregnant Jack, but it will definitely confirm you’re pregnant by your fifth day.”
“And all I have to do is put my hand on the machine?”
“Yep; I’ll have the machine set to scan for human pregnancy by default. All you have to do is come into the medical bay, put your hand on the machine and it will scan, determine you’re male and then scan for male pregnancy,” Owen confirmed.
Jack took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “You lot must have worked on this for hours; I’m . . . I’m overwhelmed.”
Ianto pulled Jack into a hug, kissed him and wiped the tears off Jack’s face. “Those are happy tears, aren’t they?” Ianto asked.
“Yep, happy tears this time,” Jack chuckled.
“Are you pleased Jack?” Gwen asked.
“Very, thank you so much,” Jack said as he hugged Tosh, Gwen and Owen. Ianto hugged them all too.
“I’m glad we could create the EPA device for you Jack,” Tosh said.
“EPA?” Jack asked.
“Early Pregnancy Alert,” Tosh quipped pointing to the letters they’d painted on the side of the machine.
“Cute name, I like it,” Jack said with a smile.
An alarm sounded interrupting their discussion; everyone headed up to the main floor and Tosh checked the monitors at her station. “We’ve got a Hoix loose down at the docks,” Tosh stated.
“Ianto and I will go capture it,” Jack said. Ianto helped Jack slip on his great coat and they headed out the cogwheel door together.
“Ianto, once we’ve captured the Hoix and taken it back to the Hub why don’t we go home early,” Jack suggested as he drove to the docks.
“Alright,” Ianto agreed. “Do you have anything particular in mind?” he asked resting his hand on Jack’s thigh.
Arriving at their destination, Jack stopped the SUV and turned off the engine. “I want to try and get pregnant again,” he said.
Ianto stroked Jack’s cheek tenderly. “You're sure you really want to try again?” Ianto asked.
“Positive,” Jack replied leaning over and kissing Ianto. Jack wanted more than a kiss but Ianto pushed him away.
“We’ve got to capture the Hoix first,” Ianto stated breathing heavily his tie slightly askew.
“Right,” Jack, also a bit out of breath, agreed; he opened the SUV door and got out. “The sooner we capture the Hoix, the sooner you can take me home and have your wicked way with me.” Jack slammed the door shut and trotted off to find the Hoix and Ianto was hot on Jack’s heels.
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Note from socalrose: Things are starting to look up; clear sailing ahead - right? Please share your comments, concerns or questions - they're really appreciated!
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