Title: Big Coat Man
By: cameragirl
Pairing: pretty much gen
Rating: PG13
Summary: Here's three year old Ianto as the team tries to get him back to normal.

***

"Um Tosh, you're being followed around by the four year old." Jack mused and leaned against the wall to watch a dark-haired boy dressed in a big t-shirt hold tightly onto Tosh's jacket. Tosh looked down and lifted the little boy up onto her lap.

"He's three and it's Ianto." Tosh told him with a grimace. Jack looked back and forth from Tosh to the toddler, who seemed control with cautiously touching the free computer monitor.

"Owen!" Jack's bellowed yell seemed to echo through and shake the whole hub. "I'm gone for two hours and Ianto's a two year old?"

"Three year old." Tosh corrected him.

"How'd you know it was me?" Owen grumbled as he poked his head out from the Autopsy Bay door.

"Because you were trying to figure out that weapon when I left." Jack said simply and pointed to the shiny object in Owen's hands.

"He's good." Gwen admitted as she picked up little Ianto and ruffled his hair. He rubbed his eyes then slowly sipped the hot chocolate she handed him.

"Thanks." He whispered softly with a slight lisp.

"He's a quiet one." Jack said sarcastically.

"Well, I can't imagine what you expected. He won't acknowledge Owen called me and Tosh miss." Gwen placed Ianto back on Tosh's lap.

"What happened to his hand?" Jack asked quickly, noticing a slight gash on the youngster's hand.

"Ianto was carrying coffee when Owen triggered the device, the mugs dropped and one cut his hand." Tosh explained.

"He wouldn't let us look at it. Just kept those frightened eyes on us. Thought some hot chocolate would distract him." Gwen said sympathetically.

"Hi." Jack put on a big grin and knelt down in front of Tosh to be eye level with Ianto. "Can I see your hand?" Jack asked in a friendly voice.

The little Ianto's eyes grew wide and he began to shake. He quickly turned away to bury his face in Tosh's jacket.

"I think he heard you yell at Owen earlier. Definitely frightened him." Tosh explained.

"Owen, get your ass over here." Jack said gritting through his still smiling teeth. "See, me and Owen are friends." Jack grinned at Ianto who watched Jack Harkness pull Owen into a hug. Owen shook himself out of Jack's grasp and made his way back to his desk to work on the alien object.

"I bet that hurts." Jack nodded towards Ianto's cut but the little boy didn't move at all, just kept his eyes on Jack.

"I'll take care of it Jack." Tosh offered.

"Can I see your hand?" Jack ignored Tosh and asked Ianto. The little boy didn't answer or move but opened up his hand towards Jack. The cut was raked with the drying blood. Jack took the emergency first aid kit off the nearest desk and wiped the cut clean and wrapped a long bandage around the small hand a few times.

"Thank you sir." The little Ianto whispered. He still looked scared of Jack and looked up at Tosh who smiled at him.

"Tosh, you want to go shopping? So he can wear something other than that shirt." Gwen suggested.

"Is that my shirt?" Jack sighed and shook his head.

"Well all the shirts Ianto had in his quarters were all dress shirts, we couldn't find his pajamas or anything." Owen reasoned.

"Oh and I wonder where his pajamas are…" Jack grinned.

"Oh." Tosh blushed. "We must have missed them." She quickly changed the subject. "Ianto?" The little boy looked up at the sound of his name. "You're going to stay here with Jack and Owen, ok? Gwen and I are going to get you some comfy clothes." She said cheerfully.

Ianto began to talk but it wasn't anything that Jack understood.

"He says 'ok ok but the man in the big coat is big and scary and yells, hurry. Who's Owen?' …Well, loosely translated." Gwen told them.

"Was that Welsh?" Jack asked curiously.

"Yep, it's probably his better language. Most children learn it first." Gwen told him. She talked rapidly to Ianto before they left the hub. Tosh passed Ianto onto Jack and he still looked frightened of Jack. He just stared at the captain and tried to push himself away.

"I told him that we'll be back soon and not to be scared of the man in the big coat." Gwen called as they got on the lift.

"The man in the big coat has a name." Jack grumbled. He walked over to the lift so he could set Ianto down to watch them leave, but that only scared him even more. Maybe letting the kid watch an invisible lift wasn't the best idea.

"Hi." Jack lifted Ianto up again. He looked over Jack's shoulder, down to the floor and then looked at Jack.

"High." He whispered.

"Right, sorry about that." Jack frowned "You want some food?" Ianto nodded but was still distracted by how far away he was from the ground. "Ok then. Uh…close your eyes. Didn't your parents tell you not to look down?" Little Ianto stiffened and become quieter then before, which was saying something. Jack could've slapped himself. He shouldn't have mentioned Ianto's parents. They were the reason he was so quiet.

"Ok, just close your eyes so it doesn't seem so high and we'll get you a sandwich or a cookie or some type of kid food." Ianto stated talking in Welsh again and Jack briefly touched his earpiece.

"Owen, do me a favor and go into the archives, get the translator in box 13-a-VII and bring it to the kitchen." He handed Ianto a cookie and some milk. Ianto quietly munched on his cookie and watched Jack who was watching him right back.

"Here you go. Did the little bugger start speaking Welsh again? Oi! You!" He pointed at Ianto who dropped the cookie. "We don't talk Welsh! Little heads up!" Owen told him in a loud voice. Ianto looked from Jack to Owen then back again his eyes started to become shiny with tears.

"Owen." Jack said sharply. "It's three-year-old Ianto, not Ianto in a three-year-old body, ok?

Chill out and go figure out that technology." Jack said calmly trying not to scare Ianto again by yelling at Owen. "Just ignore him Ianto." Jack gave him a smile which the little boy cautiously returned. The big coat man couldn't be all that bad if he made the other man go away. "Do you want something else to eat?" Jack asked as he picked him up. Ianto's little arms wrapped around Jack's neck and began to fall asleep on his shoulder.

"Well I guess not." Jack started but become quiet as he heard Ianto start talking in Welsh. He held the translator up and words came across the screen.

"Good cookie. Night. I'm sleepy. Nice man in big coat." A smiling Jack read aloud and wrapped the toddler in a blanket to lay him on the couch in Jack's office.

"You got him to go down for a nap?" Gwen asked in surprise. She and Tosh walked through the office doorway with a small bag of clothing.

"We didn't get much because we're hoping that he doesn't stay this way for long. Has Owen gotten any further in his research?" Tosh asked.

"I doubt it but he better hurry up." Jack muttered.

"I'm sure he's trying." Gwen defended Owen.

"Yea, I'm sure." Jack rolled his eyes as an indignant Owen stomped into the room.

"I am working on it, thank you very much! I just need to use one of Tosh's monitors for the last equation." Owen raised his voice.

"Thanks a lot Owen." Tosh said quietly. She had sat down on the couch next to wide-eyed Ianto. He had woken up when Owen had stomped into the room. Tosh was rubbing his back. "Shhh it's ok, go back to sleep." She said soothingly. He rubbed his eyes and as a result tangled himself in the blanket. Gwen said something quiet in Welsh and Ianto responded and looked toward Jack.

"He said that-" "Big coat man gave me a cookie and milk." Jack finished dryly and held up the translator screen.

"Jack." Gwen told Ianto and pointed to Jack. "Big coat man's name is Jack." She said.

"Jack." Ianto repeated sleepily. He stopped trying to fight the blanket but gave up and leaned against Tosh to fall asleep again. He subconsciously curled up which gathered a collective "aw" from the girls and Jack.

"Nutters, all of you." Owen muttered and left.

"So Jack, why are Ianto's pajamas in your room?" Gwen asked with a smirk.

"Why do you think?" Jack smirked back.

"They've been seeing each other for a few months now." Tosh said without stopping herself. Jack raised his eyebrows. "Ianto was really happy one morning and I cajoled him into telling me." Tosh explained.

Jack nodded. "Well, it's about time someone knew. Even though Owen turned my boyfriend into a 3 year old."

"Technically he just pushed Ianto's biological clock backwards." Tosh pointed out.

"A three year old." Jack repeated. "Not to mention a three year old who's scared of me and knows more Welsh than English. Tosh, go help Owen figure this out." Tosh got up off the couch and the weight lifted caused Ianto to wake up again.

"Someone's a light sleeper." Gwen smiled as she sat down on the couch and placed Ianto on her lap. "Hey there sleepy." She said sweetly as Ianto rubbed his eyes again and looked around the room.

"Jack." He said quietly as he saw the captain behind his desk.

"That's right, that's Jack." Gwen nodded and tried to smooth out the dark curly hair that was sticking up on the boy's head. "Let's get you dressed ok?" Gwen lifted Ianto's shirt up and helped Ianto put on his new little jeans and t-shirt. "There you go…Jack? If Owen doesn't figure this out tonight, do you want Ianto to stay here?"

"Yea that'd be fine." Jack paused. "Why? What'd you already plan?" Jack asked.

"Well, Rhys heard Ianto talking in Welsh right after he was changed and I told him I was watching my boss's son today. He got quite excited, he loves kids…" Gwen trailed off.

"Well, the only problem with taking Ianto home is what if he changes back in the middle of the night? How will you explain that?" Jack asked her.

"Oh, good point."

"Tell Rhys we'll meet him for dinner. Yes, we. Cause I'm apparently his father. Tell Rhys that I'm treating you to a meal for watching my kid, Ok Ianto? Want to be my son for an hour or two?" Not exactly sure of Ianto understood but he still nodded.

"Good, you go home and get Rhys; we'll go meet you at the little café around the corner." Gwen left and Jack turned his attention to Ianto who had been petting Jack's coat, which had been thrown across the couch.

"Big coat?" Jack asked. Ianto quickly pulled his hand away from Jack's coat. "No, it's ok. You can play with it, or pet it or whatever the hell you were doing." He smiled.

"Jack, please tell me you didn't curse in front of him. And they say I'm bad with kids." Owen shook his head. He sat down on the floor and beckoned Ianto over.

"Hi." He smiled and Ianto tottered forward hesitantly after an encouraging look from Jack. "Close your eyes." Owen said and Ianto obeyed.

He felt a small painful prick on his finger. Little Ianto's eyes opened wide as he tried to move backwards from Owen, who had gotten the blood sample that he needed. Ianto stumbled backwards and was picked up by Jack. The little boy's lower lip was pushed forward and his eyes were welling up with tears.

"Aw Owen, you made him cry. Shh. It's ok. Big, mean Owen's leaving." Jack hushed Ianto, who had buried his head in Jack's shoulder.

"Nice Harkness, make me the bad guy." Owen stowed away the blood sample. "The stats need to go run but you should be able to change him back to the right age. So when you come back from that dinner you can power it then or you can do it now and skip dinner." Owen told Jack.

"Jack? Can I speak with you for a moment?" Tosh beckoned him over and Jack went to look at her computer monitor.

"I intercepted a phone conversation about Torchwood. Someone's been watching us. They saw me and Gwen go for clothes for Ianto here and then discussed kidnapping the Torchwood child to hold for ransom and information." Tosh told him nervously. "The one man even contemplated breaking into Torchwood even though we know our security is good but we don't know the technology they have. They said that we would never expect it and the child must be incredibly important to us."

"That he is." Jack said quietly, he thought for a minute. "Something tells me we need to get rid of these guys fast. Meaning that…" He looked at Ianto and then glanced at Owen who readied the weapon.

"Call Gwen. Tosh tell her that we're going to be late and right after dinner…well Ianto's going to get kidnapped. We'll put the flesh stick tracker behind his ear so they won't see it. Owen, turn him back but we need to turn him younger again."

"Why are we making him older and then younger again?" Owen asked.

"Because I can't just let him get kidnapped. I need our Ianto to understand what's going on. What if it was a fluke on a timed transformation and he doesn't know the plan or where he is." Jack explained while taking the child clothes off a very confused looking three year old Ianto. The shirt from earlier went back over Ianto's head, Jack stepped back, and Owen fired.

The younger Ianto looked petrified at first but then he started growing. He shot up off the floor only to lose his balance and fall into Jack.

"Woah I got you." Jack caught him and smiled.

"What?...What happened?" Ianto sounded out of breath. His eyelids fluttered before briefly closing. Jack leaned down to kiss him and his breathing seemed to return to normal. Ianto opened his eyes and took a deep breath before asking again. "What happened?"

"I don't know how much you remember but Owen accidentally turned you into a three year old." Jack explained quickly

"Oh…OH." Ianto's eyes grew wide as his memory began to return.

"Yes, Very much 'oh'." Jack helped stand Ianto up "But we need to turn you back into a three year old to be kidnapped to destroy a possibly very dangerous Torchwood enemy." He was quiet for a minute waiting for Ianto to digest all of the information. "You'll get kidnapped but you'll have a tracking device. We'll find you and get you out."

"Oh ok great." Ianto took a deep breath. He seemed to understand that they didn't have much time and Jack was trying to explain everything as quickly as possible.

"Ianto?" Jack asked "Are you ok with this?"

"I'm not quite sure I grasped everything but it's fine...Jack, I trust you." Ianto looked breathless and stunned but his eyes told Jack that everything was fine.

"Ok Owen go." Jack nodded and Owen fired the weapon at Ianto again. This time Ianto got smaller and smaller until he rested in Jack's arms. The three year old looked wide eyed and scared, not seeming to know what had just happened.

"Owen, Tosh. I need you both to stay here. These people must work fast. I plan on them taking Ianto the minute I turn my back on him and it'll be after dinner." Jack gave out his orders while Tosh redressed Ianto. Owen nodded and readied himself in front of the computers.

"Ok, Ianto." Jack picked up the three year old who now paid more attention to Jack then the ground. "Let's get you kidnapped."

***

Jack walked into the restaurant with Ianto in his arms. He had just tried to get the three year old to call him dad. Ianto didn't really understand and just kept saying "Jack dad coat man" in broken English.

"Jack! Over here!" Gwen called them over to a table for four where she and Rhys were already seated.

"Is this the little guy? Hello there." Rhys shook Jack's hand and knelt down to say hi to Ianto, who shied away and put his head on Jack's shoulder.

"Yes, we've met." Jack remembered, he'd forgotten that he had met Rhys before. This was a bit of a relief, seeing as Jack's Welsh accent wasn't exactly up to par. He had tried it on the walk over, but it just confused Ianto. The toddler's face had scrunched up, trying to figure out what Jack was saying but then just giggled at the attempt.

"I didn't know you were involved with someone." Rhys said happily, as if knowing Gwen worked with a married man gave him comfort.

"Well my wife died about a year ago." Jack thought quickly and waved away Rhys' apologies as they sat down. "Ianto's grandmother looks after him most of the time. Taught him fluent Welsh before English though, to keep his ties with his mother's side." Jack explained.

"Oh yes, your accent. It's American, right?" Rhys asked.

"Yep." Jack nodded and placed Ianto in the booster seat as he gave a tiny wave to Gwen. Over the course of the next hour Jack made polite conversation with Rhys about Ianto and Gwen was talking to Ianto in Welsh.

Jack would look down at the translator carefully hidden in his lap:

"Is the food good?"

"Yep."

"How's Jack?"

"Big coat's soft. Nice Jack."

"Don't you wish you could understand what they're saying?" Rhys interrupted Jack's thoughts. Jack had been distracted all through dinner. He was keeping up with the conversations but he felt himself getting tenser by the minute. Gwen seemed to notice and convinced Rhys that Jack insisted on paying.

The last Jack saw of the two of them was the retcon taking effect on Rhys and Gwen explaining that they had spent the whole day together so Gwen could work the late shift. She put Rhys in a cab for the ride home and waved to Jack before she rushed back to the hub for computer watch.

Jack waved back and activated his headset. He looked down at Ianto but all he saw was an empty booster seat.

"Shit!" He said loudly, grabbing the attention of the other restaurant customers. Jack ran out of the restaurant, his head turning wildly, but there was no sign of Ianto. "Tosh, its happened." He said quickly. "Activate the tracker."

"It's moving quickly Jack, the SUV's ready to go." She replied quickly.

"Good. Gwen be ready for back up. Owen make sure we're able to have a quick getaway. Alert Detective Swanson and tell her we want red light clearance. Tosh, relay the tracking signal to the SUV."

One second Ianto was sipping his milk through a straw, the next he was grabbed away from the table. There was a hand over his mouth, he couldn't call out to Jack. The little boy was put in a cage in the back of a van with a gag was in his mouth. It happened so fast that by the time he was alone in the cage, Ianto was stunned and he hurt all over.

"Jack." He tried to whisper in a cracking voice but the sound didn't make it past the gag. He fumbled with his cold hands to take the dirty rag out of his mouth. He brought his stubby knees up to his chin and buried his face into them. "Jack…" Ianto sobbed quietly.

"Hey, it's crying." A man with a baseball cap opened up the back of the van and observed Ianto. Another man, with flaming red hair came into the back of the van and hit the cage.

"Knock off that noise you!" He said in a thick Irish accent. Ianto sniffled, his eyes grew wide and frightened as he mumbled something to himself in Welsh. "It's speaking Welsh? You sure we grabbed a Torchwood kid? This seems like a local kid."

"No, this one came out of that building thing with that captain guy with that big coat."

"Jack." Ianto whispered at the mention of a big coat.

"What did he say?" Redhead sharply looked over.

"Nothing just talking Welsh." Baseball cap concluded. A sheet was thrown over the cage and Ianto felt it being lifted up and carried somewhere.

"Jack." He said again before curling up and quietly crying himself to sleep on the cold cage floor.

Jack threw himself into the SUV and followed the fast moving tracking device. It led him to a warehouse which Tosh informed him was an old UNIT storage area.

"That doesn't make any sense. That would UNIT want from us?" Jack shook his head as he got out of the SUV.

"Old grudges?" Owen suggested.

"Maybe it's UNIT as a whole?" Gwen asked.

"UNIT's not stupid enough to take us on." Jack contradicted. "Tosh, check the UNIT archives and see if the got rid of anyone in the past year to recently. Last time hostile ex- UNIT employees went after Torchwood 2 looking for information about everything. UNIT has their own version of retcon but they haven't perfected it yet. I think that's what we might be looking at." Jack grew quiet as he peered through a window.

"There's only two of them. Fucking hell. I see a bit of his shirt on the ground." Jack growled into the headset.

"Jack, calm down. Your temper is something we do not need right now." Gwen tried to soothe him. The team heard a resounding crash and knew that Jack's temper had gotten the better of him.

"Don't mess with the captain." Owen said grimly.

"Jack, don't kill them. We need to know who they're with. There could be more of them." Tosh tried to reason. There were moments of silence that seemed to last incredibly long until-

"Who are you working for?" Jack's throaty growl came over the com. Tosh increased the volume to hear the answer of a breathless and frightened Irishman.

"We-we were for UNIT before-b-before they found us eavesdropping I think. All I remember is UNIT and Torchwood. Please, please!" His screams of mercy were silenced by a gunshot.

"Oh Jack, Ianto better not have seen that." Gwen spoke first.

"Where is he?" Jack's menacing voice was heard again.

"Please, we only wanted to know what happened to us. Please. That's all I want. What happened to me- Jake, Jack Dasma." Baseball cap was pleading.

"Searching Jack. Dasma was fired with an Eric Gallagher after they found top-secret files. They were amnesia with a prototype, but they both disappeared." Tosh read off quickly.

"UNIT is two minutes out Jack." Owen informed him. "They've been looking for them for 2 months now." Owen's link went dead.

"Owen's on his way." Tosh told Jack. Jack didn't need to ask why. If anything had happened to Ianto, he would most likely need a doctor right away.

"Where is he?" Jack kicked Jake. "Where is the boy?" Jack asked again as UNIT broke down the door. "Coulda knocked." He muttered. "I'm going to ask you one last time." Jack held up a hand to the UNIT team. "Where is Ianto?"

"Up-upstairs." As he was being sedated, Jake gave Jack one last frightened as the Captain rushed up the steps.

"Ianto!" Jack called loudly. There were three rooms in the upstairs part of the house and Jack kicked in the nearest door but the only things there were piles up chairs. No Ianto.

He kicked in the next one- nothing. Nothing at all and Jack could feel himself tensing up again.

Last one. –KICK!-

Jack inhaled sharply. Ianto was unconscious on the floor in the corner. His arms were bound in front of him and there was a gag in his mouth. He was inside a cage and his shirt was torn and seemingly stuck in the lock of the cage. That explained the torn shirt downstairs.

"Jack where are you?" Owen's voice came into his ear.

"Upstairs, left door. Get up here. I don't want to move him." Jack muttered a few more curses and stared at the cage. He knew if he went anywhere near it the temptation to help Ianto would be too strong. Jack knew he couldn't move Ianto and breathed a sign of relief as he felt Owen come in behind him.

"Bloody hell. Those fuckers." Owen grumbled and moved quickly to unhook Ianto's shirt from where it had snagged. His hands moved quickly, examining Ianto's body while Jack waited. Owen carefully untied the bonds and removed the gag.

"There are bruises everywhere, a few sores but no broken bones, so we can move him. Owen moved aside and Jack quickly lifted Ianto up and held him like he was an infant instead of a toddler. "His breathing is a little shaky; we need to get him back to the hub. Jack?" A distracted Jack looked up from Ianto and nodded.

"He's going to be fine Jack." Owen said quietly, trying to reassure his captain. Jack laid Ianto among blankets in the passenger seat and drove very slowly back to the hub. Ianto was quickly taken to the medical/autopsy bay for monitoring and the whole team was just standing there, waiting.

"Should we change him back?" Gwen asked.

"No, the shock might be too much." Owen shook his head. "We don't know that much about the technology. Once he wakes up we can change him back but a bigger Ianto means bigger bruises but he'll be easier to take care of then the younger Ianto one." He finished and went to ready the weapon.

Jack spent two hours in the bay before Tosh called him away to give UNIT confirmation on Dasma.

Keeping his ears alert paid off as he heard a small whimper from the bay. Jack rushed passed the others and leaned against the open doorway to breathe a sigh of relief as he saw Ianto was awake.

Ianto had curled up into a ball, causing all the electrodes to come off, setting the machines to beep. The loud sound made the whole team run to the bay. All the noises combined caused Ianto to start crying, it was just too much. "

Shh…it's ok Ianto. I've got you. It's ok." Jack picked up Ianto, wary of the bruises and held him against his chest. Ianto's eyes were closed and his little fists grabbed tightly onto Jack's jacket. "Shhh…it's ok." Jack said again in a soothing voice. Ianto looked up and opened his watery eyes. The sight of Jack just caused more tears, of relief it seemed. Ianto tried to curl himself into a ball against Jack but the way he was being held it wouldn't work. Jack readjusted Ianto into a position so the toddler would feel safe. "Easier to comfort a three year old?" Jack asked.

"He was only back for a minute last time. We don't know how much his mind has been affected or will be affected." Tosh said.

"Ok, good work today people. Get some rest. Owen, I'll take care of the weapon." Jack dismissed them. He was guessing Ianto didn't want anyone else to see whatever state he'll be in when he changes again.

Jack sat a confused and now naked three year old on his bed before aiming the gun how Owen told him and fired. Ianto's age shot up faster then last time. The older Ianto shivered and wrapped his arms around his legs as his breathing sped up.

"Men and a cage and a van and and and Jack? Jack? They were it was-" He stopped breathlessly, his eyes looking wildly around the room only stopping briefly on Jack. Jack was immediately at his side and began rubbing his back.

"Shhhh…its fine. They're gone. I'm here Ianto. It's only us." Ianto turned around and wrapped his arms around Jack's neck. "It's ok. Let it out. It's all going to be fine." Ianto's immediate instinct still had remnants of his three year old self and he clung to Jack.

He started gaining balance when Jack helped him stand and put on clothes. "How much do you remember?" Jack asked quietly as he helped Ianto steady himself over to the bed.

"All of it. Everything." Ianto whispered in a choked voice. "It all happened so fast and it as cold and scared. All his…my feelings. My younger self. He was so scared, so hopeless." Ianto looked up at Jack. Jack sighed and moved around so Ianto and himself were snuggled against and holding each other.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Jack mumbled into Ianto's hair. He leaned down to kiss Ianto, which seemed to calm him down. "Well, your three year old self spurred me on into learning Welsh." Jack tried a quiet joke and was relieved when he felt Ianto's chest move quickly with a quick laugh. The next movement was Ianto wincing in pain. "Sorry." Jack mumbled and kissed Ianto again. They laid down next to each other and Ianto looked in Jack's eyes.

"He trusted you Jack." Ianto said softly. "My three year old self." Ianto explained. "He trusted you and didn't lose hope when he…uh ,I was kidnapped." Jack smiled and kissed him again.

"As adorable as he was, I'd much rather have you here with me." Jack grinned and held Ianto until they both fell asleep.

…

Next Dayish…

Ianto woke up to see Jack standing over him with hot chocolate in one hand and coffee in the other. He held them both out to Ianto who gave him a quizzical look.

"Just pick one." Jack insisted. He grinned as Ianto cautiously took hold of the hot chocolate.

"What?" Ianto asked.

"Nothing. Just that you're going to be carrying around a little bit of your three year old self for a while." Jack told him and sat down on the bed.

Is that a problem?" Ianto asked with a smirk and sipped his hot chocolate.

"No, well…as long as you call me Jack and not big coat man. And don't randomly go into Welsh because I had Owen put the translator away." Jack voiced his conditions.

"Thought you said you would learn the language." Ianto yawned and set the mug on Jack's nightstand. He snuggled back under the covers and was soon joined by Jack's arms around his waist.

"Maybe later," Jack replied. "I'm much too comfortable now to do anything but lay here with you."

***

Owen raised an eyebrow at Jack; who in turn, was staring at Ianto with concern. It was the third time Ianto had pouted that morning. It didn't seem as if he knew he was making the face. There was only a glimpse, then Ianto was back to normal. This wasn't the first time more three year old tendencies had come out of the Welshman.

The first sign was that Ianto had been skittish, more so then usual at the slight sound of a door closing or computer beeping. Almost like all these sounds were new to him.

The second sign was that Ianto cuddled more than usual. Not that Jack minded of course. After a long day it was very satisfying to feel Ianto's warm body snuggled against him. Jack talked to Owen and they both agreed there was one more test to decide whether or not they should look into the tendencies more. Take Ianto on the lift and see how he reacted.

"Ianto?" Jack called across the hub

"Captain?" Ianto's head poked from behind one of Tosh's computer monitors.

"Want to grab a bite to eat?" Ianto smiled and nodded.

He met Jack on the lift and a color air of snow flurries come through. Ianto gave an involuntary shudder as it started to rise. He saw seemingly swayed back and forth until he was steadied by Jack's strong hand around his waist. Ianto looked down but then shut his eyes. Jack was waiting and finally it came.

Almost as a whimper and barely audible. "High."

Jack looked down and nodded to Owen. The lift began to come back down and warmth went through the hub as the concrete was put back in place. Ianto opened his eyes and looked at Jack with confusion.

"We're not outside." He stated obviously.

"Good observations skills." Jack rolled his eyes and stepped off the lift. Owen came walking down the rail with the gun, the same piece of alien tech that had turned Ianto into a three year old.

"I need to take a tube of blood now, then another when he's little again." Owen told Jack and moved to take blood from Ianto, who kept still through the whole thing.

"Um, I'm sorry? Little again?" Jack apologetically kissed Ianto's forehead. "Your three year old tendencies have been coming through more prominently lately. I just don't want it to affect anything severely, so we need to turn you back into a three year old." Jack explained.

"Yea, Gwen and Tosh were so bloody excited they went to buy mittens and a snow coat. That was even before they knew we had to change you back." Owen grumbled, obviously peeved that the toddler Ianto was so fascinating to the girls.

"I've noticed some things." Ianto admitted. Jack squeezed his hand.

"Everything is going to be fine. We're just going to study you and run some tests." Jack's lips met Ianto's and stayed there until Owen started coughing loudly. Jack stepped back so Owen could aim and fire the weapon.

Within a few seconds a three year old Ianto was staring up at him with big eyes while buried in the suit. Jack pulled the translator out of his pocket and turned it on, just to be prepared.

He had just gotten Ianto dressed in time for Tosh and Gwen to come through the lift. Snow flew wildly around the hub.

"Take the way through the reception area from now on. As much as I love snow, it's too cold for it to be in the hub." Jack told them.

"Aw, I see the lift trick worked." Gwen knelt down in front of a timid Ianto. Ianto moved back to hug onto Jack's leg and he waved to Gwen.

"Did Owen take the blood yet? Just because it needs to be a full tube and you remember what happened last time." Tosh ruffled Ianto's hair and the three year old gave a little smile.

"Can you distract him or do you want me to sedate him?" Owen asked.

"I don't want to put anything medical into his system." Jack thought about it. "Hey, can Owen look at your arm?" He sat down and put Ianto onto his lap. Ianto used his one hand to play with Jack's coat and mutter in Welsh.

He didn't notice Owen had his other arm until the needle went into it. His bottom lip immediately pouted out and he tried to move his arm but Jack was keeping it still and at the same time held Ianto to his chest with his other arm.

"Shh…don't move, it'll hurt worse. It'll all be over soon." Ianto stopped squirming and leaned against Jack with his eyes tightly closed.

"Done." Owen quickly withdrew the needle and tears rushed from Ianto's eyes. His whole body was shaking as he just sobbed continuously into the front of Jack's jacket. Ianto was grabbing breaths whenever he could but that only caused hiccups.

"It's ok, it's all over." Jack cooed and lifted Ianto up so the little boy's head rested on his shoulder even though his little chest was lifted up with every hiccup. Jack rubbed Ianto's back until the hiccups went away. "There you go. All better." Jack told him and soon the toddler was dozing off on his shoulder. "Ok, maybe we will give him a sedative next time." Jack mused to Tosh when eh walked into the medical bay.

"Is he sleeping?" Gwen motioned to the boy against Jack's shoulder.

"Just resting I think. He'll be fine in a minute, needs to catch his breath." Jack said and Tosh smoothed the boy's hair. Ianto turned his head one way but the minute he saw Owen he turned back around to face Tosh and Gwen.

"Great, another reason for him to hate me. He didn't need help with that." Owen called from his place at the computer monitors.

Ianto started absentmindedly playing with Jack's leather arm band while the captain watched with amusement. He wasn't pressing the buttons, just feeling them. When Jack moved to turn around Ianto accidentally pressed one of them. He looked wide-eyed up at Jack and quickly withdrew his hand. Jack's hearty laugh broke out as he pointed to the lift. Ianto had activated it and now snow was coming through again.

"Oer." Ianto said and shivered. Before Jack could get his translator out-

"Cold." Gwen told Jack. She took Ianto from Jack and put a little snow coat on him. "Want to go outside and play?" Gwen asked. Ianto looked up at Jack who was pulling on gloves and nodded. Gwen went to grab her own coat while Tosh helped Ianto with his mittens. Ianto was all bundled up but looked like he could move around in the coat.

Tosh picked him up again to go out the reception area with Gwen and Jack followed. When they stepped outside Ianto's eyes got huge and he grinned ear to ear.

"Eira!" He shouted and squirmed to get down from Tosh's arms. He sloshed through the snow on the ground and giggled to himself. "Eira." He said again and passed snow back and forth from one mitten to the other. He took a bite. "Oer." Ianto told Jack.

"Right, cold. Snow is cold sometimes." Jack grinned remembering the word from earlier. Gwen and Tosh had begun to make a snowman while telling Owen through their earpieces that it was so nice outside, better than the stuffy hub. Ianto sat down in the snow and held snow to Jack. Jack took the offered snow and winced as he tasted it.

"Mmm…contraceptives." Jack smiled at Ianto. "That's good. I'm glad you're playing it safe." He told Ianto who didn't understand but started building a little snowman modeled after Gwen and Tosh's. It only took twenty minutes for Ianto's nose and cheeks to have a rosy tint. When he began sniffling and rubbing his eyes, Jack decided it was time to go inside.

"Come on sleepy." He scooped Ianto up in his arms once the toddler had finished his snowman.

"Jack!" Ianto said happily, he giggled and started talking in Welsh. "Dyn cot mawr." He poked Jack's shoulder. "Big coat man." Came across Jack's translator.

"Why, you little…" Jack immediately started tickling Ianto. "No! Jack! Jack!" Ianto helplessly giggled. When the tickling didn't cease he started yelling in Welsh but soon found that it wasn't helping the situation. "Sorwee! I'm sowy." Ianto shouted breathlessly in English. Jack finally stopped tickling him. Ianto took a deep breath and cuddled against Jack.

"Hey, are you napping on me now?" Jack looked down and sure enough, Ianto's eyes were closed and he was breathing deeply.

"Aw bless." Gwen stroked his hair. "He's all tuckered out from his little romp in the snow."

"Didn't take much." Tosh smiled and glanced at her watch.

"A bit drippy." Gwen noted and taking a tissue, wiped the sleeping Ianto's nose.

"Ah yes, great." Jack pulled a face. "I blame that on you two for wanting to bring him out into the snow."

"I didn't see you complaining while you helped him build that snowman." Tosh pointed out.

"Jack?" Owen's voice came through his earpiece. "I might have figured it out." The next twenty minutes was spent with Owen explaining the mechanism of the alien tech.

The laser could be widened so it was broad enough to affect the whole body. "Bad news is that we're going to have to go through trial periods. I dunno how nauseous he'll get but for testing his mental capacity we're going to have to transform him back and forth a lot over the next week or so." Owen finished. They all slowly turned to look at the sleeping Ianto still on Jack's shoulder who had a hard week ahead of him.

***

Jack was dozing off in his quarters when he heard a noise coming from the ball on the other side of the bed. That ball was little Ianto; the toddler had fallen asleep under Jack's coat and the Captain didn't have the heart to move him or the coat. He had looked so comfortable and peaceful.

Ianto hadn't turned back older yet and with Owen's diagnostics taking longer than expected, they had all agreed to leave toddler Ianto with Jack over night while he was young. Well, not agreed so much as Jack insisted. Either way, Ianto had gotten used to Jack and couldn't part with the Captain for long without looking forlorn.

They had tried leaving him with Owen during a Weevil chase. It was originally a plan to spite Owen but it turned out that Ianto hated it more than Owen did. When the team arrived back at the hub they found a tear stained Ianto munching a cookie while an angry Owen sat next to him, arms folded over his chest.

Now Ianto was whimpering. No, strike that. He was now crying in his sleep. Jack lightly touched the little boy's shoulder and he was startled awake.

Ianto was looking wide-eyed at Jack and scooted backwards against the headboard. All he did was whimper and keep his eyes focused on Jack.

"Shh it's ok Ianto. What happened?" Jack asked cautiously, making sure he didn't make any sudden movements towards the boy. He readied the translator next to him without moving a muscle besides his one hand. "Ianto? Did you have a bad dream?" Jack asked again.

Ianto looked down and started talking quickly to himself in Welsh. "Dream. Bad dream. Meat man with knife. Bad creature. Wrinkly creature. Owen was a wrinkly creature and then there was the meat man and he had a knife and-" Little Ianto stopped right there and his head went down to his chest as if...he was protecting his neck.

"Oh shit." Realization came over Jack as he read the fluorescent screen of the translator. "Oh shit shit shit." He repeated. He looked over at little Ianto who still seemed terrified. "So you had a dream about cannibals and Weevils and Owen." Jack said quietly, not really a question toward Ianto. "More importantly, you're remembering the cannibals and the Weevils. You're remembering something that hasn't even happened to you yet. That should have never happened to you in the first place. And I think you're remembering me bursting into that house and shooting which would explain that incredibly frightened wide-eyed look you're giving me…shit."

Jack couldn't do anything about this now. Calling in Tosh and Owen because Ianto had nightmares? There was no need. They could deal with the memories in the morning. All that was important now was calming the scared little boy that was still clutching his jacket.

"Shit." Jack said again.

"Shit?" Ianto asked timidly.

"Oh crap." Jack moaned. Now Gwen was going to kill him for teaching three year old Ianto curse words. Jack raised his hand to scratch his head and Ianto immediately backed away from him again.

"Oh." Jack quickly put his hand down. Ianto just stood still, unsure of what Jack was going to do next. When nothing happened for over a minute Ianto began to cry again.

"Oh no no don't do that." Jack cooed at Ianto who looked up and sniffled. "Ok I can't move towards you so you come here." He tugged lightly on the jacket and gave a very light gesture for Ianto to move towards him. "It's ok. It was only a dream. If I could talk Welsh maybe you could understand me better."

"Jack helps." Ianto whispered and sniffled again. Jack blinked. Ianto just stared. "Jack helps bad dreams I know. Jack helps. He crawled over into Jack's lap bringing the jacket with him. Jack spread the jacket out carefully; making sure Ianto watched every slow move. He laid the huge coat over Ianto shoulder to snuggle the toddler inside it.

Jack thought this would comfort Ianto, maybe even get him to go back to sleep. However, this notion was pushed out of Jack's mind when Ianto just started crying again. His little hand was on his neck and he was rubbing it back and forth, all while pushing himself further and further into Jack's lap.

"Shh hey it's ok. Remember? We just said it was a bad dream. None of it was real. It was all your imagination. Your creepy reality imagination." Jack muttered the last part.

After five minutes of rubbing little Ianto's back trying to make the sobs and hiccups go away, Jack decided it was time to take another approach. He turned Ianto around to face him and smoothed out the boy's hair and spoke nonsense words until he had his complete attention.

"Do you think you can go back to sleep for me? If I stay right here next to you? Cause I know that Tosh and Gwen will be awfully mad at me if they find out that you didn't feel good and didn't sleep." Jack said in his best 'talking to little kids' voice.

Ianto gave a little nod. "No Jack in trouble." He whispered almost pleadingly. "Don't want Jack in trouble." Ianto said in English.

"Shhh…it's ok." Jack rubbed his back again. "Can you go back to sleep? No more nightmares, you'll be fine. I'll be right here. No more monsters. Just me." Jack briefly thought back to the moment where Ianto had called him a monster. It all seemed so long ago, especially now with this little toddler in front of him, arms reaching up, begging to wrap around Jack's neck.

Jack lifted up Ianto and gave the little boy a hug. Little hands met on the back of Jack's neck as Ianto gave one last sniffle and tried to fall asleep.

A few minutes of unsteady breathing told Jack that this wasn't doing the trick. "Ok new plan." He whispered. He laid a dozing Ianto up on the bed, still intertwined within the coat. Ianto looked up at him with his big eyes.

"Can you close your eyes for me? Just listen ok?" Jack asked. Ianto nodded, complete trust put in Jack. "Ok good. Just calm down. Deep breaths. Just listen to me." Jack put his hand on top of Ianto's and began to sing:

Let there be light

I said now let there be light

In this world of miracles

There's nothing wrong

That we can't make right

Let there be light

Sun and moon

A million beams

Go to sleep Ianto, sweet dreams

Just close your eyes, forget what's real

Jack changed the last lines of the song hoping that Ianto had fallen asleep during the beginning verse. The toddler's breathing had gotten slower and steadier as Jack had sung.

One light, shines from afar

Once in a while we should wish on a star

Stars fade

Stars fall

We can go on through it all

Jack finished singing and flattened out Ianto's hair one last time and kissed his temple. "Night Ianto. Sweet dreams."