Title: Bred in the Bone (3/?)

Author: Emma

Characters: Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, Andy Davidson, Toshiko Sato, others

Rating: Starts PG, but hey, it’s got Jack and Ianto in it!

Disclaimer: Oh, please. If I owned them, would I let some of those idiots write the scripts? And if I were making any money off them, would I be where they could find me?

Summary: Andy Davidson must embrace his inheritance in order to protect Jack and Ianto’s daughter Gwen

Author's Note: This is an AU where Gwen and Owen were killed by Gray. So if you want to know why Martha is married to Rhys and Jack and Ianto have a CP and two adopted daughters, you may want to read Evolution first

Author’s Note: The title is shamelessly stolen from Robertson Davies’s magnificent novel. It’s also an old saying: what’s bred in the bone will out in the flesh

Author’s Note: Englynion are short poems with very, very difficult metric rules. The Englynion y Beddau (Stanzas of the Graves) is one of the best known. The Englynion of the Summer Kings is my own invention. Also, properly Gwenhyfar means “white phantom” but in some places it was also used for little white field owls; therein little Gwen’s nickname. Tywyl means dark, obscure, benighted

           I bowed deeply, court-fashion, and spoke the formal phrases, and all the time I was trying to figure out what she was up to.  My grandmother, like most of the Tylwyth Teg, did not involve herself with mortals these days, but her showing up couldn’t be a coincidence. Nothing is a coincidence around the Lady Modron.

            She waited until I had finished, a little smile playing around her lips. She had that same look when I was five and managed to recite the Englynion of the Summer Kings letter-perfect; proud and a little amused.

            “I see you have not forgotten your manners. Come. We must talk.”

            As I walked towards her I felt the slight internal shift that signaled passage into Reality – the place the Welsh called Annwfn. In spite of the poets, it isn’t heaven or the underworld; simply a dimension existing alongside but a few degrees away from ours. Words are useless to describe it and the mathematics are so complex that they would probably baffle even Toshiko. It was my childhood home.

            Grandmother offered me her hand and I bowed over it as protocol required, but then she wrapped her arms around me and kissed my forehead.  I wanted to grab and hold on. Somewhere in my mind there was a little boy who absolutely believed his grandmother could make it better.

            “They were watching, you know.”

            “I would have expected nothing else.” We spoke the yidh y Tylwyth, the lesser tongue, as was proper between family members. “There go all my secrets.”

            “Indeed. Your Immortal will not accept anything less.”

            “My Immortal?” She was using the personal-possessive, implying a more personal relationship with Jack than I would ever have considered. “He’s Ianto’s Immortal, grandmother, and it would be worth my liver to imagine otherwise.”

            “As it should be. There’s true love in that house. But of all he loves you are the only one who will live long enough to be a Companion.”

            “Are you Seeing or speculating, Grandmother?”

            “A bit of both, I think.”

            I judged we had spent enough time on the niceties, and, if truth be told, I wanted to avoid thinking about the subject. “What are you doing here, grandmother?”

            Her smile let me know she knew exactly what I was up to. “The Small Ones are afraid. There’s darkness moving on the Road.”

            “Do they know what it is?”

            “No. Only that it is old and very, very angry.”

            “When it rains… Well, whatever it is will have to wait. Right now I’m more concerned about the tywyl. They came after one of mine, grandmother.”

            She gave me a long, level look that made me want to squirm like an errant ten-year-old. “If you continue on this path you will have to accept all that comes with it.”

            I shrugged. “Maybe it’s time.” Taking a deep breath, I let Power flow outwards. “Gwenhyfar Eugenie Harkness-Jones, daughter of Jack Harkness, Ianto Jones, and Toshiko Sato, is mine to protect.”

            Neither of us was much surprised at the roll of thunder that followed. The smile on grandmother’s face could have lit all of Wales for a year.

            “Accepted and witnessed.” She was as close to crowing as her dignity allowed. “Are you then making a formal demand for assistance?”

            I rolled my eyes Ianto-fashion. “Yes, grandmother, I am.”

            “Very well. The Tywyl want the little White Owl because they were forced to give up her father when he was her age.”

            I had to force myself to snap my mouth shut. “Ianto? The tywyl wanted a Bound child for their Chosen? Did they go mad?”

            “We wondered the same. They were… taught a lesson.” She sighed. “But the child’s father could not face the battle. He took his wife and son and ran. The boy was never told of his heritage. The magick is there, but its power will wane, and he doesn’t know how to Call. And you know better than to ask.”

            I nodded. By the rules we lived by, even if grandmother knew which of the Tylwyth Teg had cast the Binding, she could not tell me. “Very well, then. I thank you for your assistance, my Lady Modron.”

            She kissed my cheek. I watched her walk away, until she had almost faded from sight. “Grandmother?”

            She looked back over her shoulder. “Yes?”

            “You could have helped without all the formalities.”

            She grinned, and suddenly it wasn’t my grandmother, but the Lady Modron who was looking back.  The Eldest, whose role it is to make sure that Her clan lives up to its responsibilities. “I know.”

            I stepped back into the everyday world, and walked out to my car, carefully not looking at the house. The drive to the school is short – closeness to Saint Teilo was one of the strongest selling points of the property for Jack and Ianto – and really, I could have walked, except that something had pushed me towards the car from the moment I had thought about checking on Jasmine. My side of the family is not strong on Seeing, but some things you listen to.

            Saint Teilo catered to the children of military and diplomatic families. A healthy number were from the local UNIT base. The school mistress was retired military, like Benjamin Asher. There was no way a strange child could have shown up without proper security checks, but it seemed like that was exactly what had happened. The secretary that searched the files and came up empty-handed seemed near tears. Unfortunately the head mistress was at an Independent School Council conference and would not be back for three days.

            Leaving my name and phone number with the secretary I left the building, half-heartedly trying to find excuses not to go back to Jack and Ianto’s place. I wasn’t ready to explain, not when I wasn’t sure myself of what I was doing, or how to deal with some of the things my grandmother had told me. But there was really no excuse that would be acceptable to Jack, and, oddly enough, disappointing him was not acceptable to me.

            Half-way to the house, my phone rang. It was Toshiko.

            “Andy, help me." She was whispering, and she sounded terrified. "Please help me!”