Authors Note: This story is the sequel to Broken Dreams. It is set in an alternate universe to the cannon universe. Ianto never worked for Torchwood Three and owns a book shop. It is 14 years since Sean was born.

Part One – Sean.

Sean sat crossed legged on his bed and balancing his laptop across his knees he turned it on. He watched it go through its start-up procedure which, in his anticipation, appeared it was deliberately going slow. His thumb rapped on the side of the keyboard as he tried to contain his excitement.

He thought he had emailed every agency in the UK all leading to nothing, but two weeks ago he had found another. He had filled in all the forms and immediately requested help. At the same time he had also updated several message boards where you could leave requests for information. He hoped that someone reading might know something and point him in the right direction. Maybe today there would be a message for him, maybe today he would finally be on the road to finding the answer he so desperately needed know and be able to put a name and face to…

His breath caught in his throat; he had a reply. His heart beat wildly in anticipation as he opened and read the reply. He lent back and his head hit the wall as he reached another dead end. He felt like throwing the laptop against the wall as disappointment grew in his chest.

He startled as he heard the front door slam and he heard his dad start shouting.

"Where is he?" Jack demanded with a bellow as he came through the front door and slammed it shut with such force it rattled the glass panes.

Ianto appeared from the kitchen, a tea towel over his shoulder. His eyes widened as he took in the state Jack was in. Ianto took a step back and placed his hand over his mouth as the slimy brown, green, and yellow substance liberally covered Jack's coat filled the room with an overpowering stench and pointed up the stairs.

"Sean you get down here right NOW!" Jack put his foot on the first step.

Sean heard the door slam open and his Dad's words. He tried to think what he was in trouble for now. A sudden sinking feeling hit his stomach and he swallowed. There was only one thing that could bring Dad home in a fury like this. He had set it up weeks ago but he figured that the explosive must have failed or something …shit he was really for it.

He snapped his computer shut and pulled out the stick drive. Launching himself off the bed he opened his bedroom cupboard. Reaching back he pulled out a wad of cash, and stuffed it into his jeans' pocket.

He pulled down another small box and emptied the contents into his backpack. His eyes widened as he heard his Dad thundering up the stairs. With speed born of terror he zipped up the bag. Opening the window he climbed out onto the conservatory roof that edged just under his bedroom.

He was three steps onto the roof when heard his bedroom door crash open and his Dad growl with frustration. The bag handle in Sean's mouth, he kept his balance by holding his arms out to his sides. Sean made his across the top of the conservatory making sure he placed each foot on the struts ensuring he didn't put his weight on the glass panels. Coming to the downpipe he swung round and slid down. He landed on his feet, his heart racing. He looked ahead trying to gauge if he had enough time to make it over the fence before his Dad could catch up.

A sharp pain in his upper arm got his attention.

"And where do you think you're going?" Sean looked up and saw it was Tad. Sean put his head down as a firm grip on both his shoulders turned him around and marched him back inside.

Jack pushed his face into Sean's, and spoke through clenched teeth. "First you are going to apologise to Tosh, Alex and Penny, then you are going to listen to how angry they are. Then you are going to clean up, followed by escorting me through the entire Hub and pointing out any other nasty surprises you set up."

"Whatever," Sean found himself replying as he crossed his arms and looked defiant.

Jack stabbed his finger into Sean's face. "I've had enough of your attitude young man. Now get in the car," Jack added forcefully.

"I'll lock up," Ianto said tiredly as Jack marched Sean to the badly parked SUV and opened the back car door.

Sitting in the back seat Sean squirmed as Jack got in the driver's side and slammed the door shut. The odour of the coat now began to fill the vehicle. He caught a nose-full of the substance coating his dad. Sean could smell it had really matured.

"Is Auntie Tosh okay?" Sean asked hesitantly as he rolled down the window.

"You mean is the nice person who gave you a fifty pound iPod voucher for your birthday okay?" Jack retorted as he pulled his seatbelt and snapped it into place.

Sean squirmed. He had never meant for this to happen to Tosh. In truth he had forgotten all about it. He had been so angry that he had been forced to clean the lower levels of the Hub he had come up with a way to pay his Dad back not anyone else.

Tad got in the car and threw a look at him and Sean knew the 'I'm so disappointed in you speech,' would be coming up later so he crossed his arms and pouted and tried to pretend he didn't care.

"Seatbelt," Ianto ordered.

"I'm not a baby," Sean retorted and threw a filthy look at his Tad.

"Then put your seatbelt on. If you did, I wouldn't have to remind you every time we got in," Ianto replied and Sean pulled the seatbelt over but didn't click it into its holder.

"School rang, wants us to go down and have a meeting," Ianto said as they drove through the streets towards the Plass.

"What!" Jack burst out. "Do you have any idea how difficult it was to get you into that school?"

"The math teacher said Sean swore at her in class…again," Ianto explained on an outward breath, shaking his head.

"Sean!" Jack said as his jaw clenched.

"She was wrong," Sean replied defensively.

"How can she be wrong?" Ianto snapped.

"We had this test; she said I had failed because I just put the answer."

"And that's why you swore at her," Ianto replied exasperated.

"She said I had cheated."

Jack and Ianto both looked at each other. "Why did she think you had cheated?" Ianto asked in a tone that suggested he was weary of the ongoing battles Sean kept having with certain teachers.

"I already explained. I just put the answer next to the question, because I had worked it out in my head. She said if she couldn't work it out in her head I couldn't have, so I must have cheated."

"Would it have hurt to just write down how you came to the conclusion? She's trying to see how you worked it out. How something is worked out is just as important as…" Ianto tried to explain rubbing his forehead.

"Boring...it's just squiggles," Sean interjected.

Ianto let out a breath. "We'll talk about that later. Right now you need to do some serious apologising." Ianto put his arm on Jack's arm who he could sense was just holding it together.

"I am seriously disappointed Sean. This was no prank; you could have been seriously hurt, we have been seriously hurt, not only that this is a trust issue. I thought I could trust you to …" Jack started to speak.

His head down, Sean listened and it felt like his life was over. He felt his face began to heat up and his stomach turned over. Tosh, he didn't want to face Tosh …of all the people there why did it have to be Tosh? She was so nice; always helping him out. He felt a wave of guilt. He knew what was coming, he would be forced to apologise, and he could see her now...the look on her face, her arms crossed… Tad had the look; he would have to face that horrible hated her 'stupid fat cow' and why had no-one replied to his emails someone somewhere must know something…' He felt disappointment and trepidation churn in his stomach. He looked up and saw the SUV had stopped at a traffic light. In one instant all the thoughts came whirling into focus and he felt an overwhelming desire to escape. Without thinking he put his hand into his backpack, pulling out a small, flat blue egg-like device that just fitted in the palm of his hand. In a series of fluid movements he had waved the device over the locking mechanism. He heard a click and pushed opened the door. He seemed to find himself standing and he felt himself start to run.

Ianto heard the door open. He struggled to get out of his seatbelt but by the time he had opened the door Sean was at the far end of the street on Jack's side.

"Sean!" Ianto shouted at his son's retreating back.

"Sean, you get back here!" Jack shouted through the open window and slammed his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.

The driver in the vehicle behind began to sound their horn and Ianto got back in. Jack, his lips pursed, put the car into gear and drove off.

Sean pounded down the road and around the corner, ducking between a gap in a fence, through a car park and into another road until he was out of breath, a stitch pulling at his side. Sean glanced back and felt a moment of utter triumph. The look on his Dad's faces...he had done it! Leaning back against a wall he stood for a while catching his breath as a niggle of doubt in the back of his mind began to take over and he swallowed.

He tried to silence the voice but he knew he had made things worse and now they would be even more angry if that was possible. He went back over the moment in the car; all he could think of was getting away. He had acted without thinking, and he felt sick. He hesitated. Should he go back? He made a move but then the vision of facing Tosh along with Alex and Penny and having to say he was sorry, with Dad and Tad standing their arms crossed glaring at him, let alone having to clean up came into his mind and his eyes opened wide as he recalled the other part of all this. Part two of revenge would have activated when the bomb went off; she would be…. No he was not going back to face that, no way.

Once he had caught his breath he looked around and pulled out a red mobile from his bag and flipped it open. "Chas, can we meet at the warehouse? Yeah...usual place?" he said when he heard a reply.

"Where is he?" Penny and Tosh both demanded looking behind Jack as he entered the Hub by the main door.

Myfanwy, peering down saw the object of her quest. She spread her wings and launched herself from her roost clacking her beak in delight.

She swooped low then canted along the wall, skimming their heads and causing them to duck. "Fuckarse, fuckarse, FUCKAAAAAAAAAAAAARSE," reverberated in their ears, filling the space and echoing off the walls. The sight and sound of Myfanwy was the final straw for Jack. He snathed the nearest thing to hand - a mug in Alex's hand - and lobbed it after her. It flew in a wide arc and landed across the far side of the Hub shattering as it hit the ground.

"Can't you stop her doing that?" Jack screamed at Alex.

"If I could figure out how he taught her in the first place, I would," Alex shouted back as they looked up to see Myfanwy had returned to her roost, clacked her beak with satisfaction, gave a final squawk and began to preen herself.

Tosh, her eyes wide with anger, pointed a finger at Jack. "Ruined, my clothes are ruined," she spluttered, rage slurring her words. "I stink. Some got in my mouth….twenty minutes of cleaning my teeth and mouthwash I still can't get rid of the taste. A whole bottle of shampoo and still my hair reeks of Weevil shit." She narrowed her eyes. "And don't you dare suggest Alex clean up that mess."

"Sean is going to clean it up…" Jack stated to say.

"Damn right," Penny yelled. "The small amount that missed us is splattered ceiling to floor."

"Where is he?" Alex asked seeing that Sean was not present.

"We were bringing him here, but he ran off while we were at a light. Ianto is looking for him right now." Penny and Tosh glared at him.

Jack looked highly embarrassed.

"You had better Jack because I have a few things to say to him," Penny said then stormed out. Tosh grabbed her handbag and followed.

Heading to his office Jack took off his coat and handed it to Alex. Alex took the coat between thumb and forefinger and grimaced. Lucky for Jack the majority of the contents had hit his coat, unlike Tosh who had received almost the entire bulk of the foul-smelling liquid. That said Jack's coat was a mess, the smell was overpowering.

"Shall I bin this or send it to the dry cleaners?" Alex asked as Jack sat down and put his head in his hands.

Alex had experienced this many times over the past year. It was frustration, and anger mixed with confusion, like many parents having a teenager who was testing every ounce of patience his fathers had. Jack and Ianto had been wonderful fathers, exemplary even. Sean had lacked for nothing, especially attention. They had lavished care on him. To them his behaviour was bewildering.

He understood how they felt. One moment they had a child who wouldn't cross the road without their permission; and seemingly overnight they had a gangly adolescent who was all elbows, knees and Adam's apple seemingly fighting them at every turn. Alex understood, he had had teenagers of his own. However neither of his had been quite as rebellious as Sean. It was like some switch had flipped just after his thirteenth birthday and he had gotten himself into some serious trouble.

"Coat?"

"Bin it…" Jack looked up at Alex who was holding the coat at arm's length. "No...dry cleaners," Jack said with a sigh.

"They might charge extra for this one," Alex pointed out. "Myfanwy?" Alex placed Jack's coat into a large bin liner.

"Once Ianto has found Sean he will bring him here. You, Tosh and Penny can unleash your fury and tell him exactly what you think. I will then march him around the Hub and get him to show me any other surprises he has set up. Then he will tell and show me how reverse what he did with Myfanwy," Jack said wearily.

"Jack, can I say something? Not as your Hub manager but from one father to another."

Jack looked up.

"Teenagers are difficult, I've had two. He's not a bad kid, and you are not bad fathers."

"I wish I could understand what was happening for him," Jack said wearily." Ianto and I both expected... he's a teenager but the last months…I mean he has gotten into some serious trouble, and not just shoplifting the odd sweet. He stole a car."

"Being a parent of a teenager is the hardest part of parenthood, no parent comes out unscathed. You just have to remember that under all that defiance and behaviour is a child who has only just turned fourteen, his hormones are all over the place, his emotions are up and down."

"He won't talk to us beyond a grunt. It's like we've become the enemy, and everything about us is hugely embarrassing. Last week he made sure he walked behind us, just to make sure no-one knew we weren't his dads." Jack took a deep breath.

"I know. I think that for me was the hardest," Alex agreed. "My daughter Felicity was so embarrassed by her mother and me she would only join us at the movies once the lights had gone down. Then she would leave as the film ended so no-one could see that she was with us." He let out sigh.

"He's so angry all the time. Just getting him to do the smallest chore is like we're asking him to move the Earth three feet to the left..." he saw the look on Alex's face, who was stifling a small smile.

"Jack I can tell you with no lie, I am so glad I don't have teenagers. The only thing you can do is give him good clear boundaries, make him face the consequences of his actions." Alex looked uncomfortable. "Now I need to speak to you as Hub manager."

"I will make him clean this up," Jack told him. "And apologise for what he did then get him to reverse what he did to Myfanwy."

"As of today I am banning him from any access to the lower levels," Alex told him bluntly. "Sean is to have no access to any Hub systems and he is to be escorted while he is here. The only good thing is Rosemary is away on holiday. God knows what she would think if she found her Archives in such a mess." He saw Jack pale at the thought of Rosemary's reaction to being covered in the contents of today's disaster.

"After you left I thought I had better take an inventory of the artefact Archives. Sean would have had the most potential access and I found these missing." He handed a sheet of paper to Jack. "We know what happened to the small proximity explosive device," Alex pointed out.

"Ianto and I will search the house when we find him and are finished here," Jack agreed.

Alex put his hand on Jack shoulder as he continued. "You need to get this one back as soon as we can. It's potentially very dangerous. It's an alien emergency distress flare. He most probably took it because it looks like a firework, a roman candle. If he sets it off at your home it will burn the place to the ground. The other is a sort of universal key that opens anything." Jack blinked in realisation. That was how Sean had managed to open the car door.

"Now I suggest you go and clean up because sir, you smell and I will get you some coffee," Alex added kindly.

Alex watched as Jack headed across the Hub floor towards the showers. Half way across the Hub Myfanwy launched herself and cried out her greeting of profanity. Alex looked up as she circled. He had to admit, as much trouble as Sean was the boy was a genius. No one else had managed to train Myfanwy beyond the most basic commands but somehow he had managed to set up a trigger and get her to launch herself and swear obscenities but only when Jack made an appearance. He was interested to hear his explanation of how he had managed to achieve this. Alex stifled a smile. 'It was brilliant no doubt about it,' he said to himself as Myfanwy settled back into her nest.