Disclaimer- I do not have the pleasure of owning Torchwood. If I did, there would be less aliens and more beautiful Welsh vowels. As you can tell by the aliens, the BBC has the honour of owning the show. And also Doctor Who, from whence many of the characters in this fic are also borrowed.

Spoilers- Lets say seasons 1 & 2 to be on the safe side

Rating- T

Synopsis- AU. Jack's working nights, Ianto's getting stressed, and Tosh is having nightmares again. With Gwen and Owen playing up too, can peace reassert itself in the Harkness-Jones household before disaster strikes?

General Notes- AU: the aliens only come out at night; and Torchwood is merely the name of a house. Idea came from nowhere; title is stolen from a Delta Goodrem song which may or may not be connected. My first Torchwood fanfic, so please be nice! Constructive criticism is always welcomed. And don't kill me for the wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff *g*

Chapter Notes- N/A

-

Chapter 1

At 1:30am on an ordinary Tuesday morning, Ianto Jones was peacefully asleep and dreaming. At 1:31am, he was rudely awakened to an unpleasantly empty bed by the sounds of screaming from one side and muttered curses from the other. Making a mental note to scold Gwen for her language in the morning, he closed his eyes again wearily.

"Jack, you're daughter's off again," he murmured out of habit. Somewhat predictably, the empty air made no reply. Sighing, the Welshman reached for his dressing gown and headed for the room next door, snapping on the lights as he went.

"Tosh?"

The wild-eyed child sat stiffly upright in bed made no reply other than to continue screaming. Carefully, Ianto made his was over to the bed and sat down beside her, laying a tender hand on her shoulder.

"Toshiko? Wake up, honey, it's ok, you're safe. I've got you. Shh now, shh. Wake up."

His tones were soothing, and coupled with his gentle touch they soon drew Toshiko back to reality, blinking her pretty eyes at the unaccustomed light.

"Daddy?" she questioned in a whisper as her eyes adjusted, and Ianto steeled himself to disappoint her yet again.

"No, honey, it's Ianto."

"Oh."

The small sound tore at Ianto's heart, but he tried not to let it show as he eased Tosh back down to lie against the pillows. Keeping one arm around her shoulders, he tucked her back in with the other hand.

"Were you dreaming again?" he asked softly. It was a fairly redundant question, since she had woken screaming, but it always seemed to help her, so Ianto always asked.

Tosh nodded, relaxing against his arm.

"Aliens again?" Ianto questioned sympathetically, and Tosh nodded again.

"More adventures from the top secret underground base?"

Another nod.

"You know, I think these things are always better discussed over cocoa. Want to go and make some?" Ianto suggested, as per usual; and Tosh smiled.

"Yes please."

"Right then, miss, where's your dressing gown?" he asked, glancing around the room. "Your father would kill me if I let you go wandering around the house at all hours of the morning in only your pyjamas."

"It's on the back of the door, silly!" Tosh giggled. It always amused her how Ianto pretended to forget where the garment was each night. Hopping out of bed, she crossed over to the door and tugged the article in question on. Ianto smiled.

"Much better. Come on then, but remember to tiptoe- we don't want to wake your siblings up."

Realistically, Ianto knew that both Gwen and Owen would be awake already; but Tosh wasn't to know that and he didn't want to upset her further- besides which, she always enjoyed the game of creeping downstairs to make cocoa.

Downstairs, she huddled up at the table whilst Ianto made the cocoa swiftly with a practised hand. It hurt him to see her looking so small and vulnerable- in the daytime she always seemed so much older and wiser than her twelve years.

Pouring the piping hot liquid deftly into two mugs, he pushed one over the table at the young girl and grinned at her.

"So, tell me all about it- what horrible threat was menacing the gallant Captain Jack and his team this time?"

Tosh giggled- she loved it when Ianto referred to her father in such glorified terms.

"I dreamt that there were these… things- they looked like people, but they weren't really- anyway, these things that sort of sucked all the moisture out of your body and kept your last breath in a bottle. They came out of the film at an old cinema and started attacking everybody; and you and Daddy were trying to stop them but then they started chasing you and I was watching it all from the secret base and I was so scared that they were going to kill you too…"

Her little voice trailed off into silence, tears trickling down her cheeks; and Ianto reached over and shook her shoulder gently.

"Oh no, you woke up in the middle again!" he sighed. "You see, Tosh, in the bit of the dream you didn't quite reach, Daddy and I stole the flask back and gave everybody their last breath back- so everybody was ok in the end."

Tosh looked up at him half-gratefully, half-suspiciously through thick dark lashes heavy with unshed tears.

"Are you sure?"

Ianto nodded firmly. "Oh yes; that's exactly what happened."

"But what about the aliens?" Tosh whispered. Ianto chuckled.

"Oh, we dealt with those alright, Tosh. It was all your master plan which ended them, too," he smiled reassuringly.

"Really? How?" she asked surprised. Ianto suppressed a grin with difficulty- it always amused him that Tosh was always so astonished when he credited her with the solution with each dream problem, despite the fact that in her dreams the three children were all grown up.

"Oh, you just realised that because they came out of a film, we could capture them on a different film and expose it to the light," he replied casually, noting with satisfaction that Tosh suddenly looked really rather pleased with herself.

"Oh yes, of course, that makes perfect sense!" she exclaimed, draining her cocoa. Ianto smiled, emptying his own cup and putting both receptacles over by the dishwasher.

"Come on then, you," he murmured, reaching for her hand. "Time to go back to bed."

Tosh yawned and followed him with no objections. Once he had her tucked snugly back into bed, he reached for the light switch, pausing only to give her one last smile.

"Night, Tosh."

"Ianto? Thank you." Her gratitude was softly spoken, and Ianto stroked her hair absent-mindedly.

"No problem, sweetheart. Now don't worry- it all comes ok in the end."

Switching the light out, he suppressed a yawn of his own and headed back for his own room, frowning as he noticed the familiar bar of light showing underneath Owen's bedroom door. Sighing, he headed over and opened the door. As he expected, Owen was sat in the middle of the floor, playing doctor with his teddy bears. Hiding a smile at the sight with difficulty, Ianto attempted to look stern.

"Bedtime, Owen," he scolded, taking the bear from the boy's hands.

The nine-year-old scowled back, making a grab for the bear.

"But I'm not tired."

"I don't care. It's two o'clock in the morning, you need to go to bed."

Owen scowled again. "But you took Tosh downstairs and made her cocoa."

Ianto nodded levelly. "Yes, and I ignored the light under your door the last time I walked past. Which means that you've had your playtime- now it's bedtime again."

Owen shook his head. "That's not fair. I want cocoa too."

Ianto suppressed a sigh with difficulty. "No you don't, you just want an extra half-hour out of bed. The answer is no."

The child glared. "That's not fair."

"Life's not fair."

"I'll tell Daddy you were being mean to me." Owen made a grab for the bear again, but Ianto held it out of reach.

"Tell him what you like in the morning- right now you're getting into bed."

"You're not my Dad- you can't tell me what to do."

Ianto's patience was wearing thin. "Yes I can, Owen. Now get into bed this instant, or I'll confiscate your playstation again."

Defeated, Owen rose to his feet, knowing that Ianto meant precisely what he said. "Give me Bear."

"When you're in bed," Ianto replied levelly, diplomatically turning a blind eye to the kick the child aimed at his ankles. He didn't have the patience to argue about that now.

Once Owen was in bed, Ianto scooped the rest of the playthings off the floor and stuffed then in the pockets of his dressing gown, shooting Owen a warning glare as the nine-year-old opened his mouth to complain. Moving over to the bed, Ianto held Bear out to his owner, trying not to mind too much when the soft toy was snatched from between his fingers without so much as a word of thanks. Knowing that trying to tuck Owen in would be a step too far- not that he wanted to make the little brat comfortable anyway!- Ianto headed for the door and switched the light out.

"Goodnight, Owen."

The only reply was stony silence.

As he traipsed wearily back along the hall to his own bedroom, Ianto reflected with a wry smile that it was something of a relief that Gwen merely reacted to these episodes by swearing at Tosh and pulling the pillow over her head. If he had to deal with yet another half-hour of settling people back to sleep, he wasn't sure he'd be able to get up in a morning. There were times, he reflected with a scowl as he hung the dressing gown back on the door and slipped back into an icy-cold bed, that he hated Jack Harkness. There were times that he wished the damn man had never entered his life in the first place. There were times…

The rest of the thought slipped away from Ianto as his overtired brain relaxed into the welcome escape sleep offered.

~ * ~ * ~

"Ianto?"

"Mmm?" he questioned sleepily, refusing to open his eyes. The alarm hadn't gone off yet, and he was damned if anybody was stealing any more of his beauty sleep.

Soft lips grazed his cheek; warm breath ghosted over his ear as the voice persisted.

"Are you receiving me, Ianto Jones?"

"Fuck off," Ianto muttered, burying deeper into the pillows.

Somewhere in the vicinity of his ear, a tongue clicked sharply.

"I bloody well hope you don't address the children like that!"

Resigning himself to the fact that sleep was well and truly over, Ianto opened his eyes.

"Believe me, if any of the children woke me by nibbling my earlobe, they'd get something far stronger than 'fuck off'."

He received a chuckle in reply, followed by further nibbling of the aforementioned earlobe.

"I don't know whether to scold you or snog you senseless."

Ianto rolled over, raising an eyebrow, his pale blue eyes gazing up into the equally intense blue depths above him.

"Well considering I already am pretty senseless, it'd better be the former."

His partner chuckled again, leaning down from his position perched on the edge of the bed to ensure that his lips hovered mere millimetres from Ianto's.

"Honestly, Ianto Jones, sometimes you can be so ungrateful it's unbelievable," Jack Harkness began huskily. "I come home at the crack of dawn, get the breakfast, make the coffee, tidy the lounge… and all you can say to me is 'fuck off'."

Ianto grinned, reaching up to capture Jack's lips in a languid kiss.

"And just why would you be tidying the lounge when you could be in bed with me?"

Jack grinned back. "Because I knew that far from welcoming me, you'd tell me to fuck off. I needed some guilt trip material first." His grin widened. "Besides, I just thought it would be helpful, considering how you've overslept."

"Fuck!" All thoughts of languid kisses flew straight out of Ianto's mind as he glanced across at the alarm clock- only to find that it was missing. He groaned. "Fantastic! Need I ask?"

Jack smoothed a finger idly over his partner's cheek, catching his eye as they answered Ianto's question in unison:

"Tosh."

"Honestly, there are times when I could kill that girl," Ianto muttered, swinging his legs out of bed. He could put up with the twelve-year-old requisitioning many household items to ingeniously adapt into something far more clever; but his alarm clock was a step too far.

Jack tutted. "Not so fast, mister! I haven't had a proper good morning yet."

"That would be because in terms of your day, this is evening," Ianto replied tartly; allowing Jack to draw him into a deep and lingering kiss nonetheless. When they finally drew apart, he sighed deeply and buried his head in his partner's neck, breathing in that musky, masculine aroma, slightly overlaid with the acrid scent of smoke, that was so inherently Jack. Jack's answering sigh breezed softly over the top of his head.

"Am I to understand that if you're this exhausted, Tosh has been having nightmares again?" the American asked, his voice the colour of concern.

"And where were you at half-past one when I informed you of that fact?" Ianto muttered under his breath, exhaustion making him irrationally irritated.

Although he didn't quite catch what his partner was murmuring, Jack felt the Welshman's lips move against his neck and caught the gist. Sighing, he pulled away.

"Yan, how many times do we need to go through this? I'm sorry, ok? But it's part of my job."

Ianto sighed back, looking the American in the eye. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I'm just tired, ok?" Diplomatically, he left unsaid the thought that his partner's job was taking precedence over his own again.

Jack smiled softly, drawing Ianto in for another lingering kiss before pushing him in the direction of the bathroom.

"Now go- you have approximately sixteen minutes before Gwen polishes off the coffee. I'll get down there and try to save you a cup, but I'm not making any promises."

Smoothing his hand down his partner's cheek, Jack headed for the door. Ianto stared after him, knowing that when he went downstairs in fifteen minutes, Jack would be just pouring him the first cup from a fresh pot of coffee. There were times, he reflected with an involuntary smile, that he really loved Jack Harkness.