Title: The Future Doesn't Scare Me
Part: 1 of ?
Author: Batsutousai
Beta: Shara Lunison
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Harry Potter/Doctor, Jack/Ianto, Gwen/Rhys, Martha/Mickey
Warnings: Slash
Summary: Sequel to Dust in the Sky. A series of stories set while Harry works for Torchwood after the 10th Doctor says goodbye.

Disclaim Her: I own neither the characters of Torchwood, nor of Harry Potter. Both worlds belong to their respective creators/controlling entities and I am only borrowing them for my own amusement. No money is being made off of this piece of fan fiction.

A/N: This is a sequel to a one-shot by me titled Hanging by a Thread and a chaptered fic titled Dust in the Sky. You don't, necessarily, have to read that fic to understand what's going on, but there are some pre-developed, non-canon relationships that might need explaining.

Well, here goes nothing... XD

-0-0-0-

-0-0-0-

Working for Torchwood was a lot like working for the Department, Harry was finding, except his boss liked to flirt with everyone on the team and there was a lot more coming through the Rift than there ever had been falling to Earth. Really, it just meant less downtime, but Harry appreciated the constant running; it kept his mind off the Doctor.

Of course, Harry considered as he apparated back to the Hub with yet another Weevil – the third in the past two days; Jack seemed to think Harry was a pro at getting them, which he was, but still – it would be better if something interesting would actually happen. Things being so quiet never meant anything good, if Jack was telling the truth. (And Harry was inclined to think he was.)

He tossed the Weevil in a cell and made his way upstairs. There, he dropped into his chair with all the grace of an elephant and thanked Ianto when he placed a cup of tea on his desk.

Ianto offered a smile, then nodded towards where Lois sat at her desk, head in her hands. "Do you know what's wrong?" he asked.

Harry considered the youngest member of the staff. She looked exhausted and, thinking back, Harry recalled her mentioning something about her boyfriend being an arse about her work schedule – not everyone was Rhys, Gwen's husband. But that had been almost two weeks ago.

"I'll see what I can do," Harry told Ianto, who nodded and left. Once again looking over Lois' desk, Harry realised that she could do with a new set of roses, so he hopped to his feet and wandered into his shop, absently flipping the sign around again with a spell; he'd set it to 'closed' when Jack had told him to go catch the Weevil. He cheerfully set about making a new arrangement of yellow roses, adding some lavender and white heather, as well as some statice – he'd looked up flower meanings as soon as Jack asked him if he'd be willing to man the flower shop, since no one else knew anything about flowers, and the only other member willing to run a flower shop was Gwen, who would soon enough be on maternity leave.

Just as he was about to take the arrangement back to Lois, the door to the shop opened. He smiled up at one of his regulars, Bill, who smiled back at him brilliantly. "She said yes!" he exclaimed, practically dancing up to the counter. He'd been in yesterday, desperate for a bouquet of roses to give to his girlfriend when he proposed. He'd been in the shop constantly since the centre opened, as the girl he was dating loved flowers and, not only was Harry's shop the closest, but Bill's girlfriend also loved Harry's arrangements the most out of all the other flower shops Bill had tried.

"Congratulations," Harry said, gently setting the flowers for Lois back down. "Have you picked a date, yet? Or is it too soon?"

Bill grimaced and Harry laughed. "Yeah, funny, huh? No, we haven't set a date, yet. I think she's trying to find a way to break it to her folks, first."

Harry blinked. "I thought her parents liked you."

"They do! But... a wedding is a big thing." Bill rubbed at his face. "You should have seen the trouble they went to for her sister's wedding. It would almost be easier to elope."

"Not to mention cheaper," Harry agreed, grinning. "So, what are you in here for, then? Other than letting me know the good news."

Bill laughed a little nervously. "Well, it's a bit of a two-part. First," he pulled a small box out of his pocket and set it on the counter, "a gift from Angelica. I tried to tell her no gifts, but she insisted..."

Harry peeked in the box and chuckled. "They're lovely," he said of the home-made chocolates. "Tell her thank you."

Bill relaxed a bit. "Not too awkward?" he requested.

Harry shook his head. "Not at all. Well, okay, maybe," he admitted, considering it a bit more. "But I won't say no. I've a friend who could use the chocolate right now, anyway." He smiled a little sheepishly.

Bill smiled. "That's alright then."

Harry nodded. "What's the second thing?"

Bill grimaced and rubbed at his face again. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to do the arrangements for the wedding? Angelica's a bit set on it. I mean, I know you're kind of small and all and–"

"Bill! Bill!" Harry laughed, waving his hands about when the man started in on his breathless rant. "It shouldn't be a problem as long as you give me three week's notice so I can get everything in. I've got some mates who can help me with putting everything together. Really, don't worry about it." He smiled.

Bill smiled and inclined his head. "Okay. If you're sure."

"Certain," Harry promised.

"Brilliant. Now, uhm, could you put together some flowers for me?"

Harry laughed and pulled over his materials. "What are we telling her?"

"That she's magnificent."

"Magnificent it is," Harry replied and set about making the bouquet.

-0-

Lois looked up in surprise when Harry switched the flowers out. "That's new," she said, considering the much more colourful bouquet.

"You looked like you could use something a bit more meaningful than the usual," Harry replied with an easy smile. Then he sat the box of chocolates next to the flowers. "One of my customers gave me these. Not quite my flavour, but you might like them," he offered, then turned to take the old flowers back to his shop to dispose of them.

"Harry?" Lois called after him.

"Hm?"

"Thanks."

Harry smiled at her. "Not a problem."

-0-

"Bit busy right now, Gin," Harry said breathlessly as he answered his mobile. They'd gotten wind of a Sontaran running around north of Cardiff, in Birchgrove, so Jack sent Martha and Harry to deal with them, as they'd both dealt with them before.

"Yeah, yeah," Ginny replied, and Harry could practically hear the eye-roll. "Look, I've promised to help with a fundraiser on Wednesday for James' school, but I can't take Lily and Albus. Could you watch them for the day?"

Harry ducked the blaster fire aimed his way and motioned for Martha to get behind the Sontaran while he distracted it. He was infinitely glad Hermione had created a spell to block the earpiece of all but his own voice. "Ginny, I have to work. I can't take the kids; not with my job! Can't you hire a sitter?" He winced as some of the blaster fire singed his shoulder, but a silent spell healed it.

"Harry James Potter!" Ginny snapped. "I will not hire a sitter!"

"Give them to Mum, then," Harry tried, tossing a couple of harmless curses at the Sontaran to keep it distracted from Martha.

"I will not! Are you actually refusing to spend a day with your own children?"

"I don't want to get them hurt!" Harry snapped, remembering the time he'd gone up to London near Sarah Jane's house to catch a rogue alien and almost gotten one of her helper kids – Clive, if he recalled – killed. Pure luck had saved the boy, and Sarah Jane still refused to talk to him, but her parting shot about how Clive could have been one of Harry's own children if he didn't start being more careful occasionally haunted Harry's nightmares.

Ginny sighed. "Harry, your lot have a base, right?"

"Course we do."

"And it's safe?"

"For the most part."

"For the most part?" Ginny repeated, disbelieving.

"Well, yeah. Alien plants in the green room, weevils in the basement and Jack the flirt."

"I certainly hope Jack wouldn't be a danger to a two and a four year old," Ginny said drily and Harry snorted, then shot Martha a thumbs up over the head of the unconscious Sontaran. "Harry," Ginny continued, oblivious to the world on the other side of the line, "your base is perfectly safe for two children, as long as you lock the doors to the dangerous places. Please take them?"

Harry sighed, holding the Sontaran while Martha injected it with a serum she'd created to keep the buggers under until they could get them off-planet. "Fine. When do you want me to pick them up?" he agreed grudgingly. Ginny had done an exemplary job of pointing out how safe the base was. Now, all he had to do was get Jack to agree to having kids around, which shouldn't be too hard with Gwen already planning to bring her baby to work after a couple of months bed-rest. Just offer it forth as something of a test-run.

"Tomorrow evening, around supper, perhaps?" Ginny suggested. "You can have them for the night – I know there's room in that flat, Harry, don't tell me otherwise – and if you have to be in to work insanely early in the morning, you won't be waking me up to get them."

Harry smiled a bit helplessly; Ginny knew far too much about his top secret job for his sanity, sometimes. "Okay, okay. I'll let you know around lunch time about when I'll be picking them up."

"I'll talk to you tomorrow, then," Ginny said in a cheerful voice, then hung up.

Harry sighed and clicked the button on the headset that ended the call on his end. "Bloody hell," he muttered, helping heft the Sontaran and making sure he was touching Martha before apparating them down into the cells.

"What did she want, then?" Martha asked as they shoved the short potato-like alien into an empty cell.

Harry ran a hand through his hair. "She wants me to take Albus and Lily on Wednesday."

Martha blinked. "Tell me she doesn't know what you do for a living," she replied, half-sarcastic, half-disbelieving. All of Torchwood Three were aware that Ginny knew where Harry worked and what he really did for a living – they were aware that she never would have believed that he went from alien-catcher to an owner of a tiny flower shop without a significant reason.

Harry rolled his eyes. "They'll be safe in the Hub," he pointed out, motioning for Martha to lead the way up the stairs to the main floor.

"Yeah. Sure," Martha agreed, shaking her head. "What was she thinking? No! Don't answer that, Harry." Harry grinned at her. "What are you going to tell Jack?"

"What about me, now?" Jack asked, turning around at the meeting table that sat directly in front of the stairs to the basement. Jack's chair was the only one that had its back to the stairs, since they all knew nothing could kill him, and so having him be the first target if something got out gave everyone else time to react.

"Harry needs to talk to you," Martha offered cheerfully, then glanced around at the empty table. "Where is everyone else?"

Jack shrugged. "Doing their things. I needed to talk to you, Doctor Jones, about that autopsy you did last night, but I'd already sent you out..."

"So you decided to just wait for us by the stairs," Harry finished for him, shaking his head. "Jack, it's called leaving a note on her computer monitor."

"He prefers the stalking," Martha offered without missing a beat. "Jack, why don't you chat with Harry while I get some doughnuts from the kitchen?"

Jack chuckled. "Sure thing. Ianto made coffee!" he added as she started towards the kitchen. Her answering whoop made both Harry and Jack laugh, then the immortal turned to the wizard, leaning back in his chair. "What can I do for you, Harry?"

Harry absently called a chair over to sit in – standing made him feel like he'd been called to the Headmaster's office again – and sat in it before clearing his throat and saying, "We'll be having a couple of little guests on Wednesday."

Jack blinked. "Little guests?"

"My two youngest need somewhere to go Wednesday that doesn't involve Ginny's hair. She got me to agree to take them."

"No," Jack replied, voice flat.

"Jack, there's nowhere else–"

"No, Harry," Jack repeated. "No children. Remember what happened the last time we had kids helping on a mission?"

Harry couldn't hold back the flinch, but ploughed on. "They'll be staying in the building. Not going out on any missions with us if something miraculously shows up."

"No. Children," Jack said.

Harry considered him for a moment, then asked, "And how does Gwen feel about that?"

Jack winced minutely and Harry couldn't tell if it was because he'd already had this talk with Gwen, or that he could already envision how the talk would go. "Gwen will be on Hub-duty only while her child is here."

Harry nodded. "Then put me on Hub-duty for the day."

"I can't," Jack insisted, leaning forward. "Harry, you're my best field agent, you know that. I can't have you sitting about on your ass in here when you're needed out on the field."

Harry leaned forward as well, almost touching noses with his boss. "Jack, I can't not take my kids for the day. And, I don't know... Consider it a bit of a test run? Even if Gwen's on Hub-duty, everyone's going to need to pitch in to watch the little bugger – you know how kids are. Maybe this'll help us make the Hub a bit more child-proof. Albus and Lily are much better behaved than a baby would be."

Jack sighed and leaned back in his chair, eyeing Harry with an almost disgusted look on his face. He'd had children of his own, once or twice. Yes, he knew how much trouble they could be. "Only one day?" he asked.

Harry nodded. "I'll be going over tomorrow evening to pick them up, but I'll only have them here for Wednesday."

Jack nodded. "Fine. I'll leave it up to you to let everyone know. Be sure to remind them to lock up anything they don't want children getting into." He stood and turned towards where Martha was waiting by the lift.

"Thanks," Harry said, standing himself.

"Don't go thanking me yet," Jack replied.

Harry snorted to himself and wandered over to the kitchen. After he grabbed himself some doughnuts and tea, he made his way over to Lois' desk, intent on letting everyone know about his kids visiting before he got called off to deal with another alien.

-0-

"Dad!" Albus and James chorused as they pulled the door open together.

Harry chuckled and darted forward to hug them both before they could get into a fight about who got to hug him first. "Hey, boys. Where's Mum?"

"Kitchen," James reported, looking quite proud of himself.

Albus scowled at his elder brother, but grabbed Harry's hand and made to lead him towards the kitchen. "This way," he offered.

"Dad doesn't need you leading him around," James told his brother as he closed the front door.

"James, be nice to your brother," Harry said, shaking his head. Ever since James had made friends with a certain group of kids from the other end of town, he'd taken to being a little bit nasty to Albus, and the younger boy had seemingly decided that the only way to fight back was to be mean back. Harry and Ginny had been fighting to keep the nasty comments to a minimum, but Harry was rarely around and Ginny had a two-year-old to deal with as well. Thankfully, James didn't seem to think being mean to his sister was a good idea, though he'd been known to snark at his cousins when he saw them.

"Evening, Harry," Ginny said tiredly from the table. She was trying to feed an overly excited Lily.

"Daddy!" Lily squealed, waving her hands towards Harry in a 'pick me up now' sort of gesture.

Harry grinned at the two of them. "Lily, I'll hold you after you finish your supper," he promised, pulling out a chair to sit in. Albus immediately jumped up in the chair next to him, sticking out his tongue at James, who glared back and pulled his own chair out.

Lily pouted a bit at her father's words, but turned back to Ginny, far more willing to eat the offered food.

Ginny smiled gratefully. "So, I take it Jack didn't throw too much of a fit?" she commented, correctly guessing that Harry's boss wouldn't be too pleased with having two kids in the work place.

Harry groaned. "A minor one, yeah." He rubbed at his face, then glanced between the two youngest kids. "You two will have to be on your best behaviour, though, or he'll lock you in the basement with the aliens."

"Cool!" Albus decided, bouncing in his seat a bit. Next to him, James scowled an adorable child-scowl. Harry tried not to laugh.

"That is certainly not cool," Ginny informed the boy. "If I hear that you misbehaved just to get locked in those cages, you'll be grounded for a month."

"But Mum..."

Ginny narrowed her eyes warningly. "Don't you dare start with me, young man."

Albus made a disgruntled noise and sat back in his chair with a pout.

Harry covered his smile with one hand. "Listen to your mother," he told his son, then looked over at Ginny. "Are they all packed up, then?"

Ginny sighed and nodded, setting down Lily's spoon and motioning that Harry could take her, causing Lily to squeal with glee. "Their bags are in the living room. There's enough clothing for three days, in case of accidents. I also put some toys for both of them in there, and the playpen."

Harry nodded, recalling the magical playpen they'd bought first for James, which shrunk to the size of one of the toy blocks at the touch of a wand. "Diapers?" he asked, since Lily still wasn't completely potty trained; she was pretty good about knowing when to run for the little toilet they had, but she still had the occasional accident, so still wore diapers.

"In the bag," Ginny offered. "So is her potty. You'll have to unshrink it..."

Harry nodded in understanding. "No problem." He looked at his two youngest with a smile. "If you're ready to go, then..."

"See Daddy's house!" Lily squealed, having never been herself. James and Albus had come by once or twice with Ginny after Harry had first moved in, but Lily had always stayed with Molly or Kreacher.

"We get to see his secret workplace," Albus corrected, smiling too innocently at his brother.

Harry sighed. "James can come see it another time," he promised, hoping he would be able to keep that promise.

"But that won't happen until he learns how to behave better," Ginny said, shooting the eldest child a sharp look.

"What's he done this time?" Harry asked, resigned.

Ginny kept her eyes on James, who was sliding down in his chair. "Tell your father what you did yesterday."

James looked pleadingly at Harry, but Harry just frowned at him. James looked away and mumbled under his breath.

"Louder," Ginny ordered.

James shot his mother a glare, only to be glared right back at, then said, "I borrowed some money from Mz Jenkins."

"You mean you stole money from Miss Jenkins," Ginny repeated.

Harry bounced Lily in his lap, looking disapprovingly at his eldest. "James," he warned.

James slumped down in his chair some more. "I just wanted some ice cream after school..."

Harry sighed and shook his head. "James, you can have ice cream here, if you ask for it from Mum. But we don't steal from our teachers."

"I wanted to have ice cream with my friends," James clarified, pouting a bit.

"Then ask Mum or me for money," Harry replied. "Don't steal."

"Yes, Dad," James agreed, peeking over at his father. "May I have some money for ice cream tomorrow?"

"No," Ginny said before Harry could even consider the plea. She turned to Harry, frowning. "He's grounded for the rest of the week."

"Ah," Harry said, nodding. "Then you won't have a chance to get ice cream with your friends, anyway," he reminded his son. "Perhaps I'll give you some this weekend, but only if Mum says you deserve it. That means you need to be on your best behaviour. Understand?"

James gave a heavy sigh, but nodded. "Okay. I promise to be the best boy ever!"

Harry smiled at him. "That's my boy," he offered, standing with Lily in his arms. "Here, come give me a hug, then I'll take your siblings off your hands, hm?"

James grinned at him and jumped from his chair to give Harry a hug. He then followed along as Harry went to grab the bags with Albus' help.

Once they had everything, Harry let James and Ginny see them out. "I'll see you the same time tomorrow?" he offered to Ginny, carefully resettling Lily in his arms.

Ginny nodded. "Ring if you're going to be more than twenty minutes late?"

"Will do," Harry promised, then looked down at Albus and Lily. "Say goodbye to Mum and James."

"Bye, Mum!" Albus sang, refusing to even look at his elder brother.

"Bye, Mummy," Lily said, waving with a big smile. "Bye, Jamie."

"I'll see you both tomorrow," Ginny promised, kissing both kids on the head. Next to her, James waved with a bit of a sad look on his face.

Harry grinned at the two in the doorway, then held his free hand down to Albus. "Come on, then. We've a bus to catch."

"We get to take the Knight Bus?" Albus replied, grabbing Harry's hand excitedly.

"But of course," Harry agreed, leading to way out to the street as the door to number four closed behind them. He didn't much trust apparating two small children, though he knew he was capable of it, so he'd decided to take the Knight Bus to his flat, as well as to work – he'd already told Jack he might be a little bit late.

As the purple monstrosity popped into existence before them and Albus let out a happy cheer, Harry wondered if his sanity would be able to manage the next twenty-four hours.

-0-

For the first time since he'd started working for Torchwood, Harry used the front door into his shop. With him were two very sleepy children, though Albus had woken up a bit from the manic ride on the bus. Harry paused to flip his sign over by hand – another first – then led Albus through to his work station.

Jack, Martha and Mickey met him next to his desk.

"So these are the two little horrors," Jack said by way of greeting.

"James is the horror," Albus retorted without missing a beat. "We're the good kids."

All the adults laughed and Mickey leaned down to give the boy a high five.

"Albus and Lily, right?" Martha asked.

Harry nodded and set his sleepy daughter on her feet so he could pull out the playpen. "Correct. Kids, this is Martha, Mickey and Jack. All of them work upstairs."

"Mum told me to be careful around you," Albus informed Jack while Martha picked up the yawning Lily with a smile.

Jack grinned. "He's cute. Can I keep him?" he asked of Harry.

Harry considered his boss over the bag he was going through. "Can I test a couple of spells on you?" he replied in much the same tone.

Jack just grinned a bit wider, then looked back down at Albus, who was watching the discussion with wide eyes. "Sorry, Albus. Sounds like you'll be going home with your dad tonight."

The back door to the Hub opened and Gwen walked in with Lois. Both women were chatting, but they stopped when they saw the crowd around Harry's desk. "Are they here?" Lois called as they started over.

"Yup!" Martha called back, bouncing Lily a bit, much to the girl's delight.

Albus peeked around Mickey's legs to see the two women while Harry set up the playpen. After a moment, Albus turned to his father and said, "She looks like Mum did before you bought Lily."

Harry snorted in amusement while the adults around them laughed again. "Albus, we didn't buy your sister, she came out of Mum's stomach. Gwen's going to have a baby soon."

"A couple more months," Gwen agreed, dragging a chair over from the conference table to sit in. "I suppose you're Albus, then?"

Albus nodded solemnly. "I'm sorry for your coming loss."

Harry groaned and gently swatted his son on the back of the head while they all laughed again. Albus grinned and bowed a few times. "You're worse than your namesake," Harry informed his son drily. Albus just grinned a bit wider.

Lois leaned around Harry's desk with an open box of doughnuts. "Hungry?"

"Cheers," Harry replied, grabbing a powdered doughnut and munching on it as he booted up his computer and waved a couple of toys from the bag on his chair into the playpen.

"Can I have one?" Albus asked, looking hopefully up at Lois.

Lois glanced at Harry and, upon seeing his nod of agreement, held the box down to the four-year-old. "Just one, then. I'm Lois, by the way."

Albus grinned at her and grabbed a powdered doughnut, just like Harry. "I'm Albus. Thank you for the doughnut."

"You're most welcome," Lois replied, standing up and holding out the box for Jack's questing hands. "You can only have one, too. And don't go any farther than the box."

Jack sighed a bit sadly, but did as ordered and grabbed one doughnut, then stepped back to let Mickey grab one for both himself and Martha.

Once the doughnuts had been passed around and Ianto stepped out of the kitchen announcing that there was fresh coffee, the party broke up, Harry taking Lily from a grinning Martha. Ianto came by for a brief introduction and a handed a cup of tea over to Harry with a wink, then made his way towards the lift.

"Would you two like the grand tour, then?" Harry offered his kids after a quick sip of tea. Ianto's tea was as good as his coffee always smelled, but a part of Harry still preferred making his own. Of course, with two kids to watch, he appreciated his friend making it for him.

"Please?" both children agreed.

"Alright. This way, then," Harry agreed and started off towards the stairs to the basement. Albus half-skipped along behind him, singing about seeing the aliens. The others in the Hub who heard laughed as they made their ways up to their work spaces.

-0-

The grand tour had included a fair number of warnings about where the two youngest Potters weren't allowed to go. When they were done, Harry set Lily in the playpen and left Albus to his own devices with the warning of, "Don't go too far," then he turned to his computer and checked through his email. Nothing exciting had happened overnight, so he turned to the pile of alien tech Ianto had pulled from the archives to be checked over.

Once a month or so, Ianto left these little gifts on their desks to be looked over and, hopefully, identified. Some of the tech had been left in the archives over the years, unidentified and forgotten. Other things had been pulled from the Torchwood One storage once their archives had enough space to hold them – the old archives had been smaller than the space Harry had enlarged, and they'd also lost a great deal of stuff in the destruction of the old Hub, so they had more space for the stuff that had just been left behind.

The current pile had showed up on his desk just last week and Harry had been able to identify one thing right away: a voice recording device from the sixty-fifth century. He'd seen one during one of his trips with the Doctor. Jack had managed to identify a defective hand grenade during a visit to Harry's desk yesterday and that had been immediately disposed of, but the other six things on his desk were still unknowns.

He was just pulling out his sonic screwdriver when Albus poked his head over Harry's desk and pointed to a box sitting among the junk. "What's that?"

"I have no idea," Harry admitted, carefully pulling it towards himself. "Would you like to help me try and figure it out?"

Albus' eyes lit up and he nodded. "Yeah! Is this part of what you do?"

"Identify junk? All the time," Harry replied with a smile. He summoned a chair over from the conference table for Albus, then turned his sonic screwdriver on it.

"What's that?" Albus asked, pointing at the screwdriver.

"A sonic screwdriver. I got it from where I used to work," Harry offered, amused by Albus' questions. It wasn't often that his children learned anything about his job, and a part of Harry almost wished that at least one of his kids would decide to work with the Department or Torchwood after Hogwarts, even while, at the same time, another part of him shook in terror at the knowledge that, if one of his children did decide to follow in his footsteps, they'd probably die young.

"What's a sonic screwdriver do?"

Harry glanced down at the device. "Well, it does everything a normal screwdriver does, but it can also be used to make high-pitched noises to shatter things, or give feedback on a piece of technology."

"How can you tell what it's saying about the technology?" Albus asked as Harry started working on the tech with the screwdriver.

"A great deal of practise," Harry replied with a grin. "A friend of mine taught me how to use it."

"Does your friend work here?"

Harry shook his head, unconsciously reaching up to touch the leaf hidden under his shirt. "No. He tends to work on his own, for the most part. I haven't seen him in a few months, but he always turns up again."

Albus nodded knowingly. "The Doctor Mum always complains about?"

Harry laughed. "Mum would complain about him," he agreed. "And, yeah. Him."

"He catches alien too?"

"Ah... He, actually, is an alien himself."

Albus blinked. "So... What does he do, then? Other than make Mum grumpy?"

Harry grinned, thinking that was a pretty apt description for Ginny's feelings about the Doctor. "He travels, for the most part. But he likes humans – his own people are all gone – so he pops by from time to time and says hello. Helps us when we run into aliens we can't just lock in a cell."

Albus nodded. "Like when the big red planet was in the sky?"

Harry smiled a bit sadly. "Yes. He took care of that. The rest of us were rather useless, I'm afraid to say."

"Mum was complaining about how an entire day went by while we all napped," Albus reported. "Do you really think we were all napping?"

"It's a bit difficult to explain what happened," Harry offered, frowning at something the sonic reported back. "It wasn't so much that we took a nap as we were all possessed."

"Even you?" Albus asked, eyes wide.

Harry chuckled. "Yes, even me."

"That must have been a big possession," Albus offered.

Harry grinned at him. Before he could say anything more, Jack's voice came through his earpiece, "Harry, Martha, I've got something I need you two to come look at for me."

Harry sighed and set the alien tech down on his desk, slipping his screwdriver back into his pocket. "Hey, Albus, I need to go upstairs for a moment, okay? Don't touch anything on my desk."

"Even the box?" Albus asked as Harry stood.

"Especially the box," Harry replied sternly.

"Okay," Albus agreed, hopping down from his chair and walking over to see what Lily was playing with. The girl seemed quite pleased to have someone to play with and quickly drew her brother into her game.

Harry grinned at them and made his way upstairs to Jack's office. He met Martha there and they smiled at each other before stepping into the office. They walked over to Jack, who was reading some alien script on the computer screen. "Does this look familiar to either of you?" he asked them, leaning back.

They looked over what seemed to be a message that had been scanned in while in the process of deteriorating, then glanced at each other, frowning. "Vaguely," Martha allowed while Harry nodded. "Why?"

"It looks vaguely familiar to me, as well," Jack replied, frowning at the text. "Like I've seen it somewhere, but I can't translate it now."

"The TARDIS?" Harry suggested.

Jack nodded. "That's why I called you both in here. If we've all seen this before, then there are only a few places it could be from. Since it's not in the database, it's only one of two languages."

"Hoixian is one of them, I'd expect," Harry offered. He'd once gone through the database to see what languages they were missing and had commented on that one, only to have Jack suggest that he work on making a schematic himself if it bothered him so much. They rarely had to understand Hoix when they came through the Rift, after all, and a transmission in Common was usually enough to bring one of their ships around to collect the unfortunate bastard.

Jack nodded. "The other is Tharilian."

"Those lion aliens?" Martha asked, frowning.

"I think they'd probably take offence to being spoken of like that, but yes," Jack agreed.

"If you were almost enslaved by them, you'd be plenty pleased to offend them," Martha shot back, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"You just met them at a bad time," Jack suggested.

"Children," Harry cut in before they could get started. Jack had quite liked the Tharilians he'd slept with in his youth, but Martha had had a bad experience with them, so they occasionally got into spats about the species. Harry's dealing with the lion-like species had been neither good nor bad, so he'd often found himself stepping in to shut them up. "Focus on the type, you two. It's scratchy around the edges."

"Oh. Wow." Martha leaned forward again. "Look at that 'o'."

"Huh." Jack rubbed at the back of his head. "And the zigk," he added, pointing to a letter than wasn't included in any Earth language. "That's..."

"Hoixian," Harry finished for him.

"Yup."

"So, which poor sod gets to translate this?" Harry asked, reaching around Jack and filching a couple of grapes out of the fruit bowl Jack kept next to his screen. He jerked his hand out of the way just in time to avoid being smacked.

Jack sighed. "Mickey, I think. He's the best with the translation program. But if one of you two can remember any words..."

Harry snorted. "Sorry, Jack. The only alien language I can translate even a word of is Gallifreyan."

"Which is a feat beyond even the greatest of men," Jack replied drily.

"You know some Gallifreyan?" Martha asked.

Harry shrugged. "I've got a rough translation for a phrase the Doctor liked to use occasionally. But, considering how well that language translates to English, it's not that impressive."

"Well, what's the phrase, then? You might as well teach the rest of us," Jack suggested, turning in his chair to eye Harry.

"No," Harry said firmly.

"Aww... Was it something about how much he loves you?" Jack teased.

Harry gave his boss an unimpressed look. "If that's all?"

"It was!" Jack replied, grinning a bit madly.

"I'll be downstairs when you decide to grow up," Harry returned, then stalked from the office, quietly muttering, "Why'd I even mention that?"

As Harry started down the stairs, he heard what sounded like a smack and Jack letting out a slightly pained sound. He chuckled to himself, mentally making a note to get Martha something nice for her birthday.

-0-

Nothing odd happened until after lunch, and both Harry's kids happened to be napping when the alarms finally went off. A quick check of the pop-up on his screen had Harry groaning even as Jack's voice sounded in his ear, "Looks like the very friend we were discussing earlier. He's close enough that one of us can take the SUV if you'd rather sit this one out."

Harry considered the sleeping two-some in the playpen. "I can go," he replied, shaking his head and getting up. "The kids are asleep, but if Martha or Gwen want to come down to keep an eye on them, I won't say no."

"I'm not doing anything else right now," Gwen replied. "I'll keep an eye on them."

"Thanks, Gwen."

"Sure thing."

"Do you want any back-up?" Mickey asked.

Harry considered that. "Shouldn't need any, no. Why?"

"I'm kind of done with sitting on my arse for right now."

Harry chuckled. "I completely understand. If Jack doesn't mind–"

"Go for it," Jack cut in.

"–then I don't mind," Harry finished.

"Brilliant. Give me five."

Harry nodded absently and stood from his seat, taking a moment to stretch his back. He'd been sitting for a while himself, trying to figure out the alien tech sitting on his desk. He waved to Lois, who was working on some jewellery for a customer who would be coming by in an hour to pick it up. The woman gave a quick grin in response, then turned back to her metal work.

Harry checked himself over to make sure he had everything he'd need, then headed towards the stairs. He met Mickey there and apparated them both to the coordinates the Rift monitor had given them. There was a line of unused warehouses and they both sighed before separating to look for the Hoix the Rift had spat out.

It took them maybe twenty minutes to track down the bugger, then chase it around some crates. Finally, Harry managed to hit it with a stunner and they bagged it up before taking it back to the Hub. They shoved the alien in a cell, then made their way upstairs, commiserating about the alien tech that was confusing them on both their desks. Mickey was of the opinion that Ianto gave the stuff to them just to drive them mad.

Back at his desk, Harry was set upon by Albus, who wanted to know where he'd gone and what he'd done and why he hadn't taken Albus with him. Harry just sighed and thanked a grinning Gwen before sitting back down to tell Albus all about the 'exciting' capture of the Hoix.

-0-

When Harry finally got home after dropping his kids off at Ginny's, he dropped himself onto his couch and groaned. He'd never understand how Ginny dealt with having the kids around all day. But, then again, she could probably trust Albus to amuse himself all day, rather than constantly needing to explain new things to him or make sure he didn't start playing with any alien tech. Lily had been pretty well-behaved for the visit, but she'd also been more inclined to stay in her playpen with her toys and wait for people to come to her. Not that she hadn't been interested in what Harry did, she just wasn't as hands on as her brother. And aliens just weren't that big of a thing to her and they were to Albus and James.

Harry groaned and pulled himself to his feet. "Couches are for sitting," he reminded himself out loud. "Beds are for sleeping."

-0-0-0-

-0-0-0-

A/N: I've got one more adventure planned for this series right now. I haven't quite decided whether to work on that adventure, or the 11th Doctor sequel first. Either way, it should, hopefully, be up by Monday. Depending on how crazy my family drives me on Sunday. XD

Until next week!
~Bats ^.^x