When he opened his eyes the next morning, for a moment, he didn't remember where he was. The bright morning light shone through the thin curtains and turned everything yellow gold, making the soft blue and green room of last night unfamiliar. He blinked and glanced around and remembered. Bho-Shiyn. Jack. Toshiko...

Yes, there she was, curled on her side, facing away from him, her long black hair fanned out on the pillow. He'd slept with another man's wife, and, if everyone had told the truth yesterday, he didn't even have to feel guilty. He grinned up at the patterned ceiling, until startled out of his reverie by the sound of the door.

He sat up, hand groping on the bedside table for anything to use as a weapon, eyes fixed on the slowly opening door...

It was Billis. Again. He flopped back on the bed, biting back a number of angry outbursts, *don't you ever knock?* at the top of the list.

Toshiko stirred and rolled over. Billis hung a black plastic clothes cover on the wardrobe door and gave one of his little bows. Ianto pulled the covers up to his neck.

"Good morning, sir, madam."

Ianto pulled out his best polite insincere smile. Toshiko muttered a pillow-muffled "morning."

"A gift, sir, from his highness. He requests that you wear it this afternoon."

Hell. Cow races. They'd slipped his mind altogether. "Thank you."

Billis bowed yet again and left.

"Is there any way to lock that door?" Ianto asked, a little petulantly.

Toshiko snuggled up to his side. "Not that'll keep him out. He's got a key to every lock in the place." She yawned, hugely. "What did Jack get you?"

"Don't you find him a little odd?"

"Jack?"

"No, Billis."

"Ah." She yawned again and began tracing patterns on his stomach. "Odd, no. Creepy and annoying, yes."

"It's not just me, then."

She poked him gently. "What did Jack get you?"

He grabbed some of yesterday's clothes from the chair by the bed and pulled them on under the blankets. It had been dark last night and he didn't want to shatter any illusions. She had snuggled back down with her eyes closed, and had every appearance of going back to sleep, anyway. In a gentlemanly gesture, he scooped up her dressing gown from the floor and left in on the foot of the bed.

Upon unzipping Billis's offering, he found it was a long-shirt-and-loose-trousers ensemble, similar to those he'd seen some of the townspeople wearing yesterday, made of dark red silk.

"Nice," Toshiko commented. She was watching him through sleepy, half-closed eyes.

"I'm not sure I've got any shoes to go with it." *Or that I should be accepting his gifts...* He fingered the sleeve thoughtfully. He'd always been a pushover for silk. The material was very lightweight, and would probably be cooler to wear than his own clothes. It was a pretty red, almost burgundy, and he remembered Jack telling him over dinner that he looked good in dark colours...

It was all absurdly flattering, but he was still unsure what he would do if Jack were to make an outright move. He couldn't deny that he was very attracted to the sheikh, but, as he had told him last night, he was reluctant to get involved in this unfamiliar set-up. Although (he glanced back at the bed, where Toshiko had rolled onto her side, the covers pushed down to her waist revealing the smooth curves of her back) he'd already got himself involved... Perhaps it would be only fair to let Jack have a go, too. With three wives and a kingdom to run, it was unlikely he'd want anything permanent. Ianto hadn't been with a man since he was sixteen (his and Owen's awkward mutual masturbation sessions didn't count) and he'd never even met a man as attractive as Jack, let alone gone to bed with them. An affair could be fun - like a holiday romance.

For that matter, he wasn't entirely sure where he stood with Toshiko. From what she'd said last night, he'd got the impression that this was a casual, one-time thing, but he didn't know how she'd feel if he took up with her husband.

He heard movement and politely kept his back to her until she'd slipped into the dressing gown. She stood on tip-toes to kiss his cheek. "I'll see you at breakfast," she said.

He found his way back to the dining room unaided and with only two wrong turns. He felt very proud. Toshiko was the only one there when he arrived, neatly dressed with freshly-brushed hair loose around her shoulders; but Rose arrived shortly afterwards, dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of boxer shorts, her hair in an untidy ponytail, yawning repeatedly.

The sight of her triggered a memory from last night: They had been lying in each other's arms, nose-to-nose. "Yes," Toshiko had said, "Jack and Rose are doing it like bunnies at this very moment." She had pressed her hand against his chest. "They invited me to join them, but I'd rather be with you. I'm not doing this because I'm jealous, if that's what you're asking..."

"Mornin'" Rose said, through another yawn. "Toast cold yet?"

Toshiko laid the back of a hand delicately against the contents of the silver toast rack. "Yes."

"Cool." She grabbed three pieces and began buttering.

Ianto found himself looking back and forth between them. Between Toshiko's elegant nibbling and Rose's enthusiastic bolting. Between Toshiko's neat cream blouse and and black trousers and Rose's scruffy, faded T-shirt and obviously borrowed underwear. Between Toshiko's shiny black hair and Rose's bright blonde...

"Is Jack going to be joining us?" Toshiko asked.

"Dunno. He was gone when I woke up. Chuck us a banana."

The three of them worked their way through the breakfast buffet. Toshiko's ankle brushed occasionally against Ianto's, and they shared a few meaningful looks across the table.

"You two coming to the races this afternoon, then?" Rose asked over the rim of a small cup of frighteningly strong Turkish coffee. She'd curled her legs underneath her and was leaning on the arm of the chair.

"Yes," Ianto replied. "You?"

"Oh yeah, it's great fun - completely mental." She turned to Toshiko. "D'ya remember that time that bull charged us?"

"Frequently. Usually around two in the morning."

"It was fantastic," she said to Ianto, "this huge great big bull, with massive horns on him," she demonstrated with her fingers, "chucks his rider and comes charging straight at the royal box. You've got us lot and all the honour guard and that, all dressed up for it, all scattering in every direction, the bull comes smashing through, and gets this curtain stuck on his horns. So then he starts going round and round in circles trying to get this curtain off of him, and he can't see where he's going, so he's just trampling over everything... I've never regretted wearing high heels more in my life." She grinned, happily. Perhaps noticing Ianto's look of dismay, she added: "but that won't happen this time! They almost always stay on the track until they're clear of the crowds. You'll be fine, don't worry."

He was contemplating death by goring and wondering if he could fake a convincing last minute illness, when Billis slipped silently into the room. This time, however, Ianto caught a glimpse in the corner of his eye before he could sneak too close. *Progress,* he thought. *If I keep this up, by the time I leave, I might actually manage to sneak up on him.*

Billis stopped by his side, gave the unavoidable bow, and said: "A message from his highness, sir. He requests that you join him in the study after you have eaten."

Ianto looked down at the half-finished scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast sitting in front of him. "Right. Thank you."

Billis retreated as silently as he had come.

"Don't you think his eyes are too close together? I think his eyes are too close together," Rose said, leaning conspiratorially over the table.

Toshiko rolled her eyes a little.

"I wouldn't like to comment on anyone's physical shortcomings," Ianto said, primly. "But it would be nice if someone could tie a bell around his neck."

Rose laughed and Toshiko smiled.

"I'll take you down there once we're done," Rose offered. "Takes a while to get the hang of where everything is."

"Yes, it certainly does," Toshiko added. "I rather suspect the place was designed to confuse invading armies."

Jack was sitting behind a huge desk with paper strewn across its surface when they entered the study. Rose sat in his lap and presented him with a bunch of three bananas. "Brought you something. You shouldn't skip breakfast."

He put the bananas on the desk and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Thanks. Morning, by the way..."

They kissed. Ianto examined the walls.

"Mmm... Not that it isn't good to see you..." Jack said, gently disengaging.

"But butt out 'cos you two wanna talk? Fair enough." She kissed him on the nose and got to her feet. "See you later," she said as she passed Ianto on the way to the door.

"Sorry about that," said Jack, with a thoroughly unapologetic smile, once the door had shut behind her. "Sit down."

Ianto did. The chair was carved wood and not very comfortable.

"I've been going through my dad's papers, and I've found a couple of interesting things. Did you know we're engaged?" He laughed at Ianto's look of polite incomprehension and broke into the bananas. "It's true, look." He pushed a piece of paper across the desk.

Ianto looked at the elegant swooping script, hand-written in no language or alphabet he understood. "I can't read this."

"I'll give you the short version: In return for services rendered - I haven't found out what they were yet, but those must've been some impressive services - my dad agreed to formally adopt your parents into the royal family by means of - and this is important - marriage of eldest child to eldest child. Now, there're quite a few mistakes in this document. I don't think it was drawn up by a native speaker, which is a bit weird. I was thinking maybe one of your parents did it? I don't suppose you know anything about their linguistic skills? No? Well, I'm guessing what they meant to say was eldest son to eldest daughter, or even child to child, but since they didn't and same-sex marriages have been legal here since 1996... unless you've got a biological sibling you haven't mentioned yet, congratulations would seem to be in order."

Ianto looked from the document to Jack and back again, unsure what to say.

"Don't worry, I'll let you off the actual marriage. Given that neither of us had a say in it and everyone involved in the actual agreement's dead now, I don't think anyone's going to object. But, either way, you're going to be very rich - you're down for a percentage of the royal estate. Not a big percentage, but still," he fixed Ianto with a movie-star smile, "you won't have to pick up anyone's dry-cleaning again."

He felt vaguely horrified. He'd always worked very hard to avoid being in anyone's debt. "But I don't want to take your money..."

"Look, I'm letting you out of the lifetime of exciting companionship and hot sex, don't think you're getting away without the fortune and the life of decadent idleness."

"I mean it! I didn't come here for a handout, I..."

Jack held up a hand. "You don't have to decide anything now. For a start, I'd like to know what your folks did that had my dad so impressed. You never know, it might turn out they were blackmailing him or something, and then I'd have to have you driven off my property." He grinned to show he was joking. Ianto weakly returned it. "Are you sure there's nothing in your mom's diary?"

"I don't think so. It's in my room if you wanted to take a look?"

"I've got plenty of paperwork to look through, still. But it might be worth your taking another look, now you know what you're looking for. I'll keep looking until we have to leave, and I'll let you know this afternoon if I find anything. The girls are around if you want some company in the meantime. They like you, by the way. Especially Tosh."

Ianto found himself entirely unable to meet Jack's eyes, which Jack apparently found most amusing.

He read through the diary again and found nothing useful. The temperature rose and rose, and he fell asleep.

He dreamt he was in his bedroom from the foster home before the foster home before Estelle's, but Jack and Owen were there, too. They were barricading the door against something, or maybe they'd just accidentally put the bed across the door when someone wanted to get in... But then they couldn't move the bed because Toshiko was in it, and she had wrapped herself around him, her hips moving enticingly under his hands, but he was trying to fight free to get to the door...

He awoke in another rush of confusion. The knocking on the door was real.

It was Rose. She was wearing a cream-coloured, long sleeved, kimono-like dress. He rubbed a hand self-consciously through his hair and stood back to let her in.

"You're not ready," she said, accusingly.

He glanced at his watch. "I fell asleep..."

She gave him a knowing smile. "Well, if you will stay up all night..." His horrified gaze met only her back, as she noticed the red silk suit still hanging on the wardrobe door. "Ooo, pretty. Mind you, I shouldn't be jealous, what with all his money I just spent, should I? Go on," she said, turning to see Ianto still staring at her and giving him a familiar push towards the bathroom, "we've got to go soon. Don't get yourself too tarted up, mind. It's always dusty as hell out by the tracks."

He splashed cold water on his face, which helped with the sleep-induced muzziness and brushed his teeth to drive out the fallen-asleep-in-the-middle-of-the-day taste, while meditating on women and the way they told each other absolutely everything.

When he emerged from the bathroom to grab the suit (he'd decided it would be rude not to accept it. Also he didn't really have time to pick anything else out), Rose was sitting back against the headboard, flipping through L'Esprit contre la raison that he'd made a start at after the diary. "You speak French?" she asked.

"In the face of the evidence, I can't really deny it." He seized the clothes and retreated back to the bathroom.

"That's cool," she called through the partition. "I did French at school, but it didn't really take."

"It's not always a good thing," he called back, struggling out of his shirt. "I was applying for a job once, told the interviewer I spoke fluent French, and he demanded I recite the irregular verbs."

"Harsh. Did you do it?"

"I got through about eight of them before he stopped me."

"Did you get the job?"

"No."

"Bastard."

"That's almost exactly what I thought."

He examined his reflection. He didn't look too bad, actually. He seemed to have got away with the exposure to the sun yesterday. *Good point - mustn't forget the sunblock*

When he went to collect the sunblock from his rucksack, Rose greeted him with a wolf whistle, and then laughed uproariously when he glared at her. She stalked around him as he rubbed factor 24 into his face and hands. "It's nice an' all," she said, thoughtfully, "but it's not really Jack's style."

"No? I thought it was like what the locals wear."

"Yeah, it is, but... It hides your butt. Jack's something of an arse-man. It's not really his style." She paused. "Looks good, though."

"Er, thanks."

He sat on the edge of the bed to pull on his tan hiking boots, which didn't exactly match, but were all he had.

"Oh my god, I know what you need!" Rose exclaimed. She seized his hand and pulled him out of the room.

"Where exactly are we going?" he asked as they sped through the corridors.

"My room. You need a belt, and I've got just the thing."

"Isn't it about time to go? Shouldn't we be leaving?"

"Don't sound so frightened, I'm not gonna molest ya. Not unless you ask me nicely."

*There must be something in the water. It would explain so much.*

"Here we are. Hang on a minute."

The room she had led them to was surprisingly pink. She rummaged through a row of shopping bags and emerged with a scarf a few shades darker than his shirt. She wrapped it around his waist, keeping eye contact as her arms were around him, and tied it snugly over one hip.

He frowned down at it. "I look like I've escaped from a panto."

"No you don't, you look great."

He fiddled with the knot. "Have you got an oversized cutlass to go with this? Or maybe forty blokes with turbans to follow me around?"

"Shut up," she said, laughing. "You look fine. C'mon, let's go find the others."

Toshiko was waiting for them at the bottom of the staircase, still in the white blouse and black trousers she had worn at breakfast, with the addition of a wide-brimmed hat. Ianto was glad Rose at least had dressed up a bit, otherwise he'd be feeling even more self-conscious.

They found Jack outside, surrounded by various members of the palace staff. To Ianto's annoyance, he was wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He detached himself as they approached, and came forward to meet them.

"Don't we all look pretty?" He stood with his hands on his hips, happily surveying his harem. "Ianto..." he raked his eyes from head to toe and back, "I completely approve. Your idea?" he asked Rose, who was hanging onto Ianto's arm and beaming proudly.

"The belt, yeah. D'ya think I should bring that little parasol thing?"

"If you like, but there'll be plenty of shade. Everybody ready? Shall we?" He took Toshiko's arm, leaving Rose with Ianto.

They made their way across the courtyard and, to Ianto's surprise, around to the cow sheds. Where there was an elephant. An elephant wearing an elaborate harness, which supported an palanquin-like contraption. A horrible sense of foreboding churned deep in his stomach.

"Um... What's that?" he asked, tightly.

"That's Myfanwy," Jack said proudly. "Isn't she gorgeous?"

"She used to be in a circus," Toshiko explained, "and we adopted her when it closed. Don't worry, she's really friendly. She loves people."

"But it'll squash me..." Ianto weakly protested.

"No she won't," Jack said, patiently. "She's been specially trained not to squash people. Not squashing people's her speciality. Come and say hi, you'll see."

"I could walk, instead. Or just stay here, maybe..."

"Oh, don't be a baby," Rose said, shoving him in the small of the back.

"You've got nothing to be afraid of," Jack said. "Just remember, she's a prey animal, you're a predator."

"What? No she's not! What preys on elephants?"

Jack gave him an odd look. "Humans."

"Yes, granted, but..."

"Everything will be fine, I promise. You don't even have to go near the front end if you don't want to."

"What if it rolls over when we're on its back?"

"She's very old, she does everything very slowly. If she's going to roll over, we'll have plenty of notice. Not that she will, she's been specially trained not to squash people." He gave him a quizzical look. "Were you frightened by an elephant as a child or something?"

"Or something." Ianto folded his arms defensively, looking around to check the women were out of earshot. "I was bitten by a poodle, and it's not remotely funny, so don't even think about laughing."

Jack looked carefully away into the distance. Eventually: "it is kinda funny."

"It was a standard poodle, not a toy. They're big. And we're not talking about a strategically shaved show dog either - it was a stray. I've still got the scar."

"All right, all right, I'm sorry," Jack said, openly laughing, now.

"What if I'd told you I'd been bitten by a rottweiler? I'd've got sympathy then, wouldn't I? But just mention 'poodle' and everyone falls about laughing."

"So why don't you say 'rottweiler'?"

Ianto put on his best serious face. "I have too much respect for the truth."

Jack laughed and slung an arm around his shoulders. "Come on, let's get you up on the elephant."

Riding on an elephant, as it turned out, was not as frightening as standing on the ground beside one. It helped that you couldn't see the tusks.

The others had fussed over her before they left, feeding her treats and letting her wrap her trunk around their necks, while Ianto stood back and told himself that it was a perfectly rational fear, actually, animals attacked humans every day, especially ex-circus animals...

Once they were all safely ensconced on the elephant's back, Jack had taken his hand; holding it, unobtrusively enough, down against the seat. It was a nice gesture, and one that certainly took his mind off the rocking gait of the elephant, but his treacherous mind would insist on reading all sorts of meanings into it...

*Shut up,* he told it, sternly. *You've had more sex and potential sex in the last forty-eight hours than you've had in a year, we're in a beautiful, exotic place, being entertained by royalty. Could you please try to just enjoy yourself for five minutes?*

The open desert stretched out to either side, bright sand with occasional windswept clumps of low-lying vegetation. Behind and before them a caravan of townspeople drove cattle, rode camels or horses, or, for the most part, walked, stirring up the dust in a long cloud marking their trail.

Jack leaned in close to speak over the sounds of people and animals. "No-one uses motor vehicles today. Traditional. Also they spook the cattle. There's our baby, see?" He pointed out Janet, decked in ribbons, being led along the trail.

"Is she a good racer?"

"She's the best! Hasn't ever won a race in her life!"

"Er... Sorry?"

"I supply the prizes - it'd look pretty bad if I won. So we have Janet, who can put on a good show, but doesn't actually win anything."

"I see. Cunning."

"Just good PR." His thumb lightly stroked over the back of Ianto's hand. "Are you okay? I'm sorry about the whole elephant thing, but it is expected of us..."

"It's all right. I'm pretending it's a Range Rover with very bad suspension."

He laughed. "Cunning. I didn't find anything else relating to your parents, by the way. I'm thinking we should ask around, see if we can find anyone who remembers them. Bit of a long shot, but I'm out of ideas. Sorry, I know you were hoping for more."

"That's all right. I've gone through my whole life knowing nothing about them at all - it's nice to have something, even if it's not very much." *But I still don't know why Estelle hid it from me... Or how she came to know in the first place.*

The so-called royal box consisted of a low wooden platform with a lot of sofas and an awning overhead to provide some shade. There were the promised snacks, packed in ice and covered to keep the dust out. Rose grabbed bottles of water for everyone, took some of the ice, and balanced it on her head.

Jack excused himself and bounded off to join the milling crowd. "Ah, organised chaos, his favourite," Toshiko said, kicking off her shoes and curling up on the seat next to Ianto, tucking her toes under his thigh.

The racetrack was nothing more than a strip of empty desert, surrounded by chattering crowds of people in bright clothes. Cattle, also dressed in bright colours, were conglomerating at one end. Ianto watched the people pass by, catching the odd glimpse of Jack's bright white T-shirt passing here and there. He kept one ear on Rose and Toshiko's conversation, which at the moment was mostly concerned with people he didn't know, and the other on the chatter of the crowd. The swell of so many voices formed a strangely comforting background. He settled himself back and took a swallow from the cool bottle of water.

The first race happened with no preamble - suddenly animals were galloping along the track, their riders clinging to rope harnesses, dust trails rising from their thumping hooves. The crowd roared, and, feeling the sudden rise of tension, Ianto sat up involuntarily. They galloped past the platform and out into the desert, their riders beginning the lengthy process of slowing them down and turning them around. Various parts of the crowd took on tones of triumph or despair.

Jack bounced back onto the platform. Rose held up a hand. "If you start talking in statistics," she said, "I shall be forced to brain you with a sandwich."

"Hear, hear," Toshiko added.

"You're all against me," he complained, taking the seat beside Rose and putting his arm around her shoulders.

Another group thundered along the raceway, and Ianto watched in horror as one rider lost his grip, hit the dirt, and rolled away into the crowd. He had apparently avoided all the hooves, as he was on his feet a few seconds later, albeit rather shakily. "Has anyone been killed doing this?" Ianto asked, as the rider was led into the shade, and his mount galloped off into the desert, several figures dashing after it.

"In the last twenty years, we've had three deaths; two riders, one spectator," Jack answered.

"Right, I warned you," Rose said, snatching up a sandwich.

Jack intercepted it before she could strike. "Give me that... It doesn't count, he asked."

"And then," Toshiko said quietly next to Ianto's ear, "he eats the sandwich, thus disarming her."

"What it she's got a loaf?" Ianto replied, his eyes tracing the dust trail of the escaped animal.

"What if she's got a pointed stick?" Toshiko said, and laid her cheek against his shoulder.

"What about the cows?" Ianto asked a little louder, looking across to where Jack was, indeed, eating the sandwich.

"They tend to fare better than the people - there was one needed some stitches about five, six years ago, and I remember a couple of broken horns, but no fatalities."

They watched and drank and snacked. Ianto listened to Jack's running commentary and Rose's laughing attempts to stop him, and thought about a country where watching cows run around was the highlight of the year.

Janet ran in three races, coming fifth once, and third twice. ("She's getting faster," Jack commented ruefully. "Might be time for her to retire soon.")

"Not much more to go now," Toshiko commented to Ianto. "Is the cow fatigue setting in yet?"

"Actually, I'm quite enjoying it." And he really was. The ceremony with which the participants treated the races was fascinating, and the spectators' enthusiasm was contagious.

She gave him a bright smile, and opened her mouth, but before she could speak...

There was a great roar, and the world seemed to shift sideways. When Ianto came round, he was lying on the sand with something heavy on top of him. There was a strange noise all around him, like the swush of sea on sand, but pitched too high. He could hear screams as well, but they were very far away. The something heavy lifted off him. It was Jack. He seemed to be asking if he was okay, but his voice sounded as distant as the screams. He blinked, and when he opened his eyes, Jack was gone and Rose was by his side. He looked around and found Jack, striding away through the smoke, holding a gun at his hip. He glanced back, and the look in his eyes, shining in the flames from the burning platform, struck Ianto like a physical blow. There was nothing there of the spoilt playboy with whom he'd spent the last two days.

Rose was saying something. He forced himself to concentrate. "...concussion or something. Jack and Tosh'll get them, though. They're all about the butch. Think you can stand up?"

She pulled him to his feet. He felt dizzy and sick and clung to her shoulders. Ridiculous, really. He was a head taller than her, and he was clinging to her for desperate balance...

Flames enveloped the platform where they'd all sat, burning swathes of fabric breaking loose and snapping in the breeze like bright flags. A related thought occurred to him. "Toshiko! She was right next to me..."

"It's okay," Rose soothed, pulling him away, "she's gone after them, she's with Jack. C'mon, we've got to get out of here before they try again..."

She steered him away from the flames and the panicking animals and people, but they didn't get far before he stumbled and slid out of her grasp. She took as much of his weight as she could as he collapsed to the sand.

"We have to keep moving," she gasped, kneeling down beside him.

"Just a minute..." He couldn't walk any more just now. Everything was spinning and hurting and he wasn't entirely sure he wasn't going to be sick.

"Oh, look! Look, c'mon..."

His eyes followed her fingers. A jeep was bouncing across the sand towards them.

Rose pulled desperately at his arm. "It's one of ours, come on..."

He climbed to his feet, using Rose as a lever. The jeep pulled up next to them. Long, pale fingers closed on Ianto's arm and pulled him in. Rose pushed from the other side, and once he was inside she moved to join him, but the jeep pulled away fast, leaving her sprawled in the sand, staring incredulously after them.

Ianto turned to the man beside him. "What are y..." It was Billis, and he was pointed a gun at Ianto's face.

"You were supposed to have been killed in the blast," he said, his prim, precise voice sounding out of place against the engine's rough roar. "So please try to understand the current situation. You will do exactly as I say, or I will shoot you. I would prefer not to do this."

"I'd prefer you didn't do it, either." His mind was doing its dazed best to race, but the events of the past few minutes had been overwhelming. Foremost on his mind was that he'd known there was something wrong about Billis... *You can't condemn someone just for being a bit creepy. And Jack trusted him...* "Why are you doing this?" he asked.

Billis fixed his eyes on him. "You really don't know, do you?"

The driver turned sharply, and Ianto's head connected with the door frame. He gasped and touched lightly at the apex of pain with his fingertips. There wasn't too much swelling, but even the lightest of touches caused more pain tendrils to snake around his head.

"I spared your life once," Billis said, annoyance in his voice. "And that of the old woman you lived with. You've had enough chances."

"But I didn't even meet you until..." he trailed off as his battered brain realised. "You killed my parents. And Estelle never gave me the box because you threatened her..."

Billis gave him a disdainful look. "Not personally, no."

"Why?" *My parents didn't abandon me at all... They were murdered.* "Is this about the money Jack's father wanted to give them?"

"Just like him, you assume it all comes down to money."

"What, then?"

The jeep stopped. "Out," Billis ordered, levelling the gun at Ianto's nose.

He clambered out. The bright sun hurt his eyes and set his head throbbing. "What do you want? You want me to give you the money? You want me to leave and never come back? I can do that."

"Kneel. Put your hands behind your head."

He did as he was told. The words execution style floated across his mind. "I mean it, I'll leave, I won't say a word to anyone..." Would it hurt? he wondered. Would he hear the shot? Feel the bullet? Would anyone ever find his body? Kathy would definitely come looking for him. Would Billis end up shooting her too?

"It is bad enough," Billis said tightly from behind him, "serving an... an Americanised pastiche of all that used to be great about a noble house... He sold his father's books, you know. He said they might as well be in a museum. And he brought in those... women..."

*The centre cannot hold,* Ianto thought, remembering saying those words to Kathy across Estelle's kitchen table.

"It is bad enough being in service to such decadence, but when I am asked to see to the needs of the child of the scientists, who would take our lord's gifts and study us like primitives... His catamite, who only lives because I permitted it..."

Suddenly things became a little clearer. "You've got the wrong idea! I'm not anyone's catamite, let alone Jack's. Really, put me on the first plane out of here, you'll never set eyes on me again, I swear. You don't have to d..."

There came the harsh blam of a gunshot. If Ianto had had any air in his lungs, he would have screamed. As it was, he fell forward and waited to die.

It didn't hurt. At least, not any more than it had hurt before. He was about to reach up and check that the back of his head was still (as he suspected) intact, when another shot sounded, this time unmistakably from right behind him. This time he did give a yelp of fear and surprise. Then there were the sounds of running feet, two more shots, and some kind of thudding... He had to look. He twisted his head to peer over his shoulder. Billis was running away from him, firing wildly at...

It was Jack, riding a white horse, and pointing what looked like some kind of antique pistol at Billis. *Well, why not?* Ianto thought, suppressing the urge to laugh, *If you're going to rescue someone, you might as well do it properly.* The grim, determined look on his face made him look older. Like the leader he was.

Toshiko was just behind him on a brown horse with a white nose. She was holding an Uzi, and the look of cold fury in her eyes made Ianto press himself back down into the sand.

There were more shots, then the staccato cough of the submachine gun. Then silence. Then the approach of running feet... He rolled over to face whoever had won the firefight.

It was Toshiko. He sat up and she hugged him. Over her shoulder he saw Jack aiming his pistol at Billis. There was blood on Jack's sleeve and on the sand, and Billis was crouching in a posture that screamed pain! "Are you all right?" Toshiko asked. "We thought it was just that one with the grenade launcher, and we didn't know they were after you..."

With a shock he remembered: "he wasn't alone, there was someone else driving the jeep..."

"It's all right, it's all right," she gave him a comforting squeeze, "we got him. We were following his tracks to find you."

He looked back at Jack and Billis. He could hear their impassioned voices, speaking a language he didn't understand. "What now?"

"We wait. Rose is bringing the cavalry." She sat down by his side, pulled her gun into her lap and put her arm around his waist. "I've never seen Jack so angry," she said, quietly.

"What's going to happen to him?" He nodded at Billis.

"I don't know. He tried to kill you!" She sounded as if she was still trying to convince herself. "That man back at the track, he said he'd been told to kill the man in red, and Jack didn't know a thing about this," she tweaked at his silk shirt, now rather the worse for wear. "Billis set all this up just to kill you. But why would he do that?"

"I don't know. He could have just walked into my room in the middle of the night and shot me. ...But he said this wasn't the plan, that I was supposed to be killed in the blast..."

She pursed her lips and curled her fingers around the gun. "I never liked him very much, but I didn't think he was capable of this. How could we have been so wrong about him?"

The first of the cavalry (in many cases literally - they had come from the racetrack where there were no motor vehicles available, after all) arrived, and took Billis off Jack's hands, but Toshiko kept her eyes (and her gun) pointed in his direction.

Jack jogged over to them, fell to his knees, and gathered Ianto in his arms. "I'm sorry," he murmured in his ear, "I'm so sorry, I've known him my whole life, I had no idea..."

Ianto realised he was embarrassingly close to bursting into tears. He buried his face in Jack's shoulder. *He tried to kill me,* he thought, helplessly. *He did kill my parents, he threatened Estelle... I wish I could've talked to her about this, she never even dropped a hint, she must've been so scared...* A big, comforting hand rubbed gently over his back, and Toshiko's slender fingers interlaced with his. He lifted his head and rested his chin on Jack's shoulder, in time to watch Billis being taken away by a number of large uniformed men. *You destroyed my life,* he thought. *I could've been raised by my parents... Then I never would've known Estelle, or Kathy and Owen... But would I still have ended up alone with a meaningless job? Would I have still come here?*

Jack cupped Ianto's face in his hands and manoeuvred them until they were pressed forehead to forehead. He stroked his fingertips gently against his neck and behind his ears. "I nearly lost you," he whispered.

Ianto was beginning to feel a little shaky. *No more adrenaline,* he thought, and wrapped his arms around the both his rescuers. "Marry me," he said, half-laughing, and went to kiss Jack's cheek.

He stopped as two fingers were pressed gently against his mouth. "Careful what you wish for," Jack said, stroking his fingers across Ianto's lips, back to their (now slightly possessive) grip on the back of his neck. And then he leaned in for a long, slow kiss.

the end