Nightmares and Poppy Fields - A Ianto Jones Fanfiction

Chapter I - Arrival in Newport

September 1940 

Late in the evening, on a cold day in September 1940, 13 year old Sophia Lewis found herself on the platform in a busy train station in Newport, Wales. Clutching her very small suitcase, she walked in line with the hundreds of other children who had been evacuated from London, following the bombings. The government official who came with them was reading the names of the children so they could go with their foster parents until the remainder of the war, or until they themselves were conscripted and deployed. 

Sophia's names was one of the last to be called and a family of four were going to take her. Rhiannon, the oldest of the two children, was already acting like an older sister and talked with her about what she was to expect in Newport and all the boys she was going to meet. "All the nice ones have all gone off to war," Sophia muttered softly. Ianto, the youngest of the Jones family, being only 15, gave her a forlorn look. He knew that if the war kept on going for another two years, he would be conscripted and deployed to the front lines, even though everyone was saying it would be over by Christmas. 

Thirty minutes later, the five of them arrived at the small cottage in the outskirts of Newport, that the Jones family called home. It was a home that was much nicer than Sophia's house in London, for the ground floor had a kitchen and a living room, with a large garden, whose gate led to a large woodland. The second floor had a small bathroom and two bedrooms, the latter being where the three children would sleep. 

Though food was scarce, the now-expanded family enjoyed a meal of vegetable soup and bread and the children were sent off to bed, knowing that tomorrow was going to lead to a hard day's work. 18 year old Rhiannon watched over Sophia as she slept softly in the shared bed, with her brother sleeping like a log in his own bed, until Sophia woke everyone up with the screams of a nightmare. 

The Londoner had been taken back to the London Blitz, where she watched London get destroyed and her father along with it. She dreamed of her mother, dragging her by the hand to the shelter, as they saw their home become a ball of flames and the smell of dust and destruction all around them. Women screamed and children cried as their homes were taken from them in a blink of an eye, whilst men tried to put out the flames. It was like her mother had known that something like this was going to happen, as she had packed a bag for Sophia and hidden it in the shelter, in case she had to evacuate. The 13 year old remembered clinging on to her mother as if her life depended on it a few hours after the bombing had stopped, not wanting to leave the familiar city that was London. She had cried silently all the way to Newport, looking at the family photo her mother had given her. She tucked it in the new notebook she had received in February for her birthday but never used. 

As Sophia cried upon waking up, Rhiannon and Ianto came around her to calm her down. Sophia clung to Rhiannon, as she had clung to her mother that very morning, until her breaths evened out and she fell back asleep. In just 24 hours, Sophia's world had turned upside down. Little did she know that her nights would be plagued with nightmares for years to come.